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George Conway wants one specific federal building named for Trump

Attorney George Conway, the prominent Republican-turned-Democratic congressional candidate, is calling for one federal building to be named after President Donald Trump, once his time in office is up.

On Monday, Conway issued a dire warning about President Trump and his “megalomania.”

“The way things are going in America, it should be clear we don’t have much time,” Conway wrote on social media. “We certainly don’t have three years. We need to help ourselves by pushing for impeachment and removal as hard as we can and carrying it out as soon as humanly possible.”

On Tuesday, Conway responded to his fellow Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt, who had written, “There will be no buildings named for Trump, no rest stops, not even a plastic urinal in a national park latrine. Nothing. All that will linger is disgrace and shame.”

Schmidt’s remarks came from his Substack post in which he appeared to compare President Donald Trump’s desire to construct a massive 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, “dwarfing the Lincoln Memorial,” as The Washington Post reported, to Adolf Hitler’s desire to remake Berlin.

“I’d like it to be the biggest one of all,” Trump told reporters. “We’re the biggest, most powerful nation.”

Trump has already leveled the East Wing of the White House to make room for his $400 million ballroom, which the U.S. Department of Justice now claims is necessary for national security.

He also just announced the shuttering of the Kennedy Center on July 4 for a two-year renovation project that he says will cost $200 million. He’s remade the White House Rose Garden — twice. He’s refurbished the Lincoln Bedroom’s bathroom. And he wants to revitalize Washington Dulles International Airport.

But Conway disagreed — at least in part — with Schmidt’s demand that no buildings should be named for Trump

“I strongly disagree with my friend Steve here,” said Conway.

“I think a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility — the most modern and secure one, because our president deserves the best — should be named after Trump. If elected to Congress, I pledge to do my best to enact this into law.”

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Ghislaine Maxwell may be 'throwing a wrench' in release of Epstein files: report

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted child sex offender and associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has filed court documents seeking to be released from prison, reportedly “throwing a wrench” into the Justice Department’s efforts to release “scores” of files released to her case.

“Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime Epstein counterpart, wrote in a letter filed Wednesday in federal court that she plans to soon file a court petition challenging her detention, a long-shot bid that, if successful, could result in a new trial,” The Hill reported.

Maxwell’s attorneys “said Maxwell does not take a position on the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts,” but, “to do so could imperil a retrial if her challenge, called a habeas petition, prevails.”

The New York Times added, “Although the judge, Paul A. Engelmayer, previously denied a request by the Justice Department to release those documents, Ms. Bondi made her latest motion under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed by Mr. Trump last month.”

According to CNN, “lawyers for Epstein’s estate told the judge they do not take a position as to the unsealing of records given the government’s ‘commitment’ to redacting victim and personally identifying information.”

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Epstein's top accomplice now has prison warden acting as her personal secretary

Newly released emails from Ghislaine Maxwell – who was deceased child predator Jeffrey Epstein's chief accomplice — show that the special privileges she's receiving in prison even include "secretarial services" from the facility's highest-ranking official.

The Atlantic's Isaac Stanley-Becker reported Thursday that he pored through dozens of emails that Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee received from a nurse who worked at the minimum security prison camp in Bryan, Texas (northwest of Houston) where Maxwell was transferred earlier this year. While NBC News reported on some excerpts of those emails, Stanley-Becker wrote that the most notable details had "not previously been reported."

According to the Atlantic journalist, Maxwell's emails were "notably free of regret, remorse, shame [and] self-doubt." He wrote that they provide a window into the "relatively comfortable life" of the woman serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein groom and exploit underage girls. One of Epstein's victims recalled that Maxwell was "more physically abusive" than Epstein.

Among the extensive privileges being exclusively granted to Maxwell include her being allowed to have visits in private in the prison's chapel, rather than in the facility's designated visitation space. She's also been allowed to have an unlimited supply of toilet paper, whereas other inmates are only allowed two rolls per week. She and her legal team are provided with "drinks and snacks" when visiting her. Additionally, prison warden Tanisha Hall has allowed Maxwell to bring in "private electronic equipment."

Stanley-Becker reported that Hall is even providing "secretarial services" to Maxwell. He included an example from September in which there was a "problem with the mail" at the prison, and Hall came up with a "creative solution." Maxwell's attorney was told to scan documents and email them directly to the warden, while the warden would "scan back [Maxwell's] changes."

