jorgegarcia (jorgegarcia)

Blanche admits defeat. Will Trump sign on? In Trump’s world, the fund — part of a settlement between him and his own Department of Justice — was a way to right wrongs against his allies. Other people saw it as an ethical minefield that would put taxpayer money in the pockets of people Trump previously pardoned. Blanche’s promise not to pursue the fund wasn’t enough for Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Thillis, who wanted it rescinded in writing. While CNN reported Monday that the White House was deeply involved in the decision to rescind the settlement, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig noted that Trump and his lawyers have not signed the document clawing back the agreement. That means Trump or his attorneys could, in theory, sue to have it reinstated. “For all the drama around this written document from Todd Blanche, it really accomplishes essentially nothing as a legal matter,” he said Monday on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

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Trump lashes out as political losses pile up A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. President Donald Trump lashed out at oil companies and his own US attorney in the gilded Oval Office on Monday as his spin ran into the real world. It was more evidence that Trump 2.0 is losing some of its juice. Oil executives are capitalizing on Trump’s war against Iran and “making too much money,” the president said. He singled out Chevron and warned it to make gasoline cheaper even though, he said, he’s a “big free enterprise guy — nobody bigger.” Jeanine Pirro, his handpicked US attorney for Washington, DC, “choked,” Trump said, when she about-faced in court papers and admitted it was a botched rehab by the Interior Department and not vandalism that caused setbacks in the renovation of the Reflecting Pool, which Trump has taken on as a pet project.

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‘Granular’ domestic security strategy One of the new appointments brings back a veteran intelligence figure as the head of the Basij volunteer militia, which is under the Guards’ control and was heavily involved in the brutal suppression of protests in January. Hossein Taeb – a close ally of Mojtaba Khamenei – “was a particularly controversial and divisive figure during his tenure as head of IRGC Intelligence, closely associated with the hardline security apparatus’s repression of dissent,” wrote Sina Toossi, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, on X. The United States sanctioned Taeb in 2010 for his involvement in suppressing protests the previous year after a presidential election widely thought to have been rigged. His new mandate “calls for strengthening the Basij’s ‘public intelligence network,’ exploiting modern technologies, and expanding neighborhood organization” of the militia, Toossi said.

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Army to MagNorte aspirants: Reject violence in BARMM polls COTABATO CITY – Military authorities in Maguindanao del Norte have urged Monday candidates in the historic Sept. 14 Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) to uphold the rule of law and reject violence. The Philippine Army in the province has been facilitating peace dialogues among election stakeholders to help ensure that the forthcoming elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are conducted peacefully and orderly. In a statement, Col. Glenn Loreto T. Caballero, commander of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade, emphasized that maintaining peaceful elections is a shared responsibility. "Together, let us protect the gains we have achieved, respect one another despite our differences, and remain united in building a peaceful, credible, and prosperous Bangsamoro," Caballero said referring to all candidates and political parties in Maguindanao del Norte.

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