Donald Trump Announces 2016 White House Bid

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Supreme Court rejects Trump ally Steve Bannon’s bid to delay prison sentence
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lindsay Whitehurst
Published Jun 28, 2024 • 2 minute read

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a bid to delay a prison sentence for longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon as he appeals his conviction for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol insurrection.


Bannon filed an emergency appeal after a judge ordered him to report to prison July 1 for a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. The court previously denied a similar request from another Trump aide.

The appeal was originally directed to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees such requests from Washington. He referred it to the full court.

The court rejected it without explanation, as is typical. There were no noted dissents.

Defence attorneys have argued the case raises issues that should be examined by the Supreme Court, including Bannon’s previous lawyer’s belief that the subpoena was invalid because former President Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege. Prosecutors, though, say Bannon had left the White House years before and Trump had never invoked executive privilege in front of the committee.


A jury found Bannon guilty nearly two years ago of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in the Republican ex-president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols allowed Bannon to stay free while he appealed but recently ordered him to report to prison after an appeals court panel upheld his contempt of Congress convictions. The panel later rejected Bannon’s bid to avoid reporting to prison.

Bannon is expected to appeal his conviction to the full appeals court, and Republican House leaders have put their support behind stepping in to assert the Jan. 6 committee was improperly created, effectively trying to deem the subpoena Bannon received as illegitimate.


Another Trump aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, has also been convicted of contempt of Congress. He reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence after the Supreme Court refused his bid to delay the sentence.

Bannon is also facing criminal charges in New York state court alleging he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges, and that trial has been postponed until at least the end of September.

— Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this story.
 

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Trump ally Steve Bannon surrenders to federal prison to serve 4-month sentence on contempt charges
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lindsay Whitehurst
Published Jul 01, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read
A federal appeals court panel on Thursday, June 20, 2024, rejected longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon's bid to stay out of prison while he fights his conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol attack.
A federal appeals court panel on Thursday, June 20, 2024, rejected longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon's bid to stay out of prison while he fights his conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol attack.
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon was taken into custody Monday after surrendering at a federal prison to begin a four-month sentence on contempt charges for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack.


Bannon arrived at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, around noon and was formally taken into federal custody, the Bureau of Prisons said.

Speaking to reporters, Bannon called himself a “political prisoner,” said former President Donald Trump was “very supportive” of him and slammed Democrats, including Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“I am proud of going to prison,” Bannon said, adding he was “standing up to the Garland corrupt DOJ.”

Shortly before he arrived to surrender, a small group of supporters, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, gathered on the side of the road outside the prison. They cheered as Greene and Bannon spoke during a news conference, holding up flags and signs supporting Bannon as a small group of protesters shouted, “Lock him up!” and “traitor!”


A judge had allowed Bannon to stay free for nearly two years while he appealed but ordered him to report to prison Monday after an appeals court panel upheld his contempt of Congress convictions. The Supreme Court on Friday rejected his last-minute appeal to stave off his sentence.

A jury found Bannon guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in the Republican ex-president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Defense attorneys have argued the case raises issues that should be examined by the Supreme Court, including Bannon’s previous lawyer’s belief that the subpoena was invalid because Trump had asserted executive privilege. Prosecutors, though, say Bannon had left the White House years before and Trump had never invoked executive privilege in front of the committee.


Bannon’s appeal will continue to play out, and Republican House leaders have put their support behind stepping in to assert the Jan. 6 committee was improperly created, effectively trying to deem the subpoena Bannon received as illegitimate.

Another Trump aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, has also been convicted of contempt of Congress. He reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence after the Supreme Court refused his bid to delay the sentence.

Bannon is also facing criminal charges in New York state court alleging he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges, and that trial has been postponed until at least the end of September.
 

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Giuliani disbarred in NY as court finds he repeatedly lied about Trump’s 2020 election loss
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Jul 02, 2024 • 1 minute read

NEW YORK (AP) — Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal adviser to Donald Trump, was disbarred in the state on Tuesday after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.


The decision was handed down by a New York appeals court in Manhattan.

The court ruled that Giuliani be “disbarred from the practice of law, effective immediately, and until the further order of this Court, and his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York.”

Giuliani’s spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email and a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

Giuliani has already had his New York law license suspended for false statements he made after the election.

