All posts tagged "Defense"

WASHINGTON — Republican senators may have confirmed Pete Hegseth as the nation’s 29th defense secretary, but as Pentagon scandals keep stacking up, powerful U.S. senators are refusing to even discuss the embattled military leader.

In March, congressional Republicans rolled their eyes, joked or laughed nervously after Hegseth added the editor in chief of The Atlantic to a private Signal group chat where war plans were discussed.

Now, many in the GOP now seem dismayed by news Hegseth blocked military aid to Ukraine without telling his boss, President Donald Trump. ...

Washington (AFP) - The US Congress gave final approval to a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine late Tuesday, with President Joe Biden quickly vowing to sign the long-delayed bill and begin delivering fresh supplies this week to the war zone as Russia makes battlefield gains. The package of legislation also contains text that would ban TikTok in the United States if the popular social media app does not soon cut ties with its Chinese parent company. Days after the Republican-led House of Representatives cleared the aid -- part of a larger $95 billion package of assistance to allies including I......

One of Donald Trump's big defenses in the hush money criminal case is the claim that he wanted to pay women off to keep it from his wife, Melania. One legal expert said that the claim won't stand up in court because Trump was trying to wriggle out of the hush money.

Speaking on an MSNBC panel, former top Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann explained that the stories about Trump will be told "in gruesome detail."

That piqued the interest of host Nicolle Wallace: "Like what?"...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA), a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, dumped up to $65,000 worth of investments in defense contractor Boeing at a time when the company faces federal scrutiny over its aircraft safety protocols and manufacturing quality.

On Feb. 8, Keating sold a Boeing corporate note valued at between $15,001 and $50,000, and on Feb. 28, sold Boeing stock shares valued at between $1,001 and $15,000, according to a federal disclosure submitted this week to the Clerk of the House of Representatives and reviewed by Raw Story.

The House Armed Services Committee on which Keating sits “retains exclusive jurisdiction for defense policy generally, ongoing military operations, the organization and reform of the Department of Defense” and other military-focused responsibilities....

Washington (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized earlier this week due to complications from a medical procedure, the Pentagon said Friday, at a time when Washington is facing a growing crisis in the Middle East. Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the evening of January 1 "for complications following a recent elective medical procedure," Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder said in a statement, without providing details on the complications or the duration of the hospital stay. "He is recovering well and is expecting to resum......

Justice Department prosecutors are reportedly looking into allegations that former President Donald Trump's close associate Rudy Giuliani is a heavy and problematic drinker, which, if the former president was aware of it, would potentially undermine any defense that he was acting on the good-faith advice of counsel when he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

But that might not even matter, argued former Mueller investigation prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC Wednesday, because there's a much simpler way the advice of counsel defense fails: there's no evidence Giuliani actually advised Trump to do many of the most controversial things he did in the election plot.

"I have got to say, listening to that tape, Andrew, of Trump saying, I know what happens to people when they drink, the relationship he and his own family have had towards alcohol, and alcohol dependency, the fact that he does not drink, purely on a sort of client-lawyer basis, does it surprise you that he would have sought the advice of Rudy Giuliani, if he was demonstrably inebriated when he was giving him, already, accepted, controversial advice?" asked host Alex Wagner....