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      Trump’s DoJ sues California over college tuition benefits for undocumented students

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      The justice department sued California on Thursday for allowing undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition for public universities, alleging the policy harms US citizens.The lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the eastern district of California, marks the third time this week that the Trump administration has sued California. In addition to challenging the state’s in-state tuition policy, the lawsuit argues that California unlawfully extends eligibility for scholarships and subsidized loans to undocumented students.Among the defendants are the state, top California officials, and the state’s two public university systems: the University of California and California State University.“Federal law prohibits aliens illegally present in the United States from receiving in-state tuition benefits that are denied to out-of-state US citizens,” reads the complaint. “There are no exceptions.”California law does allow some students to qualify for in-state tuition rates, which are lower than out-of-state tuition, even if they technically qualify as non-residents. This includes students who have had “three full-time years or the equivalent at any combination” of California high school, California adult high school, or California community college.The California Dream Act, two bills passed in 2011, permits undocumented students to apply for, and obtain, state-based financial assistance, according to San Francisco State University. Undocumented students cannot receive federal financial aid for college.The justice department’s civil complaint alleges that California policy on undocumented student tuition is “unconstitutional” and wants a judge to “declare it illegal and permanently enjoin its enforcement”.“California is illegally discriminating against American students and families by offering exclusive tuition benefits for non-citizens,” said Pamela Bondi, the US attorney general. “This marks our third lawsuit against California in one week – we will continue bringing litigation against California until the state ceases its flagrant disregard for federal law.”The Trump administration has filed similar lawsuits against policies in other states, including Illinois, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Kentucky and Texas. Half the country now has similar laws to California’s.In June, after the administration sued, Texas ended its decades-old law. And Florida last year scrapped its law that allowed in-state tuition for high school graduates who weren’t in the country legally.Supporters of the state tuition breaks argue that they don’t violate federal law if they provide the same rates to US citizens in the same circumstances – meaning they are residents of the state and graduates of one of its high schools. The California Dream Act also allows such students to apply for state-funded financial aid.Many of the students were brought to the US by their parents when they were children, and supporters of the laws say they are as much a part of their communities as US citizens.The complaint cites an executive order signed in February that directs federal departments and agencies to block undocumented people from receiving public benefits. Another executive order signed in April directs officials to stop enforcing laws and practices that favor undocumented people over US citizens. The lawsuit argues that the Republican president’s orders enforce federal immigration laws.The University of California defended its decades-old in-state tuition policy.“While we will, of course, comply with the law as determined by the courts, we believe our policies and practices are consistent with current legal standards,” it said in a statement.The lawsuit comes weeks after the California supreme xourt let stand a lower-court ruling that the University of California’s policy barring students without legal status in the US from campus jobs is discriminatory and must be reconsidered.University system officials had warned that the decision would put them in a precarious position as they negotiate with the Trump administration after the withdrawal of federal research funds.The UC is dealing with federal grant suspensions and a White House demand that it pay a $1bn fine over allegations, including antisemitism and the illegal consideration of race in admitting students to its Los Angeles campus.The California State University system is the nation’s largest and among its most diverse, with more than 460,000 students. More than a quarter of undergraduates are first-generation college students, according to the university system.The University of California serves about 300,000 students. More

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      Trump’s DoJ investigating unfounded claims Venezuela helped steal 2020 election

