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Tag: Trump

  • Final arguments in Trump civil fraud trial to be heard

    Final arguments in Trump civil fraud trial to be heard

    The trial for Donald Trump‘s fraud case in New York is ending today. Both sides are giving their last arguments in court.

    Trump and his two grown-up sons have been found guilty of making their properties seem much more valuable than they really are, by hundreds of millions of dollars.

    They say they didn’t do anything wrong.

    The trial is only looking at six specific fraud charges and how much money the Trumps have to pay if they are found guilty.

    The attorney general of New York wants the judge to make Trump pay a $370 million fine for what she says are very bad plans.

    Trump might not be allowed to do business in New York anymore, where he owns a lot of properties. He might also have to give up control of Trump Tower.

    The judge won’t give a decision today. Judge Engoron will give it later, maybe at the end of January.

  • Trump’s claims of immunity to be examined by US appeal court

    Trump’s claims of immunity to be examined by US appeal court

    A very important court case is happening in Washington to decide if Donald Trump can be charged with a crime or not.

    The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is thinking about whether Trump can use presidential immunity to protect himself from being accused of 2020 election fraud.

    Trump said he will go to court to listen to arguments in a case that might reach the Supreme Court.

    Jack Smith, a special lawyer, has accused Trump of trying to change the result of the 2020 election and of lying to stay as president.

    Trump claims that he was doing his job as president on Jan 6 and in the weeks before it, so he can’t be charged with a crime.

    You can hear the meeting at 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT) by clicking the play button at the top of the page.

    More update on this story soon.

  • Trump mimics Biden’s stuttering over anniversary of January 6

    Trump mimics Biden’s stuttering over anniversary of January 6

    Former President Donald Trump didn’t talk about the third anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot and made fun of President Joe Biden, who had called him a ‘loser’ in a speech earlier that day.

    Trump had an event in Sioux Center, Iowa, on Friday. A few hours later, Biden gave a speech in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, criticizing his predecessor for his part in the deadly insurrection.

    Trump spoke for almost two hours, saying the words ‘insurrection’ and ‘J6’, but he did not talk about the anniversary directly on Saturday.

    Trump criticized Biden, saying that he stumbled over his words when he tried to call him a danger to democracy in Pennsylvania.

    “Did you watch him. He was having trouble speaking the whole time. ” “He’s a danger to democracy. They are using the government as a weapon. ” “He’s a danger to democracy,” exclaimed Trump.

    He said Biden can’t read or say ‘democracy’ and then he imitated the president, which got a reaction from his fans.

    Trump copied Biden by pretending to have trouble finding the way out after a speech, and saying ‘he can’t walk off the stage’.

    Besides not talking about the third anniversary of January 6, Trump only briefly mentioned related issues. Trump said his enemies are accusing him of causing a rebellion, he believes the crowd at the J6 event was the largest, and he thinks that no one in history has been treated as badly as the people who were arrested for the rebellion.

    Trump talked mostly about his enemies and told his supporters to vote for him in the Iowa Caucus on January 15 during his rally.

    In a brief speech in the afternoon, Biden strongly criticized Trump and compared his own campaign to General George Washington leading troops to win in the Revolutionary War.

    Biden said Trump wants to attack democracy now and in the future.

    Biden said that the first rally for the 2024 campaign had started with a group of people who were involved in the January 6 riot singing from prison on a phone, while videos of the riot played on a big screen behind him.

  • Biden criticises Trump for inciting Capitol riot in 2024 campaign speech

    Biden criticises Trump for inciting Capitol riot in 2024 campaign speech

    In his first speech to get elected in 2024, President Joe Biden said that he thinks Donald Trump could be a big problem for American democracy.

    Mr Biden said that the most important question right now is whether democracy is still very important to America.

    “He said that’s what the 2024 election is all about. ”

    Mr Trump said the speech was filled with scary lies and called Mr. Biden a danger to democracy.

    The former president said at a rally in Iowa that Biden has a consistent history of being weak, not able to do his job well, being dishonest and not succeeding.

    Mr Biden’s speech talked about something he has been talking about a lot in recent years.

    This time, he clearly connected the US Capitol attack on 6 January 2021 to support his argument.

    That day, people who support Mr Trump went into Congress and used violence to try to stop the lawmakers from officially saying that Mr Biden won the election. This happened just a few weeks before Mr Biden was supposed to start as president.

    Mr Trump keeps saying the wrong thing that he won the 2020 election, even though it’s not true.

    The ex-president has tried to change how people see the attack on January 6th, calling it a “beautiful day. ” He has praised the people who were involved as “patriots” and “political prisoners” and said he would forgive them if he becomes president again.

    Mr Biden said that Mr Trump is trying to twist history and kept criticizing Mr Trump by name.

    Mr Biden said that the mob with Trump was not a peaceful protest, it was a violent attack. “They were rebels, not loyal citizens. ” They did not want to protect the Constitution, they wanted to ruin the Constitution.

    “He calls people who disagree with him vermin. ” He said that Americans’ blood is being poisoned, using the same language as Nazi Germany.

    The Trump campaign did not answer a request for comment right away.

    Jason Miller, a top adviser for Donald Trump’s election campaign, said that Mr. Biden is not focusing on important topics for the 2024 election.

    Mr Miller said that instead of helping the people hurt by Biden’s economic policies or the weak border, Biden wants to use the government against his main political opponent.

    Mr Biden keeps talking about protecting democracy many times.

    In 2020, he ran for office promising to make America normal again. Before the 2022 midterms, Mr. Biden said the election was very important for our country.

    On Friday, Mr Biden chose Valley Forge, Pennsylvania as the location to talk about important themes related to the American Revolutionary War.

    The music added to the mood as Mr. Biden walked to the stage. They played a song from Hamilton, a musical about the Founding Fathers, on the speakers.

    After trying for a year to make Mr. Biden look better in the polls by talking about his economic plans, his campaign is now focusing on democracy and pointing out the big differences between him and Mr.

    Mr Biden has used this strategy before and it has worked well.

    Democrats did better than expected in the 2022 midterms by defeating Republican opponents who supported Trump and doubted the fairness of US elections.

    Ashley Etienne, who used to work for Biden’s campaign, said that this issue is really important to Democratic supporters.

    Ms Etienne said that democracy is really important to who we are as people. “But it works and helps you win. ” It’s a message that says we won. And it helped bring together a large group of voters.

    Mr Biden’s friends in the Democratic party were happy that he chose to emphasize the importance of democratic values.

    “I’m happy the president is speaking out today to support democracy, freedom, and to show that Trump is a threat to all of that,” said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is a member of the Democratic Party, to reporters.

    New polls show that Americans’ opinions about the January 6 attack are very different depending on their political party. Republicans are now less likely to think it was a violent attack compared to three years ago. One out of four Americans think the FBI, not Mr. Trump’s supporters, caused the riot, according to a poll by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland.

  • Supreme Court to decide whether Trump may contest for presidency

    Supreme Court to decide whether Trump may contest for presidency

    The highest court in the United States will decide if Donald Trump can run for president. This is an important and historic case.

    The judges decided to hear Mr. Trump’s appeal because Colorado wouldn’t let him be on the 2024 ballot there.

    The court will decide the case in February and the decision will affect the whole country.

    Lawsuits in many states are trying to remove Mr. Trump from his position. They say he was part of a riot at the US Capitol three years ago.

    The legal problems depend on whether a constitutional amendment from the Civil War time means Mr. Trump can’t run for president.

    The Supreme Court agreed to hear Mr. Trump’s appeal after 27 state attorneys general asked them to reject Colorado’s decision.

    They say that taking Mr. Trump off the ballot would cause a lot of problems.

    “The submission says that it is causing confusion in the upcoming election. ”

    Moreover, it disrupts the specific duties of the Congress, the States, and the courts.

    The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution says that people who have rebelled against the government can’t hold federal office. However, the former president’s lawyers say this rule doesn’t apply to the president.

    His lawyers say that if the Colorado Supreme Court decision is followed, it would unlawfully prevent many voters in Colorado from voting and could also be used as an example to prevent many more voters across the country from voting.

    Mr Trump is fighting against a decision made by voting officials in Maine to take his name off the ballot.

    After the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday, Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold confirmed that the state’s ballots for the next presidential primary elections have been approved and that Mr. Trump’s name will be on them.

    The votes in each state will decide which people can run for president in the November election.

    Colorado is scheduled for the start of March, shortly after the Supreme Court makes a decision on Mr.

    Ms Griswold said that the Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear the case, and because of this, Donald Trump will be listed as a candidate on the ballot.

    Last month, the Colorado high court made a decision with 4 judges in favor and 3 against. It’s the first time in US history that the 14th Amendment has been used to reject a candidate from running for president.

    This is the first time the Supreme Court will think about what the clause means.

    Mr Trump is the top Republican candidate to compete against President Joe Biden, who is a Democrat, in the upcoming November election.

    Courts in Minnesota and Michigan have rejected attempts to remove Mr. Trump from his position. Other cases in Oregon are waiting for a decision.

    The US Supreme Court mainly has conservative judges, and three of them were chosen by Mr. Trump when he was president.

    However, they mostly decided he lost his lawsuits against Mr. Biden in the 2020 election.

    The court will hear the case quickly and will have a debate about it on 8 February.

    Mr Trump’s lawyers have to submit their first written arguments by January 18th.

    The people who want Mr. Trump to be disqualified have to give their reasons by January 31st.

    The top US court getting involved reminds people of the 2000 election between George Bush and Al Gore, which also went to the Supreme Court.

    The court with mostly conservative judges stopped the vote recount in Florida, which helped Mr. Bush win the election.

    Professor Cart Tobias from the University of Richmond says that the “very fast” process was expected and needed because there are more and more cases being filed in different states across the country.

    With the state primary elections coming up soon, election officials in many states need to get ready and plan for smooth voting processes on short notice.

    Cases at the Supreme Court usually take between four and 12 months, which is much longer than the few weeks currently set for justices.

    The court will probably make a decision before the Super Tuesday election in March, when Colorado and other states will choose who they want to run for president.

    On the day of the riot at the US Capitol, people who support Mr. Trump went into Congress while the lawmakers were officially declaring Mr. Biden as the winner of the election.

    On that day, the former president spoke at a gathering outside the White House. He said things that were not true about the election and told the crowd to “fight like hell”, but also to walk “peacefully” to the Capitol.

    People who disagree with Mr. Trump say he shouldn’t be allowed to be president because of what he did during the riot and because he tried to change the election result in states that he lost.

    Mr Trump is being tried in federal court and state court in Georgia for trying to change the 2020 election result. But he has not been charged with inciting a riot in either case.

  • Trump requests Supreme Court reverse the Colorado ban

    Trump requests Supreme Court reverse the Colorado ban

    Donald Trump wants the US Supreme Court to change a decision made in Colorado that said he couldn’t run for president there.

    Colorado’s highest court said last month that Mr. Trump could not run in the primary election because he was involved in the riot at the US Capitol.

    He asked for the decision to be reviewed one day after challenging a similar decision in Maine.

    Many lawsuits have been filed in different states trying to prevent Mr. Trump from being on the November 2024 ballot.

    Courts in Minnesota and Michigan have rejected efforts to disqualify the former US president and leading Republican candidate, while other cases are still pending. “Cases, including those in Oregon, are still waiting to be resolved. ”

    Mr Trump is asking the highest court in the country to decide if he can run for federal office in Colorado. The nine Supreme Court judges will have to make a very important decision.

    The Republican elections in Colorado and Maine are happening on March 5th, which is called Super Tuesday. It’s when a lot of states have their votes to pick their party candidates. Postal votes must be sent out early, so the Supreme Court is being urged to make a decision soon.

    The Supreme Court decision about whether Mr. Trump can run for president because of a Civil War law would apply to everyone in the country.

    The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution stops people who have rebelled against the government from holding federal jobs. But the ex-president’s lawyers say this rule doesn’t apply to the president.

    The Trump campaign said that the Colorado Supreme Court and President Biden are trying to stop American voters from voting for President Trump.

    “This is an act of interference in the election that goes against what America stands for and is against the rules of our government,” said Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the campaign.

    “We want the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to be rejected and we want a fair election in November. ”

    The Colorado Supreme Court made a close decision, with four judges supporting it and three judges opposing it. All seven judges were chosen by leaders who are Democrats.

    It was expected that Mr. Trump would ask the Supreme Court for help. They have to wait to decide if he will be taken off the ballot in Colorado and Maine because there are legal problems that need to be fixed first.

    The highest court has more conservative judges, and three of them were picked by Donald Trump when he was president.

    However, during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said that the ex-president was worried that the Supreme Court, which mostly leans conservative, might make a decision against him because they don’t want to support Trump.

