Trump tries to block the public from seeing special counsel Jack Smith’s final report. Two federal death row inmates don’t want their sentence to be commuted by Biden. And a winter storm starts heading offshore of the eastern U.S. while California braces for high winds.
Here’s what to know today.
Trump seeks to block release of final report from Jack Smith
President-elect Donald Trump and his former co-defendants in the Florida classified documents case have launched an effort to block the release of a final report by special counsel Jack Smith that also addresses the election interference case.
The report in question is one that the special counsel’s office is required under Justice Department regulations to provide. Attorney General Merrick Garland can choose whether to make the confidential report public. Both the classified documents and election interference cases have been dismissed.
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Lawyers for Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, defendants in the classified documents case in Florida, filed a motion last night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block Smith from issuing his report, which they believe to be “imminent.” They cited Cannon’s ruling to dismiss the case against Trump in July because she argued Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers have sent a letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to stop Smith from releasing the report. In their letter, Trump’s team called Smith an “out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor.”
More Trump and politics news:
- A lead prosecutor in the classified documents case has left the Justice Department, retiring after 34 years. Trump also wants to replace the head of the National Archives.
- Congress formally certified Trump’s 2024 election victory exactly four years after the Capitol riot, returning Jan. 6 to its historical roots as a rote affair. Kamala Harris presided over the session.
- New York state Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s request to delay the Friday sentencing hearing in his hush money case.
- Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and “various representatives” will visit Greenland, the president-elect said as he ramps up calls to buy the territory owned by Denmark.
- Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court for not complying with orders to turn over information about his assets to the former Georgia election workers he defamed.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing a strategy to pass Trump’s agenda with one bill, which includes provisions about border security and tax policy and calls for extending the debt ceiling.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing a strategy to pass Trump’s agenda with one bill, which includes provisions about border security and tax policy and calls for extending the debt ceiling.
- President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden met in New Orleans with families, survivors and local law enforcement affected by the New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street. The White House also announced it would allocate additional federal resources to support the city’s preparations for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.
Cold weather in eastern U.S.; fire threat in California
A winter storm that plagued the eastern half of the U.S. is moving offshore, but the chilly weather is sticking around. High temperatures from northern Texas and the Plains to the Mid-Atlantic are expected to be 5 to 20 degrees below average.
Yesterday’s snow and cold weather caused thousands of flight delays, as well as power outages affecting hundreds of thousands customers.
At least four people have been killed in the winter storm, including a 61-year-old public works employee in Missouri who was performing snow removal operations, officials said. Also, two people were killed in a crash in Wichita, Kansas, and in Houston, a person was found dead because of cold weather.
While the eastern half of the country grapples with winter weather, California faced the flip side: “Extreme fire weather,” fueled by warm days and dry winds. The National Weather Service warned of 80 to 100 mph offshore winds in the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties and 50 to 80 mph offshore winds for the coastal flatlands, inland valleys and canyons of the Los Angeles area.
Follow our live blog for latest weather updates.
2 death row inmates reject Biden’s commutation
Two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden are refusing to sign the paperwork accepting the clemency. It’s an unusual stance — but Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, both inmates at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, believe a commuted sentence would put them at a legal disadvantage as they seek to appeal their cases based on claims of innocence. The men filed emergency motions on Dec. 30 seeking an injunction to block having their death sentences commuted to life in prison without parole.
Agofsky was convicted in the 1989 murder of an Oklahoma bank president and then in the 2001 stomping death of a fellow inmate while in prison in Texas. He disputes how he was charged in the stomping death and is trying to “establish his innocence” in the 1989 killing, according to his filing seeking an injunction.
Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, was convicted in the 1994 murder of Kim Graves, who had filed a complaint against him accusing him of beating a teenager in her neighborhood. Davis has maintained his innocence and has alleged “misconduct” against the Justice Department, according to his filing.
What happens next is up in the air, but legal experts said the pair face a daunting challenge in seeking to restore their death sentences.
‘Mob’ of college students attack man in ‘To Catch a Predator’-like trap, police say
Six students at a private Catholic university in Massachusetts were accused of luring an active duty service member to campus, who was falsely described as a sexual predator and chased by a group of more than two dozen people and assaulted, authorities said.
The incident happened at Assumption University in Worcester in October. One of the students charged told police that the plot was modeled on “To Catch a Predator,” NBC’s discontinued program that aimed to catch adults seeking to prey on minors, saying, “Catch a predator is a big thing on TikTok currently,” according to a statement of facts in the case. Last month, 11 Illinois teens were charged in a similar incident in a suburb near Chicago attributed to “a viral social media trend.”
In the Massachusetts case, one of the students now charged first told police that a “creepy” Tinder app contact had come to campus looking to meet a 17-year-old girl and called a friend who chased the person away, according to the statement. But the victim, a 22-year-old in the military, gave authorities a different account, which security video confirmed.
Read All About It
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he will resign as the leader of the ruling Liberal Party, citing polarization inside and outside the country and following growing calls for him to step down.
- A person in Louisiana has died from bird flu, marking the first human death from the H5N1 infection.
- The New York Giants are retaining its general manager and head coach — the chief architects of the team’s historically dismal season. Coaches in Jacksonville and New England weren’t as lucky.
- A 7.1.-magnitude earthquake struck near one of Tibet’s holiest cities, killing at least 95 people, Chinese state media reported.
- Longtime television sports firebrand Skip Bayless is accused in a lawsuit of offering a former Fox Sports hairstylist $1.5 million for sex.
Staff Pick: A secret from the Roman Empire buried in ice
The Romans had an air pollution problem — and it was making them dumber.
A new study suggests that silver smelting during the Roman Empire put so much lead into the atmosphere that it would have lowered Romans’ IQs by an average of 2.5-3 points. Scientists examined samples of ice in Greenland, which give molecular clues of past environmental conditions, and found strong concentrations of the heavy metal, which is a neurotoxin associated with learning disabilities, reproductive problems and mental health issues, among other effects. Scientists determined that dust particles from the ancient civilization wafted to Greenland some 2,000 years ago. The findings are the first clear example of industrial pollution in history, researchers say — and could offer clues into what led to Rome’s downfall. — Evan Bush, science reporter
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