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Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in the 2020 election interference case against President-elect Trump in Washington, D.C., a widely expected move, but one that stops short of dropping the case against him completely.

The filing from Smith was widely expected following Trump’s election to a second term, and is in keeping with longstanding Department of Justice policy against bringing criminal charges against a sitting president. 

While the case has not been officially dropped, it appears to be moving in that direction. Smith said Friday that his team plans to give an updated report on the official status of the case against Trump on Dec. 2. 

The news is likely a welcome relief for Trump, who vowed to fire Smith ‘within two seconds’ if re-elected — ridding him of both a yearlong legal foe and the criminal charges Trump faced following his loss in the 2020 election.

Smith was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate both the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump’s keeping of allegedly classified documents at his residence in Florida after leaving the White House in 2020.

Fox News reported earlier this week that the Department of Justice had been looking to wind down its criminal cases against Trump in Washington, D.C., and Florida, citing an Office of Legal Counsel memo that states it is against Department of Justice policy to investigate a sitting president for federal criminal charges and is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine. 

Smith had indicted Trump in D.C. earlier this year on charges stemming from the former president’s alleged efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.

He also brought federal charges against Trump in Florida for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr told Fox News Digital earlier this week that Smith should immediately halt the federal cases in both D.C. and Florida, citing DOJ policy.

While Trump still faces state cases in Georgia and New York, Barr said this week that local prosecutors and judges need to move on from the ‘spectacle’ of prosecuting the president-elect.

‘Further maneuvering on these cases in the weeks ahead would serve no legitimate purpose and only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand,’ Barr said. 

Next week, the presiding judge in the New York case is expected to announce whether the state will proceed with felony conviction proceedings against Trump in the final months before he takes office, or whether to apply claims of presidential immunity expanded by the Supreme Court earlier this year. 

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Former White House attorney Mark Paoletta took to social media Thursday to say that President-elect Donald Trump ‘will not use the DOJ for political purposes’ but rather for ‘implementing his agenda.’

Paoletta, who previously served as counsel to former Vice President Mike Pence and general counsel for the Office of Management & Budget in the executive office during the Trump administration, was responding to a CNN reporter stating that the Department of Justice has ‘operated historically as an independent entity.’ 

‘Constitution vests our ELECTED President with ALL executive power, including DOJ. He has the duty to supervise DOJ, including, if necessary, on specific cases. Our system does not permit an unaccountable agency,’ Paoletta wrote on X. 

Paoletta cited Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion in Trump v. United States, wherein the Court held that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts. In the majority opinion, Roberts wrote ‘the Constitution vests the entirety of the executive power in the President.’

He went on to say, ‘The President has a duty to supervise the types of cases DOJ should focus on and can intervene to direct DOJ on specific cases. He is the duly elected chief executive and he has every right to make sure the executive branch, including the DOJ, is implementing his agenda.’

Paoletta then gave examples as to how Trump could use the DOJ during his next term, including directing the ‘DOJ to significantly increase resources to prosecute criminals at the highest charging level and to seek maximum sentences’ and extending resources towards deportation efforts and ‘against sanctuary cities who defy and obstruct federal law enforcement efforts.’

Paoletta clarified, however, that despite such actions, Trump will not use the DOJ ‘for political purposes.’

‘Just because you are a political opponent’ does not mean one gets ‘a free pass if you have violated the law,’ Paoletta wrote.

Paoletta then said Democrats, in contrast, ‘went after President Trump solely to punish him because he was a political opponent,’ stating that they ‘invented crimes, twisted statutes, abused their offices and power, all to stop him and destroy him.’

‘The President should supervise and direct the DOJ to implement his agenda, which was voted on and supported by a landslide majority of the American people on November 5th,’ Paoletta wrote. 

The DOJ announced on Wednesday it was seeking to wind down two federal criminal cases against Trump ahead of his second term.  

Justice Department officials cited a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel filed in 2000, which upholds a Watergate-era argument that asserts it is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine for the Justice Department to investigate a sitting president. 