    “He has told me and everyone else publicly about his concern, not privately,” she said. “And I can say that he has a good reason to be concerned. ”

    The Colorado case is the first time in the history of the United States that the 14th Amendment has been used to remove a presidential candidate from the election.

    Mr Trump is being investigated for trying to change the election results, but he has not been accused of starting a riot in either court case.

    Legal experts explained that the Colorado case caused a lot of disagreement in politics, and it made the Supreme Court’s job very challenging.

    “The Supreme Court is being asked to decide what democracy can and cannot do,” said Samuel Issacharoff, a professor of law at New York University.

    Prof Issacharoff said that the former president has a lot of people who really like him, but also a lot of people who really don’t like him.

    On Tuesday, David Janovksy, who works at a group that watches over the government, said it’s good that the Supreme Court is looking at the issue. He thinks it’s the best way to solve the issue for the whole country.

    “He said that because Colorado and Maine have made this decision, while other states have not, this could be a good reason for the Supreme Court to make a decision about it. ”

    “Time is very important. “

  • Why the United States so eager to win climate negotiations

    Why the United States so eager to win climate negotiations

    John Kerry, who is a special representative for the US, turned 80 years old yesterday. But he didn’t receive the present he wanted.

    Kerry and the US team are working hard to win in Dubai, worrying that if Trump becomes president again, their work will be undone.

    President Trump said the US would not be part of the Paris agreement in 2017. In 2024, if he wins again, he plans to do a lot of drilling for oil.

    The agreement released yesterday didn’t meet the US goal to get rid of fossil fuels without using technology to capture their carbon.

    Kerry said in a private meeting that this was the final opportunity to keep the global temperature from rising by more than 1. 5 degrees Celsius

    “Kerry asked world leaders to use less fossil fuels,” according to reports.

    “I think many of you here don’t want to be involved in a fake act. ”

    US representatives say it’s really important for the world to agree on something strong. They also say it’s important for Joe Biden to be elected as president again.

    Young people who care about the environment were important supporters of Biden in the 2020 election.

    Many people are not happy with Joe because of his actions in Gaza and allowing oil drilling on public lands.

    More update on this story soon…

  • Winning second term is about stopping Trump – Biden

    Winning second term is about stopping Trump – Biden

    Since the war started in February 2022, the US Congress has agreed to give more than $110 billion in military and economic help to Ukraine. The Biden administration has been saying for months that most of the money has already been given out.

    Frederick Kagan, who works at the American Enterprise Institute and used to teach at the US Military Academy, says that the delays in funding are causing actual problems for Ukraine in the war. The plan to fight back against Russia is being reduced and there is uncertainty about future actions to get back the land that has been lost.

    “He said that the people from Ukraine have to make a difficult decision here. ” “If they don’t think they’ll get more from the United States, then they need to save what they already have. ”

    He said that the Ukrainian military needs tanks, vehicles, planes, drones, and long-range weapons. The US is the only country that can give them these things quickly and in the amounts they need in the next year.

    Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress still mostly agree on giving more help to Ukraine, even if it’s not as much as the White House wanted. Converting the approval from Congress into laws that the president can approve has been very difficult.

    The Republican and Democratic senators in the US are talking about a big $106 billion spending plan. It will help Ukraine and give military help to Israel and Taiwan. It will also give more money for security at the US-Mexico border.

    However, it is this part of the package that has caused the most political upset. Democrats are hesitating to agree to new immigration rules. These changes include how people seeking asylum at the border are handled and making it harder to qualify to enter the US.

    Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said on TV that if we give more money to Ukraine, they have to make big changes to their border rules.

    Chuck Schumer says he will try to pass a bill for military aid this week, but it’s not clear if enough Republicans will vote for it without agreeing on immigration issues.

    The US media says that there was a big argument on Tuesday at a secret meeting about the help the Biden administration is giving. Senate Republicans said Democrats are not listening to their request for money to keep the border safe.

    Even if the Senate approves aid to Ukraine, it’s not clear if the House of Representatives will also approve it. Speaker Johnson said he’s for giving Ukraine more money, but he voted with 117 other Republicans to stop $300 million in extra help for Ukraine.

    If he brings a large aid package for a vote in the Senate and relies on Democrats to pass it, he could split the Republicans and risk losing power before budget negotiations next year.
    A lady walks past a picture of a Ukrainian soldier shooting a Javelin anti-tank missile made in the US.

    “The United States is expected to have a deficit of over $2. 5 trillion this year,” said Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana in an interview with BBC World Tonight’s James Coomarasamy on Tuesday.

    “Why should the US take money from China and give it to Ukraine. That’s not good for us. ”

    The White House is trying to get more support from Congress by offering more aid to Ukraine for its economy and national security. Ms Young wrote to Congress saying she needed money to make weapons in different factories all over the country.

    “We will update important weapons and gear like Javelins made in Alabama, Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems made in West Virginia, Arkansas and Texas. ” “Also, there are artillery shells made in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Iowa, and many other states,” she writes.

    As the election gets closer, the White House may want members of Congress to talk about how their work is helping the economies in their districts.

    Mr Kagan said he was not surprised that the US is arguing more about giving money to Ukraine as the conflict there continues for three years.

    He says the American people should have their representatives talk about what America’s interests are and have a real debate about how to spend the large amount of money.

    But eventually, he said the situation was obvious.

    “The result of this war will mainly depend on what the Ukrainians do, but also on what the United States decides to do. “

  • Rejecting bid to keep Trump out of the Republican field

    Rejecting bid to keep Trump out of the Republican field

    A judge in Colorado said no to a request to stop Donald Trump from being in the state’s 2024 Republican presidential primary.

    It was a big trial about whether Mr. Trump should be allowed to be in office again because of what he did before the Capitol riot in 2021. Now the trial is over.

    Other states have also tried and failed to make similar changes based on a constitutional amendment from the US Civil War era.

    Mr Trump did not go to the hearing and said he didn’t care about it.

    Explanation of the 14th Amendment’s plan to disqualify Trump.

    District Judge Sarah Wallace made a decision on Friday that says the Colorado secretary of state has to put Mr. Trump on the state’s primary ballot next year.

    The 14th Amendment says that people who promised to follow the Constitution but then rebelled against it cannot hold public office. Some voters in Colorado want this rule to apply to Mr Trump because of his role in the 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

    However, Ms Wallace did not agree. She said in her decision that the rule in the 14th amendment about uprisings does not include presidents because it does not specifically mention them in Section 3.

    “After hearing both sides, the Court decided that the President of the United States is not considered to be an ‘officer of the United States. ‘”
    “The court thinks that the people who wrote Section Three may not have wanted to include someone who has only taken the presidential oath,” she wrote in her decision.

    Ms Wallace discovered that Mr. Trump encouraged a rebellion on January 6, 2021. She also found that the First Amendment doesn’t protect Trump’s speech.

    The decision is the most recent problem for attempts to remove Mr. Trump from the Republican primary election.

    Lawsuits in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Michigan have already been unsuccessful.

    After the decision was made, the left-leaning group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who filed the lawsuit in Colorado, said they will appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court soon.

    The group clapped for Ms Wallace’s discovery that Mr Trump had taken part in the 6th January insurrection.

    “We are happy that we brought this important case and we believe we are correct based on the facts and the law,” the group stated. “Today was not the last part of this work, but just another step forward. ”

    After a week of trial, lawyers for the voters argued that Mr. Trump should not be allowed to run for president again because of his involvement in the Capitol riots on January 6th. The lawyers for the people suing called a few people to testify, including two police officers who got hurt during the riots at the US Capitol.

    Mr Trump’s lawyers said he was not responsible for the attacks. They saw that other attempts to sue the president have not worked.

    Trump’s lawyer, Scott Gessler, said the petitioners are asking the court to do something that has never been done before in the history of the United States. “The evidence isn’t enough for the court to do it. ”

    The 14th Amendment was approved after the Civil War, and Section 3 was used to stop people who wanted to leave the country from getting their old jobs back once southern states were back in the Union.

    It was used against Confederate president Jefferson Davis and vice-president Alexander Stephens. But it hasn’t been used much since then.

    The legal plan has gained more support since August, when Mr. Trump was accused of trying to interfere with the election in two different criminal cases.

    It is not clear if there will be any more attempts to stop Mr. Trump’s name from appearing on the ballot in Colorado or other states before the Republican primary and the general election.

    Legal experts think that this case, or a similar one, will probably go to the US Supreme Court.

  • Trump’s testimony in New York fraud case ‘ignites firestorm’

    Trump’s testimony in New York fraud case ‘ignites firestorm’

    Previous US President Donald Trump has clashed more than once with the judge whereas affirming in Modern York at a respectful extortion trial that undermines his property empiLater on, Mr Kise said that with Mr Trump “it’s distant more productive to tune in and take it all in” – inciting giggling from a legal counselor on the lawyer general’s group.

    Judge Engoron’s voice rose as he said: “No, I’m not here to listen what he should say. I’m here to listen him reply questions.”

    Like his two children in their declaration final week, Mr Trump said it was the Trump Organization bookkeepers who bore duty for the monetary reports.

    “All I did was approve and provide individuals anything was fundamental for the bookkeepers to do the explanation,” Mr Trump said.

    He moreover refuted charges that the company’s properties were exaggerated.

    Mr Trump instep contended they were in reality underestimated.

    He said his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and a few of his golf courses were worth more than he had claimed and had been supported by his individual brand.

    Renato Mariotti, a previous government prosecutor, told the BBC he accepts Mr Trump’s forceful reactions demonstrate his lawful group accepts “they’ve already misplaced”.

    “They’re attempting to turn or include a few colour to a really awful result,” Mr Mariotti included.

    Mr Mariotti said that whereas it would be a legitimately more secure technique for Mr Trump to conjure his right beneath the Fifth Revision of the US Structure and decay to reply questions, endeavors at “diversion” were more likely.

    “He’s centered on inciting a battle with the judge,” he said. “None of that makes a difference, from a lawful point of view.”

    Mr Trump final showed up in court at the conclusion of October to observe the declaration of his previous lawyer, Michael Cohen, a star witness within the case against him.

    The previous president’s girl, Ivanka, is anticipated to affirm on Wednesday. She is not recorded as a co-defendant within the case.

    The respectful case in Modern York is one of a few lawful fights in which Mr Trump is entangled.

    He moreover faces three criminal prosecutions over his affirmed endeavors to upset the comes about of the 2020 race, his taking care of of classified reports and another affirming untrue bookkeeping including quiet cash. siness.

    Judge Engoron has as of now ruled the Trump Organization committed extortion.

    Prosecutors charge that Mr Trump, his grown-up children Eric and Donald Jr and other Trump Organization officials expanded company resources to secure positive advances.

    The trial will decide what punishments ought to be forced.

    In court on Monday, prosecutors started by addressing Mr Trump almost his company, where its resources are held and around the valuation of its properties.

    Mr Trump reacted attimes with long comments approximately the genuine bequest and why he contributed in it, provoking reproaches from Judge Engoron.

    At one point, the judge said: “If it’s not too much trouble fair reply the questions, no talks.

    “A few of your answers have not been responsive to the questions.”

    Mr Trump afterward told the court: “I’m beyond any doubt the judge will run the show against me since he continuously rules against me.”

    Judge Engoron fired back: “You’ll be able assault me in whichever way you need, but if it’s not too much trouble reply the questions.”

    The tone got to be more bad tempered as the judge inquired Mr Trump’s legal counselor, Christopher Kise: “Mr Kise, can you control your client? This can be not a political rally, typically a court.”

    “I entreat you to control him,” the judge included. “On the off chance that you can’t, I will.”
    Afterward on, Mr Kise said that with Mr Trump “it’s distant more productive to tune in and take it all in” – provoking chuckling from a attorney on the attorney general’s group.

    Judge Engoron’s voice rose as he said: “No, I’m not here to listen what he must say. I’m here to listen him answer questions.”

    Like his two children in their declaration final week, Mr Trump said it was the Trump Organization bookkeepers who bore duty for the money related reports.

    “All I did was approve and give people anything was vital for the bookkeepers to do the explanation,” Mr Trump said.

    He too refuted affirmations that the company’s properties were exaggerated.

    Mr Trump instep contended they were in reality underestimated.

    He said his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and a few of his golf courses were worth more than he had claimed and had been reinforced by his individual brand.

    Renato Mariotti, a previous government prosecutor, told the BBC he accepts Mr Trump’s aggressive reactions demonstrate his lawful group accepts “they’ve as of now misplaced”.

    “They’re attempting to turn or include a few colour to a really awful result,” Mr Mariotti included.

    Mr Mariotti said that whereas it would be a lawfully more secure methodology for Mr Trump to conjure his right beneath the Fifth Revision of the US Structure and decay to reply questions, endeavors at “diversion” were more likely.

    “He’s centered on inciting a battle with the judge,” he said. “None of that makes a difference, from a legitimate viewpoint.”

