Judge holds Giuliani in contempt for failing to turn over property to 2 Georgia election workers

(NEW YORK) — The Justice Department and attorneys representing a group of FBI employees who sued over a list compiled of personnel who worked on cases stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol reached a temporary deal Friday to ensure the list won’t be released publicly pending further legal proceedings.

The agreement by the Justice Department states “the government will not disseminate the list … to the public, directly or indirectly, before the Court rules on Plaintiff’s anticipated motions for a preliminary injunction.”

If DOJ leadership were to change their minds and release the list, they would need to provide two business days’ notice to attorneys and the court, per the agreement.

The anonymous group of FBI agents had sought a temporary restraining order to keep the FBI from releasing the names on a list the bureau collected as part of what the plaintiffs’ lawsuit says is the agency’s plan to engage in “potential vigilante action” to retaliate against government employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases or Donald Trump’s classified documents case.

After several hours of grueling back and forth during a hearing Thursday, the Justice Department’s attorney, Jeremy Simon, was able to commit that the DOJ itself would not further disseminate the list pending further proceedings in the case — but that answer did not satisfy either the judge or plaintiffs’ attorneys because Simon said he could not ensure that other parties in the government would not be able to release the list in some form.

Simon noted he had no reason to believe the list has been shared beyond DOJ leadership, and ultimately was able to relay from a superior that there’s been no “official” dissemination of the list after it was handed over by the FBI.

“What does that mean?” pressed U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, questioning whether the list could have been unofficially leaked outside of the department.

Simon said he had no reason to believe it had been leaked but couldn’t commit under oath that the list wouldn’t be shared or released by a separate government entity outside of DOJ.

“You represent the government,” Judge Cobb said. “The White House wants this information. Does the government have present intent to publicly release names of FBI agents that worked on Jan. 6 cases?”

“People who have the list don’t have present intent,” Simon replied.

Simon further said he had difficulty getting approval from superiors about language they could agree upon to further bind the government from releasing the list, citing other major civil rulings that the department has faced in just the past several hours.

The parties reached an out-of-court agreement on Friday that restricts the government from releasing the list pending further proceedings. The court set a preliminary injunction hearing over the list for March 27.

Earlier Thursday, attorneys for the agents argued that the release of the list would have serious consequences.

“Our argument is that the threat to national security is so extreme that we cannot risk letting it happen first, and then trying to put it back together,” said attorney for the agents Margaret Donovan in arguing for the temporary restraining order.

“I appreciate that, and I’m sympathetic to that argument,” Judge Cobb said. “A fear of something happening is not sufficient, even if — you know — the fear is a serious one.”

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs warned that the Trump Administration and DOGE head Elon Musk have demonstrated a willingness to publicly name officials they’ve accused of wrongdoing, such as the 51 former intelligence officials who wrote a letter about the Hunter Biden laptop and were later stripped of their security clearances in a Day-1 executive order by President Donald Trump.

“We have seen Elon Musk, working for the so-called DOGE agency, release names of individuals in public service. We have seen Jan. 6 pardonees very active on social media around the time of the survey, anticipating that the names would be released,” Donovan said. “We have a good faith reason to believe that those names may get out.”

In a court filing submitted Thursday morning, the Justice Department urged the judge hearing the case to reject the plaintiffs’ request to impose a restraining order blocking any public release of the list.

DOJ attorneys argued in the filing that the motion for the restraining order is based largely on speculation and that the FBI agents have failed to show they face any imminent threats in connection with the list.

Trump pleaded not guilty in 2023 to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House, and, separately, to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The classified documents case was dismissed last year by a federal judge, and both cases were subsequently dropped following Trump’s reelection in November due to a longstanding DOJ policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.

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FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell warned that Los Angeles is “still in such a dangerous situation” in an interview Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week.”

“I think the biggest concern that I have right now is the fact that we are still in such a dangerous situation — the red flag warnings have been reissued, the winds are coming back and we still want to make sure that people are in a safe place,” Criswell told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “And I know that that’s hard for so many, because they want to get back in. They want to see their home. They want to see if there’s anything left.”

Criswell urged that following that guidance is crucial not just to protect Los Angeles residents, but also to keep firefighters safe as they battle the devastating wildfires.

“That is the most important piece as they continue to try to contain this fire,” she said.

As the crisis continues, Criswell emphasized that the federal government is doing all it can to support firefighting and recovery efforts.

“We need to really start to take this time to put that plan in place, to help them with what they’re going to do to remove debris and get this community on that long journey of recovery,” she said.

California Sen. Adam Schiff appeared later on “This Week” to speak about the fires in his home state.

Schiff expressed his support for an investigation into issues surrounding the fires, particularly lack of water supply and the erroneous evacuation alert sent to nearly all Los Angeles residents.