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      Federal investigators have been interviewing multiple people who are pushing unfounded claims that Venezuela helped steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump, the Guardian has learned.Two promoters of the conspiracy theory have repeatedly briefed the US attorney for the district of Puerto Rico, W Stephen Muldrow, and have shared witnesses and documents with officials, according to four sources. Muldrow declined to comment.In addition to the Puerto Rico talks, people pushing the conspiracy have been interviewed by federal investigators for a federal taskforce in Tampa which is looking at Venezuelan drug trafficking and money laundering, four sources told the Guardian. The US attorney’s office in Tampa declined to comment.An investigation of this sort underscores how Trump’s justice department is becoming a major weapon in the president’s efforts to rewrite the history of his 2020 loss – while potentially strengthening the administration’s case for military action against Venezuela.While there were a variety of conspiracy theories that helped fuel Donald Trump’s 2020 “Stop the Steal” movement – dead voters, stolen, fraudulent or forged ballots, and secret computer servers in Germany – the purported influence of Venezuela was always a central claim. It asserted that electronic voting in the US was secretly controlled by the impoverished regime, both by President Nicolás Maduro and his deceased predecessor Hugo Chávez.Not only was it bizarre on its face, but a judge in Delaware ruled it false in 2023, and Fox News, Newsmax and OAN later paid a total of hundreds of millions in total damages in defamation claims. At heart, the theory was that Smartmatic, which had the contract for electronic voting machines in Los Angeles, and Dominion, which ran voting in many other parts of the country, had been created or influenced by Venezuela to fix elections.The revival of the claim appears to bind together two themes: Trump’s consistent “rigged election” complaints, and his antagonism to Venezuela’s socialist regime.With a military buildup in the Caribbean and increased sabre-rattling from the Trump administration towards Maduro, the unfounded election-rigging theories could provide another rationale for military action against Maduro.‘Very receptive’How could a discredited conspiracy theory, be investigated as a plausible case by the US justice department five years after it first bubbled up?The story starts with two unique characters who claim to have been pursuing the election claims for years: Gary Berntsen and Martin Rodil. They have become sources for the Trump camp and ultimately for investigators and have promoted two major allegations about Venezuela, as the reporters Seth Hettena and Jonathan Larsen have written on Substack.The first theme links Tren de Aragua, the street gang Trump has designated as a terrorist organization, closer to Maduro. The other major theme Berntsen and Rodil promoted was the old voting conspiracy and the allegations that Venezuela helped rig elections worldwide.Berntsen is a former CIA case officer who came to the public eye even before writing a book in 2006 about his hunt for Osama bin Laden. “A formidable guy, a warrior, no question,” said one former official who knew him.Berntsen projects the plainspoken demeanor of an expert with field experience battling an intransigent bureaucracy. He is also a fierce champion of Trump and of an invasion of Venezuela.