    Mr Trump final showed up in court at the conclusion of October to watch the declaration of his previous lawyer, Michael Cohen, a star witness within the case against him.

    The previous president’s girl, Ivanka, is anticipated to affirm on Wednesday. She is not recorded as a co-defendant within the case.

    The respectful case in Unused York is one of a few legitimate fights in which Mr Trump is involved.

  • Ex-employee claims size of Trump’s flat was overstated

    Ex-employee claims size of Trump’s flat was overstated

    A person who used to work for Donald Trump has admitted that they were aware that the former president was exaggerating the size of his apartment in Trump Tower.

    Allen Weisselberg, who used to be in charge of finances at the Trump Organization, admitted this information during a legal trial in New York.

    He said the records were wrong about the flat being 20,000 sq feet bigger than it actually is.

    Mr Trump is being accused of making the value of his properties seem higher by over $2 billion (£1. 6 billion)

    Former President Trump, his two children Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization, and some business leaders are alleged to have engaged in fraud, manipulated business records, provided false financial statements, and plotted together.

    Before the trial began, the judge decided that Trump properties were not worth as much as what the former president and his company claimed. Mr Trump has described the trial as a “witch hunt” being carried out by people he sees as his political enemies.

    However, on Tuesday, Mr. Weisselberg stated that the apartment in Trump Tower is about 10,000 square feet (929 square meters), which is different from the 30,000 square feet (2,787 square meters) indicated in the financial documents.

    Mr Weisselberg initially struggled with talking about the difference in sizes, but later he mentioned that he was more worried about other things being revealed.

    Considering the worth of the apartment in relation to his total assets doesn’t really matter. “It’s around 1%,” Mr. When I looked at the financial statement, there were some big things on there that worried me more.

    The judge, Arthur Engoron, stopped Mr. Weisselberg while he was talking and said, “You should only answer the questions and not give speeches. ” Please only respond to the questions.

    In 2017, Forbes asked about how big the triplex was. They referred to a document from October 1994 where Mr. Trump said the penthouse was 10,996 square feet or 1021 square meters.

    From 2012 until now, the triplex has been listed as being 30,000 square feet in size.

    Mr Weisselberg admitted that the apartment is actually much smaller than what was stated on the financial documents provided to banks and insurance companies for loan approvals and deals.

    This statement comes six months after Mr. Weisselberg was let out of prison. He admitted to cheating on his taxes in 2022 and was in jail for around three months.

    The prosecutors in his situation claimed that he received benefits from a company’s plan. These benefits included $1. 76 million, a furnished apartment without rent, private school fees for his grandchildren, and expensive cars.

    If the judge agrees with the people trying to prove that Mr. Trump broke the law, he would have to pay a lot of money and would not be allowed to do business in New York.

  • Biden trapped in Trump’s shadow on border problem

    Biden trapped in Trump’s shadow on border problem

    President Joe Biden is facing a tough situation because a lot of people are coming from Mexico to the US.

    Democratic leaders at the state and local level, who are supposed to be his biggest supporters before the next presidential election, are strongly criticizing the way he is dealing with immigration. His likely opponent in the 2024 Republican race, Donald Trump, is intensifying his criticisms on an issue that has been an important part of his political message for almost ten years. And fewer people are supporting Mr. Biden in this situation.

    Although the voting will take place in more than a year, the increasing immigration crisis is causing problems even far away from the US-Mexico border. Republican governors have been sending newly arrived migrants to cities run by Democrats, which could negatively affect Mr. Biden’s popularity and his chances of being re-elected.

    The numbers show that things are getting worse. Based on early data from the US Department of Homeland Security, around 210,000 people who didn’t have the proper documents were caught by US Border Patrol when they were trying to enter the country in September. This is the best score of the year, and it almost reaches the highest number of arrests in a month which happened at the end of 2022.

    If the Biden administration believed that the border crisis was getting better and the attention of the country was shifting to other problems after making changes to government policies earlier this year, the latest rise in the situation should remove that idea.

    Furthermore, the way the number of immigrants is increasing indicates that there might not be a solution to this problem anytime soon. Around 25% of the people caught crossing the border last month were from Venezuela, a country in South America. Venezuela has been going through difficult times because of its ruler, Nicolas Maduro, who has a socialist dictatorship.

    The situation in Venezuela has caused a lot of people to leave their country and seek refuge in other places, including the United States. Over seven million people have already fled Venezuela, and this has led to a crisis in the region. The effects of this crisis are now becoming more noticeable in the United States.

    Over the past two months, more than 150,000 Venezuelans have traveled north to the US through Central America, crossing the Darian Gap.

    “People don’t abruptly leave their homes just for no reason,” said Janet Napolitano, who was in charge of protecting the country during President Obama’s time, speaking to the BBC. “They are usually in a difficult situation – very poor, without a job, experiencing lots of crime, violence, and their home countries lack basic institutions. ”

    A border guard in the United States sees people coming into the country who are not from there.
    On Thursday, President Biden’s team shared two new actions they will take to deal with the major rise in something. These measures have made the president vulnerable to criticism from all sides of the political spectrum. The president allowed exceptions to environmental and planning rules and provided money to construct more parts of a wall on the border between the US and Mexico.

    He also said that the US would start sending Venezuelan citizens back to their country directly. This practice had been stopped before because the two countries had difficult relations.

    These new rules were quickly criticized. Some people who strongly oppose immigration said the rules were not enough, while some left-wing immigration activists said they were too strict. The president’s confusing explanations made things worse. He said he still thinks walls don’t work and that Congress made him spend money on it.

    The Venezuelan announcement shows that the government has changed its attitude. Before, they allowed around 500,000 Venezuelan refugees in the US to apply for work permits and not be sent back to their country for 18 months.

    In an attempt to calm fears that he is not taking enough action to handle the increase in people crossing the border, while also keeping his liberal followers satisfied, he seems to be satisfying neither group. This has been a difficult problem that has occurred several times regarding border policies during Biden’s presidency.

    Immigration has become a very divided topic. This is partly because of Mr Trump’s strong “build the wall” words and sometimes harsh policies while he was president. This has greatly limited Mr. Biden’s ability to handle the crises.

    While President Barack Obama was able to increase the number of deportations and make the border stronger without facing backlash from liberal activists, Mr. Biden doesn’t have the same advantage. Now, every action he does regarding immigration is seen within the ongoing political battles between Mr. Trump and the Republicans, and the Democrats on the opposite side.

    Now, the latest surveys show that during the argument between different political parties, the people are starting to become less supportive of the president.

    In a recent poll by Marquette University, registered voters were asked to pick who they thought was doing a better job on immigration and border security: the current president or the previous one. More than half of the people (52%) said they liked Mr Trump better, while only 28% chose Mr Biden.

    This is the equal biggest difference between the two candidates, along with the economy. It is opposite to subjects like abortion and climate change, where Mr Biden is clearly ahead.

    The NBC News poll showed that 45% of Americans believed that Republicans were better at handling immigration, while only 27% thought Democrats were better. This is a big change from when most American people liked the Democrats during the time Trump was president.
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    Why hasn’t Trump received money like other presidents did for a border barrier.

    The ongoing alarming news from the border, along with the pressure on public services in big US cities where the migrants are going, is impacting people’s thoughts and feelings.

    If the crisis doesn’t improve before the serious campaigning for the 2024 general election starts, the president will have a disadvantage in competing against his Republican opponent.

    Ms Napolitano says that fixing the immigration problem will require the Biden team to work together.

    “She says that it calls for diplomatic communication. ” We need to invest in other countries to reduce the reasons why people want to migrate. And it needs to have a strong and secure border, as well as effectively enforcing our immigration laws that should be changed and improved.

    Ultimately, what really matters is whether or not the new immigration policies implemented by Mr. Biden are effective, rather than the criticism he may face for his actions this week. If they cannot stop the flow of migrants from Venezuela and other places, it becomes harder for Biden to get re-elected.

  • Biden approves new border wall segment as Mexico crossings increase

    The current US President, Joe Biden, plans to construct a part of a wall along the southern border of Texas. This is being done in order to prevent an increase in the number of people immigrating to the US.

    They will build a road in Starr County along its border with Mexico. Officials say lots of people are crossing the border there.

    Making a border wall was a very important policy of Donald Trump when he was president. Democrats strongly disagreed with it.

    In 2020, Mr Biden said he would not construct any more wall if he won the election.

    His government made a statement shortly after starting that said building a wall on the southern border is not a good solution.

    In a statement to Associated News on Wednesday night, the US Customs and Border Protection explained that they are using funds that were already set aside for a border barrier.

    The Congress gave money for building a border wall in the Rio Grande Valley. The Department of Homeland Security must use that money for building the wall as intended.

    The president is very worried because there are more and more people crossing the border illegally, and this is a big problem.

    Government data shows that over 245,000 crossings have been made this year. It is predicted that September will be a month with the highest number of crossings ever recorded.

    Many cities in the US are saying that they are struggling because of the increase in people coming in.

    The Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said that it will cost $12 billion in the next three years to provide housing for over 100,000 new people who have come to the city since last year.

    This week, Mr. Adams is going to Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador. He wants to convince people not to leave their countries to go to other places. “We don’t have any more room,” he said on Tuesday.

    President Biden’s secretary in charge of protecting the country wants to quickly build a new part of the wall to stop people from entering the country illegally.

    The problem at the US border explained with just four graphs.
    Cities in the United States that are geographically distant from the border are struggling with the issue of migrants coming into the country.
    The Texas town is stuck in a conflict over America’s border.

    Many important laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, were set aside in order to allow its construction to happen.

    Environmentalists are upset and angry about this action because they believe that building these structures will damage and disrupt the living spaces of plants and animals that are at risk of dying out.

    Laiken Jordahl, a person who supports conservation at the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed disappointment in President Biden’s decision to disregard important environmental laws in order to construct border walls that harm wildlife without achieving their intended purpose.

    US Customs and Border Protection plans to build barriers that are made up of big poles attached to a solid base, alongside gates, cameras, and CCTV equipment.

    The Department of Homeland Security said they will use money that was set aside during Donald Trump’s time as president to construct the new part.

    This is the first time the Biden administration has allowed the building of new walls. The previous administration, under Mr. Trump, frequently approved the construction of walls and built 450 miles of them.
    MrTrump spoke to Fox News and said that the crisis was caused by the president repealing his tough border policies and now needing to bring them back.

    “He said that he has to do all the things that we were doing. ”

    MrBiden is getting more and more criticism for his immigration rules after a sudden increase in migrants coming into the US.

    In August, the US Border Patrol caught 181,059 people at the southern border, which is more than the 132,648 people caught in July, according to the latest information.

    Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, stated that in just one week, 10,000 individuals came to the border each day.

  • Trump intends to purchase firearm with his picture on it

    The ex-president, Donald Trump, tried to purchase a handgun with his own picture on it, but he couldn’t because he has been charged with serious crimes in four separate cases.

    Trump was at a store called Palmetto State Armory in South Carolina. There, he saw a gun that was bronze-colored and had his picture, his name, his title as 45th president, and a special symbol on the handle.

    That’s amazingI have to purchase one. “I want to buy one,” Trump said on Monday when someone showed him the gun. The video was shared by his spokesperson Steven Cheung on X (formerly Twitter).

    The person holding the gun responded quickly, and then Trump repeated, ‘No, I want to purchase one. ‘
    Cheung said, “President Trump bought a GLOCK gun in South Carolina. ”

    The spokesperson quickly removed the post because they realized it would be illegal for Trump to buy the gun. This is because he has 91 serious charges against him in four different criminal cases.

    A federal law says that people who have been accused of a serious crime are not allowed to buy a gun.

    Cheung told CNN that Trump didn’t really purchase the Glock when he went to the armory.
    Trump was joined on the visit by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman who supports him a lot and belongs to the Republican party.

    ‘She said President Trump went shopping in South Carolina, but then the Trump campaign clarified. ‘ “He will make sure our important Second Amendment is defended. ”

    The ex-president kept going with his day and had a meeting in Summerville, a small town near Charleston.
    Trump has always admitted that he has a license to carry a hidden weapon and in a 2015 debate among Republican presidential candidates, he confessed, ‘I do carry my weapon sometimes, and at times, I carry it often. ‘ But I enjoy not following a set pattern or being predictable.

    The former president, who is currently winning against his opponents, will not participate in the second 2024 Republican primary debate on Wednesday evening. Instead, he will have a gathering with employees from the car industry who are protesting in Michigan.

    Trump said he did not do anything wrong and is not admitting guilt for any of the charges in the four cases against him.

  • Mitt Romney asks Trump and Biden to ‘stand aside’ for 2024

    Mitt Romney asks Trump and Biden to ‘stand aside’ for 2024

    Mitt Romney, a US senator and someone who previously wanted to be president, has said that Donald Trump and Joe Biden should step aside and allow younger politicians to have a chance.

