Special counsel files sealed court brief supporting his Jan. 6 case against Trump
(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s lengthy court brief seeking to justify his latest superseding indictment against former President Donald Trump on charges that he sought to subvert the 2020 election has been filed under seal with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a spokesperson for Smith’s office confirmed to ABC News Thursday.
“We have complied with the court’s order,” spokesperson Peter Carr said.
The brief presents Smith’s argument on how the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity applies to the former president’s criminal case.
Whether any portions of the filing will be made public now rest in Judge Chutkan’s hands.
Smith has also filed a proposed redacted version of the filing that his office determined would be appropriate for public release.
Trump’s defense attorneys will have a chance to make their own counterarguments objecting to the release of information in the brief.
Chutkan on Tuesday granted Smith’s request to file an oversized 180-page brief, exceeding the standard 45-page limit.
In July, the Supreme Court ruled in blockbuster decision that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office — effectively sending the case back to Chutkan to sort out which charges against Trump can stand.
Smith then charged Trump, in a superseding indictment, with the same election interference offenses in the original indictment, but pared down and adjusted to the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
Chutkan subsequently ruled that Smith could file a comprehensive brief supporting his presidential immunity arguments.
(NEW YORK) — On the heels of the Perseid meteor shower earlier this month, August is offering another great astronomical sight — the rare combination of a supermoon and blue moon.
Beginning on Aug. 19, the super blue moon will reach peak fullness at 2:26 p.m. ET. Since that’s daylight hours in the U.S., Americans will have to wait for the evening to see the moon slightly past its peak, while still being noticeably larger and brighter than a typical moon view.
The super blue moon will appear full for three days, according to NASA.
A supermoon coinciding with a blue moon is exceptionally rare, the space agency reports, with the next pairing happening in January and March 2037.
What is a supermoon?
Supermoons are the biggest and brightest lunar views of the year, they occur when the moon’s orbit is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth, according to NASA.
During the moon’s closest approach to Earth, it can appear approximately 14% larger and shine 30% brighter than when at its farthest point in the orbit, approximately 226,000 miles away.
The term “supermoon” was originally coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.
Supermoons appear three to four times annually and always appear consecutively, according to NASA, which notes starting this month, the next three full moons will be supermoons.
The next supermoons will occur on Sept. 17, Oct. 17 and Nov. 15.
What is a blue moon?
Despite its name, blue moons have little to do with color and everything to do with timeliness. There are two types of blue moons – seasonal and monthly – and the blue moon on Aug. 19 will be seasonal.
A seasonal blue moon is the third full moon in an astrological season with four full moons, while a monthly blue moon refers to the second of two full moons in the same month.
The next seasonal blue moon is expected in May 2027, according to NASA.
While the super blue moon Aug. 19 won’t be blue, on rare occasions the moon has appeared blue. NASA reports that this occurs when tiny particles in the air, typically of smoke or dust, scatter away red wavelengths of light and cause the moon to appear blue.
How rare is a super blue moon?
While supermoons and seasonal blue moons are more common in the night sky individually, the combination of the two is quite irregular, according to NASA.
The time between super blue moons can be as long as 20 years but 10 years is the average. However, 2023 also saw a super blue moon in August.
Following Aug. 19, the next super blue moons will occur in a pair, in January and March 2037.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A landmark bill to ban some dyes in food served at California public schools, aimed at protecting children’s health, is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk to be signed into law after passing the state legislature on Thursday.
Assembly Bill 2316, also known as the California School Food Safety Act, would prohibit six potentially harmful food dye chemicals from being provided in the state’s public schools. It was approved by the California Assembly on Thursday after passing the state Senate earlier in the week.
“California has a responsibility to protect our students from chemicals that harm children and that can interfere with their ability to learn,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who introduced the legislation back in February, said in a statement Thursday, adding, “This bill will empower schools to better protect the health and well-being of our kids and encourage manufacturers to stop using these harmful additives.”
Gabriel was previously successful in his efforts to ban potentially harmful food and drink additives in products sold throughout the state through the passage of the California Food Safety Act last year. The legislation bans potassium bromate, propylparaben, brominated vegetable oil and Red 3 from food that is manufactured, delivered and sold in the Golden State.
Newsom signed the bill into law last October, making California the first state in the U.S. to ban the additives.