Trump was also prosecuted at the state level after his first term in office, aside from the two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump pleaded not guilty in all of his cases. 

Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

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: The House Judiciary Committee is concerned that special counsel Jack Smith and prosecutors involved in the investigations of now President-elect Donald Trump will ‘purge’ records to skirt oversight and is demanding they produce to Congress all documents related to the probes before the end of the month, Fox News Digital has learned. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., penned a letter to Smith on Friday, obtained by Fox News Digital. 

‘The Committee on the Judiciary is continuing its oversight of the Department of Justice and the Office of Special Counsel. According to recent public reports, prosecutors in your office have been ‘gaming out legal options’ in the event that President Donald Trump won the election,’ they wrote. ‘With President Trump’s decisive victory this week, we are concerned that the Office of Special Counsel may attempt to purge relevant records, communications, and documents responsive to our numerous requests for information.’ 

Jordan and Loudermilk warned that the Office of Special Counsel ‘is not immune from transparency or above accountability for its actions.’ 

‘We reiterate our requests, which are itemized in the attached appendix and incorporated herein, and ask that you produce the entirety of the requested material as soon as possible but no later than November 22, 2024,’ they wrote. 

Jordan and Loudermilk are demanding Smith turn over information about the use of FBI personnel on his team — a request first made in June 2023 — and whether any of those FBI employees ‘previously worked on any other matters concerning President Trump.’ 

They also renewed their request from August 2023, demanding records relating to Smith and prosecutor Jay Bratt visiting the White House or Executive Office of the President; a request from September 2023 for records related to lawyer Stanley Woodward—who represented Trump aide Walt Nauta; a request from December 2023 for communications between Attorney General Merrick Garland and the special counsel’s team; and more. 

The Justice Department is looking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Trump as he prepares to be sworn in for a second term in the White House — a decision that upholds a long-standing policy that prevents Justice Department attorneys from prosecuting a sitting president. 

DOJ officials have cited a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel filed in 2000, which upholds a Watergate-era argument that asserts it is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine for the Justice Department to investigate a sitting president. 

It further notes that such proceedings would ‘unduly interfere in a direct or formal sense with the conduct of the Presidency.’  

‘In light of the effect that an indictment would have on the operations of the executive branch, ‘an impeachment proceeding is the only appropriate way to deal with a President while in office,’’ the memo said in conclusion.

Smith was leading an investigation into the alleged retention of classified records. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges stemming from that probe. 

The case was eventually tossed completely by a federal judge in Florida, who ruled that Smith was improperly and unlawfully appointed as special counsel. 

Smith also took over an investigation into alleged 2020 election interference. Trump also pleaded not guilty, but his attorneys took the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue on the basis of presidential immunity. 

The high court ruled that Trump was immune from prosecution for official presidential acts, forcing Smith to file a new indictment. Trump pleaded not guilty to those new charges as well. Trump attorneys are now seeking to have the election interference charges dropped in Washington, D.C., similarly alleging that Smith was appointed unlawfully. 

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House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is in contention for a role in the new Trump administration, Fox News Digital is told.

Stefanik became the first congressional leader to back President-elect Donald Trump’s third White House campaign when she endorsed him in November 2022.

She is now being discussed as a potential candidate for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, two people familiar with such discussions told Fox News Digital.

One said Stefanik was ‘high on the list’ of potential candidates.

However, for Stefanik and other House lawmakers in contention for Trump administration roles, their chances will depend heavily on where the majority falls in their chamber.

Republicans are bullish about keeping the House majority after victories in the Senate and White House on election night, however, the outcome will likely come down to a handful of close races in California, Arizona, Alaska and Oregon – and both sides anticipate the margin being close.

Replacing a House member, even one from a district that heavily favors one party or the other, generally takes at least several weeks. Additionally, Republican leaders have already signaled they would not want to waste any time in using their majorities in Congress to forward Trump’s agenda.

