update - Colombian fisherman's family files formal murder complaint against Pete Hegseth

[mandrill]

Hegseth warned his subordinates will have evidence of his orders


Should a serious inquiry be conducted by Congress into the reported killing of two survivors left clinging to a vessel after a kinetic strike on an alleged drug-running boat, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should be prepared to face military officials who will go in prepared to defend themselves.

Late Monday, the Wall Street Journal editorial page editors suggested, “If Mr. Hegseth is right, then the factual record will support him. There are layers of bureaucracy between the Secretary of Defense and the business end of a missile. You can bet senior military officers bought insurance on their own careers by recording the advice they gave and the directions they received.”



Using that as a jumping-off point, MS NOW host Joe Scarborough agreed and pointed out that the Pentagon chief could find himself in a war with his subordinates as he tries to fend off blame — and they will likely come with “receipts.”

After noting that Admiral Alvin Holsey, former head of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all military activity in the Caribbean and South America, resigned abruptly after the supposed drug interdiction attacks began, the “Morning Joe” co-host remarked, “Think about how chilling it is for Pete Hegseth that you have somebody who resigned in anger reportedly over this, and also, as David Ignatius said, well, actually, he's quoting the Wall Street Journal editorial page — these admirals, these officers, they have receipts.”



“They aren't going to do this without making sure they have evidence of authority sent by Pete Hegseth,” he predicted. “Which is why I'm just — I personally believe — which is why the White House had to come out yesterday and admit this happened and not blame it, as Pete Hegseth did, on lefty fake news reporters.”

 

[mandrill]

Trump repeatedly struggles to stay awake in Cabinet meeting


Once again, President Donald Trump appeared to struggle to stay awake, this time during his mid-Tuesday televised Cabinet meeting. At several points, the president was filmed with his eyes closed, occasionally reopening them while seeming disengaged.

In one 30-second clip, the president’s eyes close numerous times, then Trump nods when he is mentioned. In a shorter clip, Trump also struggles to keep his eyes open, as his hand holds up his head.

In a 23-second clip, the president is hunched over, slouching in his chair, his eyes closed in what could be described as appearing to nod off.

Trump slouches and appears to try to listen as HUD Secretary Scott Turner speaks, in this 79-second video.

In a 17-second clip, journalist Aaron Rupar wrote, “Trump’s face is becoming contorted as he desperately tries to cling to consciousness.” In another, he called the president “Dozy Don.”

But in perhaps the most extreme capture of the president appearing to doze off, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks, Trump is totally hunched over, his eyes closed, his head then falls forward, and he appears to try to wake up before seemingly falling back asleep.

While this is not the first time the president has appeared to fall asleep on camera, it comes after a massive late-night social media spree, in which Trump posted or reposted over 150 times, as Alternet reported.

Axios’ Marc Caputo noted that “Trump went on a Truth Social bender last night, posting 158 times from 9pm Monday to 12am Tuesday Just before 5:30 am, he started hitting social media again.”

The media is beginning to notice.

Last week, The New York Times published an in-depth look at Trump’s “signs of fatigue.”

“Mr. Trump appeared to doze off during an event in the Oval Office,” one week after Halloween, the Times noted.

The president “has fewer public events on his schedule and is traveling domestically much less than he did by this point during his first year in office, in 2017, although he is taking more foreign trips,” according to the Times. “He also keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to. Most of his public appearances fall between noon and 5 p.m., on average.”

“During an Oval Office event that began around noon on Nov. 6,” the Times added, “Mr. Trump sat behind his desk for about 20 minutes as executives standing around him talked about weight-loss drugs.”

“At one point, Mr. Trump’s eyelids drooped until his eyes were almost closed, and he appeared to doze on and off for several seconds. At another point, he opened his eyes and looked toward a line of journalists watching him. He stood up only after a guest who was standing near him fainted and collapsed.”

 

[mandrill]

Doodling, drowsiness and a conspicuous misspelling highlight Trump's last Cabinet meeting of 2025


WASHINGTON (AP) — With Tuesday's White House Cabinet meeting chugging past the two-hour mark, President Donald Trump 's eyes fluttered and closed. His budget director busied himself doodling a fluffy cloud. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was lucky enough to speak early, but the title on his nameplate was misspelled.

Russ Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, attends the Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)© The Associated Press
The sleepy, and occasionally slipshod, gathering nonetheless ended with a flurry of news. Trump declared that he didn't want Somalis in the U.S. and Hegseth cited the “ fog of war ” in defending a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-carrying boat in the Caribbean Sea in September.