“I don’t dabble in conspiracy theories,” Berntsen wrote in a message to the Guardian. “I spent my life defending our country and constitution. I led many major operations and investigations and saved many lives.”He added: “The Department of Justice and FBI and key White House Staff are investigating and coordinating efforts to defend our system and charge those guilty of Stealing Elections and violating other laws accountable for their actions.”Rodil is a Venezuelan expatriate based in Washington, and says he has been a consultant to US law enforcement investigating Venezuelan crime for 20 years. A close associate of his said he specializes in recruiting Venezuelan informants and witnesses for US cases.The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported in 2022 that Rodil was under investigation in Spain for extorting three Venezuelans there, trying to get money in exchange for influencing US authorities on cases. It is unclear what happened to that case.Rodil told the Guardian it was false, and said those who accused him were charged in the US.Even before Trump’s return to office earlier this year, the sources say Berntsen and Rodil have been feeding information, documents and witnesses about the voting claims to Muldrow, the US attorney out of Puerto Rico and to an organized crime taskforce called Panama Express, or Panex, which is based out of Tampa.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSources familiar with the relationship between Muldrow, Berntsen and Rodil say there has been extensive cooperation on the matter. “They work together. Muldrow has been very receptive,” one of the sources said of the voting allegations. That source said there had been multiple briefings in Puerto Rico.Muldrow is one of the few US attorneys to have kept a job after Trump took over the White House. First appointed by Trump in 2019, he stayed in office during Biden’s term. He is a staunch Republican and Trump supporter, say two people who know him. Muldrow spent a good portion of his career in Tampa, and one source who knows him says he has a good working relationship with Pam Bondi, the current Trump US attorney general. She was the Florida state AG while Muldrow was based in the Tampa US attorney’s office.Several sources said Muldrow had turned over information to the Panex taskforce which used to focus primarily on the drug flow from Colombia but was now targeting Venezuela as well.This is now the taskforce working directly with Rodil and Berntsen, they say.In response to detailed questions, Muldrow emailed the Guardian: “In accordance with Department of Justice policies, I am not able to provide you with a comment.”Rodil told the Guardian that allegations involving so-called election integrity issues were incidental to conversations with Muldrow, rather than the central point of the briefings. He protested that while one witness talked about Smartmatic and election integrity, that was not the substance of Muldrow’s interest, and he said Muldrow only heard a portion of the evidence involving faked election results.Berntsen wrote in a message to the Guardian that “indictments are going to be released in the near future,” and said he and his colleagues believe that “your goal is to discredit the claims against Smartmatic and Dominion, the entities linked to a massive criminal cartel that stole US elections and elections worldwide.”‘Trump knows they need to be stopped’Ralph Pezzullo, the co-author of Berntsen’s 2006 book, is a true believer in the conspiracy theories Berntsen and Rodil are promoting now.In September, Pezzullo published an e-book called Stolen Elections: the Takedown of Democracies Worldwide, which described the Venezuela conspiracy theories, and is based on the accounts of Berntsen and Modil and witnesses they introduced to Pezzulo.Pezzullo wrote that the US voting was a “system created in Venezuela – and still electronically linked to Venezuela – that is designed to steal elections by remotely altering results”.Pezzullo said he too had spoken to Muldrow about the allegations. Pezzullo told the Guardian that his phone call with Muldrow was set up by Berntsen and claimed Muldrow assured him that the claims of election fraud were correct.“They’ve been attacking the US with the election machines and with the drugs,” Pezullo said, of Venezuela. “Trump knows they need to be stopped.” More

