Diane Keaton, Oscar-winning actor who rose to fame…
AI data centers boom out West
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or…
Oct. 11, 2025, 8:00 AM EDTBy Alicia Victoria…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

Menu ≡ ╳

Home
Travel
Culture
Lifestyle
Sport
Contact Us
Politics Politics

Be that!

NASA unveils new class of astronaut candidates

admin - Latest News - September 22, 2025

admin

15 views 5 secs 0 Comments

NASA unveils new class of astronaut candidates

Source link

TAGS:

PREVIOUS

Doctor, medical reporter fact-check Trump announcement on acetaminophen and autism

NEXT

Sept. 22, 2025, 6:10 PM EDTBy Peter Nicholas and Matt DixonWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s insistence that his attorney general bring charges against three perceived political opponents could backfire if any cases get to court, undermining his effort to see them punished, some legal experts said Monday.In a social media post Saturday, Trump pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi about three people who’ve raised his ire and who’ve not faced criminal charges to this point: Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; New York state Attorney General Letitia James; and former FBI Director James Comey.He mentioned that he’d been impeached and indicted multiple times “OVER NOTHING!”“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED NOW!!!” he wrote. He also cited unspecified “statements and posts” he’d read contending that the trio are “‘guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’”Because of Trump’s exhortation, defense lawyers could argue in court that their clients were targets of selective prosecution and did not receive constitutionally required due process, said Bruce Green, a professor at Fordham Law School who specializes in ethics issues.“If they’re picking these people not because they’re guilty of something … but because the president is out to get them because they’re Democrats and they made his life miserable previously, that’s an impermissible basis,” Green said.Another issue is whether Schiff, James and Comey could ever get a fair trial if it were to come to that, said Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University School of Law.“He is his own worst enemy,” Gillers said of Trump.“Sometimes people make statements, but this is the president of the United States telling the court and an eventual jury that the people on trial before them are guilty. I can’t imagine that a court would let that go to a verdict. The prejudice from that kind of statement is enormous,” Gillers said.John Walsh, who served as the U.S. attorney in Colorado for six years ending in 2016, said in an interview: “It certainly gives the defense an argument that the charges are politically motivated and not based on the merits and the evidence and the argument. Some judges might find that persuasive depending on the motions that take place prior to trial.” But he added that even if the Justice Department understands this reality, officials could be pursuing a strategy that he described as, “Investigation is the punishment.” Enduring a federal investigation is costly to the target and can bring significant harm to one’s reputation, he said. “An investigation is a very serious thing against professionals, yes, there is a cost to even just defend yourself,” he added.Trump’s extraordinary weekend message to Bondi — “Pam,” as he called her — put the attorney general in a tough spot, said Jill Wine-Banks, a former general counsel to the U.S. Army and an assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s.If Bondi accommodates the president and the Justice Department seeks indictments against Schiff, James and Comey, “who’s going to believe it wasn’t done for political purposes?” Wine-Banks asked rhetorically. “And if she doesn’t, she’s going to get fired. So, it’s a lose-lose, no matter what.”Trump tempered his message to Bondi later on Saturday.He posted that Bondi was doing a “GREAT job” while also later telling reporters in a press gaggle: “If they’re not guilty, that’s fine. If they are guilty, or if they should be judged, they should be judged. And we have to do it now.”All three of the people Trump singled out have rankled him for different reasons.Comey led an investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russian leadership, which concluded that Trump’s campaign did not collude with Russian operatives. Trump fired Comey five months into his first term. Comey declined comment Monday.Schiff, then a House member, led the first impeachment of Trump during the president’s first term. Schiff posted a response to Trump on social media: “There’s no hiding the political retaliation and weaponization. It’s all out in the open.”James brought a successful civil suit against Trump in 2022 that accused him of overvaluing assets, including real estate, in loan applications. The suit’s financial penalty against Trump was later voided.James’ office declined a request for comment.At a press briefing Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt amplified Trump’s condemnation of the trio.“You look at people like Adam Schiff and like James Comey and like Letitia James,” she said, “who the president is rightfully frustrated.”She added that Trump “wants accountability for these corrupt fraudsters who abused their power, who abused their oath of office to target the former president and then candidate for the highest office in the land.”Trump has long contended that he was a victim of a weaponized judicial system when Joe Biden was in office. In his inauguration speech on Jan. 20, he pledged to end such practices. “Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents — something I know something about,” he said. “We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again.”Bondi made a similar promise during her confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate in January. “Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end,” she said. “America must have one tier of justice for all.”Now, though, critics worry that Trump is erasing post-Watergate norms that were supposed to shield prosecutors from political interference.Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told NBC News in a statement: “The president should not be directing the Attorney General to prosecute those who pursued him over the last six years. Lawfare is corrosive to a democracy and he is doing exactly what he has accused the Democrats of doing to him. We need to stop the cycle of lawfare and escalation. His public statements to the attorney general were not wise and they undermine the citizens’ confidence of our legal system.”A worrying development came last week, critics said, when the federal prosecutor tasked with investigating mortgage fraud allegations against James resigned after Trump said he no longer wanted him to serve in that position. (Trump said he fired the prosecutor, Erik Siebert.)Trump administration officials had been pressing Siebert to investigate potential mortgage fraud charges against James. Two federal law enforcement sources say prosecutors did not believe they had enough evidence to charge James with mortgage fraud over a Virginia home she purchased for her niece in 2023.Those same sources said prosecutors felt there was not enough evidence to charge Comey regarding allegations that he lied to Congress in 2020 about FBI investigations into the 2016 election.Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., a member of the Judiciary Committee, told NBC News: “‘Two wrongs don’t make it right but they do make it even’ is the sort of thing that happens in countries whose Powerball jackpot is 287 chickens and a goat. It’s not supposed to happen in America.”“President Biden’s administration started this ‘lawfare’, as the media calls it, and I worried then that they had unleashed spirits they would be unable to control,” he added. “I questioned Attorney General Bondi about this in her confirmation hearing, and she agreed with me. Any prosecution of a public official has to be based on objective, compelling evidence of criminal behavior, not based on that official’s political ideology.”Peter NicholasPeter Nicholas is a senior White House reporter for NBC News.Matt DixonMatt Dixon is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News, based in Florida.Katherine Doyle, Dennis Romero, Ryan J. Reilly, Michael Kosnar and Chloe Atkins contributed.

