List of All Articles with Tag 'politics'

Former president Donald Trump criticised Special Counsel Jack Smith for obtaining a search warrant for his old Twitter account early Monday morning. Mr Trump blasted Mr Smith’s office, which is leading investigations into the former president’s handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. “How dare lowlife prosecutor, Deranged Jack Smith, break into my former Twitter account without informing me and, indeed, trying to completely hide this atrocity from me,” he posted on Truth Social. “What could he possibly find out that is not already known. Just like the early morning raid of Mar-a-Lago!” Unsealed records showed that Mr Smith’s office obtained a search warrant for Mr Trump’s account. Twitter, now known as “X,” was prohibited from informing Mr Trump. A federal court agreed with Mr Smith’s office that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that disclosing the warrant “seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation” by giving the former president “an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates.” But X was fined $350,000 for failing to meet the deadline to produce the records in a timely manner. The three-times-indicted, twice-impeached former president said the Department of Justice should investigate President Joe Biden. “Why isn’t the DOJ raiding Crooked Joe Biden, the most CORRUPT (and Incompetent!) President in the history of the United States?” A federal grand jury indicted the former president earlier this year after a four-hour presentation from Mr Smith’s office for Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges. Mr Trump also railed against Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case in Washington DC, whom he said “obviously wants me behind bars.” “VERY BIASED & UNFAIR!” he said on his networking platform. Mr Trump also criticised Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, as she prepares to potentially indict the former president for his efforts to overturn the election results in the state. “I UNDERSTAND THROUGH ILLEGAL LEAKS TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA THAT PHONEY FANI WILLIS, THE D.A. OF FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, WANTS DESPERATELY TO INDICT ME ON THE RIDICULOUS GROUNDS OF TAMPERING WITH THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION,” he said. “NO, I DIDN’T TAMPER WITH THE ELECTION! THOSE WHO RIGGED & STOLE THE ELECTION WERE THE ONES DOING THE TAMPERING, & THEY ARE THE SLIME THAT SHOULD BE PROSECUTED. I MADE A PERFECT PHONE CALL OF PROTEST. WHY WASN’T THIS FAKE CASE BROUGHT 2.5 YEARS AGO? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” -Alex Woodward contributed to this report Read More Jack Smith obtained search warrant for Trump’s Twitter account, newly unveiled court documents show Trump heaps praise on anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist as fourth potential indictment looms in Georgia – latest How Fani Willis oversaw what might be the most sprawling legal case against Donald Trump Rising political threats take US into uncharted territory as 2024 election looms EXPLAINER: What are special counsels and what do they do?

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has reemerged in the spotlight amid news that her office is expected to seek indictments regarding efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Niger’s mutinous soldiers say they will prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and undermining state security, hours after they said they were open to dialogue with West African nations to resolve the mounting regional crisis. The announcement on state television on Sunday night, by spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, said the military regime had “gathered the necessary evidence to prosecute before competent national and international authorities the ousted president and his local and foreign accomplices for high treason and for undermining the internal and external security of Niger.” Bazoum, Niger’s democratically elected president, was ousted by members of his presidential guard on July 26 and has since been under house arrest with his wife and son in the presidential compound in the capital, Niamey. People close to the president as well as those in his ruling party say their electricity and water have been cut off and they’re running out of food. The junta dismissed these reports Sunday night and accused West African politicians and international partners of fueling a disinformation campaign to discredit the junta. International pressure is growing on the junta to release and reinstate Bazoum. Immediately after the coup, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS gave the regime seven days to return him to power or threatened military force, but that deadline came and went with no action from either side. Last week, ECOWAS ordered the deployment of a “standby” force, but it’s still unclear when or if it would enter the country.

Yet another likely criminal indictment is looming over Donald Trump this week, which would deepen his already extreme legal quagmire and further divert an unparalleled election season from the campaign trail into multiple courtrooms.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign on Sunday evening quickly tried to walk back comments the Democratic presidential candidate had made earlier in the day in support of a nationwide abortion restriction after the first three months of pregnancy.

Last year, Eddie Peterson lost consciousness at his home in Memphis and stopped breathing.

