The first-ever image of Donald Trump captured at a police station showed a visibly angry demeanor, accompanied by a menacing gaze.
Trump’s most well-known picture was taken on Thursday night when he was arrested and sent to Fulton County Jail for charges related to interfering in the Georgia election.
The ex-president made a worried face and looked unhappy in the picture taken by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office before 9pm. He had on a red tie, a white shirt and a dark blue suit.
Trump looked very different from the others in his group photo. A few of them grinned.
In simpler terms: Trump spoke on a runway after being detained at a Georgia jail, calling it an unfair miscarriage of justice.
He is the first president, either current or past, to have a photo taken after being arrested. He is also the first president to be accused of committing a crime. Trump is being investigated for meddling in the Georgia election, and he also has three other legal cases going on.
Trump went to Fulton County Jail in downtown Atlanta to be booked around 7. 30pm He quickly finished his work in Georgia and only stayed there for about an hour and a half before going back to his golf club in New Jersey.
The paper that had his booking information showed he was arrested and mentioned that he was very tall (6 foot 3 inches), weighed 215 pounds, and had blue eyes and either blonde or strawberry hair.
Trump’s friends took advantage of his mugshot.
Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that this photo will be the one to win the 2024 Presidential election. She stood outside the jail to show her support.
At the same time, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville said he knew Trump’s expression in the mugshot.
“I have observed President Trump wearing that expression occasionally while playing golf with him. It happens when he fails to make a putt or when I am winning a game of golf against him,” he explained on Newsmax.
It is said that the picture of Trump with an angry face was intentionally arranged. According to CNN, before taking him to jail, his team talked to him about it. He made a deliberate choice to appear “defiant” and purposely decided not to smile.
He gave up because most of the people he was accused with had already turned themselves in. Fani Willis, who is the District Attorney of Fulton County, told all 19 people accused of crimes that they must turn themselves in before Friday at noon. If they don’t, she will issue arrest warrants for them.
On Thursday morning, Mark Meadows, who used to be his main assistant in the White House, gave up and showed up angry with a slight snarl on his face.
On Wednesday afternoon, Rudy Giuliani, who used to be Trump’s personal lawyer, turned himself in. He looked serious and resolute in his mugshot. When it was made public, Giuliani was very critical of Willis’ investigation and said that he had spoken to Trump earlier in the day.
Giuliani said, ‘I believe in him completely. ‘
Trump looked much angrier in his mugshot than when he got off the plane at the airport to go to jail. He showed a thumbs up and a small smile.
The first debate for the 2024 presidential election witnessed Republican candidates engaging in heated arguments. In the absence of Donald Trump, they aimed to assume the leadership role.
Eight competitors gathered on a stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to argue about various topics including Ukraine and abortion.
While most people were hesitant to criticize Mr. Trump, a few of the candidates did criticize the absent former president.
The person who wins will compete against the Democratic candidate, most likely President Joe Biden, in November 2024.
On Wednesday night, some important people appeared on stage for a TV show on Fox News. These people were Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Vice-President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
Mr DeSantis, who is currently in second place for the election, is having some difficulties with his campaign. He has made a promise multiple times to “send Biden back to his basement. ”
But even though he was in the main spotlight, the governor of Florida had a hard time getting attention during the two-hour forum compared to Vivek Ramaswamy, who is a successful new politician and billionaire.
“Do you prefer a person controlled by a super PAC, as if they were their puppet,” the 38-year-old son of immigrants from India asked, “or do you want a patriot who honestly speaks the truth. ”
Mr Pence, who has a lot of experience in debating, criticized Mr. Ramaswamy for not having much experience. He said that it is not the right time for Mr. Ramaswamy to be learning on the job. We don’t need to have someone new and inexperienced.
Christie also criticized Mr. Ramaswamy, calling him an inexperienced person, and compared his speaking style to that of a computer-generated chat program.
As the candidates argued, Ms. Haley interrupted and said, “This is exactly why Margaret Thatcher said, ‘If you want someone to speak, ask a man, if you want someone to take action, ask a woman. ‘”
The discussion showed that there were disagreements within the party regarding their stance on helping Ukraine and allowing women to have abortions.
Many of the candidates promised to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
ButRamaswamy made fun of “professional politicians who will go to Kyiv like they are going on a religious journey to see President Zelensky. ”
MsHaley criticized Mr. Ramaswamy’s stance of isolating himself from other countries, stating that he lacks experience in foreign policy.
There was a disagreement about whether it should be allowed to restrict abortion all across the country.
MsHaley, the only woman on stage, expressed her belief that it is unfair to pressure women into making a decision on this matter when Republicans do not have enough votes in the Senate to successfully pass it.
MrPence responded that this was not a display of leadership.
The debate moderators asked the candidates if they would support Mr. Trump if he became the Republican nominee.
Out of the eight people on stage, Mr. Christie and Mr. Hutchinson were the only ones who didn’t raise their hands.
Mr Christie received both negative and positive reactions when he claimed that Mr. Trump’s behavior is below what is expected of a US president.
Mr Hutchinson received louder and louder negative reactions as he claimed that Mr. Trump should not be allowed to be president.
Mr Trump did not take part in the debate because he believed he was already doing better than others in the race. Instead, he decided to have an interview with Tucker Carlson, a former host on Fox, and put it online at the same time. He did this to try and outshine the televised event.
The ex-president said he didn’t want to deal with smaller competitors bothering him. This interview got 100 million views on Twitter.
After the debate, Trump’s spokesperson Jason Miller said that even though the former president wasn’t there, he still won. He also said that Governor DeSantis’ performance signaled the start of his decline.
The argument happened shortly before Mr. Trump’s trip to Georgia, where he might be arrested for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in that state.
According to a recent poll by CBS News, Mr Trump is leading the Republican race with 62% of the votes, which is much higher than the combined total of all his opponents. This is despite his ongoing legal problems.
Mr DeSantis is in second place with 16% of the votes. Ramaswamy ranked third with a score of 7%.
Last week, a poll from Quinnipiac University showed that Mr. Trump, who is 77 years old, was nearly tied with Mr. Biden in a potential election matchup. 47% of the people surveyed supported Mr. Biden, while 46% supported Mr.
During a debate-watching event in Atlanta, Georgia, around 100 young Republican voters evaluated the candidates.
Richard Polk, who is 33 years old, believed that Mr. Trump was a good president. However, he felt that Mr. Trump often sabotaged his own efforts.
Ashlee Jackson, a voter who does not belong to any political party from the area, believed that the candidates should provide less empty phrases and more specific information about their policy stances.
The upcoming Republican debate will happen in Simi Valley, California, on September 27th.
In January, voters will start picking the person they want to support for president in a bunch of state elections called primaries. The very first primary will be held in Iowa.
The final candidate for the Republican Party will be chosen at their convention in Milwaukee in July, before the general election takes place four months later.
Donald Trump wants to go to court in Georgia to deal with accusations of interfering in the election. He will do this on Thursday.
A judge in Atlanta has decided that the former president can be released from custody if he pays $200,000.
The agreement states that Mr. Trump can stay out of jail until his trial as long as he doesn’t try to scare or bully the people who will be giving evidence.
He and the other 18 people accused in this case were told to come to the Fulton County Jail by Friday at noon so they could be processed.
The sheriff in the county said that everyone, including Mr. Trump, will be treated the same way as other people accused of a crime. This means that Mr. Trump might have to give his fingerprints and have his picture taken.
Before he stated on social media that he would give himself up on Thursday, a document was made public that explained the conditions of his agreement to be released on bond.
“The person accused must not do anything to scare or threaten anyone who is also accused or being called as a witness in this case, or try to make it harder for justice to be served,” stated the message.
“The above also includes, but is not limited to, messages on social media or sharing someone else’s messages on social media,” the order states.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and lawyers representing Mr. Trump both signed it.
Later on Monday, Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, “Can you believe it. I will be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be arrested by a District Attorney named Fani Willis, who leans towards the Radical Left. ”
“He said that she campaigned, and continues to campaign, and raise money on, this witch hunt. ” “This is closely connected to dishonest Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. “
Willis has requested the judge to set a date for when the defendant will be informed about the charges and asked to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. This date is intended to be scheduled for 5 September.
She has also suggested that the trial should start in March. Both the time when the suspect is formally charged with a crime and the stage where their case is heard before a judge or jury, might be shown on television.
When Trump decides to give up, the area nearby will be closed off and barriers have already been put up outside the court.
Last week, Mr. Trump and his co-defendants were accused of trying to interfere in Georgia’s election results after he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
The ex-president talked to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on the phone and tried to influence him to find enough votes to change the election results.
The first former or current US president who has been charged with a crime, he is also dealing with three other criminal cases.
Mr Trump says he did nothing wrong and believes the accusations are unfair because they are driven by politics.
At the moment, he is in the lead of the Republican race to choose their next candidate for the White House. This candidate will then go up against the Democratic nominee, most likely Mr. Biden, in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
Mr Trump has already announced that he will not participate in the first Republican televised debate on Wednesday evening.
“I am well-known to the public and they are aware of my successful time as President,” stated Mr. Trump on Truth Social this Sunday. “I have decided not to participate in the debates. ”
People who are close to Mr. Trump say that he didn’t do an interview with Oprah. Instead, he did an interview with Tucker Carlson, who used to work at Fox News.
State-by-state primaries, which are elections for Republican voters to decide who will represent their party, are scheduled to start on January 15, 2024.
Donald Trump said he will not be in the upcoming debate with the other people running for president from his party.
The former president mentioned that a recent poll indicated that he was significantly more popular than other candidates, making him a top choice for his political party’s nomination in the 2024 election.
It is not clear right now if Mr. Trump will be missing all the debates for the Republican primaries.
The first debate between Republican candidates running for president will take place on August 23.
Voting starts in Iowa on January 15th, 2024.
Recent surveys have consistently found that Mr. Trump, who is dealing with several criminal charges, is currently leading in the race for the Republican nomination.
Trump is needed by Republican competitors to participate in a debate. But, is he going to do it.
MrTrump wrote a message on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. He said that he will not go to the debate and mentioned that a recent poll shows that he is ahead in the race to become the Republican candidate.
MrTrump stated that the public is aware of his identity and is familiar with his successful time as the President. I won’t participate in the debates.
According to a poll conducted by CBS News, the closest competitor to a person is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but he is significantly falling behind.
Recently, Trump kept saying that he wouldn’t participate in the Republican debates.
The ex-president wants to do an interview with Tucker Carlson, a previous host on Fox News. The interview might be shown during the first debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday. People who know about the planning shared this information with CBS.
Donald Trump said he might not go to this week’s debate, and this made some of his Republican opponents, like former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, upset.
Last week, Mr. Christie said that if someone thinks they should be chosen, if they think they have done really well before, if they think they are the best person to compete against Joe Biden, then they should come to the event on Wednesday and stop being scared.
Republican candidates who want to participate in the debate need to have received donations from at least 40,000 people and have a support of at least 1% in reputable polls.
Up until now, we know that Vice-President Mike Pence, Mr. Christie, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott have all been approved.
The first Republican debate is happening this week, at the same time when Mr. Trump has to give himself up willingly in Fulton County, Georgia.
He has to go to the state by 25 August to deal with charges of attempting to change the outcome of the 2020 election in the state.
Donald Trump is being accused of many crimes and will have multiple trials in the next year and a half. Meanwhile, he is also running for president in the 2024 US election.
In addition to the charges against Mr. Trump in Georgia, he has also been charged in Florida. The charges are for unlawfully keeping secret documents at his property called Mar-a-Lago. When he was asked to give them back, he refused.
His third accusation was revealed this month in Washington DC. Prosecutors say he kept saying he won the last presidential election when that wasn’t true.
He has often said that the charges against him are like a political “witch hunt”.
Georgia state authorities are looking into online threats made against members of the grand jury that on Monday indicted Donald Trump.
Right-wing forums were used to disseminate private information, including the addresses and pictures of the jurors.
The Fulton County Sheriff‘s Office declared that it was aware of the threats and that it was looking for individuals responsible.
In Georgia, it is customary to reveal the names of the jurors in an indictment.
However, after the jurors’ identities were made public, followers of the former president Trump reportedly gathered online data and shared images and addresses to forums, including the social media platform Telegram.
It happens shortly after the jury decided to indict Mr. Trump on 13 counts, including racketeering and interference in political campaigns. He claims that the accusations are made for political reasons.
Officials claimed that in addition to threats made against jurors, personal information about individuals was also exchanged. According to the police, the threats may have intimidated the jurors.
According to a statement from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, “our investigators are closely collaborating with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to track down the source of threats in Fulton County and other jurisdictions.”
It stated that they take the situation seriously and will act immediately to protect the safety of the jury.
One individual posted a remark on Facebook saying, “I thought it only fair to share a few names from that grand jury.”
The article was later taken down; it had listed numerous jurors’ potential residences and phone numbers.
Other comments made by users on Mr. Trump’s website, Truth social, urged followers to “make sure [the jurors] can’t walk down the street” and to “make them infamous.”
According to reports, some posts contain violent speech directed towards Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor in charge of Mr. Trump’s case.
According to the Reuters news agency, two NBC News journalists who wrote about the grand jury event also had their own alleged addresses released online.
The distribution of juror information as a “hit list” was denounced by Media Matters, a nonprofit organisation that keeps an eye on conservative media outlets.
Georgia stands out from other states in the US court system because it discloses the identities of the jurors, ostensibly to increase public trust in the justice system.
However, they don’t divulge their addresses or any other private information.
Mr. Trump, who is currently the front-runner for the Republican nomination to run for president in the election of 2024, has frequently criticised the strongest accusations made against him.
US prosecutors claimed earlier this month that a post he made on Truth was meant to frighten those connected to a case against him.
A lady in Texas has been charged with making a murderous threat against a judge who is in charge of another lawsuit against Mr. Trump.
A few hours before the president arrived in Utah last week, FBI agents shot and killed an armed man in Utah who had allegedly threatened Joe Biden with death. He was discovered by federal officials as a result of a threat he made on Truth Social. The business informed the National Threat Operations Centre of the FBI.
A Canadian woman who sent ricin-laced mail to Donald Trump when he was president was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Thursday in the US.
Former US President Donald Trump has been accused of trying to rig the Georgia election in order to reverse his loss there in 2020.
This is his fourth criminal prosecution in as many months.
Along with 18 other allies, Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, was charged.
All 13 of the allegations against him, which include interfering in elections and racketeering, are denied. They are politically motivated, according to him.
In February 2021, Georgia’s Fani Willis initially opened an inquiry into claims that Mr. Trump and his allies had interfered with elections.
Prosecutors filed a 98-page indictment against the 19 defendants, which was made public late on Monday.
Defendants had until Friday, August 25, noon to voluntarily surrender, according to Ms. Willis’ announcement. She stated that all 19 defendants would be tried concurrently.
Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House top of staff Mark Meadows, and former White House attorney John Eastman are on the list of alleged co-conspirators.
Others include Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, two Trump attorneys who emphasised unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud, as well as Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department employee.
The defendants “knowingly and willfully participated in a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favour of Trump,” according to the indictment.
The former president is charged with several felonies, including
Violating Georgia’s racketeering act
Solicitation of violation of oath by public officer
Conspiracy to impersonate a public officer
Conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
False statements and writings and filing false documents
The defendants are referred to in the indictment as a “criminal organisation,” and they are charged with witness tampering, computer trespass, theft, and perjury, among other offences.
Violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO Act), the most serious charge, carries a possible 20-year jail sentence.
The statute, which was created to aid in the dismantling of organised criminal syndicates like the mafia, aids prosecutors in establishing a causal link between subordinates who breached the law and those who gave them commands.
The Trump campaign said in a statement that the district attorney was a “rabid partisan” who had brought “these bogus indictments” in an effort to sway the 2024 presidential election and “damage the dominant Trump campaign”.
The statement read, “This latest coordinated attack by a biassed prosecutor in a predominately Democratic jurisdiction not only betrays the trust of the American people, but also exposes the true motivation driving their manufactured accusations.”
He is the only former US president ever to be charged with a crime.
In February 2021, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began an inquiry.
Before the grand jury voted to return an indictment, a list of criminal charges against Mr. Trump posted on a Fulton County website earlier on Monday, causing uncertainty.
According to the document, Donald Trump was accused of racketeering, conspiring to commit fraud, and making false statements.
The document was described as “fictitious” by a Ms. Willis representative, who did not, however, explain how it wound up on the court’s website.
The apparent clerical error was used by Mr. Trump and his friends as evidence that the system was biassed.
Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, charged Mr. Trump earlier this month with plotting to rig the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat President Joe Biden.
The operations of the Trump campaign in Georgia received a good deal of attention in that charge sheet. In that instance, Mr. Trump entered a not guilty plea.
