Alina Habba: Trump's ex-lawyer replaced as federal prosecutor by judges
The judges instead selected her deputy, career prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace, to take over the role. No reason was given for the decision.Habba has attracted controversy in the three months since taking office in March. During her tenure, she has filed assault charges against a Democratic congressman, and opened investigations into the state's Democratic governor and attorney general. US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a post on Monday that she had the backing of Trump and the justice department, and dismissed criticism of her as "political noise."After the ruling from the 17 judges, he again took to X to accuse the judges of pushing "a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law". "When judges act like activists, they undermine confidence in our justice," he wrote.Exactly when Habba's term expires is the subject of some confusion. She was named by Trump on 24 March "effective immediately", meaning her 120 day term would expire on Tuesday. However she was officially sworn in four days later, on 28 March in an Oval Office ceremony.Both of New Jersey's senators - who are each Democrats - have opposed her nomination to be the US attorney for the state, arguing that she has pursued "frivolous and politically motivated" prosecutions and "did not meet the standard" for the office. It is uncommon for judges to oppose an interim prosecutor from staying on, absent confirmation from the US Senate. But a similar situation played out last week in New York, where judges also voted to block the interim US attorney from staying on. John Sarcone III departed the role, but will stay on as an "special attorney to the attorney general", according to the justice department. It is unusual for judges to choose someone other the interim US attorney, although choosing the first assistant "is generally a sensible choice," said University Richmond law professor Carl Tobias.He added that Desiree Grace "is well respected in the New Jersey legal world".
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The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Could Trump's ceasefire summit with Putin actually achieve a breakthrough?
Both the White House and the Kremlin have confirmed that a US-Russia summit will take place in the coming days, with reports suggesting a possible three-way meeting that would also include Ukraine's President Zelensky. The news follows three hours of talks between Vladimir Putin and Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, following his fourth visit to Moscow. If either summit happens, this could mark the most progress towards ending the war since Donald Trump came to office and pledged, unsuccessfully, to end the conflict within 24 hours. But this trilateral encounter is another high-stakes gamble. Top-level diplomacy does not usually happen like this. The lead time for an old-fashioned US-Russia summit would commonly be months, with the Kremlin in particular favouring meticulous preparation. So what has changed? An obvious answer would be Trump's ultimatum to Putin to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine by this Friday, 'or else' – that last remaining unspecified, but thought to include new economic sanctions, including on countries, such as India, that continue to buy Russian oil. There was also Trump's announcement that two nuclear submarines were to be repositioned, apparently in response to threats made, not for the first time, by former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's security council. However, there is no way any Kremlin leader, least of all Putin, could be seen to be yielding to outside pressure. Putin's insouciance over Trump's deadline on Ukraine, and the Kremlin's studied non-reaction to the nuclear deployments, spoke volumes. Above all, a summit on the old superpower model is no concession on Putin's part, but something he has long sought. A question often asked, but rarely answered, is what cards Trump has to play concerning Russia and the war in Ukraine. The threat of further Western sanctions has proved ineffective in forcing any change. The US is no longer funding weapons for Ukraine – it has passed that responsibility to the Europeans – to what effect remains to be seen. The war has slowly turned in Russia's favour, leaving little incentive for it to halt hostilities now. But the US has at least two things to offer that Russia craves. The first is enshrined in a bilateral summit, which would signal a return to recognition of Russia as an international power with interests of its own and a demonstrative end to the isolation that the Biden administration and the Europeans tried to impose. The second is a willingness to address what Russia sees as wider issues affecting security. The two decades that Putin has been in power have seen the steady dismantling of almost all the security architecture built during the Cold War. Russia wants some of this back, which is what it means when it talks about the need to solve issues underlying the Ukraine war – not just ending the war itself. While it can reasonably be argued that Russia brought this insecurity on itself with its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia's view is that its security concerns go back to at least 2008, when Nato hedged about eventual membership for Ukraine and then when Ukraine abandoned its neutral status in 2014. For Putin to agree to a summit with Trump, the agenda has to go beyond Ukraine and encompass wider issues of security. A bilateral summit along these lines could just be enough to make what would undoubtedly be a concession on Putin's part – a trilateral summit with Zelensky – worth showing up for. Compared with the reasons that might take Putin to either summit, the rationale for Trump and Zelensky is far clearer. Despite his use of force against Iran, Trump sees himself as a peacemaker – with a Nobel Prize in his sights. Reconnecting with Russia also serves US interests in potentially loosening Putin's need for China. Zelensky has rightly always objected to talks about Ukraine being held without Ukraine. Having mended his fences with Trump after February's Oval Office ambush, he is also less wary of the president's motives than he was. Looming over all, though, is the state of the war, which is not moving in Kyiv's direction, and the first real intimations of domestic discontent in recent anti-corruption protests. Nor would there appear to be any legal bar. A presidential decree that forbade any Ukrainian leader from talking to Putin has been disregarded since May, when Zelensky said he was prepared to meet Putin – although those talks, planned for Istanbul, did not happen at that level. As for a venue, Trump might well favour the White House; Putin would doubtless prefer a neutral location, such as Geneva or somewhere in the Gulf. Zelensky will go anywhere to defend Ukraine's interests. The prospect is so momentous that it seems almost to tempt fate to mention it. Could it be that after three and a half years, the war in Ukraine is nearing its end?
