Trump attacks Ron DeSantis for being too liberal on COVID and vaccine mandates
Former President Donald Trump trashed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday for being too liberal on COVID-19 and vaccine policies as their Republican presidential rivalry starts to heat up.
Taking the gloves off, Trump slammed DeSantis for imposing COVID-19 restrictions in the frightening early days of the pandemic and reminded supporters that he once supported ending most pandemic mitigation efforts by Easter 2020.
“Remember this?” he posted on his social media site. “Some Republican states got it right, Florida got it wrong!” Deriding the Florida governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” Trump accused his leading potential GOP presidential rival of trying to “rewrite history” on COVID.
It’s not surprising that Trump is unloading on DeSantis. Polls show a potentially close race between the two men, and DeSantis has steadfastly refused to rule out a challenge to Trump. Trump spent a big chunk of his first campaign swing over the weekend trashing DeSantis as “disloyal” and taking credit for his ascent to power in the Sunshine State.
—New York Daily News
ISIS soldier from Michigan guilty in federal court terror trial
DETROIT — An Islamic State soldier from Dearborn, Michigan, captured on a Syrian battlefield five years ago faces at least 10 years in federal prison after a jury Monday convicted him of providing material support to a terrorist group.
Jurors spent about four hours deliberating before convicting Ibraheem Musaibli, 32, of all three charges against him. That includes two terrorism-related charges, which include conspiring to provide material support, and a third charge of receiving military-type training from ISIS. The two terrorism-related charges could send Musaibli to prison for 50 years while the training charge carries a mandatory sentence of 10 years.
The verdict is the latest development in an international ordeal involving a rare ISIS fighter brought back to America in 2018 to face charges. Musaibli's trial started Jan. 19.
There was no immediate comment from Musaibli's defense team. Musaibli's case has shed light on the Michigan man's journey from his parents' perfume shop in Detroit to a Middle East war zone and presented the U.S. court system with a unique chance to prosecute an American accused of leaving the U.S. and fighting for the Islamic State group.
—The Detroit News
Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents used their house to bail him out. But they rent the land from Stanford
Shortly before Christmas, FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried, indicted on federal charges of fraud and money laundering, was released on a $250 million bail bond that was secured by his parents’ Palo Alto-area home.
The size of the bail bond — 25 times bigger than Bernie Madoff’s — garnered considerable attention. The prosecution termed it “the largest ever pretrial bond.” What hasn’t drawn notice is the fact that Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, who are professors at Stanford Law School, are not typical homeowners. Their property is a faculty home on the Stanford campus itself. Stanford owns the land, and Bankman and Fried lease it.
Although the couple told the court that the five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home is worth $3.55 million, the restrictions that come with owning a home on Stanford property make it difficult to gauge its market value via conventional means.
Were Bankman and Fried ever to sell their house — or were the government to take possession of it, in the event of a bail violation, and then have to sell it — the pool of potential buyers would be limited to other eligible Stanford faculty. Whatever the scenario, a sale would have to go through Stanford.
—Los Angeles Times
Blinken urges calm, supports Palestinian state in meeting with Israel’s Netanyahu
JERUSALEM — Arriving in Israel at what he called a “pivotal moment,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Monday called on Israelis and Palestinians alike to step back from the brink of all-out conflict, condemning terrorism and vengeance killings that target innocent civilians.
Blinken flew into the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv after a day in Cairo, and on Tuesday he will head to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian officials. At each stop, security has taken on an urgency after a spate of some of the deadliest violence in Israel and the West Bank in recent memory.
Blinken also held several hours of consultations in one-on-one meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who has been on the job just under a month as part of Netanyahu’s new far-right government.
At the airport, Blinken took the unusual step of reading a formal statement on the tarmac to the assembled press in which he fiercely criticized the killing last Friday during Shabbat of seven Jewish Israelis by a Palestinian gunman. He called it a “heinous crime” made all the more shocking because it killed worshipers, and Blinken also chastised those who would celebrate such violence, as some Palestinians were reported to have done.
—Los Angeles Times
