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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 14:47:53 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The former vice-president, Mike Pence, has again called for the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to unseal the indictment against Donald Trump immediately. Speaking at a campaign rally in New Hampshire today, Pence called on Garland to “stop hiding” and to “stand up and explain to us why this was necessary before the sun sets today”. Pence said: The American people deserve to know the basis of this unprecedented action. They deserve to know today. Once the facts and the laws are explained and revealed in full to the American people, we can all make our own judgment.
Here’s some more detail on the reports that federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, in addition to the former president as part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s retention of national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstruction of justice. Nauta, a former military valet, worked for Trump at the White House before going to work for the former president at his Florida resort. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nauta became a focus of the investigation after surveillance footage showed him moving boxes from a storage room before and after investigators issued a subpoena seeking the return of all government documents in Trump’s possession. Investigators spoke with Nauta at least twice and asked him to submit to further questioning, but he refused further questioning, the paper said. The charges against Nauta and Trump have yet to be formally announced. A lawyer for Nauta declined to comment, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 14:48:14 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 14:49:12 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump indictment unsealed, includes 37 criminal countsThe indictment charging the former US president Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents has been unsealed. Trump 'took secret US nuclear program documents', says indictmentThe indictment reads that Trump stored in his boxes “information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack”. It goes on: The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 14:58:14 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump 'showed secret plan of attack to others', says indictmentThe indictment also writes that Trump described a Pentagon “plan of attack” and shared a classified map related to a military operation. The former president “showed and described a ‘plan of attack’ that Trump said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official” during a meeting at the Trump national golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the indictment reads. It says: Trump told the individuals that the plan was “highly confidential” and “secret”.The meeting included individuals who did not have security clearance, the indictment says. In a later meeting, Trump displayed “a classified map related to a military operation”, acknowledging he “should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close”, the indictment reads.
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 14:59:11 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump ‘stored classified documents in shower’, says indictmentThe indictment reads that Trump stored classified documents in “a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room” at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump and aide 'deliberately moved boxes to avoid search', says indictmentThe indictment also says Trump directed his valet and aide, Walt Nauta, to move boxes of records to conceal them from his attorney and the FBI. Trump and Nauta both face a count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to the indictment. It goes on: The purpose of the conspiracy was for Trump to keep classified documents he has taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury.
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 14:59:46 GMT -5
Image contained in indictment shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. Photograph: AP
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 15:00:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden says he has not spoken to Garland since indictmentPresident Joe Biden said he has not spoken to the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, as the justice department unsealed charges against Donald Trump. Asked by a reporter if he would speak to Garland, Biden responded: I have not spoken to him at all and I’m not going to speak to him.
The indictment alleges that Trump “endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents”. It reads that the former president tried to obstruct investigations including by “suggesting that his attorney falsely represent to the FBI and grand jury that [he] did not have documents called for by the grand jury subpoena” and even “suggesting that his attorney hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena”.
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 15:05:17 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The indictment reads that some of the documents include some of the most sensitive US military secrets. One of the documents concerned “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country”, the indictment says. Materials came from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, the indictment says. It also includes photographs of Trump’s boxes on a ballroom stage, in a club bathroom and in a storage room, where some were laying on the floor.
Donald Trump has attacked the special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, in a social media post. Trump wrote: His wife is a Trump Hater, just as he is a Trump Hater—a deranged “psycho” that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with “Justice,” other than to look at Biden as a criminal, which he is!
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 15:06:40 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Special counsel Jack Smith is due to give press conference on Trump indictmentJack Smith, the special counsel who pursued criminal charges against Donald Trump, is due to speak to reporters following the unsealing of the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith has begun his statement to reporters following the unsealing of the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Smith delivered a short statement, where he described US department of justice prosecutors working on the case as working to the “highest ethical standards”. He said it was “very important” to him that “the defendants in this case, must be presumed innocent guilty in a court of law”. He added: To that end, my office will seek a speedy trial in this matter, consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused. I very much look forward to presenting our case.
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 15:07:26 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 15:08:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) With Donald Trump being the first US president to be federally indicted, what will come next? Will he go to prison? What are other Republicans, including his presidential contenders such as Florida governor Ron DeSantis, saying? The Guardian’s David Smith reports: It is often tempting to hype every Trump drama out of proportion and then lose sight of when something genuinely monumental has happened. Thursday night’s action by the justice department was genuinely monumental.
First, it raises the question: what was Trump doing with government secrets? It was reported last month that prosecutors obtained an audio recording in which Trump talks about holding on to a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran. Second, Trump could soon join a notorious club that includes Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac of France and Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak of South Korea. All have been prosecuted and convicted of corruption in the past 15 years.
It’s Trump’s latest stress test for American democracy: can the state hold a former president accountable and apply the rule of law? There was a near miss for Richard Nixon, who could have faced federal charges over Watergate but was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.
