(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are set to meet Wednesday in the San Francisco area at an undisclosed location for their first face-to-face meeting in a year.
The bar for success is low – anything that stops the relationship from getting worse would be a win. In fact, the two countries just agreeing to talk more would be considered a victory.
Ahead of his departure to San Francisco, Biden said the goal of the meeting with Xi is “to get back on a normal course of corresponding, being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another when there’s another crisis, being able to make sure our militaries still have contact with one another.”
U.S. officials say they’re going into the meeting with realistic expectations. Rather than yielding major breakthroughs, they hope to manage tensions, keep U.S.-China competition in check, and maintain lines of communication so miscommunication doesn’t veer into conflict.
“We’re not trying to decouple from China. But what we’re trying to do, is change the relationship for the better,” Biden said.
Yet, one meeting, no matter how long or substantive, won’t change the broader trajectory of the U.S.-China relationship. It also will not reset deep ideological differences between these two superpowers over everything from technology, trade, defense, Taiwan, South China Sea, and conflicts overseas.
“Both in Washington and Beijing, there is some pretty deep-seated distrust and antagonism,” said Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The Chinese have a number of transient, tactical reasons to want the meeting, even as Xi Jinping remains broadly, very skeptical and cynical about the United States.”
Blanchette says Xi will want some reassurances on Taiwan and a slowdown on any future U.S. curbs on China’s high technology industry. Also, amid an economic downturn in China – with rising unemployment and foreign investment slowing — Xi will want to show the foreign business community that China is open for business.
There will be few areas of agreement on those fronts. Biden will likely defend U.S. export controls on semiconductor chips, while again stressing the U.S. is not trying to decouple from China.
U.S. officials say Biden is coming into the meeting in a strong position, given the strength of the U.S. economy.
“From my perspective, if in fact, the Chinese people who are in trouble right now economically … if the average citizen in China was able to have a decent paying job, that benefits them and it benefits all of us, but I’m not going to continue to sustain the support for positions where if we want to invest in China, we have to turn over all our trade secrets,” Biden said Tuesday.
When U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo visited Beijing in August, she said U.S. companies have told her that China has become “uninvestible,” because of fines, raids, and other actions from the Chinese government that have made it difficult for foreign corporations to do business in China.
On Taiwan, U.S. officials have stressed the U.S. is not trying to change the status quo. The U.S. maintains a one-China policy, which means the U.S. acknowledges China’s position that there is only Chinese government. Under the policy, the U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. But China, which views the self-ruled island as part of its territory, views contact with Taiwan from high-level U.S. officials as undermining the one-China policy.
The most concrete outcome of the meeting would be if the two countries agree to restore military-to-military communication. China suspended talks last August in retaliation to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. has been having “constructive” discussions with China to restore military communications.
“Having our two militaries in communication is the way you reduce mistake, you avoid escalation, you manage competition, so it doesn’t veer into conflict.”
Restoring military communications is a key point of leverage that Beijing will not give up until they have extracted the concessions they want, according to Blanchette, because Beijing views many of the friction points as the U.S. interfering in its internal affairs, including in the case of Taiwan. Beijing thinks military dialogue is “really just a way for the U.S. to tie the PLA down,” Blanchette said, referring to China’s armed forces, the People’s Liberation Army.
The talks may yield promises of cooperation in areas like climate change and combatting fentanyl trade. But statements of goodwill out of the meeting will not point to a fundamental change in Xi’s view that the U.S. is trying to contain China’s rise, according to Blanchette.
“You can see Xi Jinping in important ways preparing the Chinese political and economic system for a period of prolonged, intense geopolitical struggle with the United States,” Blanchette said. “And amidst that struggle, there are going to be moments and opportunities for, you know, tactical adjustments, maybe even small compromises, but on the broader trajectory, I think Xi Jinping believes this is going to be a contest to see who outlast the other.”
President Biden is expected to bring up the war in Israel, according to U.S. officials. Given warm diplomatic relations between China and Iran, President Biden is expected to urge Xi to use his leverage with Iran to convince Iran and its proxies not to further escalate the conflict.
“President Biden will make the point to President Xi that Iran acting in an escalatory, destabilizing way, that undermines stability across the — broader Middle East is not in the interests of the PRC,” Sullivan said.
U.S. officials say Biden is also expected to warn China not to interfere in Taiwan’s elections next year or in U.S. elections.
(NEW YORK) — Climate change is making it harder to “maintain safe homes and healthy families” in the United States, according to an extensive report compiled by experts across the federal government and released Tuesday.
The report issues a stark warning that extreme events and harmful impacts of climate change that Americans are already experiencing, such as heat waves, wildfires, and extreme rainfall, will worsen as temperatures continue to rise.
The Fifth National Climate Assessment, issued every five years, is a definitive breakdown of the latest in climate science coming from 14 different federal agencies, including NOAA, NASA, the EPA, and the National Science Foundation.
This year’s report is more comprehensive than in previous because climate modeling has improved, and the authors took a more holistic look at physical and social impacts of climate change.
“We also have a much more comprehensive understanding of how climate change disproportionately affects those who’ve done the least to cause the problem,” Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and co-author of the report, said in a briefing with reporters.
Some communities are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, the report says, warning that Black, Hispanic, and indigenous communities are more likely to face challenges accessing water as droughts become more intense. Climate change also creates more health risks for marginalized communities, according to the report, which says that “systemic racism and discrimination exacerbate” the impacts.
The report lays out how every part of the US is being impacted by climate change and that some areas are facing multiple worsening impacts at the same time. For example, western states saw heat waves and wildfires during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which strained resources and added to the risk of severe illness.
