Thursday, Nov 30th
Last update07:43:40 AM GMT
Political Glance
In a late October filing, Trump’s legal team argued certain portions of the indictment “include repeated references to the actions of independent actors at the Capitol on January 6, 2021” and “does not charge President Trump with responsibility for any of these actions,” so therefore, they are “not relevant” and “prejudicial and inflammatory.”
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Thursday to reinstate a Florida law that punishes businesses for allowing children into drag shows.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the "Protection of Children Act" in May to ban "children" from any "adult live performances" that feature sexual or lewd conduct. The penalty for restaurants or other venues that violate the statute is potential license revocation or even criminal charges. While the law does not explicitly refer to drag shows, it is widely seen as aimed at them.
Hamburger Mary's Restaurant and Bar in Orlando, Fla., challenged the law in court, contending that it violates the First Amendment right of free speech. The restaurant frequently hosts drag show performances, comedy sketches, and dancing. In July a federal judge in Florida temporarily blocked the law from going into effect, and the state of Florida asked the Supreme Court to reinstate it while appeals are carried out in the lower courts.
The federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump is coming into sharper focus, as prosecutors assert he is responsible for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and offer new clues about how they intend to prove it.
The case set for trial in Washington, D.C., in March accuses Trump of leading a conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election and deprive millions of voters from having their ballots count. More than 140 law enforcement officers suffered injuries after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, disrupting the peaceful transfer of power.
Lawyers for Trump asked the judge to remove mentions of what happened that day from the four-count felony indictment because they could "inflame" or prejudice the jury.
"[N]ot a shred of evidence suggests President Trump called for any violence or asked anyone to enter the Capitol unlawfully," Trump attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche wrote in a court filing this week.
Apple will pause all its advertising on X, formerly Twitter, two days after owner Elon Musk tweeted his enthusiastic agreement with an antisemitic post.
A cascade of other major technology and media companies, from IBM to Disney, made similar announcements on Friday.
Apple’s ads had run beside tweets praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, according to a report released earlier in the week. Film studio Lionsgate said it would also pause ads on X, as did Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Comcast/NBCUniversal, according to media reports. IBM made a similar move the night prior. The New York Times reported Disney would be pausing spending on the social media platform as well.
House speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he plans to publicly release thousands of hours of footage from the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, making good on a promise he made to far-right members of his party when he was campaigning for his current job.
“This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials,” Johnson said in a statement.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s allied super PAC says it’s willing to spend millions of dollars on a 30-minute “infomercial” that will be all about … Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The idea, outlined by the American Values 2024 PAC at an event in midtown Manhattan this week, is unorthodox. Officials said they’re planning to debut the video early next year at red-carpet premieres in New York and Los Angeles to highlight Kennedy’s celebrity support on the coasts.
The plan underscores how Kennedy’s political team is putting his celebrity at the center of his bid, even while presenting the candidate — a scion of Democratic aristocracy — as the anti-establishment, heterodoxical option in the race. Panelists at the event pitched Kennedy, a first-time candidate, as a “danger to the 1 percent,” a fighter for “every child, born and unborn” and someone who would close the border if elected.
The infomercial “is a 30-minute state-of-the-art compilation that’s meant to explain to the public who Bobby Kennedy really is in the face of just an incredible barrage of lies,” PAC co-founder Tony Lyons said in an interview with POLITICO.
A New York appeals court judge on Thursday paused a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting on court staffers in his civil fraud trial. The trial judge had imposed the gag order last month and later fined Trump $15,000 for violations after the former president made a disparaging social media post about a court clerk.
In his decision, Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court cited constitutional concerns about restricting Trump’s free speech. He issued a stay of the gag order, allowing Trump to comment freely about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out.
Trump’s lawyers filed a lawsuit against the trial judge, Arthur Engoron, late on Wednesday challenging the gag order as an abuse of power. Friedman scheduled an emergency hearing for Thursday afternoon around a conference table in a state appellate courthouse a couple of miles from where the trial is unfolding.
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