He was the primary mouthpiece for Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 vote, standing at a press conference in front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia on the day the race was called for Democrat Joe Biden over the Republican Trump and saying they would challenge what he claimed was a vast conspiracy by Democrats.

Lies around the election results helped push an angry mob of pro-Trump rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.
 

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Judge declines to throw out charges against Trump valet in classified documents case
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Jul 06, 2024 • 1 minute read

WASHINGTON — The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against Donald Trump refused Saturday to throw out charges against a co-defendant of the former president.


Lawyers for Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal valet, had asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss the indictment against their client. They argued, among other things, that Nauta was charged because of insufficient cooperation with prosecutors’ investigation and because of a personal animus that they say prosecutors harbored against one of Nauta’s attorneys.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has denied all the claims, and Cannon in her four-page order Saturday said Nauta had not met the high bar required to get the case dismissed.

Nauta and another co-defendant, Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, are accused of conspiring with Trump to conceal evidence from investigators as they sought to recover classified documents that were taken to the Palm Beach, Florida property after Trump’s presidency ended.


All three men have pleaded not guilty.

No trial date has been set in the case. Trump has also sought to dismiss the case, and Cannon pointedly noted at the conclusion of her order: “This Order shall not be construed as commenting on the merits of Defendant Trump’s Motion to Dismiss the Indictment Based on Selective and Vindictive Prosecution or on any other motion pending before the Court.”
 

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Judge declines to throw out charges against Trump valet in classified documents case
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Jul 06, 2024 • 1 minute read

WASHINGTON — The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against Donald Trump refused Saturday to throw out charges against a co-defendant of the former president.


Lawyers for Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal valet, had asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss the indictment against their client. They argued, among other things, that Nauta was charged because of insufficient cooperation with prosecutors’ investigation and because of a personal animus that they say prosecutors harbored against one of Nauta’s attorneys.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has denied all the claims, and Cannon in her four-page order Saturday said Nauta had not met the high bar required to get the case dismissed.

Nauta and another co-defendant, Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, are accused of conspiring with Trump to conceal evidence from investigators as they sought to recover classified documents that were taken to the Palm Beach, Florida property after Trump’s presidency ended.


All three men have pleaded not guilty.

No trial date has been set in the case. Trump has also sought to dismiss the case, and Cannon pointedly noted at the conclusion of her order: “This Order shall not be construed as commenting on the merits of Defendant Trump’s Motion to Dismiss the Indictment Based on Selective and Vindictive Prosecution or on any other motion pending before the Court.”
But. . . but. . . wutabout Presidential Valet immunity?
 

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’Bob’s Burgers’ actor pleads guilty to interfering with police during Capitol riot
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael Kunzelman
Published Jul 08, 2024 • Last updated 5 hours ago • 3 minute read

WASHINGTON — An actor who played a street-brawling newsman in the movie “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and a pizzeria owner in the television series “Bob’s Burgers” pleaded guilty on Monday to interfering with police officers trying to protect the U.S. Capitol from a mob’s attack.


Jay Johnston, 55, of Los Angeles, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison after pleading guilty to civil disorder, a felony. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols is scheduled to sentence Johnston on Oct. 7.

The estimated sentencing guidelines for Johnston recommend a prison term ranging from eight to 14 months, but the judge isn’t bound by that term of his plea agreement with prosecutors.

Johnston’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, told his client not to comment to reporters as they left the courtroom.

Johnston, who was arrested last June, is one of more than 1,400 people charged with federal crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Video footage captured Johnston pushing against police and helping rioters who attacked officers guarding an entrance to the Capitol in a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. Johnston held a stolen police shield over his head and passed it to other rioters during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, the affidavit says.


Johnston “was close to the entrance to the tunnel, turned back and signaled for other rioters to come towards the entrance,” the agent wrote.

Johnston was the voice of the character Jimmy Pesto on Fox’s “Bob’s Burgers.” The Daily Beast reported in 2021 that Johnston was “banned” from the animated show after the Capitol attack.


Johnston appeared on “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” an HBO sketch comedy series that starred Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. His credits also include small parts on the television show “Arrested Development” and in the movie “Anchorman,” starring Will Ferrell.

A court filing accompanying Johnston’s plea agreement says he used his cellphone to record rioters as they broke through barricades and sent police officers retreating. Facing the crowd on the Lower West Terrace, Johnston pounded his fist together and pointed. Another rioter handed him a bottle of water, which he used to help others flush out chemicals from their eyes.


