Trump ally reportedly gives testimony before Mar-a-Lago grand jury
WASHINGTON — A close ally of former President Donald Trump who has said he was present as Trump declassified broad categories of materials has appeared before a federal grand jury after being given immunity for his testimony, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Kash Patel appeared Thursday after the Justice Department agreed to grant him immunity from prosecution for his testimony and after a federal judge in Washington entered a sealed order to that effect.
He had invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during an earlier appearance before the grand jury, but the Justice Department — in an apparent acknowledgment of his importance as a witness — later granted him a limited form of immunity that protects him from having his testimony used against him.
The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into the discovery of top-secret records seized in an FBI search of Trump’s Florida property, Mar-aLago, on Aug. 8. The FBI removed more than 100 documents with classification markings during that search.
That’s in addition to 15 boxes of records recovered in January by the National Archives and Records Administration, as well as more than three dozen documents with classification markings that were turned over to investigators in June.
A former Justice Department prosecutor, Patel is a close Trump ally and held multiple roles in his administration.
In recent months, he has repeatedly and publicly lambasted the Justice Department’s Mar-a-Lago investigation. In an appearance this week on one conservative podcast, he described himself as “all in with the boss” when asked if he’d accept the position of FBI director if Trump won in 2024.
Patel is presumably of interest to investigators because of his claims, including in a May interview with Breitbart News, that he was present as Trump declassified material even though no changes had been made to classification markings on the documents.
In that interview, Patel said, Trump “declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves.”
Trump has claimed that a president can declassify information “just by thinking about it” but has provided no evidence that he did so. His lawyers, notably, have stopped short of asserting that he had taken steps to declassify the material that was later found at Mar-a-Lago, though they have repeatedly argued that a president has broad declassification authority.
Koreas scramble warplanes:
South Korea scrambled about 80 military aircraft, including advanced F-35 fighter jets, on Friday after tracking about 180 flights by North Korean warplanes inside North Korean territory in what appeared to be a defiant show of strength.
North Korea’s mobilization of warplanes came after it test-fired around 30 ballistic missiles over the previous two days, including an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday that triggered evacuation warnings in Japan, in an angry response to ongoing joint exercises by hundreds of U.S. and South
Korea military planes.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean warplanes were detected in various areas inland and along the country’s eastern and western coasts, but did not come particularly close to the border between the two Koreas.
Pelosi attacker case: A San Francisco judge disclosed Friday that she had worked with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter in the 1990s, giving prosecutors and the public defender’s office the opportunity to object to her role in the case against a man accused of breaking into the Pelosi home, beating her husband, Paul Pelosi, and seeking to kidnap the speaker.
David DePape, 42, is being held without bail on state charges of attempted murder, burglary and elder abuse.
Judge Loretta “Lori” Giorgi said she and Christine Pelosi had worked together in the San Francisco city attorney’s office in the 1990s
but had not interacted in years.
No one objected during a hearing Friday to Giorgi’s ties to the Pelosi family but either side could in the future, and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the case might be heard by another judge regardless.
Astronomers have discovered the closest known black hole to Earth, just 1,600 light-years away.
Scientists reported Friday that this black hole is 10 times more massive than our sun. And it’s three times closer than the previous record-holder.
It was identified by observing the motion of its companion star, which orbits the black hole at about the same distance as Earth orbits the sun.
The researchers are uncertain how the system formed in the Milky Way. Named Gaia BH1, it’s located in the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer.
Nearest black hole:
Xi on Ukraine: In a much-scrutinized meeting Friday with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged China to exert its influence on Russia, while the Chinese leader repeated a call for talks between Moscow and Ukraine and warned against the conflict going nuclear.
Scholz was in Beijing for a one-day visit that has drawn criticism over China’s tacit support for Russia, lingering controversies over economic ties and human rights issues, as well as the timing of the trip.
“At present, the international situation is complex and changeable,” Xi was quoted as telling Scholz by state broadcaster CCTV. “As influential powers, China and Germany should work together in times of change and chaos to make more contributions to world peace and development.”
On Ukraine, Xi “pointed out that China supports Germany and the EU in playing an important role
in promoting peace talks and promoting the building of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework,” CCTV reported. That was apparently a nod to Russia’s anger over NATO’s eastern expansion.
Pakistan politics: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan said Friday he was pausing his protest march on the capital, Islamabad, a day after a gunman opened fire on his campaign convoy, wounding him and killing one of his supporters. Thirteen other people were also hurt in the attack.
Khan pledged that he will resume his protest once he has recovered from the wound in his right leg.
He also accused Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan and army Gen. Faisal Naseer, working for the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, of orchestrating the shooting but offered no evidence for his allegations.