Georgia is the centre of Ms. Willis’ inquiry, a crucial state in the race for the US presidency that Mr. Trump just missed winning.
On a discussion with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021, Mr. Trump was overheard pleading with him to “find” the 11,780 votes he would have needed to defeat Mr. Biden in that state.
An alleged plan to tamper with voting equipment in one Georgia county and steal data is described in the indictment.
It also refers to an alleged plan to submit erroneous lists of electors, the people who decide who becomes president and vice president through the Electoral College.
State charges, like those in Georgia, have important distinctions from federal ones. Notably, Mr. Trump would not be able to exonerate himself of state accusations if he were to win the presidency again in 2024.
A far-right politician known for his admiration of former US President Donald Trump, Javier Milei, has achieved a remarkable feat by securing the largest portion of votes in Argentina’s primary election.
This preliminary election, which involves candidates from all political parties, holds substantial significance as an indicator for the upcoming presidential election on October 22nd.
Surpassing expectations, Mr. Milei captured an impressive 30% of the votes, outshining more established political figures. This outcome has sent shockwaves through the Argentine media, aptly termed a “political earthquake.”
Argentina’s primary system differs from those of other nations, as it allows participation not only for party members but also for all eligible voters who can partake in the presidential election. Voting in these primaries is compulsory.
The candidate who garners the most votes in the primaries is often considered a front-runner for the main presidential election on October 22nd.
Preceding the primaries, opinion polls had placed Mr. Milei behind the center-left economy minister, Sergio Massa, and the conservative contender Patricia Bullrich.
However, with over 97% of the votes tallied, Mr. Milei secured 30.06% of the votes, leading Patricia Bullrich’s coalition with 28.27% and Sergio Massa’s coalition with 27.24%.
Newspaper La Nación likened Mr. Milei’s surge to a formidable tsunami.
Despite having served as a Congressman since 2021, Mr. Milei, a former TV personality, prefers to position himself as a political outsider.
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES – Image caption: Javier Milei is often seen wearing his trademark leather jacket and sporting long sideburns
His anti-establishment perspective has resonated strongly with Argentine voters who are frustrated with both the present and past administrations for their inability to resolve the nation’s economic turmoil.
With an annual inflation rate exceeding 115%, a quarter of the population living in poverty, and the local currency, the peso, having plummeted to the extent that rival football fans mock Argentine supporters by tearing up peso bills, the discontent is palpable.
Mr. Milei has directed vehement criticisms towards his rivals hailing from entrenched political parties. In the aftermath of the primary, he addressed his enthusiastic supporters, proclaiming that they have crafted a viable alternative capable of dismantling the parasitic, corrupt, and ineffective political elite.
At 52 years old, he envisions the elimination of Argentina’s central bank, the substitution of the peso with the US dollar, and the privatization of state-owned entities running at a loss, if elected. His policy stance on loosening gun controls mirrors a page from the playbook of Brazil’s former far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro.
Mr. Milei has vocalized his opposition to abortion unless the life of the mother is endangered, and he pledges to safeguard the lives of children from conception, forming a crucial part of his campaign agenda.
Expressing skepticism towards sex education in schools, branding it a strategy to dismantle the “traditional family,” and rejecting the concept of climate change, he portrays a unique and unorthodox image.
Sporting distinctive long sideburns, belting out rock anthems, and often donning a leather jacket, the deliberately provocative 52-year-old frequently launches expletive-laden tirades against “the left.”
His unexpectedly strong performance in the primary—exceeding opinion polls by 10 percentage points—prompted a further plunge in the peso’s value. As markets commenced on Monday, the official exchange rate plummeted by nearly 18%, settling just above 350 pesos per dollar.
Mr Milei’s success was celebrated rapturously by his supporters, whom he told: “We are the true opposition, we are the only ones who want a real change, because remember, a different Argentina is impossible with the same old people, with the same old people who have always failed, with the same old people who have been failing for 100 years.”
Following the recent primaries, the second and third place candidates, Patricia Bullrich and Sergio Massa, are now focusing on enhancing their positions in preparation for the initial round of the presidential election scheduled for October 22nd.
Should no candidate secure 45% of the votes or 40% with a lead of 10 percentage points, a second round will take place on November 19th between the top two contenders.
Given the slight margin of under four percentage points that separates the leading three candidates in the primaries, the likelihood of a second round is currently high.
Argentina is not the sole nation in the region where an anti-establishment candidate has disrupted the political landscape.
In Colombia’s 2022 election, independent contender Rodolfo Hernández unexpectedly took the lead in the initial round, only to be defeated by former left-wing rebel Gustavo Petro in the runoff.
Similarly, Chile saw far-right candidate José Antonio Kast secure the lead in the first round of the 2021 election, yet he was ultimately overcome by the left-wing former student leader Gabriel Boric in the subsequent round.
In Brazil, fervent supporters of the incumbent far-right figure, Jair Bolsonaro, disputed his narrow loss to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Their dissent culminated in a storming of Congress mere days after Lula da Silva’s inauguration on January 1st, 2023.
A federal court has cautioned former US President Donald Trump from making “inflammatory” comments that could taint the jury pool before his trial for attempting to rig the 2020 election results.
Judge Tanya Chuktan, however, said that Mr. Trump can publicly release some of the non-sensitive information that prosecutors disclose to his legal team.
The special counsel had voiced concern that Mr. Trump may leak classified information and threaten witnesses; the decision on Friday was a setback for him.
The judge stated that the historic case was proceeding normally during a 90-minute hearing in Washington, DC.
He is facing criminal charges. He will be subject to restrictions, just like every other defendant, she said.
The fact that the defendant is running for office won’t give him any more or less freedom than any other defendant in a criminal case, according to the statement.
The legal team for the former president and federal prosecutors are engaged in a number of court disputes, some of which Mr. Trump is permitted to discuss in public.
During an FBI operation on Wednesday, a man who had made violent threats against President Joe Biden and other authorities online was shot and killed.
Just hours before President Biden was scheduled to visit the state, agents were seeking to serve Craig Robertson with an arrest warrant at his house in Utah.
According to a federal complaint, Robertson threatened President Biden and a prosecutor who was investigating possible criminal charges against Donald Trump on Facebook.
The FBI refused to provide more information.
The raid took place in Provo, which is located around 40 miles (65 km) south of Salt Lake City, at around 06:15 local time.
Robertson posted threats to kill Mr. Biden and Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney overseeing an investigation into a hush-money payment by Mr. Trump to an adult film star, as well as images of guns on Facebook, according to a criminal complaint.
Other messages, according to the complaint, were directed at New York Attorney General Letitia James and US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
On Facebook, Robertson wrote: “I hear Biden is coming to Utah. cleaning the M24 sniper rifle of dust and digging out my old ghillie suit.
On two of Robertson’s Facebook accounts, there were dozens of other violent posts and images of weapons.
According to the complaint, Robertson was observed by federal officials in March after making a threat against Mr. Bragg on the Mr. Trump-owned social media site Truth Social. The business informed the National Threat Operations Centre of the FBI.
When FBI officers contacted the suspect later, he described the posting as a “dream” and declared, “We’re done here! Don’t return without a warrant!”
Later posts by Robertson mentioned his run-together with the agents, featured images of him dressed in sniper-style camouflage, and repeatedly threatened government officials.
Even on Tuesday, when he posted, the messages persisted: “Perhaps Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the Marxist.”
On Thursday, Mr. Biden will pay his first visit to Utah as president, stopping up at a veterans hospital and attending a fundraiser in Park City.
Former US President Donald Trump has entered a plea of not guilty in a Washington DC court, where he faces charges of conspiring to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
In a brief arraignment, he spoke softly to confirm his not-guilty plea, his name and age, and that he was not under the influence of any substances.
Speaking to reporters later, he characterized the case as a “persecution of a political opponent”.
This appearance marks the third time in four months that the former president has appeared as a criminal defendant.
On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Trump arrived at the courthouse through a rear entrance in the heart of the nation’s capital, situated just steps away from the location of the US Capitol riot, a pivotal event in the prosecution’s case.
Approximately 1,000 defendants charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 storming of Congress have also appeared in the same courthouse building.
The former president seemed to exchange glances across the court with Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the investigation.
Mr Trump was seen twiddling his thumbs as he sat waiting for the hearing to begin, and he shook his head as the clerk read out the case number.
His not-guilty plea covered the four charges in this latest indictment:
conspiracy to defraud the US
conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
obstruction of an official proceeding
conspiracy against the rights of citizens
The judge issued a directive to the former president, advising him against discussing the specifics of the case.
She cautioned that non-compliance might lead to consequences such as an arrest warrant, withdrawal of release conditions, and potential charges of contempt of court.
During the hearing, prosecutors emphasized the advantages of expediting the trial process.
Image caption,Mr Trump spoke to reporters at Reagan airport standing near his aide Walt Nauta (left), his co-defendant in a separate case
But Trump defence attorney John Lauro said they would need more time to prepare. He said the prosecution’s timeline was “somewhat absurd” given that the investigation itself had taken three years.
The allegations laid out on Tuesday in an indictment, or charge sheet, include a count of “conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud and deceit”.
Mr Trump lost the 2020 election to his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, but he refused to concede and mounted weeks of challenges across several US states.
He is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination and may face a rematch with Mr Biden.
Speaking to reporters before flying home to New Jersey in his private plane, Mr Trump said his arraignment was a “very sad day for America”.
He told reporters he was sad to see “the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti” in Washington DC.
Outside court, one of his lawyers previewed a possible defence strategy.
Alina Habba argued that the former president had been given bad guidance by his team in the aftermath of the election.
“I think that everybody was made aware that he lost the election, but that doesn’t mean that that was the only advice he was given,” said Ms Habba.
She added: “He may not agree with Mike Pence. He may not agree with one of his lawyers.
“But that doesn’t mean there weren’t other people advising him exactly the opposite. And the president has a right, as every one of us do, to listen to several opinions and make a decision.”
The indictment lists six unnamed co-conspirators who allegedly helped Mr Trump plot to quash his election loss.
During Thursday’s court hearing, three police officers who testified before Congress about their experiences during the US Capitol riot were in attendance. Alongside them were several off-duty judges.
Outside the courtroom, a gathering of supporters bearing Trump campaign flags congregated, while counter-protesters against Trump also made their presence known.
The next scheduled hearing on August 28th is anticipated to be procedural in nature. However, it’s possible that the judge may decide on a trial date.
This marks the Republican’s involvement in two other legal cases: one involving mishandling classified files and the other related to falsifying business records to conceal a payment to a porn star.
Mr. Trump is now facing a total of five upcoming trials. Three of these trials will take place in New York, focusing on the hush-money payment and civil matters related to business practices and accusations of defamation by a woman who alleged rape. The fourth trial will occur in Florida and revolves around allegations of mishandling classified documents.
Former US president, Donald Trump has been accused of planning to rig the 2020 election in his favour.
He is charged with four counts, including conspiring to defraud the United States, interfering with a witness, and conspiring to violate the rights of citizens.
A probe into the circumstances leading up to the disturbance at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, comes to a close with the indictment.
The 77-year-old candidate for president, Mr. Trump, rejects accusations of malfeasance. He referred to the case as “ridiculous” on social media.
The Republican senator has already faced charges for mishandling secret documentsand fabricating financial records to hide a hush-money payment to a porn star.
The election probe has concentrated on Mr. Trump’s conduct between the two months between his defeat to Joe Biden and the violence in Washington, DC, where his supporters rushed Congress as lawmakers formally proclaimed the Democrat the winner.
Special attorney Jack Smith, who is in charge of the investigation, declared that the attack on the nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was a first for the seat of American democracy.
“It was fueled by lies, just as the indictment alleged.”
In his brief closing remarks, Mr. Smith vowed to work towards “a speedy trial,” stressing that the former president “must be presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
On Thursday in Washington, DC, Mr. Trump is scheduled to appear in court.
Six anonymous co-conspirators are listed in the 45-page indictment: four solicitors, a justice department employee, and a political consultant.
A “conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the function of the federal government through dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” is alleged in the court document against Mr. Trump.
In response to Mr. Trump’s charges of voter fraud in 2020, the prosecution states: “These claims were false and the defendant knew that they were false.”
Additionally, according to the report, Mr. Trump made an effort—which was unsuccessful—to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to try to prevent Mr. Biden from being sworn in as President on January 6, 2021.
The defendant and co-conspirators “exploited the disruption as violence broke out by stepping up their efforts to levy false allegations of election fraud and persuade members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those allegations.”
The indictment also cites the various senior Trump campaign employees and US government officials who are alleged to have told the outgoing president that he had lost and that there was no proof of voter fraud.
The Republican Party’s selection process for its next presidential nominee is currently being led by Mr. Trump, who is currently facing 78 criminal counts in total across three cases.
Whoever prevails will face off against President Biden, the presumed Democratic nominee, in November 2024.
With these most recent accusations, Mr. Trump will have three criminal trials to attend over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, which will make a second presidential campaign more difficult.
These are the most serious allegations he has yet to face, according to BBC North America editor Sarah Smith.
But in a statement, the Trump team claimed that the indictment from Tuesday amounted to electoral meddling.
The campaign claimed that the persecution of President Trump and his followers was “illegal and reminiscent of authoritarian, dictatorial regimes like the former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and others.”
The statement concluded, “These un-American witch hunts will fail.”
Republican challengers for 2024 were eager to comment. While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claimed the allegations demonstrated the “weaponization of the federal government,” Vice President Mike Pence stressed the president should never place himself above the Constitution.
According to a joint statement from Democratic leaders in Congress, “This indictment is the most serious and consequential thus far and will stand as a stark reminder to generations of Americans that no one, including a president of the United States, is above the law.”
Numerous senior Trump administration officials and advisers, including Mr. Pence and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, were questioned as part of the probe.
In a related investigation, Georgian prosecutors are looking into whether the former president improperly coerced local officials to ignore Mr. Biden’s election triumph.
This month, Atlanta prosecutors are likely to decide whether or not to charge Mr. Trump.
Republicans in other states are purportedly aiding Mr. Trump’s campaign to prevent Mr. Biden from gaining office, and this is being looked into.
To demonstrate that Mr. Trump lost due to widespread voter fraud, state prosecutors in Michigan prosecuted a former Republican candidate for attorney general and another Trump supporter with interfering with voting machines.
Trump became the first US president to ever be impeached twice as a result of the riot at Congress, which resulted in his second impeachment by the House of Representatives.
The Mar-a-Lago property manager for Donald Trump made his first court appearance to answer to allegations that he assisted the former president in hiding secret information.
Carlos De Oliveira did not enter a plea at the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building in Miami on Monday afternoon because he has not yet hired a lawyer. He was dressed in a blue suit and tie.
De Oliveira is charged with conspiring with Trump to try to erase surveillance footage that federal investigators had requested in order to look into the secret materials that Trump had taken from the White House to his Florida home. There are four counts against De Oliveira, including obstructing the administration of justice.
De Olivera’s arraignment was set for August 10 by US Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres, who also commanded him not to communicate with any of the other defendants in the case, including Trump’s valet Walt Nauta.
De Oliveira was informed of his legal rights during the 10-minute hearing and freed on a $100,000 bail.
“The Justice Department has regrettably decided to bring these charges, and now it’s time for them to put their money where their mouth is,” De Oliveira’s attorney said following the hearing.
Four days after the prosecution published a revised indictment in the case involving the secret documents, which included new accusations of obstruction and deliberate retention of national defence information, De Oliveira showed up in court. De Oliveira was listed as a third defendant.
When asked if he assisted Nauta in moving boxes of secret information about Mar-a-Lago during a voluntary interview, the prosecution claims that De Oliveira lied to FBI investigators.
According to the superseding indictment released on Thursday, De Oliveira led another Mar-a-Lago employee to a “audio closet” in June 2022 and inquired about the amount of security footage the server could store.
The boss, most likely referring to Trump, wanted the server data wiped, according to De Oliveira. De Oliveira is accused of saying the “boss” demanded it be done and questioned, “What are we going to do?” when the employee replied he didn’t think he could delete the server.
Trump and Nauta have both pleaded not-guilty to all allegations.
On Monday, Trump addressed a second federal indictment that he previously stated he anticipates from special counsel Jack Smith, who is in charge of the investigation into leaked classified information.
Regarding an investigation into the rioting on January 6 at the Capitol and efforts by Trump and his friends to rig the 2020 election, Trump’s attorneys met with Smith’s prosecutors last week.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, “I presume that an Indictment from Deranged Jack Smith and his extremely political gang of Thugs, referring to my “PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY Speech, will be coming out any day now.”
Former US president Donald Trump said Friday he would not end his run for the White House if convicted and sentenced in any of the criminal investigations threatening to derail his tumultuous comeback bid.
