Washington
Judge blocks Kennedy Center board from putting Trump’s name on building or grounds
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center on Tuesday from returning President Donald Trump ‘s name to the iconic performing arts venue in a move meant to recognize his renovation efforts, saying it would violate an earlier ruling that his name was illegally added to the building.
Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that, “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”
The Trump-aligned board at the Kennedy Center voted in August to inscribe the president’s name on the venue’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.”
If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would have also been renamed in Trump’s honor, as part of the board’s vote.
Cooper ruled in May that only Congress can approve changes to the Kennedy Center’s name. In an emergency hearing on the matter in August, the administration argued it was no longer attempting to rename the building and that the vote was simply a recognition of Trump’s effort to secure money for much needed renovations.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose wife sits on the Kennedy Center board, compared the move to the way hospitals and colleges recognize high dollar donors.
But a lawyer for U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, argued the changes amounted to “deja vu” and violated Cooper’s earlier ruling.
“The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy — and no one else,” Beatty said in a statement Tuesday. “But President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial. The Court just rejected this proposal for the second time. This unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop.”
Tuesday’s ruling is the latest twist in a months-old naming saga that first saw the board installing Trump’s name above Kennedy’s. After Cooper shot down that move, an elevated tarp was erected which obscures Trump’s name and most of Kennedy’s.
A more recent board proposal floated multiple options for getting Trump’s name on the grounds, including inscriptions like “Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” Another option: “With Gratitude for Support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The proposed board resolution was submitted to the court by Beatty as part of her effort to prevent the board from proceeding with the planned closure. It flatly states that “without such appropriate recognition” it’s unlikely that Trump will financially support what the board says are desperately needed renovations.
Cooper, in his Tuesday ruling, tartly notes “the government plays word games.”
In a scheduling hearing Tuesday morning, prior to the release of his ruling, Cooper appealed to lawyers for both sides to find a mediated solution to the fate of the performing arts center. The center’s board has claimed the building is in desperate physical shape and the institution is desperately close to insolvency.
Washington
Patel defends loosening of FBI employment standards on bestiality, prostitution
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday defended the bureau’s loosening of hiring requirements regarding prostitution and bestiality, saying the changes were meant to enable victims of those acts to apply for employment without fear of automatic disqualification.
The FBI quietly issued guidance this past spring lifting a categorical hiring ban on applicants who had previously engaged in prostitution, and said that it would instead consider the context of the behavior in at least some cases. The bureau made a similar change with regard to bestiality.
Pressed about the moves at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, Patel denied that the changes reflected a lowering of employment standards and insisted that they were designed to protect victims who had been forced to engage in that conduct and preclude them from being automatically disqualified.
“We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked. We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you,” Patel said.
The answer did little to satisfy Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who grilled Patel about the rationale for a change that the FBI director said was proposed to him by subordinates.
“When you saw bestiality, I say this with respect: The person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say what planet did you parachute in from?” Kennedy asked.
Patel replied that that was his initial reaction but he came to see it as a way of supporting victims.
The Republican-led panel tried to keep the focus on Patel’s efforts to combat violent crime, counter drug trafficking and pursue the Trump administration’s agenda from his perch at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.
But Democrats seized on the tumult inside the FBI over the last year, including sweeping firings of agents who participated in investigations into President Donald Trump, efforts by the bureau to investigate Trump’s perceived political adversaries and Patel’s travel schedule that has blended private leisure with professional responsibilities.
Patel has made multiple appearances before Congress while serving as director, including to testify about the FBI’s budget, but this was his first time since last September before the Senate committee that has principal oversight jurisdiction over the bureau.
That hearing featured feisty and personal exchanges with Democrats, with Patel at one point shouting over Sen. Adam Schiff of California as he called him an “utter disgrace” and a “coward.”
“You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but he will always be an internet troll,” Schiff shot back.
Tuesday’s hearing was expected to be no less contentious given Democrats’ fierce criticism of his leadership and conduct. Durbin called for Patel to be replaced as director in April following an article by The Atlantic magazine that raised allegations of excessive drinking.
Patel later filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit, calling the article false and a “malicious hit piece.” The Atlantic said it stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the “meritless lawsuit.”
