On Monday, the White House announced Brian Driscoll as acting director of the FBI. Driscoll’s time as acting director will presumably end when Kashyap „Kash“ Patel is confirmed as the FBI’s next director by the U.S. Senate.
Throughout former President Biden‘s term, the FBI was entangled in repeated scandals, prompting President Trump to promise to root out corruption in the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
(January 8, 2025)
Eighteen People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers who broke through police barricades to vote in favor of repealing martial law have since been labeled traitors. So too have the 12 alleged lawmakers who supported President Yoon‘s impeachment. Recently, acting President Choi Sang-mok faced similar accusations after appointing two Constitutional Court justices. But this raises a critical question: Who is betraying whom?
Without the actions of those 18 lawmakers, the PPP would remain tarnished by its complicity in shielding martial law. Without Choi’s decision, the impeachment trial could have descended into a legal quagmire, leaving the nation paralyzed.
(January 1, 2024)
The Yonhap News Agency evaluates that, despite one vacant seat in the Constitutional Court, the main obstacle to President Yoon Seok-yeol’s impeachment trial has been resolved, as the same eight judges who presided over the dismissal of former President Park Geun-hye in 2016 have been appointed.
According to Article 22 of the Korean Constitutional Court Act, the Constitutional Court requires the consent of six judges to cite the impeachment petition, and seven people to hear the case.
We will now restore the Rule of Law for all Americans. Under the leadership of Christopher Wray, the FBI illegally raided my home, without cause, worked diligently on illegally impeaching and indicting me, and has done everything else to interfere with the success and future of America. They have used their vast powers to threaten and destroy many innocent Americans, some of which will never be able to recover from what has been done to them.
Wray will leave before the end of the 10-year term that Trump himself appointed him to in 2017.
Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and “America First” fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People. He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.
President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that he wants to replace Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, with Kash Patel, a hard-line critic of the bureau who has called for shutting down the agency’s Washington headquarters, firing its leadership and bringing the nation’s law enforcement agencies “to heel.”
President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he plans on firing FBI director Christopher Wray and replacing him with longtime ally Kash Patel.
The appointment must be approved by the Senate.
On July 22, 2004, immediately after the 9/11 Commission report was released, I found myself with 9/11 commissioner (and former senator from Washington) Slade Gorton in the BBC blue room in Washington. I had the temerity to remind him that it was far from the case that “no one was in charge” of the intelligence community; that Tenet had all the authority he needed.
Gorton turned to me, smiled and said: “Of course we know all that; but we in the Commission and in Congress just had to do something so the American people would see that we were doing something.”
Yuck.
The national intelligence director, and the newly created bureaucracy, is what it is. Maybe Tulsi Gabbard can take the reins and make the community work. It will take a miracle; let’s hope for one.
(November 13, 2024)
„Trump ended up with some neocons around him who were trying to undermine his objectives so they could feed their goals of continuing to keep us in a perpetual state of war,“ Gabbard said, discussing his first administration. „This administration has us facing multiple wars on multiple fronts and regions around the world and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before,“ Gabbard said when she endorsed Trump during a campaign event in Michigan.
„This is one of the main reasons why I‘m committed to doing all that I can to send President Trump back to the White House, where he can, once again, serve us as our commander in chief.“
President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a choice that would add to Trump’s list of provocative picks whose confirmation processes will test the loyalty of Senate Republicans.
Trump on Thursday announced the selection, confirming CNN’s earlier reporting, saying he was thrilled to share the pick.
After being ambushed with demands for him to call for a ceasefire in December last year, he replied: “No, I will not. On the contrary … I want [Israel] to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on.
“These people are vicious animals who did horrifying crimes.” To the activists, he added: “I hope you guys post that, because that’s my position.”
US President-elect Donald Trump is expected to tap Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state and Rep. Michael Waltz as national security adviser, The New York Times reported Monday, pushing the emergent cabinet in a hawkish, pro-Israel direction.
The choice of Mr. Hegseth was outside the norm of the traditional defense secretary. But he was a dedicated supporter of Mr. Trump during his first term, defending his interactions with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, embracing his “America First” agenda of trying to withdraw U.S. troops from abroad and energetically taking up the cause of combat veterans accused of war crimes.
(…)
He served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
A Minnesota native, Mr. Hegseth graduated from Princeton University, where he was the publisher of The Princeton Tory, a conservative magazine, for which he wrote about seeing the statue of Saddam Hussein toppled in Baghdad in 2003.
Wiles, the understated yet formidable force behind Trump’s third presidential bid, has operated in a sphere of discretion, wielding influence without the spotlight.
