politics – Page 2 – Michmutters

Tag: politics

Categories
US

The IRS is set to get billions for audit enforcement. Here’s what it means for taxpayers

The IRS is set to get billions for audit enforcement. Here's what it means for taxpayers

The Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act calls for delivering nearly $80 billion to the IRS over 10 years. After months of negotiations over the sweeping spending package, the Senate passed the bill earlier this month, sending the legislation to the House for a vote before it reaches President Joe Biden’s desk.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, along with his predecessor, have asked Congress for additional funding. The agency’s budget has shrunk by more than 15% over the last decade. As a result, staffing levels and audit rates have been declining for years.
What's in the Manchin-Schumer deal on climate, health care and taxes
But some Republicans are attacking the proposed increase in IRS funding, arguing that it would leave more middle-class Americans and small businesses with the headache of facing a tax audit.

Democrats, and Rettig — who was appointed by former President Donald Trump — have said repeatedly that the intent is not to target the middle class but instead focus on making sure wealthy tax cheats comply with the law. It’s ultimately up to the IRS how the money is used.

“The IRS has for too long been unable to pursue meaningful, impactful examinations of large corporate and high-net-worth taxpayers to ensure they are paying their fair share,” Rettig wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers last week.

“The goal should not only be to increase audits, but improve the productivity of audits. You want the IRS to select the businesses and people for audits who really have not been compliant,” said Janet Holtzblatt, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

Here’s what it could mean to taxpayers if the IRS gets an increase in funding:

How much funding will the IRS receive?

The Inflation Reduction Act would provide nearly $80 billion to the IRS over 10 years, in addition to the money the agency normally receives from Congress on an annual basis. The IRS received nearly $12.6 billion for fiscal year 2022.

The new funding would result in a more than 50% increase in IRS funding adjusted for inflation, Holtzblatt said.

The $80 billion would be spread across four different areas of the IRS over the next decade.

More than half, about $45.6 billion, would go toward strengthening enforcement activities — including collecting taxes owed, providing legal support, conducting criminal investigations and providing digital asset monitoring, according to the bill text.

More than $25 billion would be allocated to support IRS operations, including expenses like rent payments, printing, postage and telecommunications.

Nearly $4.8 billion would be used for modernizing the agency’s customer service technology, like developing a callback service.

Roughly $3 billion would be allocated for taxpayer assistance, filing and account services.

How many new auditors could be hired?

The Republican National Committee and several Republican lawmakers have criticized the new IRS funding, claiming that it will provide the agency with an “army of 87,000 new IRS agents.”
But that number is misleading. The Treasury Department did estimate in 2021 that a nearly $80 billion investment in the IRS could allow the agency to hire 86,852 full-time employees over the course of a decade. But that figure accounts for all workers, not solely enforcement agents.
Still, hiring more than 86,000 workers over 10 years could be a huge increase for the IRS, which currently has nearly 80,000 employees. But the number of IRS staff has declined over the past decade, currently standing at 1970s levels, and the agency is expected to keep losing people.
Earlier this year, Rettig told lawmakers that the IRS would need to hire 52,000 people over the next six years just to maintain current staffing levels to replace those who retire or otherwise leave.

The Inflation Reduction Act does not instruct the IRS to hire a certain number of enforcement agents, and the agency would need to decide on staffing plans.

“The resources to modernize the IRS will be used for sorely needed improvements to taxpayer services — from answering the phones to improving 1960s-era IT systems — and to crack down on wealthy and corporate tax evaders who cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars each year,” Natasha Sarin, Treasury Department counselor for tax policy and implementation, said in a statement sent to CNN.

“The majority of new employees will replace the standard level of staff departures over the next few years,” she added.

How much more would the IRS be able to collect in federal taxes?

With an increase in funding for enforcement activities, the IRS will be able to conduct more audits and, as a result, collect more federal tax revenue.

The Congressional Budget Office expects increased collection to amount to roughly $203 billion over 10 years, raising net federal revenue by more than $124 billion during that time period when accounting for the nearly $80 billion that would be spent.

Tougher enforcement is intended to close what’s known as the “tax gap,” or the difference between the amount of tax revenue the government is collecting and what taxpayers actually owe. There are some bad actors who try to evade paying what they owe to Uncle Sam, but some inadvertent errors made by taxpayers drive the tax gap, too.