The Republican frontrunner was discussing the multiple indictments he faces as he pushes for a second term, a day after prosecutors broadened the charges against him over his handling of classified government documents.
Asked by radio host John Fredericks if being sentenced would stop his campaign, Trump quickly responded: “Not at all. There’s nothing in the constitution to say that it could.
“And even the radical left crazies are saying not at all, that wouldn’t stop (me) – and it wouldn’t stop me, either,” the 77-year-old added. “These people are sick. What they are doing is absolutely horrible.”
The former president, who has been impeached twice, was recently indicted in the classified documents case. He is accused of endangering national security by retaining top-secret nuclear and defense information after leaving the White House.
The Justice Department has now added charges against Trump, bringing the total count to more than three dozen. In May, a judge in a civil trial found him liable for raping a writer in Manhattan during the 1990s.
Apart from the documents probe, Trump is facing numerous felony charges related to hush money payments to a porn star in New York. Additionally, he is anticipating indictment in state and federal investigations into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
In a significant development, Special Counsel Jack Smith accused Trump of asking a worker at his Florida estate to delete surveillance footage, obstructing the investigators. Trump is scheduled to go on trial in March and May next year during the height of the campaign.
Despite the mounting legal challenges, Trump remains defiant, denying any wrongdoing. He recently gave a radio interview and is set to appear alongside his rival, Ron DeSantis, in the Iowa party’s annual Lincoln Dinner.
As for DeSantis, he has been facing his own difficulties, with Trump’s lead over him widening from 13 to 34 points. DeSantis has struggled to connect with voters and has been embroiled in controversies, including issues related to Nazi imagery promotion, vaccine conspiracy theories, and overspending in his campaign.
Other Republican presidential candidates, including Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, and Tim Scott, will also speak at the Lincoln Dinner. DeSantis, despite being attacked relentlessly by Trump, expressed that he is against the former president’s prosecution, advocating for a “fresh start” for the country.
The investigation into attempts to rig the 2020 election is expected to end in an indictment, according to reports from prosecutors who allegedly briefed former President Donald Trump‘s counsel.
Todd Blanche and John Lauro, two of Trump’s attorneys, met with prosecutors in Jack Smith’s office, according to three people who spoke with NBC News on Thursday morning. According to two of them, prosecutors warned Trump’s legal counsel to anticipate an indictment.
A grand jury heard testimony as part of its investigation into Trump and his associates’ attempts to rig the 2020 presidential election on Thursday at the federal courtroom in Washington, DC.
According to CNN, a prosecutor working for Smith and jurors were seen entering the courthouse on Thursday morning. The last time the grand jury was spotted at the courthouse was last week; they generally meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The news comes nine days after Trump declared he had gotten a letter from Smith claiming that the grand jury is looking into the January 6 Capitol riot and attempts to rig the election, and that Smith is the subject of their investigation. Trump stated that he anticipated being detained and charged.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Smith’s letter included three federal laws, including witness tampering, denial of rights, and conspiracy to defraud the US.
On January 6, 2021, Trump urged his followers to challenge the election results. In an effort to prevent Congress from recognising the election results for Joe Biden, an irate mob rushed the Capitol building.
It would be Trump’s second federal indictment. In June, Smith filed a criminal complaint against Trump for allegedly handling secret materials improperly while transporting them from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.
In the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into his alleged involvement in a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, Trump was also criminally charged in April. Trump has maintained that the 2020 election investigation is a witch hunt and entered not guilty pleas in both instances.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump posted to his Truth Social platform that his ‘attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ (Department of Justice) this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country’.
Trump also denied the assertion made by NBC News that prosecutors had informed his attorneys to anticipate an indictment.
Trump writes, “No indication of notice was given during the meeting.” “Do not believe anything you read online!”
New allegations have surfaced against former US President Donald Trump, accusing him of exerting pressure on an employee to delete security footage at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, in an attempt to obstruct the investigation into a case involving classified documents.
The new charges levied against Mr. Trump are related to his alleged mishandling of government documents at Mar-a-Lago. He now faces one count of wilful retention of defense information and two counts of obstruction.
According to prosecutors, the security footage captured unauthorized possession of files, which were then seen being moved. In connection with this incident, Mar-a-Lago staff member Carlos de Oliveira has also been indicted. He is alleged to have inquired about potential measures to delete the incriminating footage.
Both Mr. Trump and his close aide, Walt Nauta, have entered pleas of not guilty. Additionally, on Thursday, Walt Nauta received two additional charges of obstruction in relation to the same case.
The revised indictment provides detailed allegations concerning the collaborative efforts between Mr. Nauta and Mr. de Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, in their attempt to obstruct the investigation by the Justice Department.
According to the new court documents, Mr. Nauta and Mr. de Oliveira conspired to erase security camera footage following a subpoena from the Department of Justice, which sought surveillance recordings of the basement where confidential documents were believed to be held.
The court documents claim that Mr. de Oliveira sent a text message to another employee, who served as the director of information technology, stating that “the boss” desired the server to be deleted.
Allegedly, Mr. de Oliveira subsequently met with this IT employee in a secluded IT room and insisted on the confidentiality of their conversation. Under pressure, the IT employee acquiesced to Mr. de Oliveira’s request, despite asserting that he lacked the authority to do so.
The indictment paints a scene where Mr. de Oliveira navigated through bushes and foliage at the periphery of Mar-a-Lago, the renowned leisure resort known as the Winter White House, to reach the IT room and rendezvous with Mr. Nauta.
As per the indictment, Mr. de Oliveira asked his co-worker, “What are we going to do?” The lawyer representing Mr. de Oliveira has declined to offer any comments at this time.
In addition to the updated charges against Mr. Nauta and Mr. de Oliveira, the indictment alleges that Mr. Trump knowingly discussed a top-secret document with biographers during their visit to Mar-a-Lago for an interview.
“Look what I found… Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look,” Mr Trump allegedly said to one of his guests.
Image caption,The indictment included images of files allegedly stored in a shower
The documents case is led by special prosecutor Jack Smith, who earlier in the day met with Mr Trump’s lawyers over a separate investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Mr Trump’s attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche met officials at Mr Smith’s office in Washington DC, US media reported.
The former president said earlier this month that he expected to be indicted in that case, but said on Thursday his lawyers received no indication of timing.
Mr Trump dismissed the fresh charges in the documents case in an emailed statement from his 2024 presidential campaign.
“Deranged Jack Smith knows that they have no case and is casting about for any way to salvage their illegal witch hunt,” the statement read.
The latest charge against Mr Trump adds to a growing list of legal problems for the property and reality TV mogul.
He currently awaits trial for a hush-money case in which he faces 34 felony counts, he faces civil charges in a defamation case against author E Jean Carroll, and Georgia prosecutors are still weighing whether or not to press charges over an alleged effort overturn the election results there.
Former Trump aide Stephen Moore told the BBC the charges against the former president amounted to “attacks” which were serving to solidify his nomination in the Republican presidential primaries.
“The more they indict him, the more his popularity goes up with Republicans”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to stand trial for alleged mishandling of classified documents in the spring of next year, as ruled by Judge Aileen Cannon.
The trial is set for 20 May, although Mr. Trump had sought to have it scheduled after the November 2024 election, while prosecutors wanted it to take place this year.
This high-profile case will unfold amidst a full-swing election campaign. The 77-year-old Mr. Trump is facing serious charges related to the storage of sensitive files at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office. Prosecutors accuse him of illegally retaining secret documents and obstructing government efforts to recover them.
Throughout the proceedings, the former president has maintained his innocence, denouncing the case as an attempt to undermine his election campaign.
Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, announced on Friday that the two-week trial would be held in Fort Pierce, Florida.
In the Mar-a-Lago case, prosecutors must secure a unanimous decision from the jury to obtain a conviction.
Jurors will be selected from the Fort Pierce division, which encompasses several counties that Mr. Trump won in the 2020 election.
During an arraignment in Miami last month, the former president pleaded not guilty to 37 federal counts.
Recently, lawyers from both sides presented arguments in the Fort Pierce court regarding the timing of the trial.
Prosecutors emphasized that the evidence in the Mar-a-Lago case was straightforward and saw no reason to postpone the trial, advocating for a December start date.
On the other hand, Mr. Trump’s legal team argued that the extraordinary nature of the case required more time for preparation, asserting that their client would not receive a fair trial before the November 2024 election.
Opinion polls indicate Mr. Trump is currently the leading candidate to secure the Republican party’s nomination and challenge President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, in the upcoming election.
The Mar-a-Lago case is just one of several legal challenges Mr. Trump is facing. In April, he was charged with falsifying business records in New York. He recently stated that he expects to be arrested soon in connection with a federal inquiry into the US Capitol riot from two years ago and his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.
State prosecutors in Atlanta, Georgia, are also investigating whether the former president violated the law with his attempts to overturn the poll results in that state three years ago.
Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice, is leading two separate investigations into the Capitol riot and the Mar-a-Lago files.
As per an indictment from last month, Mr. Trump is alleged to have taken approximately 300 classified documents to his oceanfront home in Palm Beach after leaving office. Prosecutors claim he stored the sensitive files in various spaces, including a ballroom and a bathroom.
Additionally, he reportedly instructed a personal aide, Walt Nauta, to move boxes containing classified files from a storage room at the resort before federal investigators could inspect them. Mr. Nauta, who is also charged in the case, has pleaded not guilty.
The former president Donald Trump was found guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming author E Jean Carroll, and he unsuccessfully sought a new trial.
Trump’s attorneys failed to demonstrate that the decision in his civil trial in May was a “seriously erroneous result,” according to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
The former president intends to appeal the case once more, according to his attorneys.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman changing room in Manhattan in the 1990s in 2019.
Although the statute of limitations passed for Carroll to press criminal charges, she sued Trump under New York’s Adult Survivors Law in 2022.
A jury found Trump liable for sexual assault, battery, and defamation, but did not find him liable for rape.
The jury rewarded Carroll about $3million in damages for the defamation charge, and about $2million for sexual battery.
Trump’s attorneys tried to argue that the $2million sum was ‘excessive’ because he was ultimately found not liable for rape.
‘Such abuse could have included groping of the Plaintiff’s breasts through clothing or similar conduct, which is a far cry from rape,’ Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopino told the court.
In ruling against the retrial, Judge Kaplan explicitly rejected Tacopino’s comparison.
‘This jury did not award Ms Carroll more than $2 million for groping her breasts through her clothing, wrongful as that might have been,’ Kaplan wrote in his decision.
He continued: ‘there was no evidence at all of such behavior. Instead, the proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm.’
Judge Kaplan rejected the arguments, stating that that the jury only found him not liable based on the New York penal code’s narrow definition of rape.
According to Kaplan, the jury did find him liable for actions that would fall under the ‘common’ understanding of the word ‘rape.’
‘Mr Trump’s argument therefore ignores the bulk of the evidence at trial, misinterprets the jury’s verdict, and (ignored) evidence of what actually occurred between Ms Carroll and Mr Trump,’ he wrote.
Ghanaian saxophonist, Mizter Okyere, has shared his encounter with former USA President, Donald Trump in 2020 after performing his sax cover of the ‘YMCA’ campaign.
Speaking to the media, he expressed how playing the saxophone has brought various benefits to his life.
He recounted, “I was in the USA during the lockdown in 2020, which coincided with the election year, and Trump’s song was trending.”
“YMCA was the song and it was really trending on social media in the USA during the election year in 2020 and I did the sax cover of that song.
“After I released the sax cover of Donald Trump’s song then I had a call in the USA that they’ve seen my cover and Trump would like to see me,” he revealed sighted by MyNewsGh.com
“I thought it was a joke when they said Trump wanted to see me and I was booked and taken to where Trump was holding his rally which was at Hollywood in California and I met Trump.
“During that time my visa to stay in the USA had expired but they renewed it for me and so playing of sax has brought so many benefits in my life so far so good,” he disclosed.
Former President Donald Trump has disclosed his precise strategy, months after boasting he could put an end to Russia’s assault on Ukraine in a single day after retaking the White House.
In an appearance with Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Trump described how he thinks he could resolve the dispute. In his opening remarks, Trump said that international leaders are smart and that his replacement, President Joe Biden, is ill-equipped to cope with them.
These are intelligent people, including French President Emmanuel Macron. I could mention everyone on the list, including (Vladimir) Putin… These individuals are nasty, tough, and generally savage. Trump then attacked Biden, saying, “They’re vicious, and they’re at the top of their game.”
‘We have a man that has no clue what’s happening. It’s the most dangerous time in the history of our country.’
Ex-President Donald Trump said that President Joe Biden ‘has no clue what’s happening’ (Picture: Fox News)
Host Maria Bartiromo pressed Trump on his prior claim.
‘So what should be the response?’ she said. ‘You said you could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. How would you do that?’
Trump replied that he knows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ‘very well’. He added that Zelensky was ‘very honorable’ because ‘he didn’t even know what they were talking about’ when ‘they asked him about the perfect phone call’.
He was referring to a July 2019 call between himself and Zelensky, in which Trump offered a ‘quid pro quo’ agreement to pressure Zelensky into pushing conspiracy theories about his 2020 opponent Biden in exchange for aid from the US.
Bartiromo cut Trump off and said, ‘Well, that’s not going to be enough for Putin to stop bombing Ukraine.’
Trump proceeded to elaborate on his plan.
‘No, no, no. No, I’m not saying that. I… what I’m saying is that I know Zelensky very well, and I know Putin very well, even better. And I had a good relationship, very good, with both of them,’ Trump said.
‘I would tell Zelensky: No more. You got to make a deal. I would tell Putin: If you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give them a lot. We’re going to give them more than they ever got, if we have to.’
He reiterated his claim: ‘I will have the deal done in one day, one day.’
Trump in May told GB News, ‘If I were president, and I say this, I will end that war in one day, it would take 24 hours.
Some Republicans interpreted Trump’s remarks as him favoring possibly sending even more aid to Ukraine than Biden has. His comments ‘commenced an all-out freakout among the GOP’s Ukraine funding skeptics’, noted Washington Post writer Aaron Blake.
In his analysis, Blake wrote that Trump is actually ‘talking about playing hardball. The idea is that he’s going to bluff to both sides – or at least one side (you pick which) – until they reach a deal’.
‘Credit to Bartiromo for actually getting Trump to offer something more about a promise that had been, up to this point, a platitude without a plan,’ wrote Blake. ‘What she revealed was nothing amounting to a thoroughly considered course of action – just a bluff that she, deliberately or not, called.
Investigations into the suspected misuse of confidential materials by the former president Donald Trump and his attempts to rig the 2020 election have cost more than $9 million.
According to a Justice Department summary of expenditures filed on Friday, the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who is in charge of the investigations, spent more than $5.4 million on employee wages, travel, rent, and supplies from November 2022 until the end of March.
According to the budget breakdown, Smith was supported by an additional $3.8 million from Justice Department entities.
That includes ‘the cost of protective details for the Special Counsel when warranted’, states the document.
Former President Donald Trump (second from right) appeared on classified document charges after a federal indictment at Wilkie D Ferguson Jr United States Courthouse, alongside his aide Walt Nauta (far left) and attorneys Chris Kise and Todd Blanche in Miami, Florida, on June 13 (Picture: Reuters)The indictment contained an image showing boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in ex-President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate (Picture: AP)
The statement of expenditures was disclosed a few weeks after Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges around his alleged mishandling of classified documents, and a day after his valet Walt Nauta pleaded not guilty to six charges relating to him allegedly assisting Trump in hiding classified records.
While the Justice Department’s investigations into Trump have cost American taxpayers millions of dollars, Trump’s indictment in the classified documents case has boosted his 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump on the day after he was criminally charged at a Miami federal courthouse said that the ‘indictment hoax’ raised him $6.6million. The former president said that $2.1million of that was donated at his Bedminster golf club where he delivered a speech hours after his arraignment. The other $4.5million came from digital fundraising.
The Justice Department on Friday also released cost summaries of investigations by two other special counsels.
Special counsel John Durham – who was appointed to investigate the FBI’s probe of Trump and the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election – spent $1.1million from October to March winding down his inquiry. Durham’s investigation has cost a total of about $7.6million since he was tasked in 2020 during the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, special counsel Robert Hur, who is probing whether President Joe Biden mishandled classified documents found in his home and former office, spent $615,962 in two-and-a-half month covered by the summary.
The valet of former president Donald Trump entered a not guilty plea in the case involving the sensitive materials in a federal courtroom in Miami.
Waltine ‘Walkt’ Nauta, 40, showed up at the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building on Thursday morning to answer charges that he helped Trump conceal secret documents that the former president took to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House.
