Washington — Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday sought to end his bid to revive the case against President-elect Donald Trump arising from his alleged mishandling of sensitive government documents, which would bring to a close the historic and unprecedented case against the nation's 45th and 47th president. In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, Smith cited Trump's recent victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election and referred to longstanding Justice Department policy that forbids the prosecution of a sitting president. The district court judge presiding over Trump's case, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, had ruled earlier this year that the charges should be dismissed because Smith was unlawfully appointed. The special counsel appealed the decision, but has now asked the 11th Circuit to dismiss his appeal. In his brief filing , Smith cited a separate request to dismiss his other case involving Trump, which involves an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election. The special counsel said in that filing submitted to a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that after consultation with the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, "the department's position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated." "The American people re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to make America great again. Today's decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump and is a major victory for the rule of law," Steven Cheung, Trump's spokesman, said in a statement. "The American people and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country." It's likely the courts will grant each of the special counsel's requests in the two cases, marking the culmination of the monthslong prosecutions against Trump. In the documents case, dismissing the appeal as to Trump would leave in place the lower court's order tossing out the charges against him. The appeal will continue as to Trump's two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, because unlike the president-elect, "no principle of temporary immunity applies to them," Smith wrote. "The special counsel's decision to proceed in this case even after dismissing it against President Trump is an unsurprising tribute to the poor judgment that led to the indictment against Mr. De Oliveira in the first place," John Irving, de Oliveira's lawyer, said in a statement. "Just because you can doesn't mean you should. If they prefer a slow acquittal, that's fine with us." A lawyer for Nauta declined to comment. Trump became the first former president to face federal charges when a grand jury returned an indictment against him in June 2023. The prosecution came months after FBI agents conducted a court-authorized search of Trump's South Florida property, Mar-a-Lago, in August 2022 and recovered more than 100 documents marked classified that he kept after his first term ended in January 2021. Following the search, Trump mounted a separate legal battle that brought the appointment of an independent arbiter to sift through the material seized by the FBI, though the 11th Circuit ordered an end to that review in late 2022. Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November of that year to take over the federal investigation into Trump's handling of sensitive government records and pursued charges against the president-elect for unlawfully retaining national defense information and attempting to obstruct the Justice Department's probe. Trump was charged alongside two employees, Nauta, an aide, and de Oliveira, the property manager as Mar-a-Lago. Trump, Nauta and de Oliveira pleaded not guilty to all charges. The president-elect claimed his prosecution was a politically motivated attempt to harm his candidacy in the race for a second term. Prosecutors used court filings to reveal information about how Trump allegedly stored records containing the nation's secrets at his resort, as well as how he, with his co-defendants, allegedly engaged in a scheme to deceive federal investigators and stymie their probe. They included photos showing boxes of material stacked on the stage in Mar-a-Lago's ballroom and in a bathroom on the property. Other images taken by the FBI during its August 2022 search show boxes of records in a storage room and in Trump's office, some of which prosecutors said contained highly sensitive information alongside personal keepsakes and other items from his presidency. Cannon initially set a trial date for May 20, 2024, but she postponed the proceedings weeks before they were set to begin. The president-elect and his lawyers attempted to have the case against him dismissed on a variety of grounds, claiming he was selectively prosecuted, he was shielded from federal charges by presidential immunity and Smith was appointed in violation of the Constitution. Trump succeeded in persuading Cannon that the special counsel's appointment and funding for his office were unlawful, and she ordered the case to be dismissed in July. But Smith appealed the decision to the 11th Circuit. Both he and Trump's lawyers submitted filings with the court presenting their views on Cannon's ruling, though the court had not yet set a date for arguments. It was expected that an eventual decision from the 11th Circuit would wind up before the Supreme Court. The documents case was one of two that Smith brought against Trump. In