    He said these things when talking to the media about his own intentions to stop working.

    He said he was deciding not to run again because he believed it was time for younger leaders to take over.

    MrRomney, who is 76 years old, has been involved in US politics for the past 20 years. He also served as the governor of Massachusetts for a period of time.

    Lately, the important Republican has started speaking out against both Mr Biden and Mr Trump.

    He will continue to be in the position until January 2025, which is when his senate term ends.

    MrRomney made a video where he said he will not run again. He said that his age influenced his decision.

    By the time another term ends, I would be in my mid-80s. He said that it’s time for new leaders. Even though I am not running for re-election, I am still going to continue fighting.

    He said that he wants young people to join the Republican party, become candidates for office, and vote. He believes that both parties would benefit from having more choices of candidates from younger generations.

    When asked by the BBC, Mr. Romney said it would be good if both President Biden and Mr. Trump step down and let new people from the younger generation lead their parties.

    Mr Biden, who is 80 years old, and Mr Trump, who is 77 years old, are the leading candidates for the Democrats and Republicans in the 2024 presidential race, correspondingly.

    MrRomney also pointed out differences between himself and some other Republicans. He believes that he represents a smaller and more thoughtful faction of the party that is focused on policy objectives.

    According to him, Republican lawmakers who back Mr. Trump are mainly interested in getting revenge and settling perceived wrongdoings.

    MrRomney ran for president as the Republican candidate in 2012, but he didn’t win. Barack Obama, who was already the president, ended up winning again.

    Six years later, he became one of Utah’s two senators after being chosen in an election. He tried to become the Republican candidate in 2008 but it didn’t work out. He was also the governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.

    In 2020, he chose to find Mr. Trump guilty during his initial impeachment trial, which was the first time a senator voted to find a member of his own party guilty. He was the only person from the Republican party who did it.

    He voted to find the former president guilty again in his second impeachment trial after the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

    Ever since that time, Mr. Romney has been against the former president. Trump was happy about the news and expressed his excitement on Truth Social, using all capital letters. He said that Mr. Romney did not serve well and considered his retirement to be great news.

    IfRomney isn’t there, his seat in the senate will most likely be given to one of the Trump-supporting candidates who are considered as potential options.

  • Trump’s Georgia court case to be streamed live

    Trump’s Georgia court case to be streamed live

    A judge has ruled that the trial of Donald Trump in Georgia, where he is being accused of election fraud, will be shown live online and on TV.

    Judge Scott McAfee said that all the hearings can be watched live on Fulton County Court’s YouTube channel.

    A specific date for the trial hasn’t been decided yet, but it might happen next year while Mr. Trump is seeking to be re-elected.

    Mr Trump and 18 other individuals are accused of planning together to change the results of the 2020 presidential election in their state.

    The previous Republican president is currently dealing with multiple criminal trials. In one of these trials, he has entered a plea of not guilty to a total of 13 charges in Georgia.

    The events that happen in Fulton County’s courts are usually shown live on a video streaming service.

    But, only one of Mr. Trump’s four trials will be shown on TV, and it might be one of the most popular trials in recent times.

    Last week, Mr. Trump went to Atlanta for a short time to go to Fulton County Jail and have his photo taken. He decided not to go to court on Wednesday for his arraignment, which is a quick hearing where the plea is officially given in court.

    The prosecutors claim that he forced Georgia officials to change the election results in the state because he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

    The main point of the prosecution’s argument is that he called the secretary of state of the state to ask for the vote count to be redone.

    “I simply want to locate 11,780 votes,” he can be heard saying on a recording of the call.

    Trump said the phone call was “perfect” and his lawyers who were listening did not have any worries.

    The person who used to own a lot of buildings in New York, is currently the leading candidate to be chosen as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2024. Despite facing legal issues, his popularity with his followers has not been affected.

    He believes that the legal cases in Georgia and the other three criminal cases against him are motivated by politics.

    Some of the people who were accused with him in Georgia, like his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have stated that they will choose not to go to court next week.

    Clark Cunningham, who teaches law at Georgia State University, said that the decision is usually not a topic of debate and disagreement.

    “According to him, Mr. Trump is fully aware of the accusations against him,” he explained. The main goal of the arraignment is to tell the accused person what charges they are facing and ask them how they plead. He doesn’t have to be present because he already knows what they are.

    He and the people he did bad things with are accused of racketeering, which is also called the Rico act.

    In the US, both at the national level, Rico laws are used to assist prosecutors in linking lower level offenders who committed a crime with those who instructed them or planned the criminal activity.

  • Security intensified over Trump’s court appearance

    Security intensified over Trump’s court appearance

    At a court hearing on Thursday, former US President Donald Trump will be formally indicted on charges related to an alleged plot to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.

    Scheduled for Thursday at 4:00 PM EDT (8:00 PM GMT), 77-year-old Mr. Trump is set to make an appearance at a federal courthouse in Washington DC.

    It is anticipated that he will enter a plea of not guilty. Despite having the possibility of opting for a remote video appearance, it is reported that he plans to attend in person.

    Since his departure from the White House, Mr. Trump has visited the city on just one occasion. In a scene that unfolded on Wednesday evening, a queue had already begun forming outside the courthouse building.

    In anticipation of the arraignment, Trump criticized the case as evidence of the “corruption, scandal, & failure” characterizing Joe Biden’s presidency.

    Tourists atop the National Gallery of Art look out over the news trucks in front of the federal courthouse where former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is expected to answer charges after a grand jury returned an indictment of Trump in the special counsel's investigation of efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat In Washington, U.S. August 2, 2023.

    Image Source – Reuters; Image caption, News trucks are parked around the courthouse

    Concurrently, Mr. Trump is already confronting two additional criminal cases as he embarks on his White House campaign for the upcoming year.

    In Washington DC, security measures are being escalated in preparation for the scheduled hearing. Metal barricades have been erected outside the federal courthouse where the charges against Trump will be officially presented. Similar structures have also been established around the US Capitol buildings, the site of the January 2021 riots incited by Trump supporters in response to the election outcome.

    The Secret Service, responsible for safeguarding presidents and former presidents, issued a statement alerting the public to potential traffic disruptions in central Washington DC.

    Amidst these developments, a purported hoax 911 call concerning an active shooting at the Capitol led to a lockdown in three Senate office buildings and prompted a significant police emergency response on Wednesday.

    Addressing reporters during the incident, US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger affirmed the preparedness of the police force that confronted the rioters two and a half years ago, noting their proficiency in active-shooter drills.

    Reportedly, security for the judges involved in the case has also been heightened.

    In an all-capital-letters post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, the former president, who was at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, thanked his followers and said: “I never had so much support on anything before.”

    In previous social media posts, he launched critiques against his Republican rivals in the presidential race, which includes his former Vice-President, Mike Pence, and the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.

    He reiterated his assertion that Mr. Pence had possessed the legal authority to halt the certification of Mr. Biden’s election triumph on January 6, 2021—a session that was marred by the disruption caused by Trump supporters at the US Capitol.

    The indictment lists four charges against Mr. Trump, encompassing conspiracy to defraud the US, witness tampering, and conspiracy against citizens’ rights. Among these, the “deprivation of rights” charge, instituted following the US Civil War to safeguard freed slaves integrating into society, stands out.

    This charge played a pivotal role in the 1967 trial of Ku Klux Klan members, which subsequently inspired the 1988 film “Mississippi Burning.” Legal analysts suggest its inclusion in the case against Mr. Trump stems from allegations that his attempts to undermine the electoral process targeted urban regions with significant African-American voter populations.

    Mr. Trump’s legal team has hinted at their defense strategy. Attorney John Lauro made an appearance on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday, outlining their intention to argue that Mr. Trump’s actions are shielded by the First Amendment’s protection of free speech enshrined in the US Constitution.

    Mr. Trump’s legal team is also pushing back against the prosecutors’ request for an expedited trial, citing the need for ample time to prepare a robust defense for their client.

    A spokesperson from the US Marshals Service, a federal law enforcement agency responsible for courthouse security, informed Reuters news agency that Mr. Trump will undergo fingerprinting and provide essential information like his birthdate and Social Security ID number.

    Numerous other individuals accused of involvement in the US Capitol riot have had their Thursday hearings rescheduled.

    Presently, Mr. Trump maintains a prominent lead in the Republican Party’s competition to designate its forthcoming presidential nominee.

    Congressional Republicans have rallied in support of him, contending that the recent indictment underscores a perception of the US devolving into a “banana republic.” They echo the former president’s assertion that these prosecutions amount to interference in elections.

    The 45-page election-related indictment against Mr Trump is based partly on contemporaneous notes that Mr Pence kept of their conversations in the days leading up to US Capitol riot.

    Mr Trump has already been charged in two other cases: with mishandling classified files and falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star.

    Prosecutors in Georgia may bring a criminal case against Mr Trump this month over alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election result in that state.

  • Georgia prosecutor, alleges receiving racist threats in connection with Trump case

    Georgia prosecutor, alleges receiving racist threats in connection with Trump case

    In connection with the Trump case, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis receives racist threats. During her deliberations on whether to charge former President Donald Trump, a prosecutor in Georgia has alleged that she was subjected to racist threats and slurs.

    Trump is being investigated by Fulton County’s district attorney, Fani Willis, for alleged attempts to interfere with the results of the 2020 US election.

    On Monday, Mr. Trump’s defence team made an unsuccessful bid to get her dismissed from the case.

    A grand jury vote on possible criminal charges is anticipated soon.

    Ms. Willis asked regional officials to “stay alert” this month as the decision approaches in a letter that CBS, the BBC’s US partner, was able to access.

    The Democrat Ms. Willis recalled an email she received recently in which she was subjected to racial and gendered slurs and warned she would fail.

    The letter, according to her, was “pretty typical” of the letters she had previously received.

    Similar-natured threats-related phone calls have also been made to her office, she claimed.

    I made an oath. I was elected to this position by the people of Fulton County alone, Ms. Willis claimed in the letter. “I intend to perform my duties as directed. Please take actions to ensure the safety of your employees.

    According to local media reports, the Fulton County courthouse has increased security measures in preparation for a potential grand jury ruling.

    Ms. Willis cautioned that any allegations “may provoke a significant public reaction” in a different letter in May.
    an image caption

    Grand jury to arraignment video with definitions of US legal jargon

    The Georgia investigation, in part, is centred on a phone conversation between Mr. Trump and Georgia’s main election official during which the former president claimed that officials could “find” over 11,000 ballots to swing the election in his favour.

    According to reports, the prospective accusations include racketeering, making false claims to government officials, and soliciting electoral fraud.

    Ms. Willis had stated that it was anticipated that any charges would be brought in August.

    The grand jury report, one of two sworn in earlier this month, covers Mr. Trump’s role in the events following the 2020 election. On Monday, a Georgia judge rejected a request by Mr. Trump’s attorneys to have Ms. Willis removed from the investigation and to have the report quashed.

    For his part, Mr. Trump has consistently denied any misconduct.

    Additionally, he called the crucial phone call in the case “perfect” and charged Ms. Willis of conducting a “political witch hunt.”

    Mr. Trump is currently dealing with a number of legal concerns, including the Georgia case.

    He was indicted for the third time in the past four months on charges of conspiring to rig the 2020 election.

    Additionally, Mr. Trump is facing allegations of financial crimes in New York and charges of improper handling of sensitive information in Florida.

    Details about this story soon

  • Trump claims to be the only Republican with chance of winning 2024 race

    Trump claims to be the only Republican with chance of winning 2024 race

    At a campaign rally in Iowa, Republican presidential contenders appeared on stage together for the first time in the 2024 presidential contest.

    Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s top competitors, were the featured speakers at their annual Lincoln Dinner fundraiser.

    During the occasion, each of the 13 contenders was given 10 minutes to speak.

    Even as his legal troubles get worse, polls suggest that Mr. Trump is still ahead of his competitors.

    He argued that the only reason he is facing a slew of criminal and civil allegations is because he is the only candidate who can win the election next year.

    Mr. Trump has previously said that, even if he is found guilty, he will still seek the presidency.

    More than 1,200 individuals, all of whom have a considerable impact on the Republican nominee, were gathered in the enormous ballroom.

    Despite the fact that a lot of people claimed to be legitimately undecided about their vote, there were plenty of Trump bumper stickers in the throng.

    Observing the many contenders’ interactions with one another was not enjoyable. When it came time for each of them to deliver their ten-minute address, they quickly emerged from their individual backstage suites. In reality, they were under no need to interact.

    Watching the many contenders engage with one another was not amusing. Each of them got an own backstage suite from which they emerged to give their ten-minute address. Actually, they didn’t even need to interact with one another.

    Vivek Ramaswamy captivated the audience and received a standing ovation for his barnstorming performance, exactly what he needed to achieve to become a breakthrough artist.