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      World awaits fresh Epstein cache – but could Trump officials block full release?

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      They are the files that America – and the world – has long waited to see: a huge cache of documents at the Department of Justice related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, whom a judge once dubbed the “most infamous pedophile in American history”.After a law passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Wednesday, those documents must now must be released to the American public and a waiting army of journalists. Just like previous Epstein caches they are certain to include damning communications between Epstein and many rich and powerful people in his social circle.Experts interviewed by the Guardian said that the documents are certain to contain fresh revelations about Epstein and his activities and could easily embarrass or damn prominent figures in the worlds of politics, academia, finance and entertainment, including Donald Trump and many others.But at the same time, despite the legal mandate, experts warn that justice department officials could use loopholes to try to stymie a full release, using redactions or withholding crucial documents for a variety of reasons. They warned that even this release of documents could still leave many Epstein questions unanswered and would not provide a full accounting of his crimes or who he socialized and worked with.Under the law signed on Wednesday, Trump’s justice department had 30 days to disclose all files related to Epstein, among them investigative documents into the disgraced financier’s death in jail pending his sex-trafficking trial. The much-awaited disclosure would come in the wake of congressional release of tens of thousands of pages provided by Epstein’s estate.The law allows for redaction of information that could identify victims but bars authorities from redacting information – including names – solely out of concerns that it could embarrass them or harm their reputations, or listen to concerns about political sensitivity. Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, said her department would “follow the law and encourage maximum transparency”.But members of Congress who heralded the law’s passage, plus Epstein victims and transparency advocates, have expressed concerns that these files will not be delivered entirely as required.A provision allowing the justice department to withhold files that could jeopardize current investigations has raised eyebrows as Bondi – at Trump’s direction – has appointed a prosecutor in New York to investigate Bill Clinton, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and other political opponents’ with past associations with Epstein. Neither Clinton nor Hoffman have been accused of misconduct and both have publicly expressed regret for their association with Epstein.Litigation by the news website Radar Online might be the most telling with regard to the investigation exception. In April 2017, Radar Online made a public records request for Epstein investigative files – about a decade after he pleaded guilty to state-level prostitution counts.The FBI did not respond, and Radar sued in May 2017. While the agency said it would process files at a rate of 500 pages monthly, authorities have withheld about 10,000 of more than 11,000 pertinent pages – invoking the law-enforcement proceeding exemption.“The bill allows material to be withheld if it’s connected to a law enforcement investigation, which is the same issue Radar is challenging in court,” a spokesperson for Radar Online told the Guardian. “Given the newly announced investigation the whole thing could be a dud. Our lawsuit is still the best chance of transparency.”Roy Gutterman, director of the Newhouse School’s Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University in New York, said it was difficult to predict what might be in these files.“No matter what is released, even the thousands upon thousands of pages of records, data and information, there will always be questions of what else is out there or what may have been sanitized for political purposes,” Gutterman said. “Lots of people are talking about transparency, but unless someone finds the smoking gun they are looking for, human nature and pure skepticism will continue to raise questions about ‘what else has not been released’.”And releasing the files is not a silver bullet for finding truth.“There are ways you can release a lot of material and still not be transparent,” Gutterman said.Spencer Kuvin, chief legal officer of GoldLaw and a lawyer for several Epstein victims, said the justice department’s documents had more potential to reveal truth than Congress’s cache. He explained: “These documents will likely be photographs, surveillance videos, investigative memoranda and any other documents and interviews conducted in the underlying litigation.”He expressed frustration and pointed to the investigation provision.“The fact that the president made Congress go through this lengthy process is offensive, because he had the power to release these materials with the stroke of a pen,” Kuvin said. “Hopefully he does not further complicate matters by having his DoJ prevent access to all the records because of his threats of continuing investigations.”Victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who was convicted of sex trafficking for luring teenage girls into his orbit, worry as well.“That is a real fear that the victims have. These victims have repeatedly been frustrated by the failures of the state and federal government in this case over the last 20 years and it is all because the people involved were either rich or politically connected,” Kuvin said. “Unfortunately, rich and powerful people protect their own even if it means they may be guilty of sex trafficking and pedophilia.”Jennifer Plotkin of Merson Law, which has represented 33 Epstein victims, also expressed wariness.“While the release of documents may potentially increase transparency, it does little to address the government’s accountability to the many victims that have come forward in the lawsuit against the FBI. The government continues to fight against the sexual abuse survivors of Jeffrey Epstein,” Plotkin said. “The FBI failed to prosecute Epstein for decades and the victims still don’t understand why.”Those who have expressed skepticism that Bondi will follow through have pointed to Trump and his administration’s waffling on Epstein matters, despite his campaign trail promise to release the files.The justice department said in July that their investigation of Epstein files “did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing” and that “this systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list’”.“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” their statement also said.The departmental memo conflicted with Epstein accusers’ accounts that others took part in his abuse. Trump’s supporters, many of whom are convinced that Epstein plotted with high-profile individuals to traffic minors, were outraged, as the president vowed to disclose documents.Furor over the Epstein document stalemate proved an extensive political liability for Trump, as news reports and released documents showed that the president had a relationship with Epstein. Trump has denied wrongdoing and said their relationship soured.“It’s not news that Epstein was a member of the Mar-a-Lago club, because it’s the same club Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of for being a creep,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said at one point. “These stories are tired and pathetic attempts to distract from all the success of President Trump’s administration.”In reversing course to support the bill, Trump said “we have nothing to hide” and that “it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown’”.Asked for comment about transparency concerns related to the ongoing investigation exception, a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, said: “Democrats and the media knew about Epstein’s victims for years, did nothing to help them, and Democrats even solicited donations from him AFTER he was a convicted sex offender. President Trump was calling for transparency and accountability, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents.”Democrats have pointed out that Bondi and Trump are close in expressing concern about the documents release.“This is Pam Bondi. She works for Trump. This is all a set-up. Trump fought to the end to resist release. He lost. Do I believe he’s had a real conversion? No,” Senator Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, said, per the Hill.“He anticipated the outcome and then ordered Bondi to begin other investigations, so we’ll be seeing the justice department withholding information because it might interfere with ongoing investigations.“The concealment will continue.” More

