Committee vote on Kash Patel’s nomination to be FBI director delayed after Democrats object

(NEW YORK) — The only path forward in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case in New York is vacating his conviction and dismissing the case prior to Trump taking office, lawyers for the president-elect argued in a court filing unsealed Friday.

Trump’s lawyers, responding to a filing by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unsealed Wednesday, rejected each of Bragg’s proposals to preserve the president-elect’s conviction while respecting the office of the presidency, accusing Bragg of “thuggish tactics” by proposing the judge in the case delay Trump’s sentencing until 2029.

“[A] stay would require President Trump to lead the Country while facing the ongoing threat that this Court and DANY are prepared to impose imprisonment, fines, and other punishment as soon as he leaves Office,” the filing said. “To be clear, President Trump will never deviate from the public interest in response to these thuggish tactics.”

Trump’s lawyers also described a plan proposed by Bragg to abate Trump’s conviction — a mechanism generally used when a defendant has died while a case is pending — as “unhinged” and “extremely troubling.”

“As a further illustration of DA Bragg’s desperation to avoid legally mandated dismissal, DANY proposes that the Court pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” wrote Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who Trump has nominated to top jobs in the Department of Justice.

Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election — but his sentencing in the case has been indefinitely postponed following his reelection. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the entire case should be dismissed because a sitting president is immune from prosecution.

In their filing earlier this week, prosecutors proposed three alternative options to preserve Trump’s sentencing while respecting the prohibition on prosecuting presidents, including delaying the sentencing until 2029, abating the sentencing — which would terminate the case but preserve the record of his conviction — or sentencing Trump to a punishment that does not include incarceration.

Trump’s lawyers rejected each option as unconstitutional and called the case politically motivated, taking the unusual step of citing in the filing’s introduction a Truth Social post by Sen. John Fetterman in which the Pennsylvania Democrat called the case an example of “weaponizing the judiciary.”

“DA Bragg’s interest in maintaining the jury’s verdicts as a notch in whatever belt he plans to wear to campaign events in 2025 is not a basis for interfering with the Executive Branch,” the filing said.

Trump’s lawyers argued that delaying the sentencing until Trump leaves office in 2029 would unfairly require Trump to serve as president while the threat of potential imprisonment hangs over him.

“Staying the proceedings during President Trump’s second term would impede the Presidency and give New York County intolerable leverage over the Executive Branch, which exists for the protection of the entire Nation,” the filing said.

The filing argued that prosecutors’ proposal to abate the case would violate Trump’s right to appeal, and sentencing Trump to something other than prison or jail would still be a “grave and impermissible” danger to the functions of the presidency.

“One would expect more from a first-year law student, and this is yet another indication that DANY’s opposition to this motion has not been undertaken in good faith,” Trump’s lawyers said about the abatement idea.

The filing took an overtly political tone, repeatedly referencing Bragg’s 2025 campaign for reelection and accusing the district attorney of politicizing the case “to defend his poor record.”

“It is abundantly clear at this point that DANY will say and do anything — including urging the Court to disregard the Constitution, the New York Court of Appeals, and the Second Circuit — to try to make this abomination stick,” the filing said.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Rhode Island has formally blocked the Trump administration’s spending freeze, saying in an order this afternoon that the funding freeze is likely a violation of the Constitution.

“During the pendency of the Temporary Restraining Order, Defendants shall not pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate Defendants’ compliance with awards and obligations to provide federal financial assistance to the States, and Defendants shall not impede the States’ access to such awards and obligations, except on the basis of the applicable authorizing statutes, regulations, and terms,” Judge John McConnell Jr. wrote.

“The Court finds that the record now before it substantiates the likelihood of a successful claim that the Executive’s actions violate the Constitution and statutes of the United States,” he added in the 13-page decision in the lawsuit filed by 22 state attorneys general.

Earlier this week, McConnell signaled he would issue a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from freezing federal loans and grants, raising concerns the White House would try to enact the same policy described in the now-rescinded Office of Management and Budget.

The administration issued the memo Monday night and gave agencies a 5 p.m. deadline on Wednesday, however, a Washington, D.C., federal judge temporarily blocked it from going through following a lawsuit.

Even after the OMB rescinded the memo on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X, claiming, “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented.”

The post by Leavitt, and possible attempt to sidestep an injunction, drew mention in McConnell’s order, with him writing, “Defendants shall also be restrained and prohibited from reissuing, adopting, implementing, or otherwise giving effect to the OMB Directive under any other name or title or through any other Defendants (or agency supervised, administered, or controlled by any Defendant), such as the continued implementation identified by the White House Press Secretary’s statement of January 29, 2025.”

McConnell had harsh words for the Trump administration and justified his order — despite the OMB’s change of policy — based on Leavitt’s post.

“The evidence shows that the alleged rescission of the OMB Directive was in name-only and may have been issued simply to defeat the jurisdiction of the courts,” he wrote.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Although she was just in her mid-20s, Tulsi Gabbard’s hair had already started turning white shortly before she first set foot in the U.S. Senate as a legislative aide in 2006.

Coming from her native Hawaii, she had landed a job with longtime Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka, chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who would become her mentor.

Now, almost 20 years later, the former Democratic congresswoman returns to the Senate to meet with lawmakers, including members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence after appearing with him a number of times on the campaign trail and serving as an honorary co-chair of his transition team.