    The performance of Will Hurd won’t be quickly forgotten, but for all the wrong reasons. When he claimed that Donald Trump is just running for president to avoid going to jail, the audience appeared to be really astonished.

    The rest of his words were almost completely drowned out by raucous jeers and clinking silverware, with one man yelling “go home.” He had clearly lost track of the space.

    The fundraiser on Friday comes a day after additional accusations were made against Mr. Trump for allegedly handling classified information improperly.

    The former president is the front-runner for the Republican nomination, despite the fact that federal prosecutors have expanded their criminal investigation into him due to how he handled official papers after leaving office.

    A FiveThirtyEight average of opinion polls shows that Mr Trump is leading the Republican field with 52.4% support, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with 15.5% and everyone else with less than 10%.

    Trump could soon face charges in Washington for allegedly trying to rig the 2020 election. He has refuted each and every accusation.

    Voters will start narrowing the field of presidential candidates in each state until only one from each major party is left standing to run in the November 2024 election in Iowa.

    On Friday, the ceremony was also attended by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, and former Vice President Mike Pence.

    The former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, opted out of attending the event in favour of New Hampshire.

    Since last Thursday, Mr. DeSantis has been in Iowa. He has promised to eventually travel to each of Iowa’s 99 counties in an effort to improve his standing both locally and nationally.

    The governor of Florida has come under fire for the new educational requirements that have been adopted for middle schools in his state, especially from Republicans.

    The 200-page curriculum’s statement that slaves acquired practical skills that “could be applied to their personal benefit” has stirred some debate.

    One of three black Republicans running for president in 2024, Mr. Scott, told reporters on Thursday that the real purpose of slavery was to split up families, mutilate people, and even rape their wives. Simply catastrophic, that is.

    So I would hope that everyone in our country would respect it, and certainly anyone running for president.

    Local Iowan polls of public opinion suggest that Mr. Scott may be gaining ground.

    A political dispute recently caused Mr. Trump to lose a supporter in the crucial state of Iowa.

    A few days after Mr. Trump lambasted Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds for remaining neutral in the 2024 election, an Iowa state senator opted to support Mr. DeSantis instead.

    How often have we clenched our teeth and shaken our heads at some of the former president’s statements? NPR was told by Jeff Reichman.

  • ‘I hadn’t had a chance to go through all the boxes’ – Trump tells court hearing classified documents case

    ‘I hadn’t had a chance to go through all the boxes’ – Trump tells court hearing classified documents case

    Former US president, Donald Trump, has entered a plea of not guilty to longstanding accusations of mishandling sensitive files during a hearing at a federal court in Miami, Florida.

    This marks the first time a federal criminal indictment has been filed against a sitting or former US president.

    During the court proceedings, Trump maintained a stern and composed demeanor, crossing his arms while dressed in a dark suit and red tie. This court appearance is his second this year.

    Following the hearing, the Republican politician made his way to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he addressed his supporters.

    Against a backdrop of American flags, Mr Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, struck a defiant tone and told the assembled crowd he had “every right” to hold the classified documents, but “hadn’t had a chance to go through all the boxes”.

    He said he followed the law and went on to list series of unsubstantiated claims as well as grievances against President Joe Biden and his former rival Hillary Clinton.

    Earlier in the day before leaving Miami, Mr Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, thanked the city for “such a warm welcome on such a sad day for our country”.

    Just hours before, in a 13th-floor room of a federal courthouse in downtown Miami, a sombre, subdued Mr Trump looked on while his lawyer entered a plea of not guilty on 37 counts of illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to get them back.

    “We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” the attorney, Todd Blanche, told the judge.

    Accompanying the former president, Mr. Walt Nauta, a close aide charged with six criminal counts, sat at the same table during the court proceedings.

    On the other side of the courtroom, the entire prosecution team, including special counsel Jack Smith, who announced the indictment last week, were present.

    Despite turning 77 on Wednesday, Mr. Trump was granted unrestricted domestic and international travel privileges by Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, as prosecutors did not consider him a flight risk.

    However, the former president is prohibited from discussing the case with Mr. Nauta.

    After the hearing, Mr. Trump expressed a thumbs-up gesture to his supporters as his motorcade departed from the courthouse. In one mildly chaotic moment of an otherwise peaceful day, a protester dressed in a prison jumpsuit briefly interrupted the motorcade’s path before being swiftly moved away by security personnel.

    Mr. Trump and his security detail subsequently headed to Versailles, a popular Cuban restaurant located in Miami’s Little Havana, where a crowd of supporters awaited him. Many lined up to take photos with the former president, and he appeared to participate in a prayer with some patrons. The visit coincided with a rendition of “Happy Birthday to You” sung in his honor.

    Before the hearing, court officials said Mr Trump would not have a mugshot taken but would be digitally fingerprinted and asked to submit a DNA sample by swab.

    A trial date has not yet been set, though the case is still earmarked for Aileen Cannon, a federal district judge in South Florida who was appointed by Mr Trump.

  • Trump likely to be hit with new charges over classified documents

    Trump likely to be hit with new charges over classified documents

    Donald Trump has reportedly received notification of being a target in a criminal investigation regarding potential mishandling of classified files following his departure from the White House.

    The move by federal prosecutors to inform the former president about the probe suggests that he may soon face charges. This would mark the second indictment for Mr. Trump, who is currently campaigning for another presidential run.

    Since last year, prosecutors have been examining the transfer of files to Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. In August, the property underwent a search during which 11,000 documents were seized, including approximately 100 classified files, some of which were labeled as top secret.

    According to three sources familiar with the matter, Mr. Trump was informed about being under investigation. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the investigation as politically motivated.

    When asked by the New York Times if he had been told he is a target of a federal investigation on Wednesday, he said “you have to understand” that he was not in direct touch with prosecutors.

    CNN, ABC News, and Politico all reported on Wednesday night that Mr Trump had been notified by letter that he was the subject of a criminal investigation.

    All the outlets said the move signalled charges could happen soon, but that it was possible a person would not go on to be charged.

    The New York Times cited two people familiar with the matter as saying the notification came from the office of Jack Smith, a former war crimes attorney turned special prosecutor who is considering evidence.

    It comes after prosecutors obtained an audio recording of Mr Trump in which he acknowledges keeping a classified document after leaving the White House.

    The details of documents that may have been in Mr Trump’s possession remain unclear. Classified material usually contains information that officials feel could damage national security if made public.

    It is against US law for federal officials, up to and including a president, to remove or retain classified documents at an unauthorised location.

    Grand juries, set up by a prosecutor to determine whether there is enough evidence to pursue a prosecution, are believed to have met in both Miami and Washington to hear evidence.

    On Wednesday, the jury in Miami heard evidence from Taylor Budowich, a former aide and spokesman to Mr Trump.

    It raises the possibility that any criminal charges could be filed in Florida for procedural reasons, CBS reported.

    Earlier this week, members of Mr Trump’s legal team met with investigators at the Department of Justice in Washington.

    Mr Trump, who is leading in opinion polls to be the Republican Party’s 2024 candidate for president, has consistently denied wrongdoing and has criticised the justice department’s investigation as “politically motivated” and a “witch-hunt”.

    Any indictment over his handling of classified documents would come after Mr Trump became the first former president to be charged with a crime, 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.

  • FBI criticized for probing into potential election involving Trump and Russia

    FBI criticized for probing into potential election involving Trump and Russia

    An FBI investigation into potential collaboration between Donald Trump’s team and Russia in the 2016 presidential election has been criticised by a US special counsel.

    The FBI allegedly ‘discounted or wilfully ignored relevant facts that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia’, according to Special Counsel John Durham’s 306-page final report, which was made public on Monday.

    Durham came to the conclusion that the FBI never ought to have opened a thorough inquiry into potential connections between the Trump campaign and Russian election meddling.

    The FBI used ‘raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence‘ in launching the probe known as Crossfire Hurricane, according to the report. It had a ‘lack of analytical rigor’ in examining leads on Trump’s links to Russia.

    ‘An objective and honest assessment of these strands of information should have caused the F.B.I. to question not only the predication for Crossfire Hurricane, but also to reflect on whether the F.B.I. was being manipulated for political or other purposes,’ wrote Durham.

    ‘Unfortunately, it did not.’

    Additionally, the report accused the FBI of using a different standard in considering allegations of election interference surrounding the campaign of Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton.

    The report did not provide major revelations about the probe.

    Trump ripped former FBI Director James Comey and Democrats for the investigation into alleged collusion between his campaign and Russia.

    ‘I, and much more importantly, then American public have been victims of this long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats – started by Comey,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘There must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this.’

    Trump said the report took a long time to be released publicly ‘because John Durham is a very thorough investigator’.

    ‘But the result is unequivocal and an absolute disaster in terms of justice,’ said Trump, adding that the ‘national security implications of what they did are very grave’.

    ‘It turned out to be a giant and very dangerous hoax,’ Trump said.

    Durham did not call for any ‘wholesale changes’ to the FBI’s guidelines for inquiries into politically sensitive matters.

  • Trump loses civil trial to E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of sexual abuse and defamation

    Trump loses civil trial to E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of sexual abuse and defamation

    A federal jury in New York has ruled that former President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, a journalist and former advice columnist who accused him of raping her in a department store in the mid-1990s.

    The jury of six men and three women awarded Carroll $5 million in damages on Monday, after deliberating for less than three hours.

    They found that Trump committed battery against Carroll by forcibly kissing and groping her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury store in Manhattan. They also found that Trump defamed Carroll by calling her a liar and implying that she fabricated the story to sell her book.

    Carroll, who wrote the popular “Ask E. Jean” column for Elle magazine for 26, first made the allegations against Trump in her 2019 memoir, What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal. She said that Trump attacked her in late 1995 or early 1996, when they ran into each other at the store and he asked her to help him pick out a gift for a woman. She said she tried to fight him off, but he overpowered her and penetrated her.

    Trump, who was not present at the trial and did not testify, has denied the allegations. He said he never met Carroll, even though there is a photo of them together at a party in 1987. He also said she was not his type, and suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her. In October 2022, he posted a statement on his website accusing Carroll of being part of a “radical left” conspiracy to smear him.

    Carroll sued Trump for defamation and battery in November 2022, under the New York State Adult Survivors Act, which allows victims of sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits even if the statute of limitations has expired. She did not specify an amount in her lawsuit, but asked for monetary damages and a retraction of Trump’s statement.

    Carroll celebrated the verdict on Monday, saying she was “overjoyed” and “grateful” to the jury. She also thanked her lawyers and supporters for standing by her.

    “This is for every woman who has ever been harassed, assaulted, silenced or spoken up,” she said outside the courthouse. “This is for you.”

    Trump’s lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, calling it “a travesty of justice” and “a politically motivated attack” on the former president. They also claimed that Carroll had no evidence to support her claims, and that Trump had a right to express his opinion about her allegations.

  • James Corden takes a bow from “The Late Late Show”

    James Corden takes a bow from “The Late Late Show”

    James Corden‘s tenure as host of “The Late Late Show” is coming to an end after eight years and numerous Emmy nominations.

    The English presenter and actor announced his departure from the show, which was home to popular segments such as “Carpool Karaoke,” last April. He later revealed that his desire to spend more time with his family prompted the move.

    “It was going to be a journey, an adventure. I never saw it as my final destination,” Corden said at the time.

    On Thursday night, the 44-year-old comic got emotional as he prepared to vacate the seat that made him a household name. The prime-time special featured A-list guests Harry Styles, Adele and Will Ferrell and a surprise video message from President Joe Biden, and Corden’s parents were in the audience.

    While his decision to leave the show during a successful run on US late-night television had surprised many, Corden revealed that “one positive” of leaving the show is that he “may finally get a good night’s sleep.”

    In his emotional farewell speech, the father-of-three also touched on his journey as the show’s host.

    “We started this show with Obama, then Trump, then a global pandemic,” he said.

    “I’ve watched America change a lot. Over these past few years, I’ve watched divisions grow and I’ve seen and I’ve felt a sense of negativity bubble and at points boil over,” he added.

    Corden implored his audience to “remember what America signifies to the rest of the world. My entire life it has always been a place of optimism and joy. And yes, it has flaws, so many, but show me a country that doesn’t. Show me a person that doesn’t.”

    Corden continued: “We are all more the same than we are different. There are so many people who are trying to stoke those differences and we have to try as best we can to look for the light, look for the joy. If you do, it’s out there. That’s all this show has ever been about.”

    He described his move to America as “a huge leap,” and thanked CBS for taking a “life-changing” chance on him.

    Corden ended his final appearance by performing a piano ballad, as a video montage of his finest moments on the show played.

    “Part of me thinks why not stay here forever, but deep in my heart I just know,” he sang. “No more shows to be showing, it’s time I was going. It’s time. Thanks for watching, that’s our show.”

