WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - U.S. officials and lawmakers are increasingly concerned about a meeting last month in which representatives of the Trump administration met with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian envoy who is under U.S. sanctions, to draft a plan to end the war in Ukraine, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The meeting took place in Miami at the end of October and included special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Dmitriev, who leads the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), one of Russia's largest sovereign wealth funds.

A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitriev has taken a leading role in talks with the U.S. about the war and has met with Witkoff several times this year. The Trump administration has issued a special waiver to allow his entry, one senior U.S. official told Reuters.

Dmitriev and his fund were blacklisted by the U.S. government in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions effectively bar American citizens and companies from dealing with them.

The meeting resulted in a 28-point plan for ending the war, two people familiar with the situation said. The plan, which was made public earlier this week by Axios, came as a surprise to U.S. officials in various corners of the administration and has stirred confusion at embassies throughout Washington and in European capitals.

Donald Trump’s decision to go after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in an early Saturday morning attack is not sitting well with MAGA fans who took to Truth Social to express their displeasure with the president with one complaining, “Ohhh My God! The government looks like a kindergarten.”...

The reaction to Trump’s attack was swift and maybe not what he was expecting on Truth Social.

.“Love you, but I don’t agree with what you’re doing to her. Leave the poor girl alone… she’s respecting your wishes and giving you what you want,” KJKJ wrote.

Solanojones95 complained, “Why not tell us what she REALLY did wrong? Nothing you've said justifies your actions against her, andwe DON'T want to think badly of you, so SPILL, Sir! The reasons you're giving make you sound like you're in Middle School.”

MILOR596 who lists herself a #MAGAGIRL, was skeptical of the whole situation, writing, “There is something fishy about all of this. I hope we find out. President Trump have you been Loomered. Bottom line what does her constituents believe.“

One MAGA fan noted Trump’s relationship with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and ranted, “So you don’t like MTG but you’ll praise and go out golfing with Graham? Seriously, what happened to this administration?”

"America First” commenter BoomBoom25 brought up Trump’s cozy meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Friday and asked, “Have you looked at you lately? Appearing all cozy and supportive of Commie Mamdani while bashing a MAGA supporter that helped get you elected? She may have her political aspirations, but you trampled her like dirt while lifting up a communist, jihadi Muslim! Who looks like the traitor here??”

Andey Randead worried, “I’m a loyal Trumper, always have been, but man, #Trump sure knows how to make his life difficult. This could’ve been handled so much better by him.”

The attorneys most commonly associated with Trump who have faced formal disciplinary actions (disbarment, suspension, or significant court-imposed fines/sanctions), along with a concise description of each:

Rudy Giuliani – Former NYC mayor and Trump’s lead post-election lawyer; disbarred in NY and DC.

Michael Cohen – Trump’s longtime personal “fixer”; disbarred in New York.

John Eastman – Chief architect of the fake-elector strategy; disbarred in California.

Kenneth Chesebro – Author of the key fake-elector memos; disbarred in New York.

Jenna Ellis – Trump campaign lawyer and public face of election-fraud claims; suspended 3 years in Colorado.

Jeffrey Clark – DOJ official who tried to weaponize the department for Trump; recommended 2-year suspension in DC (proceedings ongoing).

Sidney Powell – “Release the Kraken” lawyer; hit with $152,000 in court sanctions (no disbarment yet).

Lin Wood – High-profile election-conspiracy promoter; effectively disbarred by voluntary resignation under investigation in Georgia.

Alina Habba – Current personal counsel to Trump; personally sanctioned $938,000+ for frivolous lawsuit.

Joseph diGenova & Victoria Toensing – Trump TV surrogates and legal team members; jointly sanctioned $175,000 for frivolous Michigan election suit.

Things are going badly for Lindsey Halligan in court. The myriad ways the James Comey case can be dismissed pretrial are mounting.

Apparently having seen the writing on the wall after a rough hearing Wednesday, Halligan attempted to make her case in the media against the presiding judge, Biden-appointee Michael Nachmanoff......

It’s hard to credit Halligan’s claim of being laser-focused when we are reading that claim in a media report — one that came out the same day her latest legal blunders were exposed in court, and the same week in which another judge called out her “fundamental misstatements of the law” to the grand jury.

In fairness to Halligan, she had never prosecuted a case before — but that goes to the point that she’s in the wrong job. As it happens, the question of whether she’s legally in the wrong job, i.e., unlawfully installed by the administration, is another topic that yet another judge is weighing. That’s yet another avenue that could lead to the dismissal of the case against Comey (and against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has raised similar issues).

But even if she’s a new prosecutor, she is a lawyer with a professional obligation to know better than to call out a judge for purportedly unethical conduct when the judge has done nothing of the sort. That’s especially so, given that Halligan could face her own ethical inquiry when all is said and done. A bar complaint has already been filed against her that highlights another questionable instance of extrajudicial statements, when she initiated a perplexing line of communication with a journalist.

Overall, Halligan’s misleading public comments read as an attempt to make a public case as the court case implodes. Context shows that her public case is also ripe for dismissal.

The job numbers for September were significantly delayed by the recent government shutdown, but when the data finally reached the public, the White House appeared eager to celebrate. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a written statement issued to news organizations:

The September jobs report more than doubled market expectations — adding 119,000 new jobs to the American economy. In stark contrast to the disastrous Biden economy, almost all of these new jobs were in the private sector and went to American-born workers instead of illegal aliens. … This strong report is more proof that President Trump’s pro-growth, America First agenda is already making great progress, and it will continue to deliver positive results for American families and businesses.

