Latest news with #TheNewRepublic
New Straits Times
12 hours ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Judge who presided over Trump election case assigned to Epstein lawsuit
WASHINGTON: A lawsuit seeking access to government documents related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein has been assigned to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who previously presided over former US president Donald Trump's federal election interference case. According to The New Republic, the suit, filed by the Washington-based Democracy Forward Foundation (DFF), seeks to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to release records, including communications between Trump administration officials on the Epstein matter, any correspondence between Trump and Epstein, and a list of Epstein's alleged clients. The foundation has linked its request to several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) applications, urging expedited processing. It said the documents were of "widespread and exceptional media interest" and raised "possible questions about the government's integrity that affect public confidence." It also cited urgency following Trump's refusal to rule out clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's convicted associate. Among the materials sought are documents prepared for former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi concerning Epstein, including the alleged client list she once said was on her desk but later claimed did not exist. Chutkan has also presided over cases challenging the DOJ's authority and recently ruled against the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to withhold grant funding.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sen. John Kennedy and Linda McMahon make significant math error in congressional hearing
On Tuesday, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon tested before the Senate on behalf of Trump's 2026 budget. During this hearing, McMahon and Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy were discussing federal spending for grant programs for disadvantaged students when the pair made a significant mathematical error. The math error occurred when the two spoke on how much the government has spent in the duration of ten years on TRIO and the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP). After McMahon confirmed to Kennedy that the government spends approximately $1.58 billion a year on TRIO and has been funding this program for over ten years, Kennedy said, "So that's over a trillion dollars that we've spent on this program..." "We give this money, as I appreciate it, to colleges and universities to encourage poor kids to go to college,' said Kennedy before he went on to imply that colleges have been stealing this grant money from the government for their own purposes, The New Republic reported. McMahon failed to catch and correct Kennedy's math error, however, Sen. John Reed spoke up and corrected the counting mistake. 'I'm not a great mathematician, but I think you were talking about a trillion dollars? I believe $1.5 billion times 10 is $15 billion, and that's a little bit off from a trillion dollars,' said Reed. McMahon said in response that the budget cuts $1.2 billion, to which Reed then replied, "Well that would be $12 billion, not a trillion dollars." Presley Bo Tyler is a reporter for the Louisiana Deep South Connect Team for Gannett/USA Today. Find her on X @PresleyTyler02 and email at PTyler@ This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Sen. John Kennedy math error. What he said education costs
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A couple of Republican senators offer mild rebukes after Trump deploys Marines to L.A.
During his primetime address on Tuesday night, Gov. Gavin Newsom took a little time to address the fact that Donald Trump deployed hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles this week. 'These are men and women trained in foreign combat, not domestic law enforcement,' the California Democrat said. 'We honor their service. We honor their bravery. But we do not want our streets militarized by our own armed forces. Not in L.A. Not in California. Not anywhere.' This was not an uncommon sentiment. As The New Republic noted, the latest national poll from YouGov suggested much of the public agrees with Newsom's point about the Marines' deployment: 'The number of people against the president's action eclipsed those who supported it by double digits, with 47 percent of polled Americans saying they disagreed with the order compared to 34 percent who approved.' Even Jim McDonnell, Los Angeles' police chief, didn't sound especially pleased about the developments. 'The LAPD has not received any formal notification that the Marines will be arriving in Los Angeles. However, the possible arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles absent clear coordination presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city,' McDonnell said in a statement. Are there are any Republican officials willing to make related comments? As it turns out, the yes — or at least, sort of. Politico reported: Sen. Susan Collins, the powerful Senate Appropriations chair, became the first prominent Republican to oppose deploying active-duty Marines to Los Angeles — even as she backed the use of the National Guard to assist with the unrest. The Maine Republican said sending the National Guard to support state and local authorities, 'probably makes the most sense' amid violent protests against mass deportation policies. But Collins said she disagrees with President Donald Trump's decision to send Marines. 