An older IRS estimate, based on tax years 2011, 2012 and 2013, found that nearly 84% of federal taxes are paid voluntarily and on time, leaving about $381 billion ultimately uncollected. Rettig has told lawmakers in the past that he believes the tax gap could be as much as $1 trillion a year now.
Audit rates of individual income tax returns decreased for all income levels between tax years 2010 to 2019 as staff levels and funding also declined, according to the Government Accountability Office. On average, individual tax returns were audited over three times more often during tax year 2010 than in tax year 2019.

Who may be more likely to face an IRS audit?

Selection for an audit doesn’t always suggest there’s a problem, according to the IRS. Sometimes returns are selected at random.

The Biden administration has repeatedly said that it wants the IRS to focus increased enforcement activity on high-wealth taxpayers and large corporations and not target households that earn less than $400,000 a year.

In his letter to lawmakers last week, Rettig wrote “that audit rates will not rise relative to recent years for households making under $400,000.”

He also said that better technology and customer service would make it less likely that compliant taxpayers would be audited.

Yellen directs IRS not to use new funding to increase chances of audits of Americans making less than $400,000

This week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen publicly reiterated Rettig’s statement, noting that the new enforcement resources will instead “focus on high-end noncompliance.”

Lawmakers also included language in the bill that aims to clarify who is the focus of a ramp-up in audits.

The bill says that the new investment in the IRS is not “intended to increase taxes on any taxpayer or small business with a taxable income below $400,000.”

Still, there is some uncertainty about how exactly the IRS will decide how to ramp up audits.

“Clearly this is going to be something that Congress and other interested parties are going to try and monitor — but good luck,” Holtzblatt said.

“I think it’s going to be a difficult commitment to observe whether it’s being followed,” she added.

.

Categories
US

The Washington Post: FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence for classified nuclear documents

Feds seized documents from Mar-a-Lago in June with grand jury subpoena

The people did not offer additional details to the Post about “what type of information the agents were seeking” or whether any such documents were recovered, according to the paper.

The revelation adds key context to the Justice Department’s extraordinary decision to search for the home of a former president.

As CNN previously reported, the criminal investigation started with concerns about missing documents raised by the National Archives, which made a criminal referral to the Justice Department upon discovering highly sensitive documents among the materials retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in January. The 15 boxes contained some materials that were part of special access programs (SAP), a classification that includes protocols to significantly limit who would have access to the information, according to a source familiar with what the Archives discovered in the boxes. That led to FBI interviews with aides to grand jury subpoenas to this week’s court-authorized search and seizure of documents.

Though Attorney General Merrick Garland has declined to share specific details about the search, he said Thursday that he “personally approved” the decision to seek a warrant for the search of Trump’s Florida home.

“The department does not take such a decision lightly. Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken,” Garland said in a news conference.

The attorney general also said that the Justice Department had filed a request in court that the search warrant and property receipt from the search be unsealed.
Merrick Garland just called Donald Trump's bluff

Trump said in a late-night post on his Truth Social platform Thursday that he would “not oppose the release of documents,” adding, “I am going to step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents.”

CNN reported earlier Thursday that Trump and his legal team had not yet reached a decision on how to respond to the Justice Department’s motion, according to a source familiar with their thinking.

Since the search, top congressional Republicans have rushed to Trump’s defense, casting the move as politically motivated. The former President has denied all wrongdoing, claiming the investigation is intended to derail his potential bid to return to the White House.

In a pair of posts to Truth Social following Garland’s statement, Trump continued to claim that his attorneys were “cooperating fully” and had developed “very good relationships” with federal investigators prior to Monday’s search at Mar-a-Lago.

The search warrant had been authorized by a federal court, Garland said.

“It is a federal crime to remove classified documents wrongly. And so if you are filling out that affidavit and you have to list the crime, you can list that as the crime,” said Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor and a CNN senior legal analyst, following the search warrant.

This story has been updated with additional information Friday.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed, Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.

.

Categories
US

Thomas Robertson: Former Virginia police officer sentenced to more than 7 years in January 6 case

Thomas Robertson: Former Virginia police officer sentenced to more than 7 years in January 6 case

Thomas Robertson entered the Capitol with the first breach of rioters that day, prosecutors said, and marks the second rioter convicted by a jury to be sentenced. Guy Reffitt, the first riot defendant convicted by a jury, received the same sentence of 87 months behind bars — the highest sentence in a January 6 case to date.

Washington, DC District Court Judge Christopher Cooper said Robertson’s actions after the riot were the most “striking and concerning” part of the case before handing down his sentence.

“You think partisan politics is war. You continue to believe conspiracy theories,” Cooper said to Robertson, adding: “I sincerely believe you would respond to a call of duty if called to do something like this again.”