In the same year, back-to-back storms during the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season are some examples of climate-driven compounding events that caused unprecedented demand on federal emergency response resources.
The report detailed some impacts of climate change that are being felt across the U.S., including increased risk of extreme heat and rainfall, among other weather-related events.
Other impacts cited were coastal erosion and threats to coastal communities from flooding; damage to land including wildfires and damage to forests; warming oceans and damage to ecosystems like coral reefs; risks from extreme events like fires; heatwaves and flooding, and increased inequality for minority or low-income communities.
Some areas of the U.S. are also seeing more specific impacts, such as more intense droughts in the Southwest.
The assessment also notes changes in storm trends as a result of climate change. Heavy snowfall is becoming more common in the Northeast and hurricane trends are changing, with increases in North Atlantic hurricane activity and the intensification of tropical cyclones.
2023 was a record setting year for billion-dollar climate disasters in the United States, officials noted in a White House briefing last week.
The report also highlights some areas of success, saying more action has been taken across the board to reduce emissions and address climate change since the last report in 2018.
Greenhouse gas emissions generated by the U.S. have been steadily decreasing since their peak in 2007, even as the energy demand goes up — mainly due to a vast reduction in the use of coal, according to the report.
Efforts to adapt to and respond to climate change need to be more “transformative,” the report found. This includes reducing the use of coal, building more wind turbines and electrifying buildings and making more efforts to protect people from the impacts of climate change.
Individuals and government leaders should look at the report as a way to help communities across the country mitigate, adapt and become more resilient to the effects of climate change, White House Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi said.
The assessment demonstrates “both a real and profound environmental risk, but also a real and profound economic opportunity,” Zaidi said. The administration has also noted that adding clean energy jobs is a top priority.
The last time the National Climate Assessment was released, then-President Donald Trump said he did not believe the findings.
The 2018 report found that climate change could lead to massive economic loss, especially by vulnerable communities.
In addition to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which is U.S.-focused, two global climate reports were also released on Tuesday, analyzing the current state of climate change policy action around the world.
UN Climate Change released a progress report on climate action ahead of the COP28 conference set to kick off in Dubai on November 30th. The report highlights that progress on global climate action is moving too slow to keep up with the effects of global warming.
“The Global Stocktake report released by UN Climate Change this year clearly shows where progress is too slow. But it also lays out the vast array of tools and solutions put forward by countries. Billions of people expect to see their governments pick up this toolbox and put it to work,” Simon Stiell, Executive-Secretary of UN Climate Change said.
The 2023 State of Climate Action report was also released on Tuesday, highlighting similar concerns that global climate action is not moving fast enough. “In a year where climate change has been wreaking havoc across the world, it’s clear global efforts to curb emissions are falling short.” Louise Jeffery of NewClimate Institute and one of the report’s lead authors said.
Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews GroupThe Denver Post via Getty Images
(BOULDER, Colo.) — The man accused of killing 10 grocery shoppers in Boulder, Colorado, in March 2021 entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on Tuesday.
According to detectives, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 24, was ordered back to the Colorado Mental Health Institute and will be evaluated by January 8, 2024, ahead of a scheduled trial in August.
A Boulder police detective at Tuesday’s preliminary hearing described the events of the mass shooting in disturbing detail as observers in the courtroom cried silently.
During the shooting, Alissa allegedly moved quickly from the parking lot and through the aisles of the King Soopers grocery store chasing and shooting at customers with an AR-15-style rifle as they ran and hid from the gunfire.
Boulder police detective Sarah Canty testified that all but one of the deceased victims were shot multiple times. At least two victims were shot at close range, as they hid under or between pieces of store equipment.
The criminal proceedings against Alissa, who suffers from schizophrenia, have been repeatedly postponed while he was found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial, however that decision was reversed in October. Detectives say they have yet to establish a clear and specific motive for the shooting.
(ATLANTA) — The Georgia prosecutors who previously indicted former President Donald Trump have asked a judge to issue an emergency protective order to guard the evidence in the case, just hours after videos of confidential interviews with four defendants were obtained by news organizations.
“On November 13, 2023, confidential video recordings of proffers conducted by the State with certain witnesses pursuant to guilty plea agreements were published by ABC News and other media outlets,” the Tuesday filing from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said.
ABC News was first to report on portions of videos exclusively obtained showing Fulton County prosecutors confidentially interviewing two attorneys, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, who helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election results.
Ellis and Powell were originally indicted alongside Trump and 16 others this summer on charges they worked to overturn the state’s election results. Both later took plea deals, allowing them to plead guilty to reduced charges in exchange for their cooperation. The Washington Post later reported on those proffer videos in addition to videos of two other defendants who also took deals, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall.
In the interview, Ellis told prosecutors she was informed at a 2020 White House Christmas party by one of Trump’s top aids, Dan Scavino, that Trump “is not going to leave under any circumstances.”
“And he said to me, in a kind of excited tone, ‘Well, we don’t care, and we’re not going to leave,'” Ellis said of the alleged Dec. 19 conversation with Scavino. “And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said ‘Well, the boss’, meaning President Trump — and everyone understood ‘the boss,’ that’s what we all called him — he said, ‘The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.'”
Ellis said she told him, “‘Well, it doesn’t quite work that way, you realize?’ and he said, ‘We don’t care.'”
The videos obtained by ABC News do not appear to depict Ellis and Powell’s full proffer sessions, but rather appear to be excerpts that total nearly an hour and a half.
A spokesperson for the Fulton County District Attorney did not respond to a request for comment on the report. Attorneys for Ellis and Powell declined to comment when reached by ABC News. Scavino also did not respond to a request for comment.
