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President-elect appears virtually in Manhattan Criminal Court already vowing to file another appeal against case he branded an act of ‘lawfare’ by political enemies
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Donald Trump was sentenced to “unconditional discharge” by Judge Juan Merchan at Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday — just 10 days before his second inauguration to the presidency — after being found guilty on all counts at his hush money trial last year.
The Supreme Court declined to stop the sentencing, its justices ruling 5-4 in favor of allowing Judge Merchan to proceed.
The president-elect appeared virtually for the hearing and reiterated his objections to the case, repeating his claim that he was “very, very unfairly treated.”
Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to hide payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to ensure her silence ahead of Election Day about an extramarital sexual encounter she alleges they had a decade earlier.
Trump insisted he would be filing a fresh appeal. He will be the first convicted felon to hold the office of the presidency.
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani was held in contempt of court for the second time in a week after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., lambasted the former New York City mayor for repeatedly attacking two election workers he defamed despite a court order blocking him from repeating false statements against them.
Immigration attorneys and civil rights groups warn that the first immigration bill of the new Congress is opening the door to Donald Trump’s planned “mass deportation operation” — his pledge to invoke a national emergency, deploy military assets and send state and local law enforcement into immigrant communities across the country within his first days in office.
The Senate voted 84-9 on Thursday to begin debate on the Laken Riley Act, with only nine Democratic senators voting against it and five not voting at all. The House passed the bill by a vote of 264-159 on Tuesday, with 48 Democrats voting for it.
Alex Woodward and Eric Garcia report.
Opponents call the bill a ‘slippery slope’ for Trump’s agenda and a ‘backdoor to mass detention’
Billionaire Elon Musk, who is set to co-lead the new advisory Department of Government Efficiency, has admitted the agency likely won’t make the $2 trillion in federal budget cuts he originally promised.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO revealed his goal of cutting $2 trillion from the $6.8 trillion federal budget was just the “best-case outcome” during a live interview Wednesday with Stagwell CEO Mark Penn.
Katie Hawkinson reports.
Musk has been claiming he could make $2 trillion in cuts since October
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum excoriated President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday after he suggested that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America.
“Obviously, the Gulf of Mexico is a name recognized by the United Nations,” Sheinbaum, speaking in Spanish, said during her daily press conference, according to Politico.
She then pointed to a historic map of North America, on which parts of what is now the U.S. the map said, “America Mexicana.”
“Why don’t we call it Mexican America?” she said with a heavy tinge of sarcasm. “It sounds nice, no?”
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
‘I think that yesterday, President Trump was misinformed, with all due respect to President Trump,’ Claudia Sheinbaum stated after his Gulf of America suggestion
The symbiotic relationship between Fox News and President-elect Donald Trump nearly reached new levels during the most recent presidential campaign, according to a new book by Politico political reporter Alex Isenstadt.
While the president-elect has already appointed or nominated at least a dozen Fox News personalities to his upcoming administration, Isenstadt reports in his forthcoming book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power that Trump seriously considered making one his favorite hosts his running mate.
Justin Barangoa reports.
Trump was ‘dead serious’ about tapping the MAGA host as his running mate, according to a new book
Instances when all five living 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. Given 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.
Gustaf Kilander reports.
Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, not known for being best buddies, engaged in some friendly chit-chat and shared a few laughs
The fundraising for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump has beaten all records, gathering an unprecedented $170 million.
Tech executives and big donors have donated massive sums of money to curry favor with the incoming president. The donations are usually spent on events surrounding the inauguration, such as the oath of office ceremony, a parade, and several inaugural balls.
Gustaf Kilander looks at the numbers.
Inaugural committee set to raise more than $200 million, with any leftover funds likely to be used for a Trump presidential library
More than 15,000 doctors have signed a letter imploring the US Senate to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation for secretary of health and human services.
The letter, organized by the advocacy group Committee to Protect Health Care, calls President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Kennedy “a slap in the face to every health care 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 from Washington, D.C.
Kennedy, among other controversies, has spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine
President-elect Donald Trump ranted about a “very terrible experience” and declared his innocence as he was given a slap on the wrist for his 34 felony convictions in New York.
Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump Friday after a jury found him guilty of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to cover up an alleged affair with Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Trump has denied the affair, but the jury found him guilty over the record-keeping of the $130,000 in hush-money payments to Daniels.
Merchan handed down an “unconditional discharge” sentence, meaning Trump will not face jail time or fines.
Alex Woodward and Katie Hawkinson report.
Trump will not face any jail time or fines for his 34 felony convictions
Senator John Fetterman confirmed he will meet with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago soon, quipping he wants to be appointed “Pope of Greenland.”
He added: “I am not just the Senator for Democrats in Pennsylvania. I’m the Senator for everyone in Pennsylvania and my state picked Donald Trump as president.”
Watch below:
Alan Rusbridger and Khaled Mansour, who sit on Meta’s oversight board, write:
Move fast and break things. If there is one saying about the ethos of the new tribe of digital entrepreneurs – sometimes known as “information oligarchs” – it’s this one, credited to Mark Zuckerburg, CEO and founder of Meta. These guys don’t hang around.
And, boy, did they move fast once they knew that the new president of the United States would be one Donald Trump. First the courtesy visits to Mar-a-Lago, then the donations. Then the re-arranging of the boards and top executive teams. And – as we saw this week – a stream of announcements about revised policies and processes to be more aligned with the thinking of the incoming administration.
No-one is pretending that Meta’s decision to think again about its approach to content moderation and fact-checking was anything other than political. Trump is surrounded by people who think of themselves as free speech absolutists. They genuinely believe that many, if not most, attempts to temper words, pictures or videos on social media amount to politically-motivated censorship. And so, barely two weeks before Trump takes office, Zuckerberg recorded a video which felt as if it was intended for an audience of one.
Continue reading…
The Meta boss has decided to ditch fact-checkers and ask users to contest facts – or create alternative ones, write Alan Rusbridger and Khaled Mansour, who sit on the company’s oversight board. Truth will take second place to rumour and we all risk paying an exorbitantly high price
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