Six counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and concealing documents, and making false statements, were dismissed when he entered a not guilty plea. When US Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres asked Nauta if he had reviewed the accusations against him, Nauta just said “yes.”
Nauta’s lawyer Stanley Woodward entered Nauta’s plea on his behalf. His attorney in Florida who is assisting in the case, Sasha Dadan, also appeared alongside him.
The arraignment took only a few minutes and Nauta and his two lawyers then went into a conference room without speaking to reporters.
Upon arriving at the courthouse, Nauta did not talk to reporters and only smiled. He wore sunglasses and a navy suit.
Prosecutors claim that Nauta hid boxes of records as Trump’s lawyers were looking for classified material that the Justice Department was seeking. Nauta also lied to investigators in an interview, according to prosecutors.
Nauta first appeared in court alongside Trump on June 13 but was not arraigned because he did not have a lawyer representing him who could practice in Florida. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges relating to his alleged mishandling of classified documents that day.
The arraignment for Nauta was scheduled for June 27 but postponed because he did not have an attorney able to practice in Florida.
It is not clear when the trial for Trump and Nauta will start. US District Judge Aileen Cannon initially scheduled it to begin on August 14, but prosecutors requested that it be delayed until December 11.
Trump is the first former president to be hit with criminal charges in federal and state courts.
If convicted, Nauta faces up to 20 years in prison for the most serious charge.
US media has obtained an audio recording in which Donald Trump appears to acknowledge retaining a classified document after his departure from the White House.
However, it should be noted that the recording has not been independently verified by the BBC or other sources.
In the approximately two-minute clip, the former president can be heard going through papers and stating, “This is highly confidential.” Mr. Trump has entered a plea of not guilty to federal charges related to the mishandling of sensitive files.
CNN was the first to publish the recording, stating that it originates from a July 2021 interview Mr. Trump conducted with individuals involved in the writing of a memoir by his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
During the recording, Mr. Trump can be heard mentioning “these are the papers” and making reference to a document he describes as “highly confidential.” This aligns with an audio recording cited by federal prosecutors in their indictment of the former president.
Prosecutors allege he showed classified documents to people without security clearance on two occasions, including a writer and two members of staff, in one instance in July 2021 at his golf club in New Jersey.
Mr Trump is facing 37 counts of illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to get them back.
He has denied any wrongdoing and has said that all documents he took with him from the White House were declassified.
During the exchange, released by CNN and the Washington Post on Monday, Mr Trump is heard describing a document that he alleges is about possibly attacking Iran.
“He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t it amazing?” Mr Trump says near the beginning of the clip.
“I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look,” he says.
“See as president I could have declassified it,” he says. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
In an interview last week with Fox News, Mr Trump denied that he provided secret documents to people unauthorised to view them.
“There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” Mr Trump said.
In a Miami courtroom, former president Donald Trump entered a not guilty plea to federal charges in the case involving the sensitive documents.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump was taken into custody and lodged at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. US Courthouse on federal charges.
A US Marshals Services official reported that the booking procedures for Trump and his close friend and co-defendant Walt Nauta were finished at 2:05 PM.
‘We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty, one of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche, told the judge, according to The New York Times.
Trump did not have a mugshot taken, according to one of his lawyers, Alina Habba.
‘President Trump is in a very unique position where he does not need to be given a mugshot, obviously,’ Habba told reporters outside the courthouse.
‘He’s not a flight risk. He is the leading candidate of the GOP at the moment. He is going through a process that has been coordinated with the Secret Service and it will all be handled seamlessly.’
Trump entered the courtroom for his initial appearance around 2.45pm.
The ex-president arrived at courthouse shortly before 2pm to surrender on criminal charges around his handling of classified documents. His motorcade arrived about an hour before his scheduled 3pm arraignment and drove into an underground garage.
Trump supporters cheered as the motorcade drove in.
Hundreds of Trump fans and hundreds of reporters waited outside the courthouse for him to leave, The New York Times reported. There were also a smaller number of Trump opponents present.
Trump faces 37 felony counts around his alleged mishandling of classified documents that he took with him after leaving the White House to his Mar-a-Lago home.
Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman is presiding over the arraignment.
Nauta also arrived at the Miami courthouse on Trump’s motorcade. His lawyer Stanley Woodward entered the building separately. Nauta did not have a mugshot taken.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s probe on the classified documents, is attending the arraignment.
Trump’s lawyers Blanche and Chris Kise were expected to appear with the him in the courtroom.
The ex-president’s last post on his Truth Social platform before he entered the courthouse was: ‘ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE!!!’
The trial will be overseen by a Trump appointee, Judge Aileen Cannon, who was randomly assigned. Cannon has previously issued rulings favorable to Trump.
Former First Lady Melania Trump was reportedly in New York City.
Meanwhile, dozens of reporters waited at Trump’s golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey, where he is expected to deliver remarks at 8.15pm.
In advance of former President Donald Trump‘s arraignment in the investigation into his handling of secret papers, protesters thronged the perimeter of a federal court in Miami.
Thousands of Trump supporters and detractors were anticipated to congregate Tuesday surrounding the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. US Courthouse in advance of the former president’s scheduled appearance at 3pm. Hundreds of Trump fans, media personnel, and detractors were present as of early afternoon.
Trump faces 37 felony charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents he kept after leaving the White House and took to his Mar-a-Lago home. Thirty-one of the counts relate to secret or top secret classified records. Trump has also been charged with obstructing justice, making false statements, conspiracy and concealment.
Law enforcement officials have erected steel barricades around the courthouse and helicopters flew overhead to monitor the scene.
Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales said they have deployed enough manpower to deal with a crowd from 5,000 to 50,000 people.
‘We are ready, and we’re ready for it to be over and done,’ said Morales.
Cops in riot gear arrived in trucks, the Daily Mail reported.
Trump’s arraignment and trial will unfold in the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida.
The former president will be ‘processed’ in loose custody of the US Marshals instead of ‘arrested’, an official with knowledge on the preparations told CBS News. Trump will not have a mugshot taken, officials said. He will be fingerprinted and have his date of birth, Social Security number and address taken.
Trump is not expected to be handcuffed.
It will mark the first time that the Justice Department has charged a former president with a crime.
Trump will have been charged with a crime twice. In April, he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into a hush payment to a porn star.
The former president told Fox News that he plans to plead not guilty in the classified documents case.
Both Trump and special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the investigation, arrived in Miami on Monday.
The ex-president spent the night at his Trump National Doral resort. After his court appearance, Trump will fly to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is expected to deliver remarks at 8.15pm.
‘ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY,’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform about an hour-and-a-half before his scheduled court appearance. ‘WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE!!!’
Early on Tuesday afternoon, former president Donald Trump arrived at a Miami federal courthouse for his arraignment.
Donald Trump, a former president, has arrived at a federal courthouse in Miami to turn himself in on accusations related to his handling of secret documents.
About an hour before Trump’s scheduled arraignment at 3 o’clock, his convoy pulled up at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. US Courthouse.
Former Italian Prime Minister and flamboyant billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, who famously referred to himself as the “Jesus Christ of politics,” passed away on Monday at the age of 86 in a Milan hospital, his press office announced.
According to Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital, Berlusconi, who had a recent history of health problems, had just received a leukaemia diagnosis. He had previously been hospitalised to the hospital for breathing issues, and on Friday he went in for a checkup.
The politician, who was for a long time regarded as Italy’s most colourful public personality, was three times elected prime minister and held the position for nine years in all, the longest tenure since fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
Affectionately nicknamed “Il Cavaliere” (The Knight), his career was marked by a series of political, financial and personal scandals, many of which landed him in court.
He was tried on charges ranging from tax evasion and bribery to corruption and having sex with an underage prostitute. But only one case stuck – a 2012 conviction for tax evasion in a deal involving television rights.
Berlusconi was voted out of parliament in 2013. But never one to give up the fight, he re-emerged in early 2018 as a kind of grandfatherly elder statesman, the kingmaker of a right-wing alliance involving his Forza Italia party.
After the Court of Milan granted him “rehabilitation” later that year, effectively lifting the ban on him re-entering politics that was in place following his 2012 tax fraud conviction, he announced he would run for a seat in the cc Parliament.
He was elected in May 2019, at 83 years old, and remained in office as a Member of the European Parliament at the time of his death.
Berlusconi also led his Forza Italia party, which he revived in 2013 after leaving the People of Freedom party, to victory with the center-right coalition with Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini in September 2022, though he did not have a government portfolio.
Beppe Severgnini, a columnist and author of a book on Berlusconi, described the politician as a “protopopulist” whose success had paved the way for leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Britain’s Boris Johnson and former US President Donald Trump.
“Berlusconi was actually less arrogant and less obnoxious than most but nonetheless he started it all,” Severgnini said.
“The legacy of Berlusconi was he could read the weaknesses and temptations of a nation. That’s what he really is a master of. He absolved us of all our sins, we were acquitted even before we committed those sins, and he was not a leader, he was a follower in a way, he followed the ‘pancia’ – the guts of Italy.”
Born in Milan in 1936, Berlusconi was first to make his name as a business tycoon, at one point becoming the richest man in Italy.
He gave notice early of his showman side by working as a lounge-room crooner aboard a cruise ship to help attend university, where he studied law.
Various low-level commercial enterprises followed before the fledgling entrepreneur enjoyed his first real success in property development in the late 1960s when he was involved in a project to build Milano Two – nearly 4,000 flats – outside Milan.
After amassing a fortune from his property portfolio in the 1970s, he diversified his interests by setting up a TV cable company, Telemilano, and buying two other cable channels in an effort to break the national TV monopoly in Italy. In 1978, these channels were incorporated into his newly formed Fininvest group, which included department stores, insurance companies and even AC Milan – one of the world’s biggest football clubs, which he owned for 31 years.
Berlusconi turned his attention to politics in 1993 when he formed the center-right Forza Italia Party, named for “Forza, Italia!” (Go, Italy!), a chant heard at Italian national soccer team games.
The following year, in a snap election, he became prime minister. However, a dispute with his right-wing coalition partners from the Northern League Party, as well as an indictment for alleged tax fraud, ended Berlusconi’s tenure in the job after barely seven months. He was acquitted on appeal in 2000 after the statute of limitations had expired.
After defeat in the 1996 election to his political nemesis, Romano Prodi, he became embroiled in other financial scandals, including a charge of bribing tax inspectors. He denied any wrongdoing and was cleared again on appeal in 2000.
His fortunes turned again in 2001 when he was sworn in as prime minister for a second time. But Prodi – a former European Commission president – ended Berlusconi’s more successful reign with his center-left Union coalition victory in 2006. At that time, the tycoon had presided over the longest-serving post-war Italian government.
Despite having a pacemaker implanted to regulate his heartbeat after he collapsed during a political rally, he refused to slow down. Sporting a hair transplant, cosmetic surgery and a tan, Berlusconi returned to power for a third time in 2008 under the banner of the newly created People of Freedom party, which he left in 2013 when he created his Forza Italia party.
The next year proved to be one of extremes for the veteran politician. He was praised for his handling of the devastating earthquake that struck the Italian town of L’Aquila in April 2009, and survived criticism after urging survivors to see their plight like “a weekend of camping.”
But the following month, Berlusconi’s second wife, Veronica Lario, filed for divorce – alleging her then 73-year-old husband had an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old aspiring model whose birthday party he had attended. Berlusconi said she was the daughter of a friend and that he had done nothing wrong.
In December that year, a man with a history of mental illness hit Berlusconi in the face with a replica of Milan’s cathedral at a campaign rally, breaking several of his teeth and fracturing his nose. Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that the irrepressible Berlusconi continued to shake hands with supporters for “a couple of minutes” after being hit.
With the country’s economy reeling amid the financial crisis, pressure on Berlusconi grew. Gianfranco Fini – a former party ally – lashed out, accusing him of a lack of attention to the economy and structural reforms that Italy needs. The PM survived three votes of confidence in Parliament during 2010 and 2011, winning one by just three votes, but his authority continued to ebb.
Economists said Berlusconi commanded neither sufficient political authority to push through spending cuts nor the moral high ground to squeeze more taxes out of Italians while he faced trial on various charges. Other European leaders criticized him for failing to implement economic reform with sufficient urgency.
He resigned in November 2011, hours after the Italian lower house of parliament approved a series of austerity measures demanded by Europe to shore up confidence in the country’s economy.
Meanwhile, the politician faced a serious personal challenge with charges of sex with an underage nightclub dancer at his lavish “bunga-bunga” parties.
He was found guilty in 2013 of paying for sex with a minor, 17-year-old Karima el Mahroug, and abuse of power. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but an appeals court later overturned the conviction.
Following his tax fraud conviction in 2012, Berlusconi was given a four-year prison sentence. However, he got away with a year of community service because in Italy, those over 70 do not generally go to jail.
Berlusconi also made headlines in 2022 when he disclosed he had reestablished a friendship with Vladimir Putin after the Russian president sent him 20 bottles of vodka for his birthday. He later criticized Ukraine president Volodymr Zelensky for “starting the war” which put him at odds with his coalition partner and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Perma-tanned and with a whiter-than-white smile, Berlusconi was never shy of the camera, or of blowing his own trumpet. Besides comparing himself with Jesus Christ at a dinner with supporters in 2006, he also once said he was “the best political leader in Europe and the world.”
According to Severgnini, Berlusconi was the ultimate salesman and knew that Italians had long been sympathetic to the idea of “il signore,” the powerful man.
“He also realized you can use religion and God in a certain way, he did that too. He also realized that women and sexual attraction is a powerful fuel and can be used in politics, he did that,” Severgnini said. “If there was a Nobel prize for salesmanship he would have won.”
Throughout his political career, Berlusconi’s penchant for much younger women was overlooked by his often traditionally Catholic support base. His most recent partner, Francesca Pascale, was nearly 50 years younger than him.
But in Severgnini’s view, the politician paid a price for his apparent inability to resist attractive young women.
“The thing with young women was what brought him down. Always younger, like young dancers out of nowhere, TV girls, all those people – he had no discipline and he was tempted. He was totally out of control. This was his downfall,” he said.
Severgnini believes Berlusconi’s 20-year spell in power – particularly from 2001 to 2006, when he held a majority – should be considered as a time of wasted opportunity both for him and for Italy.
But, he said, the former prime minister will not be forgotten.
“The period between 1994 and 2011 will be marked by Berlusconi. Italians never forget that there is an operatic quality of politics: we cheer our tenor until we boo him off stage,” he said.
“But we do remember our great tenors, Del Monaco, Pavarotti, (and) so we will remember our tenor of politics. It’s impossible to forget him.”
Berlusconi leaves behind five children: Piersilvio and Marina from his first marriage to Carla Dall’Oglio, which ended in 1985, and Luigi, Eleonora and Barbara from his marriage to Veronica Lario, which ended in 2012.
On the day after being charged with mishandling secret materials, former US President Donald Trump seemed defiant at two Republican Party conventions on Saturday.
Mr Trump – who is running to be the Republican candidate for president in 2024 – claimed that he was being pursued in federal court because of his re-election hopes.
But at the North Carolina Republican Party convention, he didn’t look like a man under severe legal stress.
Hundreds of people stood up to welcome their former president as he walked onto the stage, happily soaking in the adulation. He was the main event, after a three-course meal.
There was salad to start, steak for the main and ice-cream with strawberries for dessert – washed down with jugs of coke.
It was just a day after an indictment was unsealed revealing federal charges against Mr Trump, accusing him of mishandling classified documents including nuclear secrets.
But Mr Trump – who denies wrongdoing – was characteristically combative. He suggested nothing will stop him on his quest for the presidency. Not even, reportedly, jail.
And in the vast conference room, they didn’t want him to stop.
They laughed at his jokes, offered regular applause and welcomed bold declarations, for example that he is the only candidate who can prevent World War Three.
This was, after all, a Republican Party convention dinner with guests who had paid to see him speak.
Earlier, former vice-President Mike Pence received a warm reception but it was nothing like the intense buzz that surrounded his ex-boss.
What’s more, the one-term vice-president got the lunch slot while Mr Trump got dinner. He was the big Saturday night ticket.
Earlier in the day, amongst the merchandise and campaign stands, I came across Cheryal Korfmann and Charli Thyne.
Charli proudly stripped off her jacket to reveal a Trump-branded T-shirt. “I’m Trump all the way,” she said.
Image caption,Cheryal Korfmann and Charli Thyne
I pointed out the photographs, printed as part of the justice department’s case, that showed boxes of files piled up in a ballroom, even a bathroom, in Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“Wait a minute,” said Cheryal. “This is America. We’re not guilty until we’re proven guilty.”
The two believe the system is riddled with double standards and said they would support Mr Trump, even if he was convicted.