The state in its new motion denied any involvement in the video release and said the material had been turned over to the numerous defendants in the case as part of the discovery process. They said they would no longer hand out copies of the videos as part of the discovery process, and would instead offer viewings in their office.
The state further claimed the release was “clearly intended to intimidate witnesses in this case, subjecting them to harassment and threats prior to trial.”
The state had originally asked for a protective order in September, though it was never ruled on.
The prosecutors have now asked the judge for a temporary protective order “on an emergency basis” blocking the release of any discovery materials in the case pending a hearing, in which they are asking for a permanent order.
The judge set a hearing on the matter for Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.
Later Tuesday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said “there will be a trial” in her criminal case against Trump that will likely last “many months,” predicting it won’t wrap until “the winter or very early 2025.”
That timeline for a trial would mean it could be underway in the heat of the 2024 presidential election.
“I believe in that case there will be a trial. I believe the trial will take many months. And I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or very early part of 2025,” she said during a live televised interview as part of The Washington Post’s Global Women’s Summit in Washington, D.C.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 14, 4:07 PM EST
Trump’s disclaimer told bankers to ‘beware,’ expert says
Defense expert Jason Flemmons described the disclaimer included in Donald Trump’s financial statement as the “highest level disclaimer” that could have been provided to bankers reviewing the document.
Flemmons said that the disclaimer, which he said includes “highly cautionary language,” would allow a user to make claims that significantly departed from generally accepted accounting principles, known in the industry as GAAP.
“Was that language present in a substantially similar form in the compilation statements issued by Mazars for Donald Trump?” defense attorney Jesus Suarez asked.
“Yes,” Flemmons said, adding that the disclaimer was “effectively saying ‘user beware.'”
During his testimony and in statements to the media, Trump has claimed that the disclaimer shields him from liability in the case.
Suarez also used Flemmons’ testimony to suggest that Trump’s external accountants were responsible for understanding the methods used in the financial statement and determining their appropriateness.
That appeared to conflict with testimony of former Trump accountant Donald Bender of Mazars USA, who described his role as akin to plugging numbers provided by the Trump Organization into a template.
Nov 14, 2:49 PM EST
Expert says property valuations can be ‘wildly different’
Taking the witness stand as an expert witness for the defense, accountant Jason Flemmons offered testimony in support of Donald Trump’s approach to valuing his Mar-a-Lago property, which has been the subject of debate throughout the seven weeks of the trial.
In his summary judgment decision, Judge Engoron found that Trump overvalued the estate by at least 2,300% because the Palm Beach County Assessor appraised the property’s market value between $18 and $27.6 million after Trump signed a deed that restricted its use to a social club, potentially limiting its resale value as a residence but ensuring a tax cut. Trump, in contrast, listed its value in his financial statement between $426 million and $612 million, and during his appearances in court and online he has repeatedly attacked Engoron’s finding.
Flemmons argued that Trump’s approach to valuing his assets gave him latitude to consider his property’s future revenue streams. That approach, according to Flemmons, could result in “wildly different values” between the numbers listed on a personal financial statement and a tax assessed value.
“Tax assessed values are typically on the lower end of the spectrum,” Flemmons said, while Engoron looked on attentively.
While he never mentioned Mar-a-Lago by name, Flemmons was asked by defense attorney Jesus Suarez about a hypothetical property assessed at $18 million but valued closer to $500 million using a comparable sales approach — the same approach used to value Mar-a-Lago.
“It would not be unusual to have a value in the hundreds of million using projected cash receipts,” Flemmons said.
Engoron then turned his chair toward Flemmons and began asking his own questions.
“I am trying to get to the order of magnitude we are talking about here,” Engoron said. “What is the highest value you have ever seen legitimately placed on such a property?”
Flemmons could not provide a specific example to answer Engoron’s question but reiterated that a massive discrepancy could be appropriate.
Nov 14, 2:04 PM EST
House Republicans call for probe of Cohen after his testimony
House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Michael Turner and House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik have requested that the Department of Justice investigate Michael Cohen for perjury following his testimony in the trial last month.
During his trial testimony, Cohen said that he lied to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2019 when he said that Donald Trump and Allen Weisselberg did not ask him to inflate Trump’s personal statement.
“So, you lied under oath in February of 2019? Is that your testimony?” defense attorney Alina Habba asked in court.
“Yes,” Cohen responded.
Shown his 2019 testimony in court, Cohen subsequently reversed himself and said that his 2019 testimony was truthful, explaining the contradiction by clarifying that Trump speaks like a “mob boss” and that he indirectly asked for his statement to be inflated.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland sent today, Stefanik and Turner requested that the Department of Justice open an investigation into Cohen potentially committing perjury.
“That Mr. Cohen was willing to openly and brazenly state at trial that he lied to Congress on this specific issue is startling,” they wrote. “His willingness to make such a statement alone should necessitate an investigation.”
Last week, Stefanik sent a separate judicial complaint to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct related to the conduct of the judge overseeing Trump’s trial. In a statement to ABC News, a court representative said in response that the judge’s actions “speak for themselves.”
Nov 14, 1:18 PM EST
Judge stops expert’s testimony following state’s objection
Donald Trump’s lawyers abruptly stopped the testimony of their first expert witness — who was expected to testify for a full day or two — after Judge Engoron limited the topic areas of his testimony.
Steven Witkoff, a real estate investor and longtime friend of Trump’s, was brought into court by the defense team to testify that Trump’s Doral golf club was undervalued in Trump’s financial statements.
But Judge Engoron sustained an objection from the state barring any testimony about the valuation of Doral, significantly limiting Witkoff’s testimony and appearing to hamper the defense strategy proposed by Trump’s attorney Chris Kise.
