Politics
Graham slams soft-on-crime Bragg for targeting Trump while New Yorkers ‘lucky’ not to get ‘mugged’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spoke out Saturday in opposition to a potential indictment of former President Donald Trump from the Manhattan District Lawyer’s workplace, urging the 2024 GOP presidential candidate to struggle again and “take this all the way in which to the rattling Supreme Court docket.”
“The prosecutor in New York has achieved extra to assist Donald Trump get elected president than any single particular person in America immediately,” mentioned Graham, talking from Charleston, South Carolina, on the Palmetto Household Council’s Imaginative and prescient ’24 Discussion board, a distinguished conservative Christian occasion.
In New York Metropolis, “you are fortunate if you aren’t getting mugged on the way in which to the place you are going. Is that this actually crucial factor occurring in Manhattan?” Graham questioned. “I feel that is an effort that is ongoing, by no means ending to destroy Donald Trump, the whole lot round Donald Trump.”
MCCARTHY DIRECTS COMMITTEES TO PROBE WHETHER FEDERAL FUNDS WERE USED IN POTENTIAL TRUMP INDICTMENT
Graham additionally questioned the authorized reasoning behind the potential indictment, quoting a New York Occasions report that mentioned the potential prices rested on an “untested and due to this fact dangerous authorized principle.”
GOP South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, proper, spoke Saturday in regards to the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump by the workplace Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg, left. (Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg through Getty Photos, AP Photograph/Meg Kinnard )
“They’re making stuff up that they’ve by no means used in opposition to anyone as a result of they hate Trump. That is what that is. They’re brewing a authorized cocktail, to attempt to provide you with some weird principle,” Graham mentioned. “The legislation by no means utilized by anyone in New York, simply because they hate Trump. You already know why they’re doing this? As a result of they’re afraid of Trump. That is why they’re doing it.”
Graham referred to the concentrating on of Trump as “selective prosecution” and mentioned that if he had been Trump, he would “take this all the way in which to the rattling Supreme Court docket.”
The feedback from Graham, who has endorsed Trump within the 2024 race for president, observe reviews that the Manhattan District Lawyer’s workplace could also be making ready to problem an indictment for alleged hush cash funds Trump made as a presidential candidate in 2016.
A courtroom supply instructed Fox Information Digital that Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace will meet with legislation enforcement to “focus on logistics for a while subsequent week, which might imply that they’re anticipating an indictment subsequent week.”
The potential indictment would doubtless stem from the years-long investigation surrounding Trump’s alleged hush cash scandal involving porn actress Stormy Daniels. In the direction of the tip of the 2016 presidential marketing campaign, Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen despatched $130,000 to Daniels to stop her from disclosing her 2006 affair with Trump. Trump reimbursed Cohen by way of installments.
TRUMP GEARS UP FOR 2024 RALLY IN WACO, TEXAS AMID ONGOING FEDERAL INVESTIGATION, POSSIBLE NY INDICTMENT

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., proper, speaks on the Imaginative and prescient ’24 convention on March 18, 2023, in North Charleston, S.C., as Palmetto Household board chairman Tony Beam seems on. (AP Photograph/Meg Kinnard)
Like Graham, different Republican lawmakers are additionally pushing again in opposition to the potential Trump indictment, together with Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who mentioned Saturday he’s directing Home committees to research whether or not federal funds are getting used for “politically motivated prosecutions” like that of Trump.
“Right here we go once more — an outrageous abuse of energy by a radical DA who lets violent criminals stroll as he pursues political vengeance in opposition to President Trump,” McCarthy wrote in a tweet.
Bragg has been criticized for downgrading half of all felony prices in Manhattan final 12 months, together with armed robberies of business companies, and for different progressive crime insurance policies.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., mentioned Bragg “permits violent criminals to stroll the streets, but abuses the rule of legislation & powers of his workplace to focus on political opponents in partisan witchhunts. He’s unfit for workplace.”
Reached for remark Friday, the Manhattan District Lawyer’s workplace would neither “affirm or remark” on the upcoming indictment.
PELOSI, DEMS CALLS TRUMP’S ARREST WARNING ‘RECKLESS,’ ACCUSE HIM OF FOMENTING ‘UNREST’

South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks as former President Donald Trump, left, and Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, hear throughout a marketing campaign occasion in Columbia, South Carolina, on Jan. 28, 2023. (Sam Wolfe/Bloomberg through Getty Photos)
Trump lashed out on the reviews, saying they point out he can be arrested subsequent week on his Fact Social app Saturday morning, telling his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE BACK OUR NATION.”
“NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,” Trump wrote.
Amid a potential indictment, Trump is planning to journey to Waco, Texas, subsequent weekend for what would be the first main rally of his 2024 presidential marketing campaign.
Fox Information’ Adam Shaw, Marta Dhanis, Adam Sabes, and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

Politics
Gold bars stashed in Dem senator’s home recovered after 2013 violent robbery

