Third federal judge backtracks on plans to retire, depriving Trump of key nominations
CNN
A federal appeals court judge has withdrawn his intention to retire, depriving President-elect Donald Trump of the ability to make an influential circuit court nomination and enraging Senate Republicans.
A federal appeals court judge has withdrawn his intention to retire, depriving President-elect Donald Trump of the ability to make an influential circuit court nomination and enraging Senate Republicans. Fourth Circuit Judge James Wynn, an appointee of President Barack Obama, told the White House late last week that he was reversing his plans to take senior status, the semi-retired status that allows a president to confirm a replacement, according to a letter posted on Saturday by Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Wynn marks the third federal judge appointed by Democratic presidents to decide against retirement after Trump’s reelection. After Wynn said early this year that he intended to leave active service, President Joe Biden had put forward North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park as a replacement. But Park – who was opposed by Republicans, including Tillis – never made it to the Senate floor for a vote. As a part of a deal with the Senate GOP last month, Democrats agreed not to try to confirm Park and three other circuit court nominees, and in exchange, Republicans would clear the way for several Biden nominees for lower district courts to be voted on. Tillis, in a statement on Saturday, pointed to that agreement while calling Wynn’s reversal a “slap in the face.”

One year ago this week, Joe Biden was president. I was in Doha, Qatar, negotiating with Israel and Hamas to finalize a ceasefire and hostage release deal. The incoming Trump team worked closely with us, a rare display of nonpartisanship to free hostages and end a war. It feels like a decade ago. A lot can happen in a year, as 2025 has shown.

Botched Epstein redactions trace back to Virgin Islands’ 2020 civil racketeering case against estate
A botched redaction in the Epstein files revealed that government attorneys once accused his lawyers of paying over $400,000 to “young female models and actresses” to cover up his criminal activities

The Justice Department’s leadership asked career prosecutors in Florida Tuesday to volunteer over the “next several days” to help to redact the Epstein files, in the latest internal Trump administrationpush toward releasing the hundreds of thousands of photos, internal memos and other evidence around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The US State Department on Tuesday imposed visa sanctions on a former top European Union official and employees of organizations that combat disinformation for alleged censorship – sharply ratcheting up the Trump administration’s fight against European regulations that have impacted digital platforms, far-right politicians and Trump allies, including Elon Musk.









