XCR1250
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Trump is sentenced in hush money case — but gets no penalty or fine
President-elect Donald Trump looks on during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in December 2024 in Phoenix, Ariz.
President-elect Donald Trump received an unconditional discharge for his criminal conviction in New York on Friday, meaning he will not face fines, prison or any other penalties.
The former and future president appeared virtually in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday for his sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to an adult film star.
During the brief hearing, New York state Judge Juan Merchan said the only lawful sentence that does not encroach on the office of the president is that of an unconditional discharge on all counts.
The 2024 election results loomed over the hearing, with Trump just 10 days away from being sworn into the Oval Office for a second term. Trump had argued the sentencing would interfere with his ability to govern, and said he plans to appeal.
This was the first time that a former, future or sitting U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges. And this was the only one of Trump's criminal cases to see trial.
"Trial was a paradox," Merchan said, noting the high level of security and media attention. But "once doors closed, it was no more unique than the other 32 trials taking place in this courthouse at the same exact time."
But while the trial could be seen as an ordinary procedure, Merchan said, the same cannot be said about the circumstances surrounding the sentencing because Trump is about to occupy the office of the president.
"Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume your second term in office," Merchan said before leaving the bench.
Prosecutors asked for minimal sentence
Trump on Thursday exhausted his last legal maneuver to stop the sentencing, after a narrow majority of Supreme Court justices declined to intervene.
Prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recommended that Trump get the minimal sentence of unconditional discharge, as a way to ensure the trial's finality and respect the jury's verdict, while not interfering with Trump's ability to govern.
An "unconditional discharge" means the president-elect must do nothing, but the conviction will remain on his record.
Right before being formally sentenced, Merchan offered Trump the opportunity to speak. During his remarks, Trump doubled down on his defense: that the business records were legal expenses, not hush-money payments, and recorded by accountants, not by him.
"I would just like to explain that I was treated very, very unfairly," Trump said, after reiterating the false claim that the trial is politically motivated, and arguing that he is innocent despite the jury conviction.
Prosecutors pushed back against Trump's attempts to characterize the trial as politically motivated.
"The defendant's conduct constitutes a direct attack on the rule of law itself," said Josh Steinglass, one of the prosecutors. "This defendant has caused enduring damage to the public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers and court in harm's way."
Since Trump's conviction in May, Merchan has postponed the sentencing several times, including to avoid any perception of political bias ahead of Election Day, and then to allow Trump to argue he had immunity in the case, based on a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Merchan ultimately denied the immunity claims, and the dismissal, paving the way for the hearing on Friday.
Anna Cominsky, director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School, said the sentence does give the public a measure of closure about the case — even as the planned appeals could stretch on for years.
"It certainly makes sense that there be some finality to this case because as a nation, we should want to move on, in particular as he assumes the role of president, and be able to look forward to the next four years without this sentence pending," Cominsky said. "There has to be an end."
In May, Trump became the first former or sitting U.S. president to be tried on criminal charges and be convicted.
The jury in Manhattan state court heard from 22 witnesses during about a month of testimony in Manhattan's criminal court. Jurors also weighed other evidence — mostly documents like phone records, invoices and checks to Michael Cohen, Trump's once loyal "fixer," who paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her story of an alleged affair with the former president.
After about a day-and-a-half of deliberations, the 12 jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.
But the conviction appeared to have little impact on Trump's popularity — and ultimate electoral victory during the 2024 presidential election. He has used the legal drama to mobilize donations for his campaign and mounting legal fees.
Within 24 hours of the guilty verdict, Trump's campaign boasted of raising millions of dollars.
And 49% of the nation's voters in November's election ultimately chose to bring Trump back to the White House. Todd Blanche, one of Trump's lawyers on the case, said the electoral results showed voters believed this case was illegitimate, and that he and Trump share the "view that this will never happen again in this country."