Robertson, a former sergeant of the Rocky Mount police in Virginia, wrote in a March 2021 text to a friend, “I can kill every agent that they send,” assuring they would never see him “surrender to be a political prisoner.”

Robertson is one of more than a dozen January 6 defendants so far to opt to take their case to trial instead of entering a plea agreement.

Robertson’s substantial sentence — along with the sentence given to Reffitt — could encourage January 6 defendants with sights on a trial to instead accept Justice Department plea deals. Only one accused rioter who went to trial was acquitted on all charges.

Cooper noted that Robertson, who was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, chose to go to trial and did not accept responsibility for his actions.

“That’s your choice,” Cooper said. “But this is the consequence of that choice.”

Robertson was convicted by a DC jury in April on all six charges he faced, including the felony charges of impeding law enforcement officers, obstructing an official proceeding and tampering with evidence.

During his trial, prosecutors detailed what they considered Robertson’s preparation for the attack. They presented a post he allegedly wrote a month before January 6, 2021, calling for an “open and armed rebellion” and told the jury he brought three gas masks and food rations to DC.

Robertson’s co-defendant and former subordinate at work, Jacob Fracker, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in March and testified for hours against Robertson, a man he said he used to affectionately call “dad.” The jury also heard testimony from DC Metropolitan Police Officer Noah Duckett, who said a man prosecutors identified as Robertson struck him and another officer with a stick.

Robertson destroyed his and his Fracker’s phones before he was arrested and bought 37 guns in violation of his release conditions while awaiting trial, which Cooper considered — along with Robertson continuing “to advocate for violence” — when deciding his sentence.

.

Categories
Entertainment

Julie Bishop wows at David Jones fashion show wearing sexy ‘revenge dress’

Julie Bishop wows at David Jones fashion show wearing sexy 'revenge dress'

Julie Bishop has turned heads at a David Jones fashion show, wowing onlookers in a figure-hugging designer frock some have already dubbed her “revenge dress”.

Bishop wore a figure-hugging black Balmain minidress, worth around $3750, to David Jones’ spring-summer 2022 “Wonderland” runway show on Wednesday night.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Julie Bishop reveals new role

For more Celebrity related news and videos check out Celebrity >>

The metallic jacquard dress was paired with hoop earrings, a black clutch bag, black stockings and elegant black heels.

When photographs of Bishop emerged online, social media users went wild.

Julie Bishop poses during the David Jones SS22 Launch at David Jones Elizabeth Street Store on August 10, 2022 in Sydney. Credit: don arnold/Wire Image
Julie Bishop at the David Jones fashion show. Credit: don arnold/Wire Image

The mining industry advisor and ANU chancellor recently split from her partner of eight years, David Panton, who reportedly broke up with her over dinner at a Sydney restaurant on July 1.

Fans of Bishop liked Wednesday night’s sexy outfit to Princess Diana’s famous “revenge dress” – a short black cocktail dress she wore at her first public event after splitting from Prince Charles.

Bishop’s dress wasn’t quite as revealing – Diana’s dress, designed by Christina Stambolian, revealed her decolletage, while Bishop’s Balmain number was high-necked.

Princess Diana’s famous ‘revenge dress.’ Credit: Getty

But it did show off her fit and fabulous figure, prompting former Sunrise entertainment reporter Nelson Aspen to comment after she posted a picture on her Instagram page: “Va va va voom!!”

Pip Edwards, of Australian activewear brand PE Nation, added: “You stunner!”

“Is that like Diana’s revenge dress?” one follower wrote.

“So chic,” hair and makeup artist Max May wrote.

“A goddess,” wrote another follower.

Bishop also posted a group shot from the evening, underneath which actor Hugh Sheridan dropped four “on fire” emojis.

‘Wowsers Julie’

“Wow wow wow!,” designer Margot McKinney enthused.

Wow Julie!! You look absolutely stunning. Glamorous, elegance and class,” another follower wrote.

At the time of Bishop’s split with Panton, he told a Sydney newspaper that he would be “focused on living in Manly and Melbourne for the foreseeable future”.

“I wish Julie all the best in her ongoing stellar career.”

Julie Bishop and David Panton are seen at the Crown IMG Tennis party at Crown in Melbourne, January 2019. Credit: JULIAN SMITH/AAPIMAGE

Bishop and Panton are believed to have begun dating around 2014 and they maintained a long-distance relationship for years – with Bishop based in Perth while Panton was in Sydney.

The couple had been pictured dining in London with Prince Charles just six days before the news broke of their split.

