DeSantis news

Nov 08, 2023

The sheriff of Bexar County, Texas is recommending criminal charges against those involved with flights that sent 49 mostly Venezuelan migrants from El Paso to Martha's Vineyard last year, what was widely derided as a political stunt orchestrated by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

A statement from the sheriff's office says it has completed an investigation launched last September and recommended several counts of unlawful restraint, both misdemeanours and felonies, to the office of the Bexar County district attorney.

Meanwhile, Casey DeSantis, Florida's first lady and the wife of aspiring Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, has been branded a "Walmart Melania" after she wore a leather jacket emblazoned with a map of the Sunshine State, an alligator and the legend "Where woke goes to die" during a campaign stop in Iowa to promote her husband.

Elsewhere, a Vice documentary about the candidate's earlier career as a US Navy lawyer serving at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba has been mysteriously dropped from Showtime's schedules, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with no explanation given.

Casey DeSantis labelled ‘Walmart Melania’ over jacket stunt

Showtime documentary on DeSantis's Guantanamo Bay career mysteriously dropped

DeSantis wraps up first early states tour with attack on Biden

Florida governor defines ‘woke’ after Trump claims ‘half the people can't’

California investigating whether DeSantis involved in flying asylum-seekers from Texas to Sacramento

12:15 , Joe Sommerlad

Former US vice president Mike Pence, the once-loyal sideman to twice-impeached ex-president Donald Trump, will kick off his own attempt to win election to the nation's top job when he formally announces his campaign at an event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday.

Mr Pence's pre-empted that unveiling with a video posted to social media in which he channelled Abraham Lincoln by saying the nation required "different leadership" appealing to "the better angels of our nature", coming just days after he made his candidacy official by filing the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.

The ex-Indiana governor's presidential ambitions are nothing new, Mr Pence having teased a presidential run for months during a string of public appearances.

But the advent of an actual campaign changes the Republican landscape by putting him in direct competition with Mr Trump, his former running-mate, with whom he fell out definitively over the events of 6 January 2021.

Pence suffered the wrath of Trump. Now he wants his old boss's job in 2024

11:45 , Joe Sommerlad

As we’ve already heard, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has filed the necessary paperwork to launch his 2024 presidential bid and kicked off his campaign last night during a town hall in New Hampshire.

But Mr Christie is facing some mighty long odds in the competition for the GOP nomination.

John Bowden reports.

Chris Christie files paperwork to launch long-shot 2024 bid

11:15 , Joe Sommerlad

Former US attorney general Bill Barr has weighed in on Donald Trump's legal problems relating to the trove of classified documents found at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.

Mr Barr told CBS Mornings that the former president's problems are of his own making and the case against him and any probe into his retention of secret papers would have gone nowhere if he had just returned them.

You can read more below.

Trump secret papers crisis is his own fault for ‘jerking around’ DOJ says Bill Barr

10:45 , Joe Sommerlad

As the Department of Justice's investigation into the classified documents held at his Mar-a-Lago home continues, Mr Trump turned his attention to Tuesday's major golf merger, bringing together the PGA, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour, calling it a "big, beautiful, and glamorous" deal.

Donald Trump celebrates ‘big, beautiful, and glamorous’ PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger

10:16 , Joe Sommerlad

As he launched his own bid for the Republican presidential nomination, last night former New Jersey governor Chris Christie hit out at Trump in surprisingly personal style.

"The grift from this family is breathtaking. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner walk out of the White House, and months later, it turns out, they get $2 billion from the Saudis? That makes us a banana republic," he declared.

As you might have expected, Trump was hardly likely to take an attack like that lying down.

Here's what he had to say by way of a response in his latest feverish post to Truth Social:

"How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE? Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good. It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about. Hard to watch, boring, but that's what you get from a failed Governor (New Jersey) who left office with a 7% approval rating and then got run out of New Hampshire. This time, it won't be any different!"

08:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Rep Matt Gaetz introduced a resolution to hold a former New York City prosecutor in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about charges against former president Donald Trump.

The resolution requests that Mark Pomerantz, who worked in the New York County District Attorney's office before resigning, be held in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena.

Eric Garcia reports from Washington, DC.

Gaetz pushes resolution to hold former NYC prosecutor in contempt over Trump charges

06:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Embattled congressman George Santos has been told by a judge that the identities of the trio who paid his $500,000 bail must be publicly revealed.

