State Attorney Monique Worrell reclaimed her seat Tuesday after being removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis, and President-elect Donald Trump makes an announcement from Mar-A-Lago.
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Monique Worrell returns to State Attorney’s Office after 2024 election win
State Attorney Monique Worrell took her oath of office on the steps of the Orange County courthouse Tuesday.
Worrell was first elected in 2020 to serve in the 9th Judicial Circuit, serving Orange and Osceola counties. However, she received criticism from DeSantis, who claimed she was not being harsh enough on violent criminals and wasn’t protecting the public.
Her suspension followed an August 2023 shooting in downtown Orlando that involved 28-year-old suspect Daton Viel, who officials say shot and injured two police officers.
It was later reported that Viel had a lengthy criminal past and several outstanding warrants at the time of the shooting.
Worrell filed a motion to regain her title, but a judge upheld the suspension. DeSantis appointed Judge Andrew Bain to fill her position as state attorney.
Worrell was re-elected as state attorney in the November 2024 election, with nearly 60% of the votes.
While she has described the past 18 months as very difficult, she said she is looking forward to getting back to work.
When asked about responding to those who don’t believe she’s hard enough on criminals, Worrell said there isn’t a single answer for addressing crime in Central Florida.
“There is no end. There is a lot of in-between. It’s not black, and it’s not white. The criminal justice system is gray,” she said. “We have to work collectively and collaboratively so that we can do what’s best for our communities.”
Worrell said her main priority is to carefully assess, listen and understand the current state of the State Attorney’s Office.
She said she will keep what’s working from the time Bain was in charge, and improve what isn’t working — as well as bring back some of the initiatives that she said made a difference in the community.
“I am honored to return to the seat of the people’s state attorney,” Worrell said.
Trump says Canada, Greenland and Panama Canal should be part of U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump struck an expansionist tone during a sprawling news conference at his Mar-A Lago club in Florida on Tuesday, saying Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal should all be part of the United States.
He also said he wouldn’t rule out using military force to claim Greenland from Denmark and the Panama Canal from Panama.
“I’m not going to commit to that (ruling out military force),” Trump said during an event that began with a $20 billion foreign investment announcement in U.S. data centers. “It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country … we need Greenland for national security purposes.”
Asked if he would consider using military force to acquire Canada, Trump said: “No. Economic force.”
“Canada and the United States — you get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like,” he said. “It would also be better for national security.”
Trump pledged to reverse Biden’s offshore drilling ban on his first day in office, to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and to make “major pardons” of convicted Jan. 6 rioters.
He also called on NATO member countries to increase the percentage of gross domestic product they contribute from 2% to 5%, and said he will negotiate a Gaza hostage deal by the time he takes office.
“We do have people that are hostages being held, and I’ll just say it again: If this deal is not done with the people representing our nation by the time I get to office, all hell is going to break out,” he said.
Trump reiterated many familiar talking points during a nearly 90-minute news conference, pledging to increase tariffs and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine.
Responding to news that Judge Aileen Canon had blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his criminal cases involving classified documents, the president-elect said it was “great news.”
“That’s the way it should be,” he said, referring to Smith as a “deranged individual” who had pursued “a fake case.”
Judge temporarily blocks release of special counsel report on Trump cases amid simmering court fight
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on investigations into Donald Trump as an appeals court weighs a challenge to the disclosure of a much-anticipated document just days before the president-elect reclaims office.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon may represent a short-lived victory for Trump but it’s nonetheless the latest instance of the Trump-appointed jurist taking action in the Republican’s favor.
The halt came in response to an emergency request Monday night by defense lawyers to block the release of a report that they said would be one-sided and prejudicial.
Trump responded to Cannon’s order by complaining anew about Smith’s investigation and saying, “It was a fake case against a political opponent.”
It was not clear what the Justice Department, which has its own guidelines governing special counsels, intended to do following Cannon’s order, which barred the release of the report until three days after the matter is resolved by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The two-volume report is expected to describe charging decisions made in separate investigations by Smith into Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Smith pledged earlier in the day that the volume on the documents investigation would not be made public by the Justice Department until 10 a.m. on Friday at the earliest.
Trump was charged alongside two co-defendants in the classified documents case, which was dismissed in July by Cannon, who concluded that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was illegal. Trump was also charged in an election interference case that was significantly narrowed by a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
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