The president started things off by noting that it was the last time his Cabinet would gather until 2026. And, though marathon sessions with his top advisers lavishing praise have become a Trump trademark since he returned to the White House, this latest installment felt at times like a holiday break was needed.

Trump offered lengthy opening comments largely rehashing his key previous policy announcements from recent months. He also repeated old grievances, going back to his falsehoods about having won the 2020 election.

‘Go quickly’

The president then gave each Cabinet member a chance to speak, declaring, “We're gonna go quickly.” That did little to stop most Cabinet members from offering long presentations.

Hegseth went first and praised the Trump administration's move to rename his agency the Department of War — something that can't be officially done without an act of Congress. But the nameplate in front of Hegseth labeled him the “ssecretary of war,” including a mistaken double “S” that quickly became the source of searing online ridicule.

President Donald Trump closes his eyes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)© The Associated Press
After that, as each official took turns speaking, a TV camera trained on Trump showed him struggling to stay alert. The president sat back in his chair with his eyes occasionally drooping and sometimes shutting completely.

Trump's apparent sleepiness followed his criticism of a recent New York Times story examining his schedule and stamina at age 79. Trump again slammed the Times story early in Tuesday's meeting and even slipped into the third person to assure all involved that “Trump is sharp.”

Another indication that things were dragging came from budget director Russell Vought, who was spotted sketching a bucolic scene on White House letterhead.



President Donald Trump stands up to depart following a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)© The Associated Press
Vought drew mountains framed by pine trees topped by the kind of friendly-seeming clouds that public television legend Bob Ross preferred to crowd his serene landscape paintings with. The budget chief also sketched an arrow underneath his mountain. Where it was supposed to be pointing was not clear.


Just as Trump's admonishments to keep things tight were flouted, some of the Cabinet members also defied the president in their presentations when it came to the issue of affordability.

Trump made a point in his opening remarks to call concerns that Democrats have raised about rising costs a “con job." That didn't stop many of his administration's top voices from earnestly detailing how they were indeed seeking to reduce prices nationwide.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins talked about economic pressures on farmers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called affordability a “crisis," and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said that hundreds of thousands of Americans becoming first-time homebuyers was an example of how the administration was making strides to achieve greater affordability.


The final speaker was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke for several minutes and acknowledged: “I know I’m last, so I wanted to be fast. But there’s a lot to cover."

All told, Tuesday's gathering lasted more than two hours. That fell short of Trump's Cabinet meeting record: an August marathon that stretched to a whopping three hours and 17 minutes.

Still, even the president acknowledged that the latest meeting was going long. “We're spending a lot of time in here," he said.

Trump wrapped things by taking questions from reporters, but only after jokingly asking, “After that, do you WANT to ask any questions?” He also pointed at a journalist holding a boom mic to capture sound from the Cabinet meeting and playfully offered, “How strong are you?”

“You've been holding that for two hours,” the president continued, drawing laughs from Cabinet members. “There are very few people who could do that. I'm very proud of you.”

A newsy Q&A

Reporters' questions shook off the doldrums.

Hegseth said he did not see that there were survivors in the water when the second strike on the boat off Venezuela was ordered and launched in early September. He said “the thing was on fire” and cited the “fog of war” in defending what occurred. He also said he “didn’t stick around” for the remainder of the Sept. 2 mission following the initial strike.


In response to a later question, Trump declared he didn't want Somali immigrants in the U.S., adding that residents of the war-ravaged eastern African country should stay there and try to fix their homeland. He also accused Somalis of being too reliant on U.S. aid programs while offering little to the nation in return.

That drew applause from his Cabinet, though the questions ended abruptly with journalists soon hustled out of the room. Trump punctuated the conclusion by slapping his hand twice on the table, pushing his chair back, standing up and thumping Hegseth on the shoulder.

Will Weissert And Michelle L. Price, The Associated Press

 

[mandrill]

White House defends pardoning exec who defrauded thousands


The White House has defended Donald Trump’s commutation of a prison sentence for former private equity executive David Gentile, who conned thousands out of $1.6 billion in a fraud scheme.
Gentile, 59, was granted clemency and released on Wednesday (26 November) after serving less than two weeks of a seven-year prison sentence.