“If people can’t trust when they’re told ‘You need to get out,’ that they do need to get out, then it not only severely impacts the whole effort, but people ignore the alerts, endangering themselves and endangering the firefighters that have to step between the fires and these civilians,” Schiff said.

These investigations, however, are secondary to lifesaving efforts that continue in the state, Schiff emphasized.

“We need to bring a sense of urgency to this, but the most urgency right now has to be reserved to putting down these flames. We have more high winds coming up in the next couple days,” he said. “So for now, let’s focus on putting out these fires, saving lives, saving property, and then let’s do the full analysis of what went wrong.”

Schiff said it will be important for President-elect Donald Trump to work with California Gov. Gavin Newsom so the state can get back on its feet. Trump has been harshly critical of Democratic leaders and their preparations for the fires.

“I have been in Congress a long time approving aid after disasters,” he said. “I never once even considered, ‘Is this hurricane hitting a red state or a blue state?'”

“We are all in this together. It’s the United States of America,” he said. “We need the incoming president to view it that way.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will order a “national energy emergency” and issue a “presidential memorandum on inflation” as part of a slew of executive actions on his first day in office, incoming White House officials told reporters Monday morning.

Among the actions described by the official includes orders related to transgender Americans, as well as orders aimed at the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies.

Trump and his advisers have also prepared an executive order directing the incoming attorney general and the heads of all departments and agencies to review law enforcement conduct over the last four years, multiple sources familiar with the matter said.

That order — which advisers are calling “ending weaponization in the federal government” — doesn’t explicitly direct any criminal investigations, but asks for a review of law enforcement activity and actions taken by the intelligence community over the course of Joe Biden’s presidency.

It’s not clear if Trump will sign that order on Monday, but it’s a sign that Trump’s administration plans to “investigate the investigators,” as he has previously indicated he would.

Economic actions

As part of Trump’s executive actions that are expected to be signed “as soon as possible,” officials said Trump will “put an end to the [Biden administration’s] electric vehicle mandate.” Another order will focus solely on Alaska, which officials said has “an incredible abundance of natural resources.”

Officials said these moves were not only intended to spur the economy and bring down costs, but also “strengthen our nation’s national security,” citing the impending “AI race with China.”

The primary order Trump is expected to sign Monday will focus on “unleashing” American energy, which officials said would emphasize “cutting the red tape and the burdens and regulations that have held back our economy, have held back investments, job creation and natural resource production.”

The national energy emergency Trump expects to sign will “unlock a variety of different authorities that will enable our nation to quickly build again, to produce more natural resources, to create jobs, to create prosperity and to strengthen our nation’s national security,” officials said.

Officials did not share details on the presidential memorandum to address inflation, saying only that it would be an “all-of-government approach to bringing down costs for all American citizens.”

Drilling reached record highs during the Biden administration — but Biden he also took executive actions to ban future offshore oil and natural gas drilling on America’s East and West coasts, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Bering Sea.

Transgender actions

Incoming Trump White House officials outlined a series of first-day executive actions that they described as efforts to “restore sanity,” including executive orders declaring that the U.S. government will only recognize a person’s gender assigned at birth, prohibiting federal funds from being used in programs that acknowledge people who identify as transgender.

Among the most tangible changes Americans might see is a change to passports, rescinding a rule under Biden that allowed Americans to mark “X” as their gender marker on their U.S. passport applications.

Trump also plans to rescind rules set by Biden that withheld federal money from schools, including colleges, unless they followed certain rules to protect trans students from harassment.

Entities that receive federal dollars like prisons and shelters also would have to designate “single sex” spaces, officials said, assigning people to certain areas based on their gender assigned at birth.

In announcing the changes, which could have sweeping implications, officials took few questions from reporters and did not provide specifics.

“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These are sexes that are not changeable, and they are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” one official said.

DEI actions

The incoming official said orders related to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the federal government are intended to create “equal treatment” and end DEI in the federal government.

Saying it was “very fitting” for the orders to be coming on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the official said orders will ask for the Office of Management and Budget and The U.S. Office of Personnel Management to coordinate with the various agencies to “terminate” all DEI programs in the agency, including positions that have been renamed.

This also includes environmental justice programs, equity related grants, equity action plans, and equity initiatives, according to the official.

There will also be a monthly meeting planned between members of the Department of Justice and Deputy Secretary of Trump admin agencies to assess any other DEI programs that officials plan to dismantle further, the official said.

Specific programs the orders will look to end include the Federal Aviation Administration recruiting “individuals who suffer from severe intellectual disabilities” and the USDA spending a billion dollars on environmental justice.

While the action does not address any private companies’ use of DEI programs, the incoming Trump official, when asked, said to “wait and see” regarding further action regarding private companies.

“Private business should wait and see. We have more actions on DEI very soon,” the official said.

Iincoming Trump White House officials did not share the specific text of Trump’s planned executive orders. They will be circulated to the press once they are signed by the president, officials said.

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

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