Bishop regularly attends fashion events and is known for her immaculate style and love of designer labels.

This was department store David Jones’ first seasonal runway show since before the COVID pandemic, showcasing the latest collections from its stable of fashion designers.

Other celebrities spotted at the Sydney show included singer Vera Blue, actress Magnolia Maymuru, Channel 7 presenter Erin Holland, model Victoria Lee and influencer Tara Whiteman.

For more engaging celebrity content, visit 7Life on Facebook.

.

Categories
Technology

Unity Signs New Deal To Help US Army, Government

Unity Signs New Deal To Help US Army, Government

A screenshot shows the Unity logo in white on a blue and black grid background.

picture: Kotaku / Unity

Popular video game engine Unity has had a lot of bad press over the last year, the result of things like large-scale layoffs and some really terrible comments from its CEO. Today the trend continues, as it was recently announced that the company has signed a new multi-million dollar, three-year deal with a technology company that will see it become the “preferred real-time 3D platform” provider for the US government and its various defense agencies and militaries.

Unity is a widely used video game engine that is often cited as being lightweight, easy to work with, and flexible, allowing indie devs and large studios to create games that can scale across multiple platforms, like Xbox, PC, and Switch. The engine powers numerous gameslike Among Us, V Rising, Call of Duty Mobile, and Cuphead. But this flexibility and power have also attracted the attention of folks outside of the game industry, including companies that help build simulations and other systems for the US government and military.

As announced earlier this weekUnity is parenting with CACI International on what the company calls an “exciting” three-year, multi-million dollar deal that will help it become the “preferred real-time 3D platform for future systems design and simulation programs across the US Government.”

If you, like most folks reading this, don’t know what CACI is, here’s how the company describes itself on its own website:

CACI is a $6 billion company whose mission and enterprise technology and expertise play a vital role in our national security, safeguarding our troops, and enabling our government to deliver cost-effective and high-quality support for all Americans.

This sounds a lot like Unity is once again cutting deals to help the US government and military in developing technology that could aid soldiers and the country’s ability to fight wars overseas. And while some might not mind working on such tech, as we saw last year, many staff members at Unity did indeed have an issue with how the company was handling these deals. There were reports that some employees were working on parts of the engine that would benefit Unity’s government and military contracts, yet the devs had no idea.

Kotaku has contacted Unity about this latest contract and how it plans to keep its game engine devs separate from or informed about its military and government contract work with CACI.

.

Categories
US

Merrick Garland: DOJ filed motion to unseal Mar-a-Lago warrant and property receipt

Merrick Garland: DOJ filed motion to unseal Mar-a-Lago warrant and property receipt

Garland also said he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter.”

I have noted that the department did not comment on the search on the day that it occurred. I pointed out that the search was confirmed by Trump that evening. He said that copies of the warrant and the warrant receipt were provided to the Trump lawyers who were on site during the search.

“The Department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland said. “Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor. Under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice Department is doing. “

The statement comes after days of silence from the Justice Department with regard to the search, as is the department’s normal practice for ongoing investigations. Garland stressed that some of the department’s work must happen outside of public view.

“We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations,” he said, while explaining that he would not provide more detail about the basis of the search.

Trump and his legal team have not yet reached a decision on how to respond to the Justice Department’s motion to unseal the warrant, a source familiar with their thinking told CNN.

In a pair of posts to Truth Social following Garland’s statement, Trump continued to claim that his attorneys were “cooperating fully” and had developed “very good relationships” with federal investigators prior to Monday’s search at Mar-a-Lago.

“The government could have had whatever they wanted, if we had it,” Trump said. “Everything was fine, better than most previous Presidents, and then, out of nowhere and with no warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided, at 6:30 in the morning, by VERY large numbers of agents, and even ‘safecrackers. ‘”

The Justice Department has been instructed by the court to confer with Trump about his request to unseal certain warrant documents from the FBI Mar-a-Lago search and to tell the court by Friday 3 pm ET if he opposes their release.

Justice Department asks court for documents to be released

The FBI executed a search warrant Monday at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents, that may have been brought there.

Newly filed court documents outline what the Justice Department has officially moved to do Thursday.

“On August 8, 2022, the Department of Justice executed a search warrant, issued by this Court upon the requisite finding of probable cause… at the premises located at 1100 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach, Florida 33480, a property of former President Donald J. Trump,” the motion reads.

“At the time the warrant was initially executed, the Department provided notice directly to former President Trump’s counsel. The Department did not make any public statements about the search, and the search apparently attracted little or no public attention as it was taking place. Later That same day, former President Trump issued a public statement acknowledging the execution of the warrant.In the days since, the search warrant and related materials have been the subject of significant interest and attention from news media organizations and other entities,” the Justice Department writes.

