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☆ Appeals Court Denies Bannon’s Emergency Motion to Remain Free
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The three-judge appeals panel that denied Mr. Bannon’s emergency motion on Thursday was split, 2 to 1, with Judge Justin R. Walker dissenting. Judge Walker noted that Mr. Bannon was petitioning the Supreme Court to consider his case and wrote that he should remain free until it decides whether to hear his appeal. Mr. Bannon’s lawyers have argued that his case involves important legal questions surrounding the separation of powers. At trial, they argued that Mr. Bannon was acting on the advice of lawyers who counseled him that he could disregard the subpoena under former President Donald J. Trump’s executive privilege. Mr. Bannon had served briefly as Mr. Trump’s top political adviser in the White House but had left the position long before the attack on the Capitol.

Persons: Stephen K, Bannon’s, Bannon, Trump, Justin R, Walker, Judge Walker, Donald J, Trump’s Organizations: Capitol

☆ Jill Biden Hosts Gala, With Teachers as the Honored Dignitaries
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The hallmarks of a state dinner were there: lavish floral displays festooning the White House, the first lady arriving in a floor-length sequined gown, and members of Congress and cabinet secretaries mingling with attendees. But the honored guest was not the president of France or the prime minister of Japan. It was Missy Testerman of Rogersville City School in rural Tennessee. Jill Biden, the first lady, kicked off a new format for delivering the National Teacher of the Year award on Thursday by hosting this year’s winner, Ms. Testerman, and dozens of other teachers from across the country at the White House with a ceremony emulating the pomp normally reserved for foreign dignitaries. “Tonight we celebrate you because teaching isn’t just a job, it’s a calling,” Dr. Biden said, adding, “To answer this call of service is in itself an act of hope.”

Persons: Missy Testerman, Jill Biden, Testerman, Dr . Biden, isn’t, it’s, ” Dr, Biden, ” Organizations: Rogersville City School, White Locations: France, Japan, Tennessee

☆ Biden Cancels $6.1 Billion in Debt for Former Art Institute Students
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration on Wednesday canceled more than $6 billion in student debt for 317,000 people who attended the Art Institutes, a now-defunct network of for-profit colleges that President Biden said “knowingly misled” students. After a review of lawsuits brought by state attorneys general against the schools and their parent company, Education Management Corporation, the Education Department found that the Art Institutes falsified job placement figures in advertisements and misled prospective students with inflated salary expectations. In one case the department highlighted, an Art Institute campus in Florida appeared to have included the tennis star Serena Williams’s annual income in its graduate salary projections after she had attended classes there. “This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies,” President Biden said in a statement.

Persons: Biden, “, Serena, ” Organizations: Wednesday, Art Institutes, Education Management Corporation, Education Department, Art Institute Locations: Florida

☆ Biden’s State Dinner for Japan to Feature Paul Simon and Celebrate Spring
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The “bounty of spring” will be the theme of President Biden’s state dinner for Japan on Wednesday evening, an event that will feature decorations of cherry blossoms and peonies and conclude with a performance by Paul Simon. Jill Biden, the first lady, and the White House social secretary, Carlos Elizondo, previewed the menu and the décor ahead of the dinner for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and his wife. It will be the fifth state dinner of Mr. Biden’s term. The guests will enter the East Wing to a wall of oversized fans that spill onto the floor, a piece of art and a metaphor with “the small end representing the beginning of life, and each pleat the many paths our lives can take,” Mr. Elizondo said.

Persons: Biden’s, Paul Simon, Jill Biden, Carlos Elizondo, Fumio Kishida, Mr, Elizondo Organizations: Japan, White Locations: Japan

☆ Biden Will Visit Baltimore Next Week After Bridge Collapse
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden said on Friday that he would travel to Baltimore next week as officials race to manage the fallout from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Wes Moore of Maryland, a close political ally, as he visits the city a week after a cargo ship struck a pylon early Tuesday, plunging the bridge into the water below. The bodies of two construction workers who were fixing potholes on the bridge have been recovered, and four others are presumed dead. The disaster has paralyzed shipping in and out of the Port of Baltimore. On Thursday, the administration announced it would provide $60 million in “quick release” emergency relief that it described as “a down payment toward initial costs.” Mr. Biden has said the federal government would “pay the entire cost of reconstructing” the bridge.

