Category World News

Letitia James, the former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and James Comey, the former FBI head, have been charged with criminal offenses by a federal judge in the United States.

District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie found Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor in charge of the two cases, to be an unlicensed person, which in turn rendered the indictments invalid.

The administration of President Donald Trump, who personally requested criminal charges against James and Comey, faces a significant setback with this decision.

However, James and Comey, two well-known Trump critics, may not yet be finished.

Currie’s decision to dismiss the criminal charges was made without prejudice, allowing for a second case to be brought up.

However, she did state that Halligan “had no legal authority” to file the indictments, which raises questions about how her role as prosecutor will develop in the future.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized Currie as a “partisan judge” in the wake of the ruling and said the administration would contest the decision.

Leavitt remarked, “I know there was a judge who was clearly trying to shield Letitia James and James Comey from being held accountable, and that’s why they took this unprecedented action to remove these two individuals’ indictments.”

“But very soon, the Department of Justice will file an appeal.” Lindsey Halligan, in our opinion, is not only legally appointed to this position, but she is also.

Halligan is appointed prosecutor by Trump.

Halligan had been appointed as Virginia’s Eastern District’s interim US attorney in September.

Trump and Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, reportedly refused to charge James because there was no such thing as proof, sparking a public outcry.

That sparked a furore in the White House. On September 19, Siebert resigned, and Trump later announced his own firing on social media.

Trump claimed that he had no case and that he even lied to the media. No, I fired him, and many attorneys and legal experts concur that there is a GREAT CASE.

The president also addressed California’s Adam Schiff, a US senator, and attorney general Pam Bondi in the message, praising the Department of Justice’s need to move forward with the investigation into James, Comey, and other US senators.

What about Leticia, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, and Comey? They are all indecent, according to Trump, but nothing can be done.

He signaled that Halligan would assist in bringing charges against Bondi right away.

Trump remarked, “We can’t delay any longer; it’s destroying our reputation and credibility.” “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED NOW!” “!

Halligan had no prior experience with prosecution, and her principal area of practice was insurance law. She previously represented Trump in court.

Halligan had already secured an indictment against Comey for allegedly obstructing a Senate hearing and lying to Congress within days of taking up her position as US attorney.

Then, on October 6, Halligan filed a second indictment against James, claiming she had committed mortgage fraud.

On October 16, John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, was the subject of a third indictment.

All three have disputed guilt and asserted that the accusations were political retribution. Comey, James, and Bolton have all publicly criticized Trump, and James has even successfully prosecuted him for bringing a case of civil fraud against him in New York.

James and Comey are suing dismissal.

The defendants’ attorneys have used a number of means to get the cases dropped before going to trial.

Judge Currie heard James and Comey’s first petition’s opening arguments on November 13.

Because Halligan did not receive judicial approval, they claimed that her appointment as US attorney was unlawful.

Interim US attorneys typically have a 120-day window of service. Federal judges in the district may elect candidates after that time.

Bis the Senate could choose a permanent occupant for the position, Siebert had served for 120 days and had obtained judicial approval to continue as acting US attorney.

However, Halligan was unable to get the judges’ approval. According to Comey and James’ attorneys, that made her appointment as a US attorney illegal.

However, the Justice Department’s attorneys claimed that the problem was merely a “paperwork error” and that Attorney General Bondi had also approved of the indictments.

However, Currie’s courtroom hearings raised serious questions about the indictments’ validity.

In a separate decision on November 17th, Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick addressed concerns raised by Currie that Comey’s case’s grand jury transcript was insufficient.

The prosecution’s statements were made inaccurately, and there was a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative mistakes,” he claimed, as per the records. He also made a point that the grand jury was required to see that Comey’s most recent indictment had never been fully presented.

Myanmar, a nation in southeast Asia where there is a continuing civil war, is now eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from the US government.

The change was made in a draft notice that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted on Monday in the Federal Register, which was scheduled to be made official the day after.

Kristi Noem, the program’s administrator, was given the go-ahead for ending the program, according to the report.

The Secretary concluded that Burma [Myanmar] no longer meets the requirements for Temporary Protected Status after reviewing country conditions and consulting with appropriate U.S. Government agencies, according to the document.

Therefore, the Secretary is robbing Burma of its Temporary Protected Status in accordance with the law.

Temporary Protected Status, a legal immigration pathway for foreigners whose home country is unsafe to return to, is currently available to 3, 969 citizens of Myanmar.

Successful applicants who are already living and working in the US are granted the status. As of November 10, there were 236 more applications from Myanmar.

However, President Donald Trump’s administration has attempted to reduce immigration.

Therefore, it has made an effort to revoke Temporary Protected Status for several individuals, including those in Haiti, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and other unstable nations.

Trump announced on his platform Truth Social just last Friday that he was “hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota” and that he had accused gangs of Somali nationals of “terrorizing” the state.

“Return them to their starting point.” Trump declared that “it’s over.”

However, legal experts are unsure about a president’s authority to revoke Temporary Protected Status for a particular group or state. Some claim that Trump has attempted to intimidate immigrants and force them to leave the country.

Under Trump, there is a historic low in the federal government’s capacity for refugee admissions, which is 7,500.

Additionally, the Trump administration has attempted to eject “humanitarian parole” from hundreds of thousands of immigrants. In response to emergencies or humanitarian concerns, immigrants are able to enter the nation for a short time using that program.

Several of those efforts are currently facing legal challenges. However, the Supreme Court has largely supported the Trump administration so far.

For instance, a majority of the high court’s ruling on May 30 lifted a lower court’s ban on the Department of Homeland Security from putting an end to the humanitarian parole for nearly 500,000 Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and Haitians was in an unsigned decision.

Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, two left-leaning justices, dissented, saying that while the legal challenge is pending, removing the pause would be very harmful to US immigrants.

The decision, according to Brown Jackson, “undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”

Myanmar experiencing unrest

The Department of State has issued the highest tier travel advisory against transit through Myanmar.

The danger of “armed conflict, the potential for civil unrest, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, poor health infrastructure, land mines and unexploded ordnance, crime, and wrongful detentions” was raised in the report.

The country has been at war with civil unrest ever since the military overthrew the government of President Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, which is the most recent development in nearly eight decades of internal unrest.

The military’s leadership is engaged in combat with opposition groups, armed ethnic groups, and members of the exiled government.

It has launched a series of heavy airstrikes, some of which reportedly targeted hospitals and schools. Human rights violations, including torture, have been committed against both rebels and soldiers.

As of October, according to the UN, the conflict’s ongoing deluge has resulted in the displacement of nearly 1,585,298 people seeking refuge in neighboring Bangladesh and Malaysia.

In the course of the fighting, Rohingya ethnic people who have been repressed have been declared stateless.

In May 2021, former US President Joe Biden granted Temporary Protected Status to citizens of Myanmar.

The administration then extended the protection designation twice, once in May of 2024 and once in September of 2022. The most recent 18-month extension was scheduled to expire on November 25.

60 days after the Federal Register’s official publication date of the notice, Temporary Protected Status will terminate.

Secretary Noem declared in a statement that the country’s security had determined that residents should return.

The notice stated that “Burma]Myanmar continues to face humanitarian challenges as a result of ongoing military operations against armed resistance and the need for humanitarian assistance.”

However, Burma’s governance and stability have improved at both the national and local levels.

The notice added that “contrary to the U.S. national interest” to allow residents of Myanmar to stay.

9, 590 Myanmar citizens were eligible for protection, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security to Congress in March.