It is not immediately clear who else is in contention for the UN ambassador role.

Stefanik would have familiarity with foreign affairs as a senior member of the House permanent select committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee.

The New York Republican has been a vocal supporter of Israel since the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas. She is also one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, having headlined multiple ‘Women for Trump’ rallies and other events for him on the campaign trail.

Stefanik announced to House colleagues on Thursday that she is running for her current leadership role as chair of the House GOP conference again.

Stefanik’s office did not return a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Notably, one of Trump’s prior U.N. ambassadors was Nikki Haley, who challenged the president-elect for the 2024 Republican nomination before dropping out and eventually endorsing him.

Fox News Digital was also told that another House member, retired Green Beret Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., is in consideration for a Trump administration role. Waltz is being looked at as a potential candidate for Defense secretary, though Trump is also considering options from the private sector and others, Fox News Digital was told.

In addition to serving in the military before coming to Congress, Waltz was an advisor to Defense Secretaries Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld and spent time in the private sector as CEO of defense contractor Metis Solutions.

He is currently on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees with Stefanik, in addition to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Waltz’s office did not respond to an email requesting comment.

Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital when asked for comment about the possible appointments, ‘President-Elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration soon. Those decisions will be announced when they are made.’

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Democrats are reportedly discussing whether to call on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to immediately resign in an effort to avoid her replacement potentially being made under the President-elect Donald Trump, Politico reports.

Democrats lost their Senate majority to Republicans in the 2024 election, which, according to one Democratic senator, prompted discussion over whether to initiate an immediate replacement of Sotomayor, 70, during their remaining two months in control of the chamber.

The concerns stem from the possibility of Trump filling her seat if it happens to become vacant during his presidency – but with the former president taking office in just two months, any proponents of a quick turnaround replacement have a short window to act.

‘She can sort of resign conditionally on someone being appointed to replace her,’ a Democratic senator told Politico Playbook. ‘But she can’t resign conditioned on a specific person. What happens if she resigns and the nominee to replace her isn’t confirmed, and the next president fills the vacancy?’

The Democrat also told the outlet that there remain two top concerns about the idea: confirming a new justice under Congress’ already packed schedule and whether any members would be willing to go on the record against Sotomayor.

Proponents of the idea would have to guarantee enough Senate votes to ensure a quick confirmation before Trump takes office, which one source told Playbook, could face a potential roadblock from members such as retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., if they do not support the replacement.

Those discussing a potential replacement for Sotomayor are already eyeing D.C. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009.

The Democrats are also considering focusing their remaining time in leadership on the appointment of lower-court judges waiting to be confirmed.

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President-elect Donald Trump made history twice this week, first by winning the White House for a second time as a former president, and then by naming Susie Wiles to be his chief of staff.

Wiles, a longtime GOP operative and advisor to Trump, will be the first woman to hold that coveted position in American history. By all accounts, she has earned it. Wiles is credited with tightening up Trump’s campaign operations after his 2020 loss and helping him win both the Electoral College and national popular vote in 2024 – an achievement that has eluded Republican candidates for president for 20 years.

‘Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,’ Trump said in a statement on Thursday, announcing her White House appointment. 

‘Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud,’ he said. 

However, while Wiles is known, respected and even feared in Florida, she is not well-known in Washington, D.C., and certainly not nationally. So who is Susie Wiles? Here are five things to know about the next White House chief of staff: 

Her father was a legendary NFL broadcaster, and she helped him overcome addiction

Wiles is the daughter of late legendary NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall. Summerall was an NFL champion kicker and the lead color commentator alongside John Madden on CBS for more than two decades.

During his broadcast career, Summerall admitted to becoming an alcoholic. In his 2006 biography, he recounted how his daughter, Susie, staged an intervention for him and helped him break addiction.

‘Dad, the few times we’ve been out in public together recently, I’ve been ashamed we shared the same last name,’ Wiles said in a letter that was read during the intervention, according to Summerall’s 2006 autobiography, ‘On and Off the Air.’

