Latest news with #Jan.6
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate Democrats demand probe of Ed Martin's pledge to 'shame' Trump's opponents, other actions at DOJ
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are pushing for an investigation into top Justice Department official Ed Martin over his stated plans to "shame" political opponents of President Donald Trump who he's unable to charge criminally, as well as a host of other politically charged matters Martin has publicly pledged to pursue in his new position. "I write to express my grave concern about Ed Martin's stated intention to abuse his new roles as lead of the so-called 'Weaponization Working Group' you constituted at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and as DOJ's Pardon Attorney," Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a letter transmitted to the Justice Department, which was first obtained by ABC News. "Following his disgraceful tenure as Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Mr. Martin apparently plans to continue his misconduct in his new roles at DOJ." The DOJ did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment on the letter. MORE: Ed Martin, Trump's DOJ pardon attorney, says he'll review Biden's outgoing pardons Martin's controversial tenure as the interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., in the opening months of Trump's presidency thrust the office into turmoil and led several Senate Republicans to state publicly they wouldn't support his permanent confirmation in the role. But once the White House announced they were pulling Martin's nomination, Trump said Martin would instead be appointed to several top positions working out of DOJ's main headquarters -- serving as an associate deputy attorney general, the U.S. pardon attorney and director of the so-called "Weaponization Working Group." Martin celebrated the news on his X account, posting 'Eagle Unleashed,' and in various interviews celebrated what he described as a mandate from Trump directly to target the alleged 'weaponization' of the department under the Biden administration. 'It's classic Donald Trump, right? That somebody tries to block him and block his pick, and he decides to double down,' Martin told Breitbart News last month. 'This is probably the greatest job I could ever envision.' MORE: Trump US attorney nominee distances himself from antisemitic Jan. 6 rioter he once praised In a news conference announcing his departure from the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office, Martin confirmed he planned to launch a probe of last-minute pardons issued by former President Joe Biden just before he left office -- and suggested that officials he's unable to charge would instead be publicly "shamed." "There are some really bad actors, some people that did some really bad things to the American people," Martin said. "And if they can be charged, we'll charge them. But if they can't be charged, we will name them ... And in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are shamed. And that's a fact. That's the way things work. And so that's how I believe the job operates." The approach would directly conflict with longstanding DOJ policy that prohibits prosecutors from naming or disparaging individuals who they don't intend to charge criminally. When asked about that policy by ABC News during the news conference, Martin said he would "have to look at what the provision you're referring to, to see -- we want to square ourselves with doing the things correctly." The letter from Senate Democrats said Martin's statements "are a brazen admission that Mr. Martin plans to systematically violate the Justice Manual's prohibition on extrajudicial statements by shaming uncharged parties for nakedly partisan reasons. Weaponizing DOJ in this manner will further undermine the public's trust in the department in irreparable ways." MORE: Bondi, as new AG, launches 'Weaponization Working Group' to review officials who investigated Trump In his early days as pardon attorney, Martin said he advised the president in his pardon of former Virginia county sheriff Scott Jenkins, who had been sentenced to ten years in prison for a federal bribery conviction. "No MAGA left behind," Martin posted on X in response to the pardon. Durbin's letter further cited reports Martin has "personally advocated" fast-tracking pardons for members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted of seditious conspiracy stemming from their roles leading up to the attack on the Capitol, after President Trump initially opted to commute their sentences in his sweeping clemency action for the nearly 1600 individuals charged in connection with Jan. 6. Durbin's letter requests Bondi provide a host of records related to Martin's appointment and early days as head of the Weaponization Working Group and Pardon Attorney's Office. It's unclear whether DOJ will ultimately respond to Durbin's demands given Democrats' minority position on the committee. Senate Democrats demand probe of Ed Martin's pledge to 'shame' Trump's opponents, other actions at DOJ originally appeared on