'I would draw a distinction between the use of the National Guard and the use of the Marines,' the senator told reporters. 'Active duty forces are generally not to be involved in domestic law enforcement operations.' As rebukes go, this wasn't exactly a full-throated condemnation, but as Politico's report added, 'Collins' statements mark the first public break from Republican leadership on Trump's decision to deploy Marines, which could open the door for more internal dissent.' It was against this backdrop that CNN's Manu Raju asked Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski if she also had any concerns about the president deploying U.S. Marines to Los Angeles. 'Yes,' the Alaska senator said without elaborating. There's no point in exaggerating the severity of these comments, and there isn't yet any evidence to suggest Collins or Murkowski are prepared to take additional steps related to their apparent concerns. That said, the Trump White House is heavily invested in maintaining total partisan unity on all issues, at all times, and when it comes to sending Marines onto American streets for dubious reasons, it appears there are some cracks in the unified GOP wall. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Is Expanding His Thuggish War on Union Leaders
The arrest and violent manhandling of David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California, or SEIU, suggests that Donald Trump, that proud tribune of the working class, is targeting union leaders for arrest. Huerta wasn't the first. In March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Alfredo 'Lelo' Juarez Zeferino, a labor organizer; founder of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, a farmworkers' union in Bellingham, Washington; and former member of that city's now-defunct Immigration Advisory Board. As Kate Aronoff reported in The New Republic at the time of Zeferino's arrest, he was instrumental in securing state protections against excessive heat exposure. Zeferino is now being detained without bail. Labor unions in Washington state are infuriated by Zeferino's detention, and also by ICE's February arrest of Lewelyn Dixon (imprisoned for three months and then released), a lab technician at the University of Washington and, according to Local 925 of the Service Employees International Union, a 'dedicated' member of that union. Dixon was born in the Philippines but for half a century has been a legal permanent resident. Then there was Maximo Londonio, a forklift driver in Lacey, Washington, and a member of Local 695 of the Machinists. Londonio, who was also born in the Philippines, is, like Dixon, a legal permanent resident, but he's been an ICE detainee since mid-May. In Zeferino's case, ICE can claim he ignored a 2018 immigration removal order (his lawyer says Zeferino never heard about it). In Dixon's and Londonio's cases, ICE can claim they committed (nonviolent) criminal offenses—Dixon embezzled; it's not clear what Londonio did—but that was more than 20 years ago, and the government long ago prosecuted and punished them both. Huerta is different. He was born and raised in the United States, and his only offense appears to be observing and protesting how ICE treated members of his union during an immigration raid in Los Angeles. Clearly the Trump administration wants to make an example of him. But an example for whom? ICE arrests are typically intended to intimidate immigrants and prospective immigrants. But in this case (and probably Zeferino's too), ICE looks like it's trying to drive a wedge between undocumented immigrants and the labor movement. It's a bit late for that. Before the 1980s, labor might have been receptive because it tended to oppose immigration, believing undocumented and even legal immigrants cost native-born Americans jobs or lowered their wages. Cesar Chavez, a more complex figure than is generally acknowledged, called undocumented immigrants traveling north from Mexico 'wetbacks.' Chavez created a private security patrol to keep them out and bribed Mexican police to look the other way when his thuggish enforcers (nicknamed cesarchavezistas) roughed somebody up. Richard Strout, the liberal author of The New Republic's 'TRB From Washington' column from 1943 to 1983 (I followed him, in 2011–13), was rabidly anti-immigration. 