Washington, D.C., he faced charges related to an alleged attempt to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election. The president-elect pleaded not guilty to the four counts he faced there, and the dispute landed before the Supreme Court as Trump argued presidential immunity shielded him from prosecution. He was also charged by local prosecutors in separate cases in Fulton County, Georgia, and New York City. The New York case stemmed from a hush-money payment made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels after the 2016 election, and a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies in May, making him the first former president convicted of a crime. He was set to be sentenced last month in New York, but it was delayed . The Fulton County case involved an alleged plot by Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. He pleaded not guilty to charges in the sprawling racketeering case brought by District Attorney Fani Willis. Proceedings had been halted, though, while a state appeals court considered whether Willis should be disqualified from the case. It's unclear how Trump's victory will affect his prosecution in Fulton County. Trump's bid for a second term loomed over his prosecutions, as it was widely expected his federal cases would be dropped if he succeeded in winning the White House. Now, Smith has sought to bring an end to both of the historic prosecutions of the former and next president. Once both cases are settled, Smith is likely to file a final report with the attorney general, as is required by special counsel regulations, and is expected to resign from his post before Trump is sworn into office on Jan. 20, two sources familiar with Smith's plans previously told CBS News. Garland has pledged to publicly release all special counsel reports completed during his tenure — a commitment he has so far upheld — and he is likely to do so for Smith's report, too. Should the disclosure of Smith's findings stall and be delayed into the Trump administration, the odds of its release become increasingly slim as the president-elect has said he intends to nominate many of his top defense attorneys to leadership roles within the Justice Department. Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who defended Trump in the two federal cases and in New York, are set to serve as deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general respectively, two powerful posts within the Justice Department. Trump has said he will nominate former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the top job as attorney general. Donald Trump Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.
AP Trending SummaryBrief at 4:43 p.m. ESTNEW YORK (AP) — A slide for market superstar Nvidia on Monday knocked Wall Street off its big rally and helped drag U.S. stock indexes down from their records. The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, coming off its 57th all-time high of the year so far. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 240 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite pulled back 0.6% from its own record. Nvidia’s fall of 2.5% was by far the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after China said it’s investigating the company over suspected violations of Chinese anti-monopoly laws. Nvidia has skyrocketed to become one of Wall Street’s most valuable companies because its chips are driving much of the world’s move into artificial-intelligence technology. That gives its stock’s movements more sway on the S&P 500 than nearly every other. Nvidia’s drop overshadowed gains in Hong Kong and for Chinese stocks trading in the United States on hopes that China will deliver more stimulus for the world’s second-largest economy. Roughly three in seven of the stocks in the S&P 500 also rose. The week’s highlight for Wall Street will arrive midweek when the latest updates on inflation arrive. Economists expect Wednesday’s report to show the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling remained stuck at close to the same level last month. A separate report on Thursday, meanwhile, could show an acceleration in inflation at the wholesale level. They’re the last big pieces of data the Federal Reserve will get before its meeting next week on interest rates. The widespread expectation is still that the central bank will cut its main interest rate for the third time this year. The Fed has been easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high since September to offer more help for the slowing job market, after bringing inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower interest rates can ease the brakes off the economy, but they can also offer more fuel for inflation. Expectations for a series of cuts from the Fed have been a major reason the S&P 500 has set so many all-time highs this year. “Investors should enjoy this rally while it lasts—there’s little on the horizon to disrupt the momentum through year-end,” according to Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide, though he warns stocks could stumble soon because of how overheated they’ve gotten. On Wall Street, Interpublic Group rose 3.6% after rival Omnicom said it would buy the marketing and communications firm in an all-stock deal. The pair had a combined revenue of $25.6 billion last year. Omnicom, meanwhile, sank 10.2%. Macy’s climbed 1.8% after an activist investor, Barington Capital Group, called on the retailer to buy back