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Justice Department moves to block Trump deposition after ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok sues over firing

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A week after FBI director Christopher Wray was deposed in a lawsuit over the firing of veteran agent Peter Strzok, the Justice Department is now asking a federal judge to — once and for all — block former President Donald Trump from being deposed in the suit.

“[T]he deposition of former President Trump is not appropriate,” Justice Department attorneys wrote in a motion to fully quash a subpoena to Trump.

Strzok filed suit against the Justice Department and the FBI in 2019, claiming his First Amendment rights were violated when he was wrongfully terminated the year before over private text messages with then-FBI attorney Lisa Page reflecting anti-Trump sentiments.

In 2016, Strzok had helped launched the FBI’s investigation into alleged ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, and he initially joined special counsel Robert Mueller’s team but was reassigned after internal investigators discovered the private text messages.

The lawsuit alleges that Strzok’s firing “was the result of a long and public campaign by President Trump and his allies to vilify Strzok and pressure the agency to terminate him.”

The federal judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, has called Trump “a key witness to what took place.”

But after much legal wrangling, Berman Jackson ruled that Strzok couldn’t depose Trump without deposing Wray first, concluding that Wray’s statements could render Trump’s deposition moot, especially if Wray were to say under oath that the FBI’s deputy director — not Wray — made the decision to fire Strzok and that he never discussed Strzok’s firing or Trump’s views about it with the deputy director.

The motion filed Wednesday is heavily redacted but suggests that is exactly what Wray said in his deposition last week.

“Whatever wiggle room there might have been is now gone,” Justice Department lawyers told the judge.

Other senior-level government officials who communicated with Trump have also provided sworn testimony in the case, including Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly, who said that Trump privately wondered whether Strzok and Page could be disciplined, but that he didn’t recall Trump ever saying that to Wray or anyone else at the FBI.

Kelly said in a sworn declaration that, while he found notes from two meetings with Trump in February 2018 and July 2018 referencing Strzok and Page, he did not take notes every time Trump brought them up.

“President Trump generally disapproved of taking notes in meetings,” Kelly said in the declaration. “He expressed concern that the notes might later be used against him.”

With his lawsuit, Strzok is seeking reinstatement, back pay, and unspecified monetary damages.

Page, who resigned from the FBI three months before Strzok was fired, is also suing the federal government, claiming the Justice Department and FBI violated the Privacy Act by publicly releasing her private text messages. She is seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Both lawsuits cite an array of tweets and public statements from Trump in the run-up to Page’s resignation and Strzok’s firing from the FBI.

“I am amazed that Peter Strzok is still at the FBI, and so is everybody else … Peter Strzok should have been fired a long time ago,” Trump said at the White House in June 2018, two months before Strzok was fired.

The Justice Department has defended its actions, saying in its motion on Wednesday, “There is ample evidence that the employee’s misconduct was the reason for his removal and consistent testimony about the process the FBI followed in reaching its disciplinary decision.”

According to the Justice Department’s motion, there is no sufficient reason to depose a former president in this case. The motion suggested no evidence indicates that the FBI fired Strzok at the direction of Trump — even if that’s what Trump wanted to happen — and it claimed that “if Mr. Strzok wants to argue that former President Trump’s public statements motivated the FBI to remove Mr. Strzok,” then that evidence would have to come from FBI officials, not Trump.

The Justice Department signaled that it is willing to appeal the matter to a federal appeals court if Berman Jackson refuses to block Trump from being deposed in the coming weeks.

Trump has derided the Russia probe as a “hoax” and has long attacked Strzok and Page for their roles in it, even suggesting at times that they should be imprisoned.

A review of the initial investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general found no evidence “that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions” made by Strzok and others. And while a more recent report by special counsel John Durham said “confirmation bias” led FBI officials to take unnecessarily intrusive steps, the report also said the evidence gathered did not support charges against Strzok or any other senior FBI official.

