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Judge permanently bars DoJ from releasing Jack Smith's report on Trump documents
In a ruling on Monday, US federal judge Aileen Cannon permanently prohibited the justice department from releasing a report put together by former special counsel Jack Smith related to classified documents Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago.
Cannon, based in Florida, had previously dismissed the case against Trump in mid-2024 because, she concluded, Smith had not been properly appointed to a role as special counsel. Smith continued to prepare a final report based on what he and his team had collected in the investigation, Cannon wrote in her ruling Monday.
“To say this chronology represents, at a minimum, a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, if not an outright violation of it,” she wrote of Smith continuing to create a report.
Releasing the report would be a “manifest injustice” for the defendants, since the case didn’t go to a jury, she wrote. “The former defendants in this case, like any other defendant in this situation, still enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order.”
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US military strike on boat allegedly smuggling drugs kills three men
Sara Braun
The US military launched a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean which killed three men, in its third such attack over the course of a week.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” US Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said on Twitter/X.
The message was accompanied by a 20-second video of the strike, which shows black-and-white footage of a strike being launched and the boat bursting into flames.
The Southern Command identified the three men killed as “male narco-terrorists” and clarified that no US military forces were harmed in the strike.
Many have questioned the legality of the US boat strike initiative, including international legal scholars and national security experts.
“Under both U.S. and international law, it is flagrantly illegal to use the military to kill civilians suspected only of crimes,” a December statement by Jeffrey Stein, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Christopher Anders, director of the democracy and technology division at ACLU, says. “Civilians, including those suspected of smuggling drugs, are not lawful targets. Just because the Trump administration says these strikes are firmly grounded in law doesn’t make it true.”
The most recent strike comes just three days after the last, which took place on 20 February and killed three men. The actions are part of the Trump administration’s increased investment of US forces in the region to intercept alleged “narco-terrorists.”
The latest attack brings the total number of people killed in US strikes on suspected boats since September to at least 151.
France moves to ban US ambassador Charles Kushner from direct government access
France’s top diplomat has requested that US ambassador Charles Kushner (who is also Donald Trump’s daughter’s father-in-law) no longer be allowed direct access to members of the French government after he skipped a meeting to discuss comments related to the killing of a far-right activist.
French authorities had summoned Kushner to the Quai d’Orsay on Monday evening but he did not show up, multiple outlets reported citing diplomatic sources.
Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign affairs minister, moved to restrict Kushner’s access “in light of this apparent misunderstanding of the basic expectations of the mission of an ambassador, who has the honor of representing his country.”
The ministry, however, left the door open for reconciliation. “It remains, of course, possible for Ambassador Charles Kushner to carry out his duties and present himself at the Quai d’Orsay, so that we may hold the diplomatic discussions needed to smooth over the irritants that can inevitably arise in a friendship spanning 250 years,” it said in a statement.
The US embassy in France and the US state department’s bureau of counter-terrorism said they were monitoring the case, writing on X that “violent radical leftism is on the rise” and should be treated as a public safety threat.
Deranque was beaten to death in Lyon last week during a fight with allegedly hard-left activists. The killing has put France on edge, stoking tensions between left and right ahead of the 2027 presidential vote, while the Trump administration denounced what it called “terrorism” in France on Friday, prompting pushback from Paris.
“We reject any instrumentalization of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends,” Barrot said over the weekend. “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”
This was the second time Kushner did not show after being summoned. He was summoned in August last year over his letter to French president Emmanuel Macron alleging the country did not do enough to combat antisemitism. France’s foreign officials met with a representative of the US ambassador since the diplomat did not show up.
Public opinion of Trump continues to decline ahead of State of the Union address, polls find
A number of polls released ahead of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address tomorrow illustrate that the president’s approval rating continues to decline, with voters questioning his priorities and whether his policies have made their lives and the country better.
New CNN polling suggests that Trump’s approval rating among independents has plunged to a new low, while “just 32% of Americans now say that Trump has had the right priorities, and 68% say he hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems.” CNN reports: “That’s the president’s most negative reading on that question to date during either of his terms in office. At the same time, 61% of Americans say that Trump’s policies will move the country in the wrong direction rather than the right one. And Trump’s job approval rating among all adults remains mired at 36% … Among political independents, Trump’s approval rating has dropped 15 points over the past year to 26%, the lowest it’s been in either of his term.”