at least $2 billion of its own stock over the next three years and make other moves to help boost its stock price. Super Micro Computer rose 0.5% after saying it got an extension that will keep its stock listed on the Nasdaq through Feb. 25, as it works to file its delayed annual report and other required financial statements. Earlier this month, the maker of servers used in artificial-intelligence technology said an investigation found no evidence of misconduct by its management or by the company’s board following the resignation of its public auditor . All told, the S&P 500 fell 37.42 points to 6,052.85. The Dow dipped 240.59 to 4,401.93, and the Nasdaq composite lost 123.08 to 19,736.69. In the oil market, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rallied 1.7% to settle at $68.37 following the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, who sought asylum in Moscow after rebels. Brent crude, the international standard, added 1.4% to $72.14 per barrel. The price of gold also rose 1% to $2,685.80 per ounce amid the uncertainty created by the end of the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule. In stock markets abroad, the Hang Seng jumped 2.8% in Hong Kong after top Chinese leaders agreed on a “moderately loose” monetary policy for the world’s second-largest economy. That’s a shift away from a more cautious, “prudent” stance for the first time in 10 years. A major planning meeting later this week could also bring more stimulus for the Chinese economy. U.S.-listed stocks of several Chinese companies climbed, including a 12.4% jump for electric-vehicle company Nio and a 7.4% rise for Alibaba Group. Stocks in Shanghai, though, were roughly flat. In Seoul, South Korea’s Kospi slumped 2.8% as the fallout continues from President Yoon Suk Yeol ’s brief declaration of martial law last week in the midst of a budget dispute. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.19% from 4.15% late Friday. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Oncocyte to Participate in “J.P. Morgan Week” and Host Investor MeetingsOver 18,000 in Mexico register to run for Supreme Court seats and federal judges in new system
Participation in hockey in British Columbia was struggling in 2021 — the pandemic had dealt a heavy blow to player registrations, and numbers had already been flagging before COVID-19 arrived. “I think there were a lot of families that were impacted at that time,” said Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association president Melanie Earland, whose group governs minor hockey in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, including Metro Vancouver. “The world changed,” she said. Player participation had peaked in 2016-2017 with more than 62,000 registrations, Hockey Canada statistics for B.C. show, falling under 58,000 just before the pandemic began in 2020, then plummeting to 39,056 that season. Rising costs and growing competition from other sports had also been chipping away at youth hockey participation. But that is now changing, with registration for this season in B.C. surging past the 63,000 mark, a rebound that follows a concerted effort to make the game more accessible, especially to groups not traditionally linked to the sport such as new Canadians and Indigenous communities. Tom Oberti, president of the West Vancouver Minor Hockey Association, said his organization had seen record registrations this year, more than 8 per cent higher than last season. “We’re bursting at the seams,” Oberti said, noting the association has had to look outside West Vancouver to find ice time to fit all the players. “The reason why we’ve grown is because we’ve put a lot of effort into reaching out to new, non-traditional hockey demographics,” he said. “For example, we run ball hockey programs in elementary schools to introduce the sport, and we’ve done a lot to reach out to the Mandarin-speaking community, because it’s a growing segment of our community on the North Shore.” Oberti said the association has leveraged Mandarin- and Persian-speaking families already with kids in youth hockey, establishing links to new players through parent groups on social media platforms targeting specific communities such as WeChat and WhatsApp as well as word of mouth from schoolchildren who already play the game. Families new to Canada want to do things they consider Canadian, Oberti said, and they are embracing hockey. “Hockey has an advantage there,” he said. “There are a lot of families that do want to participate in the sport — or who are interested in the sport — because of the way it’s intertwined in the fabric of social life in Canada.” At the Richmond Jets Minor Hockey Association, vice-president Trent Gustafson said while his group has seen about a 15-to-20 per cent drop-off in participation from a peak in 2018-2019, registration is growing again, and players from non-traditional communities make up a big part of that rebound. “We’re up to around 915 to 920 kids playing hockey at Jets this year,” Gustafson said. “We don’t collect (data) in terms of the ethnicity of our members specifically, but I can safely say more than half are non-Caucasian members.” Just as important as getting children in these communities playing hockey, Gustafson said, is the fact that parents new to the game are also eager to volunteer. He said that is a vital contribution to the minor hockey system largely run by volunteers and parents in their spare time. “Those parents