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump demands new census using ‘2024 election information' and to weed out migrants in population totals
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Reuters
9 minutes ago
- Reuters
Kremlin says Putin and Trump will meet soon, Zelenskiy seeks European role in peace settlement
MOSCOW/KYIV, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will meet in the coming days, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Thursday, in what would be the first summit between leaders of the two countries since 2021. The announcement came a day after Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, held talks with Putin in search of a breakthrough to end the Ukraine war, now in its fourth year. Trump has threatened new sanctions against Russia and countries that buy its exports from Friday if there is no deal. On Wednesday he imposed higher tariffs against India for buying Russian oil, and it was not clear if he would announce further steps once his Friday deadline expires. "At the suggestion of the American side, an agreement was essentially reached to hold a bilateral meeting at the highest level in the coming days, that is, a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump," Kremlin aide Ushakov said. "We are now beginning concrete preparations together with our American colleagues," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. Ushakov said a summit venue had been agreed, but would be announced later. Putin was holding talks on Thursday with the president of the United Arab Emirates, which sources have previously suggested as a possible venue. There has been no summit of U.S. and Russian leaders since Putin and Joe Biden met in Geneva in June 2021. Russia went to war in Ukraine in February 2022, citing threats to its own security and plunging relations into deep crisis. Kyiv and its Western allies cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab. Trump has moved to mend relations with Russia and try to end the war, although in his public comments he has veered between admiration and sharp criticism of Putin. Russia's main stock market index MOEX gained as much as 5% on the news, its highest level in two months. The rouble hit a two-week high against the U.S. dollar and China's yuan. "Russian stocks are soaring. Investors hope that the (Trump-Putin) meeting will be a step towards normalizing the geopolitical situation," Alfa Bank analysts said in a note. A White House official also said on Wednesday that Trump could meet Putin as soon as next week. The New York Times reported that Trump told European leaders during a call on Wednesday that he intended to meet with Putin and then follow up with a trilateral involving the Russian leader and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Ukraine and European leaders have long held concerns that Trump, who has voiced sympathy with some of Russia's demands, could align with Putin to force a deal on Zelenskiy that would be deeply disadvantageous to Kyiv. Zelenskiy spoke on Thursday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and posted on X: "The war is happening in Europe, and Ukraine is an integral part of Europe – we are already in negotiations on EU accession. Therefore, Europe must be a participant in the relevant processes." He said the war must end with a "dignified peace", and whatever settlement was reached would shape the security landscape of Europe for decades to come. Zelenskiy said various possible bilateral and trilateral formats had been proposed. "Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side," he added. Ushakov said Trump's envoy, Witkoff, had raised on Wednesday the possibility of a Trump-Putin-Zelenskiy meeting but the Russian side had left this proposal "completely without comment". "We propose, first of all, to focus on preparing for a bilateral meeting with Trump and we believe the main thing is for this meeting to be successful and productive," Ushakov said. He said the Putin-Witkoff meeting had been businesslike and constructive. "It was noted again that Russian-American relations can be built according to a completely different, mutually beneficial scenario, significantly different from how they have developed in recent years," Ushakov said. Under the Biden administration, which imposed heavy sanctions on Russia over the war, Russia had described relations with Washington as "below zero". Under Trump, both sides have spoken of the possible re-establishing of lucrative commercial ties. Pro-Kremlin war blogger Yuri Podolyaka, posting after the Putin-Witkoff talks, said the Russian leader had played a "masterful diplomatic game". "It seems that Vladimir Putin has managed to spin Trump in a 'carousel of negotiations'," he posted on his blog, which has more than three million subscribers. Trump announced on Wednesday an additional 25% tariff on Indian imports, to come into force on August 28, citing New Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil. He also said he may announce similar further tariffs on goods from China, another big buyer of Russian oil. Russia and India stressed their commitment to a "strategic partnership" in bilateral security talks in Moscow on Thursday, and Interfax news agency quoted Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval as saying that New Delhi was looking forward to a visit from Putin by the end of the year.