Related Post

October 3, 2025

Oct. 3, 2025, 6:08 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 3, 2025, 6:29 PM EDTBy Gary Grumbach and Mirna AlsharifWASHINGTON — A woman who pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh three years ago was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in prison.Sophie Roske, now 29, was arrested near Kavanaugh’s home in June 2022 and told officials at the time that she intended to kill the associate justice, then herself.She appeared in court on Friday for her sentencing in a yellow jail jumpsuit. Members of Kavanaugh’s family as well as Roske’s were present at the sentencing.U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman sentenced Roske to 97 months in prison — eight years and one month — saying that she felt Roske has shown remorse for her actions. She also ordered Roske, whom she referred to as a transgender woman, to a lifetime of supervised release.“She has taken full responsibility for her actions,” Boardman said before handing down the sentence.In a federal filing last month, Roske’s attorneys referred to her as Sophie Roske, though the case is still captioned by her legal name because she did not ask to recaption the case, her attorneys said.In court on Friday, Coreen Mao, the attorney representing the Department of Justice, argued that the crime was premeditated because Roske had bought weapons on nine different occasions and made Google searches about serial killers and mass shootings. The government requested a 30 year sentence.Mao said that if it were not for the presence of law enforcement by Kavanaugh’s home, Roske, who was 26 at the time, would have gone through with the assassination.“The primary mission was assassination, not suicide,” Mao said.A public defender for Roske, Ellie Marranzini, said her client wanted to kill Kavanaugh then herself, but changed her mind while in the taxi on her way to his house, adding that there is no evidence she saw the U.S. marshals stationed nearby. Roske’s attorneys said the government is minimizing the fact that she stopped and turned herself in by calling 911.Roske’s parents addressed the court on Friday, vouching for their child. Her father, Vernon Roske, said he believes his child “can be a positive and productive member of the community.”“Sophie has never hurt anyone,” Colleen Roske said. “It was completely out of character.”Sophie Roske also addressed the court to apologize to Kavanaugh and express regret for her actions. She said she planned to kill herself after abandoning her original plan to kill Kavanaugh, but received a phone call from her sister that gave her “a renewed sense of hope.”Kavanaugh’s wife and mother were also in the courtroom, as were representatives of the Supreme Court police department, according to a Supreme Court spokesperson.Right before handing down her sentence, Boardman acknowledged the harm done to Kavanaugh and his family.“He and his family should never have to face the fear of threat,” she said, adding that “political violence should never be accepted and should never ever be normalized.”Roske was arrested near Kavanaugh’s home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on June 8, 2022. She was armed with a handgun, a knife, pepper spray and burglary tools, officials said.Deputy U.S. marshals spotted Roske — dressed in black and carrying a backpack and a suitcase — getting out of a cab in front of Kavanaugh’s house shortly after 1 a.m., according to a criminal complaint. Roske looked at the officers and then started walking down the street and called 911 on herself, the complaint said.Several minutes of the 911 call was played in court Friday. Roske told police that she had come to Maryland from California to hurt Kavanaugh, that she had a gun in her suitcase, was having suicidal thoughts and needed psychiatric help, according to a recording of the call.Roske allegedly told investigators that she decided to target Kavanaugh because she was angry about the possibility that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade and about the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. She said she thought Kavanaugh would loosen gun laws, the complaint said.Roske initially pleaded not guilty in 2022 to attempting to assassinate Kavanaugh, but eventually pleaded guilty earlier this year without reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.Boardman said Roske will be housed in a male-only Bureau of Prisons facility, and says she took that into consideration when considering the severity of the sentence.Boardman mentioned the ongoing litigation related to President Donald Trump’s executive order on transgender federal inmates. The order, which is currently on pause, directs the federal government to only recognize two genders — male and female — to place transgender women in men’s prisons, and cease funding for any gender-affirming medical care for inmates.Gary Grumbach reported from Washington, D.C., and Mirna Alsharif from New York City. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org, to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.Gary GrumbachGary Grumbach is an NBC News legal affairs reporter, based in Washington, D.C.Mirna AlsharifMirna Alsharif is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.Lawrence Hurley contributed.

September 30, 2025

Hegseth says military leaders who disagree with his directives should 'resign'

September 29, 2025

Community members recount Michigan church attack

October 2, 2025

Bear surprises shoppers at Arizona grocery store

Comments are closed.

Home
Travel
Culture
Lifestyle
Sport
Contact Us
Politics

© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved