Новости за 17.01.2024

Donald Trump was nearly kicked out of his own defamation trial on Wednesday for repeatedly making comments within earshot of the jury, nearly a week before he is allowed to testify.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, one of the primary legal architects of an amicus brief used by Republicans seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory, backpedaled in incredible fashion on Wednesday when asked point blank whether Biden’s win was God’s will.

The second day of Donald Trump’s defamation trial against E. Jean Carroll was off to a very bad start on Wednesday, and not just for the former president. One of his lawyers managed to anger the presiding judge before testimony even began—and several times after that.

In their often shambolic and occasionally hysterical appearance before the International Court of Justice last Friday, at no point did the lawyers representing Israel give concrete arguments or convincing evidence that Israel’s three-month siege of Gaza should not be considered an act of genocide. Faced with a credible accusation of a crime one of their own called the “epitome and zenith of evil,” “the crime of crimes,” “the ultimate in wickedness,” they produced no proof they were not guilty. 

The Baltimore Sun’s new owner doesn’t seem to be on the same page as the paper’s staff.

Florida Democrats have flipped a state House seat in a special election, a sign that the party may be more competitive than previously thought come November.

Earlier this month, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released an explosive report documenting that Donald Trump’s businesses pocketed at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments during his presidency. Disturbingly, the report noted that Democrats could have uncovered far more such foreign booty but were thwarted when GOP capture of the House deprived them of subpoena power.

Despite leading the polls with more than 60 percent, Donald Trump is apparently feeling the heat in the increasingly narrow GOP primary race, devoting the better part of Tuesday night to a TruthSocial binge dedicated to his rival Nikki Haley.

Senator Ted Cruz has endorsed Donald Trump for president, a move that has everyone rolling their eyes given the men’s decidedly acrimonious history.

In February 2017, Steve Bannon, then chief strategist of the Trump White House, pledged that the new administration would commit itself to “the deconstruction of the administrative state.” President Donald Trump was too inept to make much tangible progress on that front during his presidency. But in appointing three right-wing justices to the Supreme Court, Trump improved substantially the likelihood that it would fulfill Bannon’s promise, and the current docket furnishes the high court with three opportunities to do so. Читать дальше...

The leaders of the tax-writing committees in Congress announced a $78 billion bipartisan tax policy deal on Tuesday, including an expansion of the child tax credit. As I reported last week, the measure looked ripe for rejuvenation, following a long period of fits and starts in negotiations after the pandemic-era expansion expired in 2022. Although the newly proposed credit is not as generous as the version that was temporarily enacted by the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, advocates nevertheless... Читать дальше...

Billionaire Philip Anschutz has made a lot of smart investments over the course of his career, having leveraged his father’s oil and gas business into a sprawling business empire that’s come to include not just fossil fuel extraction but sports teams, a Christian-themed production company, railroads, Coachella and large parts of Los Angeles. Among his best investments, though, might be those he’s made in Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

One of Donald Trump’s lawyers may have already blown his defense in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, when she violated some of the judge’s rules during her opening statements on Tuesday.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is so desperate not to criticize Donald Trump that she went as far as to call him innocent in a case where he’s already been found guilty.