"The following month, Maxwell was typing away late one Sunday. She was wading through attachments, and she was 'struggling to keep it all together,' she wrote in an email with the subject line 'Commutation Application,' suggesting that her team was preparing a direct appeal to Trump," Stanley-Becker wrote. "As they worked on their argument, Maxwell told her lawyer that she would transmit relevant records 'through the warden.'"

Doug Murphy, who Stanley-Becker described as a "prominent Houston-based attorney," compared Hall's behavior toward Maxwell to a CEO personally performing customer service duties. He suggested the warden acting in such a way is either only because she has a personal relationship with Maxwell, or because her superiors instructed her to go out of her way to accommodate Maxwell.

"It’s way out of the norm," Murphy said.

Click here to read Stanley-Becker's full article in the Atlantic (subscription required).

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'They will kill you': Maxwell explains why she doesn't think Epstein died by suicide

Ghislaine Maxwell — who was convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein's chief accomplice — told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche she doesn't believe the government's official explanation for Epstein's death.

On Friday, audio of Maxwell's testimony to Blanche (the second-most senior official at the Department of Justice) was released to the House Oversight Committee in response to a subpoena. And in one particularly noteworthy exchange, Maxwell can be heard telling Blanche that she believed Epstein may have been killed in a murder-for-hire plot.

"So do you think he did not die by suicide, given all the things we just talked about?" Blanche is heard asking Maxwell.

"I do not believe he died by suicide, no," Maxwell responded.

"And do you believe that, do you have any speculation or view of who killed him?" Blanche asked.

"No, I don't." She said.

"And I ask that because if you do not believe there's any truth to the allegations of blackmail, or that he had kind of a list, or that he had reasons to have people hate him,, why would somebody kill him in prison?" Blanche persisted.

"Well, in prison, where I am, they will kill you, or they will pay, somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you," Maxwell said.

In 2019, the official explanation was that Epstein died by suicide in his prison cell while awaiting trial, with the medical examiner ruling that the convicted child trafficker had hanged himself. However, Epstein's brother, Mark, has said that a pathologist he asked to be present during Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy said the marks on Epstein's body looked more consistent with homicide than suicide.

Maxwell's July testimony to Blanche took place at the Gainesville, Florida prison where she had been incarcerated after being sentenced to 20 years behind bars for her role procuring victims for Epstein. After her two days of testimony — in which she reportedly gave up information on roughly 100 people — she was transferred to a minimum security prison camp in Bryan, Texas. Sex offenders like Maxwell are typically not allowed to stay at facilities like Bryan given the nature of their offense without a waiver from the DOJ.

Listen to the audio below, or by clicking this link.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

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'A lot of money': Analysis details how Trump’s 'dumb ideas' will cost taxpayers a fortune

Columnist Bill Press tells the Hill he misses the days when Democrats and Republicans were party adversaries, but not enemies. Those were the days when a politician could properly vet his ideas on the proving grounds of honest debate rather than handing his very worst to "loyalists" who say nothing but “how high” when President Donald Trump says “jump.”

“Apparently, there’s nobody willing to tell him the truth,” says Press, referring to plans like Trump’s recent call to restore Alcatraz as a maximum-security federal prison.

“It has to be the dumbest of all the dumb ideas Trump has ever proposed as president,” said Press. “But rather than tell Trump he’s wrong, Bondi and (Interior Secretary Doug) Burgum, like the sycophants they are, went out to Alcatraz on July 17, trying to sell his plan. They’re wasting their time. It’s never going to happen.”

Its walls are crumbling, said Press. The island has no running water or sewer infrastructure. All food and water must arrive by boat, and all trash and human waste has to leave the same way. A 1959 report even revealed the prison was three times more expensive to run than the average American prison.

Putting a prison back on the island means razing all existing structures and building a new prison from scratch. That will cost $2 billion, says Axios, and management would still have to bring in food and water every day and ship off waste.

“No matter how badly Trump would like to see it happen, $2 billion’s a lot of money to spend for a prison we don’t need,” said Press. “… [T]hese facts about Alcatraz should be enough for Burgum, Bondi or chief of staff Susie Wiles to tell the president: ‘This is a dumb idea. It’s too expensive, it’ll take too long, and we don’t need it.’”

And they may as well include other “dumb ideas” Trump needs to know about, added Press, “like buying Greenland, revoking (actress) Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship or forcing the Washington Commanders to change their name back to ‘Redskins.’”