As the president prepares to defend his record in his SOTU speech, a poll from Marist University published today found a majority - 57% – of Americans think the state of the union is “not very strong” or “not strong at all”, and six in 10 Americans, including 90% of Democrats and 68% of independents, said the nation is worse off than it was a year ago.
Interestingly, the largest change occurred among Republicans and independents – with 43% of Republicans, up from 26%, and 75% of independents, up from 64%, saying they thought the system of checks and balances in the US is not functioning effectively.
And over the weekend, Washington Post / ABC / Ipsos polling put Trump at 39% approval and 60% disapproval. That means six in 10 Americans “disapprove strongly” or “disapprove somewhat” of the way Trump is handling his presidency.
Trump, meanwhile, insisted today:
I had polls for the election that showed I was going to get swamped and I won in a landslide. They were fake polls … I saw one today, that I’m at 40%. I’m not at 40%. I’m at, much higher than that … The real polls say you’d kill anybody [in an election], it wouldn’t even be close.
Senate Democrats call for government to start refunding $175bn in tariff money
A trio of Senate Democrats is calling for the government to start refunding roughly $175bn in tariff revenues that the supreme court ruled were collected because of an illegal set of orders by Donald Trump.
Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire are unveiling a bill today that would require US Customs and Border Protection to issue refunds over the course of 180 days and pay interest on the refunded amount.
The measure would prioritize refunds to small businesses and encourages importers, wholesalers and large companies to pass the refunds on to their customers.
“Trump’s illegal tax scheme has already done lasting damage to American families, small businesses and manufacturers who have been hammered by wave after wave of new Trump tariffs,” said Wyden, stressing that the “crucial first step” to fixing the problem begins with “putting money back in the pockets of small businesses and manufacturers as soon as possible”.
The bill is unlikely to become law, but it reveals how Democrats are starting to apply public pressure on a Trump administration that has shown little interest in trying to return tariff revenues after the supreme court announced its 6-3 ruling on Friday.
The Trump administration has asserted that its hands are tied, because any refunds should be the responsibility of further litigation in court.
More on this story here:
Witkoff and Kushner to meet with Iranian officials in Geneva on Thursday as US continues to ramp up military presence in Middle East
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will meet with an Iranian delegation on Thursday in Geneva, a senior US official has confirmed to Reuters, amid a massive US military buildup in the region as Donald Trump mulls launching airstrikes on Iran as soon as this week.
Yesterday, Axios was first to report on the anticipated meeting to discuss a promised detailed Iranian proposal for a nuclear deal. Citing US officials, the news agency reported that the current diplomatic push is probably the last chance Trump will give Iran before launching a huge US-Israeli military operation aimed at forcing concessions from Tehran over its nuclear program, but that could also directly target supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Witkoff and Kushner have both urged Trump to pursue diplomacy before ordering strikes, but as the US continues to ramp up its presence in the region imminent military action appears increasingly likely. Trump last Thursday warned Tehran that he is “going to get a deal one way or another” and said it would be clear “probably within 10 days” whether they could reach one.
The Trump administration reportedly expects to receive the Iranian proposal by tomorrow.
'I love America': FBI director Patel defends beer-soaked locker room celebration with US Olympic ice hockey team
FBI director Kash Patel has defended his weekend beer-soaked locker room celebration with the victorious US men’s hockey team at the Winter Olympics in Milan, saying he had been in Italy on official business and would pay his own way for personal activities.
“Yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment,” Patel wrote on X, after video footage showed him jumping up and down and chugging a beer in the locker room while the hockey team celebrated their 2-1 overtime victory over Canada on Sunday. (You can watch the viral clip here).
Democrats called the trip a wasteful diversion. “The grift & corruption is unreal. Your taxpayer dollars funding the FBI Director’s Italian vacation,” representative Jason Crow of Colorado wrote on social media.
Representative Sean Casten of Illinois said on social media: “3 million pages of evidence of a massive child sex trafficking ring and this is what the FBI director is doing right now.”
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson told Reuters that Patel was in Italy on official business and would reimburse the government for any personal use of FBI resources.
On his official account, Patel posted photos of himself meeting with foreign officials and US personnel who were handling security at the Olympics.
Patel has previously faced criticism for allegedly using the FBI jet for personal travel. Democrats on the House judiciary committee said he had misused government resources by using the FBI’s Gulfstream G550 to travel to Scotland for a golf vacation, fly to Pennsylvania to watch his girlfriend sing at a wrestling match, and fly to a hunting ranch in Texas.