Persons: Biden, Francis Scott Key, Wes Moore, Mr Organizations: Gov, Transportation Department, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, National Transportation Locations: Baltimore, Maryland, Port of Baltimore

☆ Appeals Court Denies Peter Navarro’s Motion to Remain Out of Prison
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Donald J. Trump during his presidency, will be required to report to prison after a federal appeals court on Thursday denied his all-but-final bid to remain free while appealing his conviction for contempt of Congress. The ruling meant that, barring an 11th-hour intervention by the Supreme Court, which his lawyers previously pledged to seek if necessary, Mr. Navarro will have to obey an order by the Bureau of Prisons and report to a federal prison in Miami by Tuesday, which would make him the first senior aide to Mr. Trump to serve time over his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Mr. Navarro, 74, was sentenced in January to four months in prison for refusing to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The committee had subpoenaed Mr. Navarro for documents and testimony, seeking his testimony about a plan he had devised to stall the certification of the election by holding up the counting of electoral votes. After receiving the subpoena, Mr. Navarro brushed off the committee based on the belief, he argued at trial, that Mr. Trump had directed him not to testify and to invoke executive privilege.

Persons: Peter Navarro, Donald J, Trump, Navarro, . Navarro, Mr Organizations: Supreme, Bureau of Prisons, Capitol Locations: Miami

☆ Judge to Review Prince Harry’s Visa Papers in Dispute Over Release
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to submit documents related to Prince Harry’s visa for the court to review after the department refused to release them to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, under the Freedom of Information Act. The Heritage Foundation has sued the department, contending that it has a right to see the documents as part of research into whether Prince Harry had been improperly allowed to reside in the United States given his admissions in his 2023 memoir and elsewhere that he had used cocaine and other drugs. The foundation had sought the documents specifically to investigate how the prince had been admitted, since certain visas on which he could have entered the United States require applicants to answer questions about past drug use and drug-related legal violations. Judge Carl J. Nichols of the Federal District Court in Washington ordered the department to submit the papers in question for his confidential review to determine whether they should be released in some form.

Persons: Prince, Prince Harry, Carl J, Nichols Organizations: Department of Homeland Security, Heritage Foundation, Federal, Court Locations: United States, United, Washington

☆ The Race to Save Our Secrets From the Computers of the Future
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The danger extends not just to future breaches but to past ones: Troves of encrypted data harvested now and in coming years could, after Q-Day, be unlocked. Current and former intelligence officials say that China and potentially other rivals are most likely already working to find and store such troves of data in hopes of decoding them in the future. Today, the most powerful quantum device uses 433 “qubits,” as the quantum equivalent of transistors are called. That figure would probably need to reach into the tens of thousands, perhaps even the millions, before today’s encryption systems would fall. But within the U.S. cybersecurity community, the threat is seen as real and urgent.

Persons: ”, Glenn S Organizations: National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department Locations: China, Russia, United States

☆ A Shutdown Is Looming. What Comes Next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The White House has begun advising federal agencies to prepare for a government shutdown as Republican lawmakers have shown no signs of progress in negotiations to keep the government funded beyond this week. The United States has experienced 21 gaps in government funding since 1976, leading to varying degrees of disruption. Under a worst-case scenario, the White House is warily eyeing a repeat of 2018, the longest and most recent shutdown, which sidelined roughly 800,000 of the federal government’s 2.1 million employees for 34 days. While much remains uncertain about how inevitable a shutdown may be or how long one may last, the broad contours of how it would play out are well-worn territory in Washington, and most agencies have readied plans for working through the tumult. A government shutdown amounts to a suspension of many government operations until Congress acts to restore funding.

Organizations: United Locations: United States, Washington

Ray Epps, the Trump supporter who was swept up in one of the most persistent right-wing conspiracy theories connected to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a single misdemeanor charge for his role in the attack on the Capitol. Prosecutors said at the hearing that aside from breaching the barricades outside the Capitol, Mr. Epps placed his hands on a giant Trump sign that the mob used as a battering ram against the police. Mr. Epps will face a maximum of one year in prison when he is sentenced in December. Mr. Epps, a former Marine and wedding venue owner who voted twice for Donald J. Trump, became the unlikely focus of a conspiracy theory promoted on Fox News and by right-wing commentators. It held that he had been a covert government asset who helped instigate the riot as a way of discrediting Trump supporters.

Persons: Ray Epps, Trump, Epps, Donald J Organizations: Capitol, Federal, Court, Justice Department, Prosecutors, Trump, Mr, Fox News Locations: Washington

☆ Jury Begins to Deliberate in Navarro’s Contempt of Congress Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal jury in Washington began deliberating on Thursday in the criminal trial of Peter Navarro, a top aide to President Donald J. Trump, who is charged with contempt of Congress after he ignored a subpoena last year from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. In delivering closing arguments, prosecutors and defense lawyers largely agreed on the facts in the case: that Mr. Navarro balked when ordered to cooperate with the panel. But in contention was whether that act amounted to a willful defiance of Congress, or a simple misunderstanding between Mr. Navarro and the committee’s staff. “The defendant, Peter Navarro, made a choice,” said Elizabeth Aloi, a prosecutor. “He didn’t want to comply and produce documents, and he didn’t want to testify, so he didn’t.”Detailing the House committee’s correspondence with Mr. Navarro, Ms. Aloi said that even after the panel asked Mr. Navarro to explain any opposition he had to giving sworn testimony, he continued to stonewall.