DOJ then argues for unsealing the search warrant, citing “the intense public interest presented by a search of a residence of a former President.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks on FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago

The filing confirms that the search warrant was “signed and approved by the Court on August 5.” On Thursday, the DOJ filed “the redacted Property Receipt listing items seized pursuant to the search,” according to its unsealing motion.

“Former President Trump, through counsel, was provided copies of each of these documents on August 8, 2022, as part of the execution of the search,” the filing adds.

Earlier this year, officials from the National Archives arranged the retrieval of 15 boxes of presidential documents from Mar-a-Lago. In June, federal investigators served a grand jury subpoena and took away sensitive national security documents.

Then, according to sources, prosecutors developed evidence that there were potentially classified documents with national security implications remaining at the property.

FBI officials under attack

Republican lawmakers have lashed out at the department, calling the search politically motivated. Several lawmakers on the right have called for increased oversight of the department, and some have even suggested defunding the FBI or that agents planted evidence at the Florida estate.

Violent threats also have exploded online since the search. Posters have written things like “Garland needs to be assassinated” and “kill all feds.” The biography and contact information of a federal magistrate judge who appears to have signed the search warrant used to execute the search at Mar-a-Lago has been wiped from a Florida court’s website after he too became the target of violent threats.

In a message reviewed by CNN on Thursday moments ahead of the public statement, FBI Director Chris Wray told the bureau’s employees their “safety and security” was his “primary concern right now.”

Feds removed documents from Mar-a-Lago in June with grand jury subpoena

“There has been a lot of commentary about the FBI this week questioning our work and motives,” Wray said. “Much of it is from critics and pundits on the outside who don’t know what we know and don’t see what we see. What I know — and what I see — is an organization made up of men and women who are committed to do their jobs professionally and by the book every day; this week is no exception.”

In his public comments, Garland also called out the “unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors.”

“I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked. The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated patriotic public servants,” he said. “Every day, they protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism and other threats to their safety while safeguarding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Gabby Orr contributed to this report.

.

Categories
US

CDC eases Covid guidance as US has more tools to fight the virus and keep people out of the hospital

CDC eases Covid guidance as US has more tools to fight the virus and keep people out of the hospital

A sign outside of a hospital advertises COVID-19 testing on November 19, 2021 in New York City. On Friday vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention voted unanimously in recommending a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccines for all adults in the United States six months after they finish their first two doses.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its Covid-19 guidance on Thursday, saying the virus now poses a much lower risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death compared to earlier in the pandemic.

The CDC is no longer recommending testing to screen people with possible asymptomatic infections in most settings, such as schools. However, screening is still recommended in certain high risk settings such as nursing homes and prisons.

And people who are not up to date on their vaccines no longer need to quarantine if they have been exposed to Covid-19, according to the new CDC guidance. Instead, public health officials now recommend that these individuals wear a mask for 10 days and get tested on day five.

Greta Massetti, a CDC epidemiologist, said the US has the vaccines and treatments needed to fight the virus. As a consequence, the virus now poses a much lower threat to public health, according to the CDC. But it remains crucial for everyone to remain up to date on their vaccines, according to the public health agency.

“This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives,” Massetti said in a statement.

People with healthy immune systems, regardless of vaccination status, should isolate for five days after testing positive for the virus, but you can end isolation at day six if you have not had symptoms or if you have not had a fever for 24 hours and other symptoms have improved, according to the guidelines.

After leaving isolation, you should wear a high-quality mask through day 10 after your positive test. If you have had two negative rapid antigen tests you can stop wearing your mask earlier, according to the guidelines. But you should avoid people who are more likely to get sick from Covid, such as the elderly and people with weak immune systems, until at least day 11.

People with weakened immune systems, those who have been hospitalized with Covid, or those who have had shortness of breath due to the virus should isolate from others for 10 days. But people with weakened immune systems and those who were hospitalized should also consult a physician before ending isolation.

If you end isolation but your Covid symptoms worsen, you should return to isolation and follow the guidelines from scratch again, according to the CDC.

The US is currently reporting more than 107,000 new cases a day on average, according to the CDC. That’s likely to be a significant undercount because many people are now testing at home and results are not picked up in official data.

About 6,000 people with Covid are admitted to the hospital a day on average, according to the CDC data. Nearly 400 people are still dying a day on average from the virus.