“That’s one of the most important functions of any political staffer: the willingness to tell your boss he’s dead wrong,” said Press. “It’s too bad there’s nobody like that around Donald Trump."

Read the full Hill report at this link.

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Trump’s latest proposal is like 'sending political opponents to the gulag': expert

Legal experts pounced President Donald Trump’s proposal of sending U.S. citizens convicted of crimes to international prisons.

The Washington Post reports Trump openly mulled the possibility of off-siting U.S. citizens to foreign prisons on Air Force One, saying “we have some horrible criminals, American grown, born.” He added that he’s “all for” sending them to prisons in El Salvador, where he has already detained some Venezuelan migrants to public outcry.

After protestors attacked Tesla dealerships, vehicles and charging stations over controversial figure and Trump adviser Elon Musk, Trump hoped protestors would “get 20 year jail sentences … in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!”

Trump conceded on Sunday that, “I don’t know what the law says on that.”

The law doesn’t smile on it, according to University of California Professor and immigration scholar Davis Gabriel J. Chin.

Such a proposal is “the equivalent of sending political opponents to the Gulag in the Soviet Union era,” Chin told Washington Post reporters in an email.

The paper reports that U.S. citizen cannot legally be deported or denied entry to the United States. The suggestion “does not seem very realistic,” said Jean Reisz, an associate professor of law who co-directs the University of Southern California Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic, said Trump’s suggestion “does not seem very realistic.”

Even U.S. citizens who have traveled overseas to fight with terrorist organizations against U.S. interests, such as the Islamic State must be allowed to return, said Reisz. The government can detain them and charge them with crimes and even incarcerate them upon conviction, but U.S. officials are not permitted to deny them reentry to the U.S.”

Read the full Washington Post article at this link (subscription required).

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'You may not deport a US citizen — period': Attorney condemns idea to send prisoners to El Salvador

It would be illegal to send a U.S. citizen to prison in El Salvador, an attorney confirmed to NPR on Wednesday. Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele has suggested bringing people incarcerated in U.S. prisons -- both citizens and migrants -- to El Salvador, something Secretary of State Marco Rubio called “a very generous offer.”

Trump was enthusiastic about the idea. "It's no different than a prison system, except it would be a lot less expensive," he said. "And it would be a great deterrent -- send them to other countries.”

"We'll have to find that out legally. I'm just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat," he added. "I don't know if we do or not, we're looking at that right now."

Bukele, who dubbed himself “the world’s coolest dictator,” created a mega-prison in 2022 where many of the people incarcerated are being held without due process. In an attempt to combat gang activity, more than 84,000 people have been arrested since March 2022, according to the Associated Press. The prison can hold 40,000 people, who are confined to cells that hold about 70 prisoners each. They are not allowed to have visitors or spend time outside.

“We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable,” Bukele posted on X.

This proposal is illegal, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt told NPR. "You may not deport a U.S. citizen, period. The courts have not allowed that, and they would not allow it."

Gelernt is deputy director of the civil rights organization’s Immigrants' Rights Project.

It would be difficult, though not impossible, to send non-citizens to Salvadoran prisons. "Congress has put in very careful safeguards for when a non-citizen can be sent back to a country other than their own," Gelernt said. "There has to be an agreement with this third country, and there has to be a clear sense that the person is not going to be in danger in that country, and they have to be able to challenge being sent to another country."

He added that he did not think the move would meet the requirement that the deported person not be exposed to persecution or torture. "We would have grave concerns if non-citizens are being sent to El Salvador,” he said.

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Spokesperson for Trump — a convicted felon — says criminals should 'spend time behind bars'

Seemingly without a hint of irony, Karoline Leavitt — who is former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign spokesperson — recently said that defendants found guilty by a jury of their peers should be incarcerated.

Leavitt's remark was in response to a New York Times story about a man who received clemency from Trump after spending nearly three decades in jail following a 1993 murder conviction. The defendant, Jaime A. Davidson, got his pardon during the former president's lame-duck period in early 2021 just before he left the White House.

Despite being convicted for playing a role in orchestrating a robbery that led to the murder of an undercover police officer, Davidson insisted that he was not at the scene of the crime and maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration. However, journalist Judd Legum reported earlier this week that Davidson was later convicted on a domestic violence charge in July of 2024 and ordered to spend three months in prison. Leavitt told the Times that "President Trump believes anyone convicted of a crime should spend time behind bars."

