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Colombian President-elect Abelardo de la Espirella, a conservative millionaire who earned an endorsement from President Trump, suspended the transition process on Tuesday, accusing President Gustavo Petro of planning a coup to remain in power. Petro, whom Trump had been critical of in the past but later called “terrific” after an hours-long meeting between the two earlier this…

The pine trees, hiking trails and white water in Sun Valley, ID look about the same as they did last summer. The media landscape does not. Boutique investment bank Allen & Co. has hosted the conference long referred to as summer camp for billionaires every year since 1983, but few editions have unfolded at a […]

More than 1,200 Justice Department alums urged the Senate Judiciary Committee in a letter released Tuesday to reject Todd Blanche’s nomination to serve as the country’s top federal prosecutor.

The Justice Connection, a network of fired DOJ employees created to support the department’s career prosecutors who they say have been targeted by the Trump administration, released the letter one week before the kickoff of Blanche’s highly anticipated two-day confirmation hearing before the Senate panel.

“Regardless of how we joined the department, every one of us took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, not the occupant of the White House,” the former prosecutors wrote in the letter addressed to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

“That oath now compels us to speak out against the nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General — someone who took the same oath, but has utterly failed to abide by it,” the letter said.

Blanche, a longtime loyalist of President Donald Trump who worked as his personal defense lawyer, has been serving as acting attorney general since the president fired Pam Bondi in April. Blanche, who was Bondi’s deputy at the time of her dismissal, was nominated to make his temporary position permanent June 8.

The former DOJ employees castigated Blanche for “the corruption and abuses that have defined the Justice Department” under his leadership. The letter named Blanche’s role in the DOJ’s botched release of the Epstein files, erasure of accountability for the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and “vindictive” prosecutions and investigations of Trump’s perceived political enemies as evidence of his inability to lead the department in an apolitical manner.

Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels called the group of ex-employees

“a who’s who of partisan activists, including liberal politicians such as former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who saw crime drastically rise under her tenure, Trump impeachment witness Pamela Karlan, and multiple former disgruntled Biden administration officials.”

The letter’s signatories included former FBI Special Agent Michael Feinberg, who resigned from the bureau last year after he was allegedly threatened with demotion for being friends with a perceived foe of FBI Director Kash Patel, and several career prosecutors who worked on former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Blanche’s degradation of the DOJ’s apolitical career workforce was another point of concern in the letter.

“The culture of fear Blanche has instilled within DOJ’s workforce must end,” the letter said. “Respect for career professionals must return … and instead of exhibiting fealty to the president, the Attorney General must heed John Adams’ admonition that our republic remains a ‘government of laws, not of men.’”

The post DOJ alums urge Senate not to approve Blanche as attorney general appeared first on MS NOW.

Russian athletes could be allowed to compete for their country at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles after the International Olympic Committee provisionally lifted their suspension.

Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian mission specialist on NASA’s historic Artemis II mission, announced his retirement from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) on Tuesday. “This is far from a departure,” he wrote in a statement shared on social media. “My commitment to seeing Canada thrive remains absolute.” The 50-year-old astronaut served 17 years in CSA and…

Colombia afina detalles en la cancha para enfrentarse al siempre ordenado conjunto suizo, en un partido definitivo que determinará si el equipo de James Rodríguez, Luis Díaz y el entrenador Néstor Lorenzo logra avanzar a cuartos de final.

England inflict a record defeat on India in the third Twenty20 at Trent Bridge to give the home side a 2-0 lead with two matches in the series remaining.

England inflict a record defeat on India in the third Twenty20 at Trent Bridge to give the home side a 2-0 lead with two matches in the series remaining.

Lionel celebró la gran remontada de Argentina sobre Egipto, donde la ‘Albiceleste’ estaba abajo 2-0 y terminó ganando el partido 2-3 sobre la hora. El capitán aseguró que así serán todos los partidos y que su equipo siempre luchará hasta el final.

Of all the White House allies who have received lucrative settlements from the Trump Justice Department in response to highly dubious civil lawsuits, the DOJ’s deal with former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is among the most outrageous.

It also has a sequel. Bloomberg News reported:

The US Justice Department settled a second lawsuit against the government brought by Michael Flynn, agreeing to pay the conservative activist and ally of President Donald Trump to resolve his claim that the US Army wrongly withheld approximately $38,000 from his retirement pay several years ago.

The settlement was finalized and “executed” in recent weeks, according to a public court filing in late June, but it did not specify the terms. The agreement included paying Flynn a sum below $75,000, according to a person familiar who asked for anonymity to discuss a matter that’s not yet public.

Court documents filed in April said the DOJ and Flynn had “agreed to a settlement in principle,” though they’d “need more time to finalize and implement the agreed-upon settlement.” Though Bloomberg’s report has not been independently verified by MS NOW, that work is apparently now complete.

These developments come on the heels of an earlier settlement agreement worth $1.25 million, and the fact that Flynn is walking away with any taxpayer money at all is awfully tough to defend under the circumstances.

Indeed, in the recent past, the very idea of a payout to Flynn was difficult to imagine.

After Flynn was first charged by federal prosecutors — he was accused of lying to the FBI about conversations with the Russian government, lying to investigators about being a paid foreign agent and acting illegally as an unregistered foreign agent while working on Trump’s 2016 campaign — he admitted he lied, pleaded guilty twice in open court and became a cooperating witness with then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Flynn later changed lawyers, however, at which point he stopped helping the Mueller probe and decided he was no longer guilty of the crimes to which he had already pleaded guilty. Soon after, then-Attorney General Bill Barr took an interest in the case, and the DOJ announced it was dropping all of the charges against Trump’s former aide.

As difficult as it was to believe, Barr’s DOJ concluded it could not prove Flynn was guilty of crimes to which Flynn himself had already pleaded guilty. (A retired judge examined what transpired and ultimately accused the DOJ of exercising a “gross abuse of prosecutorial power.”)

Late on a Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving 2020, Trump quietly pardoned Flynn. It was among the most corrupt moves the president made in his first term.

The pardon, however, apparently wasn’t enough. Flynn also wanted a payout, claiming that federal law enforcement had subjected him to malicious prosecution when it charged him with crimes — and I can’t emphasize this enough — he had twice pleaded guilty to. Trump’s hyperpoliticized Justice Department agreed in a development that Mary B. McCord, an MS NOW legal and national security contributor, described as “a miscarriage of justice.”

The second settlement in a separate but related case now adds insult to injury.

There was a point between Trump’s first and second terms when he suggested that, should he return to power, he might very well bring Flynn back to the White House. It increasingly appears, however, that Flynn doesn’t need a job, since the president’s team keeps agreeing to send him taxpayer money.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Trump’s Justice Department finalizes second settlement with Michael Flynn appeared first on MS NOW.

The Duke of Sussex has returned to the UK, but his first day of engagements was overshadowed by his defeat in court.

Los helvéticos se presentan para enfrentar un duelo importante ante la Colombia de Nestor Lorenzo que ha jugado de gran forma en la Copa Mundial. ¿Quién se llevará el boleto a cuartos?