After US Attorney General Merrick Garland designated a special counsel to oversee investigations into Hunter Biden, his attorney is “confident” that the federal prosecutor will draw the same conclusions that the US Department of Justice reached earlier this year. If newly appointed Justice Department special counsel David Weiss continues the five years of work that led to initial charges against President Joe Biden’s son, “then the only conclusion can be what the conclusion was on July 26,” attorney Abbe Lowell told CBS Face the Nation on 13 August. There is “no new evidence to be found” following the two misdemeanor tax and gun charges that Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to last month, Mr Lowell said. “I don’t know the possibility exists after this kind of painstaking investigation for them to be, ‘Oh, my gosh, there’s a new piece of evidence,’” he added. His remarks follow heightened Republican scrutiny into the president and his son, as a parallel congressional probe appears to come apart and Donald Trump’s allies attempt to bolster their defence of the former president against a mountain of federal charges by deflecting to allegations of rampant corruption and criminality under the current administration. Less than a year ago, Senate Republicans – eager to persecute the Biden family – urged Mr Garland to designate David Weiss as special counsel. When he did, those same Republicans spent the days that followed railing against it. They claim that a “sweetheart” plea deal compromised the investigation. Hunter Biden was set to plead guilty to misdemeanour tax charges and enter a diversion agreement related to a felony gun charge in July, but the agreement appeared to hit a snag during a federal court hearing, and the judge presiding over the case ultimately rejected the arrangement. “One, they wrote something and weren’t clear what they meant; two, they knew what they meant and misstated it to counsel; or, third, they changed their view as they were standing in court in Delaware,” Mr Lowell said on Face the Nation of the prosecutors involved with the case. “One of the possibilities is the prosecutor stood up and decided for lots of reasons that might be apparent to the viewer, they didn’t like what people were saying about the deal they approved,” he added. Mr Weiss, who has served as the US attorney for Delaware since 2018, has led federal investigations into Hunter Biden since 2019 under Mr Trump’s administration, and while his title changed this past week, “he’s the same person he’s been for the last five years,” Mr Lowell said. “He’s a Republican US attorney appointed by a Republican president and attorney general who had career prosecutors working this case for five years looking at every transaction that Hunter was involved in,” he added. “If anything changes from his conclusion … the question should be asked, what infected the process that was not the facts in the law?” Mr Lowell also was critical of right-wing media for its coverage of the case, as pundits devote significant airtime to allegations and spurious congressional probes to his client while trying to connect President Biden to his son’s alleged crimes. Several House Republicans have threatened to file articles of impeachment against the president invoking those claims; US Rep Greg Steube filed an impeachment resolution on 11 August “for high crimes and misdemeanours” based on accusations of fraud, obstruction of justice and bribery. “The facts and the evidence that have been pursued by however many members of Congress and their staffs and media, looking for any possible connection has shown time and time again – it doesn’t exist,” Mr Lowell said. If President Biden calls his son on speakerphone and “says hello to the people in the room, that is not an offence,” he said. “That is nothing other than a loving father.” Democratic US Rep Dan Goldman said Hunter Biden should face criminal charges if prosecutors find that he has committed crimes. “I’m a Democrat saying that,” he told CNN’s State of the Union. “You don’t hear any currently elected Republican saying that if Donald Trump committed crimes, he should be charged with them and held accountable. And that’s a critical distinction that the public needs to understand.” Read More Ted Cruz rails against Hunter Biden special counsel appointment that he requested Prosecutor in Hunter Biden case is given special counsel status by attorney general Trump and Hunter Biden legal blockbusters rock Washington – but offer a contrast