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘It won't end well for Trump' if he does this amid LA protests, ex-GOP rep says
The execution of a legal method to crack down on dissent, if used by President Donald Trump amid or after current protests in Los Angeles, will not end well for the president, according to one Republican who previously served in Congress. Three days of chaos started after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested several people at a Home Depot in Paramount, a city just south of Los Angeles. Since then, protests erupted with more arrests, cars destroyed and, as the New York Times reported, reporters shot at by law enforcement. On Saturday, Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to Los Angeles without Gov. Gavin Newsom's request. In a series of posts on X, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a frequent critic of Trump's and someone who served on the Jan. 6 Investigative Committee in the wake of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, commented on the deployment and Trump not using the Insurrection Act. 'DO NOT FEDERALIZE THE GUARD,' Kinzinger wrote. 'This is absolutely wrong at this moment.' Kinzinger posted shortly after and said the National Guard has 'no ability to do law enforcement without the Insurrection Act.' 'They are essentially no longer National Guard and now are active duty federal troops with all the restrictions,' he continued. 'Only a governor can activate them for law enforcement without the Insurrection Act.' His last remark on the matter, on Sunday morning, read that 'Now, if Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, then we're in a whole new world and it won't end well for Trump.' He did not elaborate further. Trump told reporters on Sunday that the events over the weekend were a riot rather than an insurrection, thus not invoking the Insurrection Act, the Los Angeles Times reported. This act gives the president the legal power to send the military and the National Guard to suppress civil disorder. Los Angeles was the epicenter of the Insurrection Act's last usage, by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, when riots broke out following the acquittals of four Los Angeles Police Department officers charged in connection with the beating of a Black man named Rodney King on Interstate 210. Newsom and Los Angeles officials slammed the Trump administration's response to the protests. The governor called out the president after Trump congratulated the National Guard before they were deployed. 'The California National Guard wasn't even deployed in Los Angeles yet when this rant was posted,' Newsom wrote in a post on X. 'Facts matter.' On Sunday night, Newsom formally requested that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth rescind the National Guard from Los Angeles. 'We didn't have a problem until Trump got involved,' Newsom wrote in another post on X. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed. Rescind the order. Return control to California." Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and the Los Angeles Police Department both described the protests as peaceful. 'We will always protect the constitutional right for Angelenos to peacefully protest,' Bass wrote on X. 'However, violence, destruction and vandalism will not be tolerated in our city and those responsible will be held fully accountable.' '[On Saturday,] demonstrations across the city of Los Angeles remained peaceful, and we commend all those who exercise their First Amendment rights responsibly,' police said in a statement. '... We will maintain a heightened readiness posture and remain ready to ensure the continued safety of our communities.' 'I don't know if I want to do this anymore': leaked audio highlights turmoil among Dems Graffiti on tank in Trump's parade calls for hanging 2 well-known Americans 'I would': Trump calls for arrest of California's Newsom amid lawsuit over National Guard in LA All Ivy League schools are supporting Harvard lawsuit — except these 2 Embassies directed to resume processing Harvard University student visas Read the original article on MassLive.
