Trump tries to block Jack Smith report and inmates reject Biden commutation: Morning Rundown


Trump tries to prevent the public from seeing the final report of special counsel Jack Smith. Two federal prisoners sentenced to death do not want Biden to commute their sentences. And a winter storm is beginning to head toward the eastern coast of the United States, as California braces for high winds.

Here’s what you need to know today.

Trump seeks to block publication of Jack Smith’s final report

Special Counsel Jack Smith makes a statement to the press in Washington, DC, on August 1, 2023.Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP file

President-elect Donald Trump and his former co-defendants in the Florida classified documents case have launched an effort to block the release of a final report from special counsel Jack Smith that also addresses the election interference case.

The report in question is one that the special counsel’s office must file under Justice Department rules. Attorney General Merrick Garland can choose whether to make the confidential report public. Both the classified documents and the election interference cases have been dismissed.

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Lawyers for Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, defendants in the Florida classified documents case, filed a motion last night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block Smith from issuing his report, which they believe is “imminent.” . They cited Cannon’s ruling to dismiss the case against Trump in July because he argued that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers sent a letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to block Smith from releasing the report. In their letter, Trump’s team called Smith an “out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor.”

Read the full story here.

More news about Trump and politics:

  • A lead prosecutor in the classified documents case has left the Justice Department and retired after 34 years. Trump also wants replace the head of the National Archives.
  • Congress formally certified Trump’s 2024 election victory exactly four years after the Capitol riot, returning on January 6 to its historical roots as a matter of memory. Kamala Harris presided during the session.
  • New York State Judge Juan Merchán denied Trump’s request to delay Friday’s sentencing hearing in his hush money case.
  • Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and “several representatives” will visit Greenlandthe president-elect said as he intensifies calls to purchase the Danish-owned territory.
  • Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer was found in contempt of court for failing to comply with orders to turn over information about his assets to former Georgia election workers he defamed.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson is Driving a strategy to pass Trump’s agenda. with a bill, which includes provisions on border security and fiscal policy and calls for expanding the debt ceiling.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson is Driving a strategy to pass Trump’s agenda. with a bill, which includes provisions on border security and fiscal policy and calls for expanding the debt ceiling.
  • President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden met in New Orleans with familiessurvivors and local authorities affected by the New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street. The White House also announced it would allocate additional federal resources to support the city’s preparations for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.

Cold weather in eastern US; fire threat in california

A winter storm that hit the eastern half of the U.S. is moving out to sea, but the cold weather persists. High temperatures from North Texas and the Plains to the mid-Atlantic are expected to be 5 to 20 degrees below average.

Yesterday’s snow and cold caused thousands of flight delays, as well as power outages affecting hundreds of thousands of customers.

At least four people have died in the winter storm, including a 61-year-old public works employee in Missouri who was performing snow removal operations, authorities said. Additionally, two people died in a crash in Wichita, Kansas, and in Houston, one person was found dead due to the cold weather.

As the eastern half of the country deals with winter weather, California faced the other side of the coin: “Extreme fire weather” driven by warm days and dry winds. The National Weather Service warned of offshore winds of 80 to 100 mph in the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties and offshore winds of 50 to 80 mph in the coastal plains, inland valleys and canyons of the Los Angeles area.

Follow our live blog to get the latest weather updates.

Two death row inmates reject Biden’s commutation

Two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden refuse to sign the document accepting the pardon. It’s an unusual stance, but Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, both inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, believe a commuted sentence would put them at a legal disadvantage as they try to appeal their cases based on claims of innocence. The men filed emergency motions on Dec. 30 seeking a court order to block the commutation of their death sentences to life in prison without parole.

Agofsky was convicted of the 1989 murder of an Oklahoma bank president and then the 2001 stomping death of a fellow inmate while in prison in Texas. He questions how he was charged with death by stomping and is trying to “establish his innocence” in the 1989 murder, according to his filing requesting a warrant.

Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, was convicted of the 1994 murder of Kim Graves, who had filed a complaint against him accusing him of beating a teenager in her neighborhood. Davis has maintained his innocence and has alleged “misconduct” against the Justice Department, according to his filing.

What happens next is up in the air, but legal experts said the couple face a huge challenge to try to reinstate their death sentences.

‘Crowd’ of College Students Attack Man in ‘Predator Trap’, Police Say

Six students at a private Catholic university in Massachusetts were accused of luring an active-duty service member, who was falsely described as a sexual predator, to campus and pursued by a group of more than two dozen people and assaulted, authorities said. .

The incident occurred at Assumption University in Worcester in October. One of the accused students told police that the plot was inspired by “To Catch a Predator,” the discontinued NBC show that aimed to catch adults looking to prey on minors, saying, “To catch a predator.” “a predator is a big thing on TikTok right now,” according to a statement of the facts of the case. Last month, 11 Illinois teenagers were charged in a similar incident in a suburb near Chicago attributed to “a viral social media trend.”

In the Massachusetts case, one of the students now charged first told police that a “creepy” contact from the Tinder app had come to campus looking to meet a 17-year-old girl and called a friend who chased the girl away. person, according to the statement. . But the victim, a 22-year-old soldier, gave authorities a different accountwhich confirmed the security video.

read all about it

  • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he will resign as leader of the ruling Liberal Party, citing polarization at home and abroad and following growing calls for him to resign.
  • A person in Louisiana died of bird flumarking the first human death from H5N1 infection.
  • The New York Giants are retain your general manager and head coach – the main architects of the team’s historically dismal season. Coaches in Jacksonville and New England we weren’t so lucky.
  • A 7.1 magnitude earthquake occurred. near one of Tibet’s most sacred cities, killing at least 95 people, Chinese state media reported.
  • Skip Bayless, a longtime TV sports fan, is accused in a lawsuit of offering a former Fox Sports stylist 1.5 million dollars for sex.

Personnel selection: A secret of the Roman Empire buried in ice

Longitudinal ice core samples awaiting analysis for lead and other chemicals using the Desert Research Institute's continuous ice core analytical system.
Longitudinal ice core samples awaiting analysis for lead and other chemicals using the Desert Research Institute’s continuous ice core analytical system.Jessi LeMay/DRI

The Romans had an air pollution problem and it was making them dumber.

A new study suggests that silver smelting during the Roman Empire spewed so much lead into the atmosphere that it would have lowered Romans’ IQ by an average of 2.5 to 3 points. Scientists examined ice samples in Greenland, which provide molecular clues to past environmental conditions, and found strong concentrations of the heavy metal, which is a neurotoxin associated with learning disabilities, reproductive problems and mental health problems, among other effects. Scientists determined that dust particles from the ancient civilization arrived in Greenland about 2,000 years ago. The findings are the first clear example of industrial pollution in history, researchers say, and Could offer clues about what led to the fall of Rome. Evan Bush science reporter

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