‘Trump was wrong’: Pence confronts Iowan angry about his role certifying election on Jan. 6

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(SIOUX CITY, Iowa) — During his campaign swing through Iowa, former Vice President Mike Pence encountered a resident angry over his role in certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Do you ever second-guess yourself?” a woman asked Pence during a campaign stop Wednesday evening at Pizza Ranch, after noting that he “changed history” and that “if it wasn’t for [Pence’s] votes, Biden wouldn’t be in the White House.”

Pence defended his actions, calling the events of that day “misunderstood” in the face of former President Donald Trump’s continued false assertion that Pence could have overturned the results of the last election, something he had authority to do.

“The Constitution affords no authority — the vice president or anyone else — to reject votes or return votes to the states. Never been done before, should never be done. And I’m sorry, ma’am, but that’s actually what the Constitution says,” Pence told her.

“No vice president in American history ever asserted the authority that you have been convinced that I had. And I will tell you, with all due respect, I said before — I said when I announced: President Trump was wrong about my authority that day and is still wrong,” he said.

Pence directly answered the woman’s claim that he had “a constitutional right … to send those votes back to the states,” by explaining that elections are determined at the state level; his role was just to oversee Congress’ certification of the 2020 Electoral College results.

Asked about the exchange with reporters after the event, Pence said that he welcomed the opportunity to explain his actions on Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, overrode security and vandalized the building, sending Pence and other lawmakers into hiding.

“Frankly, I welcomed the opportunity to speak about it today. Because I know that my former running mate continues to hold the view that I had some authority that the Constitution had never given any vice president in history, and did not give me,” Pence said.

“That’s why I looked her in the eye and I said President Trump was wrong then, and President Trump is still wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” he added.

Pence, who has fielded a number of questions on the campaign trail related how his candidacy is different from that of his former running mate, maintains that he “stood loyal to Trump until my oath to the Constitution required me to step away,” among a number of veiled swipes at his former boss, usually centered around the value of civility in political life.

But the confrontation with the Iowan was the first time in a multi-day, question-filled campaign swing in the Hawkeye State in which Pence had to deal with suggestions he had been disloyal to Trump.

The encounter illuminated a persistent question looming over Pence’s White House bid: Could he campaign — and win — despite Trump supporters seeing him as the chief reason Trump is not currently in the White House?

Nationally, Pence trails Trump in the polls by more than 46 points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages.

Pence thinks he can. “Ultimately, I think that the people in our movement, like most Americans, cherish our Constitution,” he said. “I have great confidence in Republican voters. I know the people of our movement.”

In Sioux City on Wednesday, Pence told the crowd that in order for Republicans to win upcoming elections — especially after the pitfalls of the 2022 midterms — they would need to move on from election denialism.

“I really think this next election has got to be about the future. If we spend the next election talking about the past, you’re going to get four more years of Democrats in the White House,” Pence said.

“Our candidates that spent the 22 midterm elections talking about re-litigating the last election, lost and they lost in places we should have won.”

Trump aide Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in classified documents case

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(MIAMI) — Walt Nauta, the longtime aide to former President Donald Trump who was charged alongside him in the special counsel’s classified documents case, pleaded not guilty to all charges Thursday at his arraignment in Miami.

Nauta, who first worked for Trump in the White House before accompanying him to Florida following Trump’s presidency, is facing six counts as part of the criminal case involving Trump’s handling of classified documents. The charges include conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

The longtime aide appeared in a Miami federal courthouse Thursday after his arraignment was repeatedly delayed due in part to his inability to obtain local counsel to represent him. His plea was entered by Trump attorney Stan Woodward, and Nauta was represented by Woodward and local Florida attorney Sasha Dadan.

“I’m very glad to see you here,” Judge Edwin Torres told them.

Nauta barely spoke during the hearing. When asked by the judge if he had a chance to review the indictment, he said “Yes, your honor.”

Woodward waived the reading of the indictment and requested a jury trial. He also brought up one “registration issue,” but did not elaborate.

The judge said he would work to get that cleared — noting that there are more proceedings already scheduled that Judge Aileen Cannon “is waiting on.”

Special counsel Jack Smith was not present for the hearing. Members of his team, including Jay Bratt and David Harbach, were in court on behalf of the government.

