What will Trump’s second-term DOJ look like?
President-elect Donald Trump appointed former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as attorney general after Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration.
Bondi has previously blasted the deep state for promoting a false conspiracy theory that FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors were part of a covert cabal attempting to discredit Trump, and he has called for the prosecution of bad prosecutors who indicted Trump over attempts to rig the 2020 election.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead criminal defense attorney in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, was appointed second-in-command at the Justice Department.
Some current and former DOJ officials are worried that Blanche won’t oppose Trump because of their relationship with him, while others are cautiously hopeful that he will stop some of the worst-case scenarios they have been imagining.
Because he is a reputable attorney and a former Justice Department official, people are feeling better about Blanche, according to one official, but that is a reflection of the low expectations.
UAE arrests three people linked to rabbi’s murder
Three people have been taken into custody by UAE authorities in relation to the murder of an Israeli rabbi from Moldova who was discovered dead in the nation. Since Thursday, Rabbi Zvi Kogan, the spokesperson for Chabad Lubavitch, a prominent Orthodox Jewish Hasidic group with headquarters in New York, has been absent from the Gulf state.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his nation would pursue the maximum legal remedies against the criminals who killed him.
In another incident over the weekend, a shooting near the Israeli Embassy in neighboring Jordan left a shooter dead and three police officers hurt. Mohamed Momani, the minister of government communications for Jordan, called the shooting a terror assault that targeted the nation’s public security services.
Urologist accused of sexually abusing hundreds
In 2006, 27-year-old BR started seeing aurologist Dr. Darius Paduch for groin pain.
According to BR, Paduch ordered BR to masturbate in front of him before examining and taking pictures of him. The associate general counsel at the hospital where Paduch worked was informed by BR approximately twelve years later. Paduch stayed on staff until March 2020 and kept seeing patients for another year.
After joining a hospital on Long Island, Paduch was reported to management by at least one individual. Only after being caught and accused with sexually abusing seven former patients—five of them were youths under the age of eighteen—was he fired in April 2023.
BR is one of hundreds of men who have sued the institutions, alleging that they allowed Paduch to sexually abuse patients under his supervision and did nothing to stop it.
Meet the Press
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., proposed that firing any Justice Department employees who worked on cases including charges against the president-elect should be one of Trump’s top objectives when he takes office.
First and foremost, Schmitt advised moderator Kristen Welker that those responsible for this should be dismissed right away.
We’ll see where that goes, he continued. “And anybody part of this, this effort to keep President Trump off the ballot and to hang him for the rest of his life because they didn’t like his politics and who continue to cast him as a quote, unquote threat to democracy, was wrong.”
Schmitt said that he would support Pam Bondi in her bid to become attorney general. He described Pam Bondi’s pick as a “home run” by President Trump and stated, “I intend to help her get the votes.”
The entire interview is available to view here.
Politics in brief
Legal challenges surrounding abortion: Out of the ten pro-abortion rights proposals that were on the national ballot in November, seven of them were approved. The organizations that supported them are making efforts to guarantee their successful implementation.
Promotion halted: As Trump’s transition team considers potential court-martial procedures, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin has delayed the promotion of a general who commanded soldiers in Afghanistan during the U.S. departure.
The first openly transgender person elected to Congress, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, responded by calling Republicans’ attempt to prohibit her from using women’s restrooms “mean-spirited and a distraction.”
A more affordable Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving dinner is more reasonably priced than it has been in decades, even though sticker prices may not tell you this.
The American Farm Bureau Federation conducted a nationwide survey of grocery costs and found that fresh cranberries are at their lowest price since 2015, sweet potatoes are 26% cheaper, and turkey is 6% cheaper than last year.
Of course, it doesn’t feel that way for many households. However, the AFBF research states that several of the items in our basket are at their lowest costs ever, even when considering the current dollar price, despite the dollar’s declining purchasing power.
Chef Caroline Choe told NBC News how banchan, or Korean side dishes, may be used to mix up your typical Thanksgiving fare while families shop.
A ‘Pop-u-lar’ movie combo
Moviegoers, rejoice again! To start the holiday season, the witches and warriors one-two punch produced a successful weekend at the box office.
With an estimated $114 million in North America alone, Wicked, the first of two cinematic adaptations of the popular Broadway musical, ruled the box office. The sequel to the historical blockbuster from 2000, Gladiator II, made about $55.5 million.
Many were encouraged to embrace the Glickedcombo as a similar cinematic event, complete with costumes, merchandise, and other types of fan involvement, even though it fell short of last year’s Bernheimer craze.
One fan who watched both films on opening night commented, “It’s such a big event: You have your Broadway theater people and then obviously you have people just wanting to have a good time at the movies.” The entire atmosphere is thrilling.
In case you missed it
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Forecasters are increasingly calling for
a cold, soggy Thanksgiving week
as west-to-east winter-pattern storms continued to roll across the continental landscape.
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Nearly 50,000 people from 200 countries came to Azerbaijan for a major climate change conference.
It
s been marked by deepening divides and infighting.
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Many families have been
effectively cutting a second rent check to send their kids to day care
as costs soar, according to new data from the Department of Labor.
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Is a cold plunge or a hot bath
better for athletes after vigorous exercise?
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A $6 million banana took the internet by storm. Yet in much of the broader art world,
it lacked a certain a-peel
.
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A 51-year mystery has been partly solved as a girl whose body was found in a wooded area in 1973
has finally been identified
as a missing schoolgirl.
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Max Verstappen
clinched his fourth Formula 1 world championship
Saturday night under the bright lights of Las Vegas, cementing his standing among the legends of the sport.
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North America s top professional sports leagues are warning their players about
a growing threat from organized burglary rings
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, whose tools of choice are passports, cutting-edge technology and a 90-day calendar.