CNBC Health & Science

Read CNBC’s latest global health coverage:

.

Categories
US

Feds seized documents from Mar-a-Lago in June with grand jury subpoena

Feds seized documents from Mar-a-Lago in June with grand jury subpoena

Investigators executed Monday’s search in part because they had developed evidence, including from at least one witness, that there were potentially classified documents still remaining at the Palm Beach, Florida, property months after the National Archives arranged for the retrieval of 15 boxes of documents that included classified information in January of this year, a person briefed on the matter said.

Authorities also believed the documents remaining at Mar-a-Lago had national security implications, CNN reported earlier this week.

The subpoena issued before the June meeting, during which investigators were shown where documents were held in a basement room at the Trump residence and private club, shows how the investigation has escalated and suggests the discussions had become confrontational long before Monday’s search.

The criminal investigation started with concerns about missing documents raised by the National Archives, which made a criminal referral to the Justice Department. That led to FBI interviews with aides to grand jury subpoenas to this week’s court-authorized search and seizure of documents.

The Justice Department is in a no-win situation as Trump's fury rages
Trump and his lawyers have sought to present their interactions with Justice Department prosecutors as cooperative, and that the search came as a shock. The subpoena was first reported by Just the News.
Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the search for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was prompted by a tip to investigators about the possibility of additional classified documents.

In response to questions about the grand jury subpoena, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said in a statement to CNN: “Monday’s unprecedented and absolutely unnecessary raid of President Trump’s home was only the latest and most egregious action of hostility by the Biden Administration, whose Justice Department has been weaponized to harass President Trump, his supporters and his staff.”

Earlier this spring, federal investigators began interviewing members of Trump’s staff at Mar-a-Lago and former White House officials who were involved in moving documents from the West Wing to his Palm Beach residence at the end of his presidency, according to three people familiar with those interviews.

In addition to the grand jury subpoena for documents, CNN previously reported that federal investigators separately served a subpoena for surveillance video at Mar-a-Lago, seeking to gather information about who had access to areas where documents were stored, according to people briefed on the matter. The subpoena served to the Trump Organization, the former President’s company that operates the Palm Beach property, came after the June meeting.

CNN previously reported that federal investigators visited Mar-a-Lago in June to discuss White House records they believed were still being held at the Palm Beach property with the former President and his attorneys.

Trump was present at the beginning of the meeting to greet investigators but did not stay to answer questions. During the meeting, Trump’s attorneys showed the investigators documents — some of them had markings indicating they were classified. The agents were given custody of the documents that were marked top secret or higher, according to a person familiar with the matter.

.

Categories
US

Clock is ticking for Biden to make key decisions on student loans

Clock is ticking for Biden to make key decisions on student loans

Borrower balances have effectively been frozen for more than two years, with no payments required on most federal student loans since March 2020 — when the coronavirus pandemic sent many Americans into lockdown. During this time, interest stopped accumulating and collections on defaulted debt have been on hold.

Now, as borrowers’ fates hang in the balance, the President is set to spend several days on a long-awaited vacation. And the Biden administration has not sent any signals to suggest they’ll announce a student loan decision while he’s away.

Biden has already extended the pause four times and has repeatedly argued that it was necessary to allow borrowers to get back on their feet. In April — when he last extended the repayment pause — he said that though the economy had gained strength, the country was “still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused.”

Along with potentially extending the pause, the White House has suggested Biden is considering canceling $10,000 per borrower, excluding those who earn more than $125,000 a year.

“We haven’t made a decision yet. … The Department of Education will communicate directly with borrowers about the end of the payment pause when a decision is made,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday. “When it comes to the cancellation… the President firsthand understands the burden that a student loan has on families… and so we’re just going to continue to assess our options for cancellation.”

Jean-Pierre emphasized that Biden will have something to announce “before August 31.”

With only three weeks until student loan servicers are scheduled to resume collecting federal student loan payments, Biden and his team are cutting it close. Normally, loan servicers send out billing statements at least 21 days before a payment is due, but those have n’t gone out yet since Biden is still making up his mind about him.

“For many weeks, there’s been no change in the guidance from the Department of Education. Servicers have been told to hold off on sending out any communication about the resumption of payments,” said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a nonprofit trade group whose members are responsible for servicing over 95% of all federal student loans.

While Biden didn’t announce a decision on student loans announced before he ditched Washington for the beaches of South Carolina on Wednesday, he’s riding into his vacation on the headwinds of a few successful and chaotic weeks at the White House.