Nauta said nothing to reporters as he departed the federal courthouse after the hearing.

Nauta, 40, first appeared in court in Miami with Trump in June, but was not arraigned because he did not have local representation. He and Trump sat with each other at the defendants’ table, separated by Trump’s attorney, for the duration of the hearing.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Nauta was then set to be arraigned last week, but Woodward told the judge that Nauta still had not retained local counsel, and was also unable to get to Florida due to travel issues.

The judge warned Nauta’s attorney last week that Thursday’s arraignment should be considered the “drop dead” deadline.

Nauta wanted to “express his sincerest condolences to the court,” Woodward told the judge last week.

“He takes very seriously the charges,” Woodward said.

Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities. He has denied all charges and denounced the probe as a political witch hunt.

Prosecutors allege that Nauta moved boxes containing classified documents around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate at Trump’s direction, in an effort to prevent the documents from being turned over to authorities.

In one instance, prosecutors allege that boxes were moved out of a storage room at the Palm Beach estate before Trump’s attorney searched the room for documents to hand over to investigators in compliance with a grand jury subpoena seeking their return.

According to the indictment, Nauta was seen on surveillance footage moving boxes.

Nauta, a Guam native who enlisted in the Navy in 2001, worked in the Trump White House, where in 2021 he was promoted to the rank of Senior Chief Culinary Specialist, according to Navy records. Trump, according to investigators, subsequently promoted Nauta to be his valet, otherwise known as a “body man.”

After Trump left the White House and moved to Florida, Nauta left the Navy and continued to work for the former president. In August 2021, Nauta became Trump’s executive assistant, serving as his personal aide, a role in which he “reported to Trump, worked closely with Trump and traveled with Trump,” according to the federal indictment.

ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.

Earth reaches hottest day ever recorded three days in a row

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — For three days in a row, the planet reached its hottest day ever recorded as regions all over the world endure dangerous heat.

Earth warmed to the highest temperature ever recorded by human-made instruments when the average global temperature reached 17.18 degrees Celsius, or 62.92 degrees Fahrenheit, on Tuesday, as millions of Americans celebrated the Fourth of July, data from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction shows.

On Wednesday, the record was tied as global temperatures again reached 17.18 degrees Celsius, according to the NCEP.

The record was first set on Monday, when average global temperatures measured at 16.2 degrees Celsius, or 61.16 degrees Fahrenheit, but it only took one day to surpass that temperature.

The heat blanketing much of Earth has been driven by El Niño in combination with the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming, researchers say.

Those conditions may prompt even hotter temperatures over the next six weeks, Robert Rohde, a physicist and lead scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit environmental data analysis group, tweeted on Wednesday.

Although the data only exists after 1979, Tuesday’s temperatures likely represent the record for long before global temperatures began to be recorded, Rhode said.

“Global warming is leading us into an unfamiliar world,” Rhode tweeted.

The record was broken at the same time that some regions in the southern U.S are facing a weeks-long heat wave with dangerous temperatures, as well as intense heat domes occurring elsewhere in the world in places like China and North Africa.

Earth had the warmest June on record for air temperature and for sea surface temperature, but July and August could prove to be even hotter as El Niño continues to strengthen, Brian Brettschneider, a climate scientist based in Anchorage, Alaska, wrote on Twitter.

June global temperature has been climbing since 1980, Brettschneider said.

Heat is the number-one weather-related killer in the world, with more than 600 people dying from heat-related illnesses every year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 13 people have died from heat-related illness in Texas so far this summer.

ABC News’ Max Golembo, Tracy Wholf, Samantha Wnek and Ginger Zee contributed to this report.

Princeton University graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov held captive in Iraq by Iran-linked Shiite militia

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — A Princeton University graduate student is being held captive by an Iran-linked Shiite militia in Iraq where she was conducting field research for her Ph.D. in political science, according to officials and colleagues.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced in a statement on Wednesday that Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian dual citizen, “has been missing in Iraq for several months and is being held by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah.”

