Trump is trying to block the public from seeing special counsel Jack Smith’s final report. Two federal death row inmates don’t want their sentences commuted by Biden. And a winter storm is brewing off the coast of the eastern United States as California braces for strong winds.

This is what you should know today.

Trump wants to block the publication of Jack Smith’s final report

President-elect Donald Trump and his former co-defendants in the Florida secret documents case have tried to block the release of a final report by special counsel Jack Smith, who is also looking into the election interference case.

The report in question is a report that the Office of Special Counsel is required to submit pursuant to Department of Justice regulations. Attorney General Merrick Garland can decide whether to release the confidential report. Both the secret documents and the election interference cases were dismissed.

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Lawyers for Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, defendants in the Florida secret documents case, filed a motion last night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block Smith from releasing his report, which they say “imminent”. They cited Cannon’s July decision to dismiss the case against Trump because she argued Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers have sent a letter asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to stop Smith from releasing the report. In their letter, Trump’s team called Smith an “out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally impersonating a prosecutor.”

Read the full story here.

More news about Trump and politics:

• A lead prosecutor in the classified documents case has left the Justice Department and retired after 34 years. Trump wants it too Replace the head of the National Archives.
• congress officially certified Trump’s election victory in 2024 Exactly four years after the Capitol insurrection, January 6 returns to its historical roots as a routine affair. Kamala Harris presided during the meeting.
• New York State Judge Juan Merchan rejected Trump’s request to postpone the court hearing in his hush money case on Friday.
• Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and “various representatives” will visit Greenlandthe president-elect said as he stepped up calls for a purchase of the territory belonging to Denmark.
• Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court because he did not comply with orders to release information about his assets to the former Georgia election officials he defamed.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson is advance a strategy to pass Trump’s agenda with a bill that contains provisions on border security and tax policy and calls for an expansion of the debt ceiling.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson is advance a strategy to pass Trump’s agenda with a bill that contains provisions on border security and tax policy and calls for an expansion of the debt ceiling.
• President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden met with families in New OrleansSurvivors and local law enforcement affected by the New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street. The White House also announced it would provide additional federal funding to support the city’s preparations for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.

Cold weather in the eastern US; Fire Danger in California

A winter storm that hit the eastern half of the U.S. is moving offshore, but chilly weather remains. High temperatures are expected to be 5 to 20 degrees below average across North Texas and the Plains to the Mid-Atlantic.

Yesterday’s snow and cold weather caused thousands of flight delays and power outages affecting hundreds of thousands of customers.

At least four people were killed Officials said the winter storm affected a 61-year-old employee of a public works company in Missouri who was doing snow removal work. Additionally, two people were killed in an accident in Wichita, Kansas, and one person was found dead in Houston due to cold weather.

While the eastern half of the country struggles with winter weather, California has faced the downside: “Extreme fire weather” fueled by warm days and dry winds. The National Weather Service warned of offshore winds of 80 to 100 mph for the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and offshore winds of 50 to 80 mph for the coastal plains, inland valleys and canyons of the Los Angeles area.

Follow our live blog for the latest weather updates.

Two death row inmates oppose Biden’s commutation

Two prisoners who are among 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden are refusing to sign the clemency petition. It’s an unusual stance – but Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, both inmates at the U.S. prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, believe a sentence commutation would put them at a legal disadvantage as they seek to appeal their cases based on their claims of innocence . The men filed an emergency motion on December 30 seeking an injunction to prevent their death sentences from being commuted to life in prison without parole.

Agofsky was convicted of the 1989 murder of a bank president in Oklahoma and the 2001 death of a fellow inmate in a Texas prison. He disputes how he was charged in the stomping death and is trying to “prove his innocence” in the 1989 murder, his request for a restraining order says.

Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, was convicted in the 1994 murder of Kim Graves, who had filed a complaint against him accusing him of beating a teenager in her neighborhood. Davis maintained his innocence and alleged “misconduct” with the Justice Department, according to his filing.

What happens next is uncertain, but legal experts told the couple face a huge challenge in an attempt to have their death sentences restored.

‘Mob’ of college students attacks man in ‘To Catch a Predator’-like trap, police say

Six students at a private Catholic university in Massachusetts have been accused of luring an active-duty military member to campus who was falsely described as a sex offender and followed and attacked by a group of more than two dozen people, authorities said.

The incident occurred in October at Assumption University in Worcester. One of the accused students told police that the plot was modeled after “To Catch a Predator,” the canceled NBC show that aimed to catch adults who wanted to prey on minors, saying, “Catching a predator is what it is right now a big deal on TikTok.” to a statement of the facts of the case. Last month, 11 Illinois teens were charged over a similar incident in a suburb near Chicago that was blamed on “a viral social media trend.”

In the Massachusetts case, one of the now-charged students initially told police that a “creepy” Tinder app contact had come to campus to meet a 17-year-old girl and called a friend, who chased the person away, they say it in the declaration. But the victim, a 22-year-old military man, gave the authorities another accountwhich a security video confirmed.

read all about it

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation As leader of the ruling Liberal Party, he pointed to polarization within and outside the country and followed growing calls for his resignation.
• A person in Louisiana died of bird flumarking the first human death from the H5N1 infection.
• The New York Giants are retains its general manager and head coach — the primary architects of the team’s historically dismal season. Coached in Jacksonville and New England weren’t so lucky.
• A magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred According to Chinese state media, at least 95 people were killed near one of Tibet’s holiest cities.
• Skip Bayless, a longtime television athlete, is accused in a lawsuit of making overtures to a former Fox Sports barber $1.5 million for sex.

Personnel selection: A secret from the Roman Empire buried in ice

The Romans had a problem with air pollution – and it made them stupider.

A new study suggests that silver smelting during the Roman Empire released so much lead into the atmosphere that Romans’ IQs would have dropped by an average of 2.5 to 3 points. Scientists examined ice samples in Greenland that provide molecular clues to past environmental conditions and found high levels of the heavy metal, a neurotoxin linked to learning disabilities, reproductive problems and mental health problems, among other things. Scientists determined that dust particles from ancient civilization arrived in Greenland about 2,000 years ago. The results are the first clear example of industrial pollution in history, say researchers – and could provide clues as to what led to the fall of Rome. — Evan Bush, Science reporter

NBC Select: Online shopping, simplified

Le Creuset’s winter savings event is here, offering discounts on the brand’s signature Dutch oven as well as other products. Find out what you can buy here. And if you’re hoping to make more meals in the new year, these reusable containers and lunch boxes helps keep your food fresh.

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