Kise argued that the inaccuracies in Trump’s statement of financial condition can cut both ways: Even if some properties were overvalued, other properties like Doral were significantly undervalued and balanced out the statement, according to Kise.
“It is highly, extraordinarily relevant if there are assets that are undervalued substantially on those same statements,” Kise said. “They can’t look at this one-sided.”
State attorney Andrew Amer fiercely rebutted that argument, telling Engoron he should not take the defense’s position that the inconsistencies “come out in the wash.”
That argument appeared to convince Engoron, who said that overvaluations would not “insulate” a false valuation. He promised to sustain any objection that related to the value of Doral — an approach Kise described as “lunacy.”
“The reader of the financial statement has the right to know whether each particular number was accurate,” Engoron said. “They are looking for accuracy.”
Nov 14, 10:26 AM EST
Judge doesn’t address post Trump shared calling for his arrest
As court got underway this morning, Judge Engoron — who has said he has received harassing messages regarding his role in the trial — did not address Trump’s sharing of a post on his Truth Social platform calling for his arrest.
The former president yesterday shared a user’s post calling for the “citizens arrest” of Engoron and Attorney General Letitia James “for blatant election interference and harassment.”
When he expanded the case’s limited gag order earlier this month, Engoron said that his chambers had received hundreds of “harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters, and packages” since the start of the trial.
The gag order does not prohibit attacks against Engoron himself or the New York attorney general.
Nov 14, 9:40 AM EST
Defense to call first expert witness
Donald Trump’s defense team plans to call their first of several expert witnesses to the stand today.
Steven Witkoff, a New York-based real estate investor and developer, is set to testify about his expert opinion that the Trump National Doral golf course in Miami was undervalued in Trump’s financial statement, despite the attorney general’s claim to the contrary.
The expert report Witkoff prepared for the case also criticized the finding from the state’s expert regarding the value of Trump’s 40 Wall Street property.
During a 2018 roundtable on tax reform, Trump called Witkoff a “pal” who he inspired to enter the real estate industry.
“You know, people don’t realize Steve started out as a lawyer — a very good lawyer, a top lawyer in New York. And then he said, ‘I’m going to go into the real estate business because I can do this, too,” Trump said. “He saw me do it, and he said, ‘If Trump can do it, I guess I can do it, right?'”
Nov 14, 9:02 AM EST
James, Trump respond as defense begins its case
In a video statement posted to social media, New York Attorney General Letitia James said that the testimony of Donald Trump Jr. yesterday failed to refute any of her case against Donald Trump and his adult sons.
“After spending a full day walking through a marketing presentation to sell us all on the greatness of the Trump Organization, the defendants did not make a single point to refute the case we brought against them,” James said of Trump Jr., who led off the defense’s case.
Trump’s eldest son, an executive VP with the family firm, functionally served as a summary witness to explain the history and notable assets of the Trump Organization, repeatedly using words like “spectacular” and “incredible” to spell out the details of Trump’s properties.
James, meanwhile, drew the ire of Donald Trump for appearing to smile in court.
“A.G. Letitia James is smirking all day long from her seat in Court, as New York continues to set records in murder and other violent crimes, and businesses flee to other States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this morning, despite murders in New York City being down nearly 10% this year, according to the NYPD.
Nov 13, 5:55 PM EST
Court adjourns for day after tax lawyer’s testimony
The defense wrapped up the first day of its case with testimony from Donald Trump’s former external tax lawyer, Sheri Dillon, who returned to the witness stand to clarify her actions related to conservation easements at Trump’s properties.
Dillon previously testified during a lengthy and combative portion of the state’s case.
“Welcome back. I feel like I am at a reunion — Trump trial reunion,” Judge Engoron joked when Dillon returned to the courtroom.
Dillon, explaining a potential gap in email communications about specific deals, testified that she often communicated with Eric Trump over the phone.
“If I picked up the phone and talked to him, I would know he knew what he needed to know,” Dillon testified.
She also said she advised Trump’s appraiser, David McArdle, that the company could add 40 additional residential units at Trump National Golf Club in New York’s Westchester County by filing a new offering plan, according to an email shown in court. The clarification challenges the New York attorney general’s allegation that a $101 million increase in the value of undeveloped land was based on an unfounded plan by Eric Trump to add units to the property.
During a short cross-examination, state attorney Louis Solomon attempted to challenge Dillon’s authority to provide such legal information to McArdle.
“Do you know if a sponsor has a right to have an offering plan accepted for filing merely because the development meets the requirements for zoning?” Solomon asked.
“No, I do not,” she responded.
Dillon concluded her testimony, and court then adjourned for the day.
Nov 13, 5:41 PM EST
Trump Jr. acknowledges positive rapport with judge
Speaking outside the courthouse following his testimony for the defense, Donald Trump Jr. told ABC News that he seems to have a positive relationship with Judge Engoron.
“Perhaps there’s a New York personality there, but no I think he understood,” Trump Jr. said when ABC News suggested he and the judge appeared to get along. “I can’t help myself even in this very serious situation. If you take yourself too seriously the world sort of sucks. You got to have a little bit of fun with it, so I did.”
His relationship with the judge appears to stand in contrast to that of his father, who has accused Engoron of bias and insulted him from the witness stand.
“We had some quips in the courtroom the first time I was here,” Trump Jr. said of Engoron. “Sort of gave me a fist bump on the way out. I guess I had a rather snappy response to something that was — I can’t even remember what it was right now. He said, ‘That was really funny.'”
Asked by ABC News whether Trump Jr. shared his father’s views about the judge being biased, the son demurred.
“Listen, I don’t even know how far the gag order applies, so I don’t need to do that and put myself — I’m in enough crosshairs, guys,” he said.
