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US Monthly Headline News December 2022
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JILL COLVIN

Democrats in Congress released six years’ worth of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, the culmination of a yearslong effort to learn about the finances of a onetime business mogul who broke decades of political norms when he refused to voluntarily release the information as he sought the White House.

The returns, which include redactions of some personal sensitive information such as Social Security and bank account numbers, are from 2015 to 2020. Their release follows a party-line vote in the House Ways and Means Committee last week to make the returns public. Committee Democrats argued that transparency and the rule of law were at stake, while Republicans countered that the release would set a dangerous precedent with regard to the loss of privacy protections.

Trump had refused to release his returns when he ran for president and had waged a legal battle to keep them secret while he was in the White House. But the Supreme Court ruled last month that he had to turn them over to the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
Story by Nick Reynolds

In the aftermath of January 6, 2021, conservatives and conspiracy theorists fixated on Ray Epps, who they believed held the answer to why hundreds of then-President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn Joe Biden's victory.

Epps, they said, was a government plant that sowed the seeds of insurrection well before a crowd rushed the perimeter around the Capitol steps. Video taken by protesters the night before the riot showed Epps on the streets of Washington, D.C. encouraging physical intervention to stop the electoral count, a crowd blaring chants of "Fed! Fed! Fed!" as he spoke.

Another video showed him apparently telling attendees at Trump's speech on The Ellipse to make their way to the U.S. Capitol after Trump himself urged the crowd to march and, later, at the front lines working to push through the blockade.

The Jan. 6 committee releasing stunning new interview transcripts from Donald Trump Jr. and Stephen Miller. Miller telling the committee "I think there might be a plan for a peaceful walk to the Capitol..." Kimberly Guilfoyle also revealing that Don Jr. didn’t even want to go to DC on Jan. 6, and wanted to “go shark fishing” instead.
Story by Brandon Gage

On Wednesday's edition of Deadline: White House, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace and her guest panelists discussed the extraordinary revelations by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection that then-President Donald Trump had seriously considered issuing so-called "blanket pardons" for his Republican congressional allies who aided his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and foment his failed coup against the United States government.

This previously unreleased plot twist by the Select Committee is yet another plunge into the rabbit hole of misdoings by Trump as he desperately tried to remain in power. "Luke Broadwater, I have to start with you," Wallace said to the New York Times' congressional correspondent. "And it feels like this whole topic of pardons was very well deployed by the Committee, but in some ways saving some of this evidence for the very end that not only did he know he lost, he knew that he and his aides had likely committed crimes."
Story by Jon Jackson

On Monday, the latest installment of the Twitter Files was published, and some of the newly released documents show how members of both the Trump and Biden administrations allegedly applied pressure to Twitter on COVID-19 content moderation. Twitter CEO Elon Musk has provided journalists with internal materials from the company for the so-called Twitter Files. Previous installments included reports on how Twitter moderated content in relation to an article on the Hunter Biden laptop controversy, as well as on how it covered the decision to suspend former President Donald Trump's account.

Monday's report came via writer David Zweig and was published on Bari Weiss' website The Free Press. In his story, Zweig wrote that the Biden and Trump administrations "directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform's pandemic content according to their wishes." In a series of tweets that Zweig posted along with the Twitter Files' publication, he added that Michael Kratsios, who served as White House chief technology officer under Trump, had allegedly held meetings with Twitter and other tech companies to "combat misinformation" in regards to the pandemic.

Story by Elizabeth Elkind, U.S. Political Reporter

Donald Trump's tax returns will be made public at midday after a nearly four-year-long fight that saw the former president fight tooth-and-nail to shield his financial statements from public view. The Democrat-controlled House Ways and Means Committee voted last Tuesday evening to release the returns, in a debate that lasted more than three hours behind closed doors. The final vote was 24 to 16. All Democrats voted in favor of the action while all Republicans on the panel voted against. Six years' worth of Trump's most recent tax returns will be covered, as well as documents from eight of his businesses. They will be partially-redacted.
Story by Michael Luciano

Newsmax host and former Fox News talking head Eric Bolling said “Putin’s press secretary” Tucker Carlson owes Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) an apology for comments he made about the senator’s personal life. On Thursday, Carlson attacked Graham over his support for U.S. aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, which invaded the country in February. The Fox News host’s remarks came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress.

Graham had said the war will end when President Vladimir Putin is no longer in power. Carlson said calling for regime change in Russia is wrongheaded. “So, the other day Lindsey Graham came out–” Carlson began, taking a long pause “–the Republican from South Carolina, and said that he agreed with Joe Biden and Zelensky.” Some have speculated about the sexuality of Graham, who is a bachelor.
Story by By GABE STERN and RIO YAMAT, Associated Press/Report for America

LAS VEGAS (AP) — New transcripts of closed-door testimony to the Jan. 6 House committee show Donald Trump and his allies had a direct hand in the Nevada Republican Party’s scheme to send a phony electoral certificate to Congress in 2020 in a last-ditch attempt to keep the former president in power. The documents made public Wednesday evening included interviews with state party leader Michael McDonald and Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid in February. Both men served as fake electors in Carson City on Dec. 14, 2020.

That day, six Nevada GOP members signed certificates falsely stating that Trump won Nevada in 2020 and sent them to Congress and the National Archives, where they were ultimately ignored. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is digging into the role that these fake electors in key battleground states had in Trump’s attempt to cling to power after his 2020 defeat. McDonald and DeGraffenreid invoked Fifth Amendment protection hundreds of times in their separate interviews with the Jan. 6 committee, refusing to answer questions about their involvement and the extent to which Trump's top allies had helped in orchestrating the plot.
Story by Matthew Chapman

On Thursday, following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's historic address to the U.S. Congress, conservative writer Nick Catoggio tore into the wing of the Republican Party that has increasingly embraced Russia and Vladimir Putin rather than the cause of fighting for the preservation of global democracy, in a scorching article for The Dispatch.

"If you're a post-liberal populist, particularly of the Very Online variety, watching Putin go belly-up in Ukraine has dashed all sorts of political illusions," wrote Catoggio. "Your faith that strongmen are the best, most competent instrument for achieving political prerogatives is shaken. Your belief that woke Western militaries are no match on the battlefield for fascist machismo looks silly. Your hope of a great authoritarian victory over Ukraine that might inspire Americans to embrace nationalism and reject the global liberal order has disappeared along with 100,000 or so Russian soldiers."
Story by Yasmin Tayag

No country has a perfect COVID vaccination rate, even this far into the pandemic, but America’s record is particularly dismal. About a third of Americans—more than a hundred million people—have yet to get their initial shots. You can find anti-vaxxers in every corner of the country. But by far the single group of adults most likely to be unvaccinated is Republicans: 37 percent of Republicans are still unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, compared with 9 percent of Democrats. Fourteen of the 15 states with the lowest vaccination rates voted for Donald Trump in 2020. (The other is Georgia.)

We know that unvaccinated Americans are more likely to be Republican, that Republicans in positions of power led the movement against COVID vaccination, and that hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated Americans have died preventable deaths from the disease. The Republican Party is unquestionably complicit in the premature deaths of many of its own supporters, a phenomenon that may be without precedent in the history of both American democracy and virology.
Republicans talk a good game but once again, their actions show they are all talk and no action.

Story by Kylie Cheung

For the past year, we’ve been subjected to an endless, escalating right-wing fearmongering campaign presenting LGBTQ adults as innate child sexual predators, or “groomers,” and any children in their vicinity as victims. People are literally throwing molotov cocktails into establishments that host drag events, under the guise of protecting children. The now-feuding Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) have been the most front-facing proponents of this rhetoric (even though Boebert’s husband was jailed for exposing himself to teens in a bowling alley a few years ago).

Yet, on Wednesday, Greene and Boebart joined 26 other House Republicans to vote against the bipartisan Respect for Child Survivors Act, which overwhelmingly passed out of the House anyway and will address how the FBI has historically mishandled child sexual abuse cases. The bill will create specific teams within the FBI to support child victims and investigate child sexual abuse, trafficking, and child abuse content. Neither Greene nor Boebert have publicly offered explanations for their votes, and frankly, they don’t have to—the gross hypocrisy of constantly lying that LGBTQ people pose a threat to children, all while declining to protect children from actual sexual predation, speaks for itself.
Story by Nick Reynolds