Mr Santos, a Republican from New York, pleaded not guilty last month to federal charges of defrauding his campaign supporters, lying to obtain unemployment money and making false statements on congressional disclosure forms.

Magistrate Judge Anne Shields ruled on Tuesday that Mr Santos has until 12pm on Friday to appeal her decision at which point the names would be unsealed. She also sealed her decision, keeping the names a secret until the deadline.

Graeme Massie reports.

Santos's mystery backers to be named despite offer to go to jail to protect them

04:45 , Oliver O'Connell

A member of the Oath Keepers extremist group from New Jersey who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and bragged about it in text messages pleaded guilty on Tuesday to obstructing Congress.

James Breheny, who is also known as Seamus Evers, of Little Ferry, pleaded guilty in Washington's federal court to a felony charge of obstructing Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden‘s electoral victory over former President Donald Trump.

New Jersey Oath Keeper who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 pleads guilty to felony charge

03:45 , Oliver O'Connell

A federal judge has partially struck down Florida's ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors in a ruling that condemns anti-trans bigotry and debunks bogus claims from state officials.

The ruling from US District Court Judge Robert Hinkle on 6 June grants a preliminary injunction that blocks enforcement of a law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis and rules that prevent a group of trans youth who sued the state from accessing widely accepted care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, as their legal challenge plays out.

Alex Woodward has the latest.

Federal judge blocks DeSantis ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth

02:45 , Oliver O'Connell

California Governor Gavin Newsom suggested he may be considering kidnapping charges against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after the 2024 GOP primary candidate flew a group of migrants from Texas to Sacramento on allegedly false pretences.

Mr Newsom called Mr DeSantis a "small, pathetic man" in a tweet on Monday, and then provided a snippet of the state's laws regarding kidnapping.

Graig Graziosi has the story.

Gavin Newsom suggests kidnap charges over Ron DeSantis's migrant flights

01:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump threatened to hold his former lawyer Ty Cobb "legally responsible" for weighing in with his opinion on the ongoing classified documents probe into Mr Trump, claiming the attorney used "angry, nasty, and libelous" words.

Ariana Baio has the story.

Trump threatens former lawyer who told CNN he expected him to be indicted

Wednesday 7 June 2023 00:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Former Vice President Mike Pence, the onetime loyal sideman to twice-impeached ex-president Donald Trump, will kick off his own attempt to win election to the nation's top job this week when he formally announces his campaign at a Des Moines, Iowa event on Wednesday.

Mr Pence's announcement will come just days after he made his candidacy official by filing the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.

Joe Sommerlad reports.

Pence suffered the wrath of Trump. Now he wants his old boss's job in 2024

Tuesday 6 June 2023 23:45 , Oliver O'Connell

A New York writer who won a $5 million jury verdict against ex-President Donald Trump can't win a pending defamation lawsuit against him because the jury agreed with Trump that he never raped her, his lawyers told a judge Monday.

The lawyers urged Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to reject columnist E. Jean Carroll's bid to win $10 million or more in a second judgment by rewriting the 4-year-old lawsuit against Trump to conform with the findings of the jury that last month concluded Trump sexually abused Carroll but did not rape her.

Trump's lawyers say defamation claim must fail because jury agreed he never raped her

Tuesday 6 June 2023 22:45 , Oliver O'Connell

A member of the Oath Keepers extremist group from New Jersey who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and bragged about it in text messages pleaded guilty on Tuesday to obstructing Congress.

Breheny's attorney said his client, a Navy veteran, entered the guilty plea to "make amends for a lack of good judgement on January 6, 2021."

New Jersey Oath Keeper who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 pleads guilty to felony charge

Tuesday 6 June 2023 22:22 , Oliver O'Connell

Per The New York Times:

The latest twist in the inquiry into former President Donald J Trump's handling of classified documents is the surprise revelation that a previously unknown federal grand jury in Florida has recently started hearing testimony in the case.

The grand jury in Florida is separate from the one that has been sitting for months in Washington and has been the center of activity for prosecutors as they investigate whether Mr Trump mishandled classified documents after leaving office or obstructed efforts to retrieve them. Among those who have appeared before the Washington grand jury in the past few months or have been subpoenaed by it, people familiar with the investigation said, are more than 20 members of Mr Trump's Secret Service security detail.

