Raw Story: ‘Bad situation’: Expert warns Trump in legal jeopardy with ‘significant’ Epstein admission

Posted on July 30, 2025 by M

A legal expert warned President Donald Trump on Tuesday that he may have put himself in legal jeopardy by admitting he knew one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.

Trump told reporters earlier on Tuesday that Epstein “stole” Virginia Giuffre from him when she was employed at Mar-a-Lago. That claim could backfire on Trump because it shows that he knew one of the central victims in the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, according to Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University.

Goodman pointed to Maxwell’s 2022 sentencing, where the judge enhanced her sentence to 20 years because of Giuffre’s testimony.

“It’s that much of a significant statement,” Goodman told Erin Burnett on CNN’s “OutFront.” “If he had said he was aware of it from the court documents, then he’s ok in that regard. But I think that’s a very potentially bad situation for him to be in.”

Trump has fiercely tried to distance himself from the Epstein files saga, which has consumed his presidency for the last three weeks. However, his attempts appear to be falling short.

For example, multiple outlets have published previously unreported ties between the two men. The Wall Street Journal published a letter that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday. The New York Times has published details from one of Epstein’s accusers, and CNN has published previously unseen photos of the two men together at different events in the 1990s.

Trump’s comments come at a time when Maxwell has agreed to testify before Congress. Trump’s Justice Department has met with Maxwell and her lawyer multiple times, and some experts have suggested that Trump may pardon Maxwell in exchange for damaging testimony against Trump’s political rivals.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2673782213

Raw Story: Texas GOP poised to sink Trump DOJ’s plan to ‘screw over Democrats’: report

Posted on July 15, 2025 by M

The Trump administration’s efforts to make Texas a less competitive state in the midterm elections could be sunk by the state’s Republican party, according to a report by Democracy Docket.

At issue is a request from Trump’s Department of Justice for Texas state officials to redraw their congressional map. The request came in a letter sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi shortly after the deadly flood that killed more than 100 people in central Texas last week.

In the letter, dated July 7, Bondi says four congressional districts in Texas are unconstitutional because they were drawn using “race-based considerations.” Three Democrats currently hold seats in the contested districts: Rep. Al Green, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, and Rep. Mark Veasey. The fourth district is currently vacant, but was formerly held by Rep. Sylvester Turner before he died in March.

However, court testimony obtained by Democracy Docket shows DOJ’s underlying premise for redrawing the districts is false. Republican State Sen. Joan Huffman, who worked on the state’s 2021 redistricting effort, told a court on July 10 that he drew the congressional maps “blind to race.”

Voting rights lawyer Mark Elias said Sunday on Democracy Docket’s YouTube channel that this admission could completely upend Texas’s efforts to “screw over Democrats” in the upcoming 2026 primary election.

“Oh, what a tangled web they have weaved,” Elias said.

Experts have long considered Texas one of the worst gerrymandered states for congressional elections. The Gerrymandering Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that identifies loopholes in state voting maps, gave Texas an “F” for its congressional election map because it creates a “significant Republican advantage.”

The efforts to make Texas less competitive also come at a time when Republicans are seeking to protect their slim majority in the House of Representatives. Over the last week, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) both announced their retirement, which could complicate the Republicans’ ability to pass any legislation ahead of the midterms.

Texas GOP poised to sink Trump DOJ’s plan to ‘screw over Democrats’: report

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-2673149328

Raw Story: Travesty’: Ex-presidents issue rare rebuke of Trump as major agency axed

Posted on July 5, 2025 by M

Obama:

A pair of former U.S. presidents issued a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump on Monday in a farewell meeting to former employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Former president Barack Obama called Trump’s decision to shutter the agency “a travesty.” He also credited the agency with both saving lives and creating economic growth across the globe.

Bush:

Former president George W. Bush chided Trump for gutting a program within USAID known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which he credited with saving 25 million lives across the world.