Kataib Hezbollah is designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, accused of targeting American forces in Iraq. It is one of the most hard-line and powerful militias in Iraq, with close ties to Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Kataib Hezbollah is separate from the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Elizabeth Tsurkov is still alive and we hold Iraq responsible for her safety and well-being,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said. “She is an academic who visited Iraq on her Russian passport, at her own initiative pursuant to work on her doctorate and academic research on behalf of Princeton University in the U.S.”

There was no immediate comment from Iraqi officials.

Tsurkov would not have been allowed to enter Iraq on her Israeli passport, since the two countries do not have diplomatic relations and Iraq considers Israel a hostile state.

Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, released a brief statement on Wednesday saying Tsurkov is “a valued member” of the school’s community.

“We are deeply concerned for her safety and well-being, and we are eager for her to be able to rejoin her family and resume her studies,” the university added, without providing more details.

The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a think tank in Washington, D.C. where Tsurkov is a non-resident fellow, published an article via its New Lines Magazine on Wednesday saying Tsurkov had informed her colleagues on March 19 that she was done with fieldwork and wanted to return to Princeton University to write her doctoral dissertation.

“We were relieved. We did not want her to stay in an Iraq that was increasingly dominated by pro-Iranian militias,” the New Lines Magazine wrote. “Just over a week later we learned from our sources that a pro-Iranian militia had kidnapped her in Baghdad, where she had been doing research. We have not heard from her since.”

Tsurkov’s family had requested that her abduction not be publicized in hopes of negotiating a quick release, according to the magazine.

“What followed Liz’s kidnapping were months of public silence but nonstop efforts to learn more about her situation,” the magazine added.

The magazine noted that Tsurkov’s fieldwork “poses no threat to anyone,” however, as an Israeli national, “there are parts of the Middle East where her very identity places her at grave risk.”

“But Liz is committed to a specific style of granular, hyperlocal research that requires fieldwork, and she never seems frightened of anything,” the magazine wrote. “She stayed in Iraq.”

Tsurkov is also “an outspoken critic of all three of the major likely players involved in negotiating her release: Israel, Iran and Russia,” which complicates matters, according to the magazine.

“All of us feel that the United States needs to be involved in some way in helping Liz,” the magazine wrote. “She is not a U.S. national, and her disappearance did not trigger the sort of aggressive U.S. reaction that an American’s might. But Liz is very much a part of America. She works with a Washington think tank, writes for an American magazine and studies at Princeton University. She deserves America’s every effort to bring her to safety.”

ABC News has reached out to the U.S. Department of State for comment.

ABC News’ Laryssa Demkiw and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.

What we know about the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Ukrainian officials have heightened warnings in recent days that Russia plans to blow up the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — the largest nuclear plant in Europe.

The plant has been at the center of concern since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Russian troops stormed the plant and took control on March 4, 2022, at one point kidnapping two top Ukrainian energy company officials.

The plant is located on the banks of the Dnipro River in the country’s southeast. It continues to be run by Ukrainian staff and has suffered many outages and even shelling since the war began.

Warnings have became more dire after Russia allegedly blew up the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant on June 6, with officials claiming the same could be done at Zaporizhzhia. The nuclear plant also relies on water from the reservoir to provide power for its turbine condensers, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Ukraine claims Russia has placed explosives at Zaporizhzhia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Telegram Tuesday that Ukrainian intelligence has information that Russian troops “have placed objects resembling explosives on the roof of several power units of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has insisted it is the Ukrainians who are planning an attack at the plant.

Satellite imagery of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from June 30 obtained by ABC News does not appear to show any objects on the roof of the plant.

In a statement on Wednesday, the IAEA said that while it has inspected sections of the power plant multiple times in recent weeks, it needs greater access to properly confirm the absence of mines or explosives at the site.

IAEA experts on site have conducted inspections, including regular walk downs across the site, but have not observed any visible indications of mines or explosives, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

Last month, Ukrainian officials warned that Russia plans to stage a “terrorist attack” at the plant. Ukraine’s chief of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, claimed Russia had now completed preparation to potentially sabotage the plant if it chooses. He claimed the plant’s cooling pods have been rigged with explosives. If destroyed, that could lead to the reactor melting down.