Summerall wrote that the words of his daughter inspired him to take steps to address his addiction. 

Her first job in politics was with her father’s old teammate

In the late 1970s, Wiles was hired as an assistant to Summerall’s old teammate on the New York Giants, someone who went on to have a long and successful career in the House of Representatives and later be nominated for vice president. That was none other than the late Jack Kemp, one of the chief backers of former President Ronald Reagan’s supply-side economics theories and architect of the Regan tax cuts. 

Wiles went on to work for Reagan himself as a scheduler for his 1980 presidential campaign and later the White House. She left Washington, D.C., for Florida in the 1990s and served as chief of staff to John Delaney, the mayor of Jacksonville. She also worked as the district director for Rep. Tillie Fowler in Northeast Florida. 

Delaney heaped praise on Wiles in an interview for Politico Magazine. ‘I’ve described her as a political savant — just otherworldly sort of political instincts,’ he said. 

Wiles continued to be a fixture of Florida politics for decades, eventually helping a health care executive named Rick Scott become governor in 2010. Scott is now Florida’s junior senator and this week is celebrating his re-election to a second term. 

She once described herself as a ‘card-carrying member of the GOP establishment,’ but supported Trump

Wiles has worked for every stripe of Republican imaginable, from moderate to hard-line conservative. However, she surprised her friends and allies when, in 2015, she decided to become the Trump campaign’s co-chairwoman in Florida. 

‘As a card-carrying member of the G.O.P. establishment, many thought my full-throated endorsement of the Trump candidacy was ill advised — even crazy,’ Wiles told the New York Times in a rare public statement. 

Though faced with skepticism, Wiles explained to the Tampa Bay Times at the time that she believed no other Republican running for the presidency in 2016 was prepared to deliver the change she felt Washington, D.C., needed. She said national Republicans had developed ‘an expediency culture’ and lost sight of core principles. 

‘I said, ‘I don’t want this to continue.’ I think it seriously will damage our republic and who among that group can really have the fortitude to shift what I’ve seen happening over all these years?’ Wiles told the paper.

It turned out that her instincts were right. Trump won the primary and shocked the political establishment by defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in an upset. 

She helped Ron DeSantis become governor before a falling out

In 2018, a young Florida congressman named Ron DeSantis decided to run for governor. He won a contested Republican primary thanks to Trump’s endorsement, but his campaign was struggling and behind in the polls.

With a little more than a month before the election, DeSantis hired Wiles to right the ship. Her guidance is largely credited with pushing DeSantis over the finish line in a narrow victory over disgraced former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.

However, a rift grew between DeSantis and Wiles after the election. Politico reported that state first lady Casey DeSantis was suspicious of Wiles’ growing influence and power in the governor’s orbit. Eventually, Wiles was edged out of DeSantis’ inner circle.

She wound up back in Trump’s orbit for his unsuccessful 2020 campaign and remained a close and valued advisor as he plotted a return to the White House in 2024. She was with the Trump campaign when DeSantis mounted his own campaign for president, and many suspect Trump’s team used Wiles’ insider knowledge of DeSantis to defeat the Florida governor.

In January, Wiles responded to a report on X that DeSantis had cleared his campaign website of upcoming events.

‘Bye, bye,’ she wrote. 

She is a registered lobbyist

In addition to her work on political campaigns, Wiles is a registered lobbyist. 

Federal disclosures filed in April show Wiles was a lobbyist for the tobacco company Swisher International while running the Trump campaign. The documents show she worked to influence Congress on ‘FDA regulations.’ 

WIles is the co-chair for the Florida and Washington, D.C., offices of Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm whose clients include AirBnB, AT&T, eBay, Pfizer, Tesla, and the Embassy of Qatar, although she is not a registered lobbyist for any of those clients. 

Previously, Wiles worked for Ballard Partners, a Florida-based firm started by lobbyist Brian Ballard. 