Gabbard spent the past week in Oklahoma on Army National Guard duty. She currently holds the rank of lieutenant colonel, something supporters argue qualifies her for the job as critics cite her lack of experience.

She’s also facing renewed scrutiny over her past comments on Syria and her meeting with now-overthrown dictator Bashar Assad.

From Hawaii to Kuwait to Congress

By the time she came to the Senate, Gabbard had already made history in Hawaii as one of the youngest lawmakers elected to a state legislature at age 21. Serving alongside her father, Hawaii state Sen. Mike Gabbard, she became part of the first father-daughter combination in a legislature in the country.

As a Senate staffer, Gabbard remained in Hawaii’s National Guard, drilling on the weekends.

During her first yearlong deployment at Joint Base Balad in Iraq, nicknamed “Mortaritaville” for being hit with daily attacks, she’s said fumes from a nearby burn pit would regularly sicken her fellow service members, causing flu-like symptoms they called the “crud.”

In 2007, she attended the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy, graduating at the top of her class as its first distinguished woman honor graduate. After two years working in the Senate, Gabbard volunteered for a deployment to Kuwait.

As a military police platoon leader and trainer for the Kuwait National Guard’s counterterrorism unit, Gabbard achieved another milestone in 2009, becoming one of the first women to set foot in a Kuwaiti military facility and the first woman to be honored by the Kuwait National Guard.

In her limited free time, Gabbard continued working on her bachelor’s degree from Hawaii Pacific University, taking online classes in an education tent.

Although her hair returned to its natural color, she told ABC News in 2019 she eventually kept a distinctive streak of white.

“It’s a reminder, every single day of the cost of war of those we lost and my mission in life to to seek peace and to fight for peace,” Gabbard said.

Gabbard later returned to Hawaii and ran for Honolulu City Council, serving from 2010 until 2012, before being elected to Congress as the then-youngest female member.

Bipartisan outreach

As a new member of Congress, Gabbard worked to forge relationships with members on both sides of the aisle.

She arrived armed with 434 boxes of macadamia nut toffee, homemade by her mother, for every member of Congress and an additional 435 boxes for staffers. Each box came with a handwritten letter, a form of diplomacy as a Democrat facing a Republican-controlled House.

During her freshman year in Congress in 2013, Gabbard was appointed vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, but stepped down from that position to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid.

She co-chaired the Future Caucus, a bipartisan effort to engage members of Congress under 40 years old. Gabbard also bonded with lawmakers over sports, playing on the Congressional Softball Team with New York Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and joining early morning workouts with colleagues such as Oklahoma GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin. She and Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul co-sponsored legislation, including the Stop Arming Terrorists Act.

After an unsuccessful bid for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination, she left the Democratic Party and became an independent and campaigned for Republicans, including Sens. Mike Lee and Chuck Grassley. She told Trump on a rally stage in October that she was registering as a Republican.

Controversial views on Russia, Syria

Gabbard was one of the first to enter the crowded Democratic 2020 primary and was one of the last three remaining candidates. One of her rivals in that race, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, announced she would oppose Trump’s choice of Gabbard, alleging she had suggested NATO had provoked Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

“Do you really want her to have all the secrets of the United States and our defense intelligence agencies when she has so clearly has been in Putin’s pocket? That just has to be a hard no,” Warren said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in November.

However, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri defended Gabbard in November on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” taking aim at accusations that Gabbard was a “Russian asset.”

“It’s a slur, quite frankly. You know, there’s no evidence that she is an asset of another country. She served this country honorably,” Schmitt said.

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who entered the Senate as the first female combat veteran while Gabbard was doing the same in the House, has opposed her pick for DNI, alleging she’s been compromised.

“The U.S. intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes. And so my worry is that she couldn’t pass a background check,” Duckworth said on CNN’s “State of the Union” in November.

Mullin struck back at Duckworth’s comments, saying “That’s the most dangerous thing she could say — is that a United States lieutenant colonel in the United States Army is compromised and is an asset of Russia.”

“If she was compromised, if she wasn’t able to pass a background check, if she wasn’t able to do her job, she still wouldn’t be in the Army,” he said.

Now, with the rebel takeover of Syria and the fall of Assad, Gabbard is drawing renewed attention to her controversial visit to Syria in 2017 — what she called a fact-finding mission — and sympathy she expressed after meeting with the Syrian dictator, saying the U.S. should stop aiding the “terrorists” trying to overthrow him.

Gabbard noted in 2019 that a CIA program “was directly and indirectly helping to equip and train and provide support to different armed groups, including those who are allied with and affiliated with al-Qaeda, to overthrow the Syrian government.”

The “Stop Arming Terrorist Act” she worked on with Paul in the Senate said the U.S. should stop aiding the “terrorists” trying to overthrow Assad.

Assad has been accused of war crimes against his own people during the Syrian civil war, in which hundreds of thousands have been killed. A few months after meeting with Assad, Gabbard said she was skeptical he had used chemical weapons against his own people, despite evidence from the U.S. government that he had, to argue against military intervention during Trump’s first administration.

Gabbard warned in June of 2019 that she was concerned that the toppling of Assad’s regime could lead to terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda to step in to fill the void and “completely massacre all religious minorities there in Syria.”

In a 2019 interview on ABC’s “The View” while running for president, she called Assad a “brutal dictator,” but said the U.S. regime-change strategy had not improved the lives of the Syrian people.

-ABC News’ Selina Wang contributed to this report.

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