Persons: Peter Navarro, Donald J, Trump, Navarro, “, ”, Elizabeth Aloi, Aloi, Mr Locations: Washington, stonewall

☆ Peter Navarro to Face Contempt Trial Over Defiance of Jan. 6 Committee
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Zach Montague | More About Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For weeks after the 2020 election had been called, Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald J. Trump, worked closely with other senior aides to keep Mr. Trump in power for a second term. After being subpoenaed last year by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, which sought to learn more about those efforts, Mr. Navarro refused to comply, insisting that Mr. Trump had directed him not to cooperate and dismissing the subpoena as “illegal” and “unenforceable.”Now, after more than a year of legal wrangling, Mr. Navarro, 74, will defend those claims in a trial that starts Tuesday, when jury selection is expected to begin in Federal District Court in Washington. The case centers on a relatively simple question: whether he showed contempt for Congress in defying the House committee’s request for documents and testimony. The trial itself may be relatively short, and if Mr. Navarro were to be convicted on the two counts of contempt of Congress he is charged with, he could face up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $100,000 for each count.

Persons: Peter Navarro, Donald J, Trump, Navarro Organizations: Court Locations: Washington

Dominic Pezzola, the rank-and-file member of the Proud Boys who led the charge into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by shattering a window with a stolen police riot shield, was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison. It was only half of the 20 years that the government had requested and less than the punishment meted out to several rioters found guilty of assaulting the police. Mr. Pezzola, a flooring contractor from Rochester, N.Y., was the only one of the five men charged in the case who was found not guilty of sedition at the trial in Federal District Court in Washington. But the jury convicted him of six other felonies, including assaulting a police officer, a conspiracy to keep members of Congress from certifying the election and the destruction of one of the Capitol building’s windows. Despite telling Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who has overseen the Proud Boys sedition case, that he was remorseful and had given up on politics, Mr. Pezzola raised his fist before he was removed from the courtroom and shouted, “Trump won!”

Persons: Dominic Pezzola, Pezzola, Timothy J, Kelly, “ Trump Organizations: Capitol, Mr, Federal, Court Locations: Rochester, N.Y, Washington

Joseph Biggs, a onetime lieutenant in the Proud Boys, was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison after his conviction on charges of seditious conspiracy for plotting with a gang of pro-Trump followers to attack the Capitol and disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Biggs’s sentence was one of the stiffest penalties issued so far in more than 1,100 criminal cases stemming from the Capitol attack and among only a handful to have been legally labeled an act of terrorism. It was just over half of the 33 years the government had requested and just shy of the 18-year term given in May to Stewart Rhodes, the leader of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers militia, who was also found guilty of sedition. One of Mr. Biggs’s co-defendants, Zachary Rehl, is scheduled to be sentenced in front of Judge Kelly on Thursday afternoon. The Proud Boys — who had been fighting on the streets since 2017 for a range of far-right causes — became a central focus of the F.B.I.’s investigation into Jan. 6 within days of the Capitol attack.

Persons: Joseph Biggs, Stewart Rhodes, Judge Timothy J, Kelly, Enrique Tarrio, Biggs’s, Zachary Rehl, Judge Kelly, — Organizations: Trump, Federal, Court Locations: Washington

Mr. Fitzsimons’s sentence, handed down by Judge Rudolph Contreras in Federal District Court in Washington, was one of a growing list of stiff penalties given to rioters who attacked the police on Jan. 6. Image Mr. Fitzsimons at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Credit... via Justice DepartmentIn May, Peter Schwartz, a Pennsylvania welder who hurled a chair at officers and then assaulted them with chemical spray, was sentenced to slightly more than 14 years in prison. On Wednesday, Daniel Lyons Scott, a member of the Proud Boys who “bulldozed two officers,” prosecutors said, while leading a charge against the police outside the Capitol, was sentenced to five years in prison. Mr. Fitzsimons was sentenced the same day that another Jan. 6 defendant, Alan Hostetter, a former Southern California police chief, was convicted on four charges, including conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election that took place at the Capitol that day. Mr. Fitzsimons was convicted at a bench trial in September of 11 crimes, including the assaults.

Persons: Judge Rudolph Contreras, Fitzsimons, Peter Schwartz, Daniel Rodriguez, Michael Fanone, Daniel Lyons Scott, “, Alan Hostetter, Hostetter, Prosecutors, Fitzsimons’s, ” Organizations: Court, Capitol, Justice Department, Trump, Southern California police Locations: Washington, Pennsylvania, California, Southern California

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