......And while the details from the White House were wrong, the bigger picture is worse.

Job growth in the first year of Donald Trump’s second term is on pace to be the worst since the Great Recession (excluding 2020, when the pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy). We’re also seeing increased corporate layoffs and weak retail hiring as the holiday season approaches.

What’s more, the unemployment rate has reached a four-year high, job openings are at a four-year low, and leading members of Trump’s own economic team have gone so far as to concede in recent weeks that parts of the U.S. economy are already in recession.

Confronted with these facts, the White House press secretary boasted that Trump’s “America First agenda is already making great progress.” If the goal was to make the nation’s job market worse, then yes, the administration’s “progress” is remarkable. But if the point was to improve economic conditions, Leavitt and her colleagues appear to have things backward......

The latest polling suggests the strategy is failing badly, but Leavitt’s reaction to the latest employment report makes clear that the White House intends to keep telling the public not to believe what is plainly true: Trump’s agenda isn’t working.

Specifically, Cassidy told his colleagues in early February that if Kennedy became the nation’s health secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”

Nine months later, the CDC changed its website and started promoting misinformation related to vaccines and autism.

How, pray tell, did Cassidy react to the developments? Politico reported:

Cassidy said he’s deeply worried about vaccine misinformation, but declined to say he regrets his vote. ‘Life is lived forward. What I have to do is do my best to reassure the American people that vaccines are safe,’ Cassidy said in an interview with Punchbowl News

.

If only it were so simple......

Cassidy doesn’t have a time machine, but he does at least have the ability to try to put things right. The powerful Senate committee chair could concede publicly that confirming Kennedy was a tragic and costly mistake. He could call for the secretary’s resignation. He could schedule immediate hearings, haul RFK Jr. to Capitol Hill and read him the riot act while demanding the CDC’s public resources return to their scientific foundations.

Rather, the senator is shrugging with platitudes like “Life is lived forward” — six months after assuring the public that Kennedy has “lived up” to his commitments on vaccines.

It’s a good thing that Cassidy is prepared to do his best “to reassure the American people that vaccines are safe.” The trouble is that he has to compete with an anti-vaccine health secretary whom Cassidy helped put in office and whom he seems unwilling to condemn.

When Mary Bruce, ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, asked the crown prince about the Khashoggi murder, Trump whined that the reporter’s question might “embarrass” his “guest,” seemingly unaware of the fact that it’s not the job of the press to protect the feelings of foreign authoritarians. He went on to describe the question as “insubordinate,” as though journalists were somehow employees of the Saudi royal family.

The president’s posture took a more hysterical turn, however, when Bruce asked why he didn’t just disclose the Jeffrey Epstein files himself, instead of waiting for Congress to force his hand.

Trump in response to an Epstein question: "ABC, your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should take a look at that."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-11-18T18:12:51.276Z

In a tone that could be justifiably characterized as mansplaining, Trump objected to the journalist’s “attitude,” while telling her how “terrible” she is.

And then he kept going. “People are wise to your hoax, and ABC is — your company, your crappy company — is one of the perpetrators,” the Republican ranted. “I’ll tell you something, I’ll tell you something, I think the license should be taken away from ABC, because your news is so fake and so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should take a look at that.” (He was referring to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.)

“I think when you’re 97% negative to Trump and then Trump wins in a landslide, that means obviously your news is not credible, and you’re not credible as a reporter,” Trump said, referring to himself in the third person. The president wrapped up his harangue by accusing ABC of being “a radical left network,” while chastising Bruce for her “anger” and “meanness.”

I guess she touched a nerve.,,,,,

This is not, in other words, an official with a healthy attitude toward the First Amendment.

But let’s not forget that less than a year ago, ABC and its parent company, Disney, agreed to a $16 million settlement with Trump. If executives hoped that would keep the network on the Republican’s good side, those hopes have clearly been dashed.

In remarks delivered on the Senate floor in early February, Cassidy — a physician prior to his political career — told his colleagues that if Kennedy was confirmed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”

Take a wild guess what happened to the CDC website nine months later.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage that previously made the case that vaccines don’t cause autism now says they might. … The revised webpage says: ‘The claim “vaccines do not cause autism” is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.’

In related news, the claim “the Tooth Fairy does not actually take lost baby teeth from under pillows” is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that magical beings are secretly thieving teeth in the dead of night......

A day later, former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden appeared on MS NOW and told viewers, “I never thought I would see the day when you couldn’t trust what’s on the CDC website, but that day has come.”

That was soon followed by a New York Times op-ed co-authored by Frieden and several others who had held the same office. NBC News reported:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership is ‘unlike anything our country has ever experienced,’ nine former directors and acting directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a scathing guest essay Monday for The New York Times. … Their tenures date to the late 1970s and span Democratic and Republican administrations, including Trump’s first term.

The mere existence of the opinion piece is itself notable: There is no precedent for nine former CDC chiefs — including Dr. Anne Schuchat, who served as an acting director during Donald Trump’s first term — linking arms to alert the public to a public health menace like this.....

The fact remains, however, that 52 Senate Republicans were given an opportunity to protect Americans from Kennedy — and they failed spectacularly. The more steps that Kennedy takes to put people at risk, the more GOP senators bear responsibility for his radical and dangerous decisions.