On Tuesday, the 45th president of the United States and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination will be indicted on multiple counts of fraud related to a hush-money payment made to an adult film star.
President Biden will be in Minnesota on Monday as part of his Investing in America tour.
The Senate, House, and Supreme Court are all out until Monday, April 17.
On Thursday, Nikki Haley will hold her third South Carolina rally since her entry into the presidential race.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s first television ad went up in Iowa and New Hampshire over the weekend and will run in both states for the next two weeks.
On Monday, NASA will announce the names of the five astronauts who will serve on the first crewed flight test of the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon.
“Justice Department and FBI investigators have amassed fresh evidence pointing to possible obstruction by former president Donald Trump in the investigation into top-secret documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home,” the Washington Post reports.
“The additional evidence comes as investigators have used emails and text messages from a former Trump aide to help understand key moments last year.”
“The new details highlight the degree to which special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the potential mishandling of hundreds of classified national security papers at Trump’s Florida home and private club has come to focus on the obstruction elements of the case — whether the former president took or directed actions to impede government efforts to collect all the sensitive records.”
Donald Trump’s legal team is considering asking to move his criminal case from Manhattan to the more conservative New York borough of Staten Island out of concern that he won’t be able to get a fair trial, Bloomberg reports.
“For the better part of a decade, Donald J. Trump and his allies at Fox News have beguiled some Americans and enraged others as they spun up an alternative world where elections turned on fraud, one political party oppressed another, and one man stood against his detractors to carry his version of truth to an adoring electorate,” the New York Times reports.
“Then this week, on two consecutive days, the former president and the highest-rated cable news channel were delivered a dose of reality by the American legal system.”
“An appearance by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on 60 Minutes, where she’ll be interviewed by correspondent Lesley Stahl, has spawned outrage on social media with some journalists and liberal celebrities questioning the program’s decision to host the controversial Congress member, who has promoted numerous baseless conspiracy theories—including her belief that school shootings were faked—in recent years,” Forbes reports.
“The Pentagon is gearing up for a future conflict in space as China and Russia deploy missiles and lasers that can take out satellites and disrupt military and civilian communications,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The U.S. military long ago dropped the notion of crewed, orbiting space weapons in favor of satellites because the logistics of supporting people outside of Earth’s atmosphere were formidable.”
“The physics of space also make it impossible to sneak up on an enemy or quickly change orbit or direction. And earthbound tactics don’t work in space, where the U.S., China and Russia are all turning to satellites and sensors to wage and win any conflict.”
“Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a bill Thursday allowing individuals to carry concealed loaded weapons anywhere without a permit,” NBC News reports. “The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has repeatedly indicated he will sign it.”
“The measure scraps the existing requirements for concealed weapons permits, including an extra layer of background checks, licensing and firearms training.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “is launching a new political organization that will take the Democrat to red states across the country as he pushes back against restrictive abortion laws, loosened gun safety regulations, curriculum restrictions and other initiatives Republican elected officials are spearheading,” the Washington Post reports.
“Newsom, who is widely viewed as a potential future Democratic White House contender, plans to travel to ‘states where freedom is most under attack,’ he says in a video, to meet with like-minded activists, students, candidates and elected officials who he said are often fighting a lonely battle in places Democrats don’t typically visit.”
“A federal jury on Friday found Anton Lazzaro, a one-time Minnesota Republican political operative and top donor, guilty on all counts of sex trafficking five girls, ages 15 and 16,” Minnesota Public Radio reports. “Jurors began deliberations Friday afternoon following a trial highlighted by Lazzaro, 32, taking the stand in his own defense. While eventually acknowledging he had sex with all of the girls, Lazzaro said he did not pay for sex or the recruitment of young partners.”
“Wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, joining Saudi Arabia in backing the venture launched by former President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law as he left the White House,” the New York Times reports. “The infusion of money from interests in the two rival Persian Gulf monarchies reflects the continued efforts by Mr. Trump and his aides and allies to profit from the close ties they built to the Arab world during his presidency and the desire of leaders in the region to remain on good terms with Mr. Kushner as his father-in-law seeks the presidency again.”
“The Justice Department special counsel investigating whether President Joe Biden mishandled classified documents has brought on two former Trump administration officials to help,” Bloomberg reports. “Special Counsel Robert Hur hired Marc Krickbaum, a former US attorney in Iowa, and Daniel Loveland, who served as counsel to former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.”
New York Times: “After a brief hiatus, The Trump Show is back. Americans, ready or not, are now along for another roller-coaster ride with a protagonist whose pre-eminence in the media universe had begun to fade.”
“Banned from Twitter, Mr. Trump’s outbursts and grievances had stopped shaping the news cycle. Out of office, he became inherently less newsworthy. He even vanished from Fox News, his usual television home, for about four months beginning in November.”
“Now Mr. Trump has well and truly returned.”
The Senate passed a bill to end the national Covid-19 emergency, which Trump declared on March 13, 2020. The resolution cleared the House earlier this year and now heads to Biden’s desk, who said he plans to sign it despite his his opposition to ending the Covid-19 emergency. (CNN / Associated Press / Axios)
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