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President-elect to appear virtually in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday but has already vowed to file a further appeal against a prosecution he has branded an act of ‘lawfare’ by his political enemies
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Donald Trump is set to be sentenced in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday morning over his conviction in the hush money case brought against him last year – just 10 days before his second inauguration to the presidency.
The US Supreme Courtdeclined to stop the sentencing on Thursday, with its justices ruling 5-4 in favor of allowing Judge Juan Merchan to go ahead, meaning the president-elect will appear virtually for the sentencing hearing at 9am ET today, with an “unconditional discharge” sentence expected.
Trump called the SCOTUS decision “fair” but insisted he would be filing a further appeal, protesting his innocence and railing against “lawfare” on Truth Social.
Also yesterday, Trump attended the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter in Washington DC, sitting alongside fellow surviving commanders-in-chief Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton.
Earlier, he had called on California Governor Gavin Newsom to resign over the wildfires currently rampaging through Los Angeles, which have already killed 10 people, destroyed more than 1,000 structures and forced 150,000 residents to evacuate.
The president-elect accused Newsom, city mayor Karen Bass, and Biden of “gross incompetence” and declared the city “a total wipeout”.
Instances when all five living Amerian presidents come together are rare.
But for Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday, they were all there.
President-elect Donald Trump was the first to arrive alongside former and future first lady Melania Trump.
Barack Obama, the Clintons, Bushes and Bidens were also in attendance.
Michelle Obama was the only living first lady who was absent, with reports claiming she was in Hawaii.
Outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff were the last to take their seats among a sea of lawmakers and members of previous administrations. G
iven the funeral’s proximity to the election — and the heated rhetoric over the past few years — some notably awkward moments were spotted by those watching the service.
Here’s more from Gustaf Kilander.
Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, not known for being best buddies, engaged in some friendly chit-chat and shared a few laughs
Every living American president filed into pews at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday to honor one of their own at the funeral for Jimmy Carter, who died late last month at 100 years old.
Ther 39th president was remembered as a compassionate Christian and progressive, despite serving a single term in the White House that was seen as a disappointment at the time.
President Joe Biden, who was the first senator to endorse Carter’s successful bid for the White House in 1976, eulogized Carter for having a “deep Christian faith in God” that informed his extraordinary life, during which he “never let the tides of politics divert him from his mission to serve and shape the world.”
“Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God and of the people,” said Biden, who praised Carter as having seen “well into the future” even though he had appeared to many as being a relic of “a bygone era.”
Here’s a full report on an emotional day in DC from Andrew Feinberg.
‘Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God and of the people,’ Biden said Thursday at a service attended by all living presidents
Thousands of expert American medical professionals have signed a letter imploring the Senate to reject Robert F Kennedy Jr’s confirmation for secretary of health and human services (HHS) this month.
The letter, organized by the advocacy group Committee to Protect Health Care, called the president-elect’s decision to nominate Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine-sceptic, “a slap in the face to every healthcare professional who has spent their lives working to protect patients from preventable illness and death”.
“The health and well-being of 336 million Americans depend on leadership at HHS that prioritizes science, evidence-based medicine, and strengthening the integrity of our public health system,” the letter reads.
“RFK Jr is not only unqualified to lead this essential agency – he is actively dangerous.”
Katie Hawkinson reports.
Kennedy, among other controversies, has spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine
The world’s richest man, who is set to co-lead Trump’s new advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has admitted the agency likely won’t make the $2 trillion in federal budget cuts he originally promised, which feels like a fairly major admission.
Katie Hawkinson has this report.
Musk has been claiming he could make $2 trillion in cuts since October
A US federal appeals court has denied a bid to block the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals turned down an emergency challenge on Thursday aimed at keeping under wraps a report expected to detail unflattering revelations about the president-elect’s failed effort to cling to power after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
A separate volume of the same special counsel report – related to Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate – will not become public while the case against two co-defendants of the president-elect, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, remains pending, the Justice Department has said.
Even with the appeals court ruling, however, the election interference report will not immediately be released and there’s no guarantee it will be as more legal wrangling is expected.
A lower court ruling from Trump-appointed US District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida temporarily blocking the Justice Department from releasing the report remains in place for three days.
The defendants may now ask Cannon to rule on the merits of their request to block the report, which she did not do earlier when she granted their emergency motion.
They could also conceivably ask the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to intervene.
A Trump spokesperson called Smith’s report an “unconstitutional, one-sided, falsehood-ridden screed”.
“It is time for Joe Biden and Merrick Garland to do the right thing and put a final stop to the political weaponization of our justice system,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
The two-volume report is expected to detail findings and explain charging decisions in Smith’s two investigations.
His team abandoned both cases in November after Trump’s presidential election victory, citing Justice Department policy that prohibits the federal prosecutions of sitting presidents.
The president-elect said yesterday a meeting is being set up between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but typically offered no precise timeline for talks between the two leaders.
“He wants to meet, and we are setting it up,” Trump said in remarks before a meeting with Republican governors following his return to Mar-a-Lago after Jimmy Carter’s funeral in DC.
“President Putin wants to meet. He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess.”
Trump’s return to the White House on January 20 has sparked hope of a diplomatic resolution to end Moscow’s invasion, which began in February 2022, but it has also led to fears in Kyiv that a quick peace deal could come at a high price for Ukraine.
At the same press conference, Trump called his sentencing today a “disgrace”, reiterated his desire to incorporate Canada and Greenland into the United States and reflected on his newfound “friendship” with Barack Obama.
Also on the president-elect’s social media feed today, we have an ominous “see you again – SOON” message to Greenlanders, his thoughts on events in Caracas and more taunting of poor Gavin Newsom with a cartoonishly simplistic idea for solving the Los Angeles wildfires.
Speaking of Greenland, the Danish press has alleged that the locals only turned out to greet Donald Trump Jr in Nuuk earlier this week because they were promised a free lunch!
Here’s more from Katie Hawkinson.
Trump Jr. visited Greenland after the president-elect called for the US to purchase the island
Good morning!
The US Supreme Court has ruled against blocking the president-elect’s sentencing in his criminal hush money trial, leaving Donald Trump without any remaining options to block his imminent return to Manhattan Criminal Court.
Trump is therefore scheduled to face New York Justice Juan Merchan at 9am on Friday – just10 days before his second inauguration to the presidency.
Judge Merchan has signalled he will issue an “unconditional discharge” sentence that will not include jail time or fines.
The president-elect will appear virtually, no doubt ashen-faced.
Here’s what Trump had to say about it on Truth Social last night…
…and here he is calling it “fair” but saying he still plans to appeal.
And, lastly, here’s Alex Woodward’s report on the stage being set for another momentous day.
5-4 decision from the nation’s high court allows Trump’s sentence to move foward 10 days before inauguration
A key immigration enforcement measure could be on track for passage thanks to Democrats crossing party lines to support it.
The failure of the Democratic Party’s leadership and standard-bearers to present a winning message on immigration reform in 2024 is coming back to bite outgoing President Joe Biden.
With days left of his presidency and the fight to define his legacy begun, his allies in Congress are seemingly prepared to compromise with the GOP on a bill that would direct immigration authorities to detain any undocumented person charged with theft.
John Bowden, Eric Garcia, and Andrew Feinberg report from Washington, D.C.
Bill may pass, led by Republicans, without amendments after Democratic resistance vanishes
The idea of buying Greenland initially came to Trump from cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder, according to the 2022 book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 by Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker. Trump and Lauder have known each other since their college days.
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
Trump’s interest in aquiring Greenland has a long and storied history
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