Trump names Alina Habba counselor to the president, with other State Department roles
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(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump announced that Alina Habba, his senior adviser and attorney, will serve as counselor to the president.
The appointment was shared through a post on Truth Social on Sunday evening, in which he wrote, “Alina has been a tireless advocate for Justice, a fierce Defender of the Rule of Law, and an invaluable Advisor to my Campaign and Transition Team. She has been unwavering in her loyalty, and unmatched in her resolve – standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles, and countless days in Court.”
“As a first generation American of Middle Eastern Heritage, she has become a role model for women in Law and Politics, most recently being named Chaldean Woman of the Year,” the post continued, before congratulating Habba and her family on the appointment.
In his former administration, the position was held by Kellyanne Conway. It is not associated with the White House counsel’s office.
In additional social media posts the same evening, Trump announced several State Department roles, including Michael Anton as director of policy planning, Michael Needham as counselor and Christopher Landau as deputy secretary.
“Michael served me loyally and effectively at the National Security Council in my First Term,” Trump’s post regarding the director of policy planning position said.
“He spent the last eight years explaining what an America First foreign policy truly means,” it added.
For Needham, he wrote, “Mike has capably served Senator Marco Rubio for many years, and is a key leader in the America First Movement. He has been on the front lines of the fight for the Forgotten Men and Women of America for nearly two decades, and will do a great job at State.”
In while appointing the deputy secretary of the State Department, the president-elect posted, “Chris will work closely with our great Secretary of State Nominee, Marco Rubio, to promote our Nation’s security and prosperity through an America First Foreign Policy. Chris served as my Ambassador to Mexico, where he worked tirelessly with our team to reduce illegal migration to the lowest levels in History.”
“He is also one of our Country’s great lawyers, and clerked for both Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas on the United States Supreme Court,” the post continued. “He graduated from Harvard College, first in his Class, and Harvard Law School, and has argued nine cases in the U.S. Supreme Court.”
All four of the posts appeared on Trump’s account within the span of about one minute, just before 7 p.m.
(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has withdrawn from their appeal of the classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump’s co-defendants and referred the case to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, according to a court filing Monday afternoon.
Smith last month dropped his appeal against Trump due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president, but his team continued to pursue their appeal against Trump’s two co-defendants in the case, longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos De Oliveira.
Trump pleaded not guilty last June to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities, and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back.
The former president, along with Nauta and De Oliveira, also pleaded not guilty to allegedly attempting to delete surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Smith’s appeal, to the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, came after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Smith’s case in July, citing the constitutionality of his appointment as special counsel.
With the appeal ongoing, Smith’s team on Monday withdrew from the case and passed the case to federal prosecutors in Florida. In a separate filing, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Markenzy Lapointe, entered his appearance in the case.
A representative for the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Smith has also been winding down his federal election interference case against Trump following Trump’s reelection, and is expected to issue a report on his investigations to Attorney General Merrick Garland in the coming weeks.
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he plans on firing FBI director Christopher Wray and replacing him with longtime ally Kash Patel.
The appointment must be approved by the Senate.
Patel has been a staunch supporter of Trump for years and served in his first administration under a number of roles. He has vocally defended Jan. 6 rioters.
Patel has said he would target journalists, former senior FBI and Department of Justice officials and turn the FBI into a museum for the “deep state” on Day 1.
“This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
The FBI and Patel did not immediately comment about Trump’s announcement. Trump can not make personnel changes to the FBI until he is sworn in.
Wray was appointed in 2017 after he fired Director James Comey, less than four years into his 10 year term. Trump claimed Comey “wasn’t doing a good job.”
Patel, 44, grew up in Long Island and earned a law degree from Pace University Law School. He first served as a public defender in Miami for nine years before moving to Washington D.C. in 2013 to work at Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Patel left the Justice Department in 2017 claiming frustration with the agency, especially with the handling of the Benghazi case.
He went on to lead the “Russia Gate” investigation for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, with a promise from Nunes that after the investigation he would help Patel get a job at the National Security Council in the White House.