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      Trump news at a glance: president says Democrats should be arrested for ‘seditious behavior’, drawing outrage

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      Donald Trump called for the arrest of a group of Democratic lawmakers he accused of engaging in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH”.The president’s remarks, issued on his Truth Social platform on Thursday morning, came after the legislators posted a video in which they told active service members they should refuse illegal orders.In another post, he wrote: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT.” In a third post, he added: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reposted a statement that said: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!”Following Trump’s statements on Thursday, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic whip Katherine Clark and Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar released a joint statement condemning the remarks.“Donald Trump must immediately delete these unhinged social media posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed,” the statement added.The White House walked back the president’s comments later Thursday, saying Trump does not want to see Democratic members of Congress executed.Democrats condemn Trump for saying they should be punished ‘by death’“Political violence has no place in America,” Democratic leaders wrote in a statement following Trump’s posts on Truth Social. “Representatives Jason Crow, Chris DeLuzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan and Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin all served our country with tremendous patriotism and distinction. We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous death threats against members of Congress, and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same.”The Democratic leaders also said that they had been in contact with the House sergeant at arms and the United States Capitol police “to ensure the safety of these members and their families”.Read the full storyZelenskyy to negotiate with Trump over US-Russia peace dealUkrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will negotiate with Donald Trump on a US-backed peace plan that called on Kyiv to make painful concessions in order to end the Kremlin’s invasion of his country.Zelenskyy’s office on Thursday confirmed that he had received the draft peace plan, which was prepared by US and Russian officials, and that he would speak with Trump in the coming days about “existing diplomatic opportunities and the main points that are necessary for peace”.“We agreed to work on the points of the plan so that it would bring a worthy end to the war,” Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement.Read the full storyDrill, baby, drill (off California and Florida)The Trump administration on Thursday announced new oil and gas drilling off California’s and Florida’s coasts, setting the stage for a political showdown – including with Sunshine state Republicans who have largely opposed petroleum development in the Gulf of Mexico.This announcement comes as the US petroleum industry, despite contending with low crude prices, has been pushing for an entree to additional offshore drilling areas.Read the full storyCDC website now reflects RFK Jr’s belief in link between vaccines and autismA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has been changed to reflect the belief of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health and human services secretary, that there is a link between vaccines and autism, a view flatly contradicted by experts and scientifically validated studies.Public health and autism specialists roundly condemned the alteration to the CDC’s “vaccine safety” webpage, after it was changed to read: “The statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.”Read the full storyJudge halts Trump’s deployment of national guard to Washington DCUS district judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former president Joe Biden, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying national guard troops to enforce the law in the nation’s capital without approval from its mayor.Cobb paused her ruling until 11 December to allow the Trump administration to appeal.Read the full storyJustice department investigates handling of Adam Schiff’s mortgage fraud caseThe justice department is investigating how two Trump allies handled the investigation into whether California senator, Adam Schiff, committed mortgage fraud, according to a copy of a subpoena obtained by the Guardian and a person familiar with the matter.The office of the deputy attorney general Todd Blanche is overseeing the inquiry, which appears to have developed as an offshoot of the main case into Schiff – a notable development since the justice department is essentially investigating activities of two close allies of the president.Read the full storyTrump officials reveal plan to roll back Endangered Species Act protectionsThe Trump administration presented a new plan to roll back regulations in the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a move experts fear will accelerate the extinction crisis if adopted.The proposedchanges would allow the federal government more power to weigh economic impact against habitat designations, remove safeguards against future events – including the impacts from the climate crisis – and rescind the “blanket rule” that automatically grants threatened species the same protections as those designated as endangered.Read the full storyRepublicans warn Bondi: don’t bury the Epstein filesThe passage of the the Epstein Files Transparency Act marked a rare moment of bipartisan support in an otherwise ideologically fractured Congress as it now sets a 30-day deadline for the release of Department of Justice files related to the actions of convicted sex offender of minors and financier Jeffrey Epstein.“People who feel very strongly about this will feel like they’ve been duped” if the justice department claims “we can’t release anything because of an active investigation,” said Republican senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.Read the full storyElizabeth Warren calls for inquiry into Trump’s ballroom fundingThe US senator from Massachusetts said that the next independent Department of Justice “should investigate” the private donations that have funded the construction of the new White House ballroom.Warren – who is the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee – told the Guardian in a statement that the ballroom could be “a golden crime scene” and urged the next administration to “follow the money” to uncover “whether any crimes were committed” in its financing.Read the full storyDonald Trump and JD Vance snubbed for Dick Cheney’s funeralThe president and vice-president were not invited to former vice-president Dick Cheney’s funeral, which took place on Thursday, according to a White House official familiar with the matter.Cheney, the former US vice-president to George W Bush and a Republican defense hawk who became a fierce critic of the current US president, died earlier this month at the age of 84.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Fears of a growing bubble around the artificial intelligence frenzy resurfaced on Thursday as leading US stock markets fell, less than 24 hours after strong results from chipmaker Nvidia sparked a rally.

      Connie Chan, a progressive lawmaker who serves on the San Francisco board of supervisors, has entered the race to succeed the former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi next year.

      Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist who participated in protests at Columbia University and was detained by Ice earlier this year, has filed a lawsuit demanding the Trump administration release its communications with anti-Palestinian groups he says contributed to his March arrest and efforts to detain him.

      The White House issued a full-throated defense of Donald Trump’s reference to a Bloomberg News correspondent as a “piggy” on Thursday, claiming without evidence that the president “calls out fake news when he sees it and gets frustrated with reporters who spread false information”.

