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A Washington DC grand jury has voted to charge former president Donald Trump with TK counts of violating three sections of the federal criminal code as he and a group of allies schemed to find a way to somehow keep him in the White House for a second term despite losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. The grand jurors, who have spent months hearing evidence and witness testimony as part of a long-running probe into Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the January 6 attack on the Capitol which sprung from those efforts, approved the indictment against Mr Trump on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, and deprivation of rights under colour of law on Tuesday after a four-hour presentation by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors. Specifically, the indictment alleges that the ex-president engaged in a “conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the federal government,” conspired to “corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified,” and conspired against “conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted”. The latest charges against Mr Trump are some of the most serious allegations levied against the twice-impeached, now thrice-indicted former president, and are just the first of two possible sets of charges that he could face as a result of his efforts to unlawfully reverse the result of his defeat nearly three years ago. A separate grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia has also been hearing evidence about efforts by Mr Trump and his allies to pressure Peach State officials into reversing his loss to Mr Biden there, and the district attorney who has been supervising that process has said charges be approved against multiple targets in the coming days. The addition of a second federal indictment to the legal troubles facing Mr Trump is certain to complicate his quest to return to the White House by winning next year’s presidential election. He is scheduled to be tried in two separate criminal cases against him, including on the federal charges against him and co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira which are pending in a Florida federal court as a result of their alleged roles in the ex-president’s alleged unlawful retention of national defence information and obstruction of justice. A separate case against him for allegedly falsifying business records in his former home state of New York is set to go to trial in March 2024, while the federal case in Florida is scheduled for trial in late May 2024. The ex-president has maintained that the multiple investigations against him amount to “election interference” and a politically motivated “hoax,” and has repeatedly attacked the prosecutors investigating him in extremely personal terms. These latest charges against Mr Trump are the result of an eight-month investigation by Mr Smith, who was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to supervise a pair of probes focusing on the ex-president’s conduct. In addition to investigating the ex-president’s alleged unlawful retention of national defence information, Mr Smith was also handed control long-running probe into the events leading up to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, when a riotous mob of Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the seat of the US legislature in hopes of blocking the final certification of his loss to Mr Biden. While prosecutors in the office of the US Attorney for the District of Columbia have charged more than 1,000 people for various crimes committed during the riot — including rare seditious conspiracy charges against members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers extremist groups — the charges against Mr Trump [and his co-defendants] are the first to be brought against anyone for the efforts to overturn the election which arguably led to the Capitol attack. Mr Trump was impeached for inciting the attack with just days left in his presidency, and though a majority of senators voted to convict him, they fell short of the two-thirds supermajority required to sustain a conviction. But the ex-president and his co-defendants are not being charged for organising, inciting or fomenting what was the worst attack on the Capitol since British troops set it ablaze in 1814. Instead, the charges against them are for crimes which prosecutors allege to have been committed as Mr Trump sought to employ a variety of strategies by which he and his allies thought he could reverse or override the will of voters, including pressuring state legislatures to use their own authority to replace swing state electors for Mr Biden with electors for Mr Trump. Mr Trump and his allies also pushed state officials, most notably Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to act to decertify Mr Biden’s wins in swing states, according to prosecutors. Figures connected to Mr Trump’s campaign also spearheaded an effort to submit forged electoral college certificates to the National Archives and to the Senate, while Mr Trump personally sought to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence into unilaterally throwing out the legitimate electoral certificates for Mr Biden in favour of the forged ones listing Mr Trump as the winner. The case currently pending against him in the Southern District of Florida arose out of a criminal referral from the National Archives and Records Administration after officials discovered documents bearing classification markings in a set of 15 boxes which the agency had retrieved from Mr Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, the 1920’s-era Palm Beach mansion turned private beach club where he maintains his primary residence and post-presidential office. Investigators later discovered more than 100 additional documents with classification markings during an 8 August 2021 search of Mr Trump’s property, and in June charged him with unlawfully withholding the documents from the government and obstructing efforts to determine whether all the classified documents in his possession had been returned. Read More Trump indicted for his efforts to overturn 2020 presidential election results. Follow live updates Prosecutor involved in Jan. 6 cases says indictment has been returned as Trump braces for charges It's Kamala Harris vs. Ron DeSantis in the fight over Florida's new teachings on slavery Trump begs Congress to help save him from his legal troubles Who is Jack Smith? The ex-war crimes prosecutor who is coming for Trump Donald Trump is the first former president arrested on federal charges. Can he still run in 2024?

A federal grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

The federal grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election handed

The family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cells have been used for scientific research for decades, reached a settlement Tuesday with the biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific, the family's attorneys said.

