Trump urges Senate to cancel August recess, speed up confirmations
'Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed. We need them badly!!' Trump posted on Truth Social.
The Senate is currently scheduled to confirm six of Trump's nominees on Monday, including advancing his pick to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Among the nominations is Emil Bove, a Justice Department official tapped for a federal appeals court seat, and Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host, nominated to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Bove's nomination has drawn criticism from Senate Democrats after a whistleblower alleged he advised the Justice Department to defy court orders related to migrant deportations—claims he has denied.
Trump has also nominated candidates to restore a quorum to the National Labor Relations Board, which has remained inactive since January after he dismissed its lone Democratic member. — Agencies
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Arab News
11 hours ago
- Arab News
Request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts likely to disappoint, ex-prosecutors say
NEW YORK: A Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts in the prosecution of chronic sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend is unlikely to produce much, if anything, to satisfy the public's appetite for new revelations about the financier's crimes, former federal prosecutors say. Attorney Sarah Krissoff, an assistant US attorney in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, called the request in the prosecutions of Epstein and imprisoned British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell 'a distraction.' ' The president is trying to present himself as if he's doing something here and it really is nothing,' Krissoff told The Associated Press in a weekend interview. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made the request Friday, asking judges to unseal transcripts from grand jury proceedings that resulted in indictments against Epstein and Maxwell, saying 'transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration.' The request came as the administration sought to contain the firestorm that followed its announcement that it would not be releasing additional files from the Epstein probe despite previously promising that it would. Epstein is dead while Maxwell serves a 20-year prison sentence Epstein killed himself at age 66 in his federal jail cell in August 2019, a month after his arrest on sex trafficking charges, while Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence imposed after her December 2021 sex trafficking conviction for luring girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Krissoff and Joshua Naftalis, a Manhattan federal prosecutor for 11 years before entering private practice in 2023, said grand jury presentations are purposely brief. Naftalis said Southern District prosecutors present just enough to a grand jury to get an indictment but 'it's not going to be everything the FBI and investigators have figured out about Maxwell and Epstein.' 'People want the entire file from however long. That's just not what this is,' he said, estimating that the transcripts, at most, probably amount to a few hundred pages. 'It's not going to be much,' Krissoff said, estimating the length at as little as 60 pages 'because the Southern District of New York's practice is to put as little information as possible into the grand jury.' 'They basically spoon feed the indictment to the grand jury. That's what we're going to see,' she said. 'I just think it's not going to be that interesting. ... I don't think it's going to be anything new.' Ex-prosecutors say grand jury transcript unlikely to be long Both ex-prosecutors said that grand jury witnesses in Manhattan are usually federal agents summarizing their witness interviews. That practice might conflict with the public perception of some state and federal grand jury proceedings, where witnesses likely to testify at a trial are brought before grand juries during lengthy proceedings prior to indictments or when grand juries are used as an investigatory tool. In Manhattan, federal prosecutors 'are trying to get a particular result so they present the case very narrowly and inform the grand jury what they want them to do,' Krissoff said. Krissoff predicted that judges who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell cases will reject the government's request. With Maxwell, a petition is before the US Supreme Court so appeals have not been exhausted. With Epstein, the charges are related to the Maxwell case and the anonymity of scores of victims who have not gone public is at stake, although Blanche requested that victim identities be protected. 'This is not a 50-, 60-, 80-year-old case,' Krissoff noted. 'There's still someone in custody.' Appeals court's 1997 ruling might matter She said citing 'public intrigue, interest and excitement' about a case was likely not enough to convince a judge to release the transcripts despite a 1997 ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals that said judges have wide discretion and that public interest alone can justify releasing grand jury information. Krissoff called it 'mind-blowingly strange' that Washington Justice Department officials are increasingly directly filing requests and arguments in the Southern District of New York, where the prosecutor's office has long been labeled the 'Sovereign District of New York' for its independence from outside influence. 'To have the attorney general and deputy attorney general meddling in an SDNY case is unheard of,' she said. Cheryl Bader, a former federal prosecutor and Fordham Law School criminal law professor, said judges who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell cases may take weeks or months to rule. 'Especially here where the case involved witnesses or victims of sexual abuse, many of which are underage, the judge is going to be very cautious about what the judge releases,' she said. Tradition of grand jury secrecy might block release of transcripts Bader said she didn't see the government's quest aimed at satisfying the public's desire to explore conspiracy theories 'trumping — pardon the pun — the well-established notions of protecting the secrecy of the grand jury process.' 'I'm sure that all the line prosecutors who really sort of appreciate the secrecy and special relationship they have with the grand jury are not happy that DOJ is asking the court to release these transcripts,' she added. Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, called Trump's comments and influence in the Epstein matter 'unprecedented' and 'extraordinarily unusual' because he is a sitting president. He said it was not surprising that some former prosecutors are alarmed that the request to unseal the grand jury materials came two days after the firing of Manhattan Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey, who worked on the Epstein and Maxwell cases. 'If federal prosecutors have to worry about the professional consequences of refusing to go along with the political or personal agenda of powerful people, then we are in a very different place than I've understood the federal Department of Justice to be in over the last 30 years of my career,' he said. Krissoff said the uncertain environment that has current prosecutors feeling unsettled is shared by government employees she speaks with at other agencies as part of her work in private practice. 'The thing I hear most often is this is a strange time. Things aren't working the way we're used to them working,' she said.