Chris Christie was on ABC this weekend bashing Donald Trump as the former New Jersey governor charts a path to the GOP nomination which he believes necessitates a direct showdown with the ex-president. Mr Christie, who previously served as a federal prosecutor, told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on Sunday that his opponent needs to choose his words carefully going forward to escape further criminal liability. "Trump needs to be smart and careful about this, if that's at all possible. Which is [to say] that he is a criminal defendant," he said. It was advice that is unlikely to be followed. Mr Trump has pursued an aggressive campaign of indignation and charges of political weaponisation against prosecutors in New York and Washington DC who have charged him with more than 70 criminal counts in three matters: His alleged hush payments to Stormy Daniels, his efforts to change the results of the 2020 election, and his allegedly illegal retention of classified materials from the White House. Mr Trump has even personally targeted the Department of Justice’s special counsel, Jack Smith, and warned that anyone who participated in the investigations against him will face his wrath. The agency has, as a result, sought to chill his speech on social media and elsewhere regarding the open criminal case against him. Mr Christie holds a unique position as a 2024 contender and rival to ex-President Trump: He was known to have been in the running to serve as Mr Trump’s attorney general in the wake of the 2016 election. He also helped Mr Trump prepare for debates against Joe Biden in 2020. Now, he battles his former ally for the GOP nomination, arguing that Mr Trump’s actions in the wake of his defeat are roundly disqualifying. “This guy has been a one-man crime wave,” Mr Christie previously said of Mr Trump’s numerous indictments during an April interview with Pod Save America. “Look, he’s earned every one of them. If you look at it, every one of these is self-inflicted. And that’s why, you know, do I think that prosecutors exercise prosecutorial judgment in discretion in some respects that are questionable? Yeah – and they always have. But what I say to people all the time is whether you agree or disagree with the prosecutors, look at the underlying conduct.” Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing in all the criminal cases against him. Despite this, his legal team is said to be expecting further criminal charges in the coming days, filed this time by prosecutors in Georgia investigating the Trump campaign’s efforts to pressure local officials into throwing out the state’s lawful 2020 election results for months after the election took place. Read More New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver lies in state in the capitol rotunda Meet the 2024 Republican and Democrat presidential candidates Trump says he won't sign Republican loyalty pledge, flouting debate requirement Georgia elections official rails against Trump making himself a ‘martyr’ amid indictments Trump steps up attacks on Fani Willis as Georgia probe links Trump team to voting system breach - latest Ron DeSantis faces ‘pudding fingers’ chant and other protests during Iowa campaign stop

A Republican official charged with overseeing elections in the state of Georgia, where Donald Trump tried and failed to change the results of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, lamented on Sunday that the ex-president was able to make himself out as a “martyr” to his supporters as he continues to face deepening legal problems. Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer to Georgia’s secretary of state, watched his boss Brad Raffensperger survive a Trump-backed primary challenge in 2022 after Mr Raffensperger refused to go along with Mr Trump’s attempts to change the lawful election results. He has long said that the former president’s efforts after the 2020 election were inappropriate, including an early January 2021 phone call between Mr Raffensperger and the president during which Mr Trump asked the Georgia elections chief to “find” him 11,000 votes. That phone call and the effort by Mr Trump to change the results in Georgia are expected to result in a criminal indictment filed by Fulton County prosecutors within the next week or so; Fani Willis’s office is currently presenting evidence against the ex-president and his legal team to a grand jury. A “special purpose” grand jury – unique under Georgia law – had previously been called in the matter, but that body did not have the final authority to approve or reject criminal indictments. On Sunday, Mr Sterling spoke to ABC’s This Week about what he said was a troubling sign; that Republicans were flocking to Mr Trump as further consequences for his long-alleged criminal behaviour unfold. "This has been giving oxygen to his campaign," Mr Sterling said. "This is raising tons of money, and a lot of that money ... is being used to pay for his lawyers.” "He's making himself a martyr, and a lot of the American people are going behind him because they feel like some of these things are a little bit of a stretch," he said. Complicating the narrative regarding Mr Trump’s criminal indictments is the very first of the actions taken against him by prosecutors: The charging of Mr Trump more than 30 times by officials in Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office over the Stormy Daniels affair which is alleged to have played out as far back as 2016. Mr Trump is charged with falsifying business documents to hide hush payments to Ms Daniels, an issue which some have said is being prosecuted far too late and as a result detracting from the credibility of the unrelated investigations into both Mr Trump’s efforts to change the 2020 election results and the discovery of classified defence materials at his properties. Mr Trump remains the far-and-away leader of the 2024 GOP primary field, and has actively campaigned on the issue of his criminal charges, which he has portrayed as a weaponisation of the US justice system by Democrats. He continues to deny wrongdoing in all matters, including his embrace of conspiracies that led to thousands of his supporters attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Read More Trump steps up attacks on Fani Willis as Georgia probe links Trump team to voting system breach - latest Georgia prosecutors have text messages linking Trump team to voting system breach, report says Georgia grand jury to hear Trump election subversion case next week Ron DeSantis faces ‘pudding fingers’ chant and other protests during Iowa campaign stop

The issue of abortion had, for years, been key to generating enthusiasm among conservatives. But since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it now energizes Democrats and affects the outcome of elections, including potentially the 2024 race.

Former President Donald Trump seized the spotlight at the Iowa State Fair this weekend, swooping overhead in his private plane just as his chief Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, was flipping pork chops and greeting potential GOP caucus-goers.

Hunter Biden's lawyer on Sunday said a trial is "not inevitable," days after the Trump-appointed US attorney investigating the president's son was granted special counsel status following a breakdown in plea talks to resolve tax and gun charges.