Revenge or justice? Comey indictment puts spotlight on Attorney General Bondi

WASHINGTON — The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey marks a turning point for Attorney General Pam Bondi and her leadership of the Justice Department: critics say it will lead to the death of judicial independence, and allies call it justice being served.

Either way, Bondi has set the stage for presidents to openly use the department to prosecute their political enemies, in a move that could come back to haunt Republicans if Democrats take control of the White House.

“She’s so distorted the Justice Department and its judicial independence,” said attorney Ty Cobb, who was legal counsel in the first Trump administration but now is an open critic of the president. “It will take at least a generation to recover from.”

Comey’s indictment crystalizes the cresting concern over the use of the Justice Department as a political tool for presidents to prosecute their enemies — a precedent Trump accuses Democrats Joe Biden and Barack Obama of setting — with Bondi right in the middle.

—Miami Herald

UCLA chancellor ready to stand firm against Trump demands, unless they're 'valid'

LOS ANGELES — UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk says the university will address "valid" concerns of the Trump administration and be "fully compliant" with the law, but will defend the campus against federal civil rights investigations and funding suspensions.

In a wide-ranging online appearance Thursday evening hosted by a Los Angeles-based Jewish civic group, Frenk said the University of California was still considering suing the Trump administration over its August demand that UCLA pay a $1.2 billion fine and make sweeping changes in its diversity programs, admissions practices and policies governing gender identity on campus and international students.

But, for now, he said, UC officials are negotiating with the Department of Justice and will staunchly uphold core academic freedoms to "assure that there's no government interference in who we hire, who we admit, and what we teach or research."

Making his first extensive public remarks on a nearly two-month saga that has shaken the UC system over possible federal actions and funding clawbacks, Frenk said he was not "directly" involved in government talks and had no "visibility" into how long the process would take.

—Los Angeles Times

Security videos of car helped tie Bryan Kohberger to Idaho student murders

BOISE, Idaho — A newly released trove of security camera footage from the day that four University of Idaho students were killed reveals a white Hyundai Elantra traveling around the King Road neighborhood in Moscow before and after the early morning murders.

The video clips, obtained by the Idaho Statesman through a public records request, show the vehicle — which police investigators later connected to Bryan Kohberger — repeatedly circling the area near 1122 King Road, where the students were found fatally stabbed on Nov. 13, 2022.

The expanded footage that prosecutors previously detailed in court filings determined the route they said Kohberger, who admitted to the murders in court, took in and out of the off-campus neighborhood, and back to Pullman, Washington, where he lived.

Residential cameras on Indian Hills Drive in Moscow first recorded the white sedan, followed by security cameras at the Sunset Mart gas station in the 1300 block of Main Street, about a half-mile east of the King Road home. Then, cameras at a Ridge Road apartment and apartment complexes on Linda Lane caught the car — labeled “Suspect Vehicle 1” — headed west before it arrived on King Road for the first time at 3:30 a.m.

—Idaho Statesman

Trump says he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces pressure from some members of his coalition to increase Israeli control over the region.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, I will not allow it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. Asked if he had discussed that stance with Netanyahu, Trump demurred, suggesting that it did not matter “whether I spoke to him or not.”

“I’m not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now,” he added.

Trump on Friday said “it’s looking like we have a deal on Gaza” that will “get the hostages back” and “end the war,” without offering further details or saying whether Israel or Hamas agree.

—Bloomberg News