“Whether the Kremlin decides to go ahead with this scenario today depends solely on the reaction of the global world,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said in a statement in late June. “The red lines have to be defined. The consequences must be announced. Not tomorrow. Today.”

Disaster drills

Ukraine has been holding disaster drills in Zaporizhzhia, preparing residents in the surrounding area and showing them how to deal with a potential radioactive disaster.

ABC News was invited to the drills last week, about 30 miles from the plant, where firefighters in hazmat gear simulated decontaminating people from radiation during an evacuation.

Last year, Russian shelling even caused damage to the nuclear plant and cut power to the surrounding areas. The shelling came amid Russian attacks on Ukrainian power supplies.

The IAEA held talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials in November and December, with the goal of establishing a safe zone around the plant where there would be no fighting.

In October, Grossi said the perimeter of the power plant was mined, warning that a nuclear accident is a very clear possibility.

Hospital sees baby boom with quadruplets, eight sets of twins at once in NICU

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — A hospital in California is experiencing a baby boom of multiples in its neonatal intensive care unit.

Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s hospital in Los Angeles is currently caring for one set of quadruplets in its NICU, as well as eight sets of twins.

The quadruplets were born on July 4, a hospital spokeswoman told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Prior to that, the NICU had been caring for 10 sets of twins, but two sets were recently discharged, according to Bevin Merideth, R.N., the NICU’s associate director of nursing.

“We’re used to having multiples in the NICU. It’s not uncommon for multiples to not be able to carry to term,” Merideth told GMA. “It’s not something that’s uncommon in the NICU, but it was like four twins, five twins, six twins, and once we got to 10, we realized this is a record.”

“It’s almost half our unit,” Merideth added, noting the hospital’s NICU has 45 beds total.

Caring for a record number of twins in the NICU is especially poignant for Merideth, who was a teenager when her twin sisters were born at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s and cared for in the same NICU where she now works.

“They were my first preemie babies, I call them,” said Merideth, who noted seeing her twin sisters cared for so well helped inspire her career choice. “I immediately was like, ‘I want to be a NICU nurse,’ and have never left the NICU. I started in the NICU and have been here 25 years.”

Merideth said some of the twins currently in the NICU have been there for as long as six or seven weeks, while others entered more recently. She noted there is no explanation for the multiples baby boom, saying, “It just happened.”

Merideth said she’s watched as the newborns’ parents have bonded over being the new parents of multiples as they pass the time in the NICU.

“Just walking, you see them talking to each other,” Merideth said. “Just having something in common, they’ve bonded over it.”

Samantha Pearlman’s twin daughters have been in the NICU for six weeks, a time during which she said she’s connected with many of the other parents of twins.

“I love that there are multiple twins in the NICU with us. I found out just by being in the same bay with them or getting to know some of the parents and exchanging numbers,” Pearlman said in a video shared by Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s. “We’ve been keeping in touch, which is really wonderful.”

“I was surprised there were two, let alone 10 sets of twins, but it’s been great to connect with other parents and see their journey,” added Jordan Edelstein, whose twin daughter and son are also being treated at the hospital. “It’s comforting to see so many other families experiencing the same thing.”

Merideth said she and her fellow nurses are already looking forward to keeping in touch with the record-breaking sets of twins as they get older.

“It’s always nice to see how they’re growing and thriving at home,” she said. “That’s why we do what we do, to see them being toddlers and kids and graduating. It’s very hopeful.”

President Zelenskyy says Ukrainian counteroffensive is ‘advancing’ but ‘we want to do it faster’

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(KYIV, Ukraine) — Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive has allowed their forces to take the “initiative” in the war against Russian invaders but “we want to do it faster,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz in a wide-ranging new interview previewed on Good Morning America Thursday.

“What is your assessment of how the counteroffensive is going right now?” Raddatz, ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent, asked Zelenskyy in the sit-down from his nation’s capital.

He said that he supported his military’s assessment that the operation, which began in earnest last month, was “going to plan.”

“We would all like to see the counteroffensive accomplished in a shorter period of time, but there’s reality,” he said. “We are advancing. We are not stuck in one place.”