Under the newly passed California School Food Safety Act, Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6, Blue Dye No. 1, Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3 will be banned from food served to students in public schools during regular hours.
The bipartisan bill was supported by the Environmental Working Group and Consumer Reports.
Studies suggest that consumption of the six dyes and colorants banned under A.B. 2316 may be linked to hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems in some children, as the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment outlined in a 2021 report.
While there are still thousands of chemicals allowed for use in our country’s commercial food system, many of those that have been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration have not been reevaluated for decades. Red 40, for example, was last evaluated for health risks in 1971.
Reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics align with this push to reassess the safety of artificial food coloring.
“Over the last several decades, studies have raised concerns regarding the effect of [artificial food colorings] on child behavior and their role in exacerbating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms,” doctors write. “Further work is needed to better understand the implications of AFC exposure and resolve the uncertainties across the scientific evidence. The available literature should be interpreted with caution because of the absence of information about the ingredients for a number of reasons, including patent protection.”
Dr. Stephanie Widmer, an ABC News medical contributor, board-certified emergency medicine physician and toxicologist, told “Good Morning America” previously, while discussing California’s earlier harmful chemical ban, “These chemicals are all kind of in different foods and all exert different effects and different concerns.”
“Some of them are associated with neurological problems, some are reproductive problems, some have been linked to cancer,” Widmer said at the time. “It really depends on the substance.”
(LOS ANGELES) — More than 8,600 firefighters simultaneously battling three major Southern California wildfires made substantial progress overnight, taking advantage of cooler and wetter weather to increase containment lines on all three blazes, authorities said Sunday.
The largest blaze — the Bridge Fire burning in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties — was at 54,567 acres as of Sunday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
More than 2,600 emergency personnel battling the fire increased containment to 9% on Sunday, up from 2% on Saturday morning. Fire crews ensured a “minimal” spread of the inferno by about 800 acres overnight, according to Cal Fire.
Two firefighters have been injured in the Bridge Fire, which began on Sept. 8. At least 19 structures have been destroyed and six damaged, with 11,560 more still under threat, Cal Fire said.
The northwest corner of the fire was most active through Saturday, Cal Fire added, while the east side of the blaze still poses risks to residents in the Mount Baldy area, where evacuation orders remain in effect.
Firefighters held their containment line on its south side in the Sunset Peak area, and increased containment there by 2%.
The cause of the Bridge Fire remains under investigation.
Elsewhere in the Los Angeles area, firefighters were gaining the upper hand on two other major wildland blazes.
Line Fire
Firefighters in San Bernardino County increased containment of the Line Fire to 36% on Sunday morning, up from 25% to 29% on Saturday, according to Cal Fire. The blaze, which was started Sept. 5 by an alleged arsonist, was 38,421 acres in size as of Cal Fire’s latest update Sunday morning.
Some 36,300 structures are being threatened, with one destroyed and three damaged as of Sunday. There are 4,103 fire personnel fighting the blaze, with three firefighters so far injured.
“Late Friday night and into the early hours Saturday, Line Fire activity was moderated due to higher moisture levels,” San Bernardino National Forest officials said, though they added that danger of spreading fire remained in dry vegetation, drainages and along slopes.
“The weather is expected to remain cool over the next several days which will continue to help moderate fire behavior,” the national forest officials said.
Airport Fire
Firefighters battling the Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties grew containment from 9% to 19% on Saturday, Cal Fire reported, with the fire now 23,519 acres in size.
The wildfire destroyed 109 structures and damaged 24 more as of Saturday night, Cal Fire said, with another 21,993 still threatened. Fourteen people — 12 firefighters and two civilians — have been injured.
“Favorable weather conditions persisted, with the marine layer returning this evening and forecast light precipitation in the coming days,” Cal Fire wrote on Saturday evening.
“Despite recent weather, the dry vegetation has exhibited active fire behavior, indicating the continued risk of increased fire activity,” Cal Fire said.
“Evacuation levels are being assessed daily by fire managers in collaboration with law enforcement based on fire containment and safety considerations,” it added. “Efforts are underway to safely return residents to their homes as conditions permit.”
The Airport Fire began around 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday, sparked by county public works crews working on a fire prevention project by trying to move boulders to prevent public access — mostly by motorcyclists — to an area of the canyon with a lot of dry vegetation that could ignite easily, officials told Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
ABC News’ Samira Said and Tristan Maglunog contributed to this report.