Lawyers for former FBI Director James Comey will be in court today to argue that charges that he lied to Congress should be dismissed.
Tom Steyer, the billionaire philanthropist and Democratic climate activist who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020, is jumping into the crowded race to be the next governor of California.
Steyer joins a crowded and uncertain field vying to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom next fall. Prominent Democratic candidates include former federal Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Rep. Katie Porter and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, with other prominent candidates also musing about a potential bid.
Despite the state’s Democratic lean, some prominent Republicans are running too, including Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton.
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The hearing in the Comey case is underway, with an attorney for the former FBI director urging the judge to dismiss the charges against his client on the argument that he’s the victim of a “selective and vindictive” prosecution.
“This is an extraordinary case, and it merits and extraordinary remedy,” the lawyer, Michael Dreeben, told U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff at the federal courthouse in Alexandria.
Dreeben pointed to statements from the president demanding that Comey be prosecuted.
He asked the judge to dismiss the case “with prejudice,” meaning the charges could not be refiled. Comey is in court for the hearing.
Many of the largest and most widely established state-sponsored online propaganda campaigns have embraced using artificial intelligence, a new report finds — and they’re often bad at it.
The report, by the social media analytics company Graphika, analyzed nine ongoing online influence operations — including ones it says are affiliated with China’s and Russia’s governments — and found that each has, like much of social media, increasingly adopted generative AI to make images, videos, text and translations.
The researchers found that sponsors of propaganda campaigns have come to rely on AI for core functions such as making content and creating influencer personas on social media, streamlining some campaigns. But the researchers say that content is low quality and gets little engagement.
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Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced that he has chosen New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to continue in her role leading the largest police department in the nation.
As a candidate, Mamdani vowed to keep Tisch — who was appointed commissioner by Mayor Eric Adams — in the role.
“Together, we will deliver a city where rank-and-file police officers and the communities they serve alike are safe, represented, and proud to call New York their home,” Mamdani said in a statement.
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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that she would not seek re-election capped off a decades-long tenure in Congress and the top echelons of the Democratic Party.
Now, her departure also sets up a clearer picture of the race to be San Francisco’s next representative in the House — and of how Democrats want to chart the future of their party at a moment of generational change.
The two main contenders for Pelosi’s district — Scott Wiener, a California state senator, and Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — had already jumped into the race ahead of Pelosi’s decision.
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Trump welcomed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, to the White House for the first time since the CIA concluded that the crown prince approved the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a tense Oval Office exchange with reporters, the president defended the visiting leader, saying the the crown prince “knew nothing” about the murder. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for “TODAY.”
Former FBI Director James Comey’s lawyers will argue in a federal court in Virginia today that he is facing a “selective and vindictive” prosecution after he was charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
Comey’s team argues the Trump administration has singled out their client because of his protected speech and what they call Trump’s “personal animus” toward Comey.
“The Constitution forbids the government from prosecuting an individual based on his protected speech or based on a government official’s animus toward the individual,” Comey’s lawyers wrote in filings. “Objective evidence establishes that President Trump directed the prosecution of Mr. Comey in retaliation for Mr. Comey’s public criticisms and to punish Mr. Comey because of personal spite.”
Comey’s team has provided the court pages of examples — more than 200 in total — of Trump’s disparaging posts and comments about the former FBI director. The posts, including a message to Attorney General Pam Bondi calling on her to prosecute Comey and others that Trump had intended to be private, are sure to play a role in today’s hearing.
They are asking U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought for a second time.
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Trump said last night that he is designating Saudi Arabia a “Major Non-NATO Ally,” saying the classification would take the country’s military cooperation with the United States “to even greater heights.”
“You always had a little cloud over your head, and sometimes that cloud was very big. That cloud is not there anymore, and we want to keep it that way,” Trump said before he announced the designation at a dinner honoring Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Major Non-NATO Ally status is a designation that “provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation,” according to the State Department. It does not, however, require U.S. security commitments to the country.
Other countries that have the MNNA designation include Israel, Japan and South Korea.
The designation comes as part of Trump’s outreach to the country, which includes a massive investment deal from the Saudis. Trump said at the dinner that the investment would equate to $1 trillion.
Congress voted overwhelmingly yesterday to pass legislation to compel the Justice Department to release its records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — a major victory for lawmakers in both parties who’ve been leading the push for months.
As the final vote tally in the House, 427-1, was read, several Epstein survivors who were sitting in the gallery embraced ane another and loud cheers went up through the chamber. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., was the only lawmaker to vote no.
Just hours later, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., headed to the floor and requested unanimous consent that the measure be passed in the upper chamber once the bill is sent over from the House.
Read the full story here.
NBC News