Nuclear secrets reportedly found at Mar-a-Lago are ‘gamechanger’, experts say – live

A judge today struck down a 1931 anti-abortion law in Michigan, months after suspending it, saying, “A law denying safe, routine medical care not only denies women of their ability to control their bodies and their lives – it denies them of their dignity. Michigan’s Constitution forbids this violation of due process.”

The law had long been inactive prior to the overturning of Roe v Wade and made it illegal to perform abortions unless there was a life-threatening emergency.

Judge Elizabeth Gleicher said the law “compels motherhood”, prevents a woman from determining the “shape of her present and future life” and “forces a pregnant woman to forgo her reproductive choices and to instead serve as ‘an involuntary vessel entitled to no more respect than other forms of collectively owned property’”.

Michigan’s Democratic governor praised the ruling, but warned it was likely to be challenged and said there were “extremists who will stop at nothing to ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest”.

The decision comes amid an ongoing court battle that will determine whether another anti-abortion measure is on the ballot before voters in Michigan this year.

The full story on Gleicher’s decision:

Hi all – Sam Levin here in Los Angeles taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day.

A new report suggests that hundreds of US law enforcement officers, elected officials and military personnel were listed on leaked documents as members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group linked to the Jan 6 2021 insurrection.

The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism reviewed 38,000 leaked names on a membership list of the group and said it identified more than 370 people believed to be active members of police agencies, in addition to more than 100 people currently in the military, the AP reports. The review also identified more than 80 people running for office or currently serving as elected officials as of this summer. The list included sheriffs and police chiefs, the AP said.

Some of the officials contacted by the AP responded they were members years ago but were no longer active.

In recent years, there has been escalating concerns about links between police departments and far-right extremist groups in the US, a problem that was widely scrutinized after the insurrection, where off-duty officers were present.

Last week, a retired New York police officer received the longest sentence yet for his involvement in the attack on the Capitol, during which he assaulted an officer with a flagpole.

The full story on the Oath Keepers leak:

Certain prominent legal experts aren’t pulling their punches this afternoon, already skeptical of the ruling by the federal judge in Florida granting Donald Trump’s request to have a special master interrupt and oversee the Department of Justice’s review of documents seized by the FBI from the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago.

Harvard’s Laurence Tribe, as pithy as usual, has quote tweeted former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann over what needs to happen next in the court case – and not long after.

Tribe wrote for the Guardian today that the ruling two days ago on the special master by Aileen Cannon, the federal judge in West Palm Beach, “has to rank high in the annals of the worst reasoned judicial decisions in American history”.

He warns: “If it signals that judicial Trumpism has spread more broadly than we thought, there may be danger ahead to our entire system of equal justice.”

Tribe wrote the piece with former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut and you can read the rest of it here.

Tribe also notes that Trump’s attorney general Bill Barr has called Cannon’s ruling “deeply flawed”. (Barr also called it “a crock of shit”.)

But he adds in a tweet: “I’m glad Bill Barr is making the rounds on his “dismantle Trump” tour, but if it’s a “rehabilitate Barr” tour, count me out.”

The rehab tour started in earnest with the main round of January 6 hearings, and no matter what it does or doesn’t do for Barr, his testimony to that House committee’s inquiry did a lot for the congressional investigation itself (as well as for Ivanka Trump’s view of who won the 2020 election, apparently).

Reporters at the White House press briefing are wondering if the US has had contact with any other countries over the reported discovery of a foreign power’s nuclear secrets among classified documents hoarded by ex-president Donald Trump.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is sticking closely to her previous position of flat-out refusing to comment on the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s handling of secret material, but does say this:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We don’t have any calls to foreign governments to read out at this time on this particular issue as known.

When it comes to this specific issue, the ODNI [office of the director of national intelligence] is in the middle of an assessment, and DoJ [justice department] is in the middle of an ongoing criminal investigation. So I’m not going to comment.

It should be noted that Jean-Pierre is not saying no such calls have taken place, nor is she saying they have. She’s just saying that she has nothing that she can share.

We’ve hopped across the White House from the East Room to the briefing room, to join press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Monkeypox is first on the agenda. Robert Fenton, White House national monkeypox response coordinator, says the country has ample supplies of vaccines to supply the most at-risk.