Information gleaned from former President Donald Trump's tax returns released by Congress this week helped demonstrate the "rampant corruption" of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during his time in office, according to former U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner, who is now an MSNBC analyst. The returns, released following a late Tuesday night vote by members of the House Ways and Means Committee, revealed largely what was already known from a New York Times investigation at the height of his administration: that he was never under audit like he claimed, and that Trump helped use millions of dollars in business losses over the years to avoid paying taxes, even as he'd received millions of dollars in income from other sources.
Story by Giulia Carbonaro

In the midst of a crucial week for the former president over his role in the January 6 Capitol attack and his tax returns, Donald Trump has doubled down on his 'Big Lie'—the widely debunked conspiracy theory claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Writing on his official Truth Social account on Tuesday (one day after the January 6 committee called for criminal charges against the former president for trying to overturn the 2020 election) Trump insisted that President Joe Biden isn't the rightful leader of the country and the government should be overthrown.

Starting from a quote by conservative pundit Jesse Watters saying that "the FBI and Twitter COLLUDED to elect Joe Biden," Trump reiterates that "the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLEN," he wrote. "It all began a long time ago, they SPIED on my campaign, and tried to "RIGG" the 2016 Election, but failed. Remember, our government is doing this, not a person or party," Trump wrote. "What should be done about such a terrible thing, or should we let someone who was elected by cheating and fraud stay in office and continue to destroy our Country?" After irrefutably losing the 2020 presidential election to Biden, Trump promoted baseless allegations claiming that the election had been marred by voting irregularities and fraud aimed at robbing him of a second term in office.
Story by Rodric Hurdle-Bradford

Stefan Passantino, the original advisor to key Jan. 6 witness former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, has taken a leave of absence from law firm effective immediately, as documented evidence and related scrutiny grows about his initial guidance for Hutchinson to mislead the Jan. 6 committee during her testimony. Passantino serves as lead political attorney for Milwaukee-based law firm Michael Best & Friedrich, a position he has held for four years. His bio has been completely erased from the law firm's website and a company email confirmed Passantino's absence.
Another Republican caught committing voter fraud. Republicans complain about voter fraud and blame democrats for voter fraud while they are the ones committing voter fraud.

Story by Sky Palma

According to publicly available voter records, Georgia GOP Rep. Drew Ferguson voted in a county where he no longer lives, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Ferguson, who has voiced concerns in the past about election fraud, voted in person in Troup County during early voting for this year's May primary, the November general election and this month's U.S. Senate runoff after selling his house in April. As AJC points out, it's illegal in Georgia for voters to cast a ballot in a county where they don't live. On his congressional website, Ferguson says that he lives with his wife in The Rock, which is 63 miles away from his former home in West Point. But voter registration records show that he never changed his address to his new home as required by law.
Story by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

George Santos, the Republican congressman-elect for a House seat based in Long Island and Queens, New York, was seemingly exposed as a fraudster by The New York Times on Monday, but even more questions are now arising after he appears to have filed paperwork on Tuesday stating his place of residence is in Florida. That’s according to two investigative articles from Talking Points Memo.

On Tuesday evening TPM reported that in May of 2021 Santos registered his company, Devolder Organization LLC, which has no website and it’s unclear what the operation actually does, in Florida. “On his congressional disclosure form he reported $750,000 in income from the company and between $1 million and $5 million in dividends,” TPM adds. “This compares with $55,000 in income he reported two years earlier from a different employer when he ran for the same seat in 2020. But the company was dissolved in September 2022, the same month as the disclosure form was filed, because the company never filed an annual report.”
CNN

The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday released a summary report that concluded the IRS failed to audit former President Donald Trump’s taxes as required under the mandatory presidential audit program.
Story by Jody Madeira

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled 2–1 that President Joe Biden lacked authority to issue an executive order imposing a requirement on companies with whom the U.S. government contracts that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, affecting thousands of companies and up to 25 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Responding to the demands of Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi, the 5th Circuit kept in place a ban on the implementation of Biden’s executive order on the grounds that the president lacked authority to impose this requirement, and that the order violated an obscure-sounding administrative law principle: the major questions doctrine. Monday’s ruling, Louisiana v. Biden, has far-reaching consequences for federal contractors, but its legal substance also has stark and serious consequences for American law.
Story by A Dime Saved