Former president Donald Trump says a third criminal indictment against him will become public at 5.00 pm ET, just hours after the Washington, DC grand jury hearing evidence in the probe into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election ended work for the day. The ex-president appeared to announce the impending charges against him late Tuesday in a post to his Truth Social website. “I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M,” he wrote. He suggested that the reason charges for attempting to overturn the 2020 election unlawfully did not appear against him after he left office in 2021 is because “they” wanted to do so in the thick of his 2024 primary election campaign. He added: “Prosecutorial Misconduct!” In a second post, the ex-president suggested the new charges were filed to distract from Republican efforts to promote unproven claims of corruption against President Biden. The former president has a history of making public new criminal charges against him before they have been disclosed by prosecutors. After a Florida grand jury charged him with unlawfully retaining national defence information and obstruction of justice, Mr Trump announced the new case against him in a Truth Social post while the case was still sealed. Mr Trump currently is set to go on trial in two separate criminal cases next year: The federal case against him in Florida is schedule to go before a jury in May 2024, and he will stand trial in a New York State courtroom on charges of allegedly falsifying business records starting in March 2024. The charges thought to be filed against the ex-president were revealed in a target letter sent to his attorneys last month. It is understood that prosecutors were investigating him for violating three parts of the US criminal code covering conspiracy to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law, and witness tampering. More follows... Read More It's Kamala Harris vs. Ron DeSantis in the fight over Florida's new teachings on slavery Trump says ‘fake’ charges coming today from Jan 6 grand jury — live updates Trump allies in Michigan charged for illegally accessing voting machines

In the continuing investigation of Gilgo Beach serial killings suspect Rex Heuermann, authorities have scoured his New York home, leaving a chaotic scene for his family to return to, according to Heuermann's wife and her attorney.

Donald Trump’s Save America PAC is reportedly running out of cash as a result of the extensive legal bills his campaign is facing as it fights fires on several fronts. The PAC began last year with $105m but is now down to just $4m, according to The New York Times, after paying off costly lawyers’ fees picked up defending Mr Trump in a variety of cases concerning everything from his business practices and personal history to his retention of classified documents since leaving the White House. Meanwhile, Fani Willis, district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, has said that her investigation into the 45th president’s energetic efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State is “ready to go”, suggesting a potential indictment could be imminent. Separately, another indictment is also looming from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who is also probing Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the vote and his role in inciting the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021. On Tuesday, the grand jury assigned the case met again heightening anticipation. Whichever materialises first will represent the Republican’s third of the year. Read More Mar-a-Lago property manager is the latest in line of Trump staffers ensnared in legal turmoil Trump's early work to set rules for nominating contest notches big win in delegate-rich California What is an indictment? Donald Trump is facing his third and fourth of 2023

A trio of Republican House committee chairs is demanding information from the Department of Justice on the pending plea and diversion agreements between prosecutors and Hunter Biden as part of their ongoing effort to inflict political damage on his father, President Joe Biden. In a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith said the decision by Delaware US Attorney David Weiss to allow Hunter Biden to plead guilty to two misdemeanour tax charges and enter into a deferred sentencing agreement on a single charge of lying on a gun background check form “raise serious concerns ... that the Department has provided preferential treatment toward Mr. Biden in the course of its investigation and proposed resolution of his alleged criminal conduct”. Mr Biden, who is President Biden’s youngest and only surviving son, has admitted to what have been well-documented struggles with alcohol and drugs, and during an aborted plea hearing last week said he’d been in and out of rehabilitation facilities on numerous occasions over the last few decades. During that court appearance, US District Judge Maryellen Noreika objected to a provision of the diversion agreement which stated that she — not prosecutors — would be responsible for determining whether Mr Biden might have breached the agreement’s terms, which would necessitate new criminal charges. The judge said the provision in question was “not standard” and “different from what I normally see” and suggested it violates the separation of powers in the US Constitution because it would put the judicial branch in the position of making a charging decision that is an executive branch function. Legal experts have opined that the provision at issue was an attempt by the department to protect Mr Biden from a situation in which a future Republican administration would manufacture charges against him. The current GOP frontrunner for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, Donald Trump, has repeatedly pledged to jail Mr Biden, his father, and numerous other prominent Democrats. The GOP representatives asked Mr Garland to provide them with data on how often, if at all, the Delaware US Attorney’s office and the Justice Department have included similar provisions in diversion agreements. They also demanded information on who — prosecutors or Mr Biden’s defence attorneys — suggested that the agreement should place a final decision on new charges in a judge’s hands, and asked Mr Garland to provide a list of pretrial division agreements for other defendants who’ve been charged with the same gun-related offence as Mr Biden, as well as “all documents and communications referring or relating to each similar pretrial diversion agreement entered into by the Department in the last ten years”. Additionally, the committee chairs asked Mr Garland to provide a “generalized description of the nature of the Department’s ongoing investigation” into Mr Biden and an “explanation of why the Department originally agreed to a plea agreement” with Mr Biden if there are ongoing probes into him. It is unlikely that Mr Garland will provide any response that satisfies the GOP representatives, as the Justice Department’s policy for decades has been to not comment on ongoing investigations, even in response to congressional inquiries. Read More House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations Hunter Biden’s ex-business partner testifies to Congress. Here’s what to know Biden acknowledges Hunter’s daughter Navy in public for first time

