PoliticusUSA is ad-free and corporate-free news and opinion, but as billionaires buy more media to dictate what news the American people see, we need your help. Please support us by becoming a subscriber.
In a court filing in response to Trump’s classified documents case, co-defendants requested an injunction to block the release of the report.
The Special Counsel has already transmitted his Final Report to the Attorney General (as permitted by the district court’s recent order). The Final Report comprises two volumes. Volume One relates to the Special Counsel’s investigation and prosecution of President Donald Trump relating to the 2020 presidential election (Election Case). Volume Two relates to the Special Counsel’s investigation and prosecution of defendants Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, as well as President Trump, relating to mishandling of classified documents (Classified Documents Case).
The Attorney General intends to release Volume One to Congress and the public consistent with 28 C.F.R. § 600.9(c) and in furtherance of the public interest in informing a co-equal branch and the public regarding this significant matter. But to avoid any risk of prejudice to defendants Nauta and De Oliveira, the Attorney General has determined, at the recommendation of the Special Counsel, that he will not publicly release Volume Two so long as defendants’ criminal proceedings remain pending.
For the time being, Volume Two will be made available for in camera review only by the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees upon their request and agreement not to release any information from Volume Two publicly.
It makes sense that the DOJ would not release the classified documents report because there are still ongoing court cases.
The public needs to see the report on 1/6 and Trump’s role in the insurrection. The election is over, but it matters because Trump and his party can’t be allowed to rewrite the history of that day.
Common sense suggested that AG Garland always intended to release the report because if he didn’t, he would not have allowed Jack Smith to write it.
However, I am not convinced that things would have turned out any differently, even if Trump had been prosecuted sooner.
Trump still makes the immunity argument and ends up in the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority likely would have overturned his federal criminal conviction.
Trump runs on being exonerated. Voters are more concerned about inflation than Trump’s alleged crimes, and he wins the election.
In my view, the mistake was made by Democrats not taking legislative action to disqualify Trump when they had control of the government.
The DOJ should kick it into high gear before one of Trump’s allies in the courts blocks the release of the report because Trump should not be allowed to sweep the 1/6 attack under the rug.
What do you think about Garland releasing Jack Smith’s report? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The destruction sweeping through California wildfires is absolutely devastating.
The Gateway Pundit reported that massive evacuations have been underway as the wildfires rage out of control and engulf homes in Pacific Palisades, California.
According to The Los Angeles Times, thousands have been evacuated and the fire has grown to more than 2,900 acres.
AccuWeather reports wind gusts reached up to 65 miles per hour in Southern California on Tuesday.
California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom was on the ground watching his state burn down as Democrat legislators refused to properly manage underbrush.
“The hydrants are currently dry,” Fox LA reported.
Despite the tragedy, there are moments of hope. Fox 11 shared a video of horses, caught in the wildfire, being led to safety in Altadena after the 1,000-acre Eaton Fire started burning down homes and buildings.
Photo courtesy of Fox 11.
As embers flew around them, a brave group lead the horses through the flames to safety.
One of the rescurers noted he let several horses out to try to get to freedom in addition to the ones being let to safety. It is unclear if additional horses still needed to be rescued from the area.
Film critic Emma Jones tells us why Nicole Kidman’s latest role – as an executive who embarks on an affair with her intern – is perhaps more shocking for a Hollywood audience than a European one. Her performance in “Babygirl” won Kidman the best actress prize at the Venice Film Festival; we discuss some of the film’s taboos and standout moments. We also go through some of the big winners at this year’s Golden Globes, including French auteur Jacques Audiard for “Emilia Perez” and Demi Moore for “The Substance”. Emma tells us why Adrien Brody and Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres could be well placed to pick up Oscars, in addition to the acting prizes they won this week. Plus we take a look at Pedro Almodovar’s touching study of friendship and mortality, as Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore shine in “The Room Next Door”.
A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said they were supporting the family of a British man who died in Thailand.
The spokesperson added that officials were in contact with local authorities in the country.
The Bangkok Post reported that a total of 436 people died and a further 2,376 were injured in 2,467 traffic accidents across Thailand from 27 December to 5 January, according to the interior ministry.
Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an indictment against Donald Trump in 2023 in Washington, D.C.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The Justice Department wants to publicly release only part of its final report on special counsel Jack Smith’s cases against President-elect Donald Trump.