'Failure to enforce immigration laws,' Strout wrote in a July 1977 column, 'is a scandal.' Strout even endorsed, long before E-Verify, legal sanctions against businesses that employed undocumented immigrants. But subsequent research showed immigration's financial cost to native-born Americans was minimal in most instances, and union leaders shifted from opposing undocumented immigrants to representing them. Among the voices today protesting most loudly the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia are his fellow union members and their leaders. Since 1994, foreign-born workers have grown from 8.4 percent of union members to 15.4 percent, according to the nonprofit Center for Economic and Policy Research. If for no other reason, labor unions won't turn back the clock. ICE's criminal complaint against Huerta, which charges him with conspiracy to impede an officer, is shockingly thin. It makes much of the fact that Huerta and other protesters appear to have been summoned by an unidentified woman on the scene, and that these protesters all 'appeared to be communicating to each other' by cell phone. Apparently one ICE officer has incriminating video of Huerta 'typing text into his digital device while present at the protest'—more commonly known as exercising his First Amendment rights. At one point, according to the complaint, Huerta paced in front of a vehicle entrance gate, sat down, and urged other protesters to sit down alongside him, saying, 'Stop the vehicles' and 'It's a public sidewalk, they can't stop us.' That sounds less like a conspiracy than like a nonviolent protest. If the purpose was to impede, all it impeded was a parking spot, which, even in Los Angeles, is not a felony. (You might get a ticket for a first offense.) One ICE officer warned Huerta that if he didn't move he'd be arrested, to which Huerta replied, 'I can't hear you through your fucking mask.' The officer registered this as defiance, but it strikes me as entirely plausible that Huerta really couldn't hear the officer through his fucking mask. Huerta's other offenses include 'making an offensive gesture to law enforcement officers,' which I assume means he flipped them the bird, and unauthorized banging on the entrance gate. Huerta was finally arrested, according to the complaint, after an officer pushed him and Huerta pushed the officer back. Huerta was arraigned late Monday and released on a $50,000 bond. I'm no lawyer, but one obvious difficulty with the conspiracy charge is that Huerta is one person, and a conspiracy requires at least two. Who were Huerta's partners in this crime? Surely not the activists texting back and forth about the ICE raid; bearing witness is not a conspiracy. Neither is protesting. The relevant statute, 18 U.S. Code § 372, talks about preventing a person from holding an office, or inducing that person to leave the place where his duties are to be discharged, or injuring that officer or his property, none of which apply. A shove (assuming it really happened) doesn't typically cause injury, and anyway the only party sent to the hospital was Huerta himself. Unless ICE is withholding additional significant facts, this prosecution looks very unpromising. But whoever said the Trump administration gave a damn what happens in a courtroom? The point is to intimidate union leaders away from attending, witnessing, and recording ICE raids. So far, the strategy isn't succeeding. Huerta's manhandling inspired protests not only in Los Angeles but also in Seattle, Minneapolis, Raleigh, and elsewhere. Far from terrorizing the labor movement, Trump is galvanizing it.
Time of India
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Trump's former aide Steve Bannon terrified of LA protests, warns what's happening is World War III
Steve Bannon , former aide to Donald Trump, says the protests in Los Angeles against ICE are like the start of World War III . He claims the battle is happening everywhere, even in downtown Los Angeles, as per reports. Bannon thinks the protests are part of a Democratic psyop to destabilize the country during summer. He says Democrats let 10 to 13 million illegal immigrants enter the US and demands all must be deported, not just some. Bannon warns that there will be more riots this summer because this is just the start, according to the report by The New Republic. He questions why police made only about 10 arrests and accuses the LAPD of allowing the protests to get out of control. He says whoever ordered the police to stand down should be arrested. Calling for the suspension of habeas corpus, the former Trump camper also demanded the arrests of California Governor Newsom and LA Mayor Bass. He compares Governor Newsom to John C. Calhoun, who had a political conflict with President Andrew Jackson. Bannon says if Newsom blocks federal officials, he should be arrested, as mentioned in the report by The New Republic. Live Events Bannon pushes Trump plan Bannon also attacks Elon Musk and big tech companies, calling them 'a bunch of pussies.' He plans to financially attack Musk and wants to break up Facebook, Google, Amazon, and maybe even Walmart because they have too much private power, which he thinks goes against populism and economic nationalism, according to the reports. Although Bannon was pushed away from the MAGA group after the 2017 Charlottesville riots, he now seems to have returned closer to Trump with a stronger fascist agenda. Bannon is at the center of a fight within the Republican Party between traditional conservatives and MAGA's an anti-economic nationalist, as per reports. Trump's hardline immigration stance and recent removal of Elon Musk from some position fit Bannon's views, showing Bannon is back as a close adviser. This means the Trump administration , if it returns, could become more brutal and authoritarian under Bannon's influence, as stated by The New Republic. FAQs Q1. Why did Steve Bannon say L.A. protests are like World War III? He believes the protests are part of a plan by Democrats to create chaos in the country. Q2. Is Steve Bannon close to Trump again? Yes, reports say he's back as a strong adviser with more extreme views than before.
