Connect with us

News

CNN anchor presses Trump lawyer on Kagan military coup questioning

Published

on

CNN anchor presses Trump lawyer on Kagan military coup questioning

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins pressed an attorney for former President Trump on a line of questioning by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in the former president’s presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court Thursday.

“What are the circumstances where ordering a military coup is an official act of the presidency?” Collins said, referring to a back-and-forth between Kagan and Trump lawyer D. John Sauer in which she questioned him on presidential immunity in the case of a president ordering the military to stage a coup.

“When you’re talking about official acts, you don’t look to intent, you don’t look to purpose, you look to their underlying character,” Scharf responded. “So if that were — if that sort of situation were to unfold using the official powers of the president, you could see there being an aspect of officialness to that.”

The two went back and forth, and Collins later remarked that Sharf was making “a pretty brazen argument, that military coups could potentially be official acts.”

Sharf retorted that the argument is not meant to justify such things, but to define the scope of immunity presidents have been acting in office.

Advertisement

“Just because a military coup or any of these sort of parade of horribles could constitute an official act doesn’t mean that they’re right, doesn’t mean that they would be allowed under a constitutional system and doesn’t mean that we’re in any way shape or form justifying that,” he said. “What we’re talking about here, though, is the scope of immunity that presidents need to be able to rely on to discharge their core article to responsibilities as president.”

When asked about if a president ordering “the military to stage a coup” is an “official act” by Kagan on Thursday as the Supreme Court held a hearing on Trump’s claims of immunity, Sauer responded that “it could well be.”

On the same day of the Supreme Court hearing, the former president was in court in New York for his hush money case, which began last week. The case marks the first criminal trial of a former American president. He has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to reimbursements to his attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, who paid an adult film actor $130,000 prior to the 2016 election to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump, which he denies.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

News

Compass Direct LLC’s 2024 Registration in North Carolina

Published

on

Compass Direct LLC’s 2024 Registration in North Carolina

North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State
Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division
P.O. Box 29622
Raleigh, NC 27626-0622
Telephone: 919-814-5400
1. Application Type: ☐ Initial ☑ Renewal
2. Applicant’s Full Business Legal Name:
Compass Direct LLC
CAROLINA
4. Applicant’s Principal Street Address: 300 Independence Ave SE
City: Washington
State: DC
Fund-Raising Consultant
License Application
Form Issue Date: 10/21/2003 Revised 2/16/18
Page 1 of 2
3. Applicant’s Principal Telephone Number:
(202) 318-5050
5. Applicant’s Mailing Address: c/o Charles H. Nave, P.C., 316 Mountain Avenue SW
City: Roanoke
6. Applicant’s Internet Site Address:
N/A
Zip Code: 20003
State: VA
Zip Code: 24016
7. Applicant’s Contact Person Email Address:
secretary@compassprofessional.com
8. Legal Form of Applicant’s Business:
☐ Sole Proprietor/Individual
☑ Limited Liability Corporation
☐ Corporation
Limited Liability Partnership
☐ General Partnership
☐ Other
9. Applicant’s State of Establishment:
Delaware
10. Applicant’s Date of Establishment:
7/24/2023
11. For non-NC corporations: Provide either of the following to verify the applicant’s current legal existence:
1. Certificate of Existence or Certificate of Good Standing from state of incorporation dated no more than six months prior to
date of signing of application, or
2. Actual webpage screenshot found on a publicly accessible regulatory authority website dated no more than thirty (30) days prior to
the date the license application was signed that includes the following elements:

