List of All Articles with Tag 'us politics'

A federal magistrate judge has denied Hunter Biden's request to appear virtually for his first court hearing in the federal gun case against him and set his arraignment for October 3.

Stacked up against the long and growing to-do list on which the House and Senate are making very little progress, this dress code flap seems like a distraction.

Former Donald Trump aide Molly Michael will be one of the most important witnesses in the classified documents case, a former prosecutor has said. Ex-Georgia prosecutor Chris Timmons appeared on CNN on Tuesday night, saying that Ms Michael has got “damning information” since Mr Trump allegedly told her to lie to the authorities. “This is a smoking gun,” Mr Timmons said. Ms Michael worked with Mr Trump both in the White House and then at his Florida private club Mar-a-Lago. It was reported on Tuesday that Mr Trump gave instructions when he came to understand that the authorities were going to interview Ms Michael about the boxes containing classified documents that he kept at his Sunshine State residence after leaving office. “You don’t know anything about the boxes,” Mr Trump told Ms Michael, according to reporting from ABC News and The New York Times. Mr Timmons told CNN that there is a point in every case and trial when it’s won or lost. If Mr Trump chooses to take the stand, that will probably be the pivotal point, he said. But if Mr Trump is not a witness in the trial, Ms Michael will be the “key witness,” Mr Timmons said, adding that her testimony will likely decide “whether the former president is convicted”. Mr Timmons was asked if Mr Trump’s direction that “you don’t know anything about the boxes” would affect the case. “Absolutely,” he said. “I think it’s got three possibilities of coming in. One, the least likely is a re-indictment including these additional predicate acts and further into the conspiracy. I don’t think it fits quite that neatly.” “Second, it could be brought in and there’d have to be a motion filed under what’s referred to as similar acts, that it’s close to or even brought in as maybe kind of a distant part of the RICO scheme,” he added. “The third one – I think the former president is going to take the opportunity to testify in the Georgia case. I really do. A number of people think that he’s not going to. I think he’s not going to miss that opportunity to be on every television in the entire world,” Mr Timmons said. “And if he does testify, then at that point it comes as impeachment evidence and it shows that he lacks credibility and is dishonest.” In the Florida case, Mr Trump faces 32 counts of willful retention of national secrets, six counts of obstruction of justice, and two counts of making false statements. In Georgia, he faces one count of violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), three counts of soliciting violation of oath by a public officer, and a litany of further charges. Read More Cassidy Hutchinson claims Rudy Giuliani sexually assaulted her on Jan 6 in new book Ray Epps pleads guilty to Jan 6 charge as GOP lawmakers revive debunked conspiracy theories Trump speaks at Iowa rally as Giuliani accused of sex assault on Jan 6 - latest news

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide, claims in a new book that Rudy Giuliani groped her backstage at the rally that preceded the former president's supporters' insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened his remarks at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday recounting his recent trip to Yahidne -- a Ukrainian town roughly two hours north of Kyiv that had been occupied by Russian soldiers.

The Biden administration is canceling nearly $37 million of federal student loan debt for more than 1,200 borrowers who attended the University of Phoenix because it found that the for-profit school misled students about job prospects.

A woman running what has been described as a “morality campaign” for mayor in Franklin, Tennessee has confirmed that she was arrested for promoting prostitution three decades ago. Gabrielle Hanson, a MAGA Republican and Franklin alderman, claims she believed that she was working for a modelling agency when she worked answering phones for what turned out to be an escort service while she was a college student. Seven hours after Nashville’s NewsChannel5 reached out to Ms Hanson about her criminal past, she shared a video in which she said: “One day the police came knocking at my door.” She was detained in Dallas, Texas in the mid-1990s. “I was shocked, I was devastated. Everything I worked for for 13 years was about to come true. It should have been the happiest, most exciting time of my life, and it ended up being the absolute lowest,” Ms Hanson said. “That was definitely not who I was, but I was definitely in the middle of all of it.” The Tennessee TV station notes that Ms Hanson has been running a “morality campaign” opposing LGBT+ rights and events like Pride Fest. In the video posted to her campaign’s Instagram account, Ms Hanson said that she was trying to finish college as a student at Southern Methodist University when she took a job answering the phone for what she believed to be a modelling and casting agency. “I answered the phone, I took a name, I took a number and a date,” she says in the footage. “At the end of my work session, I would call the owners and give them that information.” She insists that she didn’t know it was an escort service until the police appeared. She agreed to a plea deal for a single charge under a process allowing offenders without criminal records to avoid convictions known as “deferred adjudication”. “My punishment for the deferred adjudication was ‘do not live in Dallas for two years,’ because they knew I was leaving. I said, ‘No problem, because I don’t ever want to live in Dallas again after this experience’,” Ms Hanson says, adding that it was at this time that she moved to Chicago. NewsChannel5 has also reported that Ms Hanson posted a photo of a number of women who she said backed her campaign, but the women later told the station that they didn’t know Ms Hanson. She claimed they denied knowing her to protect her. The TV station noted that there are also questions surrounding where she and her husband live. Ms Hanson compared pleading no contest to one count of promoting prostitution to getting a speeding ticket. “I moved to Chicago, where I rekindled my love for Christ,” she says in the video. Ms Hanson has also been slammed for downplaying lynching and opposing “racial terror” markers, according to The Tennessee Holler and The Daily Beast. She also faces allegations that she shared false information about a mass shooting at a Nashville school and that she threatened to take action against the local airport for backing a Juneteenth festival, the national holiday marking the end of slavery in the US. Read More Cassidy Hutchinson claims Rudy Giuliani sexually assaulted her on Jan 6 in new book Don Jr’s hacked account posts Trump ‘passed away’ as bombshell book claims Murdoch wishes it true - latest John Fetterman says he’ll wear a suit if GOP ‘jagoffs’ stop government shutdown threats

House Republicans and Attorney General Merrick Garland clashed Wednesday at a testy hearing that offered a preview of the coming Republican impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden focused on allegations surrounding his son, Hunter Biden.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has caved to a demand by Sen. Tommy Tuberville to bring up a small handful of votes on military promotions to the Senate floor, even as he assailed the Alabama Republican's tactics.

Flanked by two oil rigs in West Texas, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shared his vision Wednesday for America's energy sector, with an emphasis on unraveling President Joe Biden's ongoing efforts to fight climate change.

The Pentagon is launching a new outreach campaign to help LGBTQ service members who feel they "suffered an error or injustice" before the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to correct their military records.

Nearly every Senate Republican signed a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday asking him to continue enforcing the Senate's previous, more formal unwritten dress code.