"The voters got a chance to see and decide for themselves if this was a case that should've been brought. And they decided," Blanche said during the hearing on Friday. Trump has nominated Blanche as deputy attorney general in his administration.
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Audio released of Biden interview with special counsel who described him as an ‘elderly man with a poor memory’
By Arlette Saenz, CNN
4 minute read
Jake Tapper explains what happened when Biden couldn't recognize Clooney before election
Audio of then-President Joe Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur in the now-closed probe over Biden’s handling of classified documents was published by Axios on Friday.
The interview became one of the most notable and politically controversial parts of Hur’s investigation, which concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Biden with criminal mishandling of records after his vice presidency. In a final report, Hur called Biden, 81 at the time, “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
While transcripts of Biden’s interview with Hur became public last year, these excerpts are the first audio recording of the interview to surface.
An official with the Department of Justice has confirmed the tapes’ authenticity to CNN.
A Biden spokeswoman, Kelly Scully, told CNN, “The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago. The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.”
The audio comes as questions about Biden’s physical and mental capabilities have returned to the spotlight. A forthcoming book – “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson – details signs of Biden’s decline while in office.
Biden sat for interviews with Hur for five hours over a two-day span in the fall of 2023 as part of the special counsel’s investigation into his handling of classified materials.
In one, nearly four-and-a-half-minute clip published by Axios, Biden was asked where he kept papers on matters he was “actively working” on after leaving office as vice president in 2017. Biden took a long pause and said, “I don’t know,” and then went on to talk about seemingly unrelated things that happened during that time period, such as people encouraging him to run for president in 2016. He also had trouble remembering when his eldest son, Beau, died, and needed confirmation from those in the room.
“What month did Beau die,” Biden asked before taking a pause. “Oh, God, May 30th…”
Two people finished the then-president’s sentence: “2015.”
“Was it 2015 he had died?” Biden questioned.
In a second clip from Axios, Biden, when asked whether he knew that he had kept a memo related to Afghanistan, first said, “I don’t know that I knew. But when pressed further, Biden said, “I guess I wanted to hang onto it just for posterity’s sake.”
Shortly after, one person from Biden’s team interjected and attempted to clarify the president’s answer.
“I just really would like to avoid for the purpose of a clean record, getting into speculative areas,” the person said, adding, “His recollection, as I understand it, is he does not recall specifically intending to keep this memo after he left the vice presidency.”
In February of last year, Hur declined to bring charges against Biden, but in a final report said the former president “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials.” The more politically damaging part of Hur’s findings came in his characterization of the president as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” one who would likely win over a jury if he faced prosecution.
Biden and his allies fiercely disputed Hur’s characterization as inaccurate and unfair, including pushing back on the special counsel raising that he didn’t remember when his eldest son Beau died in his report.
House Republicans sought records relating to the interview, including transcripts and audio recordings, in their long-running impeachment investigation into Biden, which ultimately fizzled out.
The Justice Department provided a transcript of the interview to Congress, but Biden asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings. House Republicans voted to hold then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to turn over the recordings, but the Justice Department declined to pursue contempt charges at the time.
On Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters Attorney General Pam Bondi and her team would determine whether the audio should be released.
“That’s up to Pam [Bondi] and the group. I haven’t really looked into,” he said before departing Abu Dhabi. “Everybody understands the condition of him. I know people that are 89, 90, 92, 93 years old and are literally perfect. But Joe was not one of them, and they did a lot of hiding. They were they were really playing games. And, you know, you can’t do that. Our country’s at stake.”
Top Democrats, including several potential 2028 contenders, have faced questions about the new revelations in Tapper and Thompson’s forthcoming book, including whether they knew of the former president’s decline. The new round of scrutiny comes as the party is eager to move past the 2024 election and focus on waging a more forceful opposition to Trump.
Biden’s team has pushed back on the book’s claims. “We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite – he was a very effective president,” a spokesperson for Biden told CNN.
In an interview on ABC’s “The View” last week, Biden, now 82-years-old, defended his time in office and pushed back on claims he experienced significant cognitive decline while in office.