Asked by a reporter in the White House about the commutation on Monday (2 December), Karoline Leavitt said the Biden government was “unable to tie any supposedly fraudulent representations to Mr Gentile”.
She called the case another example of the “weaponization of justice from the previous administration”.
Gentile and his co-defendant, Jeffry Schneider, were convicted in August 2024 on conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and securities fraud. His conviction will not be erased.

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

Experts accuse Trump admin of leaving top admiral exposed to legal consequences


Admiral Frank M. Bradley – who was in charge of the September 2, 2025 mission in which the U.S. military killed two shipwrecked survivors of a boat strike in the Caribbean Sea — is being left out to dry by President Donald Trump's administration, according to multiple experts.

The New York Times' Helene Cooper and John Ismay reported Tuesday that recent comments from Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt all suggest that Bradley is being cast as the central figure in the controversial strike. The Washington Post reported that after the initial missile strike that blew up a boat in international waters, the two survivors were seen clinging to the wreckage of the vessel, and that Hegseth demanded officials overseeing the operation "kill everybody." Dan Maurer, retired U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) officer, characterized the operation as "murder."

Hegseth previously said that he watched the strike unfold in real time, though clarified during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting that he "didn't stick around" to see the secondary strike. Trump said that he "wouldn't have wanted" the subsequent strike, and Leavitt said from the White House Briefing Room lectern that Hegseth authorized Adm. Bradley to carry out the strikes.



"The public comments of the president, Mr. Hegseth and Ms. Leavitt all leave Admiral Bradley exposed," Cooper and Ismay wrote.

In a post to his X account, Hegseth maintained that Bradley was overseeing the operation, but praised his decision-making. Carrie A. Lee, who is the former chair of the department of national security and strategy at the Army War College, suggested that Trump and Hegseth were demonstrating poor leadership by pointing the finger at Bradley.

"For the top two civilians in the Pentagon and the White House to effectively wash their hands of it and claim no responsibility, while simultaneously saying that they stand by the decision, goes against any kind of ideas of responsible command," Lee told the Times.

Lee added that the president and the defense secretary were "trying to walk this middle line where you are saying, 'Well, I agree with his decisions, but if they violated the law, then we’re going to leave him swinging.'"

Hegseth said in his initial statement following the Post's report that the strike was "lawful under both U.S. and international law," and that all operations were "approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command." But now that both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are conducting official inquiries with the Department of Defense about the attack, Duke University political science professor Peter D. Feaver said Admiral Bradley could find himself caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the legality of his orders.

“What’s at stake here is not just the legal position of a single officer, but the larger ethic of the professional soldier,” Feaver told the Times. “The question is: How do officers deal with an order that an administration says is lawful but that most of the lawyers outside the U.S. government say is not? This current case brings that question into sharp relief.”

Click here to read the Times' report in full.

 

[mandrill]

Judge issues injunction restricting immigration arrests in nation's capital


A federal judge late Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from making widespread immigration arrests in the nation’s capital without warrants or probable cause that the person is an imminent flight risk.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington granted a preliminary injunction sought by civil liberties and immigrants rights groups in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

An email to the department after hours Tuesday was not immediately returned.

Officers making civil immigration arrests generally have to have an administrative warrant. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, they may make arrests without a warrant only if they have probable cause to believe the person is in the U.S. illegally and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained, according to Howell's ruling.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs' attorneys argued federal officers were frequently patrolling and setting up checkpoints in Washington, D.C., neighborhoods with large numbers of Latino immigrants and then stopping and arresting people indiscriminately.

They provided sworn declarations from people they say were arrested without warrants or a required assessment of flight risk and cited public statements by administration officials that they said showed the administration was not using the probable cause standard.

Attorneys for the administration denied it had a policy allowing such arrests.

Howell, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, said the plaintiffs had “established a substantial likelihood of an unlawful policy and practice by defendants of conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests without probable cause.”

“Defendants’ systemic failure to apply the probable cause standard, including the failure to consider escape risk, directly violates” immigration law and the Department of Homeland Security's implementing regulations, she said.

In addition to blocking the policy, she ordered any agent who conducts a warrantless civil immigration arrest in Washington to document “the specific, particularized facts that supported the agent’s pre-arrest probable cause to believe that the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.”

Howell also required the government to submit that documentation to plaintiffs' attorneys.

The ruling is similar to two others in federal lawsuits that also involved the ACLU, one in Colorado and another in California.

Another judge had issued a restraining order barring federal agents from stopping people based solely on their race, language, job or location in the Los Angeles area after finding that they were conducting indiscriminate stops, but the Supreme Court lifted that order in September.