As the self-described “lead investigator of the Russia Gate hoax,” Patel authored the so-called “Nunes memo” alleging that the FBI improperly eavesdropped on former Trump adviser Carter Page.
A major report by the Justice Department’s inspector general released in late 2019 found that the FBI was not impacted by political bias when it opened the investigation — though it outlined what it called “serious performance failures” on the part of agents as they vetted information from sources and sought surveillance warrants against Page.
In February 2019, Patel became Deputy Assistant to the President and “senior director for counterterrorism” on the White House’s National Security Council.
In February 2020, Patel took on a “temporary duty assignment” as deputy to the newly installed acting Director of National Intelligence. That November, after Trump lost the election, Patel was named chief of staff for the Defense Department, despite large critics pointing out that he was unqualifed for the role.
After Trump left the White House, Patel held a number of jobs including hosting shows on far right media outlets.
On a podcast two months ago, Patel said anyone involved in “Russiagate” should be stripped of their security clearances.
According to Patel, there is a “massive” list of such government officials, from the FBI and Justice Department to the CIA and U.S. military.
“They all still have clearances,” including those who left government for private sector jobs, so “everybody” should lose their clearances, Patel said.
Patel said he has personally “recommended” to Trump that the new administration also strip any security clearances still held by the 51 then-former intelligence officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan, who in October 2020, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, signed onto a letter dismissing the public release of emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop as part of a “Russian information operation.”
Patel has also come to the defense of January 6th rioters.
He’s raised money for Jan. 6 defendants and their families, including by promoting the “J6 Prison Choir,” featuring Jan. 6 defendants still in jail, and co-producing their fundraising song “Justice for All,” which Trump played at some of his campaign rallies. And Patel once suggested Jan. 6 was “a free speech movement.”
Patel became a part of the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
After news surfaced that the National Archives found some classified documents in boxes previously stored at Mar-a-Lago, Patel called the news “disinformation” and insisted he was there when Trump “declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves.”
Four weeks later, Trump named Patel as one of his official representatives to the National Archives, and Patel promised to “march down there,” “identify every single document that they blocked being declassified at the National Archives, and we are going to start putting that information out.”
Two months later, Patel’s claimed Trump declassifying documents were included in the FBI’s affidavit laying out why the FBI believed a broad search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was warranted. And Patel was subpoenaed to testify to the grand jury investigating the matter, but at first he refused to answer key questions.
He later returned to the grand jury and answered those questions only after being granted limited-use immunity. He has blasted the entire probe as unlawful overreach by a politically corrupted Justice Department.
(WASHINGTON) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not attend President-elect Donald Trump‘s inauguration, according to her spokesperson.
Pelosi notably attended Trump’s inauguration in 2017, when she was the House Democratic leader.
A spokesman did not disclose a reason why the California Democrat is skipping the high-profile event.
While she broke her hip on an international trip to Luxembourg late last year, Pelosi returned to the Capitol for both the first day of the new Congress as well as the count of the electoral votes on Jan. 6.
Attending 11 inaugurations so far, Pelosi has rubbed elbows with presidents at their inauguration dating back to her high school days when John F. Kennedy was sworn into office in 1961.
Pelosi has mostly maintained cordial relationships with Republican presidents, particularly George W. Bush despite their differences over the Iraq War and Afghanistan.
But the friction and public battles with Trump, including shouting matches in the Oval Office — have created headlines — such as when she pointed a finger at him in a White House photo opportunity or when she stood over his shoulder and ripped up a copy of his State of the Union remarks in 2020.
Pelosi’s criticism only amplified after the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Pelosi also grew enraged when Trump mocked the violent hammer attack against her husband, Paul Pelosi.
In turn, Trump labeled Pelosi at his 2024 campaign rallies as “an enemy from within.”
“She’s a crooked person. She’s a bad person, evil. She’s an evil, sick, crazy,” Trump said before appearing to mouth the word “b*tch” “Oh no. It starts with a B– but I won’t say it. I want to say it. I want to say it,” Trump said about Pelosi at his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
ABC News’ John Parkinson and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.