Appeal by Meadows: A federal appeals court in Atlanta was scheduled to hear arguments today as former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tries to have his trial for interfering with the 2020 election in Georgia moved from state court to federal court. Meadows is one of 18 people in addition to Donald Trump who were charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. A federal district court judge previously ruled that Meadows’ case belongs in state court and Meadows is trying to convince the appeals court that the case should be moved to federal court because what he did was part of his White House job.
Supreme Court declines: The Supreme Court yesterday refused to step in to stop enforcement of a new Illinois law to ban the manufacture or sale of high-power semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. The law has been upheld by Illinois’ state courts and the U.S. 7th District Court of Appeals. Gun rights groups made the emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which the court rejected.
Aid for Ukraine and Israel: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York plans to have the Senate back at work on Monday to try to pass a compromise plan on border security. Republicans are holding up additional aid to Ukraine and Israel unless it’s accompanied by new spending for U.S. border security. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to call the House into session next week, preferring to send everyone home to begin the scheduled holiday break. Schumer said he’d call a Senate vote on a compromise package next week even though the House won’t be there to take it up.
Jake Sullivan: White House Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in Tel Aviv this morning that the Israel-Hamas war is going to take months. Sullivan said he discussed Israel transitioning from tactics in which they hit wide areas of Gaza into highly-targeted operations. He did not specify how quickly that might happen. The Gaza Ministry of Health, which Hamas controls, says that there have been more than 18,700 people killed in Gaza and more than 50,800 injured.
Prince Harry: A court in London ruled this morning that Prince Harry’s phone was hacked by the British newspaper the Daily Mirror and awarded Prince Harry $180,000 in damages. The court found that executives of the tabloid newspaper knew that the hacking was taking place and did nothing to stop it. The court found that almost half of the articles published by the newspaper about Prince Harry used information that was obtained through hacking.
Missing classified documents: CNN reports this morning that a binder containing highly classified government information related to Russia’s interference in the 2016 Presidential Election disappeared at the end of the Trump Administration. CNN reported that government officials gave a classified briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee last year about the missing binder and what the government was doing to try to find it and get it back. The binder was said to contain documents from the Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence agencies of NATO allies.
Cover photo by Defensie / Wikimedia Commons