Smith recommended that the DOJ release only the first volume of his final report, covering the investigation and charges against Trump tied to the 2020 presidential election, the DOJ said in a court filing on Wednesday.
The second volume — which concerns the federal case against Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort — will only be available to review to the top members of the House and Senate judiciary committees if they request it. That’s because the classified documents case is still ongoing, with the DOJ pursuing an appeal against two longtime Trump aides, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, the DOJ said.
“To avoid any risk of prejudice to defendants Nauta and De Oliveira, the Attorney General has determined, at the recommendation of the Special Counsel, that he will not publicly release Volume Two as long as defendants’ criminal proceedings remain pending,” DOJ lawyers wrote in the filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
The “limited disclosure” to certain lawmakers “will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendants’ interests.”
Prosecutors dropped the two criminal cases against Trump after he won the 2024 election, and the final report by Smith may be the last chance for prosecutors to explain their decisions.
Florida Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Justice Department from releasing Smith’s final report, pending an emergency motion from the appeals court to block the report’s release.
But the DOJ disagreed with that action, saying there was no need for the court to intervene, and also protesting the attempt to block the report’s first volume, on the election interference case.
“Defendants Nauta and De Oliveira have no cognizable interest in that volume of the Final Report,” the filing said.
After Trump won the 2024 election, the Justice Department dropped him from its appeal. But it continued the appellate case for the other two defendants, who raised concern that they would be prejudiced if Smith’s final report is published while they still face the threat of a trial.
Trump has also argued the special counsel was appointed unlawfully and that any public report would be legally invalid and hurt his transition into the White House.
More than a thousand homes, businesses and other buildings have burned and at least two people are dead in wildfires burning across L.A. County, making this one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in memory.
In Pacific Palisades, the Palisades fire had charred more than 5,000 acres as of Wednesday morning, burning down to Pacific Coast Highway where it engulfed homes along the iconic stretch. About 1,000 structures, including many homes, have been destroyed in the fire, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a press conference Wednesday morning.
The Eaton fire, which broke out Tuesday evening, had burned more than 2,200 acres near Altadena and Pasadena whipped by gusts of up to 99 mph in the area. Two people have died in the Eaton fire and several others have been seriously injured in both the Eaton and Palisades fire, Marrone said.
The Hurst fire, which spread quickly during high winds overnight in Sylmar, had burned 500 acres. Extraordinarily powerful winds and gusts — of up to 99 mph — had been reported overnight.
On Wednesday, firefighters were bracing for another challenging day of fire fueled by strong winds. Red flag warnings remain in effect for Los Angeles County and much of Ventura County through Thursday with officials warning of a “life threatening, destructive and widespread windstorm.”
“We are absolutely not out of danger yet,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said.
The National Weather Service reported a gust of 99 mph near Altadena at 10:20 p.m. Tuesday; 98 mph near Woodland Hills at 9:37 p.m.; and 84 mph at Hollywood Burbank Airport at 8:30 p.m.
The National Weather Service has warned of a “particularly dangerous situation” across the San Gabriel Mountains, Beverly and Hollywood Hills, the coastal areas adjacent to the Sepulveda Pass, the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu and the eastern Ventura Valley.
NWS meteorologist Rich Thompson said this could be the strongest such wind event since the 2011 windstorm that caused serious damage in Pasadena, Altadena and other San Gabriel Valley neighborhoods, knocking out power for days for more than 400,000 people. The 2011 windstorm caused at least $40 million in damage, according to a preliminary estimate.
“If it does develop, it can cause very specific damage,” Thompson said before this week’s fires broke out. “Imagine like a wave in the water. … Those winds kind of go down slope, then just hit the surface and get very strong.”
In Pacific Palisades, firefighters grappled with wind gusts up to 100 mph overnight bedeviling their efforts to get the blaze—burning both east and west—under control, said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Erik Scott.
“The fire is being fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and surrounding topography, which makes it extremely challenging for us firefighters to really get a handle on it,” Scott said. “Our priority is life and structure defense.”
On Tuesday night, increasing winds made an air attack against the wildfires impossible. Fearsome winds forced crews to ground aircraft in the battle against the Palisades fire shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday.
About two hours earlier, the Eaton fire broke out in the hills above Altadena near Eaton Canyon. Strong winds led officials to suspend air coverage of the Eaton fire for the evening, officials said at 8:45 p.m.