Wiles ist eine langjährige republikanische Strategin, die bereits Trumps Wahlkampf 2016 und 2020 in Florida leitete. Ihr wird ein großer Anteil am Erfolg der diesjährigen Wahlkampagne zugeschrieben. Dabei mied Wiles das Rampenlicht weitgehend und weigerte sich sogar, auf der Bühne von Trumps Wahlfeier zu sprechen, als dieser am Mittwoch seinen Sieg feierte.
Donald Trump announced that his campaign manager, Susie Wiles, will be named his White House chief of staff. She will make history by becoming the first woman to hold the position. CNN‘s chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny reports.
Former Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon joined ‚Fox & Friends First‘ to discuss the reaction to President-elect selecting Susie Wiles as his next chief of staff and why she considers the pick the ‚best case scenario.‘
Amid cries of “Macron Out!, Resign Macron!” leftist demonstrators gathered in the autumn sun in their thousands to protest against French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint the veteran conservative prime minister, rather than a candidate from among their ranks.
While falling short of an absolute majority, the left-wing coalition the New Popular Front (NFP) (made up of the Greens, the Socialists, the Communists and the hard-left France Unbowed) won the most votes in the July 7 snap poll.
In Bezug auf die Einwanderungspolitik kündigte Barnier eine härtere Gangart an. „Es gibt immer noch das Gefühl, dass unsere Grenzen Siebe sind und die Migrationsströme nicht kontrolliert werden“, sagte der 73-Jährige. „Ich habe nicht viel gemeinsam mit den Ideologien des Rassemblement National, aber ich respektiere sie“, fügte er mit Blick auf die Rechtsaußenbewegung hinzu, die Barnier unter bestimmten Bedingungen unterstützen würde.
Raised on welfare in a single-parent household in Oakland, California, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, Shanahan went from a successful career as a patent lawyer and entrepreneur to marrying into uber-wealth after meeting Google co-founder Sergey Brin at a yoga festival. The two divorced in 2022, amid reports that she had had an affair with Brin’s friend and fellow tech titan, Elon Musk. (Shanahan and Musk deny the allegations.)
Like so many others who have amassed a fortune from the tech sector, Shanahan has become a philanthropic force but also a political player.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce Bay Area attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his running mate Tuesday, The New York Times reported, citing two people close to the campaign.
The move will accelerate Kennedy‘s attempt to gain ballot access in as many states as possible.
There has been talk that former talk show host and current magazine and book publisher Oprah Winfrey might be of interest. Winfrey, though, would have to take more than a year away from her many lucrative enterprises if she did this.
Rishi Sunak is reshuffling his top team, with Grant Shapps succeeding Ben Wallace as defence secretary and Claire Coutinho entering cabinet as energy secretary.
Mr Wallace, who revealed his intention to quit back in July, said in his resignation letter: “After much reflection, I have taken the decision to ask that I be allowed to step down. I won my seat in 2005 and after so many years it is time for me to invest in the parts of life that I have neglected, and to explore new opportunities.”
As he gears up for reelection, President Joe Biden is already facing questions about his ability to convince voters that the economy is performing well. There’s skepticism about the 80-year-old president’s ability to manage a second term. And on Friday, Biden faced a fresh setback when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to probe his son, Hunter.
„I‘m here today to announce the appointment of David Weiss as a special counsel consistent with the Department of Justice regulations governing such matters. In keeping with those regulations, I have today notified the designated members of each House of Congress of the appointment,“ Garland said at a press conference in Washington, D.C.
Weiss is the federal prosecutor who has investigated the business dealings of Hunter Biden and brought charges against him in Delaware. His appointment as special counsel indicates that, contrary to Hunter‘s defense lawyers‘ claims, the Justice Department investigation into President Biden‘s son is not over.
(August 8, 2023 at 10:09 a.m. EDT)
4. What else is planned?
• Changing the way judges are chosen. Currently, Supreme Court justices are selected by a committee made up of two ministers, two lawmakers (one of whom is traditionally from the opposition), two members of the bar association and three justices. The government wants to increase the role of politicians in picking judges but the details are still being debated. Some suggestions are to shift the balance of legal professionals and politicians on the committee, others to remove the judges and bar members entirely, replacing them with a mix of coalition and opposition politicians. Netanyahu says he will seek consensus and will wait till November before making his next move.
(August 7, 2023 / 23:03)
Officials in Israel‘s legal system said on Monday that they heard a threat from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he said he would complete legislation to change the way judges are selected after a bill already making its way through the Knesset requires only a final vote.
The panel for selecting judges now comprises three Supreme Court justices, two Cabinet ministers, two parliamentarians and two lawyers. A vote of at least 7-2 is required to approve an appointment, a threshold designed to encourage compromise.
Despite breaking off compromise talks last month, Yesh Atid and National Unity party heads say that it is still “possible to reach agreements, it is possible to make changes in the judicial system for the good of Israeli citizens and not for the tyranny of the majority and corrupt appointments.”