Nov 13, 4:56 PM EST
Trump Jr. says aunt’s death made for a ‘rough day’
Following the completion of his testimony, Donald Trump Jr. made the first family comments acknowledging the death of his aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry, calling it “a rough day.”
“Obviously, a little bit of a rough day, but I’ve still got to deal with this stuff. We’ve got to keep doing it. That’s the nature of all of this. But no, it’s a rough day for myself and my family,” Trump Jr. said of the news that former President Trump’s sister had passed away at 86.
Trump Jr. also slammed New York Attorney General Letitia James for bringing the civil fraud case despite what Trump Jr. said was “no actual person complaining other than the attorney general herself.”
“Hopefully, one day the people of this great city will realize what’s going on. They’ll realize the destructive practices here. They’ll realize just how insane that is. And they’ll be begging for guys like Donald Trump to come back to New York City to reshape the skyline as he’s done for decades,” Trump Jr. said.
He said he does not plan to return to court for the continuation of the defense’s case tomorrow.
Nov 13, 3:43 PM EST
Donald Trump Jr. concludes testimony
Donald Trump Jr. stepped off the witness stand after roughly three hours of testimony.
His own attorney, Clifford Robert, concluded his direct examination by asking Trump Jr. about the fate of the Trump Organization.
“I guess a lot of that depends on what happens next November,” Trump Jr said, speculating that the company might be “sued into oblivion.”
Assistant New York Attorney General Colleen Faherty cross-examined Trump Jr. for less than ten minutes about the deterioration of Trump’s assets, including financial problems at 40 Wall Street and Trump’s licensed hotel in Hawaii. Trump Jr. appeared unfamiliar with the 40 Wall Street issues and said he was happy with the Hilton’s deal to buy out the Trump Organization’s Hawaii hotel licensing deal.
Nov 13, 2:54 PM EST
Trump Jr. says golf course site was ‘old-school New York mob job’
Donald Trump Jr., in testimony for the defense, touted the work of the Trump Organization to convert a landfill in the Bronx, New York, into a “absolutely incredible” golf course.
“It was raw dirt. It had been that way for a long time,” Trump Jr. said of the original site of Trump Links Ferry Point near the Whitestone Bridge.
“People were supposedly trying to build a golf course for years,” Trump Jr. said about previous efforts to build the facility, describing it as an “old-school New York mob job” where people got paid to move dirt around but not build anything.
Trump Jr. said that once his father got involved in the project, the site was successfully transformed in a matter of months.
Nov 13, 1:42 PM EST
Trump Jr. to get new and improved sketch
When he was last in court, Donald Trump Jr. took a particular interest in his courtroom sketch.
“He said, ‘Make me look sexy,'” the sketch artist Jane Rosenberg told ABC News. By some accounts, the result was underwhelming.
Rosenberg has another opportunity to draw Trump Jr. with his return to court, and she thinks the new iteration is coming along well.
“I think they get better every time,” she told ABC News.
Earlier in his testimony, Trump Jr. joked about a photo of his brother Eric Trump.
When the slideshow Trump Jr. was narrating displayed a professional headshot of his brother, Trump Jr. took a job at his younger sibling.
“A lot of Photoshop,” Trump Jr. joked.
Nov 13, 1:12 PM EST
Trump Jr. assails judge’s finding on Mar-a-Lago
In presenting a slideshow chronicling the Trump Organization’s properties, Donald Trump Jr. highlighted many of their luxury features and iconic views — implicitly suggesting their value.
That’s particularly true of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, which Judge Engoron in a pretrial ruling determined was worth only a fraction of the amount claimed by Donald Trump, because Trump signed a deed that restricted its use to a social club, thereby limiting its resale value.
Describing how he took “umbrage” to the judge’s determination that Mar-a-Lago was worth between $18 and $28 million, Trump Jr. highlighted specific features to challenge that finding. Showing an aerial photo of the property, Trump Jr. said that a nearby home whose size was dwarfed by the social club has been on sale for $50 million.
“You couldn’t build that atrium for $18 million today,” Trump Jr. said while presenting a photo of the building’s historic atrium.
Nov 13, 12:53 PM EST
With glossy slides, Trump Jr. recounts firm’s story
Donald Trump’s testimony in the defense’s case has so far centered around a slide show being presented by the defense, entitled “The Trump Story,” that paints a timeline of Donald Trump’s real estate acquisitions. When state attorneys objected to the glossy presentation — which Trump Jr. acknowledged was created by his marketing team — the judge allowed the slides, and thus permitted Trump Jr. to testify unrestrained about the company’s properties.
“He’s an artist with real estate. He sees the things other people don’t,” Trump Jr. said at one point when describing his father.
As he narrates the slide show, Trump Jr.’s testimony resembles a lecture on real estate, sprinkled with details about his family’s properties — such as the individual stones used to construct the Seven Springs estate or the bank safes at 40 Wall Street, which he said once stored gold from the Federal Reserve.
“They’re actually spectacular … it’s truly a mechanical work of art,” Trump Jr. said of the safes.
Referencing broken down historic properties that the company has transformed back to their former glory, Trump Jr. called such properties the “canvas” for his his “father’s art.”
“He understands and has an incredible vision that other people don’t,” Trump Jr. said.
After a particular lengthy response, Trump Jr. referenced his father’s own tendency to speak in prolonged monologues, joking, “I got half the genes.”
Nov 13, 11:06 AM EST
Trump Jr. details history of Trump Organization
Testifying for the defense, former President Trump’s eldest son described his father as a real estate “visionary” who “sees the sexiness in a real estate project,” creating value for the family business that cannot be captured on paper.
