Trump demands Bishop Mariann Budde apologize for National Prayer Service sermon

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Wednesday demanded an apology from the Episcopal bishop who criticized his hardline policies on immigration and LGBTQ rights at the National Prayer Service on his first full day back in the White House.

A day after Trump was forced to grimly endure the tough-talking service by Bishop Mariann Budde, the president derided her as a "so-called bishop" and worse.

“(Bishop Budde) is a radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart,” Trump wrote on his social media site.

Trump called on Budde and the church to apologize for embarrassing him by allowing Budde to deliver a rare rebuke to his face. “She is not very good at her job!” Trump wrote. “She and her church owe the public an apology!”

—New York Daily News

Trump decision can’t ‘whitewash’ Jan. 6 cases, federal judge says in fiery dismissal order

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday dismissed a case against a January 6 defendant from the Chicago area, but refused to do so with prejudice in an angrily worded order days after President Donald Trump’s clemency decision.

“In hundreds of cases like this one over the past four years, judges in this district have administered justice without fear or favor,” U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote. “The historical record established by those proceedings must stand, unmoved by political winds, as a testament and as a warning.”

Though the refusal to drop the matter without prejudice is mostly symbolic in the face of a pardon, such an order normally would leave a theoretical door open for prosecutors to again bring charges against John Banuelos, of Summit, one of more than 50 Illinois residents charged in the insurrection. Federal prosecutors previously accused Banuelos of civil disorder and discharging a weapon in or on Capitol grounds.

Chutkan noted that the government’s only reasoning for dropping the case was an exercise of power from the president. “The Court does not discern — and neither party has identified — any defect in either the legal merits of, or the factual basis for, the Government’s case,” she wrote.

—Chicago Tribune

Biden, Harris in California, and soon Trump will be too

Former President Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden are spending their first days after leaving the White House in Santa Barbara County, according to media reports.

The Bidens traveled to a private home in Santa Ynez after attending the inauguration of President Donald Trump in the packed rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Monday, NBC News first reported.

The setting is significant — the couple sought respite there after Biden decided not to seek reelection and spoke in support of then-Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

The Bidens and several of their family members spent several days then at a sprawling vineyard owned by major Democratic donor Joe Kiani, the billionaire founder of the medical technology company Masimo in Irvine. His rural property, in the foothills of the San Rafael Mountains, is surrounded by horse paddocks and gnarled live oaks.

—Los Angeles Times

Houthis say crew held captive for over a year have been freed

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have released the crew of a commercial vessel that they hijacked over a year ago, the latest step in the easing of risks to ships in the Red Sea region.

The Galaxy Leader was among the first vessels to be targeted by the Houthis in the southern Red Sea, a major trade passageway between Asia and Europe. The attacks have killed seafarers, sunk vessels and forced the bulk of traffic to diverge thousands of miles around Africa.

Rebel leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi ordered the release of the seafarers who were handed to Omani officials, according to the Houthi-operated Al-Masirah TV.

The group said over the weekend that they would stop attacking ships with links to the U.S. and U.K. after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Shipping firms are still cautious about any quick return to that route.

—Bloomberg News