The nine-member Judicial Selection Committee includes three High Court justices, one of whom is the chief justice; two ministers, one of whom is the justice minister; two Knesset members; and two representatives of the Israel Bar Association (IBA). One each of the judges, ministers, MKs and IBA representatives must be a woman.
The committee is responsible for appointing judges at all levels of Israel‘s civil court system.
(January 22, 2023)
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry took a jibe at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to appoint PML-N’s nominee Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi as Punjab caretaker chief minister saying that the electoral watchdog never failed to disappoint. (…)
He called on party workers to prepare, saying that a large campaign would be launched under the leadership of party chief Imran Khan.
(January 25, 2023)
Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday.
The premier greeted Mr Naqvi on assuming the post of caretaker Punjab chief minister and expressed his best wishes.
China welcomes the appointment of the new Ukrainian ambassador to China, and stands ready to facilitate the ambassador‘s performance of his duties, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday.
Revivo tabled another proposal, which was first proposed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, stating that when a Knesset election leads to an impasse, with no unity or narrow government formed, a direct election for a prime minister would be held. Subsequently, the elected coalition would get an extra 12 lawmakers, divided proportionately between the factions, so that the Knesset would grow to 132 members.
(Jan 22, 2023)
In 2021, the High Court of Justice ruled that a conflict of interest arrangement formulated under then former attorney-general Avichai Mandelblit was binding for Netanyahu.
The arrangement prohibits Netanyahu from being involved in the nomination of judges or of the police commissioner and from being involved in legislation that has an impact on the criminal proceedings against him.
LIVE UPDATES
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will begin a legislative blitz on Monday whose goal is to overturn Israel’s system of government. Committee chairman Simcha Rothman will try to secure passage of bills that would bar the Supreme Court from overturning unconstitutional Basic Laws and change the Judicial Appointments Committee’s composition so that representatives of the governing coalition can select the judges.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted to the Verkhovna Rada an idea on the appointment of Vasyl Maliuk as the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Corresponding draft resolution No. 8425 was registered in Parliament on Monday.
Currently, Maliuk holds the position of acting head of the SBU, according to Presidential Decree No. 504/2022 of July 18, 2022.
Three were given their old jobs – Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, Mr Gove, the Communities Secretary, and Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary.
Jeremy Hunt has been reappointed as Chancellor. Suella Braverman is back as Home Secretary.
Ben Wallace remains Defence Secretary and James Cleverly stays as Foreign Secretary. Dominic Raab is deputy PM and Justice Secretary.
No. 10 confirms Nadhim Zahawi is party chairman. Grant Shapps becomes Business Secretary. Penny Mordaunt remains Leader of the House of Commons. Gillian Keegan is Education Secretary.
Education Secretary Kit Malthouse, Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg and Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis are out.
He will now visit the King to be appointed as the UK‘s first non-white and Hindu leader. The UK‘s first – and only other – minority prime minister was Benjamin Disraeli, who was Jewish, in 1874. (…)
He will become the youngest PM in the modern era to enter No 10, at the age of 42 – younger even than David Cameron in 2010 and Tony Blair in 1997.
Under fierce fire from journalists, Ms Truss refused to apologise for ‚trashing‘ the Tories‘ reputation – before abruptly walking out after eight minutes and just four question.
Downing Street will now be waiting anxiously to see if the PM has done enough to cling on, but the early response was not promising, with one former Cabinet minister telling MailOnline the PM had been ‚robotic‘ and made the situation far worse.
Präsident Moon Jae-in ernannte am Dienstag den Direktor der Asien- und Pazifikabteilung beim Internationalen Währungsfonds (IWF), Rhee Chang-yong, zum neuen Gouverneur der Bank of Korea. Das Präsidialamt teilte mit, die Nominierung nach einer Unterredung mit Yoons Seite vorgenommen zu haben. Damit sollte ein Vakuum auf dem Posten verhindert werden, da die Amtszeit des amtierenden Zentralbank-Chefs Lee Ju-yeol Ende März ablaufe. Aus Yoons Lager hieß es jedoch, dass es zu der Frage keine eingehende Besprechung gegeben habe.
Falls sich Zemans Zustand nicht bessert, werden beide Kammern des tschechischen Parlaments die Kompetenzen des Präsidenten gemäß Verfassungsartikel 66 vorübergehend auf andere Amtsträger übertragen. Das schließt die Ernennung des neuen Premiers und der Regierung ein.
(15.09.2021)
In all, four ministers were removed from the Cabinet: Mr Williamson, Amanda Milling as party co-chairman, Robert Jenrick as Communities Secretary and Robert Buckland as Justice Secretary.