Sudhin Thanawala, The Associated Press

 

[mandrill]

Former Air Force secretary: Bradley ‘would be court-martialed’ under ‘normal circumstances’


Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on Monday rejected Navy Adm. Frank Bradley’s reasoning for launching a second strike on a vessel in the Caribbean as two wounded survivors clung on to the boat.

“Under normal circumstances, it’d be court-martialed. He’d be relieved of his duties, and he’d be court-martialed,” Kendall, who served as secretary under former President Biden, said during an appearance on MS NOW. “The administration makes up logic and rationale for the things it’s doing that defy all legal history and all precedent, and that’s basically what we’re seeing here.”

Several other former U.S. government and military leaders have also dubbed the “double tap” attack a violation of the country’s law of war manual. Bradley is slated to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers Thursday as members of Congress continue to investigate the Trump administration’s strikes in the Caribbean.

“Adm. Bradley was reported to have given an excuse, if you will, for the second engagement. That doesn’t hold water. These people were wounded. They were in the water. They were not a threat to anybody. Again, that’s a textbook example of a war crime,” Kendall said Monday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to The Washington Post, gave orders to “kill everybody” onboard the ship as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on the alleged sale and transport of narcotics in the Latin American region.

However, Hegseth says he did not order a second strike.

“You can‘t kill survivors who can no longer fight,” John Yoo, who served as an adviser in former President George W. Bush’s administration, said during a Monday appearance on CNN. “So, the admiral should not have obeyed the order that Secretary Hegseth gave. And even the soldiers who carried out the admiral‘s orders should not have obeyed.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Bradley acted “within his authority and the law.”

Leavitt alleged the strikes were justified after narcotrafficking groups were deemed foreign terrorist organizations, allowing for “lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war.”

Her comments contradict the U.S.’s war manual, which states “orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.”

Legal experts told PBS the fatal attack violates peacetime laws as well as those governing armed conflict.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

[mandrill]

Expert warns House GOP soon to be marred by absences


House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has navigated a difficult year with a razor-thin majority where he had to wrangle every last vote on key issues, and frequently had to juggle unexpected vacancies. But things are about to get a whole lot worse for him, one congressional staffer predicted Tuesday on X.

That's because no fewer than 18 members of the House Republican caucus are running for other offices next year, and can't be counted on to always be in Washington for critical votes.



Aaron Fritschner, a top staffer for Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), flagged this in response to a Punchbowl News analysis of Johnson's "brutal" 11 months ahead, which includes yet another shutdown fight looming over the next two months, and rising discontent from the GOP rank and file and even other House GOP leaders about the direction of the caucus.

"Punchbowl's rundown here is good, and there's another problem for Johnson that'll creep up next year: attendance," wrote Fritschner. "Republicans have 18 members running for other offices next year, compared to just 8 Dems. Campaigning will keep them out of DC, a significant vote math issue."



Among those 18 members are a number of gubernatorial campaigns, including Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Byron Donalds (R-FL), John James (R-MI), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Elise Stefanik (R-NY); Senate campaigns, including Reps. Andy Barr (R-KY), Barry Moore (R-AL), Ashley Hinson (R-IA), and Buddy Carter (R-GA); and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who is seeking the nomination for state attorney general.

All of this comes as both Democrats and Republicans await Tuesday night's results in a highly-watched special election for a vacant congressional seat in Tennessee, which polls have flagged as neck and neck despite President Donald Trump having carried the district by over 20 points.

 

[mandrill]

Colombian fisherman's family files formal murder complaint against Pete Hegseth


The family of a Colombian fisherman has filed a formal complaint accusing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of murder.

Alejandro Andres Carranza Medina was killed Sept. 15 in a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean, and the 42-year-old fisherman's wife and four children filed the complaint Tuesday with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) alleging the United States committed human rights violations in an “extra-judicial killing," reported The Guardian.


“From numerous news reports, we know that Pete Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of Defense, was responsible for ordering the bombing of boats like those of Alejandro Carranza Medina and the murder of all those on such boats," reads the filing. "Secretary Hegseth has admitted that he gave such orders despite the fact that he did not know the identity of those being targeted for these bombings and extra-judicial killings."

"U.S. President Donald Trump has ratified the conduct of Secretary Hegseth described herein," the filing adds.


The family's lawyer, Daniel Kovalik, told the Washington Post that the man's wife and children had been left without their breadwinner and were also facing threats after speaking out about his killing.



“Their world has been turned upside down,” Kovalik said.