Tuesday 6 June 2023 22:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Ariana Baio reports.

Trump threatens former lawyer who told CNN he expected him to be indicted

Tuesday 6 June 2023 21:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Newsom called Mr DeSantis a "small, pathetic man" in a tweet on Monday, and then provided a snippet of the state's laws regarding kidnapping.

Graig Graziosi has the story.

Gavin Newsom suggests kidnap charges over Ron DeSantis's migrant flights

Tuesday 6 June 2023 21:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Eric Garcia writes:

Mr Christie has announced another quixotic White House run. As an elected official who left his office in disgrace and who has not held a position for years in a radically changed GOP, Mr Christie is unlikely to win. But most observers see his run as an attempt to stop Mr Trump from winning again.

Republicans are about as likely to receive his message warning about the perils of another Trump presidency as they would be likely to receive the message from Liz Cheney.

Chris Christie gave Trump legitimacy. Now he can't stop Trump in 2024

Tuesday 6 June 2023 21:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Joe Sommerlad writes:

Mr Pence's announcement will come just days after he made his candidacy official by filing the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.

Pence suffered the wrath of Trump. Now he wants his old boss's job in 2024

Tuesday 6 June 2023 21:01 , Oliver O'Connell

Tuesday 6 June 2023 20:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has filed paperwork to launch his 2024 presidential bid.

Mr Christie, who faces long odds in the competition for the GOP nomination, is expected to formally kick off his campaign during a town hall in New Hampshire.

Chris Christie files paperwork to launch long-shot 2024 bid

Tuesday 6 June 2023 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Former Attorney General Bill Barr has weighed in on Donald Trump's legal problems relating to the trove of classified documents found at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.

Mr Barr told CBS Mornings that the former president's problems are of his own making and the case against him and any probe of his retention of secret papers would have gone nowhere if he had just returned them.

Trump secret papers crisis is his own fault for ‘jerking around’ DOJ says Bill Barr

Tuesday 6 June 2023 20:18 , Oliver O'Connell

Ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has filed paperwork for his 2024 presidential run after promising to directly take on Donald Trump.

Tuesday 6 June 2023 20:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump has accused his GOP presidential primary rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, of "blatantly" stealing a line from one of his speeches, despite the fact that the line dates back to former President Ronald Reagan.

During Mr DeSantis's glitchy presidential bid announcement on Twitter, he invoked the phrase "Great American Comeback," which Mr Trump furiously claimed in a campaign statement that the governor stole from him.

Trump accuses Ron DeSantis of ‘blatantly’ plagiarising his speech

Tuesday 6 June 2023 19:57 , Oliver O'Connell

Rep Matt Gaetz introduced a resolution to hold a former New York City prosecutor in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about charges against former president Donald Trump.

Eric Garcia reports from Capitol Hill.

Gaetz pushes resolution to hold former NYC prosecutor in contempt over Trump charges

Tuesday 6 June 2023 19:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump is celebrating the "big, beautiful, and glamorous" merger between the PGA, LIV Golf, and the DP World Tour.

The former president took to Truth Social on Tuesday as news of the landmark deal broke.

Some of Mr Trump's branded golf courses have recently hosted LIV Golf events.

In his usual all-capitalised ebullience, he wrote: "Great news from LIV Golf. A big, beautiful, and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf."

He added: "Congrats to all!!!"

Trump celebrates ‘big, beautiful, and glamorous’ LIV Golf PGA merger

Tuesday 6 June 2023 19:15 , Oliver O'Connell

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum took another step toward entering the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, posting a YouTube video on Monday touting his rise from a small town boy to a self-made software entrepreneur and a successful governor who has cut red tape and taxes.

With new video, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota edges closer to Republican presidential race

Tuesday 6 June 2023 19:01 , Oliver O'Connell

Embattled congressman George Santos has been told by a judge that the identities of the trio who paid his $500,000 bail must be publically revealed.

Graeme Massie reports.

Judge says trio who put up $500k bail for George Santos must be revealed

Tuesday 6 June 2023 18:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Florida governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has "weaponised sexuality" and is "harnessing the hate of a vocal minority of extremists and pandering to fringe voters in a bid to gain power," according to David Furnish.

