Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.
A Senate committee vote on Todd Blanche's nomination to be attorney general has been postponed after two key Republicans, senators John Kornin and Tom Tillis, threatened to derail it over the deal Blanche made to settle President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS and the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. The deal prevents the government from auditing Trump his family or their businesses.
And it says he's still waiting for proof the fund had been canceled, and the IRS deal with Trump revised.
“"I think they realized now that we're serious, and I think Senator Tillis is pretty”
much on the same page that I am, so they better get real, and there's not much time left." Kornin says he sent the Justice Department the exact language he wants, but that they couldn't come to an agreement in time for another nomination vote this morning.
Kornin's support is critical to Blanche's nomination.
Former FBI director James Komi is asking a judge to throw out threats against him as a vindictive prosecution. And here's Kerry Johnson reports, Komi says he's being singled out, because he criticizes President Trump. Lawyers for Komi say the Justice Department moved to indict him to make the president
happy. Komi says his 8647 Instagram post of "C" shells on the beach was not advocating violence against Trump. Rather, he says it was protected political speech.
“And New Court papers Komi says the Secret Service surveilled him last year, even though”
agents doubted there was a legal basis to do so. He says DOJ relied on an unreliable source, long estranged from Komi, to build the criminal threat case against him. The prosecutor who moved ahead with the Komi indictment had little experience, and took on the matter only after others left the case.
Trump celebrated the charges, and later posted an image of Komi in a prison jumpsuit, Kerry Johnson and PR news. Louisiana's largest school district is hanging up posters of the 10 commandments before the school year starts next week. This after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the posters earlier this year.
The gold state newsrooms Aubrey U has reports, some districts have moved slowly. The fifth circuit allowed Louisiana's law requiring public schools to display the 10 commandments in every classroom to take effect in February, ruling a lawsuit filed by families and civil rights groups was premature, because the posters hadn't been displayed yet. Some districts hung them right away, but others waited, including Jefferson Parish, a New
Orleans suburb that enrolls more than 45,000 students. In July, the districts chief legal counsel told principles to install donated posters before teachers returned to campus. This spokesperson for the ACLU of Louisiana said they plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the state's law and a similar one in Texas violate the first amendment.
For impairing news, I'm Aubrey U.H. in New Orleans. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. President Trump wants to revamp Dallas International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Piers D. Pashivaram reports, voters are showing concern about what Trump is focusing on. A new poll from CNN shows that Americans disapprove of Trump's various construction projects,
like the White House ballroom and the reflecting pool on the national mall, 58% say they feel dissatisfied or angry about them.
The same poll shows that 73% say that Trump hasn't paid attention to the country's most important
problems. Still, Trump is forging ahead with trying to reconstruct Washington dollars in a national airport.
“In the end, you can end up with, I think, maybe the best airport and one of the biggest”
airports anywhere in the world, and it's going to be a great thing for Washington, D.C. Trump says he might need approvals from Congress, but he thinks construction could begin next spring. Deepish Ivoram and PR News, the White House. Firefighters are getting a handle on the massive and historic wildfires in southwestern
France, and the Madrid area of Spain, slowing the fire's progression for now, and allowing some evacuees to return home. In France, after extreme temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, the forecast today is for cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and a little light rain. Or the 160 square miles have been burned as flames approach the famed wine region of
Hordeaux. In Spain, firefighters made some progress on a massive blaze in the Madrid area, but higher temperatures and gusty winds are forecast to return to that area in the days ahead. I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.
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