Donald Trump Jr. began his testimony with a quip after Judge Engoron welcomed him back to the stand following his testimony earlier in the month.
“I’d say it’s good to be here, but the attorney general would probably sue me for perjury,” Trump Jr. joked.
In his testimony, Trump Jr. described the Trump Organization as “a large family business,” with Trump and his eldest children at the top and other executives handling many of the details.
“If there were numbers and things, I would rely on them to give me that,” Trump Jr. said.
He recounted the history of the Trump Organization, beginning with his great-grandfather who he said built hotels in the Yukon Territories of Canada. His grandfather, Fred Trump, “started working on job sites around Queens, learned the trades” and eventually “created an incredible portfolio, by the time of his passing, of rental apartments in Brooklyn and Queens.”
A state attorney jokingly objected that references to the 1800s were outside the statute of limitations — then more seriously objected to the history lesson’s relevance.
“I think it is relevant to get the historical perspective — I find it interesting,” Judge Engoron said in overruling the objection. “Let him go ahead and say how great the Trump Organization is.”
Trump Jr. obliged.
“My father learned a lot of the business from him, but had some flair and saw New York City and Manhattan as the ultimate frontier,” he said. Speaking of Trump Tower, he said, “I think it would have been one of the first, I think great, ultra-luxury real estate emerging in Manhattan.”
Nov 13, 10:20 AM EST
Donald Trump Jr. takes the stand for the defense
“Would you like to call your first witness, defense?” Judge Arthur Engoron asked to begin court this morning.
“The defense calls Donald Trump Jr. to the stand,” defense attorney Clifford Robert responded.
Like his last time on the witness stand when he was called by state attorneys, Trump Jr. appears comfortable on the stand, punctuating his testimony with lighthearted remarks.
Robert began his direct examination with some questions about Trump Jr. ‘s biography, starting with his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania.
“Was a bartender for about 18 months,” Trump Jr. said about his first job out of college.
“Did you enjoy that?” Robert asked.
“I did,” said Trump Jr., joking that he had a challenging conversation with his father when he began that job.
Nov 13, 9:45 AM EST
Trump Jr., arriving in court, met with chants of ‘crime family’
Donald Trump Jr. and his defense lawyers arrived at the New York State Supreme Courthouse this morning to be met with a small crowd of protestors chanting “crime family.”
Trump Jr. did not make a statement before entering the courthouse, but offered a brief response to a question about his expected testimony.
Asked what he plans on saying today on the stand, he replied, “We’ll see what I’m asked.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James arrived at court shortly after Trump Jr. and took a seat in the courtroom with her staff.
Nov 13, 9:06 AM EST
Donald Trump Jr. attends UFC event ahead of testimony
Donald Trump Jr. took in some ultimate fighting ahead of his scheduled return to the witness stand this morning.
Trump Jr. attended a UFC doubleheader at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night with his father, in addition to Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock, and UFC president Dana White.
“I legitimately can’t think of a better squad to roll with,” Trump Jr. posted on social media.
Earlier that day while speaking at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump appeared to joke about appointing White to a position in a potential future administration.
“He’s a guy I’d like to make my Defense Chief. I wouldn’t call him my defense chief. I’d call him my ‘Offense Chief.’ He’d be my Offense Chief,” Trump said.
Nov 13, 8:32 AM EST
Defense to begin presenting its case
As Trump’s legal team prepares to begin presenting its case this morning, defense attorney Alina Habba says responsibility for the financial statements that the New York attorney general says are fraudulent lies with Trump’s external accounting firm.
Previewing the defense’s case during an appearance on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Habba also said the banks that loaned money to the Trump Organization were responsible for conducting their own due diligence regarding Trump’s financial statements.
The state rested its case last week in the sixth week of the trial. The defense has said they expect their case to wrap up by Dec. 15.
Habba also suggested that Donald Trump plans to file a motion seeking a mistrial.
While Habba declined to comment on alleged misconduct by Judge Arthur Engoron’s clerk — which she is prohibited from doing due to the limited gag order handed down by the judge — she said the issue would be addressed in their mistrial motion “very soon.”
“I actually can’t tell you why, because I am gagged. I can tell you that we will be filing papers to address all of those issues,” Habba said.
However, Habba downplayed the chance the motion would be favorably decided Engoron.
“The problem we have is the judge is the one who is going to make those decisions, and he has proven himself to be quite motivated by the other side,” Habba said.
Nov 11, 1:51 PM EST
Court administrator responds to Stefanik’s complaint
In response to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s letter of complaint against Judge Engoron that she filed Friday with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, a spokesperson for New York State Office of Court Administration has issued a statement.
“Judge Engoron’s actions and rulings in this matter are all part of the public record and speak for themselves,” said Office of Court Administration communications director Al Baker. “It is inappropriate to comment further.”
Nov 10, 8:17 PM EST
Rep. Stefanik files complaint against Judge Engoron
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York has filed a judicial complaint against Judge Arthur Engoron.
The letter, addressed to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, largely concerns the judge’s rulings in the case and his public statements, and is unlikely to impact the proceedings of the trial.
“Judge Engoron’s bizarre and biased behavior is making New York’s judicial system a laughingstock,” Stefanik, a staunch Trump supporter, wrote.
The lengthy letter echoes some of Trump’s attacks on the trial, criticizing Engoron’s limited gag order in the case, the actions of his legal clerk, his summary judgment ruling, and his comments during Trump’s testimony this week.
“Simply put, Judge Engoron has displayed a clear judicial bias against the defendant throughout the case, breaking several rules in the New York Code of Judicial Conduct,” Stefanik wrote.