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A Donald Trump presidency is sure to have reverberations at the United Nations (U.N.), and first on the chopping block could be its funding. 

The U.N. currently relies on the U.S. for about a third of its budget. President Biden increased U.S. financial contributions to the U.N., boosting it from $11.6 billion in 2020 to $18.1 billion in 2022. This gives a new administration wiggle room to withhold funds to the U.N. if its global interests do not align with the U.S.’, a notion some Republicans have already pushed for. 

The U.S. gave about three times as much that year as the next-highest contributors, Germany at $6.8 billion and Japan at $2.7 billion. 

‘They will have to recalibrate now very much again in the Trump administration that will, I believe, be much more attentive, engaged and monitoring of the U.N.,’ predicted Hugh Dugan, a longtime member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. 

‘There are teams there that have been sleepwalking the last few years without U.S. pressure on accountability, efficiency and effectiveness.’

Trump will be in office when the international body elects its next secretary general in 2026, and the U.S. will have veto power over any candidate. 

‘Over the next year and a half, it’s going to make an effort to look more managerially competent to avoid some of the stern green eyes seated across here – attention that Elon Musk and the Trump team will want to bring to the consideration of the secretary general selection.’

Trump would also likely once again withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords and the U.N. Global Compact on Migration. 

The U.N. particularly relies on the U.S. for global aid programs. In 2022, it provided half of all contributions to the World Food Programme, and about a third of all contributions to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the International Organization for Migration.

‘There’s no doubt the U.N. is frightened and horrified,’ of Trump taking office, said Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch. 

‘We’re going to see budget cuts,’ he said. ‘The most memorable being UNRWA.’ 

Trump cut funding to the organization that distributes aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Biden led the U.S. in reinstating that aid and earmarking $1 billion for UNRWA – before freezing that aid when it was revealed that some employees had links to Hamas. 

‘I would say the Human Rights Office, which is based in Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council, America gives voluntary funds to that bureaucracy. I could see that being cut,’ Neuer said. 

Some wonder whether Trump and a Republican-led Congress might try to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. entirely. The GOP-controlled House passed a spending bill in June that would eliminate funding for the U.N.’s regular budget.

However, despite an adversarial tone toward global institutions, Trump is not expected to stop dealing with the U.N. altogether. In his first administration, he enjoyed a good relationship with Secretary General António Guterres, inviting him to the White House, and seemed to enjoy his yearly address to the General Assembly and the pageantry of world leaders traipsing through the New York City headquarters. 

‘He engaged personally up there quite a lot. And during the opening of the General Assembly, he brought the White House up there, frankly, and lived up there for that week every year and operated. He recognizes the value of the organization, if just as a meeting place,’ said Dugan.

Trump could also seek to push candidates for leadership over agencies like UNICEF and the World Food Programme that challenge U.N. orthodoxy and encourage American employment across the agency to counter China’s growing influence. 

China doubled the number of its nationals employed at the U.N. to nearly 15,000 from 2009 to 2021. 

‘This was very much in the mind of the Trump administration when I worked in the White House that China’s growing its influence in subtle and not so subtle ways throughout the organization, affording it a globalized platform of legitimacy that they’re ready and willing to exploit to their national ends,’ said Dugan. 

‘The U.S. has to study the terrain of the organization better and identify, in particular, the key posts and influential offices that we should show up with our best talent and make sure that we are effective. The Chinese have been doing that really well.’

Additionally, though the Biden administration did buck a number of U.N. resolutions that targeted Israel, he was naturally more supportive of international organizations as a whole. 

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The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it is seeking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his second term. 

With two other cases outstanding and the legal jeopardy expected to diminish in the months ahead, here’s a timeline of Trump’s legal troubles after his first departure from the Oval Office. 

Federal cases

Classified documents case

Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts in June 2023 on charges stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Trump’s team initially requested a partial pause in light of the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. United States, wherein the court held that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts. 

