Raw Story
Featured Stories:
LIVE: Premier Ford, New York governor make an announcement in Buffalo, N.Y.
BUFFALO BILLS YULE LOG RELAXING CRACKLING TAILGATE FIREPLACE 10 HOURS
‘Hellbent on hiding truth’: Dem leader pounces as DOJ official hints at holding back files

The top Democrat in the Senate has directly responded to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche after he said that "thousands" of Jeffrey Epstein files would be withheld by the Department of Justice despite a law requiring "all" documents to be released by Friday.
"I expect that we're going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks. So today, several hundred thousand. And then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more," Blanche told Fox News on Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer responded by indicating that Democrats would not stand for the Trump DOJ flouting the law.
"The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was clear as can be - the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some. Failing to do so is breaking the law. This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth," Schumer insisted. "Senate Democrats are working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by Pam Bondi. We will not stop until the whole truth comes out."
"People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files. This is nothing more than a cover up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past," he added.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) suggested that Bondi would be "prosecuted" if the DOJ does not release the full Epstein files on Friday.
Peter Navarro’s prison records suggest no early release for RNC convention

Former President Donald Trump's onetime White House adviser Peter Navarro could remain in a federal lockup during the Republican National Convention, prison records show.
The Federal Bureau of Prison official listing on Monday showed Navarro is set to be released on July 17, according to its online inmate tracker. The date, first reported by CBS correspondent Scott MacFarlane, is an initial record of when he's set for release and it could change.
The Republican Convention begins in Milwaukee on July 15.
The Bureau of Prisons record shows Navarro's inmate number at a low-security federal correctional facility in Miami is 04370-510.
ALSO READ: 11 ways Trump doesn’t become president
Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Jan. 6 Committee. The former trade adviser claimed then-President Donald Trump invoked executive privilege to prevent him from testifying.
If Navarro is freed on the set date, he would miss most of the Republican convention, which begins on July 15. But he could attend the convention's final day on July 18.
Trump canceled a rally in Arizona because his campaign was too broke: report

Former President Donald Trump is facing mounting financial difficulties in his campaign — to the point where he is reportedly being forced to triage which states he can afford to hold rallies in.
According to a new CNN report, Trump was planning to hold a rally in Arizona last weekend, on the same day he rallied in Ohio to support his endorsed Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, but backed out at the last minute.
"On Wednesday, Biden was in Arizona to announce $8.5 billion going toward a new Intel chip processing plant outside of Phoenix, returning to a state he visited twice in the second half of last year," reported Edward Isaac-Dovere and Kristen Holmes.
"Trump had been looking at a trip to the state – which went for Biden by just 10,457 votes in 2020 – for last weekend, the same day as his Ohio rally. But those plans were scrapped after clinching the presidential nomination, with two sources citing a desire to save money and attend a more politically advantageous event in Ohio rallying for Moreno."
Moreno went on to easily win the GOP nomination in Ohio, beating state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. He will face off against Sen. Sherrod Brown, the only remaining Democrat in a major statewide office.
ALSO READ: Racism, arrests, extreme MAGA love: Meet Lauren Boebert’s primary opponents
The Trump campaign is being significantly outraised by the Biden campaign and has faced other complications, including warnings from the Federal Election Commission to stop accepting illegal contributions, as Raw Story exclusively reported last month.
It comes at a moment when the former president has faced intense personal financial struggles, including a pair of legal judgments for $83.3 million and $464 million, respectively — the latter of which he is struggling to raise bond for and could lead to Trump Organization assets and properties being seized by the state of New York.
Whoopi Goldberg dabs tears from eyes at thought of Trump being unable to pay his debts