“They are wrong,” Biden said last week. “There is nothing to sustain that.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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1 minute ago, Snake said: The U.S. credit rating was downgraded from AAA to AA+ by Standard & Poor's on August 5, 2011, during President Obama's administration, marking the first downgrade in U.S. history. This decision was influenced by concerns over the effectiveness and stability of American political institutions amid ongoing fiscal challenges.
Is the OP an idiot... is he a lying partisan hack who will saying anything, regardless how insane....
He is!
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Four Months Into Trump's Second Term, Democrats Remain Deeply Pessimistic About Their Party
Top former Democratic counsel urges party to reject 'cultural leftism' after electoral lossesMadison Colombo
Sat, May 17, 2025 at 11:00 AM UTC
A former top Democratic legal adviser is calling on his party to move away from progressive policies, warning that the current approach is costing Democrats both voter trust and electoral success.
Julian Epstein, former chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News Radio’s "Brian Kilmeade Show" that the Democratic Party’s embrace of progressive ideology is damaging its credibility on both economic and cultural issues.
"[They] cannot divorce themselves from a discredited ideology which is progressive ideology, which has been a failure economically," Epstein said. "Look at the states, look at the state of California. And it’s a failure culturally. People just don’t believe in cultural leftism."
Epstein said the issue runs deep within the party, and even its leadership struggles to navigate the internal divide between moderate and progressive factions. He pointed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as a figure caught in the middle.
Four Months Into Trump's Second Term, Democrats Remain Deeply Pessimistic About Their Party
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., said she will not seek the top Democrat position on the House Oversight Committee because seniority dynamics have not changed in the Democratic Party.
"The Democrats just seem to be wandering in the wilderness without any real answer," Epstein said. "They [Democratic leaders] don’t have the guts to stand up to the groups and say, ‘We have to moderate and do what Bill Clinton did in the 1990s and go to the political center.’"
According to Epstein, Democratic leaders are hesitant to push back on the party’s more radical wing out of fear of backlash, particularly from online activists.
"The internet has been weaponized," he said. "They are scared of the flying monkeys of the internet who will call them bad names if they don’t do certain things or if they do certain things like cooperate with Trump a couple months ago on the shutdown."
Earlier this year, Sen. Schumer faced heavy criticism after backing a Republican bill to prevent a government shutdown. Though Schumer disagreed with aspects of the House-passed stopgap spending bill, he supported it to avoid what he called a political "gift" to former President Donald Trump.
Progressive Leader Says Schumer Faces 'Uphill' Climb To Win Back Democrats' Trust
The move drew backlash from progressive commentators. "The reality here is there was no message, no strategy, and, at the end of the day, no leadership," said former Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards, now an MSNBC analyst. "This is really a black mark, I think, on Chuck Schumer."
Democrats Are Out Of Step With The American People, Former Clinton Advisor Says
The criticism sparked speculation that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might challenge Schumer for his Senate seat. When asked about those rumors, Schumer downplayed them.
"That’s a long time away," he told The New York Times, responding to reports that some Democratic lawmakers have privately encouraged Ocasio-Cortez to consider a Senate run.
Meanwhile, Schumer’s popularity in New York has slipped. An April poll by Siena College found that only 39% of New York voters view him favorably, where AOC, the multi-term congresswoman from New York City and a prominent progressive voice, got a 47% favorable mark.
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Armed Forces Day, 2025
May 16, 2025
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
On Armed Forces Day, we pause to honor the men and women of America’s Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Space Force. Every day, throughout our homeland and in far-flung regions of the world, our fighting forces valiantly safeguard our liberty, defend our border, and support global stability through humanitarian missions and disaster relief operations. In America’s legacy of awe-inspiring heroes, they are without equal.