Carranza was killed in the second missile strike of the Trump administration's bombing campaign against alleged drug smuggling boats, but his family said he was a fisherman who trolled the water for marlin and tuna.

“This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility," Trump posted on Truth Social the day Carranza was killed.

The president claimed the crew of that boat was from Venezuela, but the Colombian government soon identified them as Colombian.

“We think this is a viable way to challenge the killing of Alejandro," Kovalik said. "We are going to seek redress for the family. We want the US to be ordered to stop doing these boat attacks. It may be a first step but we think it it’s a good first step.”

Carranza's family is seeking compensation, although their attorney acknowledged the IACHR doesn't have the authority to enforce its recommendations.

“They also want the killings to stop,” Kovalik said. “We hope that this can be at least part of the process of getting that to happen.”

Hegseth is facing scrutiny over his verbal directive that led to the killing of two survivors of the first boat strike, on Sept. 2, and the Carranza family's IACHR complaint cited Washington Post reporting on that incident.

 

[squeezer]

Hegseth is facing scrutiny over his verbal directive that led to the killing of two survivors of the first boat strike, on Sept. 2, and the Carranza family's IACHR complaint cited Washington Post reporting on that incident.

Yet Hegshit will get away with it with a pat on the back from his head

 

[mandrill]

Lawsuit from James Comey’s friend could disrupt plans to re-indict the former FBI director


James Comey’s friend and former lawyer Daniel Richman is suing the Justice Department over evidence gathered from him years ago that was used in the recently dismissed criminal case against Comey, which could disrupt the Trump administration’s imminent plans to re-indict the former FBI director.

The evidence the Justice Department gathered from collecting Richman’s online accounts, iPhone, iPad and a hard drive in 2019 and 2020 was becoming a serious issue in criminal case against Comey in Northern Virginia that was dismissed last month.

Richman, a Columbia University law professor, is asking the federal court based in Washington, DC, to issue an emergency order for the Justice Department to stop accessing Richman’s files and hold a hearing on whether the Justice Department violated Richman’s constitutional rights.

He says the Justice Department still having access to his files is a “callous disregard” of his Fourth Amendment rights protecting against unfair searches and government seizures.

“There is no lawful basis for the government to retain any images of Professor Richman’s computer, whether stored on the Hard Drive or elsewhere,” his lawsuit says. “The government’s conduct has deprived Professor Richman of his constitutional rights, and the injury to Professor Richman will continue if his property is not returned.”

Richman’s new requests in court now create the possibility that a judge could further dig into the allegations of prosecutorial missteps, which were not fully exposed or litigated in the Comey case before it was dismissed last Monday, or close off evidence prosecutors may want to use as they try to refashion charges against Comey related to his 2020 congressional testimony.

DC District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an experienced jurist on national security cases and a Bill Clinton appointee, hasn’t yet responded to Richman’s lawsuit, according to the court record. The Justice Department has also not responded. The original search court records from years ago, where the Justice Department sought warrants to obtain Richman’s email, iCloud and other accounts and other data, are also still under seal in the DC District Court.

In many ways, Richman’s lawsuit picks up where Comey’s case left off before its dismissal.

Comey’s team had been gaining ground with arguments the Justice Department and FBI mishandled evidence and its grand jury presentation before handing up the indictment of the former FBI director in late September. President Donald Trump publicly said he wanted the Justice Department to prosecute Comey, and the indictment came days before the possibility of federal charges expired.

Comey had pleaded not guilty before the charges were dismissed. The indictment alleged he had misled Congress in 2020 on his interactions with Richman, and the Alexandria, Virginia, grand jury heard evidence from the Richman files, according to court records.

A federal magistrate judge in Virginia wrote last month that the Justice Department, in the use of years-old evidence from Richman before Comey’s grand jury this year, had a “cavalier attitude towards a basic tenet of the Fourth Amendment” and that prosecutors ultimately were able to “rummage through all of the information seized from Mr. Richman, and apparently, in the government’s eyes, to do so again anytime they chose.”


The original search warrants, for a national defense leak investigation called Arctic Haze, didn’t authorize federal investigators to seize evidence related to the crimes Comey was ultimately charged with, of lying to Congress in 2020 testimony, the magistrate judge William Fitzpatrick said.

The evidence from Richman also sat dormant for years, and the Justice Department hadn’t obtained new warrants to access it again for investigating Comey this year, Fitzpatrick also noted. Additionally, the magistrate judge took issue with the Justice Department not putting the evidence through a proper process to filter out potentially confidential discussions between attorneys and their clients — in this case, with Comey as the client of Richman and others years ago. Comey’s team said they had never had access to the evidence before he was charged.

