Mecklenburg had also argued that the passport requirement has been extremely common throughout her career. Parente: "I highly doubt that she's charged a case like this before."

With no objection from the other defense attorneys, McShain removes that condition for the other defendants, as well.

McShain on the feds' request that Straw turn over his passport: "I'm not going to require it."

AUSA Sheri Mecklenburg lays out the potential penalties. All six face a max prison sentence of seven years in prison. All six also plead not guilty through their lawyers.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather McShain just took the bench for the arraignment of six people, including Democratic political candidates, charged with conspiring to impede an officer outside ICE's Broadview holding facility.

Interesting result for the Why Vote It’s Not Like My Vote Changes Anything crowd

Here's what I mean when I say it's very clear Ghislaine lied. A few weeks after Blanche's chummy interview, in which Ghislaine (among other things) denied there were cameras at Epstein's brownstone, this unsourced NYT article that did not mention Blanche posted pics making it clear there were.

Karoline Leavitt just dodged answering a question directly about whether Trump ever spent "hours" at Jeffrey Epstein's house with a victim.

my "I don't pepper spray children" balaclava has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my balaclava

If Trump has nothing to hide, he'd tell Pam Bondi to release the Epstein Files like they all promised. Mike Johnson would have sworn in Adelita Grijalva yesterday. Ghislaine Maxwell would be sent back to Florida prison instead of being pampered in Club Fed in Texas. And... He's guilty as hell.

The Speaker of the House shut the chamber down for two months to block the release of the Epstein Files and the president is huddled in the Situation Room of the White House to formulate a plan to keep them from being released, and I don't know why you crazy libs think there's some kind of cover up.

12:15 p.m. PT lead stories NYT: Epstein WaPo: Epstein CNN: Epstein ABC News: Epstein NBC News: Epstein MSNBC: Epstein CBS News: House votes on shutdown WSJ: House votes on shutdown Fox News: Some nonsense about Newsom NY Post: Epstein--and Bill Clinton I see a pattern....

I will be surprised if one or more of the House Republicans who have signed on to the Epstein discharge petition aren't strong-armed by Trump into changing their votes after Grijalva is sworn in, thus leaving the signers short of 218

Tell Congress Right Now: Pass the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act

looking up at the sky last night in Minnesota

Honestly, I hope Karoline Leavitt enjoys this week. She's earned it.

#BirdOfTheDay theme today is #paddling ,birds standing or walking in shallow water #birds This is an adult female Little Bittern, a greatly camouflaged bird

THE SITUATION ROOM

Trump’s directive to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War could cost taxpayers up to $2 billion.

Kat Abughazaleh is sitting in a 10th floor courtroom at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse ahead of the arraignment of her in others in this case. Waiting on U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather McShain.

This but it’s the Trump administration plotting to avoid releasing the Epstein files

Oh …

You guys really love my cat Harley x3 my lord, it's pretty awesome. #cat #orangecat #fuzzball #bigeyes

Rep. Garcia: “Why did they transfer her? Why won’t they tell us why and answer questions? We want Ghislaine Maxwell to come before the Oversight Committee and answer these questions. Ghislaine Maxwell should never receive special treatment.”

A normal reaction to today's news, dear Nancy, would be to express shock and horror at the significant possibility that the president of the United States is a child molester.

“.. in the Situation Room.” 👀

The fact that Trump is calling Mace and Boebert today pleading with them to remove their names from the Epstein petition at the last minute tells you everything you need to know about how incriminating the info in the files is to him and his cronies.

If squirrel girth is predictive of the Winter forecast, we're in for a cold one. 🐿️ #squirrelpix #wawx

The Morning Monty works his angles.

It feels like it's going to be an insane news night tonight but for better or worse I have tickets to Stevie Nicks and dammit, I still intend to go.

Managed to catch up with the Dusky Warbler at Westbrook below the Sunken Garden

DeLauro: The president went to the supreme court to deprive kids of food. Unbelievable. And now wants to deny their parents healthcare.

The days of thanking veterans today and forgetting them tomorrow has to come to an end.

McGovern: Seriously, we were worried. We actually started handing out missing person posters. Nobody has seen you for eight weeks. But, hey, I'm glad that you are ok. I'm glad you survived your nice, two-month paid vacation

Anthropologist Christopher Bae has recently suggested we add two new species of ancient human to our family tree. The plans break the conventions for how species should be named – but Bae argues the rules themselves are flawed

Page One. @nytimes.com

What a monumental Idiot we have for a President. He's losing it more and more as each day goes by and nobody that counts is saying anything about it. #MidtermsForChange

No pie for mango

the president admitted to sexual assault on camera and it didn't matter

Great piece about where the post-SB 79 housing policy conversation is headed: reducing costs, speeding permitting, easing financing, and making new apartment buildings more beautiful for the neighbors and livable for their residents.

MAGA is going to love this.

Your employees showed up to work today after eight weeks of work from home. But that one file has been sitting on their desk in the US House of Representatives the whole time. The file marked Epstein.

“I was both astounded and mesmerized." Carl Sandburg’s ‘Chicago’ poem finds fresh relevance in a city occupied by ICE. From @ericathompson.bsky.social via @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Another view of this #WhiteBreastedNuthatch from yesterday #RiverdaleFarm #Birds #UrbanNature

Brightening up your day with... 𝗚𝗹𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗶 & 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗔𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 🎨 Vincent van Gogh (1886)

Art by • Simone Pinna

Great piece by Zadie Smith. When the right talks about classics or "Western" culture, these works are only important to the extent that it demonstrates their superiority, they have no interest in art in and of itself beyond that www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I've been sitting on this and trying not to leak but... It's us. We were one of the 80+ :) financialpost.com/pmn/more-tha...

Dirty Donald