are, frankly, just as crazy hockey parents as you’re getting in some of the other cities and towns in not only British Columbia but across the country,” he said. “It’s interesting, the people it seems these days that are almost more willing to volunteer are some of the newer people to hockey. They’ve just fallen in love with the game.” Earland said other efforts to attract players include a try-hockey-for-free program in Cloverdale, B.C., for Indigenous youth, and they are trying to make the game more affordable through equipment programs and other initiatives. “Nobody in minor hockey wants to hear a family say, ‘We want to play but our kids can’t afford it or we can’t afford it,’” she said. She said she wants every child to have an opportunity to play hockey. “It’s a fabulous sport. It offers friendships and teamwork and camaraderie for all of our youth.” Chilliwack Minor Hockey Association president Lee McCaw said his group does not target any specific community for new players, but the province’s rapid population growth and its diversity means more kids being registered from every background. “I think our inclusion for everybody to be able to participate is huge,” McCaw said. “We have a huge First Nations population in our city, and there’s a lot of learn-to-skate programs that are specifically designed for every ethnicity group and everybody inclusively, together and within Chilliwack.” Nathan Bosa, the president of the Kamloops Minor Hockey Association, said even if there are no specific programs aimed at the diverse newcomer groups, sport could be an opportunity to support them. “We’re talking about this as a board a while ago, about having a program for new people coming into Canada and into Kamloops (to) give them a little bit of an instruction on how things work,” Bosa said. “It’s something that we’re going to be looking at in the new year. I think we’ve started to see that the influx is very noticeable, and it’s good. Getting children into sport, whether it’s hockey or something else, allows children and their parents to make friends and it brings them into the community, Bosa said. Bosa and McCaw also noted the impact of hockey exposure in the South Asian community as another factor in attracting new players, including Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi broadcast, and homegrown talent such as Arshdeep Bains from Surrey playing for the Vancouver Canucks in February. The Winnipeg Jets, meanwhile, signed forward Kevin He to a three-year entry-level deal this month, making him the first player born in China to ink an NHL deal. Scott Furman, Hockey Canada’s vice-president of growth and retention, said progress has also been made on other fronts, with the visibility of women’s hockey skyrocketing as the Professional Women’s Hockey League drives female player registration to a new high beyond 100,000 countrywide this season. Furman said the upheaval and change in management at Hockey Canada in recent years meant a new approach, bringing inclusion and more programs to help with the costs of the game. He said the rebound in B.C. is symbolic of this change. “Last season, for the first time, we hit 50,000 players that identified as black, Indigenous or people of colour, and that was an 8-per-cent increase on the previous season,” Furman said. “In B.C., I think about 19 per cent of players identify as black, Indigenous or people of colour, which is well above the national average. And the South Asian community represents 4.5 per cent of all players — a 46 per cent increase since the 2021 season. “It certainly is a positive trend, but nothing’s taken for granted. And we’ve got to continue to do the work to make sure that it continues in that fashion.”LET me tell you a story. Login or signup to continue reading A little while ago an unusual shipwreck was thought re-discovered near the mouth of the Hunter River. After drifting sands parted, a scuba diver briefly believed he may have found part of a Spanish shipwreck near Stockton breakwater. Spanish? That seemed highly unlikely, yet much stranger things have happened in the rich maritime history of Newcastle. Such as heavy surf after coastal storms breaking up 19th century colliers sunk deep in Newcastle Bight several times in the 1940s. They then spewed out their coal cargoes to spread like a black carpet along Stockton beach. It was like the sea giving up its dead. But let's return to the reported 'Spanish ship' sunk somewhere near Stockton breakwater. It's now lost again, but truth is often far stranger than fiction. A rare, Spanish-built vessel was indeed sunk in a storm in 1816 at the entrance to Newcastle harbour, a victim of the port's dreaded Oyster Bank (a sand shoal, really). It's exact location, however, is hard to pinpoint, because it could be buried beneath that giant finger of stone extending 3400ft into the ocean we know today as Stockton breakwater. And the whole area there warrants more thorough investigation, according to James Hunter, a senior marine archaeologist with the Australian National Maritime Museum, in Sydney. During a recent talk at the University of Newcastle about Hunter shipwrecks, Hunter said there were almost 300 vessels lost in a relatively small area around the port. "There's a lot of potential here. We've just scratched the surface," he said. His talk was entitled - "More surprises await: Potential for future historic shipwreck archaeology on Newcastle Oyster Bank and surrounds". He said that one of