A few weeks ago, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6th riot. Now, just weeks after the conviction, documents have been leaked that suggest members of the Oath Keepers have been able to successfully infiltrate the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

A History of Extremism
The Oath Keepers were founded in 2009 and immediately tried to recruit members from law enforcement and the military. Their overarching goal is to uphold the United States Constitution, which to them means refusing unlawful orders. The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled them “extremists.” The group has managed to recruit at least 306 members in the last decade who say they are current or former employees of the DHS. Many of the members claim to be retired, but one reported that he is a current member of the Secret Service, and another is an active-duty Border Patrol officer. In September, Insider reported on the full membership list, which included around 38,000 individuals.

Hiding in Plain Sight
The revelation of the extent of the Oath Keepers’ infiltration of law enforcement follows on the heels of the Department of Defense issuing a report last year discussing its efforts to fight extremist activity in its own ranks.
Story by Ian Millhiser

Federal law explicitly authorizes federal courts to review convictions and sentences handed down by state courts, and to invalidate them if a prisoner is held “in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.” Last Thursday, however, a far-right panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit effectively eliminated state prisoners’ right to seek what is known as a “writ of habeas corpus” when they are imprisoned in violation of the Constitution or federal law, except in cases of “factual innocence.”

Among other things, this means that someone who is “factually guilty” of an unconstitutional crime — such as violating a Jim Crow law or a law prohibiting individuals from criticizing the president — would be stripped of their habeas rights in federal court. It could also potentially enable abusive conduct by police and prosecutors, such as coerced confessions or warrantless searches, by removing nearly all federal supervision of states that overlook such violations. Judge Andrew Oldham’s decision in Crawford v. Cain is completely lawless. It finds this novel requirement that an unconstitutional or illegal conviction or sentence must stand, unless the prisoner shows they are innocent, within a federal statute that states that federal courts hearing habeas cases “shall summarily hear and determine the facts, and dispose of the matter as law and justice require.” Oldham, along with the two other Republican-appointed judges who joined his opinion, claims that only factual innocence “satisfies the law-and-justice requirement.”
By Caroline Linton, Kathryn Watson, Stefan Becket, Caitlin Yilek, Melissa Quinn

The House Jan. 6 committee voted to refer criminal charges to the Justice Department for former President Trump and lawyer John Eastman for their alleged roles in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. "The whole purpose and obvious effect of Trump's scheme were to obstruct, influence, and impede this official proceeding, the central moment for the lawful transfer of power in the United States," committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin said.

The committee made four criminal referrals for Trump: Obstruction of an Official Proceeding; Conspiracy to Defraud the United States; Conspiracy to Make a False Statement and "Incite," "Assist" or "Aid and Comfort" an Insurrection. But referrals by Congress are merely recommendations, and the Justice Department is under no obligation to bring charges against those referred for prosecution. Still, the committee's referrals could increase political pressure on the department to act, and lawmakers could unveil new evidence in their final report that federal prosecutors have not yet accessed.
Dramatic statement comes one day before January 6 panel set to release outline of its investigative report on US Capitol attack
Victoria Bekiempis

California congressman Adam Schiff said Sunday that he believes there is “sufficient evidence” to criminally charge Donald Trump in relation to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Schiff’s dramatic statement on CNN’s State of the Union came one day before the House January 6 select committee to which he belongs is poised to release an outline of its extensive investigative report on the US Capitol attack, which has been linked to nine deaths, including the suicides of traumatized law enforcement officers.

The committee is expected to use its last meeting on Monday to refer Trump, as well as others, to the US justice department in relation to the former president’s attempts to reverse his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden. During this final meeting, the panel is expected to outline an executive summary of its findings, propose legislative recommendations, vote to adopt the report – and then vote on possible criminal and civil referrals. Schiff is one of nine members, seven of whom are Democrats like him, serving on the January 6 committee.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Member of House Judiciary Committee and Representative for Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District speaks with Yasmin Vossoughian about Mark Meadows’ text messages, the upcoming January 6 report, and the House Committee’s hearings on guns this week on the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting.
Opinion by Jesse J. Holland

Stephen Miller was one of the most strident anti-immigrant, white-nationalist sympathizers in former President Donald Trump’s administration. And, believe me, sticking out for that reason in that administration is really saying something. After spending his time in Trump's administration maligning foreigners who want to come to America and promoting a zero-tolerance policy that ripped children from the arms of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border, Miller is now on a mission to use the courts to eradicate what he says is bigotry targeting white men.