This statement prompted some head-scratching from the Independent's Greg Graziosi, who pointed out that Trump himself was convicted on 34 felony counts in Manhattan in May of this year. He noted that Leavitt's boss has not yet spent any time behind bars despite his own convictions, and is actively working to prevent any sentence from being imposed.

"Trump will likely not count himself as a criminal, as he has repeatedly insisted that his conviction and other upcoming trials are political witch hunts, and that he has done nothing wrong," Graziosi wrote. "The former president even tried to have his hush money case moved to a federal court, but on Tuesday that move was denied by a federal judge."

The 45th president of the United States was due to be sentenced in July. However, the Supreme Court's Trump v. United States decision on July 1 granted Trump absolute broad immunity from criminal prosecution for all "official acts" taken as president (the Court allowed lower courts to have discretion to decide what constitutes an "official act"). That ruling prompted Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan to push back Trump's sentencing date to September 18 in order to review how the immunity ruling would affect the ex-president's criminal convictions.

As Graziosi noted, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York already rejected Trump's petition to have his Manhattan case moved to the federal judiciary. He added that the former president was convicted by a jury for "private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority," meaning the Supreme Court's immunity ruling would not apply.

While he could potentially refile the petition, he would need to have the blessing of either Judge Merchan or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — which he is unlikely to get. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the ex-president's legal team will "continue to fight to move this hoax into federal court where it should be put out of its misery once and for all."

If Trump's September 18 sentencing date remains intact, he could be ordered to serve up to 20 years behind bars, though given that Trump is a 78 year-old, nonviolent first-time offender, it's unlikely Merchan would impose the maximum allowable prison sentence. Merchan could incarcerate Trump for a shorter amount of time, or alternatively impose a combination of probation, home confinement and fines.

After the former president's conviction, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said he wasn't so sure Merchan wouldn't opt for some jail time. He noted that Trump flouted the judge's gag order on 10 different occasions and repeatedly attacked Merchan's daughter, who works as a Democratic campaign consultant. He noted that these factors are "not small things" for a judge to weigh when deciding on a sentence.

Click here to read the Independent's report in its entirety.

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Steve Bannon 'quite concerned' his prison mates will be 'dangerous criminals': report

Steve Bannon — former President Donald Trump's chief White House strategist — will report to federal prison on Monday. And according to a recent report, he's quietly fretting about the people he'll be with while incarcerated.

The Daily Beast reported that an unnamed source close to Bannon said the far-right activist is "quite concerned" about the fellow inmates he'll encounter throughout his four-month federal prison sentence at FCI Danbury, in Connecticut. Bannon, whose Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate number is 05635-509, will notably have a tougher time than fellow Trump advisor Peter Navarro, who is at a federal prison camp in Florida.

According to the Beast, Navarro's camp is "much less strict on inmates" and his biggest concerns are likely "boredom and slow communications." Bannon, on the other hand, has a separate criminal detainer for allegedly defrauding supporters of an online crowdfunding campaign to build a wall along the Southern border, for which he is still awaiting trial in Manhattan. Because of that, Bannon's sentence will be served in a harsher environment.

One of the Beast's unnamed sources told the publication that Bannon "will be on a more rigid day-to-day schedule that has less freedom of movement, stricter check-ins and will be surrounded by more dangerous criminals." Reporter Josh Fiallo noted that FCI Danbury's inmate population of roughly 800 prisoners includes "sex offenders and violent criminals."

The 70-year-old Bannon has maintained that he is a "political prisoner" and that his "voice will not be suppressed" despite being behind bars. His podcast co-host, Mike Davis, recently said Bannon is "unfazed and determined." The former Trump advisor and Breitbart News chief vowed that he would be working toward "total and complete victory" during his prison sentence.

Bannon was initially found guilty of contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena from the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack and initially sentenced in 2022. However, he fought the imposition of his sentence for more than two years, initially succeeding in staying out of prison as he made his way through the appeal process. The Supreme Court finally issued a one-sentence ruling on Friday that Bannon would have to report to prison.

"If it took me going to prison to finally get the House to start to move, to start to delegitimize the illegitimate J6 committee, then, hey, guess what, my going to prison is worth it," Bannon told ABC's Jonathan Karl earlier this week.

Bannon reportedly hired prison expert Sam Mangel — who was also hired by Navarro — to help him prepare for his sentence. Mangel, who himself served a 60-month federal prison sentence for financial crimes, told the Beast earlier this month that federal prison is no picnic for a first-time inmate. When speaking to the hypothetical situation of Trump potentially being incarcerated, Mangel said the experience would be "humiliating" and "degrading" for the ex-president.