The Arctic Haze investigation never resulted in a criminal case, and Richman has never been charged.


“Although the Arctic Haze investigation decisively concluded in 2021, the government to this day indefensibly retains Professor Richman’s Files,” Richman’s lawyers wrote in the new lawsuit in their recent DC District Court filing. The Justice Department’s approach to the evidence, they add, “exemplifies precisely the governmental abuse against which the Fourth Amendment was designed to protect.”

The Comey criminal case ended abruptly last with a separate judge’s ruling that Trump-backed lawyer Lindsey Halligan, who had been acting as the US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia and solely presented the case to the grand jury in late September, didn’t have prosecutor powers at that time.

The dismissal largely cut off the possibility of the defense team’s probe into Halligan and investigators’ approach because the criminal case was closed before Comey’s team got access to his grand jury records and before he could formally challenge the use of evidence in the case. The Justice Department has said it planned to appeal the decision voiding Halligan’s work, though that appeal hasn’t been filed. Grand jury activity where the Justice Department attempts to secure a new indictment could come first.


If the judge in DC’s federal court doesn’t stop the Justice Department from touching the Richman evidence again, Richman’s team asks for the court to hear testimony and other information “to determine the precise contours of the government’s conduct, why it did it, and whether that constitutes callous disregard or intentional misconduct.”

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

 

[mandrill]

Trump pardons Texas Democratic Rep. Cuellar in bribery and conspiracy case


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife in a federal bribery and conspiracy case on Wednesday, citing what he called a “weaponized” justice system.

Trump, who has argued that his own legal troubles were a partisan witch hunt, said on social media without presenting evidence that Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, were prosecuted because the congressman had been critical of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

Trump, a Republican, said in a social media post that Cuellar “bravely spoke out against Open Borders” and accused Biden, a Democrat, of going after the congressman and his wife “for speaking the TRUTH.”

Federal authorities had charged Cuellar and his wife with accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for the congressman advancing the interests of an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico. Cuellar is accused of agreeing to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the U.S. House.

Cuellar has said he and his wife are innocent. The couple’s trial had been set to begin next April.

“Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight,” Trump wrote in his social media post announcing the pardon. “Your nightmare is finally over!”

Cuellar thanks Trump for the pardon

Cuellar, who spoke to reporters outside his congressional office on Wednesday, thanked Trump in a brief statement.



“I think the facts have been clear about this, but I would also say I want to thank God for standing during this very difficult time with my family and I," he said. "Now we can get back to work. Nothing has changed. We will continue working hard.”

Cuellar was asked if he was changing parties and said, “No, like I said, nothing has changed.”

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The U.S. Constitution gives the president broad power to grand pardons for federal crimes. The pardons don’t erase a recipient’s criminal record but can be seen as act of mercy or justice, often in cases that further public welfare.

Trump's pardons this year have included a string of unlikely beneficiaries who are boldfaced names and frequently politically aligned with the president. He pardoned dozens of Republicans accused of participating in his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. He gave clemency to all of 1,500-plus people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He's also pardoned a former Republican governor of Connecticut, an ex-GOP congressman and reality TV stars who had been convicted of cheating banks and evading taxes.

Cuellar's daughters sought a pardon for him

In Trump’s social media post, he included a copy of a letter that Cuellar’s two daughters, Christina and Catherine, had sent to him on Nov. 12 asking that he pardon their parents.

“When you and your family faced your own challenges, we understood that pain in a very human way," Cuellar’s daughters wrote in their letter. "We watched from afar through the eyes of daughters who knew what it felt like to see parents under fire.”

One of Henry Cuellar’s lawyers, Eric Reed, said Wednesday that his legal team made a “pretty substantive presentation” to the Justice Department several months ago seeking dismissal of the charges. He declined to comment on what specifically Cuellar’s legal team discussed with the department but said the arguments made were not political in nature.

In a statement, Imelda Cuellar’s lawyers said Wednesday they were gratified by Trump’s pardon of their client.

“She has always maintained her innocence," the statement said.

Henry Cuellar still faces an Ethics Committee investigation in the House. It began in May 2024 shortly after his indictment and was reauthorized in July. The committee said it was in contact with the Justice Department about mitigating the risks associated with dual investigations while still meeting its obligations to safeguard the integrity of the House.

