Trump set to undergo questioning in July in NY civil investigation
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump, his namesake son and his daughter Ivanka have agreed to answer questions under oath next month in the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into his business practices — unless their lawyers persuade the state’s highest court to step in.
A Manhattan judge signed off Wednesday on an agreement that calls for the Trumps to give depositions starting July 15.
Messages seeking comment were sent to the ex-president’s attorneys.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ office declined to comment, as did the younger Trumps’ attorney, Alan Futerfas.
Another Trump son, Eric Trump, gave a deposition in 2020 but declined to answer some questions.
The new agreement comes after a series of setbacks for Donald Trump’s efforts to block James’ 3-year-long investigation.
James has said the probe has uncovered evidence that Trump’s company exaggerated the value of assets such as skyscrapers, golf courses and even his Manhattan penthouse to get loans, insurance and tax breaks for land donations.
A lawyer for her office told a judge last month that evidence could support legal action against the former president, his company or both, though the attorney said no decision had been made.
Trump has decried the investigation as part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” against him.
Wednesday’s agreement acknowledges that the Trumps can appeal to New York’s top court, called the Court of Appeals, to try to overturn the decision that requires their depositions.
James’ office started investigating Trump in 2019, after his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress that the businessperson-turned-politician had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.
James’ office also has been involved in a parallel, but separate, investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
COVID-19 funding: The Biden administration said Wednesday that a funding crunch is forcing it to divert more than $10 billion in coronavirus relief from test procurement and other efforts as it tries to come up with money to secure the next generation of vaccines and treatments for some high-risk Americans.
The White House said it has “no choice” but to cut back on orders of at-home rapid tests that have supported a domestic manufacturing base for the easy diagnostic tests.
It also is scaling back funding for research and development of new COVID-19 vaccines and limiting orders of personal protective equipment in an effort to maintain some stockpiles of vaccines and treatments heading into the winter.
Even then, the Democratic administration says, there will only be enough money available to provide treatments and vaccines to some. It urged Congress to act to provide enough money to secure doses for all who might want or need them.
The administration said it would shift $5 billion to buy COVID-19 vaccine doses for the fall, $4.9 billion for 10 million Paxlovid oral antiviral treatment courses and $300 million for the purchase of additional
monoclonal antibody treatments.
Moderna update: Moderna’s experimental COVID19 vaccine that combines its original shot with protection against the omicron variant appears to work, the company announced Wednesday.
COVID-19 vaccine makers are studying updated boosters that might be offered in the fall to better protect people against future coronavirus surges.
Moderna’s preliminary study results show people given the combination shot experienced a higher boost in omicron-fighting antibodies than if they just got a fourth dose of the original vaccine.
U.S. regulators, and the World Health Organization, are considering whether to order a change in the vaccine recipe for a new round of booster shots in the fall, when cold weather and kids returning to school are expected to drive another surge.
Iran nuclear monitoring: Iran on Wednesday turned off two surveillance devices used by U.N. inspectors to monitor the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment.
The move appeared to be a new pressure tactic just before the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, meeting in Vienna, approved a resolution put forward by Western nations to criticize Iran.
The censure deals with what the watchdog refers to as Iran’s failure to provide “credible information” over nuclear material found at undeclared sites across the country.
Nonproliferation experts have warned Iran has enough uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels to pursue an atomic bomb if it chooses to do so.
In 2016, the IAEA said it installed the device for the first time in Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear facility, its main enrichment site some 125 miles south of the capital, Tehran.
The device allowed for
“around-the-clock monitoring” of the facility’s series of centrifuges hooked together to rapidly spin uranium gas to enrich it.
A passenger train in eastern Iran struck an excavator and nearly half its cars derailed Wednesday, killing at least 22 people and injuring 87, officials said.
The train carried some 350 people as it traveled from the town of Tabas, about 340 miles southeast of Tehran, to the city of Yazd.
Based on images seen after the pre-dawn crash, it appeared the train’s locomotive passed the excavator and the later cars somehow hit the digger and caused the derailment.
Authorities did not immediately explain how the disaster happened.
One of those injured told state TV from a hospital that they felt the train suddenly brake and then slow before the derailment.
The crash is under investigation.
Iran train derailment:
San Francisco DA recalled: San Francisco residents voted overwhelmingly to recall progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin following a heated campaign.
Boudin, 41, was a firsttime political candidate who narrowly won office in November 2019 as part of a national wave of progressive prosecutors who pledged to seek alternatives to incarceration, end the racist war on drugs and hold police officers to account.
But his time in office coincided with a frustrating and frightening pandemic in which viral footage of brazen shoplifting and attacks against Asian American people drove some residents to mount a recall campaign of the former public defender and son of left-wing activists.
Mayor London Breed will name Boudin’s replacement after the results are certified and approved.
Boudin could also run in November when the race is back on the ballot.