Judge Aileen Cannon eventually dismissed the case against Trump in July, finding that Smith was improperly appointed to the special counsel role under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.

The Appointments Clause states, ‘Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.’

Smith was never confirmed by the Senate.

Smith appealed the decision in August, with the filing reading, ‘The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded.’

Election interference case

Smith filed another indictment in connection to his investigation against Trump in August 2023. He was indicted on four federal charges stemming out of the probe, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and argued he should be immune from prosecution from official acts done as president of the United States. 

In July this year, the Supreme Court in its ruling on presidential immunity sent the matter back to a lower court, as the justices did not apply the ruling to whether or not former President Trump is immune from prosecution regarding actions related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Trump was indicted a second time in August. The new indictment maintained the previous criminal charges but narrowed the allegations after the Supreme Court ruling, clarifying Trump’s role as a current candidate and making clear the allegations regarding his conversations with then-Vice President Mike Pence in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate. 

The 165-page filing submitted by Smith, in which he laid out the case and alleged evidence he would use in an eventual trial against the president-elect, was unsealed in early October. Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered more documents to be open to the public later that month, just weeks before the presidential election. 

Trump’s team moved to dismiss Smith from the case in late October, arguing he was unlawfully appointed. 

State cases

Manhattan hush money case 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump in 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree relating to alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Bragg alleged Trump ‘repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.’

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

The president-elect was later found guilty on all counts, making him the first former president of the United States to be convicted of a crime. He appealed the decision.

His sentencing date was initially set for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention where he was set to be formally nominated as the 2024 GOP presidential nominee. Judge Juan Merchan delayed the sentencing to Sept. 18 and once again to Nov. 26, after the presidential election.

Trump’s team requested the case be removed to federal court in October this year, citing the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling and thus arguing he cannot be prosecuted for official acts he performed as president. Merchan is also scheduled to make a decision on Nov. 12 on Trump’s motion to vacate the case.

Georgia election case 

Trump was indicted in Georgia in August 2023 after a yearslong criminal investigation led by state prosecutors into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.

In early 2023, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six of the charges against Trump, saying District Attorney Fani Willis failed to allege sufficient detail. It was then thrown into disarray when it was revealed Willis reportedly had an ‘improper affair’ with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor she hired to help bring the case against Trump. Wade was later removed.

The Georgia Court of Appeals paused the proceeding in June until it heard the case to disqualify Willis. The court also said it would hear Trump’s argument to have Willis disqualified on Dec. 5, a month after the election.

When reached by Fox News Digital for comment on the state of the president-elect’s legal cases on Thursday, the Trump campaign said, ‘The American people have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again.’

‘It is now abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, so we can, as President Trump said in his historic speech yesterday, unify our country and work together for the betterment of our nation,’ campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman, David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

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One of the biggest factors in President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory was his historic support from Hispanics. Almost single-handedly, Trump has remade the GOP into a multi-racial, working-class party. 

According to NBC exit polls, Trump won 46% of the Hispanic vote, a dramatic improvement over his 32% in 2020. He defeated George W. Bush’s previous Republican highwater mark of 40% in 2004.  

Trump won Hispanic men by 12 points. And he won the Florida Hispanic vote outright with 58%. Trump’s total in historically Democratic Starr County, Texas, which is 97% Latino, went from 19% in 2016 to 57% in 2024. 

Not even hardcore Republican partisans could have predicted this historic political realignment. Yet, I’ve long argued Hispanics’ values of faith, family, hard work and entrepreneurship make them a natural GOP constituency.  

In the words of Sen. Ted Cruz, ‘Our Hispanic communities aren’t just leaving the Democrat Party — they’re coming home to conservative values they never left.’ 

Two years ago, I wrote a book explaining how Hispanics are the biggest victims of big government policy and disproportionately benefit from free markets. Nowhere has this thesis proved truer than during the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations. 