The lack of rain has extended the fire season in Southern California. Since Oct. 1, the beginning of the water year, downtown Los Angeles has received 0.16 inches of rain — a tiny fraction of the 4.64 inches that downtown gets, on average, by this point in the season.
By contrast, Northern California hasn’t faced such fire weather, with rainfall at above-average levels. Downtown San Francisco has received 10.39 inches of rain since Oct. 1 — above the 9.29 inches of rainfall the city gets on average by this point in the season.
“Southern California has experienced a particularly hot summer, followed by almost no precipitation during what is normally our wet season,” said Alex Hall, director of the UCLA Center for Climate Science. “And all of this comes on the heels of two very rainy years, which means there is plenty of fuel for potential wildfires.”
Extreme fire conditions were expected to continue through the middle of Wednesday afternoon, the weather service said after midnight Wednesday. “Any wildfires that start will likely spread rapidly with extreme fire behavior,” the weather service said.
Another Santa Ana wind event is expected for Friday. But it is expected to be “more typical,” the NWS said, with winds forecast to come from the northeast “focused along the typical Santa Ana wind corridor, from the Santa Clarita Valley to Point Mugu. … The downsloping winds will also reduce the humidities and increase the fire danger.”
The weather service warned that winds “will be gusty and erratic, with lulls between gusts.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s fires, the National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning, alerting of extreme fire weather (abbreviated as a PDS). The weather service issued the same warning about a month ago — when the Franklin fire ignited and spread rapidly in the Malibu area. It went on to burn more than 4,037 acres, destroying 20 structures and damaging 28 more.
An infographic from the National Weather Service explaining a particularly dangerous situation red flag warning.
(National Weather Service)
And a month before that, a particularly dangerous situation red flag warning was issued on election day. The following day, on Nov. 6, the Mountain fire ignited in Ventura County and, whipped by powerful winds, razed more than 240 buildings. It became the third-most-destructive wildfire in Southern California since 2013, and burned 19,904 acres.
This type of red flag warning is expected to occur, on average, once every three to five years. But the National Weather Service office in Oxnard has now issued such a warning three times in just this fire season. The office issues forecasts for L.A. County, as well as Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
Before November, the last time a particularly dangerous situation red flag warning was issued by the National Weather Service office for L.A. and Ventura counties was in 2020, the first year those alerts existed for the region. That type of warning was issued twice in 2020 — once in October and again in December.
Apple retailers are engaged in a MacBook Air price war.
Pick up the M3 15-inch MacBook Air with a bump up to 512GB of storage for just $1,299 in the latest price war.
The $200 price drop on the upgraded laptop can be found at both Amazon and B&H Photo as the Apple Authorized Resellers engage in a price war.
This configuration features Apple’s M3 chip with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. It also has 16GB of unified memory and an upgrade to 512GB of storage compared to the 256GB found in the standard spec.
At Amazon, the Midnight colorway is eligible for the $1,299 price, while B&H has both Midnight and Starlight in stock at the reduced price.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently released the official poster for the upcoming UFC 312 pay-per-view (PPV) event, scheduled for Sat., Feb. 8, 2025 (Feb. 9 local time) inside Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Fans lauded the promotion’s latest effort as “amazing” and “great.”
UFC 312 will be headlined by the middleweight rematch between reigning 185-pound titleholder, Dricus Du Plessis, and former division champion, Sean Strickland, who no longer has to worry about those “dirty Canadian leftists.”
In the UFC 312 co-main event, reigning strawweight champion, Zhang Weili, will defend her 115-pound strap against undefeated division phenom, Tatiana Suarez. Both Weili and Du Plessis opened as the odds-on betting favorites.
Elsewhere on the card, Justin Tafa throws heavyweight leather opposite Brazilian bruiser Tallison Teixeira. In addition, Wang Cong tries to regain some of her flyweight hype when she collides with the rough-and-tumble Bruna Brasil.
To see who else is fighting at UFC 312 next month “Down Under” click here.
Meredith Vieira has made great strides when it comes to her long-lasting career. Find out how much her huge net worth comes out to.
Who Is Meredith Vieira?