As Commander in Chief, my highest responsibility is to ensure our all-volunteer military, 2.1 million-strong, is the world’s most lethal fighting force. I have taken bold steps to prioritize military excellence and readiness across every branch of service, ensuring that all active duty, National Guard, and Reserve members who wear our Nation’s uniform are prepared to deploy, fight, and win against any adversary in any domain. America’s military will soon be stronger and more powerful than ever before. Since November, enlistment numbers for every branch of the Armed Forces have surged — recruitment is now the highest it has been in 30 years.
On Armed Forces Day, we celebrate those for whom patriotism is not a passive, lofty ideal, but a way of life that is measured by the unyielding commitment to serve this Nation with valor, vigilance, integrity, and devotion to duty. It is worthy not only of a day of recognition but also a lifetime of respect from a grateful Nation.
The First Lady joins me in saluting our service members — on land, at sea, and in air and space — along with their devoted families, who share in this legacy of service and sacrifice.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, continuing the tradition of my predecessors in office, do hereby proclaim the third Saturday of each May as Armed Forces Day. I invite the Governors of the States and Territories and other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to provide for the observance of Armed Forces Day within their jurisdiction in an appropriate manner designed to increase public understanding and appreciation of our Armed Forces. I call upon all Americans to display the flag of the United States at their homes and businesses on Armed Forces Day, and I urge citizens to learn more about military service by attending and participating in the local observances of the day.
Proclamation 10762 of May 17, 2024, is hereby superseded.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.
DONALD J. TRUMP-
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23 minutes ago, Skidooski said: Whatever you say Brandon. Now go have your Metamucil and meet todays geriatric nurse
MC is the biggest Lunatic on FS and should be in a Mental Institution, he's nuts.
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Common Energy Drink Ingredient Linked to Blood Cancer
Taurine was found to “significantly accelerate disease progression” in a new study of the supplement, commonly given to chemotherapy patients
By
Published on May 15, 2025 08:49PM EDT
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NEED TO KNOW
Taurine has been linked with the progression of the blood cancer leukemia, according to new research published in Nature
The amino acid may fuel cancer cells, with researchers saying it was found to "significantly accelerate disease progression"
Researchers said, given its inclusion in energy drinks and often as a supplement, "it may be of interest to carefully consider" having leukemia patients consume taurine
A common energy drink ingredient has been linked to the progression of the blood cancer leukemia, prompting researchers to voice concerns about the consumption of those beverages.
Taurine — an amino acid that occurs naturally in proteins like meat and fish — is a common ingredient in energy drinks like Red Bull. As the Mayo Clinic explains it can help balance fluids, salts and minerals.
PEOPLE has reached out to Red Bull for comment.
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But according to research published in Nature, taurine may promote leukaemogenesis — the development of leukemia cells — and “identifies taurine as a key regulator of myeloid malignancies,” which, like leukemia, are cancers that begin in the blood.
The study says cancer cells in mice are fueled by taurine: “Taurine supplements could significantly accelerate disease progression in immunocompetent mice (around threefold higher likelihood of death… indicating that taurine can promote leukaemic progression.”
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In plain terms, the study found that cancer cells consume the taurine, which triggers glycolysis (breaking down glucose for energy), which then further fuels the cancer cells, according to a press release from the University of Rochester, which conducted the research.
Previously, taurine has been proven useful as a supplement in chemotherapy. One study in Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutic said, “Taurine supplementation could be a protection against chemotherapy-induced toxicities probably by its antioxidant capacity.”
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This has prompted the researchers to add a caveat regarding energy drinks.
“As taurine is a common ingredient in energy drinks, and is often provided as a supplement to mitigate the side-effects of chemotherapy our work suggests that it may be of interest to carefully consider the benefits of supplemental taurine in patients with leukaemia," researchers wrote in Nature.
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8 minutes ago, Skidooski said: First flags were offensive
Now its Banners
MC just can't get over how wrong he's been on everything he's posted on here, I almost feel sorry for him..NOT!
