Trump mug shot hung just outside Oval Office, photos show
Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A framed copy of the New York Post’s cover featuring President Donald Trump’s mug shot has been hung on a wall just outside the Oval Office, photos show.
The mug shot, taken when he was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia in 2023, can be seen in a hallway in photos taken when Trump met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. The hallway leads to a private area in the White House.
Trump had turned himself in to the Fulton County Jail after he was indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden issued pardons to several close family members Monday in the final minutes of his presidency.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics,” Biden wrote in a statement. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
“That is why I am exercising my power under the Constitution to pardon James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden,” he continued. “The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.”
The five preemptive pardons were issued to James Biden, Joe’s younger brother; Sara Jones Biden, James’ wife; Valerie Biden Owens, Joe’s younger sister; John T. Owens’, Valerie’s husband; and Francis W. Biden, Joe’s younger brother.
While he was sitting in the Capitol Rotunda attending the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, Biden announced the preemptive pardons for his siblings and in-laws.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and finance,” Biden said.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said.
This comes after Biden issued a controversial pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, in early December over tax evasion and federal gun charges. Biden had repeatedly said he did not plan to pardon Hunter.
James Biden, 75, has especially come under fire from Republicans.
Congressional Republicans have pressed the incoming Justice Department to bring charges against James Biden for allegedly lying to Congress as part of its impeachment inquiry into the outgoing president and his family.
James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, wrote to incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday seeking to hold James Biden accountable for “having misled Congress regarding Joe Biden’s participation in his family’s influence peddling and deserving of prosecution under federal law.
Comer and his Republican colleagues had already issued a criminal referral for James Biden to the Justice Department. Comer reacted to the preemptive pardons of Biden’s family, saying they serve as “a confession of their corruption.”
The pardon warrant, signed Jan. 19, excuses James Biden and the other family members of “ANY NONVIOLENT OFFENSES against the United States which they may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon.”
These were the second preemptive pardons issued by the outgoing president on Monday, not an unusual act for departing leaders. He also issued pardons to potential targets of the incoming Trump administration, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and lawmakers who served on the House Jan. 6 committee.
“Our nation relies on dedicated, selfless public servants every day. They are the lifeblood of our democracy,” Biden said in a statement. “Yet alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — After a bruising round of confirmation hearings this week that left Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation in doubt, the nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services declared in a written statement to senators on Friday that, if confirmed, he will divest his financial stake in an ongoing civil lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer.
Kennedy’s commitment to walk away from the potential windfall is a major reversal for the nominee, who in his ethics plan submitted to federal officials earlier this month told lawmakers he was entitled to those proceeds so long as the U.S. government wasn’t involved.
Democrats had seized on Kennedy’s financial stake in the lawsuit, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., warning that he could use his perch in government to make it easier for lawyers – including himself – to sue vaccine manufacturers and drug makers in court.
The lawsuit alleges marketing fraud against pharmaceutical company Merck for its HPV vaccine, Gardasil, which Merck denies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains that the vaccine has been proven safe, with more than 160 studies finding no concerns.
“Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it,” Warren said at Kennedy’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
“Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy will keep cashing in,” she added.
Kennedy struggled to lock-up conservative support for his nomination after testifying this week. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal’s right-leaning editorial board praised Warren, writing that her questioning “expose[d]” Kennedy.
The next day, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said he was “struggling” with Kennedy’s nomination, noting at one point that Kennedy was “financially vested in finding fault with vaccines.”
Kennedy told senators in his testimony Thursday that he was giving away his rights to the fees in the lawsuit against Merck. However, it was unclear whether he misspoke because his ethics agreement still maintained that he was entitled to the fees.
In written answers provided to the Senate Finance Committee on Friday, Kennedy clarified that an amendment was forthcoming.
“An amendment to my Ethics Agreement is in process, and it provides that I will divest my interest in this litigation,” he said.
Kennedy has earned millions of dollars in referral fees from law firms in the past for lawsuits unrelated to vaccines, including one involving a pesticide. He had not earned money yet from the Merck case, which only recently was taken up in civil courts.
In his testimony, Kennedy said he wanted to retain the right to sue drug companies even if confirmed.
“You’re asking me to not sue drug companies, and I am not going to agree to that,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will make her debut at the first press briefing of President Donald Trump’s second term on Tuesday, making history as the youngest in her role to stand behind the podium.
“I look forward to taking the podium into answering questions from all of the voices in the media. They are welcome to cover this White House. We will give them honest and accurate information, and I look forward to doing that,” Leavitt said in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday.
When Leavitt, 27, walks out into the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Tuesday, she’ll be the youngest press secretary to do so, since Ronald Ziegler, who held the title in former President Ronald Reagan’s White House at age 29.
She’s said she would ditch the traditional notes binder that her predecessors in both Democratic and Republican administrations, including during Trump’s first term, would carry with them to press briefings.
“I might bring some notes with me, but my binder is in my brain because I know President Trump’s policies, and we have truth on our side at this White House,” she said on “Fox and Friends” the morning after Trump’s inauguration.
Leavitt most recently served as Trump’s spokesperson during his 2024 presidential campaign and his transition and previously worked in his first administration and for GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has since named U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
“Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator,” Trump said in a November statement naming Leavitt press secretary. “I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we, Make America Great Again.”
Leavitt has not committed to daily briefings, which grew heated during the first Trump term, with a revolving door of press secretaries, including Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Kayleigh McEnany, going back and forth with reporters. Stephanie Grisham did not hold a press briefing in the nine months she was press secretary.
“We hope there will be decorum, certainly, and we will try to instill that. But we’re not we’re not shy of the hostile media,” Leavitt said on Fox News in November.
Before joining Trump’s campaign in 2023, Leavitt ran for Congress in a competitive district in her home state of New Hampshire, winning a competitive Republican primary that included fellow Trump administration alum Matt Mowers. Leavitt went on to lose the general election to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas by nine points.
And at the start of the new Trump administration, Leavitt, in a flurry of new Federal Election Commission filings, revealed she accumulated more than $210,115 in donations that she not only failed to refund to her supporters for at least two years but also did not disclose the failure as required under federal election law.
Despite making history as America’s youngest press secretary, and vowing to buck some traditions, she joins the streak of moms serving as the U.S. president’s chief spokesperson, following Sanders, Grisham, McEnany, and President Joe Biden’s aides Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre.
“I wish her the best of luck. This is a great job, an amazing opportunity to be standing at this podium, behind this lectern, to go back and forth with all of you and– and speak on behalf of this president, the president of the United States,” Jean-Pierre said of Leavitt earlier this month during her last briefing. “There’s nothing like it. And, and I hope she enjoys the job.”