After passing the stolen shield, Johnson joined other rioters in collectively pushing against police officers guarding the tunnel entrance. He left the tunnel minutes later, according to the agreement signed by Johnston.

Three current or former associates of Johnston identified him as a riot suspect from photos that the FBI published online, according to the agent. The FBI said one of those associates provided investigators with a text message in which Johnston acknowledged being at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“The news has presented it as an attack. It actually wasn’t. Thought it kind of turned into that. It was a mess. Got maced and tear gassed and I found it quite untastic,” Johnston wrote, according to the FBI.


Also on Monday, a Texas woman pleaded guilty to assaulting a Metropolitan Police Department officer during the Jan. 6 riot. Video captured Dana Jean Bell cursing at officers inside the Capitol and grabbing an officer’s baton, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.

Bell, 65, of Princeton, Texas, also was captured on video assaulting a local television journalist outside the Capitol that day. The FBI affidavit says Bell appeared to reach out and try to push or grab the journalist, who worked for the Fox affiliate in Washington, D.C.

Bell faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly is scheduled to sentence her on Oct. 17. Her estimated sentencing guidelines recommend a term of imprisonment ranging from two years to two years and six months.

Bell and her attorney, Joe Shearin, declined to comment as they left the courtroom.
 

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Judge throws out Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, says he flouted process with lack of transparency
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Jul 12, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
A judge threw out Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy case on Friday, July 12, 2024, finding that the former New York City mayor had flouted the process with a lack of transparency.
A judge threw out Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy case on Friday, July 12, 2024, finding that the former New York City mayor had flouted the process with a lack of transparency.
NEW YORK — A judge threw out Rudy Giuliani ’s bankruptcy case on Friday, slamming the former New York City mayor as a “recalcitrant debtor” who thumbed his nose at the process while seeking to shield himself from a $148 million defamation judgment and other debts.


U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane criticized Giuliani for repeated “uncooperative conduct,” self-dealing, and a lack of transparency. The judge cited failures to comply with court orders, failure to disclose sources of income, and his apparent unwillingness to hire an accountant to go over his books.

“Such a failure is a clear red flag,” Lane wrote.

Dismissing the case ends his pursuit of bankruptcy protection, but it doesn’t absolve him of his debts. His creditors can now pursue other legal remedies to recoup at least some of the money they’re owed, such as getting a court order to seize his apartments and other assets.

Giuliani is now free to also pursue an appeal of the defamation verdict, which arose from his efforts to overturn Republican Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss.


Lane indicated at a hearing Wednesday that he would probably dismiss the case. Giuliani’s lawyer had floated other options to keep the case alive, but agreed ultimately that dismissing it was the best way forward. The dismissal includes a 12-month ban on Giuliani filing again for bankruptcy protection.

“Transparency into Mr. Giuliani’s finances has proven to be an elusive goal,” Lane wrote, and he “sees no evidence that this will change.”

Among his concerns, the judge said, were that Giuliani funneled his income — including at least $15,000 a month from his now-canceled talk radio show — into companies he owned; never reported any income from those entities; failed to disclose that he had started promoting his own “Rudy Coffee” brand; and was late to disclose a contract he has to write a book.


Giuliani’s spokesperson Ted Goodman — drawing a parallel to what he deemed the “grossly unfair” defamation case — said Friday that the bankruptcy matter had been “burdened with many of the same voluminous and overly broad discovery requests and other actions.” Among them, he claimed, were leaks “intended to harm the mayor and destroy his businesses.”

Goodman ascribed political motives to Giuliani’s legal troubles, stating without evidence that they were meant to punish him for investigating President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and “to deter anyone else from asking questions or getting to the truth.” Nevertheless, he said, they’re confident “our system of justice with be restored and the mayor will be totally vindicated.”


Giuliani, a longtime Trump ally, filed for bankruptcy last December just days after the eye-popping damages award to former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. The bankruptcy filing froze collection of the debt.

A lawyer for Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani at Wednesday’s hearing of using bankruptcy as a “bad-faith litigation tactic” and a “pause button on his woes,” and urged Lane to dismiss it so they could pursue the damages they were awarded.

“Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss have already waited too long for justice,” the women’s lawyer, Rachel Strickland, said Friday. “We are pleased the court saw through Mr. Giuliani’s games and put a stop to his abuse of the bankruptcy process. We will begin enforcing our judgment against him ASAP.”