Consider this striking statistic: According to US Census Bureau data, real median Hispanic household income grew $6,500 between 2017 and 2019, 10 times faster than between 2021 and 2023 under Biden-Harris.  

Hispanics ignored the campaign and mainstream media rhetoric calling Trump a racist and focused on the records of these administrations when casting their votes. 

Latinos have been on the front lines of the American economic and social decay presided over by Biden-Harris. They were especially hurt by historic inflation because they are less likely to hold assets.  

The high gas prices of the last few years also impacted Hispanics who often make their living driving from job to job, in contrast to the elite laptop class who often work from home. 

Hispanics are also more likely to live in working-class neighborhoods where high crime and public disorder have reduced quality of life. The shoplifters, vagrants and menacing thugs don’t generally venture into the wealthy White suburbs. George Gascon, the pro-crime District Attorney in heavily Latino Los Angeles, lost his reelection bid.  

Cultural and faith issues also mattered. Hispanics are religious and were turned off by the left’s obsession with transgender issues. Trump’s closing ad, ‘Kamala’s agenda is ‘they-them,’ not you,” resonated with these voters. 

Republicans also had grassroots help. The Job Creators Network Foundation started the Hispanic Vote Coalition earlier this year to motivate Hispanics to vote their values. We went into Hispanic areas of swing states with Spanish advertisements, media and materials for small businesses, faith and community leaders. We found a receptive audience willing to engage in political issues and sick of being talked down to and taken for granted by Democrats. 

The question now is whether Republicans can consolidate and build on these gains among Hispanic voters. No doubt Democrats will make a strong push to recapture them in future elections. 

To do so, conservatives need to continue to engage with and reach out to this constituency with tailored messages between election cycles, not just during them. We need a permanent Hispanic engagement infrastructure to make these voters part of our coalition for the long term. 

The degree to which conservatives can accomplish this will determine whether Trump’s victorious, multi-racial GOP survives past his leadership. But, for now, welcome Hispanics to their new political home. 

 

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Melania Trump also made history election night, becoming the second presidential spouse to serve two non-consecutive terms as first lady. She was already the second first lady born outside the United States. While President-elect Donald Trump works to put together the senior members of his administration, Mrs. Trump is doing the same for the East Wing with great intentionality.  

She told ‘Fox & Friends,’ ‘I have much more experience, much more knowledge. I was in the White House before. So when you go in, you know exactly what to expect. You know what kind of people you need to get.’ As stated in her best-selling memoir, ‘Melania,’ she has a ‘strong sense of duty to use [her] platform as First Lady for good.’ Her recent interviews all signal a secure, comfortable, and deliberate first lady who knows what she wants to achieve and understands the significance of legacy, with the advantage of having served four years before.  

Our incoming first lady is notably demure and mindful of the importance of her role despite the lack of positive media attention she received compared to many of her recent predecessors. Her bold support of children through her BE BEST initiative took her to dozens of events all over the U.S. and abroad, including several African countries, and a trip to the southern border to see the impact our immigration system has on children and families firsthand.  

She often used the hashtag #powerofthefirstlady to highlight important causes like the negative impact of opioids, which continues to be a major crisis today. Mrs. Trump has made it clear that focusing on the current and future needs of America’s children will be at the center of her second-term platform.  

Mrs. Trump proved her mastery of social diplomacy and imagery multiple times during her previous tenure in the White House, including her flawless execution of state visits. She made history by standing with President Trump on stage with the visiting heads of state and inviting their spouses to do the same during arrival ceremonies, something only previously choreographed by the Carter administration that has not happened since.   

Traditionally, presidential spouses are escorted to the side of the stage as the two heads of state address the crowd. This subtle yet meaningful change to a ceremony, which originated during the Kennedy administration, signaled to the world the importance and value placed on spouses and, notably, first ladies. 

