Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A closely watched procedural ruling: “A judge Thursday denied former President Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss a case alleging he mishandled classified documents, rejecting his argument that the papers were considered personal under the Presidential Records Act. The charges against Trump ‘make no reference to the Presidential Records Act, nor do they rely on that statute for purposes of stating an offense,’ U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon wrote.”
* Speaking of Trump cases: “A Georgia judge on Thursday denied a bid by former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the state election interference case to dismiss the charges on First Amendment grounds. In a 14-page ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said their right to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election did not protect them from the charges that District Attorney Fani Willis’s office brought.”
* A difficult conversation: “President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that Israel’s strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers earlier this week and the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza are ‘unacceptable’ and issued a warning about the U.S. shifting its policy toward Israel.”
* In Ukraine: “President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has signed into law three measures aimed at replenishing the ranks of his country’s exhausted and battered army, including the politically poisonous step of lowering the age when men become eligible for mobilization, and eliminating some medical exemptions. Parliament passed the legislation lowering the draft eligibility age to 25, from 27, last May, but Mr. Zelensky had delayed signing it in hopes that it would not be needed.”
* In case you missed this last night: “Donald Trump just lost one of his far-flung attempts to thwart his upcoming criminal hush money trial in New York, which is set to start in less than two weeks. This latest failed effort was a presidential immunity claim, but Judge Juan Merchan rejected it out of hand.”
* The fight over IVF in Alabama isn’t over: “A Mobile, Ala., hospital at the center of a State Supreme Court ruling that found that frozen embryos could be considered children said on Wednesday that it would no longer provide in vitro fertilization lab services after this year.”
* Don Hankey in the spotlight: “Providing Donald Trump’s $175 million appeal bond when other insurers wouldn’t is business as usual for California financier Don Hankey. As chairman of the Los Angeles-based Hankey Group of Companies, which includes an insurer, a subprime auto lender and a commercial real estate investment firm, Hankey has amassed a fortune lending to borrowers other financial firms shun. Hankey’s assistance to Trump has brought the little-known billionaire into the spotlight.”
See you tomorrow.