The other people and entities to whom Giuliani owes money wanted to keep the bankruptcy case going with a court-appointed trustee taking control of Giuliani’s assets.

Earlier this month, Giuliani requested the case be converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation — in which an appointed trustee would sell off assets to help pay creditors.

Giuliani’s lawyer Gary Fischoff reconsidered that idea at Wednesday’s hearing and pushed to dismiss the case instead, noting that administrative fees related to liquidation would “consume if not 100%, a substantial portion of the assets.”

Freeman and Moss can now bring their effort to collect on the award back to the court in Washington, D.C., where they won their lawsuit. The women said Giuliani’s targeting of them after Trump narrowly lost Georgia to Biden led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.


The bankruptcy is one of a host of legal woes consuming the 80-year-old Giuliani, the ex-federal prosecutor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate who was once heralded as “America’s Mayor” for his calm and steady leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Last week, he was disbarred as an attorney in New York after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Trump’s 2020 election loss. He is also facing the possibility of losing his law license in Washington after a board in May recommended that he be disbarred.

In Georgia and Arizona, Giuliani is facing criminal charges over his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

When he filed for bankruptcy, Giuliani listed nearly $153 million in existing or potential debts, including almost $1 million in state and federal tax liabilities, money he owes lawyers, and many millions of dollars in potential judgments in lawsuits against him. He estimated he had assets worth $1 million to $10 million.


In his most recent financial filings in the bankruptcy case, he said he had about $94,000 cash in hand at the end of May while his company, Giuliani Communications, had about $237,000 in the bank. A main source of income for Giuliani over the past two years has been a retirement account with a balance of just over $1 million in May, down from nearly $2.5 million in 2022 after his withdrawals, the filings say.

In May, he spent nearly $33,000 including nearly $28,000 for condo and co-op costs for his Florida and New York City homes. He also spent about $850 on food, $390 on cleaning services, $230 on medicine, $200 on laundry and $190 on vehicles.
 

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What to know about Usha Vance, wife of Trump’s VP pick J.D. Vance
Her husband says she is 'way more accomplished than I am'

Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Adela Suliman
Published Jul 16, 2024 • Last updated 18 hours ago • 5 minute read

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance celebrate as he is nominated for the office of Vice President alongside Ohio Delegate Bernie Moreno on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Delegates, politicians, and the Republican faithful are in Milwaukee for the annual convention, concluding with former President Donald Trump accepting his party's presidential nomination. The RNC takes place from July 15-18.
U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance celebrate as he is nominated for the office of Vice President alongside Ohio Delegate Bernie Moreno on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Former president Donald Trump has chosen Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate in the 2024 election. On the first day of the Republican National Convention, Vance, 39, strode onto the floor alongside his wife, Usha, whom he met at Yale Law School.


Vance has publicly praised his wife in interviews, calling her “brilliant” and “way more accomplished than I am.”

Here’s what to know about Usha Vance.



She has degrees from Yale and Cambridge
Usha Chilukuri Vance, 38, was raised in San Diego to Indian immigrants; her mother is a microbiologist and provost at University of California at San Diego, while her father is an engineer, according to the Times of San Diego. Her parents are Hindu, she told Fox & Friends in a recent interview, crediting it as something that “made them really good people.” In the same interview, J.D. Vance said that his wife was supportive when he tried to reengage with his Christian faith in recent years, even though she was not of the same religion.


She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and holds a master’s of philosophy from the University of Cambridge. She studied at the British university on a Gates Cambridge scholarship, a prestigious prize awarded to outstanding applicants from countries outside the United Kingdom to pursue a postgraduate degree. Her final project focused on “the methods used for protecting printing rights in seventeenth-century England,” according to her biography on the university’s website.

She then went on to study at Yale Law School, where she met J.D. Vance, and served in editorial positions at the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Journal of Law & Technology.



She resigned from her law firm after Trump picked J.D. Vance

Usha Vance most recently worked as a litigator at law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson in its San Francisco and D.C. offices. Her work focused on fields including higher education, local government, entertainment and technology, according to an archived version of her professional biography, which has now been taken down. She previously clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh while he was at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the biography said.

Vance resigned from her job after Trump selected J.D. Vance as his running mate. “Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm,” Munger, Tolles & Olson said in a statement Monday. “Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career.”