our most interesting wrecks was a Spanish vessel, built in modern-day Ecuador, in South America, and launched over there in October 1803, which had a direct association with Newcastle. This 102-ton armed schooner now known as the Estramina (formerly Extremena) initially undertook hydrographic surveys off the South American coast. It was then mistakenly seized as a British war prize to later spend years trading along the NSW coast before coming to grief off Stockton while leaving Coal (Hunter) River in bad weather. "The Estramina is a very historically significant vessel," Dr Hunter said. "It played a very interesting role, being only one of two known Spanish shipwrecks in Australian waters and the only documented victim of Australian piracy," he said. Dr Hunter said the ship had a busy life. It was even used to evacuate the last convicts and settlers from Norfolk Island when the penal colony there closed in 1814. The Estramina was also caught up in Sydney's notorious 1806 Rum Rebellion, when deposed Governor William Bligh was told to leave the colony, but he baulked at leaving on the ship because of its small size. Dr Hunter said the ship's background was that the Spanish had occupied and controlled South America since the 1500s, but still needed to fully check out its own waters. So it was their vessel (then called Extremena) that was doing survey work when it was attacked off Chile by the armed brig Harrington commanded by Sydney merchant William Campbell. Believing war was imminent between Britain and Spain, Campbell took the opportunity to attack the passing Spanish ship. Although equipped to carry 12 guns, Estramina only carried four x four-pounder cannons and was soon overwhelmed. The crew set her on fire, but this was extinguished and the Spanish ship was taken back to NSW to Jervis Bay. In Sydney, Colonial NSW Governor Philip Gidley King, fearing a major international incident, ordered the Spanish ship detained. After all, Campbell had been accused of being heavily involved with illegal trading in South America. War did finally break out, so the ship was then sold at auction with the NSW colonial government successfully buying her for 21,000 pounds and renaming her Estramina. The vessel came to Newcastle in January 1816, but, while attempting to leave port with a cargo of coal and timber, she sank. The Estramina's anchor chain parted, and she ran aground on the Oyster Bank where she broke up fairly quickly, settling in the sand and disappearing. Dr Hunter said that, luckily, an 1816 chart then identified where the wreck should be, but an overlay of this map with a modern chart indicated it could be buried beneath Stockton breakwater. "It might be there, but you don't know until you look," Dr Hunter said. The shipwreck hunter said a normal method of detecting iron objects underwater, such as anchor chains or even old guns carried as ballast, by using a magnetometer, would be futile. "The Stockton breakwater was completed in 1912, but what might not be known is that it is predominantly built on (metal) shipwrecks," he said. Dr Hunter added that even known shipwreck sites, such as at Stockton breakwater, could be confusing, speculating there might be yet more unknown wrecks beneath those already identified. He might be right. Well, it may be just a co-incidence, but there was the discovery of an unidentified shipwreck in roughly that same area about 40 years ago. Largely unreported at the time, it seemed to have never been seriously followed up by anyone, possibly because of shifting sand smothering the site and one of the divers involved moving interstate. In the 1980s, two recreational divers said they had stumbled on three, possibly four, mystery guns buried in sand in a shipwreck on the edge of a Newcastle breakwater. The three guns were found by accident in about 15 metres of murky water while the divers were looking for another wreck. The divers, both keen shipwreck enthusiasts, were flabbergasted by the find. They believed no other Hunter district wreck had ever been found to be carrying cannons. One small iron cannon recovered was believed to be possibly a signal gun. The short muzzle loader might also be a swivel gun normally mounted on a ship's rail and used to repel boarders at close range with a shotgun-like blast. The gun, measuring about a metre, had no visible markings and was pitted and corroded in parts but the barrel was otherwise in remarkable condition. According to one of the divers, the swivel cannon was taken to Sydney for treatment, including electrolysis, to try to arrest the corrosion before the object was to be returned to Newcastle. The diver described the 'swivel gun' as having "a 3 1/2 inch diameter and weighing about 120 lbs". It had trunnions (knobs) with rusted iron in them, indicating side supports to allow it to swivel upright. More intriguingly, the divers claimed to have found a much bigger, buried gun, at least 120 years old, measuring "four to five feet long and weighing maybe 400-500 pounds". "(But) there's at least another cannon, maybe two down there," the diver said. The big gun was sticking up between ship timber ribs and ballast. The wreck was more than 13 metres long. At the time, Stockton maritime historian Terry Callen said cannons went out of fashion after the 1850s but were used by traders in the South China seas that were full of pirates. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. 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