Whoopi Goldberg began a Wednesday segment of "The View" pretending to shed tears for Donald Trump after his lawyers told a New York court he didn't actually have the money to pay his bills.
"I'm so sorry," she said, pretending to be emotional. "So, as it turns out, you-know-who says he cannot come up with the cash to cover his $400 million-plus bond in his New York fraud case."
"You need a tissue?" asked colleague Joy Behar, pulling a purse-sized packet from her pocket.
The panel questioned why Trump has so much support from millionaires and billionaires, but no one is rushing to put up a bond for him. One of those people is his own son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the hosts said.
"That was surprising Jared is not going to give him part of his $2 billion cache he probably got only because he worked in the Trump administration," said Sunny Hostin. "But I will say this, to reiterate: the reason people will not lend him money is because he is notorious for stiffing people who work for him."
"Who loses money on casinos?" asked Behar.
"Because he had three casinos together, two to three, and his actuary said they would cannibalize each other. He did it anyway; 100 contractors weren't paid because of it and lost their homes and livelihoods. It happened in 2016." said Hostin.
ALSO READ: House Republican giggles over Hitler praise — and admits he never listens to Trump
"There is no way anybody is going to lend money to him, and I can't wait to see the chains on trump tower on Fifth Avenue. I'm kind of excited about it."
Former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin brought up Fox hosts who are also unwilling to help him.
"Can we talk about some of these folks at Fox News who are raging that billionaires are not stepping up to give the money to Trump?" she asked. "One of them was Mark Levin, somebody who refers to himself as 'the great one,' so that tells you all you need to know about him. [He] has a reported net worth of $50 million, but he's not ponying up" [for Trump].
See the panel discussion in the video below or at the link here.
Letitia James could swoop on Trump’s properties as soon as Monday: report

New York Attorney General Letitia James could swoop in and seize former President Donald Trump's properties as soon as Monday, a CNN analyst reported Wednesday.
"They are ready to move forward to try to seize some of his assets, and possibly properties," CNN reporter Kara Scannell said.
Monday is the deadline set in Trump's fraud trial for him to secure a bond for the $464 million payout ordered by New York civil court judge Arthur Engoron earlier this year.
Trump, who denies wrongdoing and plans to appeal, first tried to negotiate the payment down to $100 million then, on Monday, filed notice that he'd been unable to secure a bond for the whole amount.
James swiftly filed a response urging the appeals court to ignore his pleas for a stay on the payment, noting he has other options for finding the money.
"He could post his own property to the court," Scannell summarized. "He could turn over real estate to the court to satisfy this judgment. "
This isn't the first time James has hinted that she will take ownership of Trump's buildings.
ALSO READ: Trump campaign hit with new warning about taking illegal donations
James referenced a Trump property in downtown Manhattan when she said in a statement last month, "We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day."
The looming deadline, and this potential dire solution, has seen panic mount among Trump's campaign, sources tell CNN. Specifically, because Trump consider some of his properties "his babies."
Stephanie Grisham, Trump's one-time White House communications director, told CNN Monday that there are several such "babies" he does not want to lose.
"I think if it were to happen, 40 Wall Street is probably the one that he would, I mean, he would hate it,' Grisham said. "But I think if she tried to seize Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster or Trump Tower even, I mean, those are his babies."
Accusations of Satan worship fly in wild California GOP election fight

Shasta County, California has long been a hotbed for far-right Republican politics -- but it seems that even many voters in this deep-red county are getting fed up with local officials who have been running on denying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Shasta County voters chose to oust gun store owner Patrick Jones from the local Board of Supervisors after he spearheaded a campaign to remove Dominion Voting Systems machines and relentlessly promoted false claims about Trump's loss in the 2020 race.
And Jones wasn't the only hardcore election-denying Republican facing a tough election cycle, as his ally, Supervisor Kevin Crye, is currently winning his race by less than four dozen votes.
Added to this, voting totals show that Allen Long, a retired Redding police lieutenant, with a significant lead over Laura Hobbs, a candidate who describes herself as "100% MAGA and America First."
ALSO READ: MAGA’s Christian nationalism excludes a vast majority of Christianity
Long tells the LA Times that he was motivated to run for the board because he thought local officials had become too extreme, particularly in their embrace of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's conspiracy theories about voting machines.
"I was watching the politics here in our county, and I thought, ‘Wow, this has really become extreme,’” he said. “I wanted to guide us back to the middle.”
As if to illustrate Long's point about extremist, the LA Times report notes that Hobbs, his opponent, labeled Shasta County Republican Supervisor Mary Rickert a Satan worshipper because her car's license plate happens to have the number "666" on it.
Trump smacked down by E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer for trying to delay payment