  • E Jean Carroll, rape victim against Trump, shows up in court as trial begins

    E Jean Carroll, rape victim against Trump, shows up in court as trial begins

    E Jean Carroll arrived at the Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday morning for the commencement of a trial alleging the former president Donald Trump of rape.

    On the opening day of the trial, a woman who accuses former President Donald Trump of raping her thirty years ago has come in court.

    Just before nine on Tuesday morning, columnist E Jean Carroll arrived at the Federal District Court in Manhattan. She appeared to be smiling a little bit and was dressed in dark sunglasses, a dark shirt, and a light gray jacket.

    Jury selection in the civil trial is scheduled to start over Carroll’s claim that Trump sexually assaulted her in a luxury department dressing room in the mid-1990s.

    Carroll went through a security line alongside dozens of potential jurors.

    A handful of protesters gathered near news cameras set up on Worth Street.

    ‘We support E Jean Carroll,’ her backers chanted. One man held a sign that read, ‘Trump is a rapist.’

  • Breaking: Trump under arrest

    Breaking: Trump under arrest

    Donald Trump is now formally under arrest and in police custody ahead of his upcoming arraignment.

    It appears the former president, who was likely to have been flanked by Secret Service officials, entered through a more discreet entrance while at least a dozen NYPD officers guarded the front of the courthouse.

    He’s the first American president to face criminal charges.

    Helicopters are buzzing overhead and protesters and supporters are shouting from behind barricades.

    Police are bringing members of the the media inside, a sign that the day’s main events are getting under way.

  • Trump supporters in New York warned to “control” themselves

    Trump supporters in New York warned to “control” themselves

    New York Mayor Eric Adams has spoken against the possibility of a protest against Donald Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday.

    Speaking at a press conference with police, the mayor Trump supporters to “control yourselves.”

    He noted that while there were no specific threats against the city, the city was prepared, and encouraged anyone planning to protest to do so peacefully.

    “While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow our message is clear and simple: control yourselves. New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger,” the mayor said.

    He also had a specific message for Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has announced she will lead a protest outside the courthouse.

    “While you’re in town, be on your best behaviour,” he said.

  • Trump: Judge urged to block courtroom cameras

    Trump: Judge urged to block courtroom cameras

    Trump’s lawyers have entreated a New York judge to prevent cameras in the courtroom to broadcast his arraignment on Tuesday.

    This comes after several major media outlets requested access to the hearing.

    In a letter to New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchant on Monday, Trump’s team said media outlets would “create a circus-like atmosphere at the arraignment” and “raise unique security concerns”, according to US media outlets.

    Trump’s lawyers also argued the presence of media would be “inconsistent with President Trump’s presumption of innocence”, CNN reported.

    The former president is on a plane from Florida to New York, and is using the time to share a few short posts on his social media platform, Truth Social.

    “AMERICA FIRST!” he wrote, a slogan from his 2016 presidential election campaign. He also reiterated the claim that the indictment was a witch hunt.

    Trump is expected to land in New York around 16:00 local time (20:00 GMT).

  • Trump not to appear in court in handcuffs, Lawyer says

    Trump not to appear in court in handcuffs, Lawyer says

    The court hearing for Donald Trump has been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

    Federal agents will be waiting to guard the former president as he flies in on his own jet from Florida to turn himself in.

    In relation to a $130,000 (£105,000) payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, a grand jury has indicted Mr. Trump.

    The allegations haven’t been made public yet, and Mr. Trump’s attorney claimed on Friday that he hasn’t even read the indictment.

    According to a law enforcement source who spoke to CBS, Mr. Trump is anticipated to take his private jet to New York on Monday before turning himself in to authorities on Tuesday.

    The process is likely to involve dozens or possibly hundreds of Secret Service agents, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    Mr Trump will not be handcuffed, the official added, saying that shackles are typically only used on suspects who are thought to be a flight or safety risk.

    The hearing is due to take place at 14:15 local time (19:15GMT).

    Mr Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told ABC News that Mr Trump will “probably” appear in court on Tuesday, “but nothing is certain”.

    Prosecutors “will try and get every ounce of publicity they can from this thing”, he said, adding “the president will not be put in handcuffs”.

    “I understand they’re going to be closing off blocks around the courthouse, shutting down the courthouse,” he continued.

    Security is being co-ordinated by the FBI, NYPD, Secret Service and New York City court officers.

    Sources tell CBS that they are bracing for possible scenarios that include attacks against Mr Trump, prosecutors, jurors or members of the public. The district attorney’s office has received “many threats”, the sources said.

    Members of law enforcement were seen discussing security near the courthouse
    Image caption,Members of law enforcement were seen discussing security near the courthouse on Friday

    On Friday morning, the streets around the courthouse were calm but the barricades were going up in anticipation of what may come next week.

    Police officers were on patrol and security plans were being put into place. Many expect the area to go into lockdown when the former president attends court.

    The district attorney’s office had initially asked Mr Trump to surrender on Friday, according to Politico, but the request was rejected because more time was needed for security preparations.

    Mr Trump, 76, denies wrongdoing. He is the first serving or former US president to face a criminal charge.

    It is unclear how many charges are contained in the indictment, which is still sealed.

    Media reports have said the ex-president faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud and Mr Tacopina said on Thursday he thought there would be 34. But on Friday, he said he did not know how many.

    “We know what the subject matter is, we know the basis of the charges. We don’t know the exact counts or how they’re formulated,” he said.

    On Friday Mr Trump began attacking the judge assigned to his case in an effort to undermine the credibility of the investigation and rally his base to his defence.

    Republicans – including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy – have accused the Manhattan district attorney of weaponising the criminal justice system to influence next year’s presidential election. Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, who Mr Trump recently suggested should run for Senate, called on followers to protest and said she plans to be present in New York next week.

    In response, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the charges had been brought by citizens of New York doing their civic duty – and neither the former president nor Congress could interfere with proceedings.

    In Washington, the US Capitol Police, which are tasked with safeguarding lawmakers in Congress, said the force believes protests will take place across the country and have plans in place to increase security at the US Capitol.

    In 2016 adult film star Stormy Daniels contacted media outlets offering to sell her account of what she said was an adulterous affair she had with Mr Trump in 2006 – the year after he married his current wife, Melania.

    Mr Trump’s team got wind of this and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to Ms Daniels to keep quiet. This is not illegal.

    However, when Mr Trump reimbursed Mr Cohen, the record for the payment says it was for legal fees. Prosecutors say this amounts to Mr Trump falsifying business records, which is a misdemeanour – a criminal offence – in New York.

    Mar-a-Lago
    Image caption,A Secret Service agent guards Mr Trump’s Florida home

    President Joe Biden declined to comment on the indictment, despite being pressed on the issue by journalists as he left the White House on a trip to Mississippi.

    Mr Tacopina said Mr Trump was being “pursued by a prosecutor who has obviously very diverse political views from the president. So it’s a very troubling case”.

    He said the former president was “not worried at all” about the charges.

    “He’s upset, angry. He’s being persecuted politically. That is clear to many people, not only on the Right but on the Left.”

    Source: BBC

  • Trump sues CNN for defamation, seeks $475m in punitive damages

    Donald Trump has sued cable TV network CNN, claiming defamation and seeking punitive damages of $475m, according to a Florida court filing on Monday.

    The US cable news station has attempted to smear the former US president “with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler’,” Trump’s lawyers claimed. The lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

    “Beyond simply highlighting any negative information about the plaintiff and ignoring all positive information about him, CNN has sought to use its massive influence, purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source, to defame the plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically,” the filing states.

    Trump claimed that CNN had used its considerable influence as a leading news organization to defeat him politically. CNN declined to comment on the case.

    Trump, a Republican, claims in the 29-page lawsuit that CNN had a long track record of criticizing him but had ramped up its attacks in recent months because the network feared that he would run again for president in 2024.

    “As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the left, CNN has tried to taint the plaintiff,” the suit said.

    The lawsuit lists several instances in which CNN appeared to compare Trump to Hitler, including a January 2022 special report by host Fareed Zakaria that included footage of the 20th-century German dictator.

    Trump, who in 2020 lost a re-election effort to Democrat Joe Biden, has not said officially whether he would seek re-election, though has dropped many such hints.

    The lawsuit comes as the 76-year-old former president faces considerable legal woes, including a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for retaining government records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021.

    Trump was sued last month by the New York state attorney general, Leticia James, who has accused him of lying to banks and insurers about the value of his assets.

    And a congressional committee and the DoJ are separately investigating last year’s January 6 assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.

    He is also being sued by writer E Jean Carroll in a case involving alleged rape.

    Source: theguardian.com

  • Responding to FBI search, Trump and allies return to his familiar strategy: flood the zone with nonsense

    In response to the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida on Monday, Trump and his allies in Congress and right-wing media have returned to his preferred strategy for communicating in a crisis: say a whole bunch of nonsense in rapid succession.

    From his battles against impeachment to his effort to limit the political fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump has attempted to flood the zone with such a quantity and variety of lies, conspiracy theories and distractions that Americans will tune out, turn away or cease to know what is true and not. And he has regularly been joined by a large cast of eager defenders.

    Baseless conspiracy theories about the search

    Using his familiar just-asking-questions style of promoting conspiracy theories, Trump posted on his social media platform on Wednesday a suggestion that the FBI could have planted evidence. His legal team had already been suggesting the same thing. One Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, said on Fox on Tuesday: “I’m concerned that they may have planted something; you know, at this point, who knows?”

    Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky echoed this question on Wednesday, wondering on Fox how we know “they won’t put things into those boxes to entrap him.” Fox host Jesse Watters had gone further on Tuesday, saying the FBI was “probably” planting evidence, and Paul’s campaign had adopted the “probably” by Friday.

    There is just zero basis for any of this.

    Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida offered up a different baseless conspiracy theory about federal malfeasance, saying on Fox on Tuesday that he didn’t think they were looking for documents at all but were probably using that as an “excuse” to root around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence for “whatever they could find.” Rubio’s comments were at least more plausible than the hogwash offered up Tuesday by Anna Perez, a host for right-wing media outlet Real America’s Voice, who uttered a QAnon-style monologue, falsely claiming the search was a conspiracy to prevent Trump from carrying out a (nonexistent) plan to expose criminals serving in government.

    More deception

    Another Real America’s Voice host, right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, claimed Thursday that the FBI “occupied Trump’s home — a military occupation.” Though it’s odd to describe the execution of a search warrant as an “occupation” of any kind, it’s flat false to claim the military was involved in this search.

    The former President’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump delivered an impressive variety of claptrap in a single sentence, saying on Fox on Tuesday that the searchers were “a bunch of people unannounced breaking into your home like this and taking whatever they want for themselves.” A source told CNN that the FBI gave the Secret Service about an hour’s advance notice of the search and that the Secret Service met up with the FBI agents as they arrived and ensured they had uninhibited access. And a search warrant does not allow searchers to take “whatever they want,” certainly not “for themselves”; the Department of Justice asked a court to unseal a document listing what was taken, and Trump consented.

    Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House minority whip, went on Fox on Thursday and said that “it concerns everybody if you see some agents go rogue.” There is no sign that any agent went rogue. Even Trump-friendly Fox host Steve Doocy challenged Scalise, noting that agents were simply executing a search warrant. Scalise then invoked an inaccurate report that Attorney General Merrick Garland hadn’t known about the search, falsely saying Garland himself had said he hadn’t known about it. (Later on Thursday, Garland said he personally approved the decision to seek the search warrant.)

    Whataboutism about Democrats

    As usual, Trump and his defenders tried some whataboutism — pointing a finger, dishonestly, toward prominent Democrats.

    Trump baselessly suggested former President Barack Obama had mishandled presidential records after leaving office by, Trump claimed, keeping more than 30 million documents, many of them classified, and taking them to Chicago. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) issued a Friday statement explaining it has “exclusive legal and physical custody” of the Obama-era records, that NARA itself moved about 30 million pages of unclassified records to one of its own facilities in the Chicago area, that the classified Obama-era records are maintained in a separate NARA facility near Washington, and that “former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.”

    Trump and some of his media defenders went back to his old chestnut about how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been permitted to “acid wash” emails, a fabrication loosely based on the fact that an email-deletion software program happens to be called BleachBit; Fox’s Watters was especially literal, falsely claiming Tuesday that Clinton had “poured acid” on emails.

    Trump also suggested that there was something suspicious about the fact that, he said, his lawyers had not been allowed to witness the search, posting on his social media platform on Wednesday: “Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?” But there is nothing unusual about this; lawyers don’t have a right to be in the room to monitor a search.

    For good measure, Trump lawyer Christina Bobb threw in a transparently false claim about Trump’s popularity. She said on Right Side Broadcasting Network on Tuesday that the Department of Justice was trying to find an easy way to prosecute “the most popular president, and probably the most famous president, in American history.”

