Trump set to welcome Colombian president to White House for talks
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
President Donald Trump is set to welcome Colombian president Gustavo Petro to the White House on Tuesday for talks just weeks after threatening military action against the South American country and accusing the leader of pumping cocaine into the United States.
US administration officials say the meeting will focus on regional security cooperation and counternarcotics efforts, AP reported.
And Trump on Monday suggested that Petro – who has continued to criticize Trump and the US operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro – is more willing to work with his administration to stem the flow of illegal drugs from Colombia.
“Somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice,” Trump told reporters. “He changed his attitude very much.”
However, in recent days, Petro has continued to criticize the US president, calling Trump an “accomplice to genocide” in the Gaza Strip, while asserting that the capture of Maduro was a kidnapping.
And ahead of his departure for Washington, Petro called on Colombians to take to the streets of Bogotá during the White House meeting.
In other developments:
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Grammys host Trevor Noah has been threatened with legal action by Donald Trump for a joke during Sunday’s awards ceremony about the president’s connection to the disgraced late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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A US disaster response firm submitted a plan to White House officials that would guarantee 300% profits and a seven-year monopoly over a new trucking and logistics plan for Donald Trump’s board of peace in Gaza, according to a November proposal obtained by the Guardian.
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The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said that all federal agents in Minneapolis will immediately begin wearing body cameras and that the program will be expanded nationwide “as funding is available”.
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Iran’s top diplomat has said the government is ready for negotiations with the US as the two countries reportedly prepared to send top envoys to Istanbul for high-stakes talks on the Iranian nuclear programme later this week.
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Donald Trump has been accused of “corruption, plain and simple” after it was revealed that a member of the Emirati royal family was behind a $500m investment into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company.
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Immediately after a US border patrol agent shot two people in Oregon last month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the targets were “vicious” gang members connected to a prior shooting and alleged they had “attempted to run over” officers with their vehicle.
Key events
Top Trump adviser slams federal judge’s ruling that blocks end of TPS for Haitians
The president has yet to respond to a federal judge’s ruling on Monday to block the end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 300,000 Haitians in the US, that was set to expire today. However, one of his top advisers, Stephen Miller, has weighed in. “An unelected judge has just ruled that elections, laws and borders don’t exist,” he said of Ana Reyes, the DC federal judge who was appointed by Joe Biden.
A reminder, TPS is a type of status that allows nationals fleeing designated countries for various humanitarian reasons — such as war or natural disaster — to attain temporary authorization live and and work in the country without risk of deportation. In that period a TPS beneficiary is able to apply for a visa or permanent residency if eligible.
The Trump administration has long deemed these immigrants as “illegal”, but they are – by definition — living in the country legally and have documented proof with federal immigration services that they are present in the US.
As we noted, Donald Trump is in Washington today, per his official schedule. He’ll meet with Gustav Petro at 11am ET, but as of now this isn’t open to the press.
We’ll make sure to bring you the latest lines if that does open up. The president will also have time to executive orders and legislation this afternoon, so we’ll check back to see if he invites reporters for the Oval Office for that too.
Trump says seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard
President Donald Trump said yesterday that his administration would seek $1 billion in damages from Harvard University after a New York Times report said the college had won some concessions in ongoing settlement negotiations with the government.
Trump administration officials have accused Harvard and other colleges of promoting so-called “woke” ideology while failing to sufficiently protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests, filing legal complaints and demanding exorbitant payouts.
Critics have called it a pressure campaign by the administration on liberal universities.
“We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from stripping temporary protected status from up to 350,000 Haitians, a status that allows them to legally live and work in the United States amid the turmoil in their homeland.
Judge Ana Reyes issued a temporary stay that prevents Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, from implementing her decision to remove the status known as TPS, which was scheduled to expire on Tuesday.
Reyes notes that Noem, in announcing her decision to revoke TPS for Haitians, referred to those seeking refuge in the US as “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies”.
She then notes that the plaintiffs who asked her to block the order, five Haitian TPS holders, “are not, it emerges, ‘killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies’”.
“They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse”, the judge added.
Victoria Bekiempis
The release of about 3m Jeffrey Epstein investigative files has failed to quell outrage over justice department officials’ handling of these disclosures, with advocates claiming potentially millions of documents are still being withheld.