While First Lady Melania Trump was not afraid to place her mark on entertaining at the White House, she ensured each event was meaningful and steeped in American history and tradition. Relationships with world leaders foster dialogue, understanding, respect and peace. Therefore, we should anticipate soft diplomacy through entertaining to continue and increase in a second Trump term. A royal state visit for King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain could be one of the first state visits President and Mrs. Trump hold during their second term, as the royals’ first planned visit to the U.S. was canceled due to COVID-19.  

Mrs. Trump will have the honor of serving as America’s hostess for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Like First Lady Betty Ford, who acted as hostess for events commemorating the American Bicentennial, 50 years ago, this significant anniversary of our relatively young nation, will come with much fanfare.  

So many heads of state came to pay tribute to America during the bicentennial, that a tent was erected on the South Lawn to ensure that tours of the White House were not curtailed. It would be a fitting tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was honored with a state dinner during the bicentennial, and to our special relationship with England for President and Mrs. Trump to invite King Charles II to attend a state dinner for his first state visit as king during our Semiquincentennial.  

As first lady, Mrs. Trump consistently and purposely showed her support for our armed forces with thoughtful gestures, such as selecting U.S. military musicians for entertainment at White House events, saying, ‘supporting our military is a fundamental belief of mine.’ The state dinner in honor of Australia included the largest gathering of premier military musicians for a state dinner at the executive residence, with over 150 members surrounding the guests in the Rose Garden of the White House.  

In 2018, Mrs. Trump also traveled into a war zone visiting the troops over the Christmas holiday. One can be certain that her continued support of the United States military is something that will be highlighted.  

Any careful review of First Lady Melania Trump’s first term would also include her immense pride in our nation and her appreciation for preserving the Executive Mansion. Mrs. Trump said it was her testament to preserving history, ‘contributing something lasting and beautiful to the American people, transcending politics and partisanship.’  

This preservation work included projects such as the renovation of the White House Rose Garden, the Queen’s Bedroom, the redesign of the rug in the Diplomatic Reception room (now on display for public tours thanks to Dr. Jill Biden) and replacing the historic Red Room’s Scalamandre silk wallpaper (that had faded to pink). Additionally, Mrs. Trump’s projects included things not regularly seen by the public, such as updating bathrooms, the doors of the private residence, the bowling alley and the total restoration of the White House Tennis Pavilion to name just a few.  

 

Mrs. Trump did not yet have the opportunity to design a Trump china service, which is a custom most two-term first ladies proudly continue at no cost to the taxpayer. She often preferred the Clinton China, the 200th Anniversary of President John Adams moving into the White House, gold-trimmed china, which has a White House motif for her entertaining. She could also create a 250th Anniversary crystal set to further commemorate the Semiquincentennial, since it is well known that the White House needs new crystal.  

The one constant for both Mrs. Trump and America is the White House itself, due in large part to the amazing Executive Residence staff that takes care of the President’s House and every first family that inhabits it. First Lady Frances Cleveland reportedly told the president’s footman, ‘Now, Jerry, I want you to take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house, and not let any of them get lost or broken, for I want to find everything just as it is now, when we come back again.’ 

As first lady, Mrs. Trump consistently and purposely showed her support for our armed forces with thoughtful gestures such as selecting U.S. military musicians for entertainment at White House events, saying, ‘supporting our military is a fundamental belief of mine.’ 

For First Lady Melania Trump’s return, many things will look the same; however, some things will be very different personally. Her beloved mother, who passed away earlier this year, will not be there with her. First son Barron Trump is now 18 years old and will be attending college and living in New York City. 

First Lady Lady Bird Johnson eloquently said, ‘This house is only on loan to its tenants, that we are temporary occupants, linked to a continuity of presidents who have come before us and who will succeed us.’ Like other United States first ladies, Mrs. Trump understands and appreciates the continuity of history, the importance of tradition, the value of preservation, and the power of the Office of the First Lady to be a positive, unifying office for good. 

It will be up to incoming First Lady Melania Trump to create the term and legacy she wants for herself, and every indication given shows she is fully prepared to make the Office of the First Lady exactly as she wants it to be.  

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