If elected he could, suggested Cheryal, even pardon himself from prison.
An unshakeable support for Mr Trump echoed through the halls, with his name and image visibly dominant on printed banners and baseball caps.
But there were those who were open to possibilities beyond Mr Trump’s narrative.
The truth matters, said husband and wife Jeff and Laura Morgan.
“If the truth is that there’s impropriety, that needs to be brought out,” said Jeff. “If it’s politically motivated, that needs to be brought out.”
Laura is a previous Miss Senior America while Jeff is running for mayor of Pinehurst, North Carolina.
She conceded there is a lot of drama surrounding the current frontrunner. “I think people ought to just run on their merits and not do bashing and blaming.”
They saw Mr Trump’s legal baggage as both a potential issue but also a rallying point for his base.
Mr Trump did not spend his whole speech ridiculing the charges against him, far from it.
A long, winding address touched on everything from the cost of living to transgender people’s participation in sport to trade with China and France.
At one point, Mr Trump mimicked French President Emmanuel Macron’s accent.
Then, in a few minutes, he was gone and the room quickly emptied out with half-eaten steaks and wilting salad leaves left behind.
It was notable that the first former president to ever face federal criminal charges did not spend the day holed up with his lawyers ahead of his first court appearance on Tuesday.
He spent it addressing the party faithful in Georgia and then here in Greensboro – loudly airing messages of defiance rather than privately preparing for court.
Mr Trump’s legal battles have, in fact, become completely intertwined with his wider public presidential campaign.
The US could face an unprecedented strain on its political and judicial system should the two truly collide next year.
Former President Donald Trump has been accused with manipulating hundreds of confidential papers, including nuclear secrets and military preparations for the United States.
The 37-count indictment accuses him of keeping the files at his Florida estate, including in a ballroom and a shower, and lying to investigators.
It alleges he then tried to obstruct the investigation into the handling of the documents.
Mr Trump, who is running for president again in 2024, denies any wrongdoing.
But legal experts say that the criminal charges against Mr Trump could lead to substantial prison time if he is convicted.
Charges have also been filed against Walt Nauta, a personal aide to Mr Trump. The former White House military valet is accused of moving files to hide them from the FBI.
The 49-page indictment contains the first-ever federal charges against a former US president. It says the classified documents Mr Trump stored in his boxes contained information about:
United States nuclear programmes
Defence and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries
Potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack
Plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack
Prosecutors say that when Mr Trump left office, he took about 300 classified files to Mar-a-Lago – his oceanfront home in Palm Beach, which is also an expansive private members’ club.
The charge sheet notes that Mar-a-Lago hosted events for tens of thousands of members and guests, including in a ballroom where documents were found.
Prosecutors say Mr Trump tried to obstruct the FBI inquiry into the missing documents by suggesting that his lawyer “hide or destroy” them, or tell investigators he did not have them.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Mr Trump said to one of his attorneys, according to the indictment.
Mr Trump’s first court appearance in the case will be in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday – the eve of his 77th birthday.
Image caption,Files were stored in a ballroom at Donald Trump’s Florida property, Mar-a-Lago
Mar-a-Lago “was not an authorised location” for classified documents to be kept or discussed, the indictment says.
Some files were allegedly stored on stage in the ballroom, where events and gatherings took place – and later in a bathroom and a shower, an office space, and Mr Trump’s bedroom.
On two occasions in 2021, the former president showed classified documents to people without security clearance, including a writer and two members of staff.
At his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which was also an “unauthorised location”, he is said to have displayed and described a “plan of attack” that he told others had been prepared for him by the Department of Defense.
“As president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” Mr Trump allegedly said, according to an audio recording.Media caption,
Watch: ‘I did nothing wrong. We’ll fight this out.’
Prosecutors say Mr Trump then showed off classified documents again in August or September 2021 at the Bedminster club.
The former US president “showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map”.
This map “related to a military operation” and Mr Trump told the person “he should not be showing it” to them and they “should not get too close”.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the investigation, said on Friday that laws protecting national defence information were critical and must be enforced.
“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” he said in a brief statement in Washington.
Image caption,The indictment included images of files stored in a shower
In a social media post, Mr Trump blasted Mr Smith as a “deranged lunatic”.
“He is a Trump hater – a deranged ‘psycho’ that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘Justice,’” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Mr Trump pointed out that classified files were also found in President Joe Biden’s former office and Delaware home, including in his garage.
The White House has previously said it immediately co-operated with officials as soon as those files were discovered, contrasting with Mr Trump’s alleged efforts to obstruct investigators.
A federal investigation into Mr Biden’s handling of classified documents is being led by Special Counsel Robert Hur and is still under way.
Shortly before the Department of Justice made the criminal charges public, two of Mr Trump’s lawyers suddenly quit the case without much explanation, saying this was a “logical moment” to resign.
This is the second criminal case for Mr Trump, who is due to go on trial in New York next year in a state case involving a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Donald Trump, a former president, announced that he has been indicted in a review into how he handled confidential data. This is his second indictment in around two months.
On Thursday night, Trump announced the information in a vehement post on his Truth Social website.
In his letter, Trump said, “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, allegedly over the Boxes Hoax.”
Trump said he had been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm.
Trump: ‘I am an innocent man’
‘I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election,’ Trump wrote in another post.
‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!’
It comes after Trump on March 30 became the first former president to be indicted, in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into his role in a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on April 4.
Shortly after 7.30pm on Thursday, Trump sent out a fundraising email with the indictment news and asked his supporters to ‘make a contribution to peacefully stand’ with him.
‘We are watching our Republic DIE before our very eyes,’ stated the email.
‘The Biden-appointed Special Counsel has INDICTED me in yet another witch hunt regarding documents that I had the RIGHT to declassify as President of the United States.
‘This witch hunt began when the FBI RAIDED my home and then staged it to look like a made-for-TV crime scene with police sirens and flashing red and blue lights.’
The investigation, overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, centers on boxes of records that the FBI seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on August 8. They included 184 documents that were marked as classified. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly called Smith’s probe a witch hunt.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury reportedly met in Florida in Smith’s probe.
The indictment is under seal, a source told NBC News.
A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment.
Trump shared a four-minute-long video on Truth Social in which he asserted he is innocent and slammed the Biden administration.
‘They can’t stop, because it’s election interference at the highest level,’ said Trump. ‘There’s never been anything like what’s happened. I’m an innocent man. I’m an innocent person.’
In another post, he wrote that ‘this is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America’.
Trump’s new indictment comes six days after the Justice Department said it would not file charges against his former vice president Mike Pence for classified documents found in his Indiana home. Pence filed to run for president on Monday.
Despite growing legal troubles, Trump remains the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Based on rumours, Donald Trump might spend up to 100 years in prison.
The former US President said that he was accused of mishandling confidential materials at his Florida resort and that he had been indicted.
The charge, which would lead to a federal investigation and provide possibly the most dangerous of legal threats to the former president, was not immediately publicly confirmed by the Justice Department.
Mr Trump said he is due in court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon.
The 76-year-old has already been indicted in New York and faces additional investigations in Washington and Atlanta that could lead to criminal charges.
The indictment arises from a months-long investigation by special counsel Jack Smith into whether he broke the law by holding onto hundreds of documents marked classified at his Palm Beach property Mar-a-Lago and whether he took steps to obstruct the government’s efforts to recover the records.
According to ABC News, which cited sources, Mr Trump could be looking at 100 years in prison if convicted on the seven charges in the classified documents case.
The charges he faces include willful retention of national defence information, which alone carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.
An extra 20 years could come from a conspiracy to obstruct justice, while another two decades could be added for withholding a document or record.
The charges of corruptly concealing a document or record and concealing a document in a federal investigation also could lead to 20 year sentences.
Finally, scheme to conceal and false statements and representations both carry the weight of five years as maximum penalty.
Prosecutors have said the former president took roughly 300 classified documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House, including around 100 which were seized by the FBI in August during a search of the home that underscored the gravity of the Justice Department’s investigation.
Mr Trump and his team have long seen the special counsel investigation as far more perilous than the New York matter – both politically and legally.
It remains unclear what the immediate and long-term political consequences will be for the former President.
His first indictment spurred millions of dollars in contributions from angry supporters and did not damage Mr Trump in the polls as the 2024 presidential race ramps up.
He revealed the news of his indictment in a fiery post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening.
‘The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,’ wrote Mr Trump.
‘I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election,’ Trump wrote in another post.
‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!’
It comes after Trump on March 30 became the first former president to be indicted, in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into his role in a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on April 4.
Former US President Donald Trump has been charged over his handling of classified documents after he left the White House.
Mr Trump, 76, faces seven charges including unauthorised retention of classified files, US media reported. The charges are not yet public.
It is the second indictment of Mr Trump and the first ever federal indictment of a former president.
He is campaigning to make a return to the White House in 2024.
Legal experts say the indictment will not limit Mr Trump’s ability to run for the presidency again.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Mr Trump said he was innocent and had been summoned to appear at a federal court in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday afternoon, where he will be arrested and hear the charges against him.
“I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States,” he wrote.
He added: “This is indeed a dark day for the United States of America. We are a country in serious and rapid decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!”
Mr Trump’s attorney Jim Trusty told CNN the former president had received details of the charges in a summons document.
He said they include conspiracy, false statements, obstruction of justice, and illegally retaining classified documents under the Espionage Act.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to comment and the indictment has not been publicly released.
An indictment is a document that sets out details of charges against a person, ensuring they have notice of alleged criminal offenses.
The Secret Service will meet Mr Trump’s staff and his security officers to plan his journey to the Miami courthouse.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith has been considering evidence in the documents case since he was appointed to oversee it by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November.
Last year, Mr Trump’s Florida resort Mar-a-Lago was searched and 11,000 documents were seized, including around 100 marked as classified. Some of these were labelled top secret.
There were reports last week that prosecutors had obtained an audio recording of Mr Trump in which he acknowledged keeping a classified document after leaving the White House in January 2021.
It is against US law for federal officials – including a president – to remove or keep classified documents at an unauthorised location.
Legal experts say Mr Trump will still be able to enter the White House race.
“He can be indicted any number of times and it won’t stop his ability to stand for office,” says David Super, a professor at Georgetown University Law Centre.
Mr Super noted that Mr Trump could continue to run for office even if convicted in the documents case.
The property and reality TV mogul is currently the frontrunner among Republican candidates for the White House, according to opinion polls.
As Mr Trump issued a fundraising email with the subject line “BREAKING: INDICTED”, several leading Republicans voiced their support for him.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, said it was “unconscionable for a president to indict the leading candidate opposing him”.
“House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponisation of power accountable,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr Trump’s rival for the 2024 nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said: “We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.
“The DeSantis administration will bring accountability to the DOJ, excise political bias and end weaponisation once and for all,” he added.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also in the running, said he would “commit to pardon Trump promptly on January 20, 2025, and to restore the rule of law in our country”.
But another candidate, Asa Hutchinson, said Mr Trump’s alleged actions “should not define our nation or the Republican Party”.
A separate probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which Mr Trump lost, is also being overseen by Jack Smith, a former war crimes attorney who is known as a dogged investigator.
Mr Trump became the first former president to be charged with a crime this April, after he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records over a hush-money payment to a porn star.
He faces a trial in that case in New York next year.
The discovery of secret materials in the home of the former vice president Mike Pence will not result in any charges being brought against him.
The Justice Department informed Pence, who worked for former President Donald Trump, in a letter that it had completed its investigation and would not be bringing any charges.
In a letter to Pence’s lawyer that CNN acquired on Friday, the Justice Department stated: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department’s National Security Division have conducted an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information.”
‘Based on the results of that investigation, no criminal charges will be sought.’
Former Vice President Mike Pence is reportedly set to announce his presidential campaign on June 7 (Picture: AP)
The development comes days after reports that Pence plans to announce his 2024 presidential campaign next week.
Pence’s lawyer found about a dozen classified documents in the former vice president’s home in Carmel, Indiana, in January. Pence had asked his attorney to do the search after classified records were discovered in President Joe Biden’s Delaware home and an office in Washington, DC.
After discovering the classified documents, Pence immediately handed them over to the FBI, which began a probe into how they wound up there. Pence said he did not know the material was at his home but took responsibility for it, saying ‘mistakes were made’.
The content of the papers is still unknown.
An adviser to Pence told CNN that he and his team were not surprised by the Justice Department’s decision, but are pleased.
The Justice Department continues to probe the sensitive records found in Biden’s possession, as well as boxes of classified documents that were recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Pence reportedly will announce his 2024 bid for the presidency on June 7, the same day he is slated to appear in a CNN presidential town hall in Iowa. He will enter a growing field of candidates vying for the Republican nomination, with Trump maintaining a lead in most polls and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis coming in a clear second.
The competition for the 2024 Republican White House nomination is set to intensify with the entry of two highly anticipated contenders.
Former US Vice-President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are expected to join the race next week, further expanding the already crowded field of candidates.
Their participation puts a significant political target on the current front-runner, former President Donald Trump, and sets the stage for a potentially contentious contest.
Ultimately, the winner of the nomination will likely face off against President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November election next year.
Mike Pence
Mr Pence will launch his campaign on 7 June in Iowa, according to sources close to his campaign, putting him on a collision course with his former boss.
For four years, he was a loyal deputy to Mr Trump as his vice-president – until 2021’s Capitol riot splintered their relationship.
The son of a Korean War veteran, Mr Pence began his career in conservative politics as a talk radio host.
He was elected to the House in 2000 and served until 2013, describing himself as a “principled conservative” and aligning with the Tea Party movement.
He also served as governor of Indiana from 2013-17. In that role, he passed the largest tax cut in state history, and signed bills to restrict abortion and protect religious freedom.
Mr Pence, 63, is a born-again evangelical Christian and his addition to the 2016 presidential ticket is credited with helping mobilise the crucial voting bloc on behalf of Mr Trump.
Calm and soft-spoken, he was seen as an effective surrogate to the bombastic president. But Mr Trump turned on him for lacking “courage” after he refused to help overturn the 2020 election results.
Pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol in January 2021 and were heard chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” At one point, they were reportedly within 40ft (12m) of the vice-president.
The two have largely kept their distance since, but Mr Pence has been in a delicate dance to avoid alienating Trump-friendly voters.
Chris Christie
According to multiple sources, the former New Jersey governor plans to announce his candidacy on 6 June at a town hall event in New Hampshire, where the first Republican primary election will be held.
After his own 2016 presidential bid failed, Mr Christie allied himself with Mr Trump, leading the incoming president’s transition team and preparing him for debates against Mr Biden in 2020.
But he has become a vociferous critic of Mr Trump since the US Capitol riots.
The sharp-tongued Mr Christie previewed an attack line on Mr Trump at a New Hampshire town hall in April, saying: “Donald Trump is a TV star, nothing more, nothing less. Let me suggest to you that in putting him back in the White House, the re-runs will be worse than the original show.”
Mr Christie served two terms as New Jersey governor from 2010-18. His time in office was overshadowed by a political scandal involving bridge lane closures – part of an alleged political vendetta against a Democratic mayor.
Before being elected as governor, Mr Christie served as New Jersey’s top prosecutor under President George W Bush from 2002-08.
Ron DeSantis
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has worked hard to emulate Mr Trump, and is viewed as the candidate most capable of defeating him in a head-to-head race.
Boosted to the governorship by Mr Trump’s endorsement, he romped to re-election in last year’s midterms by more than 1.5 million votes, the largest margin in the state in more than four decades. Under his tenure, Republican voters outnumber Democrats in the state for the first time.
At 44 years old, the Harvard and Yale-educated lawyer is still a relative newcomer in US politics.
He once served in the US Navy, including a tour in Iraq. He was also a little-known member of the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018.
But Mr DeSantis has seen his star rise considerably since he became governor in 2019, a role in which he has positioned himself as an enthusiastic culture warrior.
He has backed legislation to defund diversity and inclusion programmes, to ban teaching on gender identity in public schools, ban drag shows and gender-affirming care for minors, and restrict abortions and loosen gun laws. He also mired in an escalating legal battle with Walt Disney World.
The governor has touted his record as a “blueprint” for conservative leadership, and supporters have touted him as a drama-free alternative to re-nominating the former president.
Mr Trump appears to be paying very close attention and has attacked him almost daily on social media.
Tim Scott
Senator Tim Scott has a decades-long career in South Carolina politics and entered the race in May with nearly $22m (£18m) – more than his rivals – in cash on hand.
The only black man to ever serve in both chambers of Congress, the 57-year-old has represented South Carolina in the Senate since 2013.
Mr Scott is the grandson of a cotton field worker and the son of a single mother, and he has often spoken of how his family rose “from cotton to Congress” in a lifetime.