(NEW YORK) — An estimated 36 million adults in the United States have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, according to new data from the federal government.
Additionally, about 3.5 million children have also gotten the updated shot, according to the survey, which is a sample size of the U.S. population, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is roughly equal to the number of Americans who had received the bivalent booster — which was targeted against different COVID variants — by this time last year.
While this means that uptake has not lagged compared to previous seasons, it also means just 13.9% of the adult population has gotten vaccinated.
This is lower than the nearly half of adults who said they planned to get the vaccine in a poll conducted by the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor in September.
Poll results showed that 23% of U.S. adults said they would “definitely” get the updated booster and 23% said they will “probably” get it.
The updated vaccine is targeted against variants that are currently circulating, which are related to XBB, an offshoot of the omicron variant.
There are formulations made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for those aged 6 months and older, and a formulation made by Novavax for those aged 12 and older.
The same CDC survey showed that 91 million U.S. adults, or 34.8% of the adult population, have received the flu vaccine and nearly 11 million over the age of 60, 13.5% of this age group, have received the RSV vaccine.
Meanwhile, 23 million children, or 4.9% of the pediatric population, have received the flu shot, data survey showed.
Public health experts usually advise that people receive respiratory virus vaccines by the end of October, but stress that it’s never too late to receive shots from pharmacies or doctors’ offices.
It comes as respiratory illness activity causing people to seek care remains low in most areas of the U.S., according to data updated this week by the CDC.
For the week ending Nov. 4, 2.9% of outpatient visits have been for respiratory illnesses. This is about half of where it was at the same time last year, but higher than the four preceding seasons, CDC data shows.
Last year’s respiratory virus season was unusually early, and activity increased sharply. Experts have said it’s possible that this year’s trending activity is a sign that we are getting back to the usual timing of ‘cold and flu’ season following disruptions after the emergence of COVID.
“Last year’s early spike was an anomaly, likely influenced by the pandemic’s impact on social behaviors and immunity,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“This year’s numbers, aligning more closely with pre-COVID patterns, indicate a reestablishment of typical ‘cold and flu’ season dynamics,” he continued. “However, we still have to see how the rest of the respiratory virus season plays out to know for sure.”
(NEW YORK) — Sam Miele, a fundraiser for embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., pleaded guilty to wire fraud Tuesday in connection with impersonating an aide to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Miele was charged in August with aggravated identity theft and four counts of wire fraud.
Miele is the second person charged alongside Santos to plead guilty following campaign treasurer Nancy Marks last month.
Miele agreed to pay $109,171 in restitution, $69,136 in forfeiture and a separate stipulated payment of $470,000 to a contributor.
“The defendant used fraud and deceit to steal more than $100,000 from his victims, funneling this money into the campaign committees of candidates for the House, and into his own pockets,” United States Attorney Peace said Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Miele sent emails and phone calls seeking campaign contributions while claiming to be a “high ranking aide to a member of the House with leadership responsibilities.”
According to court records, Miele misrepresented himself as a high-ranking congressional aide to then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy to deceive donors and then used their money to pad his own pocket and the coffers of Santos’ campaign.
As part of his plea, Miele admitted he committed access device fraud by charging credit cards without authorization for contributions to the campaigns of Santos and other candidates.
Miele faces up to 20 years in prison.
Miele was the subject of a similar Federal Elections Commission complaint in February.
He will be sentenced in April.
Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 counts as prosecutors allege he stole people’s identities, made charges on his campaign donors’ credit cards and lied to federal election officials. He survived a Republican-led effort to expel him from the House on Nov. 1.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The House is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to avert a government shutdown just days ahead of a Friday deadline.
But because of opposition from hard-line Republicans, he will have to rely on dozens of Democratic votes to pass his unconventional idea with the needed two-thirds majority.
Johnson huddled with Republicans behind closed doors Tuesday morning, giving one final pitch for his two-step proposal before he puts it on the floor for a vote later in the day.
But several left the meeting unmoved. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee called Johnson’s plan a “surrender.” Texas Rep. Chip Roy called it a “mistake.”
At a later news conference, ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Johnson about those Republicans outraged about his going forward.
“We’re not surrendering, we’re fighting but you have to be wise about choosing the fights. …You got to fight fights that you can win, and we’re going to and you’re going to see this House majority stand together on our principle,” he said.
“Look, it took decades to get into this mess, right, I’ve been at the job less than three weeks, right? …I can’t turn an aircraft carrier overnight. But this was a very important first step to get us to the next stage so that we can change how Washington works,” he added.
Meanwhile, some Democrats are calling this a victory.
After their meeting Tuesday morning, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats were still evaluating Johnson’s continuing resolution.
“We have not taken a family position on the bill,” Aguilar said.
“And I think the concern is Speaker Johnson — this is very similar to the position we had been before. He is bleeding votes within his conference,” he said. “There is no prospect of him delivering the votes to achieve this success to achieve the continuing resolution.”
“Our caucus still has questions about what that path ahead is,” he said.
The irony is that Johnson is pushing forward with the same type of stopgap plan that led to Kevin McCarthy being ousted as speaker.
Still, some Republicans are signaling they’re willing to give Johnson a break.
“Speaker Johnson came in kind of like the backup quarterback, you can’t blame him for the score of the game when he enters the game,” Rep. Dan Meuser or Pennsylvania said.
Other Republicans acknowledge the realities of a divided government and a deeply divided party.
“In the Republican conference, you couldn’t get 217 of us to agree that today’s Tuesday,” Rep. Troy Nehls said.
“Mike is having to reach out to the Democrats, because you can’t get the Republicans to agree on anything,” he added.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday morning he was “very heartened” by Johnson’s government funding proposal, and said that he and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would work to move the stopgap bill to the floor expeditiously if the House passes it Tuesday.
