Trump hires new lawyers, files notice of appeal for hush money conviction
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(WASHINGTON) — Top white shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell will represent President Donald Trump as he appeals his criminal hush money conviction in New York, according to court filings Wednesday.
The new attorneys filed a notice of appeal Wednesday, signaling their intention to appeal Trump’s conviction to New York’s Appellate Division, First Department.
Among Trump’s new lawyers is firm co-chair Robert J. Giuffra.
“President Donald J. Trump’s appeal is important for the rule of law, New York’s reputation as a global business, financial and legal center, as well as for the presidency and all public officials,” Giuffra said in a statement. “The misuse of the criminal law by the Manhattan DA to target President Trump sets a dangerous precedent, and we look forward to the case being dismissed on appeal.”
The change in attorneys followed Trump’s naming of his former lead attorneys, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and John Sauer, to top roles in the Justice Department.
Blanche has been nominated for deputy attorney general, Sauer as solicitor general, and Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general.
Sauer led Trump’s successful appeals, including at the U.S. Supreme Court, that led to the dismissals of federal prosecutions in Trump’s Jan. 6 and classified documents cases.
Blanche and Bove led the defense team at Trump’s criminal trial in New York that ended in Trump’s conviction last May on all 34 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.
The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, sentenced Trump prior to his inauguration to an unconditional discharge, sparing Trump any prison time, fines or probation.
More than 15 million people across a large portion of the nation were under winter storm alerts on Super Bowl Sunday morning, with many digging out from snow left by the first of three storms forecast to slam the U.S. through Thursday.
Snow was continuing to fall in upper New England on Sunday morning, with Boston expecting to get a total of 6 to 8 inches of snow from the weekend storm. Residents of northern Massachusetts are bracing for 8 to 12 inches before the snow tapers off around midday.
Many of the winter alerts are expected to expire by midmorning Sunday, while others will linger into the early afternoon.
Preliminary overnight snow totals showed Medford, Wisconsin, receiving 13 inches of snow, while 8 inches fell in Andover, Minnesota, and Cadillac, Michigan. New York City’s Central Park recorded 3 inches of snow and Minneapolis got 3.3 inches.
Sunday’s Super Bowl between defending NFL champs the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will be played inside New Orleans’ climate-controlled Caesars Superdome and will not be affected by a chance of passing rain around the 6:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
On Saturday, New Orleans hit 85 degrees, tying a daily high-temperature record. Sunday is expected to bring a mix of sun and clouds to the Big Easy and temperatures are expected to reach near 77.
Elsewhere, people were digging out on Sunday from the snowstorm that socked the Midwest and the Northeast on Saturday night into Sunday morning.
But a reprieve from the snow will be short-lived for many people across the country as two more storms are lining up and threatening to bring heavy rain and possible flash flooding to the South and more snow to the Midwest and Northeast.
Lake-effect snow warnings for Fair Haven and Oswego, New York, go into effect at 4 p.m. ET Sunday and are expected to last into Tuesday. Up to 16 inches of snow is forecast for the upstate New York area.
The next storm is expected to develop on Monday over Texas and Oklahoma before pushing into the Midwest on Tuesday with rain south of the Ohio River and snow generally north of it. In the areas that see rain, there is a chance for flash flooding on Tuesday from north Louisiana to southeastern Tennessee — or from Shreveport to Atlanta. The rain is expected to last for hours before the atmospheric faucet shuts off.
By Tuesday night, the storm is forecast to bring snow to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The storm will likely dump the heaviest snow on Washington, D.C., which is expected to get around 6 inches possibly by sunrise Wednesday. Philadelphia could also get 3 to 6 inches of snow, and an inch to 3 inches is forecast from New York City to Boston.
Yet another storm is expected to arrive on Wednesday across the Great Plains and bring heavy snow to Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas. The storm is expected to spread east on Wednesday to Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. Chicago could see snow for about 20 hours from Wednesday morning into early Thursday.
The storm will likely just bring rain to the mid-Atlantic states as the snow line will be farther north, where snow is expected again for Boston and upstate New York on Thursday morning.
Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles/ U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Investigators will offer updates Tuesday in the probe into the devastating crash between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed all 67 people on board both aircraft.