Exact name of the entity as it appears on the license application; and

Language clearly verifying its status as a corporation in good standing in the state of incorporation (i.e. “current” or “active”); and
• Date the information was printed on the face of the document.
For un-incorporated NC applicants: Provide a copy of your assumed name certificate filed with the register of deeds, showing the register of deeds’
stamp.
12. If Applicant’s principal place of business is located outside North Carolina, ATTACH list of street addresses of any applicant offices located in
North Carolina.
ATTACHMENT 12 included? ☐ Yes ☑ No NC office
☐ Yes
13. Are ANY of applicant’s’ owners, directors, officers, or employees RELATED as parent, spouse, child, or sibling to ANY of applicant’s other
directors, officers, owners, or employees?
☐ Yes ☑ No
If answer is YES, attach a brief written explanation. ATTACHMENT 13 included? ☐ Yes
14. Are ANY of applicant’s’ owners, directors, officers, or employees RELATED as parent, spouse, child, or sibling to ANY officer, director,
trustee, or employee of any charitable organization or sponsor under contract with applicant?
☐ Yes ☑ No
If answer is YES, attach a brief written explanation, ATTACHMENT 14 included?
15. Are ANY of applicant’s’ owners, directors, officers, or employees RELATED as parent, spouse, child, or sibling to ANY supplier or vendor
providing goods or services to any charitable organization or sponsor under contract with the applicant?
☐ Yes ☑ No
If answer is YES, attach a brief written explanation. ATTACHMENT 15 included? ☐ Yes
16. Within the last five (5) years, has the applicant, or any of the applicant’s directors, officers, employees, agents, or persons with a controlling
interest in the applicant been convicted of ANY felony?
☐ Yes ☑ No
ATTACHMENT 16 included? ☐ Yes
If answer is YES, attach a brief written explanation.
17. Within the last five (5) years, has the applicant, or any of the applicant’s directors, officers, employees, agents, or persons with a controlling
interest in the applicant been convicted of ANY misdemeanor arising from the conduct of a solicitation for ANY charitable organization or sponsor
OR charitable or sponsor purpose?
If answer is YES, attach a brief written explanation.
☐ Yes ☑ No
ATTACHMENT 17 included? ☐ Yes
18. Within the last five (5) years, has the applicant, or any of the applicant’s directors, officers, employees, agents, or persons with a controlling
interest in the applicant been enjoined from violating ANY charitable solicitation law in this or ANY other state?
☐ Yes ☑ No
ATTACHMENT 18 included?
If answer is YES, attach a brief written explanation.
Yes
\DISKSTATIONshareHotDocs TemplatesHotDocs AnswersFundraisersCD230905 CD 2023 Answers.anx

Continue Reading

News

Judge threatens jail if Donald Trump violates ‘hush money’ gag order

Published

on

Judge threatens jail if Donald Trump violates ‘hush money’ gag order

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s Manhattan “hush money” trial threatened to jail the former president if he continued to harass witnesses and jurors, after concluding that fines had failed to deter the defendant from repeatedly violating a court-imposed gag order.

Justice Juan Merchan issued the final warning as he found Trump in criminal contempt for a 10th time, over comments made online and to the media. The presumptive Republican nominee has so far been fined $10,000 — $1,000 per violation — which is the maximum financial penalty allowed by New York State law.

“Going forward, this court will have to consider jail sanction,” Merchan said on Monday morning, directly addressing Trump. He added this was “the last thing I want to do”.

Advertisement

“There are many reasons why incarceration is truly the last resort for me,” Merchan continued. “The magnitude of the decision is not lost on me.”

Under the relevant statute, defendants held in criminal contempt can be sent to jail for 30 days. However, the constitutional questions raised by imprisoning a presidential candidate have not been raised before, nor have the logistical arrangements required for remanding a defendant who travels with a Secret Service detail been considered.

Merchan’s caution came as he found Trump in criminal contempt for a television interview last month in which he had claimed it was “unfair” that the jury had been picked from an area that was “95 per cent Democrats”. This comment “not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the spectre of fear for the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones,” the judge concluded in a written order.

However, Merchan declined to hold Trump in contempt for three other comments that prosecutors had claimed violated the order. Two statements to the media in which Trump attacked his former fixer — and potential star witness — Michael Cohen may have been “protected political speech made in response to political attacks”, he wrote.

Trump’s lawyers had claimed that their client was merely responding to vituperative attacks by Cohen, a vocal critic of the former president and a ubiquitous media presence. 