In a Monday statement to SFGate, Usha said she resigned from the firm “in light of today’s news … to focus on caring for our family,” adding that she was “forever grateful for the opportunities I’ve had at Munger and for the excellent colleagues and friends I’ve worked with over the years.”

Vance’s resignation follows in the footsteps of Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Harris, who took a leave of absence from his law firm after Joe Biden announced Harris as his running mate, and permanently left the job after her election four years ago.

Outside of law, Vance has been a board member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile.

J.D. Vance calls her ‘way more accomplished than I am’

J.D. and Usha Vance married in 2014 and have three children, Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel.

J.D. Vance has given several interviews praising his wife, calling her a “powerful female voice” and “so impressive.”

“Usha definitely brings me back to Earth a little bit and if I maybe get a little bit too cocky or a little too proud I just remind myself that she is way more accomplished than I am,” Vance said in an interview on the Megyn Kelly Show podcast in 2020. “I’m one of those guys who really benefits from having, like, a sort of powerful female voice on his left shoulder saying, ‘don’t do that, do do that’ – it just is important,” he added.

“People look at her credentials and think that she’s so impressive … people don’t realize just how brilliant she is,” he said of his wife, adding that she can digest 1,000-page books in hours and “just absorb the information incredibly.”


He joked that she is “terrible” to argue with at home: “She uses so much facts and logic,” he said.



She was a registered Democrat in 2014
As of 2014, Usha Vance was a registered Democrat, but more recent records show that as of 2022 she was a registered Republican. While J.D. Vance has embraced a wide range of issues – criticizing U.S. aid to Ukraine, introducing a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, praising authoritarian leaders, breaking with the Republican Party’s economic orthodoxy on several policy issues – his wife has been quieter on political issues.

In a Fox & Friends interview aired last month, she was far more coy about enunciating any political causes she may champion if her husband becomes vice president.” ” I think we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves,” she said. “We’re really just focused right now on being a family and supporting J.D.”


Asked how she might cope with the increased attention that would come with the job, she said: “I don’t know that anyone is ever ready for that kind of scrutiny. I think we found the first campaign that he embarked on to be a shock … but it was an adventure,” referring to her husband’s 2022 Senate run. “I’m not raring to change anything about our lives right now, but I really believe in J.D., and I really love him so we’ll just see what happens,” she added.

In 2022, she took part in a political ad campaign for Vance as he ran for Senate in Ohio, where she described him as “an incredible father” and “my best friend” amid a montage of images of Vance as a child and playing with their children. Vance wrote in the accompanying Instagram caption: “I love our first ad, where my favorite person tells my story.”

Asked how he might fare in a political debate with Vice President Harris, Vance told Fox & Friends: “I have to debate this litigator all the time,” jokingly referring to his wife.
 

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6 things to know about J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate
Before his political career, Vance was best known for his memoir Hillbilly Elegy

Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Niha Masih, Frances Vinall
Published Jul 16, 2024 • 5 minute read

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) greets supporters as he arrives at Fiserv Forum for the Republican National Convention in downtown Milwaukee.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) greets supporters as he arrives at Fiserv Forum for the Republican National Convention in downtown Milwaukee.
Former president Donald Trump selected Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate Monday, propelling the 39-year-old junior senator into global prominence. Trump lavished praise on Vance’s educational background and business experience in technology and finance.


Vance is a relative newcomer to politics, first getting elected in 2022, but his star in the Republican Party has been rising. A Trump win in November would make Vance one of the youngest vice presidents in history.

Here are six things to know about Vance, who once called himself a “Never Trump” guy.

1. He authored the best-selling memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy.’
Before his political career, Vance was best known for his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” published in 2016 to critical literary acclaim. The book is described as a “memoir of a family and culture in crisis,” in which Vance offers a piercing account of White working class struggles in America through the lens of his family in a poor Rust Belt town. It portrays the family’s eventual upward mobility and continued struggles with the traumas of the past.


His success, Vance says in the book, is largely due to his grandmother who provided stability in the chaos of his home.

Many reviewers sought to use the book’s account to explain Trump’s popularity in the 2016 race. “Why Donald Trump speaks to so many Americans,” was the subtitle in the Economist’s review of “Hillbilly Elegy,” and the New York Times wrote that the book offered “a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump.”