Over the course of the last three weeks, Biden has dealt with a case of Covid-19 and a subsequent rebound, he signed into law two major bipartisan pieces of legislation, he gave the green light on the targeted killing of the man who succeeded Osama bin Laden as leader of al Qaeda, and the Senate managed to pass a slimmed down version of his landmark climate and health care bill.
Meanwhile, despite concerns last month about the prospect of a recession, national unemployment numbers defied economists’ expectations, gas prices have continued to go down in the last several weeks and heightened inflation eased in July. However, Americans are still paying more for everyday items like food, gas and vehicles than they’re used to, leaving less room in their budgets.
The midterm elections are less than 100 days away, and CNN’s latest data shows Biden’s approval rating remains low.

Americans’ attitudes toward student debt relief are sharply divided along partisan and generational lines.

A majority of Democrats in a May CNN poll (56%) — and an even wider majority of self-described liberals (69%) — say the government is doing too little on student loan debt, according to the CNN poll, while only a third of Republicans and self-described conservatives alike say the same. Seventy percent of adults younger than 35 say the government is doing too little, a figure that drops to 50% among those in the 35-49 age bracket, and 35% among those age 50 or older.
Continuing the forbearance or canceling debt could deliver financial relief to borrowers. But broad student loan forgiveness would also shift the cost — likely hundreds of billions of dollars — to taxpayers, including those who chose not to go to college or already paid for their education. Loan cancellation could also add to inflation while doing nothing to address the root of the problem: college affordability.
And the President, so far, has failed to get most of his college affordability proposals approved by Congress. The latest iteration of his proposed social safety net bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act, was approved by the Senate this month and now heads to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives for a vote. But the bill does not contain previously proposed provisions that would have lowered the cost of college.

Outside of the payment pause and an executive action to broadly cancel student loan debt, there are several other ways many of the 43 million federal student loan borrowers may qualify for some student loan forgiveness. Targeted debt forgiveness programs already exist that help public sector workers and borrowers who were defrauded by their for-profit college, for example.

And under Biden, some of these programs have been temporarily expanded, making it easier for some borrowers to qualify for forgiveness. The administration has approved more than $26 billion in targeted cancellation for over 1.3 million borrowers — more than under any other president.

CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy contributed to this report.

.

Categories
US

Trump’s bond with GOP deepens after primary wins, FBI search

Trump's bond with GOP deepens after primary wins, FBI search

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump ‘s pick for governor in the swing state of Wisconsin easily defeated a favorite of the Republican establishment.

In Connecticut, the state that launched the Bush family and its brand of compassionate conservatism, a fiery Senate contender who promoted Trump’s election lies upset the state GOP’s endorsed candidate. Meanwhile in Washington, Republicans ranging from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene defended Trump against an unprecedented FBI search.

And that was just this week.

The rapid developments crystallized the former president’s singular status atop a party he has spent the past seven years breaking down and rebuilding in his image. Facing mounting legal vulnerabilities and considering another presidential run, he needs support from the party to maintain his political career. But, whether they like it or not, many in the party also need Trump, whose endorsement has proven crucial for those seeking to advance to the November ballot..

“For a pretty good stretch, it felt like the Trump movement was losing more ground than it was gaining,” said Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who is urging his party to move past Trump. But now, he said, Trump is benefiting from “an incredibly swift tail wind.”

The Republican response to the FBI’s search of Trump’s Florida estate this week was an especially stark example of how the party is keeping Trump nearby. Some of the Republicans considering challenges to Trump in a 2024 presidential primary, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, were among those defending him. Even long-established Trump critics like Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan questioned the search, pressing for details about its circumstances.

But even before the FBI showed up at Mar-a-Lago, Trump was gaining momentum in his post-presidential effort to shape the GOP. In all, nearly 180 Trump-endorsed candidates up and down the ballot have won their primaries since May while fewer than 20 have lost.

Only two of the 10 House Republicans who supported Trump’s impeachment after the Jan. 6 insurrection are expected back in Congress next year. Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, R-Wash., who conceded defeat after her Tuesday primary, it was the latest to fall. Leading Trump antagonist Rep. Liz CheneyR-Wyo., is at risk of joining her next week.

The Trump victories include a clean sweep of statewide primary elections in Arizona last week — including an election denier in the race for the state’s official chief elections. Trump’s allies also prevailed Tuesday across Wisconsin and Connecticut, a state long known for its moderate Republican leanings.

In Wisconsin’s Republican primary for governor, wealthy Trump-backed businessman Tim Michels defeated former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, an establishment favourite. And in Connecticut, Leora Levy, who promoted Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, emerged to an unexpected victory over a more moderate rival after earning Trump’s official endorsement.