He launched his 2024 bid vowing to turn around “a nation in retreat” and revive America’s “culture of greatness”.
Well-liked among his colleagues, he quickly earned endorsements from two fellow senators, including John Thune, the chamber’s second highest-ranking Republican.
But he’s not the only top South Carolina Republican with a hat in the ring.
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley announced her bid for the presidency in mid-February, becoming the first major Republican candidate to commit to taking on Mr Trump.
Once considered one of the Republican Party’s brightest young prospects, Ms Haley, 51, has kept a lower profile in recent years.
Born in South Carolina to Punjabi Sikh immigrants, Ms Haley became the youngest governor in the country in 2009.
She earned national attention in 2015 after calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Capitol.
Despite saying she was “not a fan” of Mr Trump in 2016, she later accepted his nomination to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, a tenure marked by her dramatic exit from a UN Security Council meeting as a Palestinian envoy was speaking.
Her campaign, which includes a call for mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old, stresses the need for “a new generation” of US leaders.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy, 37, launched his dark-horse White House bid during a late February appearance on the Fox News channel.
An Indian-American biotech entrepreneur with no previous political experience, he was a regular fixture on Fox host Tucker Carlson’s daily programme, formerly the most-watched cable news show in the US.
The Harvard and Yale graduate argues the country is in the midst of a national identity crisis driven by a decline in faith, patriotism and meritocracy.
He ran a pharmaceutical company from 2014 to 2021, then co-founded Strive Asset Management, which shirks the “divisive” environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) framework and offers itself as an alternative to large firms like Blackrock.
Mr Ramaswamy is also the author of Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam.
Asa Hutchinson
Former two-term Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced his run for president during an April interview with ABC News just days after Mr Trump was indicted on criminal charges in New York.
Mr Hutchinson, 72, called the case “a sideshow and distraction” that should prompt Mr Trump to withdraw from the race.
The former attorney and businessman was the youngest federal prosecutor in the nation under the Ronald Reagan administration.
He also served two terms in the US House of Representatives, including as a prosecutor in Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, and was George W Bush’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief.
Presenting himself as a “non-Trump” candidate with experience and a record of leadership across multiple roles, he has vowed to lean into “common sense, consistent conservatism”.
Larry Elder
The conservative talk radio host launched an unsuccessful campaign for California governor in 2021, pledging to repeal mask and vaccine mandates.
A lawyer who grew up in Los Angeles’ South Central neighbourhood, Mr Elder, 71, has slammed Democrats’ “woke” agenda and the idea of systemic racism.
He announced his long-shot bid by tweeting: “America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable.”
Glenn Youngkin
Glenn Youngkin thrilled the Republican Party when he won the governor’s race in Virginia in 2021. A political novice who spent 25 years at the Carlyle Group private equity firm, he beat a man who had been in Democratic politics since the 1980s.
In a state that has trended toward Democrats in recent years, Mr Youngkin criticised partisan politics as “too toxic” and campaigned on a tone of bipartisanship.
But the 55-year-old has waded into hot-button topics since his first day in charge, from revoking the state’s Covid-19 restrictions to banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools.
After saying he would not join the 2024 presidential race, Mr Youngkin is reportedly reconsidering a run amid donor interest in a non-Trump candidate.
Perry Johnson
Perry Johnson, a 75-year-old businessman who tried to run for Michigan governor last year but was disqualified, joined the race in March.
He is touting a plan to reignite the economy by shaving 2% in federal spending every year.
Others who could run
Chris Sununu: Allies of the moderate Republican, who has been a popular governor for the state of New Hampshire since 2017, say he is exploring avenues to mount a viable campaign.
Doug Burgum: The former software executive and current North Dakota governor has already filmed television ads for a likely presidential campaign.
Francis Suarez: Miami’s Cuban-born mayor, the first US politician to take their salary in cryptocurrency, is mulling a bid and has described himself as “someone who needs to be better known by this country”.
Will Hurd: The former Texas congressman, who retired from the US House of Representatives in 2021, says a 2024 rematch between Mr Trump and President Joe Biden is a “rematch from hell” that few Americans want to see.
Liz Cheney: The daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney was once a rising star in the party but lost her seat in the House of Representatives in 2021 over her fierce opposition to Mr Trump.
Greg Abbott: The Texas governor has routinely waded into national debates on immigration, abortion and gun rights.
Who is not running?
Larry Hogan: The moderate former governor of Democrat-friendly Maryland said he did not want to be part of a crowded field that helps elect Mr Trump again.
Ted Cruz: The Texas senator placed second in the Republican primary for the 2016 presidential election behind Mr Trump but has said he will run for re-election to the Senate in 2024.
Rick Scott: The Florida senator has frequently exchanged vitriol with President Biden but says he too will run for re-election to the Senate.
President Joe Biden slammed Donald Trump in particular for claiming credit for ‘destroying’ the Roe v. Wade ruling, which upheld abortion rights nationwide.
On Wednesday morning, Biden uploaded a screenshot of a Trump post on Truth Social and highlighted in red, “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.”
That is as plain as it gets, I think. In the afternoon, Biden tweeted, “Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are to blame for killing Roe v. Wade.”
‘And if you vote for them, they’ll go even further.’
Trump boasted about using his power as president to appoint Supreme Court justices who voted to end the 1973 landmark decision. Roe v Wade
‘After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the “shock” of everyone,’ wrote Trump. ‘And for the first time put the Pro Life movement in a strong negotiating position over the Radicals that are willing to kill babies even into their 9th month, and beyond.’
Trump also claimed credit for more than a dozen states passing laws limiting abortion since the high court overturned Roe v Wade in June.
‘Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to,’ Trump wrote.
Biden underlined part of that sentence in his post.
It was one of Biden’s more direct attacks on Trump and his supporters on social media.
Last week after Trump’s unruly CNN town hall in which he repeated his election fraud lies and called moderator Kaitlan Collins ‘a nasty person’, Biden offered himself as an alternative.
‘It’s simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that?’ tweeted Biden. ‘If you don’t, pitch in to our campaign.’
And in early May, Biden mocked House Republicans for failing to spell out specific protections for veterans programs in legislation they passed, by sharing a flow chart.
The chief editor of a prominent evangelical magazine, Christianity Today hascriticized Donald Trump for his verbal assault on a writer who accused him of rape, as well as for his disparagement of the CNN audience who responded with laughter and applause.
“Think about the teenage girl in a church somewhere who’s being abused by her youth pastor, wondering whether to come forward,” Christianity Today’s Russell Moore said on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“[W]hen the victim is ridiculed by a presidential candidate in front of a crowd, the response is laughter. That has devastating implications.”
Donald Trump engaging the media
Last week, a civil jury found the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Then, Trump attacked Carroll as a “whack job” during a CNN town hall event as the audience laughed.
Mooreopposed Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections, and Trump attacked Moore as “a nasty guy with no heart.”
Russell Moore
NBC host Chuck Todd on Sunday asked Moore if he could ever see himself supporting the former president in 2024.
“I can’t speak for all evangelicals, I can only speak for myself,” he said. “And Jesus said ‘Let your yes be yes and your no be no.’ I’ll let my never, never.”
Throughout Trump’s presidential campaign, the press was there every step of the way to give him the publicity he desired for every outrageous comment he made.
Research from Harvard’s Shorenstein Center showed the media’s initial coverage of Trump largely focused on his campaign’s momentum, and the amount of coverage he received was abnormal for a candidate who had such a low standing in the polls.
The press coverage, the center concluded, was a factor in Trump’s improvement in the polls.
Donald Trump’s relationship with mainstream media has been tense throughout his presidential campaign and his presidency.
Having a strained relationship with some of the media is not uncommon for Presidents, but commentators have noticed that Trump uses almost any occasion to call out the media, making his relationship with it very particular, and a topic of increased debate.
Trump’s attacks on the media are usually about how the media supposedly discriminates against him, his staff, his supporters, as well as against Republicans and conservatives. His most frequent targets are CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
Trump does tend to approve of Fox News, however, since they tend to be more positive towards him and his policies.
A jury ruled former President Donald Trump responsible for sexually assaulting and defaming a writer, and he is now appealing that decision. The writer has stated that she is considering suing him a third time.
On Thursday afternoon, less than 48 hours after a Manhattan jury awarded columnist E Jean Carroll $5 million, Trump’s attorneys filed a notice of appeal in the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. In the middle of the 1990s, Carroll allegedly had a sexual encounter with Trump in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman.
As a result of Carroll’s successful demonstration that Trump defamed her by labelling her case “a complete con job” and “a hoax and a lie,” jurors on Tuesday determined that Trump should pay Carroll around $2 million in damages for civil battery and over $3 million for her successful demonstration of this.
Trump’s team filed the appeal on the same day that Carroll said she may sue Trump a third time, after his scathing comments about her in a Wednesday night CNN town hall.
The ex-president in the televised town hall mocked Carroll as a ‘whack job’ and called the case ‘rigged’.
‘What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes you’re playing hanky-panky in a dressing room?’ said Trump, as some of his supporters in the audience laughed.
Carroll said she was asleep while Trump criticized her and that her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, sent her a transcript of his remarks. She said she stopped reading after the first paragraph.
‘It’s just stupid, it’s just disgusting, vile, foul, it wounds people,’ Carroll told The New York Times on Thursday.
Carroll added that her 15-year-old son spoke about Trump’s remarks to her stylist.
‘I am upset on the behalf of young men in America,’ Carroll said. ‘They cannot listen to this balderdash and this old-timey view of women, which is a cave-man view.’
Kaplan said they have not decided if they will file a new defamation case. In addition to the rape and defamation case that concluded in Carroll’s favor, the writer has an earlier defamation case against Trump that remains pending.
‘Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it,’ Kaplan told the newspaper. ‘We have to weigh the various pros and cons and we’ll come to a decision in the next day or so, probably.’
Trump’s team previously said he planned to appeal Tuesday’s judgement. They filed the appeal hours after US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the case, filed a written ruling endorsing the verdict and ordering Trump to pay the full amount to Carroll.
Donald Trump, a former president, was found guilty of harassing, but not raping, his accuser in a department shop dressing room.
A federal jury of nine people unanimously determined on Tuesday in the afternoon that Trump had slandered his accuser, columnist E Jean Carroll. In the mid-1990s, Carroll said that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. She alleged that he defamed her by calling her case “a hoax and a lie” and “a complete con job” on his Truth Social platform.
The jury of six men and three women awarded Carroll nearly $3million in damages for proving her defamation claim. In addition, the jury said Trump should pay roughly $2million in damages for Carroll’s civil battery allegations, bringing the total to roughly $5million.
Jurors deliberated on Tuesday for more than two-and-a-half hours in Manhattan Federal Court.
Magazine columnist E Jean Carroll departs Manhattan Federal Court after a jury ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump was liable for sexually abusing her (Picture: Getty Images)
As the verdict was read, Carroll ‘had a sense of relief’ and smiled, reported CNN. Carroll hugged her lawyer Roberta Kaplan and Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina shook hands with Carroll and Kaplan.
Since the findings are civil instead of criminal, Trump will not face jail time.
Shortly after the verdict was read, Trump lashed out on Truth Social.
‘I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS,’ he wrote at 3.29pm. ‘THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!’
Trump did not appear in the trial, even though he was given until Sunday evening to decide to testify.
More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, but Carroll’s case is the first to have success in court.
Carroll smiled as she was escorted to her car after the verdict.
A woman yelled at Carroll, ‘You’re so brave and beautiful!’
‘Thank you, thank you so much,’ said Carroll.
She did not answer questions on her way out.
Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign stated that ‘this case will be appealed, and we will ultimately win’.
‘In jurisdictions wholly controlled by the Democratic Party our nation’s justice system is now compromised by extremist left-wing politics,’ stated the Trump campaign.
‘We have allowed false and totally made-up claims from troubled individuals to interfere with our elections, doing great damage.’
Carroll filed her lawsuit under the Adult Survivor’s Act, which was signed into law in New York last year. It allowed abuse victims a one-time opportunity to sue their alleged perpetrators.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated of the verdict: ‘I was proud to sign the Adult Survivors Act so brave survivors like E Jean Carroll could have their day in court.’
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan before dismissing the jurors told them they could identify themselves to the public but advised them against doing so.
‘Not now and not for a long time,’ said the judge.
‘If you’re one who elects to speak to others and to identify yourselves to others, I direct you not to identify anyone else who sat on this jury. Each of you owes that to the other whatever you decided for yourself.’
In a civil trial that has begun its jury deliberations, former president Donald Trump is accused of raping a columnist in a restroom and defaming her.
Tuesday at 11:50 a.m., the nine-person jury in federal court in Manhattan started deliberating on E Jean Carroll’s complaint against Trump.
Carroll alleges that in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the middle of the 1990s, Trump sexually abused her. Trump will either be held accountable or not by a jury of six men and three women.
If jurors find Trump liable, they will determine how much money the ex-president owes Carroll for the damages. Trump will not face jail time because it is not a criminal case.
‘I emphasize to you that this is a civil case for damages,’ US District Judge Lewis Kaplan told jurors. ‘It is not a criminal case.’
Joe Biden has come under fire from Donald Trump for skipping the King’s coronation, saying that his absence has ‘greatly humiliated’ the British people.
Joe Biden ought to have attended King Charles III’s coronation. That seems like a lot to ask, doesn’t it? In a post on his Truth Social network, the former president spoke himself.
The British public is deeply offended. It makes sense why our popularity is dwindling everywhere. RENEW THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA! He continued.
Despite the ‘special relationship’ between the two countries, no US president has ever attended a royal coronation, and last month Biden announced he would not be making an exception.
Instead, the president sent his wife Jill Biden in his place instead, along with her 22-year-old granddaughter, Finnegan.
In an earlier post on Saturday to Truth Social, Trump also wished the king and queen best wishes, writing, ‘Good Luck and Best Wishes to the wonderful new King and Queen of The United Kingdom.
‘You are two very Special People. May your Reign be a Long and Glorious One. GOD BLESS YOU BOTH!!!’
Nevertheless, President Biden congratulated King Charles III and Queen Camilla in a Twitter post on Saturday morning.
‘The enduring friendship between the US and the UK is a source of strength for both our peoples,’ Mr Biden wrote.
The First Lady added that it was an ‘honor to represent the United States on this historic day at Westminster Abbey’ in a statement posted to Twitter.
Mr Trump, who is currently facing a civil rape and defamation trial in the US, also failed to attend the ceremony.
Coronation of King Charles III latest
The president’s decision not to attend drew some domestic criticism from commentators and analysts.
Nile Gardiner, foreign policy analyst and former aide to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, tweeted, ‘Leaders from across the world are attending today’s Coronation of King Charles III. Even the French President is there.
‘Notably absent is Joe Biden, who could not be bothered.
‘What message does this send to America’s closest ally? Biden is a petty, arrogant, sneering disgrace.’
However, Laura Beers, a professor of history at American University, told the BBC ‘I certainly don’t view it as a snub on President Biden’s part.’
‘It is a non-story in terms of the idea that Biden is anti-British,’ she said. “He’s not going because no American president has ever gone to a coronation, so why start in the 21st century.’
Prior to the reign of Queen Victoria, the relationship between Britain and the US was largely adversarial following the American Revolution and the War of 1812.
Although relations later thawed and the coronation of Queen Victoria was the source of much interest in the States, then-president Martin Van Buren did not attend the coronation.
At the time it was simply not practical for an American president to attend such ceremonies, and the practice became tradition after that.
In a letter, the former president of the United States claimed that Donald Trump had asked for a mistrial in a civil case where the author E. Jean Carroll was accusing him of rape and defamation.
In a letter filed early Monday in Manhattan federal court, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina cited several alleged errors by the judge, including that it mischaracterized parts of the case and interfered with his ability to defend Trump.
Former US Vice-President Mike Pence has testified as part of a criminal probe into Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to avenge his loss in the 2020 election.
According to sources quoted by the BBC’s US partner CBS News, Mr. Pence, 63, appeared before a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, for more than seven hours.
He received a subpoena earlier this year to give testimony while being sworn in.
Prosecutors questioned the suspects in a private setting.
His appearance on Thursday came just hours after an appeals court rejected a last-ditch bid by Mr Trump’s legal team to stop Mr Pence from testifying.
Mr Pence’s lawyers had also sought unsuccessfully to challenge the subpoena, arguing that his role as president of the Senate during his time in office meant he had congressional immunity.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – AUGUST 24: President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence greet delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center on August 24, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The four-day event is themed “Honoring the Great American Story.” (Photo by David T. Foster III-Pool/Getty Images)
His eventual testimony, which had been sought for months, is a major milestone in the two-year investigation which is being led by special counsel Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor who was appointed to the role by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The investigation has been gathering evidence about whether Mr Trump and his allies broke federal law in their efforts to challenge the result of the 2020 election, which was won byPresident Joe Biden.