The book was adapted into a motion picture released in 2020, which was critically panned but earned an Academy Award nomination in the supporting actress category.

Vance arrives at the Republican National Convention with his wife, Usha, on Monday in Milwaukee.
Vance arrives at the Republican National Convention with his wife, Usha, on Monday in Milwaukee.
2. His wife, Usha, is a lawyer.

Vance is married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants, whom he met at Yale Law School. Most recently, she worked as a litigator in the San Francisco and Washington D.C. offices of law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson. The company in a statement Monday night confirmed that Usha had resigned from her position.

An archived page of her now deleted biography from the firm’s website describes Usha’s expertise in civil litigation in the fields of higher education, local government, entertainment and technology. Previously, it says, she clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Brett Kavanaugh at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

She received a bachelor’s in history from Yale and holds a master’s of philosophy from the University of Cambridge, it says. She also holds a law degree from Yale, serving in editorial positions at the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Journal of Law and Technology.


The couple has three children.

3. He grew up in a steel mill community in Ohio.
As detailed in his memoir, Vance was raised in poverty in Middletown, Ohio, a town that he described as “hemorrhaging jobs and hope” after high-quality employment, especially in the steel industry, began vanishing.

His family moved there from Appalachian Kentucky, he wrote, and he often depended on his grandparents while his mother struggled with addiction.

After high school he enlisted in the Marines and did a stint in Iraq, followed by Ohio State University, Yale Law School and a career in venture capital in Silicon Valley. There, he established close relationships with influential figures including right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel supported Vance’s political career, which he launched in 2021 with a run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio.


He won the seat after he was endorsed by Trump.

Former president Donald Trump shakes hands with Vance after choosing him to be his running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday.
Former president Donald Trump shakes hands with Vance after choosing him to be his running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday.
4. He once opposed Trump, likening him to Hitler.
Vance, a self-described Never-Trump Republican before Trump was elected, has criticized the former president in the media and in private. In leaked text messages in 2016 he said he saw the then-presidential candidate as either cynical in a Nixonian way or “America’s Hitler.”

He told NPR he would vote for a third-party candidate that year because he disagreed with Hillary Clinton’s policies but couldn’t “stomach” Trump, whom he called ”noxious” and “leading the White working class to a very dark place.”

By the time Vance entered politics about five years later, he had flipped his stance on Trump.

In the intervening years he has developed into an even stauncher supporter – including supporting the false claim that the 2020 election result was illegitimate. He told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in February that, unlike Mike Pence, he wouldn’t have certified the results.


Vance told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview Monday night following his announcement that Trump’s performance in office changed his views. “I actually think it’s a good thing when you see somebody, you’re wrong about him, you ought to admit the mistake and admit that you were wrong,” he said.

5. He has embraced a populist shift for the GOP under Trump.
Vance has generally followed Trump’s populist approach for the Republican Party and has often espoused positions at odds with more traditional conservatives on economic issues including trade and free markets.

He introduced a ban on gender-affirming care for minors last year but has moderated his position on abortion rights from opposition even in cases of rape and incest to one that emphasizes states’ decision-making, another hot-button issue for Republicans.


He is also well-known as a skeptical voice on U.S. aid for Ukraine.

6. He blamed Biden’s campaign rhetoric for the Trump rally shooting.
After a gunman opened fire on Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Vance was quick to blame the Biden campaign. “Today is not just some isolated incident,” he wrote on social media.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” he added.

One spectator was killed in the attack and two others seriously injured. Trump said he was shot in the ear, and he showed up at the Republican National Convention on Monday night with a white bandage covering it.

Vance’s statement came out even as limited information was known about the gunman or his motives, and it stood out as a political attack on Trump’s opponent. The FBI has said the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pa., a registered Republican, appears to have acted alone.

When Trump said he was heading to Milwaukee for the convention as planned, Vance posted: “The dude is just built different.”
 

Tecumsehsbones

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Mar 18, 2013
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Washington DC
The mayor of Paris swam in the Seine to prove it was clean for the Olympics.

Meanwhile, the US gets to choose between a grandfather who falls off his bike and a grandfather who can't walk down a gentle ramp.
 
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spaminator

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Judge’s order dismissing Trump classified docs case won’t be final word as long court fight awaits
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker And Alanna Durkin Richer
Published Jul 17, 2024 • 4 minute read

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge’s stunning decision to dismiss the classified documents case against Donald Trump brought an abrupt halt to what experts have considered the strongest and most straightforward of the prosecutions of the former president. But it’s hardly the final word.