The filmmaker and husband of Sir Elton John argued in an opinion piece in The Independent that the Republican governor has implemented a wave of anti-LGTBQ+ policies seeking to roll back the gains in acceptance and quality made during Mr Furnish's lifetime.

David Furnish slams Ron DeSantis for ‘diabolical’ ant-LGBTQ+ policies

Tuesday 6 June 2023 18:15 , Oliver O'Connell

A group of migrants who crossed the border into Texas were rounded up and flown via private jet to California in the latest example of immigration hardliners using humans as political props.

More than a dozen migrants were left outside the Diocese of Sacramento‘s facility after they arrived in California on Saturday, reportedly with "no prior arrangement or care in place," according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Graig Graziosi reports.

California officials probe ‘kidnapping’ of migrants flown in on private jet

Tuesday 6 June 2023 17:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Mike Pence, the ex-Indiana governor who spent four years as then-president Donald Trump's loyal vice President until he became persona non grata in MAGA circles for certifying their defeat in the 2020 election, has officially declared himself a candidate for the GOP nomination in next year's Republican presidential primary.

Mr Pence on Monday filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to register his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, capping months of speculation over whether Mr Trump's former right-hand man would challenge his old running mate, who is seeking to reclaim his former place at the head of the executive branch amid multiple criminal probes into his conduct.

Mike Pence files paperwork to jump into crowded 2024 GOP primary race

Tuesday 6 June 2023 17:15 , Oliver O'Connell

The ruling from US District Court Judge Robert Hinkle on 6 June grants a preliminary injunction that blocks enforcement of a law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis and rules preventing trans youth from accessing widely accepted care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, as a legal challenge plays out.

Alex Woodward reports.

Federal judge blocks Florida's ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth

Tuesday 6 June 2023 17:11 , Oliver O'Connell

Tuesday 6 June 2023 16:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Federal investigators have reportedly trained their attention on an employee at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago, who, in the process of draining a swimming pool on the property last year, flooded a room where computer servers containing video surveillance logs were stored.

According to reporting by CNN, investigators have asked at least one witness in the investigation into Mr Trump's handling of classified documents about the flooding of the server room. It is as of yet unclear whether the room was flooded intentionally or on accident.

Trump investigators ‘zone in’ on worker who flooded Mar-a-Lago records room

Tuesday 6 June 2023 16:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Democratic presidential candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F Kennedy Jr said during a Twitter Spaces event on Monday that he would not take away people's guns as a solution to reducing mass shootings and instead pointed the finger at pharmaceutical drugs.

RFK Jr comes out against gun control and blames school shootings on ‘drugs’

Tuesday 6 June 2023 16:03 , Oliver O'Connell

Officials were investigating Tuesday whether Florida‘s Gov. Ron DeSantis was behind a flight that picked up asylum-seekers on the Texas border and flew them — apparently without their knowledge — to California's capital, even as faith-based groups scrambled to find housing and food for them.

About 20 people ranging in age from 21 to 30 were flown by private jet to Sacramento on Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. It was the second such flight in four days.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and faith-based groups who have been assisting the migrants scheduled a news conference Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom lashed out at DeSantis as a "small, pathetic man" and suggested the state could pursue kidnapping charges.

California investigating whether DeSantis involved in flying asylum-seekers from Texas to Sacramento

Tuesday 6 June 2023 15:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Former president Donald Trump on Monday suggested he will soon face criminal charges in the long-running federal probe into his alleged unlawful retention of national defence information at his Palm Beach, Florida property.

Writing on his Truth Social website, Mr Trump asked how the Department of Justice could "possibly charge" him for having hoarded classified documents at his home and office when similarly classified documents have been found at locations linked to other prominent figures, including President Joe Biden.

Trump suggests he is about to be charged in Mar-a-Lago classified documents case

Tuesday 6 June 2023 15:18 , Oliver O'Connell

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison released the following statement in response to Mike Pence's entrance into the 2024 Republican primary:

In Mike Pence's own words, he was a member of the extreme Tea Party before it was cool,’ and he hasn't slowed down since. Pence pushed an extreme agenda in Congress and the Indiana statehouse before becoming Donald Trump's MAGA wingman for four years and then campaigning for election deniers last year. Now, he's promising to take the Trump-Pence agenda even further, leading the charge for a national abortion ban, cutting Medicare, and ending Social Security as we know it.