“I think that it is inescapably true that there is insidious and explicit discrimination against White Americans, Asian Americans, Indian Americans and Jewish Americans based on their skin color and their ancestry,” he told The Washington Post. Note the people he included on his list of people he says are being discriminated against, and the people he excluded. His list makes clear the groups he’s targeting: African Americans and Hispanics and the laws that were crafted to help them overcome racism.
Rachel Treisman

In her first public statement since being freed from Russia, Brittney Griner says she'll play in the upcoming WNBA season. The two-time Olympic gold medalist shared the news — and expressed thanks for the people who helped bring her home — in an Instagram post on Friday, a week after she returned to the U.S. in a prisoner swap. "I also want to make one thing very clear," she wrote. "I intend to play basketball for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say 'thank you' to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon."
Story by William Morris and Noelle Alviz-Gransee

A small Iowa town of 800 residents likely has no need for a police force armed with 90 machine guns to keep the peace. That, at least, is the view of federal prosecutors, who on Wednesday announced the indictment of Adair Chief of Police Bradley Wendt on charges of making false statements to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to obtain numerous machine guns over a four-year period on behalf of the Adair Police Department, which during Wendt's tenure has never had more than three officers. Instead, according to prosecutors, weapons were resold for profit through Wendt's private gun store or another store owned by a friend who also is facing charges.
Story by Mikael Thalen

Former President Donald Trump piqued the interest of his supporters on Wednesday after revealing on Truth Social that he would soon make a "MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT." The post from Trump, which included an illustration of him dressed as a superhero with lasers coming out of his eyes, immediately spurred a range of conspiracy theories and predictions among his followers.

Yet despite claims from believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory that Trump was preparing to take over President Joe Biden's position or announce a bid bucking the Republican party and running as an independent, the so-called major announcement turned out to be about nothing more than "digital trading cards." In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, the former president finally announced that his "official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection" had arrived. "These limited edition cards feature amazing ART of my Life & Career!" Trump said. "Collect all your favorite Digital Trading Cards, very much like a baseball card, but hopefully much more exciting."
The three-member disciplinary committee agreed that Rudy Giuliani’s handling of litigation in Pennsylvania crossed ethical lines.
By Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein

A bar discipline committee in Washington, D.C., has concluded that Rudy Giuliani violated at least one professional rule in his efforts to help former President Donald Trump challenge the results of the 2020 election — a preliminary finding that could result in the suspension or loss of his law license. The three-member disciplinary committee agreed that Giuliani’s handling of litigation in Pennsylvania crossed ethical lines. Their finding came after a week of testimony by Giuliani — who said Trump waived attorney-client privilege to permit him to testify — and some of his allies, including Trump advisers Bernie Kerik, Christina Bobb and Corey Lewandowski.
Story by Joey Garrison and Rebecca Morin, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed historic legislation Tuesday protecting same-sex marriages nationally, marking a major milestone in the fight for gay rights that follows a seismic change in the nation's attitudes. "Today is a good day," Biden said ahead of signing the bill. "Today, America takes a vital step toward equality, toward liberty and justice, not just for some, but for everyone. Toward creating a nation where decency, dignity, and love are recognized, honored and protected." At a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, making it the law that all states recognize same-sex and interracial marriages. Democratic and Republican lawmakers, LGBTQ advocates and plaintiffs in marriage equality cases were among the thousands in attendance.
Story by Tom Boggioni

Former president Donald Trump kicked off his Friday morning by lashing out at the Department of Justice over the government documents the FBI was compelled to confiscate from his Mar-a-Lago resort that has led to an investigation over obstruction of justice and possible violations of the Espionage Act.