Cuellar, who has served in Congress for more than 20 years, is a moderate Democrat who represents an area on the Texas-Mexico border and has a history of breaking with his party when it comes to immigration and firearms.

He was among the most vocal critics of the Biden administration’s response to a record number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. He also is one of the last Democrats in Congress who opposes abortion rights.


Cuellar is not the only Democrat Trump has pardoned this year. In February, he pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, five years after he had commuted his sentence in a political corruption case.

Like in Cuellar’s case, Trump suggested that New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, faced federal corruption charges because he made comments critical of Biden’s immigration policies.

Trump did not pardon Adams, but after Trump took office, the Justice Department moved to drop the case against the mayor, who had begun working with the Republican administration on immigration issues.

A top Justice Department official, who was also Trump’s defense lawyer in several of his cases, stepped in to seek dismissal in the case.

___

This story has deleted an incorrect reference to Cuellar’s age; he’s 70, not 69.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Kevin Freking in Washington and Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.

Michelle L. Price, The Associated Press

 

[mandrill]

Leaked memo exposes MAGA’s targeting of key government agency


The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is among the many federal government agencies that the Trump Administration has targeted for downsizing and mass layoffs with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), formerly led by Tesla/SpaceX/X.com head Elon Musk.

Now, according to The Guardian's José Olivares, past and present VA employees fear the agency will be targeted by the Trump Administration for something else: employing U.S. residents who are not U.S. citizens.

In an article published on December 3, Olivares reports that the VA "is in the process of creating an urgent and massive new internal database of non-U.S. citizens who are 'employed or affiliated' with the government department, a sensitive memo leaked to the Guardian has revealed." The memo, according to Olivares, is "prompting alarm within the sprawling agency over a potential immigration crackdown."

"More than 450,000 people are employed at the VA, providing healthcare, education, rehabilitation and other services to veterans," Olivares reports. "The VA also works with thousands of contractors nationwide for day-to-day operations. It is the second biggest federal department after the Pentagon and provides healthcare, financial and many other services to millions of U.S. military veterans."

Olivares adds, "The broad and vague nature of the memo implies the information dragnet may target a range of non-citizens, including doctors and nurses working in VA clinics, medical school students completing their clinical training at VA hospitals, scientists working in advancing medical research contracted by the department, volunteers working VA-related events, even contractors performing cleaning or maintenance jobs at facilities — and thousands more."

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois) and Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, are among the critical of the Trump Administration's immigration policies who are sounding the alarm about the VA.

The Democratic lawmaker told The Guardian, "List-making by the state is an authoritarian tactic meant to stoke fear. At the direction of Secretary Collins, the VA is persecuting non-citizen employees who provide essential services and benefits to our veterans…. The reported memo could have far-reaching implications. Attacking immigrants authorized to work is just another way (U.S. President Donald) Trump and the (VA) secretary seek to deconstruct, decimate, and demoralize the VA workforce."

Gupta told The Guardian, "Once information is collected on who is a non-citizen, and the exact status and posture of their protections and rights to be in the United States, it becomes incredibly easy for the federal government to make an effort to get that information. This data collection and reporting is a form of intimidation, in a context where a list of names of non-citizens can so obviously get into the hands of an agency pursuing this agenda."

Read José Olivares' full article for The Guardian at this link.

 

[mandrill]

Trump pardons Democrat to get back at former president


President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was granting full pardons to Texas Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, absolving them of the bribery and conspiracy charges on which they had been indicted by the Department of Justice last year.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that Cuellar, a Democrat who has represented the Lone Star State’s 28th Congressional district since 2005, had been targeted by predecessor Joe Biden’s administration because of his hawkish stance on immigration issues.


“For years, the Biden Administration weaponized the Justice System against their Political Opponents, and anyone who disagreed with them. One of the clearest examples of this was when Crooked Joe used the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders, and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe,’” Trump said.

He further accused Biden and the Justice Department of having “went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH.”

Trump added: “Because of these facts, and others, I am hereby announcing my full and unconditional PARDON of beloved Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, and Imelda. Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!”

The president’s latest use of the pardon power to undo a high-profile corruption investigation comes more than a year after prosecutors unveiled charges against the Cuellars for allegedly taking nearly $600,000 from a Azerbaijani-controlled company and a Mexican bank.

And the slap back at his predecessor comes one day after a cabinet meeting in which Trump and his secretaries referenced Biden dozens of times.

