What will Trump’s second-term DOJ look like?
After Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration for attorney general, President-elect Donald Trump selected former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the role.
Bondi has previously called for the prosecution of “bad” prosecutors involved in indicting Trump over efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and has railed against “the deep state” — spreading a false conspiracy theory that DOJ prosecutors and FBI agents were part of a secret cabal trying to undermine Trump.
Trump’s choice for second-in-command at the Justice Department is Todd Blanche, who served as his lead criminal defense lawyer in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
That history with the president-elect has some former and current DOJ officials concerned Blanche won’t stand up to Trump, but others are cautiously optimistic he would prevent some of the worst-case scenarios they’ve been conjuring.
One official said people are feeling better about Blanche because he’s a legitimate lawyer and a former Justice Department official, but “that reflects the low expectations.”
UAE arrests three people linked to rabbi’s murder
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have arrested three individuals in connection with the murder of an Israeli Moldovan rabbi who was found dead in the country. Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was the representative in Abu Dhabi for Chabad Lubavitch, an influential Orthodox Jewish Hasidic organization based in New York, had been missing in the Gulf state since Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement his country “will deal with the criminals responsible for his death to the fullest extent of the law.”
In a separate incident over the weekend, a gunman was dead and three policemen injured after a shooting near the Israeli Embassy in neighboring Jordan. Jordan’s government communications minister, Mohamed Momani, described the shooting as a terror attack that targeted public security forces in the country.
Urologist accused of sexually abusing hundreds
BR, 27, was suffering from groin pain when he began seeing a urologist, Dr. Darius Paduch, in 2006.
Paduch told BR to masturbate in front of him and proceeded to examine and photograph him, BR said. About 12 years later, BR notified the associate general counsel at the hospital where Paduch worked. Paduch continued seeing patients for another year after that and remained employed until March 2020.
Paduch later joined a Long Island hospital, where at least one person reported him to management. He was only terminated in April 2023 when he was arrested and ultimately charged with sexually abusing seven former patients, including five boys under age 18.
BR is among hundreds of men who have filed lawsuits accusing the hospitals of enabling and failing to stop Paduch from sexually abusing patients in his care.
Meet the Press
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., suggested that one of Trump’s first priorities in his new term should be to fire any staff at the Justice Department who worked on cases that involved charges against the president-elect.
“First and foremost, the people involved with this should be fired immediately,” Schmitt told moderator Kristen Welker.
“And anybody part of this, this effort to keep President Trump off the ballot and to throw him in jail for the rest of his life because they didn’t like his politics, and who continue to cast him as a quote, unquote threat to democracy, was wrong, and so we’ll see where that goes,” he added.
Schmitt also said he would back Pam Bondi for attorney general. “I intend to to help Pam Bondi get the votes,” he said, describing her selection as a “home run by President Trump.”
You can watch the full interview here.
Politics in brief
Abortion legal battles: Seven of the 10 pro-abortion rights measures on the November ballot across the country passed. The groups that backed them are working to ensure that they are implemented smoothly.
Promotion halted: Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin has blocked the promotion of a general who oversaw troops in Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal, as Trump’s transition team weighs possible court-martial proceedings.
Trans lawmaker responds: Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, called Republicans’ push to ban her from using women’s bathrooms “mean-spirited” and a distraction.
A more affordable Thanksgiving
You may not know it by looking at sticker prices, but Thanksgiving dinner is more affordable than it has been decades.
Turkey is 6% cheaper than last year, sweet potatoes are 26% cheaper and the price of fresh cranberries remains at its lowest level since 2015, according to a nationwide survey of grocery prices by the American Farm Bureau Federation.
For plenty of households, of course, it doesn’t feel that way. But according to the AFBF report, “even with the decreasing purchasing power of the dollar, some of the goods in our basket are at their long-term lowest prices, even in terms of the ‘current dollar’ price.”
As families go Thanksgiving shopping, chef Caroline Choe shared with NBC News how you can shake up your usual sides with banchan, or Korean side dishes.
A ‘Pop-u-lar’ movie combo
Rejoicify, movie fans! The one-two punch of witches and warriors delivered a strong box office weekend to kick off the holiday season.
“Wicked,” the first of a two-film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, dominated with an estimated $114 million in North America alone. “Gladiator II,” the sequel to the 2000 historical epic, pulled in roughly $55.5 million.
The “Glicked” combo fell short of last year’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, but still inspired many to embrace it as a similar cinematic event, with costumes, merchandise and other forms of fan involvement.
“It’s such a big event: You got your Broadway theater people, and then obviously you got people just wanting a good time at the movies,” said one fan who saw both films on opening night. “The whole atmosphere, it’s electrifying.”
In case you missed it
- Forecasters are increasingly calling for a cold, soggy Thanksgiving week as west-to-east winter-pattern storms continued to roll across the continental landscape.
- Nearly 50,000 people from 200 countries came to Azerbaijan for a major climate change conference. It’s been marked by deepening divides and infighting.
- Many families have been effectively cutting a second rent check to send their kids to day care as costs soar, according to new data from the Department of Labor.
- Is a cold plunge or a hot bath better for athletes after vigorous exercise?
- A $6 million banana took the internet by storm. Yet in much of the broader art world, it lacked a certain a-peel.
- A 51-year mystery has been partly solved as a girl whose body was found in a wooded area in 1973 has finally been identified as a missing schoolgirl.
- Max Verstappen clinched his fourth Formula 1 world championship Saturday night under the bright lights of Las Vegas, cementing his standing among the legends of the sport.
- North America’s top professional sports leagues are warning their players about a growing threat from organized burglary rings, whose tools of choice are passports, cutting-edge technology and a 90-day calendar.