Arab News
13 hours ago
- Arab News
‘Japanese First' party emerges as election force with tough immigration talk
TOKYO: The fringe far-right Sanseito party emerged as one of the biggest winners in Japan's upper house election on Sunday, gaining support with warnings of a 'silent invasion' of immigrants, and pledges for tax cuts and welfare spending. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the party broke into mainstream politics with its 'Japanese First' campaign. Public broadcaster NHK projected the party to win as many as 22 seats, adding to the single lawmaker it secured in the 248-seat chamber three years ago. It has only three seats in the more powerful lower house. 'The phrase Japanese First was meant to express rebuilding Japanese people's livelihoods by resisting globalism. I am not saying that we should completely ban foreigners or that every foreigner should get out of Japan,' Sohei Kamiya, the party's 47-year-old leader, said in an interview with local broadcaster Nippon Television after the election. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito will likely lose their majority in the upper house, leaving them further beholden to opposition support following a lower house defeat in October. 'Sanseito has become the talk of the town, and particularly here in America, because of the whole populist and anti-foreign sentiment. It's more of a weakness of the LDP and Ishiba than anything else,' said Joshua Walker, head of the US non-profit Japan Society. In polling ahead of Sunday's election, 29 percent of voters told NHK that social security and a declining birthrate were their biggest concern. A total of 28 percent said they worried about rising rice prices, which have doubled in the past year. Immigration was in joint fifth place with 7 percent of respondents pointing to it. 'We were criticized as being xenophobic and discriminatory. The public came to understand that the media was wrong and Sanseito was right,' Kamiya said. Kamiya's message grabbed voters frustrated with a weak economy and currency that has lured tourists in record numbers in recent years, further driving up prices that Japanese can ill afford, political analysts say. Japan's fast-aging society has also seen foreign-born residents hit a record of about 3.8 million last year, though that is just 3 percent of the total population, a fraction of the corresponding proportion in the United States and Europe. Inspired by Trump Kamiya, a former supermarket manager and English teacher, told Reuters before the election that he had drawn inspiration from US President Donald Trump's 'bold political style.' He has also drawn comparisons with Germany's AfD and Reform UK although right-wing populist policies have yet to take root in Japan as they have in Europe and the United States. Post-election, Kamiya said he plans to follow the example of Europe's emerging populist parties by building alliances with other small parties rather than work with an LDP administration, which has ruled for most of Japan's postwar history. Sanseito's focus on immigration has already shifted Japan's politics to the right. Just days before the vote, Ishiba's administration announced a new government taskforce to fight 'crimes and disorderly conduct' by foreign nationals and his party has promised a target of 'zero illegal foreigners.' Kamiya, who won the party's first seat in 2022 after gaining notoriety for appearing to call for Japan's emperor to take concubines, has tried to tone down some controversial ideas formerly embraced by the party. During the campaign, Kamiya, however, faced a backlash for branding gender equality policies a mistake that encourage women to work and keep them from having children. To soften what he said was his 'hot-blooded' image and to broaden support beyond the men in their twenties and thirties that form the core of Sanseito's support, Kamiya fielded a raft of female candidates on Sunday. Those included the single-named singer Saya, who clinched a seat in Tokyo. Like other opposition parties Sanseito called for tax cuts and an increase in child benefits, policies that led investors to fret about Japan's fiscal health and massive debt pile, but unlike them it has a far bigger online presence from where it can attack Japan's political establishment. Its YouTube channel has 400,000 followers, more than any other party on the platform and three times that of the LDP, according to Sanseito's upper house breakthrough, Kamiya said, is just the beginning. 'We are gradually increasing our numbers and living up to people's expectations. By building a solid organization and securing 50 or 60 seats, I believe our policies will finally become reality,' he said.
Leaders
15 hours ago
- Leaders
Putin Open to Ukraine Peace Talks, Stresses Russia's Goals: Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to engage in peace talks for Ukraine, yet Moscow remains focused on securing its objectives, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. Peskov emphasized in a televised interview that while Putin desires a swift conclusion to the conflict, achieving Russia's goals remains nonnegotiable. 'President Putin has repeatedly expressed his desire to bring the Ukrainian conflict to a peaceful resolution promptly, but the process is long, demanding, and not easy,' Peskov explained. 'Our primary goal is to achieve specific objectives. These goals are clear and non-negotiable,' he added. Trump Warns Russia with New Sanctions Deadline Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump announced Monday that Russia faces fresh sanctions if a ceasefire isn't reached within 50 days, following his pledge to bolster Ukraine's defense with advanced military aid, including Patriot missile systems. Trump's stance contrasts sharply with Moscow's demands. 'The US remains committed to supporting Ukraine's sovereignty,' Peskov reiterated, signaling escalating pressure on Russia. Peskov acknowledged global familiarity with Trump's assertive rhetoric but highlighted the former president's openness to dialogue. 'Putin's focus is on securing Russia's interests,' he added, framing peace as a long-term endeavor. The Kremlin's position remains firm: territorial ambitions and security guarantees for Moscow must precede any lasting agreement. Trump Escalates Pressure with Military Aid In a subsequent move, Trump's administration unveiled plans to expedite military shipments to Ukraine, aiming to counter Russian advances. The 50-day ultimatum intensifies diplomatic tensions as both sides dig in. Analysts warn that while dialogue persists, divergent priorities could prolong the conflict. 'Peace remains possible, but only on Moscow's terms—for now,' a geopolitical expert noted. As Russia and the US exchange firm postures, Ukraine's fate hinges on whether compromise can outweigh confrontation, as both leaders' contrasting narratives ensure the crisis remains a focal point of global diplomacy. Despite diplomatic efforts, Moscow maintains that it will prioritize its strategic goals. Meanwhile, the international community continues to monitor developments closely. Short link : Post Views: 17
