Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including federal prosecutors recommended that President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen receive a roughly five-year prison sentence; President Trump announced a pair of key appointments tapping William Barr as attorney general and naming former Fox News host Heather Nauert as ambassador to the United Nations; Two clinics challenging Iowa’s new law banning abortions when a heartbeat is detected urged a state judge Friday to rule in their favor on summary judgment rather than take the case to trial, and more.

Your Friday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Sign up for CNS Nightly Brief, a roundup of the day’s top stories delivered directly to your email Monday through Friday.

National

Michael Cohen, formerly a lawyer for President Trump, leaves his hotel in New York on July 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

1.) Restrained in their praise of Michael Cohen for cooperating with investigators, federal prosecutors recommended Friday that President Donald Trump’s former lawyer receive a roughly five-year prison sentence.

This combination photo shows Heather Nauert and William Barr, whom President Donald Trump appointed, respectively, on Dec. 7, 2018, as ambassador to the United Nations and as U.S. attorney general. While Nauert has worked since April as a spokeswoman at the State Department, Barr served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush. (Nauer photo by Alex Brandon/AP; Barr photo via Time Warner)

2.) President Donald Trump announced a pair of key appointments Friday, tapping William Barr as attorney general, a position he once held under President George H.W. Bush, and naming former Fox News host Heather Nauert as ambassador to the United Nations.

George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, arrives for his first appearance before congressional investigators, on Oct. 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

3.) Convicted former Trump aide George Papadopoulos was released Friday morning from the federal prison where he served a two-week sentence for lying to investigators probing Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2018 file photo, a job applicant talks with company representatives at a JobNewsUSA job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. Jobs report on Friday, Dec. 7, for November is expected to point to a solid economy for most Americans, with steady hiring, a low unemployment rate and faster wage gains. If so, it would provide a dose of welcome news after this week’s frantic financial market gyrations, which have been driven by concerns that the U.S.-China trade war could escalate and weaken a U.S. economy already facing higher interest rates and slowing global growth. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

4.) The Department of Labor said Friday that American employers added just 155,000 jobs in November while unemployment has held steady and average pay grew by just over 3 percent.

Regional

On the water at Hungry Horse Dam. (Chris Marshall/CNS)

5.) In his latest dispatch, Courthouse News’ western bureau chief visits a few miles of Montana’s Glacier National Park.

6.) Two clinics challenging Iowa’s new law banning abortions when a heartbeat is detected urged a state judge Friday to rule in their favor on summary judgment rather than take the case to trial.

7.) During a fiery election fraud investigation surrounding the 9th Congressional District race, North Carolina’s General Assembly passed a controversial photo ID voting bill Thursday that extends to absentee voters.

8.) People with mental health issues and dementia who are released from Los Angeles County jails will be given medications and connections to organizations that can keep them from becoming homeless, according to an update of a settlement agreement reached Thursday.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to our free newsletters

Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.