The migrant crisis is spilling out onto the streets of New York, with hundreds of people sleeping and

Watch as US vice president Kamala Harris delivers remarks at the 20th Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church Quadrennial Convention. Ms Harris has travelled to Florida to speak at the event, which comes coincidentally after Florida governor Ron DeSantis challenged her to come to the state. In a letter sent on Monday, Mr DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential election, touted Florida as the “number one state in the nation for education”. The vice president has been busy over the last few weeks, which saw her already visit Florida in July. Ms Harris was on a trip to speak at an event in Jacksonville, where she spoke out against some changes to how African-American history is taught in Florida. During her visit to the Ritz Theatre and Museum in Jacksonville, Harris lamented how damaging it is when schools don't discuss historical crimes as part of the curriculum. Read More DeSantis wants to meet with Kamala Harris over Florida’s Black history curriculum Biden goes west to talk about his administration's efforts to combat climate change Tim Scott rebukes DeSantis for new Florida Black history curriculum on slavery

Relatives of “cult mom” Lori Vallow’s victims have decried her unhinged claims during her sentencing trial. Vallow was sentenced on Monday to spend the rest of her life behind bars over the killings of her 16-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan, her nine-year-old son Joshua “JJ” Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell’s first wife Tammy Daybell. Vallow, 50, was convicted in May on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft in the murders that prosecutors say she and allegedly Mr Daybell plotted as part of their doomsday cult beliefs. In a shocking statement addressing the court just moments before she was handed down five consecutive life sentences without parole, Vallow said that her children “were happy and busy in the spirit world” and that she knew “her friend Tammy ... is also very happy and extremely busy.” Tammy’s sister Samantha Gwilliam has since slammed Vallow’s remarks. Ms Gwilliam was in court during the sentencing and deliver her victim impact statement along with her aunt Vicki Hoban and JJ’s grandparents Kay and Larry Woodcock. “I don’t know who she was talking to but she wasn’t talking to my sister,” Ms Gwilliam told Pretty Lies and Alibies podcast host GiGi McKelvey. The Woodcocks also described Vallow’s statement as “vile BS” in an interview with NewsNation. “This is part of her farse, her hoax, and she is never going to give it up. It’s just more of her crap, there is no other way to put it,” Ms Woodstock said. “To say that JJ and Tylee were happy and busy ... and then her friend Tammy? I mean get out of here.” Ms Woodstock and her husband had been frantically trying to establish contact with JJ before the little boy and Tylee vanished in 2019. They reported the children missing shortly after Vallow moved with them from Arizona to join Mr Daybell in Idaho. Tylee and JJ were missing for nine months before their bodies were found in June 2020 at a pet cemetery in Mr Daybell’s residence in Rexburg, Idaho. Tylee’s remains were discovered burned, while JJ was strangled to death and found still in his pyjamas and with a plastic bag over his head and duct tape over his mouth. “I had to sit there and I couldn’t say a word. She is absolutely playing this system, Mr Woodstock told NewsNation. “There is no way that she is a special being, that she talks to God, that she talks to the kids, that she talks to Tammy. That is a ridiculous statement. I can tell you right now that she is nothing but a five-gallon bucket of BS.” Tammy’s aunt Vicki Hoban also told the outlet that she believed Vallow didn’t take accountability for her actions as part of another plot to seek a new trial. District Judge Steven Boyce rejected Vallow’s request for a new trial last month. “I think she is creating a narrative now that will make her look crazy, which I don’t believe, I think she is just trying to figure out how to maybe get a new trial,” Ms Houb said. “It was just a slap in the face for her to continue to talk about Tammy as a friend. She was murdered in cold blood.” Tammy died a month after the children went missing. She was an otherwise healthy 49-year-old when she was initially believed to have died of a cardiac event — an autopsy later determined that her cause of death was asphyxiation. Mr Daybell is expected to stand trial over JJ, Tylee and Tammy’s death next year. Mr Daybell and Vallow were slated to stand trial together before Judge Boyce ruled in March that the cases would be severed. On Tuesday, Ms Woodluck took to Twitter to celebrate the news that Vallow had been booked into prison after her custody was transferred to the Idaho Department of Corrections. Arizona prosecutors are now expected to file for her extradition to the state so she can stand trial in the death of her fourth husband Charles Vallow, who was shot to death by Vallow’s late brother Alex Cox just months before her children vanished. “Hope the worst for her. She doesn’t deserve anything good. Someday I’ll forgive, just not quite yet,” Ms Woodstock tweeted. “It’s a great day to be alive!!! Thanks to all for your support. It’s meant everything to us.” Read More Lori Vallow - update: ‘Cult mom’ smirks in new mug shot after denying murders in bizarre sentencing statement Lori Vallow finally broke her silence at sentencing. It was too late Napping in court, three words and typing too loudly: Bizarre moments from Lori Vallow’s murder trial

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