Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.
Justice Department lurches toward Trump’s goalsPresident Trump has tasked the Justice Department with punishing his opponents and remunerating his allies, all without letting the agency’s behind-the-scenes turmoil spill into the open. On each of these fronts, the department this week has hit some snags. $1.8 billion fund: A federal judge this morning temporarily barred the Trump administration from taking steps to establish the fund that the president said would be used to pay victims of “weaponization and lawfare” under Democratic administrations. And this evening, a different judge reopened Trump’s $10 billion case against the I.R.S., saying she wanted to investigate “grievous allegations” that the hasty deal to resolve it — which included the creation of the fund — was “premised on deception.” Many of Trump’s allies have announced plans to apply for, and are likely to benefit from, the fund’s disbursements. A number of lawmakers, including prominent Republicans, have publicly objected to its aims. Epstein files: The former attorney general Pam Bondi, whom Trump last month fired largely for her handling of the Epstein files, today blamed the botched release of the files on Todd Blanche, her onetime deputy who now runs the department. E. Jean Carroll: Blanche’s latest target is the 82-year-old writer who accused Trump of sexual assault and won $88 million in defamation judgments against him. The department now is investigating donations by a nonprofit founded by the liberal billionaire Reid Hoffman to pay Carroll’s legal bills, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Bringing charges may be difficult: The office of the prosecutor overseeing the investigation has been marred by failures and resignations.
Trump mulls an Iran cease-fireTrump this afternoon left a two-hour meeting in the Situation Room without deciding whether to sign on to a potential deal with Iran, a senior administration official said, despite the president’s earlier suggestion on social media that he was ready “to make a final determination.” U.S. officials said yesterday that the draft deal under consideration would extend the nominal cease-fire with Iran and pave the way for future negotiations on its nuclear program. But the senior official today said that some sticking points, including the unfreezing of Iranian assets, were still being debated. The Iranian foreign ministry’s spokesman said this afternoon that “message exchanges between Iran and the U.S. continue, but no final agreement has been reached,” according to Iran’s state news agency. Both sides in recent days have continued to exchange fire, and Israeli troops have pushed deeper into Lebanon while pounding the region with airstrikes. More on the war:
Kennedy Center must remove Trump’s name, judge ordersA federal judge in Washington ordered the Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name from its facade and from all official branding, ruling that it had been added unlawfully. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” the judge wrote, adding that a law passed by Congress in 1964 made “crystal clear” that the institution was to be named for President John F. Kennedy. The judge also temporarily blocked it from shutting down for renovations this summer, as Trump had planned. Trump later wrote on social media that the judge should be “ashamed of himself.”
ICE clashes with state authoritiesIn Texas, state law enforcement officials today arrested an ICE agent accused of shooting a Venezuelan man during the immigration crackdown in Minnesota and then lying about it. His claim that he opened fire fearing for his life as three men bludgeoned him with a shovel was contradicted by footage of the episode. He faces four counts of second-degree assault. In New York, after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a new mask ban on ICE agents, the Department of Homeland Security’s top lawyer assured them in an internal memo that they were “not legally required to comply with state and local mask prohibitions.” Related: Ian Roberts, the former Des Moines superintendent who lied about his immigration status but whose arrest by ICE sparked local outrage, was sentenced to two years in prison. More top news
Ballet and the bodyOlivia Book is a dancer who draws the eye. She has a congenital limb difference — her right arm is smaller than her left. In February, Book was promoted to the corps de ballet of Ballet West in Salt Lake City, making her one of the first professional ballerinas with a limb difference. Ballet has been rethinking its rigid body standards, and many of the challenges that Book has encountered, she said, have been technical: balance, for example, or dancing pas de deux with only one hand connecting her to her partner.
Olivia Rodrigo’s new albumShe was the first breakthrough pop star of this decade, a onetime Disney Channel star who built a career on two complementary musical impulses: exasperated power balladry and exasperated pop-punk. Now on the other side of what she calls her first “big-girl relationship,” Rodrigo dishes the details on her third album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.” She sat down with “Popcast” for her first in-depth interview about the album — and, as it turns out, her first in-depth podcast conversation ever. Watch it here. Dinner table topics
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