Former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Peter Mandelson has been arrested by detectives investigating claims he committed misconduct in public office during his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Video footage showed him being driven away from his home in an unmarked car shortly after being escorted from his home by officers.
Mandelson, 72, was fired from the most prestigious posting in Britain’s diplomatic service in September, when the depth of his friendship with Epstein started to become clear.
London’s Metropolitan police have been investigating the alleged leaking by Mandelson of Downing Street emails and market-sensitive information to Epstein.
The former UK ambassador to the US is understood to believe he has not committed any offence.
A police investigation into Mandelson was opened after the release of files by the US justice department related to the late disgraced financier.
Emails between Mandelson and Epstein, released by the DOJ in late January, showed the two men had a closer relationship than had been publicly known, and Mandelson had shared information with the financier when he was a minister in former prime minister Gordon Brown’s government in 2009.
Mandelson, who this month resigned from the Labour Party and quit his position in the UK parliament’s upper chamber, has previously said he “very deeply” regretted his association with Epstein. But he has not commented publicly or responded to messages seeking comment on the latest revelations.
More on this developing story here:
Democrats working on secret autopsy found Gaza stance cost Kamala Harris significant support in 2024 election – report
Top Democratic officials working on the party’s still-secret autopsy report of the 2024 presidential election loss to Donald Trump found that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden administration’s approach to Israel’s war in Gaza, Axios has learned.
Per Axios’s report, DNC aides compiling the autopsy report held a closed-door meeting with activists from the pro-Palestinian group the IMEU Policy Project, where they were told that the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel was a factor in the party’s losses because it drained support from some young people and progressives.
Hamid Bendaas, a spokesperson for the IMEU Policy Project, told Axios that during the meeting “the DNC shared with us that their own data also found that policy was, in their words, a ‘net-negative’ in the 2024 election.” The group is now accusing the DNC of withholding its report in part because of its findings on Israel, a charge that DNC spokesperson Kendall Witmer denied to Axios.
The DNC said last year that it would not release the review of its election loss in 2024, as it would be a “distraction” from helping the party win going forward.
Asked for comment, a Harris aide pointed Axios to the former vice-president’s recent comments about Gaza on a tour stop for her memoir, 107 Days, where she said: “We should have done more as an administration.” Harris added at the event that “we should have spoken publicly about our criticism” of how Benjamin Netanyahu executed the war.
In her book, Harris said that Biden’s unpopularity, which she argued was partly because of “his perceived blank check” to Netanyahu, harmed her in 2024. She wrote that she privately “pleaded” with Biden to show more empathy for civilians in Gaza. But during her campaign, she declined to publicly break with him over Israel.
RootsAction, a progressive grassroots group, released its autopsy of the 2024 election in December, concluding that Harris focused on courting moderate Republicans over motivating core Democratic working-class, young and progressive voters, a misstep compounded by her failure to break from Biden on Gaza.
Harris’s refusal to signal any meaningful shift from the Biden administration’s deeply unpopular policy on Israel and Gaza alienated Arab American, Muslim, young and progressive voters, costing critical support in swing states [like Michigan], my colleague David Smith wrote at the time.
Monday so far
Here’s what has happened today so far:
Trump continued railing against the US supreme court’s ruling against his tariffs in several social media posts on Monday, threatening other countries and saying he could use other tariffs instead in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”.
While the high court said Congress would need to approve tariffs, citing its role in the taxing power, Trump said in a post on Monday: “As President, I do not have to go back to Congress to get approval of Tariffs. It has already been gotten, in many forms, a long time ago!”
The US government has warned travelers in western Mexico to shelter in place as travel has been largely suspended after the Mexican government killed drug lord “El Mencho,” which spurred retaliatory violence by the cartel.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the US government aided in the operation against “El Mencho”, who was part of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
In a ruling on Monday, US federal judge Aileen Cannon permanently prohibited the justice department from releasing a report put together by former special counsel Jack Smith related to classified documents Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago.
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which had sought to get the final report by Jack Smith released, called the ruling from Judge Aileen Cannon to permanently bar its release an affront to the first amendment.
Trump is set to give his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. Foreshadowing the event, he said on Monday that it would be a “long” one.
After a White House event, Trump said he would highlight his administration’s work on immigration and the economy, according to the Associated Press.
“I’m making a speech tomorrow night, and you’ll be hearing me say that,” he said. “I mean, it’s going to be a long speech because we have so much to talk about.”