Judge blocks Kennedy Center board from putting Trump’s name on building or grounds
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center on Tuesday from returning President Donald Trump ‘s name to the iconic performing arts venue in a move meant to recognize his renovation efforts, saying it would violate an earlier ruling that his name was illegally added to the building.
Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that, “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”
The Trump-aligned board at the Kennedy Center voted in August to inscribe the president’s name on the venue’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.”
If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would have also been renamed in Trump’s honor, as part of the board’s vote.
Cooper ruled in May that only Congress can approve changes to the Kennedy Center’s name. In an emergency hearing on the matter in August, the administration argued it was no longer attempting to rename the building and that the vote was simply a recognition of Trump’s effort to secure money for much needed renovations.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose wife sits on the Kennedy Center board, compared the move to the way hospitals and colleges recognize high dollar donors.
But a lawyer for U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, argued the changes amounted to “deja vu” and violated Cooper’s earlier ruling.
“The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy — and no one else,” Beatty said in a statement Tuesday. “But President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial. The Court just rejected this proposal for the second time. This unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop.”
Tuesday’s ruling is the latest twist in a months-old naming saga that first saw the board installing Trump’s name above Kennedy’s. After Cooper shot down that move, an elevated tarp was erected which obscures Trump’s name and most of Kennedy’s.
A more recent board proposal floated multiple options for getting Trump’s name on the grounds, including inscriptions like “Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” Another option: “With Gratitude for Support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The proposed board resolution was submitted to the court by Beatty as part of her effort to prevent the board from proceeding with the planned closure. It flatly states that “without such appropriate recognition” it’s unlikely that Trump will financially support what the board says are desperately needed renovations.
Cooper, in his Tuesday ruling, tartly notes “the government plays word games.”
In a scheduling hearing Tuesday morning, prior to the release of his ruling, Cooper appealed to lawyers for both sides to find a mediated solution to the fate of the performing arts center. The center’s board has claimed the building is in desperate physical shape and the institution is desperately close to insolvency.
Washington
Patel defends loosening of FBI employment standards on bestiality, prostitution
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday defended the bureau’s loosening of hiring requirements regarding prostitution and bestiality, saying the changes were meant to enable victims of those acts to apply for employment without fear of automatic disqualification.
The FBI quietly issued guidance this past spring lifting a categorical hiring ban on applicants who had previously engaged in prostitution, and said that it would instead consider the context of the behavior in at least some cases. The bureau made a similar change with regard to bestiality.
Pressed about the moves at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, Patel denied that the changes reflected a lowering of employment standards and insisted that they were designed to protect victims who had been forced to engage in that conduct and preclude them from being automatically disqualified.
“We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked. We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you,” Patel said.
The answer did little to satisfy Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who grilled Patel about the rationale for a change that the FBI director said was proposed to him by subordinates.
“When you saw bestiality, I say this with respect: The person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say what planet did you parachute in from?” Kennedy asked.
Patel replied that that was his initial reaction but he came to see it as a way of supporting victims.
The Republican-led panel tried to keep the focus on Patel’s efforts to combat violent crime, counter drug trafficking and pursue the Trump administration’s agenda from his perch at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.
But Democrats seized on the tumult inside the FBI over the last year, including sweeping firings of agents who participated in investigations into President Donald Trump, efforts by the bureau to investigate Trump’s perceived political adversaries and Patel’s travel schedule that has blended private leisure with professional responsibilities.
Patel has made multiple appearances before Congress while serving as director, including to testify about the FBI’s budget, but this was his first time since last September before the Senate committee that has principal oversight jurisdiction over the bureau.
That hearing featured feisty and personal exchanges with Democrats, with Patel at one point shouting over Sen. Adam Schiff of California as he called him an “utter disgrace” and a “coward.”
“You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but he will always be an internet troll,” Schiff shot back.
Tuesday’s hearing was expected to be no less contentious given Democrats’ fierce criticism of his leadership and conduct. Durbin called for Patel to be replaced as director in April following an article by The Atlantic magazine that raised allegations of excessive drinking.
Patel later filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit, calling the article false and a “malicious hit piece.” The Atlantic said it stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the “meritless lawsuit.”