E. Jean Carroll's attorneys fended off Donald Trump's attempt to stall two more months in paying the massive defamation judgment imposed against him.
The $91.6 million bond floated by Federal Insurance Company contained some fine print that would have given the former president 30 additional days to come up with the money he owed Carroll, in addition to 30 days for the insurer to come up with the money if Trump failed to pay – essentially giving him two months to stall, reported The Daily Beast.
But Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan spotted that loophole over the weekend and alerted U.S. District judge Lewis Kaplan, who immediately responded in a handwritten note that indicated Trump's lawyers must agree to drop the gambit.
“The parties shall submit revised documentation promptly,” the judge wrote on Kaplan's letter.
The surety firm FIC, which is a subsidiary of Chubb Insurance Company, essentially fronted money for Trump to give themselves some extra time to make good on his debt, but Trump and the insurer gave themselves an unusually generous amount of time to pay up.
READ MORE: Trump and the Republicans will do anything to win — even collude with Russia
“From what I can see, there’s no basis for it," said Neil Pedersen, who owns a bond agency in New York. "If you have to pay, there’s no reason to give Trump another 30 days. There’s no reason to give a company with billions upon billions of assets a 30-day grace period."
However, other experts say FIC may have been protecting themselves from a client notorious for stiffing contractors and stalling his legal obligations.
“These corporations are big battleships that take a long time to turn around,” N. Alex Hanley, an expert in how companies appeal enormous judgments.
Popular articles
LIVE: Premier Ford, New York governor make an announcement in Buffalo, N.Y.
BUFFALO BILLS YULE LOG RELAXING CRACKLING TAILGATE FIREPLACE 10 HOURS
‘Hellbent on hiding truth’: Dem leader pounces as DOJ official hints at holding back files

The top Democrat in the Senate has directly responded to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche after he said that "thousands" of Jeffrey Epstein files would be withheld by the Department of Justice despite a law requiring "all" documents to be released by Friday.
"I expect that we're going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks. So today, several hundred thousand. And then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more," Blanche told Fox News on Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer responded by indicating that Democrats would not stand for the Trump DOJ flouting the law.
"The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was clear as can be - the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some. Failing to do so is breaking the law. This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth," Schumer insisted. "Senate Democrats are working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by Pam Bondi. We will not stop until the whole truth comes out."
"People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files. This is nothing more than a cover up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past," he added.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) suggested that Bondi would be "prosecuted" if the DOJ does not release the full Epstein files on Friday.
‘The brink of illegitimacy’: Professors warn no turning back for ‘noxious’ Supreme Court

Two American university professors Friday warned the "noxious" Supreme Court can no longer be saved.
Harvard law professor Ryan Doerfler and Yale law professor Samuel Moyn wrote an opinion piece published by The Guardian about how the high court's legitimacy has been increasingly damaged under President Donald Trump's second term. Conservative justices have handed Trump and the MAGA movement a number of wins, including overturning of Roe v. Wade, "what remains of the Voting Rights Act," and losing its "nonpartisan image."
The role of the court has shifted and with the conservative majority, the liberal justices had previously "proceeded as if their conservative peers would continue to take their own institution’s legitimacy seriously."
But over the last several months, that has also changed.
"Yet with the conservative justices shattering the Supreme Court’s non-partisan image during Trump’s second term, liberals are not adjusting much," Doerfler and Moyn wrote. "The liberal justices – Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor – have become much more aggressive in their dissents. But they disagree with one another about how far to concede that their conservative colleagues have given up any concern for institutional legitimacy. Encouragingly, Jackson pivoted to 'warning the public that the boat is sinking' – as journalist Jodi Kantor put it in a much-noticed reported piece. Jackson’s fellow liberals, though, did not follow her in this regard, worrying her strategy of pulling the 'fire alarm' was 'diluting' their collective 'impact.'"
By now, Trump has used a "shadow docket" of emergency orders to his advantage and to advance his policies.
"Similarly, many liberal lawyers have focused their criticism on the manner in which the Supreme Court has advanced its noxious agenda – issuing major rulings via the 'shadow' docket, without full-dress lawyering, and leaving out reasoning in support of its decisions," according to the writers.
Critics have argued that the conservative-majority Supreme Court, including Trump's appointees, has used the shadow docket to issue consequential rulings on controversial issues like abortion, voting rights, and immigration with minimal explanation or public deliberation, effectively allowing the court to reshape law through expedited procedures that bypass traditional briefing and oral argument requirements.
Now, "progressives are increasingly converging on the idea of both expanding and 'disempowering' federal courts and looking to see how to shake up the status quo."
"Rather than adhere to the same institutionalist strategies that helped our current crisis, reformers must insist on remaking institutions like the US supreme court so that Americans don’t have to suffer future decades of oligarchy-facilitating rule that makes a parody of the democracy they were promised," Doerfler and Moyn wrote.
"In Trump’s second term, the Republican-appointed majority on the Supreme Court has brought their institution to the brink of illegitimacy. Far from pulling it back from the edge, our goal has to be to push it off," the writers added.