Toronto Star
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
New crime novels feature a locked-room mystery, a Scarborough stabbing and a Jan. 6 insurrectionist
Fever Beach Carl Hiaasen Alfred A. Knopf, 384 pages, $39.99 It's a weird time in American politics, which means it's a perfect time for Florida novelist Carl Hiaasen to plumb the satirical depths of corruption and malfeasance in his home state. His last novel, 2020's 'Squeeze Me,' suffered from a subplot that attempted to satirize the once-and-current occupant of the White House, a Falstaffian spray-tanned figure so outrageous as to be almost impervious to satire. For 'Fever Beach,' Hiaasen wisely steers clear of POTUS and his inept administration, preferring instead to focus on wanton corruption at a lower level. 'Fever Beach,' by Carl Hiaasen, Alfred A. Knopf, $34.99. The new novel begins with a meet-cute on an airplane between Twilly Spree and Viva Morales. Twilly is a stock Hiaasen character: an independently wealthy Florida do-gooder who spends his time making life miserable for folks who litter, antagonize the local wildlife or otherwise cause environmental or social havoc. Viva's job is administering the foundation of a couple of rich right-wing octogenarians whose fundraising operates as a money-laundering front to finance the campaign of far-right (and profoundly stupid) congressman Clure Boyette, in hot water with his obstreperous father over a scandal involving an underage prostitute named Galaxy. Add in Viva's landlord — a Jan. 6 insurrectionist named Dale Figgo who heads the Strokers for Freedom (a white nationalist militia whose name is a rebuke to the Proud Boys' insistence on refraining from masturbation) — and his cohort, the violent and reckless Jonas Onus, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Hiaasen caper. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Big Bad Wool: A Sheep Detective Mystery Leonie Swann; translated by Amy Bojang Soho Crime, 384 pages, $38.95 Twenty years ago, German-born author Leonie Swann debuted one of the most delightful detective teams in genre history: a flock of sheep on the trail of the person responsible for killing their shepherd with a spade through the chest. After a two-decade absence, Miss Maple, Othello, Mopple the Whale, and the other woolly sleuths are back on the case, this time on behalf of their new herder, Rebecca, the daughter of the early book's victim. 'Big Bad Wool,' by Leonie Swann, Soho Crime, $38.95. Rebecca, her intrusive Mum, and the sheep are overwintering in the lee of a French chateau where there are rumours of a marauding Garou — a werewolf — that is responsible for mutilating deer in the nearby woods. Among other strange occurrences, Rebecca's red clothing is found torn to pieces and some sheep go missing — and soon enough there's a dead human for the flock, in the uncomfortable company of a group of local goats, to deal with. 'Big Bad Wool' is a charming romp, whose pleasure comes largely from the ironic distance between the sheep's understanding of the world and that of the people who surround them. ('The humans in the stories did plenty of ridiculous things. Spring cleaning, revenge and diets.') Their enthusiasm and excitement results in prose that is a bit too reliant on exclamation points, and some of the more heavy-handed puns (like the sheep's insistence on 'woolpower') seem forced, but this is nevertheless a fun variation on the traditional country cosy. Detective Aunty Uzma Jalaluddin HarperCollins, 336 pages, $25.99 Romance novelist Uzma Jalaluddin takes a turn into mystery with this new book about amateur sleuth Kausar Khan. A widow in her late 50s, Kausar returns to Toronto from North Bay to help her daughter, Sana, who has been accused of stabbing her landlord to death in her Scarborough mall boutique. The police — including Sana's old flame, Ilyas — are convinced Sana is the prime suspect, but Kausar is determined to prove her daughter innocent. 'Detective Aunty,' by Uzma Jalaluddin, HarperCollins, $25.99. Her investigation involves a couple of competing developers, both of whom want to purchase the land on which the mall stands, along with members of the dead man's family and fellow shopkeepers. On the domestic front, Kausar finds herself concerned with Sana's deteriorating marriage to her husband, Hamza, and her teenage granddaughter's sullenness and mysterious nighttime disappearances. Jalaluddin does a good job integrating the various elements of her plot, and the familial relationships are nicely calibrated. The momentum is impeded, however, by a preponderance of clichés ('Playing devil's advocate, Kausar asked …'; 'Kausar's blood ran cold') and a tendency to hold the reader's hand by defining every easily Googleable Urdu word or greeting too programmatically. More attention to the writing on the line level would have helped move this one along. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The Labyrinth House Murders Yukito Ayatsuji; translated by Ho-Ling Wong Pushkin Vertigo, 272 pages, $24.95 Yukito Ayatsuji's clever postmodern locked-room mystery was first published in Japanese in 2009; it appears for the first time in English translation, which is good news for genre fans. 'The Labyrinth House Murders,' by Yukito Ayatsuji, Pushkin Vertigo, $24.95. Ayatsuji's narrative is framed by Shimada, a mystery aficionado, who is presented with a novelization about murders that took place at the home of famed mystery writer Miyagaki Yotaro, found dead by his own hand soon after the manuscript opens. Miyagaki has left a bizarre challenge for the writers gathered at his Byzantine Labyrinth House: each must write a story featuring a murder, and the victim must be the writer him- or herself. The winning author, as adjudicated by a group of critics also convened at Labyrinth House, will inherit Miyagaki's sizable fortune. As the writers compete for the reward, bodies start falling in real life and Ayatsuji has a grand time playing metafictional games with his readers, challenging them to figure out who the culprit is in the context of a story that owes more than a small debt to Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None.' But Ayatsuji does Christie one better; it is only once the afterword, which closes the framed narrative, has unfolded that the reader fully understands how cleverly the author has conceived his multi-layered fictional trap.
Axios
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Trump created a new Dem superstar: LaMonica McIver
The Justice Department's decision to charge a sitting House lawmaker after a scuffle with ICE officers has launched her on the fast track to stardom in Democratic politics. Why it matters: First-term Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), 38, suddenly has a national profile and status among the Democratic base as something of a hero of the anti-Trump resistance. But it has also come at a cost: In addition to the financial burden and risks posed by her legal battle, McIver's office has been deluged by furious calls and messages, including many threats. The vitriol has risen to the point that her office has assigned a staffer to monitor Fox News for segments that will precipitate a new flood of angry calls, a source familiar with the matter told Axios. State of play: The Justice Department has charged McIver with assaulting law enforcement based on a scuffle she and other Democratic lawmakers had with a group of ICE officers. The Department of Homeland Security has pointed to body cam footage of McIver elbowing an officer; McIver has said she was the one who was assaulted and cast the charges as politically motivated. The lawmakers were at the Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark to protest its use as a migrant holding facility. Driving the news: In the days after McIver was charged, she went from a virtually unknown member of Congress to a household name. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) featured her in fundraising emails. So did the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Pennsylvania Democrats. That dynamic is typically only seen with some of the biggest names in Democratic politics: Think Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Jamie Raskin. Zoom out: Several Democratic lawmakers have fast-tracked their careers by positioning themselves as Trump's most truculent foes in Congress. Such was the case with Raskin, a former Trump impeachment manager and Jan. 6 committee member who now leads Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee. Adam Schiff, another Trump impeachment and Jan. 6 committee veteran, leveraged his anti-Trump bona fides to help him win a U.S. Senate seat. What they're saying: "They've targeted her in a very unprecedented way, and so a lot of people are going to know about her and her story because we're all uplifting her and it's taken over the country," Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) told Axios.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A retiring chief strains to keep the Capitol Police above the partisan fray
Thomas Manger inherited a force in crisis when he became chief of the U.S. Capitol Police four years ago. He's now leaving a force under a microscope. The 70-year-old law enforcement veteran came out of retirement just months after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — tasked with stabilizing a department whose officers had been physically and emotionally battered and whose protective mission had suddenly grown immensely more complicated. But that was only the beginning of challenge for Manger, who soon found himself holding one of the most politicized jobs in all of policing. Within months, an alternative narrative about Jan. 6 took hold on the right, and with many of its proponents now in power in Washington — including President Donald Trump — he has had to strike a careful balance between standing up for his officers and heeding the lawmakers who oversee and fund his department. 'I don't think it's wise or necessary or useful to try and convince members of Congress what to think,' Manger said. 'I think you make the compelling argument about what the Capitol Police need, about what the Capitol Police require to do their jobs and allow them to make a decision.' That's not to say Manger has been silent. He has spoken out at key junctures, criticizing Trump's blanket pardons of Jan. 6 offenders and, just last week, the Justice Department's decision to move toward a $5 million settlement with the family of Ashli Babbit — the Jan. 6 rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer while trying to storm a room off the House floor. But in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday — amid his last week on the job before retiring for good — Manger said it wasn't productive for the embattled force's chief to be snarled in political fights on the Hill, or in the larger war over the memory of the Capitol insurrection. While Manger has felt compelled to speak up about situations that directly affect his officers, he has taken pains to stay out