On Monday, just hours after the FBI search, Trump hosted a tele-town hall rally on his behalf. Levy thanked Trump in her acceptance speech, while railing against the FBI’s search for her.

“All of us can tell him how upset and offended and disgusted we were at what happened to him,” she said. “That is un-American. That is what they do in Cuba, in China, in dictatorships. And that will stop.”

Despite his recent dominance, Trump — and the Republicans close to him — face political and legal threats that could undermine their momentum as the GOP fights for control of Congress and statehouses across the nation this fall.

While Trump’s picks have notched notable victories in primaries this summer, they may struggle in the fall. That’s especially true in several governor’s races in Democratic-leaning states such as Connecticut and Maryland, where GOP candidates must track to the center to win a general election.

Meanwhile, several Republicans with White House ambitions are moving forward with a busy travel schedule that will take them to politically important states where they can back candidates on the ballot this year and build relationships heading into 2024.

DeSantis plans to boost high-profile Republican contenders across Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Former Vice President Mike Penceanother potential 2024 presidential contender, is scheduled to appear next week in New Hampshire.

On the legal front, the FBI search was part of an investigation into whether the former president took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence. While Republicans have rallied behind Trump, very few facts about the case have been released publicly. Trump’s attorneys have so far declined to release details from the search warrant.

Prosecutors in Washington and Georgia are also investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election he falsely claimed was stolen. The Jan. 6 congressional commission has exposed damning details about Trump’s behavior from Republican witnesses in recent hearings, which have prompted new concerns, at least privately, among the GOP establishment and donor class.

And on Wednesday, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination as he testified under oath Wednesday in the New York attorney general’s long-running civil investigation into his business dealings.

Trump’s legal entanglements represent a distraction at best for Republican candidates who’d rather focus on President Joe Biden’s leadership, sky-high inflation and immigration troubles to help court moderate voters and independents in the general election.

“Today, every Republican in every state in this country should be talking about how bad Joe Biden is, how bad inflation is, how difficult it is to run a business and run a household,” said Duncan, the Georgia lieutenant governor. “But instead, we’re talking about some investigation, we’re talking about Donald Trump pleading the Fifth, we’re talking about Donald Trump endorsing some conspiracy theorist.”

Trump critics in both parties are ready and willing to highlight Trump’s shortcomings — and his relationship with midterm candidates — as more voters begin to pay attention to politics this fall.

“This is, and always has been, Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in an interview, condemning “MAGA Republicans” and their “extreme agenda” on abortion and other issues.

At the same time, the Republican Accountability Project and Protect Democracy launched a $3 million television and digital advertising campaign this week across seven swing states focused on Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. The ads, which will run in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, feature testimonials from Republican voters who condemn Trump’s lies about nonexistent election fraud that fueled the Capitol attack.

One ad features congressional testimony from Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has publicly declared that Trump should never hold public office again.

Still, Cheney faces her own primary election against a Trump-backed challenger next week in Wyoming. One of Trump’s top political targets this year, she is expected to lose. Anticipating a loss, Cheney’s allies suggest she may be better positioned to run for president in 2024, either as a Republican or independent.

Trump’s allies are supremely confident about his ability to win the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2024. In fact, aides who had initially pushed him to launch his campaign after the November midterms are now encouraging him to announce sooner to help freeze out would-be Republican challengers .

“It’s going to be very difficult for anyone to take the nomination away from him in 2024,” said Stephen Moore, a former Trump economic adviser who has spoken with Trump about his 2024 intentions. “He is running. That is a certainty.”

Rep. Tom Rice, RS.C., predicted that Trump would “lose in a landslide” if he sought the presidency again, adding that the former president’s overall grasp on the party is “eroding on the edges.”

“In a normal election, you’ve got to win not just the base. You’ve got to win the middle, too, right, and maybe crossover on the other side,” said Rice, who lost his recent primary after voting in favor of Trump’s second impeachment.

Rice warned that Trump far-right candidates could lead to unnecessary losses for the party in November. “Donald Trump is pushing things so far to the right,” he said in an interview.

Meanwhile, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, eyeing a 2024 bid himself, warned against making bold political predictions two years before the Republican Party selects its next presidential nominee.

“We’re sitting here in August of 2022,” Christie said in an interview. “My sense is there’s a lot of water over the dam still to come before anybody can determine anybody’s individual position in the primaries of ’24 — except to say that if Donald Trump runs, he will certainly be a factor.”

___

Associated Press writers Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

.