“We’ll see over the course of how the House moves today whether it comes forward, when it comes here, if the House should pass it and I hope they do,” Schumer said. “Leader McConnell and I will figure out the best way to get this done quickly. Neither McConnell nor I want a shut down.”
Schumer has embraced the House proposal because it does not include any spending cuts.
“The proposal before the House does two things Democrats pushed for,” Schumer said. “One: not making the hard-right cuts that the MAGA wing demands and second, making sure that if they are going to do this sort of goofy ladder that defense is in the second part of the ladder — not the first.”
Schumer was asked about his break from the White House, which originally dismissed the GOP proposal as “unserious.”
“I think that we all want to avoid a shutdown, I’ve talked to the White House and both of us agree, the White House and myself, that if this can avoid a shutdown, it would be a good thing.”
McConnell gave a ringing endorsement of the House stopgap funding proposal Tuesday, and said he looks forward to passing the bill into law if it clears the House. He said he was “happy for” Johnson and that he “looks forward to passing the short term bill on a bipartisan basis.”
“It’s nice to see us working together to prevent a government shutdown and to deal with all of the other big issues that we have ahead of us during this period between now and the time the CR expires,” McConnell said.
(NEW YORK) — Five vehicles — including a charter bus carrying Ohio high school students — were involved in a fatal crash on an Ohio highway Tuesday morning, officials said.
The incident occurred on Interstate 70 in Etna shortly before 9 a.m. local time, according to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
A Pioneer Trails charter bus transporting students from Tuscarawas Valley School was among the five vehicles involved in the crash, the governor said.
“Let me just say that this is our worst nightmare when we have a bus full of children in a crash,” DeWine said during a press briefing Tuesday.
Gov. DeWine confirmed the crash was fatal but said no other details will be released until all the proper notifications have been made. Eighteen people were transported to seven area hospitals, he said.
Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools superintendent Derek Varansky said students and chaperones were traveling to the Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus when their charter bus was involved in a “very serious accident.”
“We understand from law enforcement that there may be multiple serious injuries and we are working to learn the details,” Varansky said in a message to the school community.
In addition to high school students, parents and teachers were among those on board, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Tuscarawas office.
Pioneer Trails said it is “fully cooperating with the authorities as we work to find the cause of the accident.”
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those impacted by this accident,” the company said in a statement. “As this is an ongoing investigation, there will be no further comments.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Thousands of demonstrators from across the country gathered in Washington on Tuesday to support Israel amid the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Amid security concerns, the National Guard assisted local police to ensure safety around the event.
Tovah Feldshuh, an actress known for her portrayal of former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, referenced the Jewish traditions surrounding death to express her grief over the Israelis killed in the fighting or taken hostage by Hamas terrorists.
“I stand here for the kidnapped babies and the Holocaust survivors abducted and hidden somewhere in Gaza. We stand here together as the yahrtzeit candles for over 1,400 slaughtered in the sovereign state of Israel only because they were Jews,” she said. In the Jewish faith, a yahrtzeit candle is lit to mark the anniversary of a death.
A bipartisan slate of lawmakers who addressed the crowd also called for the release of hostages.
“We will continue fighting for the release of all hostages ’til they return to safety,” vowed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who then led the crowd in chants of “Let them go!” and “Bring them home!”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “There’s a question on the minds of many of us: Where do we go from here?”
“We must stand with Israel in its effort to decisively defeat Hamas and make sure that this brutal terrorist regime can never rise again. We must make sure that every single hostage is returned home safely, and then we must stand together to ensure a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people,” he said.
Sen. Joni Ernst, while calling for the “complete and total destruction” of Hamas, vowed the United States will not “shrink back and shudder in fear.”
“The brutal reality of Hamas cannot be diminished. They murder babies. They rape women. They abuse the elderly. They killed 30 of our fellow Americans, hundreds of our Israeli friends, and are currently, right now, holding 200 innocent men, women, and children hostage,” she said.
Upon the conclusion of Ernst’s remarks, Schumer joined hands with Ernst and Jeffries, who then grabbed Speaker Mike Johnson by the hand, and led a chant of “We stand with Israel! We stand with Israel!”
Lawmakers were shown videos of Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli officials. Johnson said in his remarks at the rally on Tuesday that the lawmakers “wept as we watched the film together. Most couldn’t sit through it.”
Aid to Israel is not anticipated to be included in a short-term government funding bill Congress will soon consider.
Politically, the conflict has particularly torn open divisions in the Democratic Party between staunch Israel supporters who back Israel’s military campaign to defeat Hamas, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist group, and progressives who are advocating for a cease-fire to the devastating fighting, which has caused an unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The ensuing war after the Oct. 7 attack has killed over 11,200 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and 180 in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
On Nov. 5, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters came together in Washington to call for a cease-fire and an end to the siege on the Gaza Strip.
Growing concerns are mounting over the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which is running extremely low on resources and where Israel claims Hamas is running a command center.
President Joe Biden sounded an optimistic note earlier Tuesday about the prospect of getting some of the hostages out of the Gaza Strip, despite the fighting rendering the transportation of aid difficult.
“I’ve been talking with people involved every single day. I believe it’s going to happen, but I don’t want to get into detail,” the president told reporters.
When asked about his message to the hostages’ families, he responded, “Hang in there. We’re coming.”
The “March for Israel” — a rally on the National Mall rather than a march — was organized by the Jewish Federations of North America. A permit filed with the National Park Service said the organizers expected to bring up to 60,000 people to Washington to “show solidarity and support for Israel and the Israeli People.”