Last week the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ordered the special master review of the stolen documents be shut down, with CBS now reporting, "The outside review of documents seized by the FBI from former President Donald Trump's Florida resort will officially come to a close, as a ruling from a federal appeals court panel ordering its end took effect Thursday without an appeal from Trump," and then adding, "Late Thursday afternoon, the 11th Circuit's clerk sent a letter to the federal district court in Miami noting that the mandate had taken effect, capping the monthslong legal battle stemming from Trump's request for the special master to vet the records."
Story by H. Drew Blackburn

It’s a story as old as time: A police officer does something very, very bad, resigns or gets fired, then in no time, they’re back on the streets with a badge and a gun, just a few towns over. One of the latest and most disturbing examples of this phenomenon is the curious case of Matthew Luckhurst, a former bike patrol cop in Charles Barkley’s favorite city: San Antonio, Texas. In 2016, he gave an unhoused person a sandwich with feces in it, and after a long arduous process, he was fired. Now he’s employed by the Floresville Police Department.
ABC News

A Manhattan jury has found former President Donald Trump's namesake real estate company guilty of criminal tax fraud, three weeks after Trump announced a third presidential run. The jury found the two entities of the Trump Organization guilty as charged on all counts, including scheme to defraud, conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. The two entities -- the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation -- were accused of paying the personal expenses of some executives without reporting them as income, and for compensating them as independent contractors instead of full-time employees. Each entity was charged with scheme to defraud, conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records.

The felony convictions carry fines totaling up to $1.7 million. But collateral consequences of a conviction may be more significant to Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House. Banks could call in loans and business partners could cancel contracts if their internal policies prevent them from doing business with felons. The trial also revealed potentially embarrassing details about Trump, including that he reported nearly $1 billion in operating losses over a two-year period in 2009 and 2010, as well as losses each year for the decade between 2009 and 2018 -- some of the same years Trump was touting his business acumen on reality television and as he was campaigning for president.
Story by Daniel Stewart

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's political action committee (PAC) reportedly paid money to some witnesses involved in the Justice Department's investigation into whether the former president illegally withheld confidential state documents after leaving the presidency, 'The Washington Post' has reported.

According to some of the witnesses have told anonymously to the newspaper - including people who have participated in both the defense and the prosecution of the case against Trump - the PAC would have paid the fees to participants in the investigation. Specifically, the political action committee of the former president would have paid 114,000 euros to the law firm Brand Woodward Law, which represents a witness who came out in defense of Trump and another who was critical of him. While there is no legal impediment in the United States for third parties to pay legal fees to the lawyers of participants in a trial, it is a practice that could encourage witnesses not to cooperate.
Story by Brad Reed

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday evening doubled down on his calls to "terminate" the United States Constitution and restore him to power. Writing on his Truth Social website, Trump again expressed rage at his loss in the 2020 election, which he still falsely maintains was "stolen" from him, "The world is laughing at the United States of America and its corrupt and rigged Presidential Election of 2020!" Trump wrote. In an all-caps follow-up post, Trump wrote that "UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD REQUIRES UNPRECEDENTED CURE!"
ABC News

Former President Donald Trump "knew exactly what was going on with his top executives," a prosecutor claimed Thursday during closing statements in the criminal tax fraud trial of Trump's namesake real estate company. Two entities of the Trump Organization -- the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation -- are on trial for paying the personal expenses of some executives without reporting them as income and for compensating them as independent contractors instead of full-time employees.

Prosecutor Josh Steinglass' assertion about the former president prompted defense attorney Alan Futerfas to raise a concern outside the jury's presence, saying jurors had been told from the outset that the criminal trial did not involve Trump personally. Susan Necheles and Michael van der Veen had "opened the door" by saying during their closing statements that Trump did not know about the tax fraud his company allegedly committed. "You have heard no evidence in this case that Mr. Trump or any of his children were aware of anything improper," van der Veen said during his closing argument.
Lori Ann LaRocco

The Senate passed legislation that would force a tentative rail labor agreement and thwart a national strike. A separate vote on adding seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement failed. The approved bill, passed by a vote of 80 to 15, now goes to President Joe Biden, who had urged Congress to act quickly before this month’s strike deadline and “send a bill to my desk for my signature immediately.” The measures come after talks had stalled between the railroads and four unions, which had previously rejected the agreement.