It is also investigating the US Capitol riot on 6 January 2021, when Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the building in an effort to prevent the election result from being certified.
Mr Pence, who like all vice-presidents was also president of the Senate – a mostly ceremonial role – could in theory have derailed the final certification of the election result and delayed the transfer of power.
Mr Trump publicly pressured his vice-president to do so, and his refusal led him to lash out at Mr Pence.
Trump supporters then chanted “hang Mike Pence” as they stormed Congress and marauded through the corridors of the Capitol building as politicians, including Mr Pence, sheltered inside.
Mr Pence is considered a key witness in the investigation and, while it is not immediately clear what he told the grand jury, prosecutors will likely have asked him about his interactions with Mr Trump and his team in the days and weeks leading up to the riot.
“We’ll obey the law, we’ll tell the truth,” Mr Pence said in an interview with CBS on Sunday. “The story that I’ve been telling the American people all across the country… that’ll be the story I tell in that setting.”
US former president, Mike Pence
Mr Pence has spoken publicly about the Capitol riot and the pressure he faced to challenge the election result. “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” he said in a speech in February.
In his memoir, So Help Me God, Mr Pence wrote that Mr Trump had attempted to pressure him into blocking the certification of the election result on the morning of the riot. “You’ll go down as a wimp,” the then-president apparently told Mr Pence.
He has also accused Mr Trump of endangering his family as well as others who were at the Capitol, saying history will hold him “accountable”.
Mr Pence is reportedly considering a presidential bid of his own in 2024, which would see him challenge his former boss directly for the Republican nomination.
Mr Trump, who has already launched his bid to return to the White House, was in New Hampshire on Thursday for a campaign event. When asked by NBC News about Mr Pence’s testimony, he commented: “I don’t know what he said, but I have a lot of confidence in him.”
The former president is facing other legal issues, including another federal investigation led by Mr Smith into the potential mishandling of classified documents.
There is also a separate investigation in Georgia into alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election result.
Columnist E Jean Carroll faced cross-examination on her second day on the witness stand Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Carroll, 79, claims that Trump, 76, sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in 1996.
Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina barraged Carroll with dozens of questions on why she did not scream during the alleged rape.
‘I’m not a screamer,’ she said. ‘You can’t beat up on me for not screaming.’
Former Elle magazine advice columnist E Jean Carroll (right) answers questions from her lawyer Michael Ferrara at the start of the third day of the civil trial (Picture: Reuters)
Carroll added: ‘People always ask, “Why didn’t you scream?” It keeps women silent.’
Tacopina painted a picture of Carroll waiting more than two decades to go public with her accusations so that she could sell more copies of a 2019 memoir.
Carroll pushed back, saying that 2017 rape allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and the surrounding #MeToo movement of women sharing their stories of sexual abuse prompted her to speak up.
‘It caused me to realize that staying silent does not work,’ she said.
Ex-President Donald Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina (left) arrives for the third day of a civil trial against his client at Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday (Picture: Getty Images)
As Tacopina continued to press Carroll on why she did not scream, she raised her voice and said: ‘I’m telling you: He raped me whether I screamed or not.’
Tacopina brought up an excerpt from Carroll’s 2019 book she was working on but was never published.
‘I’ve become persuaded that he wants to kill me… as he stacks the courts, my rights over my body are being taken away… I’m afraid that my right to free speech will go next,’ Carroll wrote.
Her excerpt also stated that Trump was ‘poisoning my water’ and ‘he’s polluting my air’.
Tacopina questioned Carroll on why she could not recall the exact date that Trump allegedly raped her.
‘I wished to heaven we could give you a date,’ Carroll replied.
In opening statements, Tacopina had said Trump cannot give an alibi without knowing the precise date of Carroll’s allegation.
Tacopina aimed to highlight Carroll’s lapses in memory. He asked her if she first spotted Trump through a revolving door.
‘I know it’s a revolving door,’ she said.
Then Tacopina pointed out an excerpt from her book in which she wrote that it ‘could have been a regular door at that time, I can’t recall’.
The cross-examination began tense, with Tacopina saying, ‘good morning’, and Carroll not saying anything but nodding slightly. She responded after Tacopina’s second ‘good morning’.
Trump’s lawyer asked Carroll detailed questions, like if his client said the word ‘lingerie’ in asking her to advise him on a gift for another woman. Tacopina also asked which floor of the store she and Trump were on.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on various occasions called out Tacopina for ‘repetitive’ and ‘argumentative’ questions to Carroll.
Carroll took the stand on the third day of the trial at 10.30am, with one of her attorneys, Mike Ferrara, finishing up his questioning that began on Wednesday.
Kaplan dismissed the jury in the late afternoon and said the trial would resume on Monday. Tacopina said he was ‘more than halfway’ through questioning Carroll. The judge reminded jurors not to speak or read about the case.
Shortly before the jury was dismissed, Trump held a campaign speech in New Hampshire. He slammed his other legal cases he faces, but did not mention Carroll or the rape trial. Trump has not yet appeared in court for the rape trial and is not obligated to.
Donald Trump, a former president, is suing Michael Cohen for $500 million in damages after Cohen allegedly broke his agreement to serve as Trump’s personal attorney.
In the lawsuit, which was submitted on Wednesday to a federal court in Florida, Cohen is charged with spreading untrue information about Trump and breaking his agreement with the former president through his public pronouncements, books that have been published, podcasts, and other media appearances.
After Trump filed a not guilty plea to 34 charges of falsifying business records last week as a result of an investigation into hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, Cohen, Trump’s former “fixer,” has recently returned to the national spotlight. The payments were organized by Cohen in the days leading up to the 2016 election, and the former president is upset with Cohen because of his cooperation with prosecutors.
“Mr. Trump is once again using and abusing the judicial system as a form of harassment and intimidation against Michael Cohen,” Lanny Davis, Cohen’s attorney, said in a statement.
“Mr. Cohen will not be deterred and is confident that the suit will fail based on the facts and the law,” he added.
Trump’s legal team said in the suit that the former president has “no alternative but to seek legal redress” to combat an emboldened Cohen, who they allege has recently ramped up false statements about his former boss.
According to the lawsuit, Cohen revealed confidential information in talking about his prior-attorney-client relationship with Trump during media interviews about the Manhattan District Attorney’s grand jury investigation that led to the former president’s indictment.
“During one such appearance, for example, Defendant discussed that he testified in front of the Manhattan District Attorney’s grand jury, and suggested that Plaintiff was, by virtue of Defendant’s knowledge of confidential information, criminally exposed,” the lawsuit states.
Cohen also violated an employee confidentiality agreement he signed with The Trump Organization when he published his two books that discuss Trump, the lawsuit claims.
Cohen “chose to capitalize on his confidential relationship with (Trump) to pursue financial gain and repair a reputation shattered by his repeated misrepresentations and deceptive acts, fueled by his animus toward the Plaintiff and his family members,” the lawsuit states.
Cohen never asked for permission from Trump to disclose any confidential information that should’ve been protected by that agreement and his attorney-client obligations before publishing the books, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint also alleges that, like his books, Cohen has put out “inflammatory, misleading, or outright false” information in his podcast “Mea Culpa.”
Donald Trump alleges that when he was detained and checked in at a New York courthouse last week, officers and workers “were genuinely crying.”
He made history by denying 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with an alleged hush money plan involving adult film star Stormy Daniels. He was the first former US president to be charged with a crime.
In his first interview since, he spoke extensively about the arraignment, explaining how the court’s hardened officers—who are capable of “putting in murderers”—were “in tears or close to it.”
He also discussed the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021, saying the US left a number of dogs – ‘mostly German Shepherds’ – behind, as well as the Ukraine war, calling Vladimir Putin a ‘smart’ man who has ‘loves Ukraine’ and has had ‘probably a bad year’.
Footage from inside the Manhattan courthouse last week showed Trump surrounded by stony-faced staff – one of whom even appeared to refuse to hold the door open for him.
The former president has long been mocked for claiming people cry when they meet him.
Speaking to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, he said: ‘When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison, in a sense, they signed me in and I’ll tell you, people were crying.
Former president Donald Trump spoke to Tucker Carlson (Picture: Fox News)Trump appears in court for his arraignment (Picture: AP)Trump arrives inside State Supreme Court at 100 Centre Street for his arraignment (Picture: Louis Lanzano/UPI/Shutterstock)
‘People that work there, professionally work there, that have no problems putting in murderers, they see everybody. It’s a tough, tough place, and they were crying. They were actually crying.
‘They said I’m sorry. They’d say “2024, sir, 2024” and tears are pouring down their eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it.
‘Those people are phenomenal. Those are your police. Those are the people that work at the courthouse, they’re unbelievable people.
‘Many of them were in tears or close to it. Many apologies – “we’re sorry, sir, we’re sorry”.
‘In one sense it was beautiful, because they get it, but in another sense it’s nasty – I went to the Wharton School of Finance, they didn’t teach me that.’
Trump repeated his insistence that he is innocent and there is no case against him.
Carlson asked if there was ‘anything they could throw at [him] legally’ that would convince him to drop out of the 2024 race to the White House.
Trump replied: ‘No, I’d never drop out. It’s not my thing. I wouldn’t do it.’
There is no legal bar to running or winning the presidency as a convicted felon or even from behind bars.
Elsewhere in the hour-long interview, he told Carlson he asked a five-year-old about the best way to manage the evacuation from Afghanistan and claimed the US left a number of dogs behind.
He said: ‘They left the dogs — you know the dog lovers, and there are a lot of them, I love dogs, you love dogs, but they left the dogs.
‘One of the first questions I got: “What did they do with the dogs?” Mostly German Shepherds.’
Trump, who has criticised the way his successor Joe Biden handled the evacuation, said he asked a child what order it should have happened.
He said: ‘I did a little skit with a five-year-old kid, I said, “Let me ask you: here’s the situation.” I explained the situation. I said, “Would you take the military out first or would you take it out last?” “I’d take it out last.” Five-year-old.”
Trump was also asked if he had spoken to Putin about Ukraine, saying: ‘I could see that he loved it. He considers it to be a part of Russia. I said not when I’m president.’
He said of the Russian president: ‘Putin – very smart. Now, he’s had probably a bad year.’
According to Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump shouldn’t go to jail for the $130,000 in hush money payments he made to her during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The adult film celebrity talked extensively on the former president’s arrest and court arraignment after being charged with 34 felonies during an interview with Piers Morgan.
In a segment from the interview that will air on TalkTV later today, Ms. Daniels says she believes Trump should go to prison for his long list of alleged misdeeds, but not for the ones that include her.
‘Specific to my case I don’t think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration,’ she said.
Stormy Daniels made the comments during an interview with Piers Morgan (Picture: TalkTV)
‘I feel like the other things that he has done if he is found guilty, absolutely, because our bigger problem is that if these allegations against him– or whatever else that we don’t know– if he is found guilty or the evidence suggests that he is and he doesn’t [go to jail] that is going to basically, it opens the door to other people to think they can get away with doing that and worse.’
During the candid 90 minute one-on-one, she reveals she would testify if called to give evidence as she has ‘nothing to hide’.
‘It’s daunting, but I look forward to it,’ she added.
‘I am the only one that has been telling the truth.’
Ms Daniels said she looked forward to testifying in court as it would ‘legitimise her story’, and would be offended if she was not asked to speak during the trial.
‘I feel like if they don’t it paints a picture that they know something about me that makes me untrustworthy or not reliable,’ she told Morgan.
‘Having them call me in and putting me on the stand legitimises my story and who I am– and if they don’t it almost looks like they’re hiding me and people will automatically assume– I would– “oh she must not be a good witness.”’
Ms Daniels first made headlines in 2018 when she spoke of an alleged affair between her and Mr Trump in 2006.
The hush money payments allegedly occurred in 2016, just days before the presidential election, when Daniels offered to sell her story to a gossip magazine.
Trump reportedly instructed his attorney, Michael Cohen, to make the payments to Daniels to prevent the story from going public.
Cohen later pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges related to the payments.
The charging documents also mention two more alleged hush money payments- $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal and a $30,000 payment to a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed he had information that Mr Trump had fathered a child with a woman while married to Melania Trump.
Mr Trump ‘repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,’ the charging documents read.
In a combative speech following his arraignment, Donald Trump blasted the criminal accusations brought against him and declared that “our country is going to hell.”
Hours after having his fingerprints taken in a Manhattan courthouse, the former US president said: “God bless you all” while speaking from the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
Godspeed to you all. And I never, ever imagined that something similar might occur in the United States.
‘The only crime that I have ever committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.’
Trump slammed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into a hush money payment to a porn star, and called the presiding Justice Juan Merchan a ‘Trump-hating judge’.
He also ripped other probes on him including Georgia’s investigation into whether he and his allies tried to overturn the state election, and a federal investigation into his handling of classified documents that wound up at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump called special counsel Jack Smith – who is overseeing the federal probes into the classified materials and his actions around the January 6 Capitol riot – a ‘lunatic’.
The ex-president also brought up the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and blamed the country’s problems including an economic slowdown on the Biden administration and Democrats.
Some TV news stations did not air Trump’s full speech, even though it ran for less than 30 minutes. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained that it was ‘basically a campaign speech in which he is repeating his same lies and allegations against his perceived enemies’.
Meanwhile, ABC News cut it off as Trump claimed that President Joe Biden would provoke an ‘all-out nuclear World War 3’.
Trump walked into his Florida resort to cheers from fans wearing MAGA hats.
His family members who entered Mar-a-Lago smiling included his son Eric Trump and wife Lara Trump, and his youngest daughter Tiffany Trump. Walking behind them was Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who appeared for a speech outside Manhattan Criminal Court before being swarmed by protesters and escorted away by police.
What is Trump charged with and what’s next?
WHAT’S THIS CASE ABOUT?
The grand jury spent weeks investigating money paid during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.
Trump has denied the allegations.
His former lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified as a key prosecution witness, paid Daniels $130,000 through a shell company he set up and was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the repayments as legal expenses.
Earlier in 2016, Cohen also arranged for former Playboy model Karen McDougal to be paid $150,000 by the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer, which squelched her story in a journalistically dubious practice known as ‘catch and kill’.
WHAT’S AN INDICTMENT?
An indictment is the formal charge brought against someone after a grand jury — which is made up of members of the community — votes and enough members agree there’s sufficient evidence to charge someone with a crime.
The indictment against Trump remains sealed, as is standard in New York before an arraignment. But once the document is made public, it will lay out the crime or crimes that Trump is accused of committing.
Sometimes indictments include a lengthy narrative with lots of details about the allegations, while others are more basic and just outline the charges a defendant is facing.
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
Trump is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that isn’t yet public.
Under the law, prosecutors must prove there was an ‘intent to defraud’.
The felony falsifying business records offense requires prosecutors to prove that the records were falsified with the intention of committing, aiding or concealing a second crime.
It’s not clear yet what prosecutors allege the second crime to be, but experts have said it is probably some kind of campaign finance violation.
WHAT’S AN ARRAIGNMENT?
An arraignment is generally the first time a defendant appears in court after being charged.
The judge will tell Trump the charges against him and advise him of his right to go to trial and other things.
Trump will enter a plea of not guilty — as is standard for defendants to do at arraignment. The indictment is expected to be unsealed upon his arraignment.
Trump is expected to walk out of the courtroom because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set in New York.
It’s possible — but unlikely — that Judge Juan Merchan could decide that Trump is a flight risk and order him held, with or without bail, though Trump’s lawyers would vigorously fight that.
WHAT WILL TRUMP’S DEFENSE BE?
Trump’s lawyers have vowed to ‘vigorously fight this political prosecution in court’.
Defense attorney Joe Tacopina has described Trump as a victim of extortion who had to pay the money because the allegations were going to be embarrassing to him. But he says it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Trump will no doubt try to fight the case on multiple fronts. He may try to have the case moved out of Manhattan or New York City entirely — arguing he can’t get a fair trial there — though it’s rare for judges to agree to do that.
Trump may also argue that the statute of limitations has passed.
He has complained that the statute of limitations ‘long ago expired’ because the hush money payments and Cohen’s reimbursements happened more than six years ago.
New York’s statute of limitations for most felonies is five years. For misdemeanors, it’s just two years. But in New York, the clock can stop on the statute of limitations when a potential defendant is continuously outside the state.
Trump visited New York rarely over the four years of his presidency and now lives mostly in Florida and New Jersey.
WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS FOR TRUMP?