“You’ve showed the great strength of America through your work — and that is your good heart,’’ Bush said in a pre-recorded message. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.”

Our resident fascist:

Trump has raged against USAID since the day he took office for his second term. One of the first executive orders Trump signed described U.S. foreign aid offices as being “not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”

He then sent Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to investigate USAID’s spending and recommend ways to reduce the agency’s financial prowess. Musk described USAID as “a criminal organization” and “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.”

And one of the fascist’s royal suck-ups:

The pressure had its intended impact. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who previously described USAID as an agency with “amazing achievements,” swiftly recommended cutting 83% of programs under the agency’s umbrella.

Travesty’: Ex-presidents issue rare rebuke of Trump as major agency axed

https://www.rawstory.com/usaid-2672503313

Raw Story: ‘We are alarmed’: University staff condemn Trump DOJ as president forced out

Posted on July 1, 2025 by M

More than 100 professors and staff from the University of Virginia signed an open letter on Friday opposing the efforts of the Department of Justice to force out university president Jim Ryan.

Ryan was the subject of a pressure campaign mounted by the Justice Department’s two top civil rights lawyers, Harmeet Dillon and Gregory Brown. The two layers reportedly asked Ryan to resign to resolve a federal inquiry into whether the university had shut down its diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs.

The New York Times reported that Ryan submitted his letter of resignation on Thursday and expressed “deep sadness” about his decision.

“We are alarmed by the attempted use of government power to impose an ideological agenda on an institution with a proud, 206-year tradition of liberty in thought and expression,” the letter reads in part.

“The forced installation of a new president under these circumstances would impede the exchange of ideas, set a dangerous precedent for the destruction of academic freedom, and cast a shadow on the integrity of the research and teaching conducted at the university,” it continues.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2672460735

Raw Story: ‘Slippery slope’: Experts sound alarm on Trump’s new National Guard tactic

Posted on June 30, 2025 by M

A new report suggests that President Donald Trump’s administration sent National Guard troops in Los Angeles to assist the Drug Enforcement Administration in a law enforcement operation about 130 miles outside the city, in a move that experts say seems unlawful.

According to the report, around 315 National Guard troops were sent to the eastern Coachella Valley region to help the DEA search a local marijuana growing operation. The DEA asked the National Guard for assistance due to the “magnitude and topography” of the operation.

Legal experts expressed alarm at the move.

“This is the slippery slope,” Ryan Goodman, law professor at New York University, wrote on Bluesky.

Federal law prohibits the National Guard from replacing local law enforcement agencies under the Posse Comitatus Act. There are limited instances where the National Guard can be used in law enforcement operations, such as to quell a rebellion. But the guardsmen have to be invited by a state’s governor under the law.

‘Slippery slope’: Experts sound alarm on Trump’s new National Guard tactic

https://www.rawstory.com/national-guard-2672436557

Raw Story: New Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi promotion gives disgraced county clerk a key new ally

Posted on June 19, 2025 by M

Disgraced county election clerk Tina Peters has a new ally in the U.S. District of Colorado’s office after Attorney General Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi appointed Peter McNeilly to become the next U.S. attorney on Monday.

…

McNeilly was part of a Justice Department cadre who filed a Statement of Interest in March concerning Peters’s election interference case. In August, Peters was convicted on seven counts, including four felonies, for helping a man illegally access Mesa County election voting machines. She was sentenced to nine years in prison.

…

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser vehemently objected to the review and called on the judge to reject the federal government’s filing. Weiser claimed it was a “naked, political attempt to threaten or intimidate this Court or the attorneys that prosecuted this matter.”

“The United States cites not a single fact to support its baseless allegations that there are any reasonable concerns about Ms. Peters’ prosecution or sentence, or that the prosecution was politically motivated,” Weiser wrote in a response to the Statement of Interest.

Raw Story: New Pam Bondi promotion gives disgraced county clerk a key new ally

https://www.rawstory.com/pam-bondi-2672385875

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