The crash happened on the night of Jan. 29 when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which had departed from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people on board, was about to land at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The three soldiers on the helicopter were conducting an annual training flight and night vision goggle check ride for one of the pilots at the time when the two aircraft collided.
Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jennifer Homendy said last month that there was no indication the helicopter crew could tell there was an impending collision.
The soldiers may have had “bad data” on the altitude from their altimeter, as the pilots had differing altitudes in the seconds before the crash, Homendy said. One helicopter pilot thought they were at 400 feet and the other thought they were at 300 feet.
The transmission from the tower that instructed the helicopter to go behind the plane may not have been heard by the crew because the pilot may have keyed her radio at the same second and stepped on the transmission from ATC, the NTSB added.
The Black Hawk crew was likely wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight, Homendy said.
The NTSB will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Maryland has issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman heard arguments Wednesday over a request by five pregnant undocumented women to block Trump’s Day-1 executive order seeking to redefine the meaning of the 14th Amendment to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants from birthright citizenship.
“The denial of the precious right to citizenship will cause irreparable harm,” Judge Boardman said in handing down her order. “It has been said the right to U.S. citizenship is a right no less precious than life or liberty. If the court does not enjoin enforcement of the executive order, children subject to the order will be denied the rights and benefits of U.S. citizenship and their parents will face instability.”
“A nationwide injunction is appropriate and necessary because it concerns citizenship,” Judge Boardman said.
The ruling comes after a federal judge in Seattle criticized the Department of Justice for attempting to defend what he called a “blatantly unconstitutional” order and issued a temporary restraining order.
The women and the two nonprofits filed the Maryland lawsuit against the Trump administration last month, arguing that Trump’s executive order violated the constitution and multiple federal laws.
“If allowed to go into effect, the Executive Order would throw into doubt the citizenship status of thousands of children across the country, including the children of Individual Plaintiffs and Members,” the lawsuit said.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice have claimed that Trump’s executive order attempts to resolve “prior misimpressions” of the 14th Amendment, arguing that birthright citizenship creates a “perverse incentive for illegal immigration.” If permitted, Trump’s executive order would preclude U.S. citizenship from the children of undocumented immigrants or immigrants whose presence in the United States is lawful but temporary.
“Text, history, and precedent support what common sense compels: the Constitution does not harbor a windfall clause granting American citizenship to, inter alia: the children of those who have circumvented (or outright defied) federal immigration laws,” DOJ lawyers argued.
The executive order had already been put on hold by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle.
“I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar can state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It boggles my mind,” said Coughenour. “Where were the lawyers when this decision was being made?”
Because Judge Coughenour’s order only blocked the executive order temporarily, Judge Boardman will consider a longer-lasting preliminary injunction of the executive order.
“The hearing that’s coming up is a proceeding that essentially puts a longer pause,” explained Loyola Marymount University professor Justin Levitt. “It’s an order saying, ‘Don’t implement this,’ because the plaintiffs have shown a likelihood that they’ll succeed when we finally get to a final resolution, but many substantive legal claims are effectively decided on preliminary injunctions.”
With Trump vowing to appeal a ruling that finds his executive order unconstitutional, a preliminary injunction — if granted after Wednesday’s hearing — could be his first opportunity to appeal to a higher court.
Members of the Trump administration spent months crafting this executive order with the understanding that it would inevitably be challenged and potentially blocked by lower courts, according to sources familiar with their planning.
While the lawsuit challenging the executive order in Seattle was brought by four state attorneys general, the five pregnant undocumented women who filed the Maryland case argue that they would be uniquely harmed by the order. With individual states and undocumented women suffering different harms under the order, the cases could present different reasons to justify blocking the order.
Monica — a medical doctor from Venezuela with temporary protected status who joined the lawsuit under a pseudonym — said she joined the suit because she fears her future child will become stateless, with her home country facing an ongoing humanitarian, political and economic crisis.
“I’m 12 weeks pregnant. I should be worried about the health of my child. I should be thinking about that primarily, and instead my husband and I are stressed, we’re anxious and we’re depressed about the reality that my child may not be able to become a U.S. citizen,” she said.