      Democratic congressman Ro Khanna has a warning for anyone in the Trump administration who would impede Epstein files release: comply or face the consequences.

      “President Trump is the biggest con job in American history,” Nancy Pelosi, the US speaker emerita, told reporters on Thursday while criticizing his anti-climate agenda. That follows Trump telling the UN general assembly in September that the climate crisis was “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”.

      The White House under Gerald Ford tried to block a landmark Senate report that disclosed the CIA’s role in assassination attempts against foreign leaders and ultimately led to a radical overhaul in how the agency was held to account, documents released to mark the 50th anniversary of the report’s publication reveal.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened Wednesday, 19 November. More

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      White House press secretary defends Trump’s ‘piggy’ insult

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      The White House issued a full-throated defense of Donald Trump’s reference to a Bloomberg News correspondent as a “piggy” on Thursday, claiming without evidence that the president “calls out fake news when he sees it and gets frustrated with reporters who spread false information”.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the remarks during a White House briefing, saying Trump was re-elected because of his bluntness and that members of the media should appreciate his willingness to answer their questions.“He calls out fake news when he sees it and gets frustrated with reporters who spread false information,” Leavitt said. “But he also provides unprecedented access to the press and answers questions on a near-daily basis.”Leavitt did not specify what “fake news” or “false information” Trump was responding to when he called Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg’s White House correspondent, “piggy”.The clash between Trump and Lucey happened on Friday onboard Air Force One. Lucey asked a question about the unfolding Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the possibility of the House voting to release all of the files related to his case, which came to fruition earlier this week.When Lucey started to ask why Trump was behaving the way he was “if there’s nothing incriminating in the files”, Trump pointed at her and said: “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”The remark received widespread backlash on Monday and Tuesday, with many fellow journalists condemning the incident. CNN anchor Jake Tapper wrote on X that the comment was “disgusting and completely unacceptable”, while former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson called the remark “disgusting and degrading”.While Trump has long held and shared contempt for journalists publicly, he’s been particularly open this week with his vitriol. On Tuesday, Trump called another female reporter, Mary Bruce of ABC News, “a terrible person” in the Oval Office. The reporter had asked Mohammed bin Salman, the visiting Saudi crown prince, about the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and also why Trump had not released the Epstein files.“Mr President, why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files?’ Bruce asked. “Why not just do it now?”“It’s not the question that I mind. It’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who is highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question,” Trump responded.After this incident, the Society of Professional Journalists issued a statement condemning Trump’s remarks to Lucey and Bruce.“These incidents are not isolated; they are part of an unmistakable pattern of hostility – often directed at women – that undermines the essential role of a free and independent press,” the statement reads.SPJ executive director Caroline Hendrie emphasized that “targeting women reporters with humiliating insults should not be tolerated”.“What we say – and what we refuse to say – signals to the world how much we value human rights and free expression,” Hendrie said. “When US leaders downplay the murder of a journalist or shame reporters for demanding transparency, it reverberates far beyond Washington.” More

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      in US Politics

      CDC website altered to reflect RFK Jr’s belief in link between vaccines and autism