While Ukraine has succeeded in liberating a number of villages in recent weeks, progress has not matched the lightning speeds of last fall’s campaign — which saw Ukraine reclaim thousands of square miles of territory in one week in the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials said at the time.

“Today, the initiative is on our side,” Zelenskyy told Raddatz. “We are advancing, albeit not as fast [as we would like]. But we are advancing.”

Raddatz also asked about whether Ukraine can succeed without F-16s, the fighter aircraft Ukraine has asked for but not yet been provided and if the U.S. and others had been too slow to provide critical military equipment.

“F-16 or any other equipment that we do need will give us an opportunity to move faster, to save more lives, to stand our ground for a longer time,” Zelenskyy said. “Well, some weapons have been provided, on the other hand, helps us save lives and we appreciate that. Of course, foot dragging will lead to more lives lost.”

Despite the grinding progress and heavy losses, Ukraine’s military leaders remain confident that the operation, seen as key to securing a satisfactory peace, has been proceeding as expected, Zelenskyy said.

The U.S. has been a key ally as Ukraine has prepared to push back into occupied territory. Last week, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that the new offensive is “going to be very difficult, it’s going to be very long and it’s going to be very, very bloody.”

Zelenskyy told Raddatz in Kyiv that it was “too early” to report major successes on the battlefield.

Analysts suggest that Ukraine is keeping a large proportion of its assembled forces in reserve — with the hope of launching a major attack once a weak point has been identified along the front lines, which stretch for thousands of miles through eastern Ukraine.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, expressed confidence when he was asked by Raddatz earlier this week if he was confident of retaking the key city of Bakhmut.

“Yes, of course,” he said. “I’m sure.”

More from Raddatz’ interview with Zelenskyy in Ukraine will air on ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on Thursday and on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

Reaching ‘drop dead’ deadline, Trump aide Walt Nauta to be arraigned in classified docs case

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(MIAMI) — Walt Nauta, the longtime aide to former President Donald Trump who was federally charged alongside him last month in the classified documents case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, is scheduled to be arraigned in Miami Thursday morning — marking the third time an arraignment has been scheduled for Trump’s codefendant.

Nauta’s arraignment has been repeatedly delayed due in part to his inability to obtain local counsel to represent him. A magistrate judge in Miami warned Nauta’s attorney last week that Thursday’s arraignment should be considered the “drop dead” deadline.

The longtime aide first appeared in court in Miami with Trump in June, but was not arraigned because he did not have local representation. He and Trump sat with each other at the defendants’ table, separated by Trump’s attorney, for the duration of the hearing.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Nauta, 40, was then set to be arraigned last week, but an attorney for Nauta, Stan Woodward, told the judge that Nauta still had not retained local counsel, and was also unable to get to Florida due to travel issues.

Nauta wanted to “express his sincerest condolences to the court,” Woodward told the judge.

“He takes very seriously the charges,” Woodward said.

Members of the special counsel’s team did not oppose a delay in the arraignment, but asked for the delay to be as “brief as possible.”

Smith was not present for the hearing, but members of his team, including Jay Bratt and David Harbach, were in court for the government.

According to the indictment, Nauta was seen on surveillance footage moving boxes.

Two firefighters die while battling blaze aboard ship in New Jersey

July 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEWARK, N.J.) — Two firefighters died while battling a blaze aboard a cargo ship docked in Newark, New Jersey, on Wednesday night, officials said.

Newark Fire Chief Rufus Jackson confirmed the deaths during a press conference early Thursday, a few hours after it was announced that a search was underway for two firefighters at the scene.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka told reporters that firefighters are still working to extinguish the flames.

Firefighters were dispatched to the Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal at around 9:30 p.m. ET after receiving a report about multiple vehicles on fire aboard a ship named the Grande Coaster Eadoirio. They managed to put out the main body of the blaze, but the flames had extended to multiple levels of the vessel, according to Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage.

The United States Coast Guard also responded to the fire, describing the vessel in a Twitter post as a “roll on/roll off vehicle cargo ship.”

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