"Inside you get up at six in the morning, you go to your meals as dictated, you get the same phone time, the same lights out at four o’clock in the afternoon, you have to stand next to your bed for count,” he said. “So it is a humiliating situation. And especially for somebody like the former president."

Click here to read the Beast's report in full (subscription required).

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Trump has high chance of 'dying in prison' if he loses November election: former prosecutor

Former President Donald Trump, who will turn 78 next week, may spend the rest of his natural life in prison if he doesn't prevail in the November 5 presidential election, according to a former federal prosecutor.

During a recent episode of his podcast, Harry Litman — the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania — opined that the 45th president of the United States may not experience freedom again if he enters a prison cell and loses his reelection bid to President Joe Biden. The Hill reported that Litman viewed this fall as a do-or-die moment for the ex-president to not only retake power, but to spend the end of his life as a free man.

“If he doesn’t win, he has an appreciable chance of dying in prison,” Litman told former U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota). “The whole timeline, the whole crisis point of November goes away. So, if he doesn’t win on [November] the fifth, those cases lie ready to bring.”

Even though his Manhattan criminal trial concluded last week with a unanimous guilty verdict, the hush money cover-up trial could be the least of Trump's worries. The former president has three more criminal trials to worry about — two federal cases, and another state-level case in Fulton County, Georgia. All three carry much more serious punishments than whatever sentence Trump gets in New York.

In the two federal cases, Trump faces four felony charges in Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's DC election interference indictment, and 37 felony counts in Smith's indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. But should Trump win the election this November, his appointed attorney general could simply instruct the DOJ to dismiss the cases. Trump could also theoretically pardon himself if he's convicted before taking office, should he win.

While the Georgia case — like New York's — is a state case and this not within the purview of the DOJ or the White House, it's also the least likely to happen after the Georgia Court of Appeals officially paused proceedings this week. The Peach State's appellate court agreed to hear Trump's appeal of Judge Scott McAfee's decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case after she survived defense lawyers' attempts to remove her from the case.

Attorneys representing Trump and others in the RICO indictment argued her prior relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade constituted a conflict of interest. McAfee allowed Willis to stay on provided Wade did not, and Wade tendered his resignation later that day. but Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein said the latest that case could proceed, should it uphold McAfee's decision, would be mid-2025.

After he was convicted of 34 felonies by a New York jury last week, Trump faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years in prison. However, as a first-time offender, he's unlikely to do anywhere near that amount of time, if he's incarcerated at all.

Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann said on MSNBC last week that during Trump's July 11 sentencing hearing, Judge Juan Merchan may still opt for prison given Trump's continued lack of remorse, disrespect toward the proceedings and 10 violations of Merchan's gag order preventing him from attacking jurors, witnesses, court staff or their families.

"So, you have gag order violations. You have things that show complete lack of remorse…. Could you think of a defendant with any more lack of remorse? If you think of the recidivism and the lack of remorse, there is such an array of things for the state to point to," Weissmann said. "He has to be treated like everyone else.

Click here to read The Hill's full report.

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'You’re going to jail': Protestor cheers after Bannon ordered to prison by July 1

Former top Trump campaign and White House official Steve Bannon has been ordered to surrender and begin serving his four month prison sentence by July 1. Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress in 2022.

“U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, previously paused Bannon’s four-month sentence while he appealed his conviction,” Politico reported. “But on Thursday, Nichols ruled that the original reasons for the postponement no longer apply because a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled strongly and unanimously last month against Bannon’s position.”

Bannon can continue the appeals process but it is unlikely that will keep him out of prison by July 1.

In November of 2021, Bannon was indicted by a grand jury for refusing to testify before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack and for refusing to hand over documents to investigators examining the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol and on American democracy. His indictment was heralded as “Good news for the rule of law” at the time.

Last month a federal appeals court panel upheld Bannon’s conviction.and experts predicted he would be sent to prison.

Bannon, a far-right provocateur, hosts the “War Room” podcast, which Media Matters last year called “the media home of Project 2025 and Trump’s retribution plans.” Project 2025 is The Heritage Foundation’s massive plan to remake the entire Executive Branch, fire thousands of civil servants, and turn the Dept. of Justice into an arm of the next Republican President.

NBC News justice reporter Ryan J. Reilly posted some “dramatic moments” from inside and outside the courthouse today.

Watch MSNBC’s report below or at this link.

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