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      A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has been changed to reflect the belief of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health and human services secretary, that there is a link between vaccines and autism, a view flatly contradicted by experts and scientifically validated studies.Public health and autism specialists roundly condemned the alteration to the CDC’s “vaccine safety” webpage, after it was changed to read: “The statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.”Pointedly, it added: “Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.”The extent of the change was further underlined by an asterisk affixed to a pre-existing statement underneath, reading “vaccines do not cause autism”.An explanation at the bottom of the page said the statement had not been removed “due to an agreement with the chair of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website”.That explanation was in reference to the Louisiana Republican senator, Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor, who initially opposed Kennedy’s nomination as health secretary but later voted to confirm him on the basis that statements about how vaccines do not cause autism would remain on the CDC site.The new page did not cite any new research. It simply stated: “HHS [health and human services] has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.”The changes appear to be the latest example of Kennedy’s determination to impose his beliefs on the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC. They also triggered severe backlash from scientists and advocates, with former and present CDC staff saying the updated page did not go through the normal, scientific clearance process.“I spoke with several scientists at CDC yesterday and none were aware of this change in content,” Debra Houry, one of a group of CDC top officials who resigned in August, told the AP.“When scientists are cut out of scientific reviews, then inaccurate and ideologic information results.”The move was also condemned by the Autism Science Foundation, an organization that initially gave a cautious welcome to Kennedy’s stated mission to investigate the causes of autism – a disorder that can manifest itself in speech difficulties and repetitive behavior – after his confirmation.“We are appalled to find that the content on the CDC webpage ‘Autism and Vaccines’ has been changed and distorted, and is now filled with anti-vaccine rhetoric and outright lies about vaccines and autism,” the foundation said in a statement.A previous version of the page stated that “studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). No links have been found between any vaccine ingredients and ASD.”Widespread scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link between vaccines and autism.“The conclusion is clear and unambiguous,” said Dr Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a statement Thursday.“We call on the CDC to stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims that sow doubt in one of the best tools we have to keep children healthy and thriving: routine immunizations.”The CDC has, until now, echoed the absence of a link in promoting Food and Drug Administration-licensed vaccines. A number of former CDC officials have said that what the CDC posts about certain subjects – including vaccine safety – can no longer be trusted.Dr Daniel Jernigan, who also resigned from the agency in August, told reporters that Kennedy seems to be “going from evidence-based decision making to decision-based evidence making”.Besides positing a link between vaccines and autism, Kennedy has subscribed to the belief that the condition may be caused by pregnant people taking Tylenol, a suspicion pushed vociferously by Donald Trump, who has urged expectant mothers to avoid taking the over-the-counter drug. More

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      Justice department investigates handling of Adam Schiff’s mortgage fraud case

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      The justice department is investigating how two Trump allies handled the investigation into whether California senator, Adam Schiff, committed mortgage fraud, according to a copy of a subpoena obtained by the Guardian and a person familiar with the matter.The office of the deputy attorney general Todd Blanche is overseeing the inquiry, which appears to have developed as an offshoot of the main case into Schiff – a notable development since the justice department is essentially investigating activities of two close allies of the president.A federal grand jury in Maryland, where prosecutors are investigating the mortgage allegations against Schiff, issued the subpoena to Christine Bish, an associate of federal housing finance agency (FHFA) chief Bill Pulte and a Republican congressional candidate in California.The subpoena asked Bish, who previously filed an ethics complaint against Schiff accusing him of mortgage fraud, to provide her communications with Pulte, people claiming to work on his behalf, and people claiming to work on behalf of Ed Martin, the head of the justice department’s weaponization committee. The subpoena also asks for communications with Robert Bowes and Scott Strauss.Bish told CNN that when she went before the grand jury, prosecutors “seemed more concerned” about looking into whether “there was conspiracy or collusion between me and Pulte or me and Ed Martin”.ABC News reported that Bowes – who claims to be a financial fraud expert – reached out to Bish and spoke to her without knowledge of Maryland prosecutors or FBI agents. Strauss also reached out to her and asked that she send documents about Schiff to a private email, ABC reported.Both Pulte and Martin are strongly aligned with Trump and have helped him deploy the levers of the federal government to punish political enemies, including Schiff and the New York attorney general, Letitia James.According to MS NOW, the investigation is examining whether Pulte and Martin improperly assigned unauthorized people to help investigate mortgage fraud claims against Schiff and possibly James.Blanche and the attorney general, Pam Bondi, have shown some resistance to the mortgage fraud prosecutions. Earlier this year, they tried to protect Erik Siebert, the top federal prosecutor in Virginia, from being fired after he resisted efforts to charge James. They were unsuccessful. Siebert resigned, and Trump installed Lindsey Halligan, who moved ahead with charges against James and former FBI director James Comey.The inquiry may be a pre-emptive effort by the justice department to get ahead of expected defenses from Schiff in the event he is indicted. But if misconduct is discovered on the part of Pulte or Martin, it could doom the case. The case against Schiff has stalled as prosecutors have failed to produce adequate evidence, NBC reported last month.A lawyer for Schiff did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the justice department declined to comment.Pulte has criminally referred Schiff, James, Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and California congressman Eric Swalwell to the justice department for alleged mortgage fraud, all deny wrongdoing.Pulte’s tactics have repeatedly come under scrutiny. He has bypassed the FHFA’s inspector general, the office usually responsible for handling mortgage fraud accusations. And last week, the Wall Street Journal reported he removed ethics officials who were looking into whether FHFA officials had improperly accessed James’ mortgage information. More