of other battles. He again called the pardons 'an absolute slap in the face to police officers, frankly, all over this country' Tuesday, for instance, but refused to weigh in on the fate of a bronze plaque commemorating the officers who responded to the riot. Congress ordered the fabrication of the memorial and its installation 'at a permanent location on the western front of the United States Capitol' in March 2022. The plaque was cast, inscribed with 'THEIR HEROISM WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN,' but after Republicans won the House majority the following November, it was put into storage in the Capitol basement. Calling it a 'very political issue,' Manger said he has not spoken to Republican congressional leaders about the plaque and declined to call for it to be installed. He said he had not seen the actual memorial, just a photograph. 'I hope they will find some middle ground,' he said. 'There's not a lot of memorials that are attached to the Capitol building, but there are certainly a lot of informational pedestals where you have little historical briefings around the campus.' The tap dance reflects the enormous challenges of managing a department that is ultimately responsible to a web of overlapping overseers. There's the three-member Capitol Police Board, four oversight committees and senior congressional leaders themselves — all of whom have influence over the department and how it operates. Manger — who previously led the departments in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia — said dealing with the menagerie of Capitol Hill power centers was 'very different' from reporting to a single elected executive and 'very, very challenging.' That, he said, has required a focus on the future of the Capitol Police and securing what the department needs to keep lawmakers, tourists and staff safe. It's also a situation that will hang over whoever replaces Manger as chief. 'If they pick someone from the inside, they're going to know what our mission is,' Manger said. 'They'll have that — that's good. If they pick somebody from the outside, they're going to have to learn about our mission, the uniqueness of it, but the structure of oversight as well, and there is a learning curve there.' An even bigger challenge for the force, however, has been keeping up with a rising tide of threats against lawmakers. The department reported more than 9,400 in 2024, and a good number of those threats were deemed credible enough to require temporary protective details for rank-and-file lawmakers who otherwise would not be entitled to them. That has stretched resources thin, Manger said: 'We're always robbing Peter to pay Paul to put that together. We should have the staffing to do those kinds of details.' Manger recently made his final budget requests to Congress, asking lawmakers for $967.8 million for fiscal 2026, a 22 percent boost over the current funding level which was set in fiscal 2024. He acknowledged in hearings with appropriators that for his department's size — about 2,300 sworn officers and civilians — a budget approaching a billion dollars is enormous. He stressed the sweeping intelligence, security and nationwide coordination mandate of the Capitol Police. Both the Trump administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to rein in federal spending, and lawmakers tasked with spending are expected to begin writing their bills in the coming weeks. The outgoing chief warned against continuing to keep funding flat for the department he's set to exit long before any spending deal is reached. 'It would impact our ability to address the growing number of threats against a member of Congress,' Manger said. 'We'd just be crossing our fingers and saying, 'Well, hope nothing happens,' because there's more that we think we can do if we had the resources.' The job of choosing Manger's replacement will fall to the Capitol Police Board, comprised of House Sergeant-at-Arms William McFarland, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Jennifer Hemingway and Architect of the Capitol Thomas Austin. Top congressional leaders choose those officials and are expected to have some influence in the pick. Manger said that anyone coming in after him has to know that the job has a much different mandate and set of responsibilities than a municipal police department. He said he would be available as a sounding board but was looking forward to retirement — some consulting work, maybe, and finally fixing the fence in his yard. 'One of the things that I really, truly want to get away from is the aggravations of being a police chief,' he said. 'So whatever I do, it's going to be something I want to do.'