Pence's entrance will no doubt drag an increasingly MAGA 2024 GOP field even further to the extremes.

Tuesday 6 June 2023 15:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Texas sheriff recommends criminal charges over DeSantis migrant flights

Tuesday 6 June 2023 14:45 , Oliver O'Connell

In his latest rant on Truth Social, former president Donald Trump claims the investigations against him are designed to interfere in the 2024 election.

He wrote:

The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong. Joe Biden kept (keeps) thousand of documents, in many locations, some illegally taken from skiffs while he was a Senator, a big portion of which were classified. He didn't want to give them back, and still doesn't. Nothing happens to him, with same reasonable prosecutor who correctly exonerated Mike Pence. I have a much different prosecutor, a Trump hater!

It's all about ELECTION INTERFERENCE. They don't want to run against me. I ran twice, I did much better the second time, getting millions and millions more votes than the first, a record for a sitting President, and am leading Biden in the polls, by a lot. They are the Party of Disinformation! They are using the DOJ & FBI against me to Rigg the 2024 Election. They’ll hit Hunter with something small to make their strike on me look "fair." Nothing about these Fascists is fair or honest. FIGHT!

They are also going after me as RETRIBUTION for the Republicans in Congress going after them. The difference is, they have created major crimes, I have created none!

ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!! Don't let it happen.

Tuesday 6 June 2023 14:15 , John Bowden

Read more in The Independent:

Mike Pence files paperwork to jump into crowded 2024 GOP primary race

Tuesday 6 June 2023 13:45 , John Bowden

Donald Trump and leading rival Ron DeSantis must pledge to support the eventual Republican presidential nomination if they want to take part in the party's first primary debate.

The Republican National Committee will insist on the condition for any candidate to be on stage at the event, which it announced will take place on 23 August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Independent has the story:

Trump and DeSantis must pledge to support eventual White House nominee

Tuesday 6 June 2023 13:15 , John Bowden

Ron DeSantis has finally responded - days after Donald Trump said "half the people" can't define the word "woke".

"Look, we know what woke is, it's a form of cultural Marxism," Mr DeSantis told NBC News journalist Dasha Burns on a campaign stop in Iowa on Saturday.

"It's about putting merit and achievement behind identity politics, and it's basically a war on the truth. And as that has infected institutions, and it has corrupted institutions. So, you’ve got to be willing to fight the woke, we’ve done that in Florida, and we proudly consider ourselves the state where woke goes to die."

Two days earlier, Mr Trump took a veiled shot at the Florida governor by criticising overuse of the Republican buzzword at his own campaign event in Iowa on Thursday.

"I don't like the term ‘woke’ because I hear, ‘Woke, woke, woke.’ It's just a term they use, half the people can't even define it, they don't know what it is," Mr Trump said at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa.

DeSantis defines ‘woke’ after Trump claimed ‘half the people can't’

Tuesday 6 June 2023 12:45 , John Bowden

A Wisconsin judge on Monday declined to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to ensure that no records are deleted from a now-closed state office created to investigate former President Donald Trump‘s loss in 2020.

The lawsuit was one of several filed by liberal watchdog group American Oversight against former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman and the office of special counsel that he led. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos hired Gableman to lead that offie in 2021 under pressure from Mr Trump and conservative Republicans in Wisconsin who were pushing for the state to decertify Joe Biden's win.

Read more in The Independent about the far-reaching fallout from that now-shuttered effort:

Wisconsin judge: Don't delete records from probe into 2020 Trump loss

Tuesday 6 June 2023 12:15 , Joe Sommerlad

Yesterday Mike Pence made his first steps towards announcing a tilt at the White House.

This evening, it looks like former New Jersey governor Chris Christie will launch his own bid for the Republican presidential nomination at a town hall gathering in New Hampshire.

The campaign will be the second for Mr Christie, who lost to Donald Trump in 2016 and went on to become a close on-and-off adviser before breaking with the former president over his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election. He has cast himself as the only candidate willing to directly take on the 45th president.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie set to launch 2024 presidential bid at New Hampshire town hall

John Bowden Eric Garcia Graeme Massie Alex Woodward Graig Graziosi Ariana Baio Joe Sommerlad Ariana Baio Graig Graziosi Eric Garcia Joe Sommerlad Eric Garcia Graeme Massie Graig Graziosi Alex Woodward Read more

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