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FBI folds the public corruption squad that aided Jack Smith's Trump investigations
Ryan J. Reilly
Updated Thu, May 15, 2025 at 1:11 PM CDT
547
Former special counsel Jack Smith; President Donald Trump. (AP; Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The FBI’s Washington Field Office is folding its federal public corruption squad, the same unit that aided Jack Smith’s special counsel investigation into President Donald Trump, three people familiar with the matter tell NBC News.
The field office has three units that work on public corruption issues, but this one — known internally as "CR15" — was deeply involved in the bureau’s "Arctic Frost" investigation, which was the precursor to the Smith probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results by Trump and his allies. That investigation resulted in one of the two federal criminal cases against Trump, both of which were dropped after his election.
FBI special agents assigned to the squad will be reassigned. A FBI official said the change was part of a broader reorganization at the Washington Field Office and that there would be additional changes to come — and that public corruption cases would still be pursued.
The move to shutter the unit comes amid a major shift of FBI resources towards immigration enforcement, an area that is primarily the responsibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. A top leader in the FBI’s Washington Field Office was also recently reassigned, two people familiar with the matter said. A FBI official said the person was not reassigned for any adversarial reason.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department slashed its Public Integrity Section, which had also worked on public corruption cases. Members of the unit had also resigned after refusing to sign off on dropping the federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A judge ultimately dropped the case, adding a condition beyond what the Trump administration had sought: He said that the Justice Department would not be allowed to revive the case later, because that would give the government leverage over the mayor.
“This is yet another sign that it’s open season for political corruption," said Stacey Young, the executive director and founder of the group Justice Connection, a network of Justice Department alumni supporting DOJ's workforce. "The administration gutted the Public Integrity Section, neutered the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C., and is now shuttering the FBI’s pre-eminent federal public corruption squad. This isn’t what voters had in mind when they heard, ‘drain the swamp.’”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chair Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have recently scrutinized the work of CR15, writing letters to FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi about the unit.
“My oversight has shown time and again how the FBI’s CR-15 unit was weaponized to execute one-sided political attacks, particularly against President Trump and his allies,” Grassley said in a statement. “It’s good news it’s been shut down after I exposed the unit for its misconduct. Transparency brings accountability, and the FBI must ensure all records are preserved as my investigations continue.”
The investigation into the effort by Trump and allies to overturn the 2020 election results was launched in April 2022, before Trump had announced his run for president in 2024. After Trump launched his campaign, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel in late 2022, saying it was in the public interest to have an outsider lead the investigation rather than have Garland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, oversee the probe.
Trump was indicted in August 2023, but his trial was delayed by appeals, which resulted in a Supreme Court ruling that gave Trump immunity for official actions taken as president.
Smith issued a report finding that Trump had “inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence“ during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and that he had knowingly spread an objectively false narrative about election fraud in the 2020 election
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17 minutes ago, akvanden said: Only in Wisconsin.
I live in a Tourist area near Hayward Wi., wife works at Walmart.. many times she works in the Liquor dept. she says folks from many states buy Spotted Cow and take it back to whatever state they are from. Many folks have a second home here and take S.C. back to the State they are from, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, & Iowa, even a few here from Arizona & Texas. Must be something special about that Beer.
Biden
in Current Events
Biden's woes converge: Last-minute pardons under fire, calls for prosecution mount following Hur tape release
Emma Colton
Sun, May 18, 2025 at 5:24 PM UTC
10 min read
The release of audio recordings of former President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur have intensified criticism of the administration's use of an autopen on official presidential orders and pardons.
The damning tapes, which bring Biden's alarming mental decline into sharp relief, were kept under wraps by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland. Now that Biden's cognitive problems have been bared, some are calling for Garland to face prosecution for rejecting Congressional demands to release the tapes when he ran the Department of Justice (DOJ).
"Key decisions made in the final days of the Biden presidency, including using autopens to issue blanket pardons for the Biden Crime Family, must be fully examined. There are serious concerns that President Biden lacked the mental capacity to authorize those actions," House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., posted to X on Saturday.