Trump says there were no documents found at Mar-a-Lago, just ‘cool’ empty folders marked classified
The same judge sanctioned Donald Trump and his lawyer nearly $1m for suing former secretary of state Hillary Clinton over claims that she and others rigged the 2016 presidential election.
“This case should never have been brought,” wrote Judge Donald M Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida in his order. “Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start.”
Judge Middlebrooks said the sanctions were warranted because the former president had exhibited a “pattern” of misusing the courts for his political agenda. “Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim,” he wrote.
Mr Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba are now liable for $937,989 in sanctions.
Meanwhile, the former president angrily reacted to the failure of the Supreme Court to identify the source of the Roe v Wade decision leak that sparked outrage last year.
He shockingly called for the jailing of the Politico reporter, publisher, and editor who broke the story in an effort to force them to identify the source of the leak.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel claims being able to wrangle Trump is why she should keep job, report says
Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, is arguing that she should remain in her current role as she is best able to convince Donald Trump not to run a third-party candidacy in 2024 should he not get the party’s nomination.
A report published on Thursday in The Washington Postsays Ms McDaniel is attempting to thwart challenges to her leadership of the RNC by stirring up fears of a Trump third-party run splitting the GOP’s base.
Ms McDaniel has faced criticism from RNC members for presiding over the disappointing 2022 midterm election results which saw the party only narrowly win the House of Representatives and lose a seat in the Senate. Many had predicted a red wave sweeping the nation two years into the Biden presidency and propelling the GOP into full control of Congress.
With some party members blaming Mr Trump for the poor electoral performance many also appear to believe that Ms McDaniel is far too tied to him to continue to lead the party and that it is time to move on.
Steve Bannon asked Ms McDaniel about the criticism of her leadership on his show. Accusing her main challenger Harmeet Dhillon of lying about her, Mr Bannon asks her to be specific:
ICYMI: Trump reacts to Monterey Park shooting by complaining about treatment of Jan 6 defendants
“10 dead in California shooting, horrible gun wielding ANTIFA protest against our great police in Atlanta – Nothing will happen to them despite night of rage and destruction,” the former president posted on Truth Social. “Yet our January 6th protestors, over a Rigged Election, have had their lives ruined despite nobody killed except true Patriot Ashli B. This situation will be fully rectified after 2024 Election. Thank you!”
The gunman – who police have only described as a male – is still at large after opening fire at a dance ballroom.
Operative jumps from Haley PAC to Pence’s amid 2024 jostling
Mike Pence may be picking up steam as he tries to establish himself as a plausible national contender in a 2024 GOP primary.
The executive director of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley‘s political action committee is leaving to help run PAC efforts for former Vice President Mike Pence, a defection that comes as both former Trump administration officials consider 2024 Republican presidential bids.
Donald Trump himself is also running for the White House once again.
Read more in The Independent:
White House to McCarthy: No negotiations on debt limit
The White House has some bad news for Kevin McCarthy as the newly-elected Speaker of the House prepares for a showdown with Democrats over the debt limit in the hopes of appeasing his far-right caucus members.
Joe Biden’s team is signaling that they will not accept any demands for concessions from Republicans over the issue, potentially setting Mr McCarthy up for a showdown with his own party.
White House to McCarthy: No negotiations on debt limit
The White House says President Joe Biden “looks forward” to sitting down with new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to discuss a range of topics, including perhaps the thorniest challenge confronting Washington this year: raising the nation’s debt limit
Trump posts another poll showing him ahead of Ron DeSantis
Donald Trump remains keen to remind his would-be 2024 rivals that he is still the Republican Party base’s top choice for their nominee, at least for now.
The ex-president “truthed” a graphic made by his team from a bimonthly tracking poll taken by Big Village polling; the survey shows Mr Trump supported by more than half of all GOP voters. Mr DeSantis was, once again, the only other Republican cracking double digits.
He has posted such data with more intensity in recent weeks following a dismal showing by many of his chosen candidates and the GOP as a whole in November’s midterms; many party elites have publicly signaled their growing disdain for the former president in the wake of those results.
Trump turns memorial for vlogger Diamond into campaign speech – and complains the service wasn’t 15 minutes
Donald Trump struggled to meet the mood of a memorial service for Ineitha Lynnette Hardaway, better known as “Diamond” of the pro-Trump duo Diamond and Silk.
Speaking Saturday at the gathering in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the former president at times sounded more like a candidate delivering a stump speech than an ex-president memorialising a valued friend or political ally.
At one point, he even quipped that the service had gone on much longer than the “15 minutes” he was promised to deliver his remarks and leave.
Top Democrats say Biden should be ‘embarrassed’ by classified documents case after more papers found
Senior Democrats, dismayed by a steady stream of startling disclosures, expressed criticism Sunday of how President Joe Biden handled classified material after leaving office as vice president and disappointment that the White House has not been more forthcoming with the public.
Lawmakers who might have anticipated questions focusing on the debt limit or Ukraine aid when they were booked last week for the Sunday news shows found themselves quizzed about the latest development over the weekend in the document drama that has put Biden’s presidency on the defensive: During a search Friday of Mr Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, the FBI found additional documents with classified markings and took possession of some of his handwritten notes, the president’s lawyer said Saturday.
It’s an embarrasing situation for Joe Biden as he moves into the new year with a Republican majority in the House for the first time.
‘Insult to the rule of law’: White House blasts Trump call to jail Supreme Court leak journalists
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has forcefully condemned Donald Trump’s call to jail the Politico journalists who reported on the Supreme Court’s leaked decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
The twice-impeached ex-president, who during his term repeatedly disparaged the press as “the enemy of the people” and suggested White House reporters who reported unflattering information about him and his administration could be tried for treason, took to his Truth Social platform on Thursday after ater a Supreme Court leak investigation failed to identify a person responsible for leaking a draft of the high court’s Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization opinion to Politico last year.
Andrew Feinberg reports from the White House.
George Santos celebrated engagement to a man while he was married to a woman
The politics world continues to be rocked by new revelations around Republican Congressman George Santos – with a new report claiming that he invited friends over to celebrate his engagement to a man, which he was reportedly still married to a woman.
“Good evening everyone! As you all may already know Pedro and I have decided to join our toothbrushes! Lol and a very few friends have been selected to share this special moment with us,” Mr Santos wrote in the invitation.
Mr Santos and his wife would not divorce until five years later.
The Daily Beast learned of the invitation from Mr Santos’ old roommate, Greg Morey-Parker. Pedro Vilarva, the man mentioned in the invitation, also confirmed that Mr Santos planned the celebration.
The Independent’s Graig Graziosi has more:
Voices: Trump thinks Politico journalists should be jailed. This should be a turning point
This push to jail journalists for doing their jobs — their Constitutionally protected jobs — echoes a speech Trump gave last November, during which he mused about the same reporter being sexually assaulted in jail: “The reporter goes to jail. When the reporter learns he’s going to be married to a certain prisoner that’s extremely strong, tough, and mean, he will say, ‘You know, I think I’m going to give you the information.’”
This isn’t mere idle talk. According to the New York Times, while president, Trump told FBI Director James Comey “to consider putting reporters in prison” during an Oval Office meeting. More recently, Rolling Stone reported that Trump gathered advisors to discuss ways around the First Amendment in order to emulate authoritarian leaders’ crackdowns on journalists.