Donald Trump’s Department of Justice was required to disclose all investigative files by 19 December under The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA). While the justice department did release some documents on that date, last week’s disclosure came nearly six weeks after this deadline.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who served as Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, told reporters last week that this disclosure marked “the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people and compliance with the act”.
“After submitting the final report to Congress as required under the act and publishing the written justifications for redactions in the Federal Register, the department’s obligations under the act will be completed,” Blanche said.
He also said that while the justice department had found “more than 6m pages being identified as potentially responsive” that was because “we erred on the side of over-collection of materials from various sources to best ensure maximum transparency”.
“The number of responsive pages is significantly smaller than the total number of pages initially collected,” Blanche added. “That’s why I mentioned a moment ago we’re releasing more than 3m pages today and not the 6m pages that we collected.”
The missed deadline and up to 3m files that remain unreleased have prompted criticism and calls for further disclosure to answer how Epstein sexually abused girls with impunity for decades and landed a sweetheart plea deal about 20 years ago that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution.
“The government continues to avoid accountability and has argued that they are not responsible for Epstein’s abuse of hundreds of victims,” said Jennifer Plotkin of Merson Law, which represents more than 30 victims, said. “The release of the files proves the government failed the victims over and over again.”
US judge to hear request for ‘immediate takedown’ of Epstein files
A federal judge said he would hear a request to block access to investigative files linked to Epstein on Wednesday, after lawyers flagged unredacted names of victims.
The Justice Department released more than three million files last week related to the investigation into the disgraced financier, including his links to high-profile figures.
The department was left scrambling after names of alleged victims, who were supposed to be anonymized, were left unredacted, AFP reported.
In a letter to judges overseeing the case, lawyers representing the victims listed documents in the latest cache they said revealed victims’ names and some personal details.
Clintons agree to testify in House Epstein investigation
Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed on Monday to testify in a House investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, days before the chamber was expected to vote to hold them in contempt of Congress.
The concession follows a tense back-and-forth between the Clintons and the Republican James Comer, chair of the House oversight committee, who on Monday said that he would insist both Clintons sit for a sworn deposition before the committee in order to fulfill the panel’s subpoenas.
“They negotiated in good faith. You did not,” Angel Ureña, a spokesman for the Clintons, replied to Comer, in a post on social media. “They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care. But the former president and former secretary of state will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
The House was headed towards potential votes this week on criminal contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons. If passed, the charges threatened the Clintons with substantial fines and even incarceration if they were convicted.
“The Clintons do not get to dictate the terms of lawful subpoenas,” Comer said.
See the full report here:
Trump set to welcome Colombian president to White House for talks
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
President Donald Trump is set to welcome Colombian president Gustavo Petro to the White House on Tuesday for talks just weeks after threatening military action against the South American country and accusing the leader of pumping cocaine into the United States.
US administration officials say the meeting will focus on regional security cooperation and counternarcotics efforts, AP reported.
And Trump on Monday suggested that Petro – who has continued to criticize Trump and the US operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro – is more willing to work with his administration to stem the flow of illegal drugs from Colombia.
“Somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice,” Trump told reporters. “He changed his attitude very much.”
However, in recent days, Petro has continued to criticize the US president, calling Trump an “accomplice to genocide” in the Gaza Strip, while asserting that the capture of Maduro was a kidnapping.
And ahead of his departure for Washington, Petro called on Colombians to take to the streets of Bogotá during the White House meeting.
In other developments:
-
Grammys host Trevor Noah has been threatened with legal action by Donald Trump for a joke during Sunday’s awards ceremony about the president’s connection to the disgraced late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
-
A US disaster response firm submitted a plan to White House officials that would guarantee 300% profits and a seven-year monopoly over a new trucking and logistics plan for Donald Trump’s board of peace in Gaza, according to a November proposal obtained by the Guardian.
-
The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said that all federal agents in Minneapolis will immediately begin wearing body cameras and that the program will be expanded nationwide “as funding is available”.
-
Iran’s top diplomat has said the government is ready for negotiations with the US as the two countries reportedly prepared to send top envoys to Istanbul for high-stakes talks on the Iranian nuclear programme later this week.
-
Donald Trump has been accused of “corruption, plain and simple” after it was revealed that a member of the Emirati royal family was behind a $500m investment into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company.
-
Immediately after a US border patrol agent shot two people in Oregon last month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the targets were “vicious” gang members connected to a prior shooting and alleged they had “attempted to run over” officers with their vehicle.
