Biden's first Cabinet picks expected Tuesday amid roadblocks
Wilmington, Delaware (US): President-elect Joe Biden's first Cabinet picks are coming Tuesday and planning is underway for a pandemic-modified inauguration in January as his team moves forward despite roadblocks from the Trump administration.
Ron Klain, Biden's incoming chief of staff, offered no details Sunday about which department heads Biden would first announce.
The Associated Press has reported that Biden could name his nominee for secretary of state or treasury secretary this coming week.
Biden has pledged to build the most diverse government in modern history, and he and his team often speak about their desire for his administration to reflect America.
He is being watched to see whether he will make history by nominating the first woman to lead the Pentagon, the Treasury Department or the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the first African American at the top of the Defense Department, the Interior Department or the Treasury Department.
Biden said last week he had settled on his pick for treasury secretary.
Klain said the Trump administration's refusal to clear the way for Biden's team to have access to key information about agencies and federal dollars for the transition is taking its toll on planning, including the Cabinet selection process.
Trump's General Services Administration has yet to acknowledge that Biden won the election a determination that would remove those roadblocks.
We're not in a position to get background checks on Cabinet nominees. And so there are definite impacts. Those impacts escalate every day, Klain told ABC's This Week.
Even some Republicans have broken with Trump in recent days and called on him to accept the results of the election.
I, frankly, do think it's time to well, it was past time to start a transition, to at least cooperate with the transition,'' said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., on NBC's Meet the Press." He said the GSA's designation should happen Monday because it didn't happen last Monday morning," to give the incoming administration all the time they need.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said there was a very good chance Biden would be president and that Biden and his team should have access to relevant information for the transition.
After a federal judge's ruling against the Trump campaign in an election challenge in Pennsylvania on Saturday, GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said the president had exhausted all plausible legal options and Toomey congratulated Biden on his win.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in a statement Sunday that courts had so far found Trump's claims to be without merit and called a pressure campaign on state legislators to influence the electoral outcome unprecedented and inconsistent with the democratic process. It is time to begin the full and formal transition process, she said.
Also Sunday, former Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a longtime Trump supporter, said on ABC that it was time for the president to stop contesting the outcome. Christie said Trump's legal team was a national embarrassment.
Looking ahead to the Jan. 20 inauguration, Klain said it is going to definitely have to be changed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and that the Biden team is consulting with Democratic leadership in the House and Senate over their plans.
They're going to try to have an inauguration that honours the importance and the symbolic meaning of the moment, but also does not result in the spread of the disease. That's our goal, Klain said.
Inaugurations typically include a traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, remarks by the president and vice president from the Capitol, a lunch with lawmakers in the Capitol rotunda and numerous balls across Washington.
All are events attended by hundreds and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people who travel to the nation's capital. It's unclear how public health concerns will affect those traditions.
During the campaign, Biden drew a contrast with Trump on the coronavirus by paring down his own events in response to the pandemic.
Biden held smaller gatherings where people were asked to wear masks and adhere to social distancing recommendations from public health experts. Since he won the presidency, Biden has emphasised the importance of mask-wearing.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