    Trump’s average Gallup approval rating over his term, 41%, was by far the lowest for any president since Gallup began measuring presidential approval in 1938.

    Source: CNN

  • Trump’s defense secretary denies there were orders to have 10K troops ready to deploy on January 6

    Former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller told the House select committee investigating the Capitol Hill insurrection that former President Donald Trump never gave him a formal order to have 10,000 troops ready to be deployed to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to a new video of Miller’s deposition was released by the committee.

    “I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature,” Miller said in the video.
    Miller later said in the video definitively, “There was no direct, there was no order from the President.”
    “We obviously had plans for activating more folks, but that was not anything more than contingency planning,” Miller added. “There was no official message traffic or anything of that nature.”
    Trump has previously said that he requested National Guard troops be ready for January 6. He released a statement on June 9 that he “suggested & offered” up to 20,000 National Guard troops be deployed to Washington, DC, ahead of January 6 claiming it was because he felt “that the crowd was going to be very large.”
    The committee released Miller’s testimony after already revealing that Trump did not make calls to military personnel or law enforcement to intervene as the Capitol attack was unfolding. General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the committee that he never received a call from Trump as the attack was unfolding.
    Source: bbc.com

  • January 6 hearing: Trump slams inquiry as ‘Kangaroo Court’

    Former US President Donald Trump has blasted the congressional inquiry into the Capitol riot as a “Kangaroo Court”.

    In a 12-page statement, he said the investigation was designed to distract Americans from the “disaster” of Democratic-led governance.

    It came after the committee held two public hearings accusing Mr Trump of an attempted coup to remain in power.

    The panel on Monday detailed evidence of divisions among Trump aides over whether to accept his election loss.

    Supporters of Mr Trump stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 in a bid to thwart certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. A separate ongoing criminal investigation has led to more than 800 arrests in nearly every state.

    “Seventeen months after the events of January 6th, Democrats are unable to offer solutions,” Mr Trump, a Republican, said in a statement released through his Save America PAC.

    “They are desperate to change the narrative of a failing nation, without even making mention of the havoc and death caused by the Radical Left just months earlier,” he continued, alluding to the rioting that erupted during US racial justice protests over the summer of 2020.

    “Make no mistake, they control the government. They own this disaster. They are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects.”

    Mr Trump accused the “unselect pseudo-committee” of treason, referring to the Democratic-led House of Representatives select committee that has been conducting the inquiry for the past year.

    For much of the statement, Mr Trump relitigated his unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. A handful of such cases, representing a tiny number of ballots overall, has been prosecuted since the November 2020 election, but nothing on any scale that could have tipped the election in Mr Biden’s favour.

    Mr Trump labelled the current president as “Basement Biden”. “Our country is in a nosedive,” he concluded, dismissing the congressional inquiry as a pretext to prevent him running again for the presidency in 2024.

    Earlier on Monday, the House committee was shown video testimony on its second day of public hearings from former campaign manager Bill Stepien, who said the aides had split into two teams after the election.

    He described a “team normal” of those who accepted the results of the election, and “Rudy’s team”, who followed the claims of election fraud peddled by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

    Both Mr Stepien and another witness, former Trump adviser Jason Miller, testified that Mr Giuliani appeared to be inebriated on the night of the election.

    Mr Miller said that even with results still coming in, Mr Giuliani suggested that Trump “go and declare victory and say that we’d won it outright”.

    Through a spokesman on Monday, Mr Giuliani denied that he was intoxicated on election night, adding that he did not know why Mr Miller would “make such a false claim”.

    In videotaped testimony also aired at Monday’s hearing, former Attorney General Bill Barr said he had repeatedly told Mr Trump there was no basis to claims of rigged voting machines or ballot “dumps” – which he referred to as “crazy stuff”.

    Mr Trump, however, refused to acknowledge these concerns and continued to spread fraud claims, Mr Barr said. He testified that he was “demoralised” by his boss’ claims.

    “I thought, ‘Boy if he really believes this stuff, he has lost contact with – he’s become detached from reality, if he really believes this stuff,’” he said.

    The 6 January select committee is seeking to show that the ex-president’s election fraud claims led directly to an attack on the US Capitol.

    But the panel will not refer Mr Trump or anyone else to the justice department for criminal prosecution, committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, told reporters on Monday.

    “If the Department of Justice looks at it, and assumes that there’s something that needs further review, I’m sure they’ll do it,” he said, according to CNN when asked about the chance of prison time for Mr Trump or his inner circle.

    Republican vice-chairwoman of the committee, congresswoman Liz Cheney, seemed to contradict Mr Thompson moments later by tweeting that the committee “has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals”.

    “We will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time.”

    The committee is scheduled to hold more hearings on Wednesday and Thursday later this week.

    Source: BBC

  • Trump fires two impeachment witnesses

    US President Donald Trump has dismissed two senior officials who testified against him at his impeachment trial.

    The US envoy to the EU, Gordon Sondland, said he “was advised today that the president intends to recall me effective immediately”.

    Just hours earlier, Lt Col Alexander Vindman, a top expert on Ukraine, was escorted from the White House.

    Mr Trump is said to desire a staff shake-up after senators cleared him in the impeachment case on Wednesday.

    In its historic vote, the Senate decided not to remove America’s 45th president from office on charges arising from his dealings with Ukraine.

    Lt Col Vindman’s twin brother, Yevgeny Vindman, a senior lawyer for the National Security Council, was also sent back to the Department of the Army on Friday.

    What about Mr Sondland’s recall?

    In a statement issued by his lawyer, Mr Sondland said: “I was advised today that the president intends to recall me effective immediately as United States ambassador to the European Union.

    “I am grateful to President Trump for having given me the opportunity to serve, to Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo for his consistent support, and to the exceptional and dedicated professionals at the US mission to the European Union.

    EU ambassador Gordon Sondland testifies that Trump’s personal lawyer “requests were a quid pro quo”

    “I am proud of our accomplishments. Our work here has been the highlight of my career,” Mr Sondland said.

    And how was Vindman removed?

    Lt Col Vindman’s counsel, David Pressman, told the BBC his client had been “escorted out of the White House where he has dutifully served his country and his president”.

    “There is no question in the mind of any American why this man’s job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House,” said the statement.

    “LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth. His honour, his commitment to right, frightened the powerful.”

    It added: “The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy.”

     

    Lt Col Vindman testified in November about the president’s “improper” call

    Media captionLt Col Vindman testified in November about the president’s “improper” call

    The statement continued: “The most powerful man in the world – buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit – has decided to exact revenge.”

    Lt Col Vindman had reportedly turned up for work at the White House as usual on Friday.

    SOurce: myjoyonline.com

     

  • At last, Iowa results. So who won and lost?

    Billboard in Iowa

    The Iowa caucuses used to be viewed as messy but endearing. Now they’re just a mess. Three days after Democrats across the state gathered to vote for, and haggle over, their preferred presidential nominee, results are in – but the dust still hasn’t fully settled.

    Time waits for no one, however – even the Iowa Democratic Party – and the candidates have moved on to New Hampshire, where they will debate on Friday night and stand in the first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday.

    With 100% of precincts reporting, Pete Buttigieg was declared the winner – but barely. He and Bernie Sanders were neck and neck, separated by just 0.01% followed by Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar. And the Democratic National chairman is calling for a review of the vote totals.

    Still, some candidates have reason to celebrate, some will be relieved – but all have cause for a bit of concern, if not more.

    Here’s a look at the biggest winners and losers that have emerged from the Iowa chaos.

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    WINNERS

    Pete ButtigiegImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES

    Pete Buttigieg

    Two thumbs up

    He may end up the biggest winner among the Democrats even if he didn’t, you know, actually win the caucuses. If early polls are any indication, he seems to be getting the biggest post-Iowa bump in New Hampshire – and momentum is really what Iowa is all about.

    Pause for a moment to think about what a 38-year-old, openly gay former mayor of the fourth-largest city in Indiana just accomplished. A year ago, few had heard of him – or knew how to pronounce his last name. Now he’s going to finish ahead of a two-term vice-president and several popular senators.

    Now unpause. Buttigieg still seems to be getting close to no support from black voters, who form up a sizable contingent in the states that come after New Hampshire (60% in South Carolina, for example). Unless that changes, all the success in Iowa and, perhaps, New Hampshire won’t amount to a proverbial hill of beans when it comes to winning the Democratic nomination.

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    Bernie SandersImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES

    Bernie Sanders

    One thumb up

    The Vermont senator narrowly lost in Iowa against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Here he is again, with yet another razor-close result. But he won the state’s popular vote, giving him grounds for claiming at least a partial victory. Beating fellow liberal Elizabeth Warren also bodes well in the states to come.

    The Sanders camp should be concerned, however, that the turnout in Iowa ended up being at or below 2016 levels. For a campaign whose argument for being the nominee is that they’ll ride to victory in November by bringing in a wave of new voters, that’s not an encouraging development.

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    Donald Trump holding 'acquitted' headline on paperImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES

    Donald Trump

    Three thumbs up

    While the Democrats bickered among themselves and seemingly moved farther away from determining a nominee, the president stood to the side and smiled, waving a copy of a newspaper with “acquitted” as its headline.

    There’s still plenty of time for the Democrats to get their act together, but first impressions matter – and the picture the Iowa result has painted is of a party not ready for prime-time. With his poll numbers ticking up, at least temporarily, campaign coffers filled to the brink, the economy still humming and impeachment behind him, the president is having a very good week.

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    LOSERS

    Joe BidenImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES

    Joe Biden

    Two thumbs down

    The former vice-president came into Monday thinking he might have a chance to win Iowa. While it was never a state he would dominate, he shifted time and resources there in an attempt to secure a finish that could weaken his liberal opponents and perhaps knock some more of the moderates out of the race.

    Instead, a distant fourth-place finish has raised all sorts of doubts about the viability of his campaign. Biden is the candidate who has made electability the central focus of his campaign. How electable is a guy who can’t beat the former mayor of a modest-sized Indiana city or two senators forced to sit on their hands during the president’s impeachment trial in Washington for most of the two weeks before the caucuses?

    While his post-New Hampshire firewall in the form of support from black and older voters still appears intact, he may not have the kind of campaign cash necessary to mount an extensive campaign in the upcoming states.

    Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg – perhaps the heir apparent to Biden’s moderate, establishment voters – waits in the wings, adding a few more zeros to the amount he is spending to campaign in the biggest states ahead.

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    Elizabeth WarrenImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES

    Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar

    One thumb down

    While both these candidates may have moderately exceeded expectations, neither did enough to fundamentally change the dynamics of the race. Given all the time and resources they poured into the Iowa, “just surviving” isn’t the payoff they hoped for.

    Klobuchar is probably the worse off of the two, if only because she has less cash on hand. New Hampshire could be the end of the road for her. Warren has the organisation to keep going, but unless Sanders stumbles – or she finds a way to expand her appeal beyond the progressive left – it’s hard to see where she starts posting wins. She’s going to need some magic in Friday night’s debate.

    Amy KlobucharImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
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    Iowa Democratic Party

    Three thumbs down

    It’s hard to imagine a more devastatingly bad performance by the state that takes pride in its role as the starting gate for presidential campaigns.

    The app designed to speed the reporting and processing of results was a bust. After a day’s delay, the party rushed to release only partial results that overstated the size and durability of Buttigieg’s delegate lead.

    Some of the numbers were subsequently retracted and corrected. There have been allegations that caucus rules have been interpreted in contradictory ways in different locations. Now the head of the Democratic National Committee himself is calling for a review and re-tally of the numbers.

    Every four years, politicians and pundits question why a small midwestern state unrepresentative of the nation as a whole is entrusted with the power and privilege of going first. While Iowans have successfully fought back against changes in the past, the knives are out in earnest. The quadrennial tradition of winter caucuses among the cornfields and barns could be coming to an end.

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    Who will take on Trump in November?

    Banner showing some 2020 Democratic presidential candidates

    Source: bbc.com

  • Democrat Biden calls for Trump’s impeachment

    Democratic White House hopeful Joe Biden called Wednesday for President Donald Trump’s impeachment, saying he’d “betrayed” the United States, but Trump dug in, predicting that the Supreme Court would have to resolve the fight.

    “To preserve our constitution, our democracy, our basic integrity, he should be impeached,” Biden told supporters at a rally in New Hampshire, adding his voice to that of other Democratic contenders.

    “He’s shooting holes in the constitution, and we cannot let him get away with it,” added Biden.

    Read: Trump impeachment: Second whistleblower emerges

    Trump, however, showed no sign of buckling under pressure from the Democratic party probe into his alleged bid to damage Biden by strong-arming Ukraine to investigate the former vice president.

    Having threatened a constitutional crisis by refusing to cooperate with the congressional investigation, Trump predicted that the row would end up “being a big Supreme Court case.”