Special counsel Jack Smith’s planned appeal of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order is expected to tee up a court fight that might reach the U.S. Supreme Court and could result in the reinstatement of the indictment and even conceivably the reassignment of the case to a different judge.

There’s no scenario in which a revived prosecution could reach trial before the November election — and it presumably won’t take place at all in the event Trump is elected president and orders his Justice Department to dismiss it. Still, Cannon’s order ensures many more months of legal wrangling in a criminal case that became snarled over the last year by interminable delays.

“The only good thing about this is that it is finally a decision,” said Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. “The difficulty with Judge Cannon has been that she has made no decisions. She has simply sat on the case. And since she has made no decisions, there was nothing to appeal.”


The judge’s 93-page order held that Smith’s selection as special counsel violated the Constitution because he was named to the position directly by Attorney General Merrick Garland instead of being appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Prosecutors vigorously challenged that argument when it was raised by Trump’s lawyers.

It’s impossible to say whether the opinion will stand or be reversed on appeal, though other judges in other districts in recent years have reached opposite conclusions of Cannon, upholding the constitutionality of special counsels who were appointed by Justice Department leadership and funded by a permanent indefinite appropriation.

The Supreme Court, in a 50-year-old opinion involving President Richard Nixon, held that the Justice Department had the statutory authority to appoint a special prosecutor.


And even though Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas raised questions this month about the legality of Smith’s appointment, no other justice signed onto his concurring opinion in a case that conferred broad immunity on former presidents.

The Smith team is likely to point to all of those court holdings in casting Cannon to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as an outlier who made not just a bad decision but “an irreversibly bad decision,” said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law school professor.

A spokesman for Smith’s office, in announcing Monday that the Justice Department had authorized an appeal, said the opinion “deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel.”


But Jesse Panuccio, a former associate attorney general in the Trump administration Justice Department, said anger over Cannon’s opinion — which he called a “careful and scholarly” analysis — was misplaced.

“If you took out of the equation the derangement that comes from anyone analyzing anything that has to do with Trump and you just asked legal scholars 10 years ago, ‘Hey, are there any issues involving independent counsels, special counsels?”‘ he said, the answer would be yes.

Panuccio added: “I think this is a very serious issue, and it’s an issue frankly that when I was at the Justice Department, I had reservations about.”

Trump on Monday said the dismissal “should be just the first step” and the three other cases against him, which he called “Witch Hunts,” should also be thrown out.


Cannon, a Trump appointee, has exasperated the Justice Department since even before the indictment was filed, meaning if prosecutors do seek her removal, they could presumably cite a laundry list of grievances with her handling of the case.

Weeks after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago for classified documents in August 2022, Cannon granted a Trump team request to appoint an independent arbiter to review the seized records — a decision later overturned by a unanimous federal appeals panel.

It is unclear if Smith’s team will seek to have Cannon reassigned in the event that the appeals court reinstates the case. A Smith spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday on that possibility. It’s an unusual request and one prosecutors in this case had avoided making.


But there is precedent for appeals courts taking that step, including in the same judicial district where the Florida case was charged.

“I think it would be quite a statement if the Circuit Court removes her from the case, but I think in this instance it would be warranted,” said Cheryl Bader, a Fordham University law school professor and former federal prosecutor. “There does seem to be a pattern of Judge Cannon bending over backwards to create delay and obstacles.”

In 1989, the 11th Circuit reinstated a criminal case in Florida of a man charged with trafficking counterfeit Rolex watches and reassigned the case to another judge after the trial judge described the case as “silly” and a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The court laid out three considerations for deciding whether to assign a case to a different judge, including whether such a move is “appropriate to preserve the appearance of justice” and “whether the original judge would have difficulty putting his previous views and findings aside.”

Gerhardt, the North Carolina professor, said he did not see a downside to Smith’s team making such a request.

“Judges do make bad decisions sometimes,” he said. “But not good judges do it more often than they should, and she’s done it more often than any judge should.”

But Panuccio said he didn’t think Cannon’s order gave Smith’s team a sufficient basis to complain, especially given that Cannon’s position was backed by a member of the Supreme Court opinion.

“I think Jack Smith would be flirting with fire if he were to make that request based on this opinion simply because he lost an issue,” he said.