Weekly Recap: May 25th - May 31st
A recap of the big political stories affecting the United States this past week.
The major story from this past week is that Donald Trump’s New York election interference trial came to a close. The jury deliberated for two days before finding Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, each a felony. Trump will receive his sentencing on July 11th.
Republican politicians largely condemned the sentencing, which came after weeks of these same politicians decrying the trial and declaring that it was a “weaponization of justice.”
Contrary to many of those claims, President Biden had nothing to do with this trial or conviction.
It was brought by the state of New York.
It is not a federal trial.
A grand jury found enough merit to go to trial.
And 12 jurors unanimously found Trump guilty of all charges.
This was the justice system working exactly as it was supposed to.
While President Biden has remained mostly quiet on all of Trump’s legal issues, after the verdict, Biden stated that “No one is above the law.”
As for now, the Republican party is still behind Trump and plans to make his nomination official in July, just a couple of days after his sentencing. Not only is it historic that Trump is the first President to be convicted of a felony, it is also historic that the Republican party is going to nominate a felon who was also found liable of sexual assault, fraud, and defamation.
In the same speech stating that no one is above the law, Biden discussed Israel and outlined a push for a lasting ceasefire in the region. This speech came days after shrapnel from an Israeli strike hit the refugee tent camps north of Rafah, where civilians were told to evacuate to for their safety. The shrapnel caused a fire to spread throughout the tent city, killing 45 civilians, including women and children.
The civilian casualties from the strike caused widespread condemnation from world leaders. The majority of the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to be women and children, with 8,000 children killed so far.
The humanitarian aid pier constructed by US forces suffered damage from heavy seas. The damage was extensive enough that repairs need to be completed before the pier can continue to be used.
Justice Alito refused requests for his recusal from cases dealing with January 6 even after his excuse for the upside down American flag seen on his property after the insurrection in 2020 was debunked.
Alito had claimed his wife put the flag upside down due to a heated disagreement with neighbors, but an investigation found that the incident he referred to had happened weeks after the flag had been taken down. It was also discovered that Alito had another flag flying, which had also been used as a symbol supporting the January 6 insurrectionists.
Refusing to recuse himself in these cases also directly contradicts the code of ethics that the Supreme Court recently adopted due to increased scrutiny over the ethical issues regarding several Justices, particularly Justice Thomas.
President Biden has changed his long-standing position on how Ukraine could use US weapons. Ukraine had been prevented from using US weapons to strike inside Russia’s border for fear of escalating the conflict. The new rule change will allow Ukraine to return fire at attacks coming from within Russia.
Russia has launched many of its attacks from just across the border, knowing that Ukraine was limited in how it could respond. The new rule will force a change in Russia's strategy as Ukraine receives its new military aid packages from several NATO nations, including the United States.
Many politicians and citizens had long been calling for allowing Ukraine to do what it needs to win this war, including striking targets within Russia to dismantle its war efforts. The new rule has limitations in that Ukraine can’t attack opportunity targets across the border that have not launched an attack. Ukraine has been using its own drones to attack Russian oil refineries to hinder Russian forces and hurt the Russian economy.