Meredith Vieira is an American journalist and TV host. She began as a local reporter in Rhode Island and hustled her way to become an investigative journalist for WCBS. Her career continued to sky rocket as she was promoted to become the correspondent for 60 Minutes and a co-anchor at CBS Morning News. Meredith transitioned to ABC to become a co-host on the notorious The View show. She then took another route in her career and went from daytime co-host to being the first host of the addictive primetime show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, through which she became a household name for most Americans. Meredith didn’t stop there, instead she fully delved herself into having her very own talk show called by her name. Most recently, she has become a staple as a TV host for the fun game show 25 Words or Less.
What Is Meredith Vieira’s Net Worth?
Meredith’s net worth is a whopping $45 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
(Photo by Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images)
Who Was Meredith Vieira’s Husband?
Meredith’s husband was Richard Cohen, who was also a journalist. The love birds were married for 38 years. They shared three children together including Lily, Gabriel and Benjamin. Richard got his start at the United Press International. He became most known for his popular column in The Washington Post that he wrote for over 4 decades. He went on to write a book with reporter Jules Witcover, which was called A Heartbeat Away: The Investigation and Resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.
What Was Richard Cohen’s Cause of Death?
Richard passed away in December 2024 on Christmas Eve, however his death was announced in January 2025, according to People. He passed away after fighting a two-month-long battle with pneumonia. He was 76 and struggled with multiple sclerosis for more than 50 years. Richard also survived two cancer diagnoses in his life. He wrote a memoir titled Chasing Hope: A Patient’s Deep Dive into Step Cells, Faith, and the Future, which came out in 2018 and heavily focused on his emotional and physical struggles living with multiple sclerosis.
After spending hours sifting through the FTSE 100 to find Britain’s best dividend stocks, I decided to call in some artificial help.
I was curious to see what generative artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT would come up with, but was instinctively suspicious. Wouldn’t it just pick the five biggest yielders and be done with it?
I’m not privy to its algorithms but it’s clearly a bit more sophisticated than that. Although I wouldn’t describe any of its picks as a surprise. They’re all big blue-chips with mighty yields. So which passive income faves did my new ‘bot pal come up with?
Are these really the UK’s best income shares?
Well knock me down with an artificial feather but cigarette maker British American Tobacco was on the list. I’ve just finished writing an article highlighting its fabulous trailing yield of 7.95%.
This isn’t a one-off as ChatGPT pointed out: “The company has a history of consistent dividend payments, making it appealing to income-focused investors.”
British American Tobacco has survived the regulatory onslaught on cigarettes by building market share, sweating its brands and pursuing smokeless alternatives. Even its shares have picked up, climbing 25% in the last year. I can’t really argue with this.
It’s impossible to argue with my robot buddy’s next dividend pick either: HSBCHoldings (LSE: HSBA). I don’t hold the Asia-focused bank, but it’s at the top of my Buy list for when I have some cash.
ChatGPT says: “As one of the world’s largest banking institutions, it has a track record of regular dividend distributions.”
The current yield is 6.26% while the HSBC share price is up 22% over the last year. Yet it’s still cheap, trading at just 8.42 time earnings.
HSBC has challenges. Listed in London but generating the bulk of its profits in Asia, it’s tangled up in US-China trade wars. It’s hard to see how that will play out as President-elect Donald Trump talks of tariffs. New CEO Georges Elhedery is responding by splitting the group into Eastern and Western units.
I think it’s a brilliant income stock
HSBC has also been lavishing investors with share buybacks. They totalled £7bn in full-year 2023 financial year. Nice work, ChatGPT.
It also picked out mining giant Rio Tinto, which has a bumper trailing yield of 7.43%, although as my AI chum warned: “Dividend payments can be influenced by commodity price fluctuations.”
How true. I’ve suffered at the hands of Glencore lately, so won’t be buying Rio Tinto. It’s still a top dividend stock though and cheap at 8.03 times earnings.
I won’t buy its next suggestion either, energy giant Shell, but that’s purely because I hold rival BP. Shell’s yield is relatively modest at 4.6% but it’s also been engaging in share buybacks.
The one chatbot pick I do hold is Legal & General Group. It has a bumper yield of 9.29%. So it turns out that I’m the one chasing the big yielders, not AI. Perhaps my algorithms need a reset.
ChatGPT says Legal & General “is known for its consistent dividend payments”. I’d add it’s also known for its underperforming share price, but I’m hoping that will change.
Even though I can’t fault ChatGPT’s stock pick, I’ve still got doubts about its selection process. But I’d happily buy any five of these FTSE 100 dividend heroes today.