The White House knows it cannot afford to put a foot wrong. Joe Biden tries to avoid commenting on Trump’s myriad legal troubles. The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has also kept them at arm’s length by appointing Jack Smith as special counsel. It is Smith who investigated the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, says: “I don’t think he’s an overreaching prosecutor. He’s very rigorous and vigorous and independent and that’s what you want here and that’s what’s needed. I don’t think Merrick Garland had anything to do with it except appointing him.”
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 15:41:00 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jun 9, 2023 19:32:25 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 8:02pm Summary--Former US president Donald Trump faces 37 counts in connection with keeping hundreds of classified documents in his possession after leaving the White House, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon. --The National Archives issued a rare statement to respond to misleading statements made by Trump’s legal team. Detailing aspects of the Presidential Records Act, the Archives made it clear that “there is no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office.” --Trump twice disclosed national security information in separate incidents in 2021 and took steps to retain classified documents that he knew he could not keep because they had been subpoenaed by the justice department, the indictment reads. --The former president also hoarded materials of the highest sensitivity after he left the White House, including documents on US nuclear programmes, potential military vulnerabilities of the US and allies, and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, it says. --Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, said in a brief remarks Friday that his office intended to seek “a speedy trial” against Trump, adding that was “consistent with the public interest”. However, Smith did not say exactly when a trial may be possible. --The indictment also named Trump’s former valet, Walt Nauta, as a co-defendant, alleging that he entered into a conspiracy with Trump to obstruct justice, withheld documents or records, corruptly concealed documents in a federal investigation, engaged in a scheme to conceal and made false statements. --Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm ET. Posting on Truth Social, Trump announced he would be represented by defence lawyer Todd Blanche, while his attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley released a statement to say that they had quit working for him. --A federal judge appointed by Trump who last year drew scrutiny for a ruling that was seen as deferential to the former president may oversee proceedings in the case over his possession of classified documents, a source familiar with the summons told the Guardian.
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Post by Webster on Jun 12, 2023 12:52:52 GMT -5
(The Guardian) After weekend of anger, Trump plans defense ahead of Tuesday arraignmentAfter a weekend spent raging about last week’s federal indictment both in person and on his Truth social account, Donald Trump will be back in Florida today to prepare for his arraignment in Miami on Tuesday. There, he’s set to personally answer the federal charges related to keeping a trove of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, the gravest legal threat the former president has yet faced. He clearly has no intention of showing up to the courthouse alone, telling his supporters “SEE YOU IN MIAMI ON TUESDAY!!!” in a Friday evening post that wasn’t too far off in tone from the “Be there, will be wild!” message he sent out days before the January 6 insurrection. Today may well be the calm before the Tuesday storm, but there should be plenty of news about the logistics of Trump’s court appearance, his second as a defendant after being indicted by Manhattan’s district attorney back in March. Mugshots, fingerprints and handcuffs: the big questions ahead of Trump's Miami arraignmentDonald Trump’s arraignment on charges related to hoarding secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort is set for 3pm in Miami tomorrow, but many details of the appearance are currently unclear. Federal defendants typically have mugshots and fingerprints taken at their initial court dates, and many are handcuffed. But when Trump appeared at a Manhattan courthouse in April to answer an indictment brought by district attorney Alvin Bragg for allegedly falsifying business records, only his fingerprints were recorded. He was not handcuffed, and, despite what his campaign and other backers want you to believe, no mugshot was taken. So the big question of today is whether special counsel Jack Smith and his team of federal prosecutors will accord Trump the same arrangements. We’ll keep an eye out for more about that.
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Post by Webster on Jun 12, 2023 13:23:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Donald Trump’s allies spent the weekend railing against the federal charges announced against the former president, raising fears of a repeat of the violence that accompanied his departure from the White House, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports: Belligerent and conspiracy-laden rhetoric from high-profile Republican backers of Donald Trump has heightened fears that the former US president’s campaign against his legal troubles could trigger political violence.
Fewer than 24 hours after Donald Trump was indicted, Arizona congressman Andy Biggs went on Twitter and used violent language to call for retribution. “We have now reached a war phase,” he said. “An eye for an eye.” Clay Higgins, another Republican congressman from Louisiana, gave militaristic instructions to his followers. “This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. Hold. rPOTUS has this,” he tweeted, using an abbreviation to refer to Trump as the real president.
One of the most incendiary statements following Donald Trump’s federal indictment came from Kari Lake, the Arizona gubernatorial candidate who famously refused to concede her election loss last November. A top Democrat in the state warns there’s nothing funny about her comments, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports: The Arizona Republican Kari Lake’s vow of armed resistance over Donald Trump’s indictment for retaining classified records “threatens the very core of our democracy”, an Arizonan Democratic congressman said.
Ruben Gallego is running to replace the former Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in the US Senate next year. He said: “I know this language isn’t just hyperbole – it’s dangerous and it threatens the very core of our democracy.”
The 38-count federal indictment against Trump was unsealed Friday. He is due to appear in court in Florida on Tuesday. Jack Smith, the special counsel, told reporters he would “seek a speedy trial”.
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