Several gold bars discovered by federal agents in Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s residence as part of a high-profile bribery investigation can be traced to a violent robbery a decade ago.
According to a sprawling indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in September, Menendez and his wife allegedly played a role in a years-long bribery scheme that involved the Egyptian government and local businessmen including Fred Daibes, a wealthy New Jersey real estate developer. Prosecutors revealed they retrieved multiple gold bars from Menendez’s home which were allegedly used as payment in the scheme.
At least four of the gold bars discovered by investigators can be linked to Daibes, both because of their unique engraved serial numbers and thanks to court documents related to a 2013 robbery which Daibes was a victim of, an NBC New York investigation revealed Monday. In November 2013, four assailants beat and robbed Daibes at gunpoint in his Edgewater, New Jersey, apartment, stealing 22 gold bars, jewelry and cash.
“Each gold bar has its own serial number,” Daibes told local investigators in a 2014 transcript obtained by NBC New York. “They’re all stamped … you’ll never see two stamped the same way.”
5 EXPLOSIVE REVELATIONS FROM DEM SEN BOB MENENDEZ’S BOMBSHELL FEDERAL INDICTMENT
An evidence photo published in the September federal indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., shows a gold bar with the serial number “590005.” The same gold bar was stolen in a 2013 robbery. (United States District Court )
Photographs released by the Department of Justice in September showing the gold bars discovered at Menendez’s home, for example, reveal one of the bars has a serial number of “590005.” Daibes reported a gold bar with that same serial number stolen during the 2013 heist, NBC New York reported.
And the federal indictment notes that the serial numbers on the gold bars indicate they had previously been possessed by Daibes.
MSNBC’S ALICIA MENENDEZ ADDRESSES FATHER’S INDICTMENT: COLLEAGUES HAVE ‘AGGRESSIVELY’ COVERED
“A court-authorized search of the residence of Robert Menendez and Nadine Menendez, a/k/a ‘Nadine Arslanian,’ the defendants, revealed, among other things, approximately two one-kilogram gold bars and nine one-ounce gold bars that had serial numbers indicating they had previously been possessed by Fred Daibes, the defendant,” the indictment states.
In addition, when Daibes reported the robbery to police in 2013, he said 22 gold bars had been taken. Similarly, the September indictment states that Daibes sold 22 gold bars to Wael Hana, another defendant allegedly implicated in the bribery scheme.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was indicted on bribery charges in September. He has since repeatedly claimed he is innocent of any wrongdoing. (Getty Images | United States District Court for the Southern District of New York)
Police ultimately arrested and charged four individuals for robbing Daibes in 2013, according to local media reports. Then, in September 2015, the suspects all pled guilty and were ultimately sentenced to several months in prison.
Meanwhile, since the federal bribery indictment was unsealed earlier this year, Menendez has repeatedly asserted his innocence and remained in the Senate.
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“The allegations leveled against me are just that, allegations,” Menendez said Sept. 25. “For anyone who has known me throughout my 50 years of public service, they know I have always fought for what is right. My advocacy has always been grounded. And what I learned from growing up as the son of Cuban refugees, especially my mom, my hero, Evangelina Menendez. Everything I accomplished, I worked for despite the nay sayers and everyone who has underestimated me.
“I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator,” he added. “The court of public opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system. We cannot set aside the presumption of innocence for political expediency when the harm is irrevocable.”
Politics
George Santos movie in development at HBO from the makers of ‘Veep’ and ‘Succession’

Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is getting the movie treatment at HBO after getting booted from Congress last week.
The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned premium cable giant confirmed Monday that it has optioned the rights to author Mark Chiusano’s nonfiction book “The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos.”
Frank Rich, known for his work as an executive producer on the Emmy-winning TV satires “Veep” and “Succession,” is executive producing the film adaptation, but in a non-writing capacity, according to the company.
The studio has tapped “Bad Education” screenwriter Mike Makowsky to write and executive produce the picture.
HBO’s announcement comes less than a week after Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives, becoming the sixth lawmaker ever to be forced out of the legislative chamber.
The politician was ousted by his colleagues after a House Ethics Committee report determined that he had lied about his background, defrauded donors and used campaign money to fund an extravagant lifestyle that included Botox injections, personal travel and subscriptions on OnlyFans.
The ex-lawmaker has also been indicted on felony counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. He has denied wrongdoing and criticized the move to expel him before his case goes to trial.
Billed as a “forensic and darkly comic” dramatization of Santos’ bid for Congress, the HBO film will chronicle “the Gatsby-esque journey of a man from nowhere who exploited the system, waged war on truth and swindled one of the wealthiest districts in the country to achieve his American dream,” according to the project’s official logline.
This isn’t the first time Hollywood has mined Santos’ highly publicized saga for entertainment. The latest installment of “Saturday Night Live” opened with a humorous farewell to Santos — or rather, to cast member Bowen Yang’s beloved portrayal of him.
“This entire country has been bullying me just because I’m a proud, gay thief,” Yang’s Santos said during the sketch. “But what else is new? America hates to see a Latina queen winning.”
Times staff writer Erin B. Logan contributed to this report.
Politics
Video: White House Urges Congress to Approve More Funding for Ukraine

new video loaded: White House Urges Congress to Approve More Funding for Ukraine
transcript
transcript
White House Urges Congress to Approve More Funding for Ukraine
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said that improper funding would jeopardize Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia.
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Without congressional action, the administration will run out of resources by the end of the year to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine, and to provide equipment from U.S. military stocks without impacting our own military readiness. The resources Congress has provided for Ukraine and other national security needs have halted Russia’s advances in Ukraine, helped Ukraine achieve significant military victories, including taking back more than 50 percent of the territory that Russia had previously occupied. And by revitalizing our own defense industrial base, jumpstarting and expanding production lines and supporting good-paying jobs across the country. Now it’s up to Congress. Congress has to decide whether to continue to support the fight for freedom in Ukraine as part of the 50-nation coalition that President Biden has built, or whether Congress will ignore the lessons we’ve learned from history and let Putin prevail. It is that simple. It is that stark a choice. And we hope that Congress on a bipartisan basis, will make the right choice.
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