However, the most high-profile demotion was Mr Raab, who remained in Cabinet but was stripped of one of the great offices of state, the Foreign Office.
Hichilema commended the former military and police chiefs for their service to the country and said they will be deployed to other areas in the public service.
(11.06.2021)
Hulata, 45, served as the head of the Mossad’s Department of Strategic and Political Planning and its Technology Department.
Speaking to the media for the first time since becoming Health Secretary on Saturday, Mr Javid said: „I was honoured to take up this position. I also know that it comes with a huge responsibility and I will do everything I can to make sure that I deliver for this great country.
„We are still in a pandemic and I want to see that come to an end as soon as possible and that will be my most immediate priority, to see that we can return to normal as soon and as quickly as possible.“
I have no idea what qualifies Ms Coladangelo, a lobbyist and communications director, to be an adviser and non-executive director at the Department of Health and Social Care, other than the fact she has been pals with Hancock for years. Perhaps we know now why Hancock failed at the time of the appointment to declare his “friendship” with her. In her time of advising him, Hancock oversaw the highest death rates in Europe from Covid, so the value of this appointment was seemingly for him, not for us. The whole thing stinks. It stank even before the videos of the kiss.
Thirteen months ago, Dominic Cummings faced an avalanche of demands to resign after being caught in an egregious breach of the Covid lockdown regulations. Although Cummings had clearly broken rules that he had helped to draw up, and public opinion was against him, he survived – albeit for only a few months – because Boris Johnson stood behind him.
This weekend, Matt Hancock also had Johnson’s backing…
Last month, New Zealand appointed the first Indigenous woman to serve as governor general. Dame Cindy Kiro, a well-known children‘s advocate, is the third Māori to hold the post. The first, Sir Paul Reeves, was appointed in 1985.
The federal government is under enormous pressure right now to show some progress on Crown-Indigenous reconciliation — in the wake of this week‘s reports on undocumented deaths at the Kamloops Indian Residential School and fresh calls for Ottawa to move faster on implementing the recommendations of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
In addition, a few moments before Netanyahu announced his decision to back Gantz for the position, he apparently was made aware that Bennett held his first meeting with Mansour Abbas – the leader of the Islamist Ra‘am party – in an effort to form a unity government.
Hours before the High Court of Justice was due to decide on the legality of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s attempts to install a justice minister from his own party, the premier announced Wednesday afternoon he supports the appointment of Blue & White leader Benny Gantz for the position.
In a statement Netanyahu said, „The prime minister submitted a detailed response to the High Court that completely rejects the court‘s claim that yesterday‘s vote was illegal.“
„However,“ Netanyahu said, „after the prime minister‘s attempts at compromise were rejected again this morning, and in order to extract us from this dead end situation and allow the Justice Ministry to function, the prime minister decided to appoint Benny Gantz to the post of Justice Minister for the tenure of the interim government.“
Netanyahu‘s refusal to appoint a justice minister is a direct assault on this nation. It is that simple.
His reasoning is also simple: Netanyahu does not want to fill the role with someone who is not subservient and willing to go along with coordinated efforts to escape his bribery trial.
Rather, it is the public danger he constitutes and his conspiring to topple state institutions. Ordinary criminal defendants who behaved as Netanyahu has would have long since been ordered to remain in custody for the duration of legal proceedings, lest they obstruct the investigation and trial, and for disobeying a court order. But we can’t complain to Netanyahu about it, when the court itself gives him license to harm it.
The High Court of Justice was to convene at 5pm Tuesday after the government failed to appoint a justice minister within the time frame allocated by the court.
The latest attempt to end the deadlock over the appointment of the minister failed when the government voted down a move by Blue & White leader Benny Gantz to return to the ministry on a permanent basis.
The justice minister post has remained empty since Gantz‘s term as acting justice minister lapsed on April 1. The appointment of a justice minister is a particularly sensitive issue, given that Netanyahu is currently amid an ongoing corruption trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
In their decision on Thursday, the judges sided with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who earlier laid out conflict of interest rules regarding Netanyahu‘s situation. Mandelblit insisted that the PM must be prevented from appointing officials who would have the power to influence the probe against him.
The moment of truth for our future is approaching. What we saw the other day on the steps of the Capitol and inside it is a warning sign. Netanyahu’s readiness to break every rule and law is obvious, and reached a peak at the start of his trial, with that scene in the courthouse that could have come right out of a gangster movie. And in fact, the prosecutor in his trial is already under guard day and night, just like the prosecutors in the trials of organized crime bosses, and for the same reasons.
The trial has begun, and so a new situation is before us.
(12.04.2017)
Sullivan has been advising Mr. Biden on domestic policy, but has an extensive foreign policy background. He served as Mr. Biden‘s national security adviser during President Barack Obama‘s second term and was a head of policy planning and deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state.