Prosecutors had alleged that Cuellar and his wife accepted bribes as part of an agreement to advance the interests of Azerbaijan and the bank in the US, according to an indictment.

The money was also allegedly laundered through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar.

Among other things, the congressman, who was at one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus allegedly agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the U.S. House.

A conservative Democrat, Cuellar has long been a target of progressives given his opposition to abortion rights. In 2020 and 2022, Jessica Cisneros staged a primary challenger against him, sending him to a runoff, in which he prevailed both times.

House Democratic leadership has consistently backed him and belive that he is the only Democrat who can win in the heavily Latino and conservative district right on the border. But despite the pardon, Cuellar told reporters that he would not run as a Republican.

He won re-election to the House last year after running opposed in the 2024 Democratic primary.

The longtime border hawk Cuellar has also sharply criticized other Democrats for their comparatively lax policies on immigration and started a coterie of Democrats who support stronger measures called Democrats for Border Security Task Force.

Cuellar’s family also has a prominent presence in his border district. His brother is the sheriff of Webb County while his sister served as a judge for Rio Bravo and Webb Counties. His concentration of power has earned him the nickname “the King Laredo,” where he lives.


In 2022, the FBI raided Cuellar’s congressional office in Laredo and his home. His attorney at that time said the congressman was not the target of that investigation.

That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in Washington DC, and Texas.

Trump’s claim that Biden-era prosecutors targeted Cuellar as justification for pardoning him is just the latest example of him taking steps to undo high-profile prosecutions brought against public figures during the previous administration.

Last week, the president freed former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez from federal prison with a full pardon absolving him of the drug trafficking and weapons charges on which he had been convicted by a jury and sentenced to 45 years in prison by a federal judge.

Hernandez, whose brother Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison in 2021 in Manhattan federal court for his own conviction on drug charges, had used his authority as Honduras’ head of state to give drug traffickers aid from the Honduran military and national police forces as they trafficked tons of cocaine into the United States.


At his trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he’d worked with drug traffickers as long ago as 2004, taking millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and then to the country’s highest office.

Trial witnesses included traffickers who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders and said Hernández was an enthusiastic protector of some of the world’s most powerful cocaine dealers, including notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a life prison term in the U.S.

The investigation which had led to the ex-Honduran president’s conviction was led at one point by Emil Bove, Trump’s former personal attorney who was a federal prosecutor at the time. Trump appointed Bove to a lifetime position as a federal judge and he was confirmed by the Senate to that role earlier this year.


Despite the significant evidence against Hernandez that was presented to the jury that convicted him, Trump claimed last week that the entire case had been a “Biden set-up,” telling reporters aboard Air Force One that he’d “looked at the facts” and agreed with Hernandez’s claim that the prosecution was politically motivated.

“It was a terrible thing. He was the president of the country and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country,” Mr Trump said, “And they said it was a Biden administration set-up. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them,” he said.

The Independent has always had a global perspective. Built on a firm foundation of superb international reporting and analysis, The Independent now enjoys a reach that was inconceiva

 

[mandrill]

Pam Bondi hit with urgent sit-down demand over Epstein files


Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called on Attorney General Pam Bondi for an urgent sit-down over unreleased information related to Jeffrey Epstein's files.

A letter sent to the attorney general on Wednesday told Bondi she had until Friday to give "new information" that the administration cited as the reason for a new investigation on the late financier and convicted sex offender, and "could hinder the full release of the files," The Daily Beast reported.



Democrats Ro Khanna, Ben Ray Lujan and Jeff Merkley joined with Republicans Thomas Massie and Lisa Murkowski to demand she respond to her previous statements and give a status update from Nov. 19, after she said "new" and "additional" information had surfaced to prompt a latest look into Epstein and the people connected to him, NBC News reported.

“In the interest of transparency and clarity on the steps required to faithfully implement the Epstein Files Transparency Act, we request a briefing either in a classified or unclassified setting, to discuss the full contents of this new information in your possession at your convenience, but not later than Friday, December 5th, 2025,” according to the letter.



The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Justice Department to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” about Epstein by Dec. 19.

“In light of the short 30 day deadline to release the Epstein Files, we are particularly focused on understanding the contents of any new evidence, information or procedural hurdles that could interfere with the Department’s ability to meet this statutory deadline,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that FBI Director Kash Patel had instructed about 1,000 special agents to oversee redactions to the documents. Critics suspect the documents could have embarrassing information about President Donald Trump's ties to the convicted pedophile and reveal more information about their relationship.