    He told reporters in the White House that his Republican party was being “treated very badly.”

    Democrats accuse Trump of stonewalling and obstruction.

    “No one is above the law, not even President Trump,” the Democratic majority leader in the House, Steny Hoyer, said Wednesday.

    – Impeachment becomes campaign message –

    On Twitter, which Trump is using to bombard the public with conspiracy theories about a “deep state” aiming to eject him, the president argued that the whistleblower behind the impeachment case had been shown to be partisan and inaccurate.

    “The Whistleblower’s facts have been so incorrect about my ‘no pressure’ conversation with the Ukrainian President, and now the conflict of interest and involvement with a Democrat Candidate, that he or she should be exposed and questioned,” Trump tweeted.

    In another tweet, Trump dismissed the impeachment process as a Democratic bid to influence the election, saying “their total focus is 2020, nothing more.”

    But Trump, who broke with precedent by campaigning for reelection almost from the moment he took office in 2017, is himself pouncing on the impeachment as the new cornerstone of his 2020 effort.

    He and the Republican Party have pushed hard to raise funds off the back of their accusation of unfair treatment from the Democratic lower house in Congress.

    And on Thursday and Friday, Trump will take that message to his core supporters when he holds campaign rallies in Minneapolis and in Louisiana.

    Even if the House impeaches Trump, it remains unlikely that the Republican-led Senate would convict him in the subsequent trial.

    However, Trump’s already turbulent presidency would be forever associated with the impeachment.

    – Ukrainian phone call –

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally launched the impeachment inquiry last month after revelations Trump pressured Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July 25 phone call.

    In the call, Trump asked Zelensky to look into what the US leader said were corrupt business deals involving Biden.

    Democrats say that Trump tried to coerce Zelensky by holding back US military aid to Ukraine. Trump says there was no quid pro quo and that his only desire is to combat corruption.

    He subsequently said publicly he would also like China to investigate Biden, something critics say bolsters the allegation that Trump is seeking foreign help to discredit opponents.

    Read: Trump amps up complaints, says Pelosi may be guilty of treason

    On Tuesday, the Trump administration blocked a potentially major witness, ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, from testifying before Congress. Democrats then slapped Sondland with a subpoena to appear on October 16.

    “The failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents” was “additional strong evidence of obstruction,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said.

    Later the same day, the White House announced in a lengthy legal statement that it rejected any cooperation with the Democrats at all.

    Lawmakers want to hear on Friday from another key witness: former US ambassador to Kiev Marie Yovanovitch, who is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee.

    US media has reported that Trump removed her from her post because she opposed his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden.

     

    Source: France24

  • White House ‘tried to cover up details of Trump-Ukraine call’

    enior White House officials tried to “lock down” all details of a phone call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president, according to a whistleblower complaint against the US president.

    In the call, Mr Trump pushed Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his leading domestic political rival, Joe Biden.

    The newly released complaint says the call transcript was not stored in the usual computer system.

    Instead it was stored in a separate system used for classified information.

    Nancy Pelosi, the most senior Democrat, announced on Tuesday that the party was pushing ahead with a formal impeachment inquiry against the Republican president.

    She accused Mr Trump of seeking foreign help in the hope of smearing Mr Biden – who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election – and of using military aid to Ukraine as a bargaining tool.

    Mr Trump acknowledged that he personally blocked nearly $400m in military aid to Ukraine days before he spoke to Mr Zelensky, but denied that it was to pressure the Ukrainian leader into investigating Mr Biden.

    The release of the whistleblower complaint came as US lawmakers on the House of Representatives intelligence committee began to question President Trump’s top intelligence official on the issue. Acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire had initially refused to share the complaint with Congress.

    Read:Trump denies promise that led to formal complaint from US spy

    But under questioning by the House committee on Thursday, Mr Maguire said he believed the whistleblower had acted in “good faith” and “did the right thing”.

    President Trump has dismissed the impeachment proceedings as a “hoax” and “another witch-hunt”.

    Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday after the release of the whistleblower’s report and the congressional hearing, he said the impeachment process “shouldn’t be allowed”.

    “What… Democrats are doing to this country is a disgrace and it shouldn’t be allowed,” he said. “There should be a way of stopping it, maybe legally through the courts.”

    Recordings of Mr Trump’s comments to staff at the US mission in New York on Wednesday have emerged in which Mr Trump says that whoever gave the whistleblower information is “almost a spy”.

    In an apparent reference to the execution of spies by the US in the past, he adds: “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now…”

    What does the complaint say?

    The whistleblower’s complaint accuses Mr Trump of “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the US 2020 election”.

    The now unclassified document characterises the president’s conduct as a “serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law”.

    The alleged violation concerns President Trump asking his Ukrainian counterpart on 25 July to investigate unfounded allegations against Mr Biden.

    Read:Trump denies pressuring Ukraine, will not commit to transcript release

    The whistleblower says in the complaint that they had learned from several sources that senior White House officials had intervened to “lock down” all records of the call, particularly an official word-for-word transcript.

    “This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call,” the whistleblower wrote in the complaint.

    The whistleblower says details of the call were stored in a “stand-alone computer system reserved for codeword-level intelligence information, such as covert action”.

    The whistleblower adds that officials said it was “‘not the first time’ under this administration that a presidential transcript was placed into this codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive – rather than national security sensitive – information”.

    The complaint makes clear that the whistleblower was “not a direct witness” to most of the events described, but found their colleagues’ accounts to be credible “because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another”.

    What’s happened in Congress?

    The House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, opened the hearing by accusing President Trump of a “classic organised crime shakedown”.

    But the leading Republican on the committee, Devin Nunes, a Trump supporter, said: “I want to congratulate the Democrats on their latest informational warfare operation against the president and their extraordinary ability to once again enlist the mainstream media in their campaign.”

    Mr Schiff asked Mr Maguire why he had sought advice from the White House before deciding to release the whistleblower’s report.

    “It just seemed prudent to check,” Mr Maguire responded, saying he had sought the advice of White House counsel to determine if the report included information protected by presidential executive privilege.

    He added: “I believe everything in this matter is totally unprecedented.”

    During further questioning by Mr Schiff, Mr Maguire said he believed the whistleblower had acted in “good faith”.

    He continued: “I think the whistleblower did the right thing. I think he followed the law every step of the way.”

    Read:Trump confirms he raised Bidens in Ukraine call

    Analysis by Anthony Zurcher

    Maguire in the middle of competing narratives
    Donald Trump’s presidency has been punctuated by high-profile congressional hearings – Joseph Maguire’s is just the latest.

    As is tradition, both sides tried to draw the witness into giving them ammunition in the ongoing political battles.

    Democrats wanted him to vouch for the whistleblower’s credibility, to detail what they see as a White House cover-up and condemn an administration’s Ukraine policy being largely run by a private citizen – Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

    Republicans’ ongoing goal was to paint the whole thing as the latest example of “presidential harassment”.

    The politicians wanted conclusions, but Maguire mostly spoke of process. “I have to work with the situation as it is,” he said at one point. And it’s one heck of a situation he’s stepped into.

    What is the claim about Joe Biden?

    During the call, Mr Trump discussed with newly elected Mr Zelensky the 2016 removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.

    He then went on to discuss Mr Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and the unsubstantiated allegation that Mr Biden – then the US vice-president – stopped the prosecution of his son by lobbying Ukraine to fire Mr Shokin.

    Mr Shokin’s office had opened an investigation into Burisma, a natural gas company on which Hunter Biden was a board member.

    During the call, Mr Trump also asked Mr Zelensky to work with US Attorney General William Barr and Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, to look into the matter.

    There is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens.

    Mr Biden, along with other Western officials, had called for Mr Shokin to be fired because of the perception that he was soft on corruption.

    When Mr Shokin was replaced, his successor continued to investigate Burisma for 10 months before the inquiry ended.

    The Department of Justice said on Wednesday that Mr Trump had not spoken to the attorney general about having Ukraine investigate Mr Biden, and Mr Barr had not communicated with Ukraine.

    How the controversy unfolded

    On or before 18 July – President Trump orders White House aide to hold back almost $400m in military aid to Ukraine, report US media

    25 July – President Trump speaks to Ukraine’s leader in a 30-minute phone call

    9 September – Congress learns of a whistleblower’s complaint about the call, but is blocked by the Trump administration from viewing it

    11 September – Military aid for Ukraine is cleared for release by the Pentagon and Department of State

    23 September – Mr Trump confirms he withheld Ukrainian aid, saying it was due to concerns about “corruption”

    24 September – Mr Trump says the aid was withheld so that other countries would pay more.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Full transcript: Trump pushed Ukrainian President to investigate Biden; heightens impeachment

    A transcript of a phone conversation between US president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed Trump asked Zelensky to investigate his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

    A revelation that comes as a boost to an impeachment inquiry already in motion.

    The five-page conversation was released by the White House on the orders of the President, after the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that the Democratic Party was launching an impeachment inquiry against President Trump, after a whistleblower’s complaint.

    Read:Trump confirms he raised Bidens in Ukraine call

    President Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing described the impeachment inquiry as a “witch hunt”, promising a “complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript” release of the 25th July call.

    The result of which confirms he actually pushed the Ukrainian President to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who was an employee of a Ukrainian company.

    Read:IMF board approves new Ukraine loan package, releases $1.4 bn immediately

    Read the full transcript below

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • Pompeo praises US ally Denmark after Trump cancels visit

    US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has praised Denmark amid a public row over Greenland that saw President Donald Trump cancel a visit to the country.

    In a phone call with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, Mr Pompeo “expressed appreciation for Denmark’s co-operation” as a US ally.

    Mr Kofod welcomed the “frank, friendly and constructive talk”.

    It came after Mr Trump said Denmark’s prime minister had been “nasty” when rebuffing his idea of buying Greenland.

    Mette Frederiksen had called his ambitions of buying the autonomous Danish territory “absurd”. She said she was “disappointed and surprised” that he had cancelled his visit.

    The trip was scheduled to take place on 2 September, at the invitation of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II.

    The US State Department said Mr Pompeo and Mr Kofod had a friendly phone call on Wednesday about the “postponement” of the president’s trip.

    “The secretary expressed appreciation for Denmark’s co-operation as one of the United States’ allies and Denmark’s contributions to address shared global security priorities,” spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. “The secretary and Foreign Minister Kofod also discussed strengthening co-operation with the Kingdom of Denmark – including Greenland – in the Arctic.”

    Mr Kofod said the talks had affirmed a strong bond between the two countries.

    The US and Denmark “are close friends and allies with long history of active engagement across globe,” he wrote on Twitter.

    How did we get here?

    While praising Denmark as a “very special country”, Mr Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday that his planned visit would no longer go ahead because Ms Frederiksen had “no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland”.

    Mr Trump had earlier confirmed reports that he was interested in buying the autonomous Danish territory.

    Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn on Wednesday afternoon, he took umbrage at Ms Frederiksen calling his plans “absurd”.

    “I thought that the prime minister’s statement that it was absurd, that it was an absurd idea was nasty,” he said. “I thought it was an inappropriate statement. All she had to do is say no, we wouldn’t be interested.”

    “She’s not talking to me. She’s talking to the United States of America. You don’t talk to the United States that way, at least under me,” he added.

    Earlier on Wednesday, Ms Frederiksen had told reporters the idea of selling the resource-rich Arctic island had “clearly been rejected” by its leader, Kim Kielsen, “a position I share of course”.

    How did Danes react to the cancelled visit?

    The cancellation was described as a “farce” by the leader of the populist Danish People’s Party, Kristian Thulesen Dahl.

    “What is this man thinking of though? And with grounds that are worthy of an April Fools’ joke,” he tweeted.

    Danish Conservative MP Rasmus Jarlov accused Mr Trump of lacking respect for his country.

    Former foreign minister Kristian Jensen said Mr Trump’s move had resulted in “total chaos”.

    A spokeswoman for the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Pernille Skipper, said: “Trump lives on another planet.”

    Pia Kjaersgaard, the populist former speaker of the Danish parliament, said it showed “rude behaviour to the Danish people and the Queen, who invited him.”

    Why might Greenland appeal to the US?

    Mr Trump has reportedly taken an interest in Greenland, in part, because of its resources, such as coal, zinc, copper and iron ore.

    But while Greenland may be rich in minerals, it relies on Denmark for two-thirds of its budget revenue. It has high rates of suicide, alcoholism and unemployment.

    The US has long seen the island, which sits along a direct route from Europe to North America, as being strategically important. It established the Thule air force and radar base there at the start of the Cold War, which now covers space surveillance and forms the northernmost part of the US ballistic missile early warning system.

    Meanwhile, new Arctic sea routes are opening up as climate change is blamed for the accelerating thaw of ice in the region.

    China has recently been taking an interest in the area, too.

    Source: bbc.com