Advertisement

Merchan again agreed with Trump’s defence team over a comment in which Trump had said that witness David Pecker, the former tabloid publisher, had “been very nice”. The court “cannot find beyond a reasonable doubt that the statement in question constituted a veiled threat to Mr Pecker or to other witnesses,” Merchan wrote.

In his comments to Trump in court, Merchan left no doubt that he would not err on the side of leniency if further violations warranted a sterner response.

“I cannot allow [the violations] to continue,” he said. “I have done everything I can”.

On his way into court on Monday, Trump once again complained that Merchan had “taken away [his] constitutional right to speak”.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Columbia University cancels its main commencement ceremony after weeks of turmoil

Published

on

Columbia University cancels its main commencement ceremony after weeks of turmoil

Protesters seen in tents on Columbia University’s campus on April 24. The school later suspended protesters who didn’t leave, and called New York City police to arrest those who occupied a building on campus.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images


Protesters seen in tents on Columbia University’s campus on April 24. The school later suspended protesters who didn’t leave, and called New York City police to arrest those who occupied a building on campus.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

After a tumultuous few weeks on campus, Columbia University is changing its graduation plans, canceling its main ceremony to focus on multiple school-specific celebrations instead.

Officials at the New York City institution said in their Monday announcement that based on feedback from students, they will prioritize Class Days and school-level ceremonies, “where students are honored individually alongside their peers,” rather than the universitywide ceremony that had been scheduled for May 15.

Advertisement

“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” the announcement reads. “They are eager to cross the stage to applause and family pride and hear from their school’s invited guest speakers. As a result, we will focus our resources on those school ceremonies and on keeping them safe, respectful, and running smoothly.”

As part of that effort, the university is relocating those ceremonies, which were originally scheduled to take place on the South Lawn — where protesters picketed and camped out in tents for two weeks, calling for an end to war in Gaza and university investment in Israel, until police cleared out campus last Wednesday.

Those ceremonies will move to the Baker Athletics Complex, Columbia’s main venue for outdoor sports. The events will run from May 10-16, with tickets required. Columbia College will hold its ceremony on the morning of May 14, followed by the affiliated Barnard College the next day.

Columbia President Minouche Shafik had previously requested a New York Police Department presence on campus through at least May 17, “to maintain order and ensure encampments are not reestablished.”

She wrote to the NYPD on April 30, as police arrived to remove pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied a building on campus earlier that day. It was the second time that month that Shafik called in city police to break up protests on campus.

Advertisement

Police broke up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” and arrested more than 100 people on April 18, the day after it was first set up. Demonstrators regrouped, forming another encampment that continued to grow even as administrators negotiated with student activists over an agreement that would result in its removal.

On April 29, after negotiations stalled, Columbia began suspending students who did not heed its warning to leave the encampment by 2 p.m. The next day, dozens of students began occupying Hamilton Hall — in an echo of the school’s 1968 protests — and barricading themselves inside.

The university — which had already shifted to hybrid learning for the rest of the semester — was essentially under lockdown. Police entered Hamilton Hall, arresting 112 protesters. New York City officials said over the weekend that 29% of them were not affiliated with the school.

Shafik has faced widespread criticism and calls to resign from both sides of the aisle over her handling of the protest, though maintains the backing of Columbia’s board of trustees.

Officials acknowledged on Monday that “these past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for our community.”

Advertisement

And they said they are continuing to solicit student feedback about the possibility of a “festive event on May 15 to take the place of a large, formal ceremony.”

Columbia is the second major university to cancel part of its graduation ceremony. The University of Southern California announced in late April that it would cancel its main graduation ceremony, several days and considerable backlash after it scrapped its valedictorian speech over security concerns.

Other schools are forging ahead with graduation as planned, but expecting — and for some, already experiencing — protests during the day. Over the weekend, students and faculty at Indiana University held an alternate graduation ceremony, while dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters waving flags and banners briefly disrupted the University of Michigan’s graduation.

Continue Reading

Trending