Biden has said he was reluctant to override the vote against the contract by some unions but stressed that a rail shutdown would “devastate” the economy. Labor groups have said that enforcing an agreement with the legislation denies them the right to strike. In a statement after the Senate vote, Biden said he would sign the bill into law “as soon as Congress sends it to my desk.”
Story by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

A federal appeals panel overturned the order creating a third-party special master to review 11,000 documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, clearing investigators to use the records in the criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump. “Plaintiff’s task was to show why he needed the documents, not why the government did not,” the three-judge panel ruled in dismissing Trump’s case. “He has failed to meet his burden under this factor.”

The judges had told Trump’s lawyers during oral arguments that the traditional way to challenge what becomes part of an investigation through a government seizure is to challenge the evidence after charges have been filed. But judges said challenging the seizure at this point would only be allowed in response to the callous disregard for constitutional rights, which Trump never alleged.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard provided the child rape victim with an abortion in June.
ByNadine El-Bawab

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita asked the state's medical licensing board to subject abortion provider Dr. Caitlin Bernard to disciplinary sanctions as the two battle over abortion in the state. Rokita submitted an administrative complaint Wednesday to the state's medical licensing board claiming Bernard violated federal and state law relating to patient privacy and reporting child abuse, according to a copy of the complaint published online by Rokita. In June, Bernard publicly disclosed that she had provided abortion care for a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled from Ohio to Indiana for care. At the time, there was a six-week abortion ban in place in Ohio.
"We remain consistent in our belief that this was indeed a targeted attack but have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants," Moscow police said Thursday, the day after they appeared to suggest the opposite.
By Marlene Lenthang

Police on Thursday reaffirmed that the grisly killings of four University of Idaho students were part of a "targeted attack" the day after authorities appeared to suggest the opposite. “We remain consistent in our belief that this was indeed a targeted attack but have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants,” a spokesperson for the Moscow Police Department told NBC News.

Authorities have released conflicting statements since Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were found fatally stabbed at an off-campus home in Moscow on Nov. 13. The slayings — described by a local coroner as one of the most “gruesome” she had ever seen — have left the victims’ families and the public with many questions.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set three votes Thursday, hoping to head off a freight rail strike — the impacts of which could be felt within days.
By Alex Daugherty, Burgess Everett and Tanya Snyder

The Senate will take three votes Thursday afternoon, hoping to resolve a contract dispute between freight railroads and their unions that has bedeviled President Joe Biden and Democrats for weeks and that threatened to start sidelining crucial drinking water, food and energy shipments within days.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate will vote on extending negotiations for 60 days, adding seven days of a paid sick leave to the rail workers’ tentative contract and finally on the contract agreement itself. All three votes will require the support of 60 senators. Assuming the last vote succeeds, it would put an end to the turmoil over a freight rail strike that was possible starting Dec. 9, but whose impacts would start being felt as soon as this weekend.
By Aya Elamroussi and Holly Yan, CNN

CNN — First, the good news: The lava spilling out of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano is slowing down, spreading out and not an immediate threat to people on the ground. Now the bad news: Possible health hazards remain as two volcanoes keep erupting on Hawaii’s Big Island, sending acidic gases into the air. The world’s largest active volcano, Mauna Loa, shot fountains of lava up to 148 feet tall on Tuesday, but has since spewed shorter spurts, the US Geological Survey said.

Mauna Loa’s eruption this week – the first since 1984 – has led to concerns that lava could threaten Big Island’s main highway. Saddle Road, also known as Daniel K. Inouye Highway, is the fastest route linking the east and west sides of the island. Lava from Mauna Loa has been creeping toward the highway, coming within 3.6 miles on Wednesday. But it could be a week before lava reaches Saddle Road, the US Geological Survey said Thursday.
By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter

CNN — The Supreme Court said Thursday that President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness program will remain blocked for now, but the justices agreed to hear oral arguments in the case in February, with a decision expected by June. Biden’s program would offer up to $20,000 of debt relief to millions of qualified borrowers, but it has been met with legal challenges since it was announced. Nearly two weeks ago, the Biden administration began notifying people who are approved for federal student loan relief. About 26 million people had already applied to the program by the time it was frozen prompting the government to stop taking applications. No debt has been canceled thus far.
By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - As Democrats transitioned smoothly to a new leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans girded themselves for a showdown over Kevin McCarthy's bid for speaker that could leave the chamber adrift in the early days of 2023.
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