Neither the indictment itself nor a conviction would prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
Already, the charges have been a boon to his fundraising. The campaign announced Friday evening that it had raised over $4 million in the 24 hours after the indictment became public, far smashing its previous record after the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Trump’s team over the weekend blasted out emails full of supportive comments from dozens of top Republicans, many of whom had already been supportive of him leading up to the indictment.
Those likely to be facing off with Trump in next year’s GOP primary contests have also slammed the prosecution.
Former Vice President Mike Pence called the indictment ‘an outrage’ and ‘nothing more than a political prosecution’.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said on Twitter that the indictment ‘is more about revenge than it is about justice’.
Biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also seeking the GOP presidential nomination, called the indictment ‘a dark moment in American history’.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday accused District Attorney Alvin Bragg of weaponizing the law ‘for political purposes’ to bring a case against a former president, never mentioning Trump by name.
Trump finished his remarks with his familiar campaign slogan.
‘With a very dark cloud over our beloved country,’ he said, ‘I have no doubt that we will make America great again.’
Former President Donald Trump, who was charged with 34 felonies for fabricating company records, entered a not guilty plea and became the first American president to do so.
Trump responded “not guilty” to the allegations that he participated in a $130,000 hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in order to silence her regarding her allegations of an affair while he was seated stony-faced in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday afternoon.
Maximum prison time for all related counts is 136 years. Trump was processed and had his fingerprints taken, but neither a mugshot nor handcuffs were taken.
Trump did not address the media on his way into the Manhattan district attorney’s office or courthouse, or on his way out around 3.27pm.
Ex-President Donald Trump’s lawyers Joe Tacopina, Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles spoke to the media briefly outside the courthouse (Picture: Jessica Kwong)
His lawyers, Joe Tacopina, Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, walked out of 100 Centre Street after Trump’s motorcade departed and spoke to the media briefly.
‘It’s not a good day,’ said Trump’s newly hired attorney Todd Blanche. ‘I don’t expect this to happen in this country… to somebody who was president of the United States.’
Trump was frustrated with the events that unfolded after a grand jury on Thursday voted to indict him, said Blanche, and added that the charges are ‘completely political’.
‘We’re going to fight it,’ Blanche said. ‘Fight it hard.’
As the indictment was unsealed, the crowd – a mix of anti-Trump protesters and fans who wore MAGA hats and clutched 2024 campaign flags – were quiet. There was no notable reaction even in the minutes after it was revealed that Trump was charged with 34 counts.
A Trump supporter, David Rem of Queens, the ex-president’s hometown, held a Trump flag and shouted, ‘We love you Donald, we love you’.
‘I think the charges are nonsense and I ask people just to think about this one fact,’ Rem, 53, told Metro.co.uk.
‘If Donald Trump would’ve announced a month ago that he was not going to run as a Republican candidate, this whole carnival and circus and kangaroo court, would not even have been here today.’
The crowd dispersed quickly after Trump was whisked away from the vicinity, but some Trump opponents stuck around.
Nadine Seiler, 57, who traveled from Waldorf, Maryland, held a large banner that read ‘Trump indicted’ on one side and ‘finally Trump is arrested’ on the other.
‘They charge him with 34 but we know he probably did about 100 but I’m good with that,’ Seiler told Metro.co.uk.
In the early afternoon before Trump’s arrival, people crowded around along a gate at a park outside the courthouse where hundreds of media members camped out waiting.
Protesters waved flags occasionally and blew horns but were largely calm as they waited for Trump’s arraignment and processing.
On Tuesday morning, Trump supporters and opponents clashed at a park outside Manhattan Criminal Courthouse.
His arraignment came more than two weeks after Trump claimed he would be arrested and called on his followers to protest.
Posting on his Truth Social platform on March 18, Trump wrote that ‘illegal leaks’ from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office indicate that ‘THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK’.
In the days following, law enforcement officials met at the New York Police Department headquarters to discuss security around Trump’s court appearance.
Notably, Trump’s indictment comes as he makes a 2024 presidential bid.
There were recent indications that an indictment was forthcoming.
Daniels and her lawyer in mid-March revealed that they had met with prosecutors at the request of the district attorney’s office.
‘Stormy responded to questions and has agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry if needed,’ tweeted Clark Brewster last week.
Daniels shared Brewster’s post and wrote: ‘Thank you to my amazing attorney (who also always spells my name correctly) for helping me in our continuing fight for truth and justice.’
Stormy Daniels, a celebrity of the adult film industry, made a crude remark in response to Donald Trump‘s arrest on Twitter.
Stephanie Clifford is Daniels’ true name, and she appeared to revel in the news of the former president’s formal arrest and charges.
She wrote, “Y’all keep using the term “cum dumpster” like it’s a terrible thing.” “It’s definitely more pleasant to be beneath my handsome lover than to be in jail,” she said.
At Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday, 34 felony counts were officially filed against Trump. In the wake of an affair in 2006, he allegedly used bribes to buy the porn star’s silence.
The hush money payments allegedly occurred in 2016, just days before the presidential election, when Daniels offered to sell her story to a gossip magazine.
Trump reportedly instructed his attorney, Michael Cohen, to make the payments to Daniels to prevent the story from going public.
Cohen later pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges related to the payments.
As per authorities, Donald Trump bribed a doorman $30,000 to bury a report about a secret child he claimed the former president fathered out of wedlock.
Trump, 76, made history on Tuesday when he appeared in a New York court as the first US president to be charged with a crime.
He sat stony-faced and mute before resolutely responding “not guilty” to 34 counts of felony business record-falsification.
Subsequently, Todd Blanche, his attorney, told the press, “We’re going to fight it. We’ll battle valiantly against it.
The judge set the next court hearing for December 4 and declined to impose a gag order, meaning both parties are free to discuss the case in the media.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said afterwards the charges relate to a ‘conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election’ – which Trump eventually won.
He is said to have ‘orchestrated a scheme’ to ‘purchase negative information’ – known as ‘catch and kill’ – in violation of election laws and then covered it up with fake business entries.
The indictment was finally unsealed and reveal the charges centre on alleged payoffs to two women – porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal – and a Trump Tower doorman.
Prosecutors claim the employee was paid $30,000 after trying to sell information about an alleged child fathered by Trump outside of his marriage.
The investigation also concerns alleged payments of $130,000 and $150,000 to Daniels and McDougall respectively.
Both say they had affairs with the married Trump years before he entered politics.
Trump denies the claims as well as any wrongdoing involving payments and has called the prosecution a ‘witch hunt’.
On the way to court he described the experience as ‘surreal’, writing on his Truth Social page: ‘WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!’
Wearing his signature dark suit and red tie, Trump cut a more sombre figure as he was pictured filing past police through a hallway into the courtroom to be arraigned.
He was fingerprinted and processed but no mugshot is believed to have been taken.
That did not stop his presidential campaign team seeking to cash in on the proceedings by selling t-shirts emblazoned with fake ones along with the words ‘not guilty’.
They are up for sale on the official Trump 2024 website for around $36 each.
Trump earlier used his social media page to renew his attacks on Juan Merchan, the acting New York Supreme Court judge overseeing the case, branding him ‘highly partisan’.
New York City was braced for protests in response to the prosecution, and pro-Trump and anti-Trump demonstrators were split into separate pens outside the courthouse to keep the peace.
People crowded around along a gate at a park outside the courthouse where hundreds of media members camped out waiting.
Protesters waved flags occasionally and blew horns but were largely calm as they waited for the indictment to be unsealed and for Trump’s arraignment and processing.
What is Trump charged with and what’s next?
WHAT’S THIS CASE ABOUT?
The grand jury spent weeks investigating money paid during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.
Trump has denied the allegations.
His former lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified as a key prosecution witness, paid Daniels $130,000 through a shell company he set up and was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the repayments as legal expenses.
Earlier in 2016, Cohen also arranged for former Playboy model Karen McDougal to be paid $150,000 by the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer, which squelched her story in a journalistically dubious practice known as ‘catch and kill’.
WHAT’S AN INDICTMENT?
An indictment is the formal charge brought against someone after a grand jury — which is made up of members of the community — votes and enough members agree there’s sufficient evidence to charge someone with a crime.
The indictment against Trump remains sealed, as is standard in New York before an arraignment. But once the document is made public, it will lay out the crime or crimes that Trump is accused of committing.
Sometimes indictments include a lengthy narrative with lots of details about the allegations, while others are more basic and just outline the charges a defendant is facing.
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
Trump is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that isn’t yet public.
Under the law, prosecutors must prove there was an ‘intent to defraud’.
The felony falsifying business records offense requires prosecutors to prove that the records were falsified with the intention of committing, aiding or concealing a second crime.
It’s not clear yet what prosecutors allege the second crime to be, but experts have said it is probably some kind of campaign finance violation.
WHAT’S AN ARRAIGNMENT?
An arraignment is generally the first time a defendant appears in court after being charged.
The judge will tell Trump the charges against him and advise him of his right to go to trial and other things.
Trump will enter a plea of not guilty — as is standard for defendants to do at arraignment. The indictment is expected to be unsealed upon his arraignment.
Trump is expected to walk out of the courtroom because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set in New York.
It’s possible — but unlikely — that Judge Juan Merchan could decide that Trump is a flight risk and order him held, with or without bail, though Trump’s lawyers would vigorously fight that.
WHAT WILL TRUMP’S DEFENSE BE?
Trump’s lawyers have vowed to ‘vigorously fight this political prosecution in court’.
Defense attorney Joe Tacopina has described Trump as a victim of extortion who had to pay the money because the allegations were going to be embarrassing to him. But he says it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Trump will no doubt try to fight the case on multiple fronts. He may try to have the case moved out of Manhattan or New York City entirely — arguing he can’t get a fair trial there — though it’s rare for judges to agree to do that.
Trump may also argue that the statute of limitations has passed.
He has complained that the statute of limitations ‘long ago expired’ because the hush money payments and Cohen’s reimbursements happened more than six years ago.
New York’s statute of limitations for most felonies is five years. For misdemeanors, it’s just two years. But in New York, the clock can stop on the statute of limitations when a potential defendant is continuously outside the state.
Trump visited New York rarely over the four years of his presidency and now lives mostly in Florida and New Jersey.
WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS FOR TRUMP?
Neither the indictment itself nor a conviction would prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
Already, the charges have been a boon to his fundraising. The campaign announced Friday evening that it had raised over $4 million in the 24 hours after the indictment became public, far smashing its previous record after the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Trump’s team over the weekend blasted out emails full of supportive comments from dozens of top Republicans, many of whom had already been supportive of him leading up to the indictment.
Those likely to be facing off with Trump in next year’s GOP primary contests have also slammed the prosecution.
Former Vice President Mike Pence called the indictment ‘an outrage’ and ‘nothing more than a political prosecution’.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said on Twitter that the indictment ‘is more about revenge than it is about justice’.
Biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also seeking the GOP presidential nomination, called the indictment ‘a dark moment in American history’.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday accused District Attorney Alvin Bragg of weaponizing the law ‘for political purposes’ to bring a case against a former president, never mentioning Trump by name.
Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in Congress, organised a rally at the park, but it was tough to hear her over the throng of people gathered.
Trump is scheduled to return to Mar-a-Lago to hold a rally in which he is set to be joined by supporters as he seeks to use the criminal charges as a boost in his bid to return to the White House.
A conviction in the case would not prevent him from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
He has denied any wrongdoing and has blasted the investigation as part of a years-long ‘witch hunt’ aimed at damaging his candidacy.
The former president Donald Trump aggressively criticized the criminal accusations he is facing and the several other investigations into him in his first statements following his arraignment.
At after 8.15 p.m., from Mar-a-Lago, Trump said: “God bless you all.” He had just finished getting his fingerprints taken in a Manhattan courthouse. God’s blessings on you all. Furthermore, I had no idea that something similar could occur in the United States.
Defending our country bravely against those who want to do it harm is the only crime I have ever done.
Trump claims election interference is behind criminal charges after his arrest
Trump slammed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into a hush money payment to a porn star, and called the presiding Justice Juan Merchan a ‘Trump-hating judge’.
He also ripped other probes on him including Georgia’s investigation into whether he and his allies tried to overturn the state election, and a federal investigation into his handling of classified documents that wound up at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump called special counsel Jack Smith – who is overseeing the federal probes into the classified materials and his actions around the January 6 Capitol riot – a ‘lunatic’.
The ex-president also brought up the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and blamed the country’s problems including an economic slowdown on the Biden administration and Democrats.
Some TV news stations did not air Trump’s full speech, even though it ran for less than 30 minutes. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained that it was ‘basically a campaign speech in which he is repeating his same lies and allegations against his perceived enemies’.
Meanwhile, ABC News cut it off as Trump claimed that President Joe Biden would provoke an ‘all-out nuclear World War 3’.
Trump walked into his Florida resort to cheers from fans wearing MAGA hats.
His family members who entered Mar-a-Lago smiling included his son Eric Trump and wife Lara Trump, and his youngest daughter Tiffany Trump. Walking behind them was Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who appeared for a speech outside Manhattan Criminal Court before being swarmed by protesters and escorted away by police.
What is Trump charged with and what’s next?
WHAT’S THIS CASE ABOUT?
The grand jury spent weeks investigating money paid during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.
Trump has denied the allegations.
His former lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified as a key prosecution witness, paid Daniels $130,000 through a shell company he set up and was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the repayments as legal expenses.
Earlier in 2016, Cohen also arranged for former Playboy model Karen McDougal to be paid $150,000 by the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer, which squelched her story in a journalistically dubious practice known as ‘catch and kill’.
WHAT’S AN INDICTMENT?
An indictment is the formal charge brought against someone after a grand jury — which is made up of members of the community — votes and enough members agree there’s sufficient evidence to charge someone with a crime.
The indictment against Trump remains sealed, as is standard in New York before an arraignment. But once the document is made public, it will lay out the crime or crimes that Trump is accused of committing.
Sometimes indictments include a lengthy narrative with lots of details about the allegations, while others are more basic and just outline the charges a defendant is facing.
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
Trump is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that isn’t yet public.
Under the law, prosecutors must prove there was an ‘intent to defraud’.
The felony falsifying business records offense requires prosecutors to prove that the records were falsified with the intention of committing, aiding or concealing a second crime.
It’s not clear yet what prosecutors allege the second crime to be, but experts have said it is probably some kind of campaign finance violation.
WHAT’S AN ARRAIGNMENT?
An arraignment is generally the first time a defendant appears in court after being charged.
The judge will tell Trump the charges against him and advise him of his right to go to trial and other things.
Trump will enter a plea of not guilty — as is standard for defendants to do at arraignment. The indictment is expected to be unsealed upon his arraignment.
Trump is expected to walk out of the courtroom because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set in New York.
It’s possible — but unlikely — that Judge Juan Merchan could decide that Trump is a flight risk and order him held, with or without bail, though Trump’s lawyers would vigorously fight that.
WHAT WILL TRUMP’S DEFENSE BE?
Trump’s lawyers have vowed to ‘vigorously fight this political prosecution in court’.
Defense attorney Joe Tacopina has described Trump as a victim of extortion who had to pay the money because the allegations were going to be embarrassing to him. But he says it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Trump will no doubt try to fight the case on multiple fronts. He may try to have the case moved out of Manhattan or New York City entirely — arguing he can’t get a fair trial there — though it’s rare for judges to agree to do that.
Trump may also argue that the statute of limitations has passed.
He has complained that the statute of limitations ‘long ago expired’ because the hush money payments and Cohen’s reimbursements happened more than six years ago.
New York’s statute of limitations for most felonies is five years. For misdemeanors, it’s just two years. But in New York, the clock can stop on the statute of limitations when a potential defendant is continuously outside the state.
Trump visited New York rarely over the four years of his presidency and now lives mostly in Florida and New Jersey.
WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS FOR TRUMP?
Neither the indictment itself nor a conviction would prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
Already, the charges have been a boon to his fundraising. The campaign announced Friday evening that it had raised over $4 million in the 24 hours after the indictment became public, far smashing its previous record after the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Trump’s team over the weekend blasted out emails full of supportive comments from dozens of top Republicans, many of whom had already been supportive of him leading up to the indictment.
Those likely to be facing off with Trump in next year’s GOP primary contests have also slammed the prosecution.
Former Vice President Mike Pence called the indictment ‘an outrage’ and ‘nothing more than a political prosecution’.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said on Twitter that the indictment ‘is more about revenge than it is about justice’.
Biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also seeking the GOP presidential nomination, called the indictment ‘a dark moment in American history’.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday accused District Attorney Alvin Bragg of weaponizing the law ‘for political purposes’ to bring a case against a former president, never mentioning Trump by name.
Trump finished his remarks with his familiar campaign slogan.
‘With a very dark cloud over our beloved country,’ he said, ‘I have no doubt that we will make America great again.’