“Our focus is to reach the remainder of the eligible population where they are,” he says, citing the success of thousands of doses being administered over the weekend at pride events in Louisiana, Georgia and elsewhere.

“These events demonstrate our strategy is working.”

Dr Demetre Daskalakis, deputy response coordinator, says the population at highest risk is largely men who have sex with other men.

“It’s important people know a safe and effective vaccine is available for those who need it,” he says.

“It’s important we speak to the community in a way that doesn’t stigmatize them. [The virus] doesn’t distinguish between people based on their sexual orientation or gender.”

Michelle Obama’s speech from her portrait unveiling at the White House is worth a read. The day, the former first lady said, belongs not to her or Barack Obama, and it’s not even about the paintings:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Too often in this country, people feel like they have to look a certain way or act a certain way to fit in. They have to make a lot of money, or come from a certain group or class or faith in order to matter.

But what we’re looking at today, a portrait of a biracial kid with an unusual name and the daughter of a water pump operator and a stay at home mom, what we are seeing is a reminder that there’s a place for everyone in this country.

Because, as Barack said, if the two of us can end up on the walls of the most famous address in the world, it is so important for every young kid who is doubting themselves to believe that they can too.

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}That is what this country is about. It’s not about blood or pedigree or wealth. It’s a place where everyone should have a fair shot. Whether you’re a kid taking two buses and a train just to get to school, or a single mother who’s working two jobs to put some food on the table.

Or an immigrant, just arriving, getting your first apartment, forging a future for yourself in a place you dreamed of.

That’s why for me this day isn’t about me or Barack. It’s not even about these beautiful paintings. It’s about telling that fuller story, a story that includes every single American in every single corner of the country so that our kids and grandkids can see something more for themselves.

And as much as some folks might want us to believe that that story has lost some of its shine, that division, and discrimination and everything else might have dimmed its light, I still know deep in my heart, that what we share, as my husband continues to say, is so much bigger than what we don’t.

Our democracy is so much stronger than our differences.

Joe Biden has tweeted about his “old pals act” at the White House on Wednesday, the vice-president turned president greeting his former boss Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama for the unveiling of their portraits.

“Someone once said that if you’re looking for a friend in Washington get a dog,” Obama said during his speech in the East Room.

“Our family was lucky enough to have two wonderful dogs. But I was even luckier to have a chance to spend eight years working day and night with a man who became a true partner and a true friend.

“Joe, it is now America’s good fortune to have you as president”.

Mar-a-Lago – the Palm Beach resort and residence where Donald Trump reportedly stored nuclear secrets among a trove of highly classified documents for 18 months since leaving the White House – is a magnet for foreign spies, former intelligence officials have warned.

The Washington Post reported that a document describing an unspecified foreign government’s defences, including its nuclear capabilities, was one of the many highly secret papers Trump took away from the White House when he left office in January 2021.

There were also documents marked SAP, for Special-Access Programmes, which are often about US intelligence operations and whose circulation is severely restricted, even among administration officials with top security clearance.

Potentially most disturbing of all, there were papers stamped HCS, Humint Control Systems, involving human intelligence gathered from agents in enemy countries, whose lives would be in danger if their identities were compromised.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is conducting a damage assessment review which is focused on the sensitivity of the documents, but US officials said it is the job of FBI counter-intelligence to assess who may have gained access to them.

That is a wide field. The home of a former president with a history of being enthralled by foreign autocrats, distrustful of US security services, and boastful about his knowledge of secrets, is an obvious foreign intelligence target.

“I know that national security professionals inside government, my former colleagues, [they] are shaking their heads at what damage might have been done,” John Brennan, former CIA director, told MSNBC.

“I’m sure Mar-a-Lago was being targeted by Russian intelligence and other intelligence services over the course of the last 18 or 20 months, and if they were able to get individuals into that facility, and access those rooms where those documents were and made copies of those documents, that’s what they would do.”

Barack Obama also thanked artists Robert McCurdy and Sharon Sprung for their respective portraits of himself and Michelle Obama.

“He captures every wrinkle of your face, every crease of your shirt, [and] you’ll note he refused all of my requests to make my ears smaller,” he said.

“He also talked me out of wearing a tan suit, by the way,” he added to laughter and applause, a nod to the social media firestorm he created back in 2014 when he wore one.

“What you realize when you’re sitting behind that desk, and what I want people to remember about Michelle and me, is that presidents and first ladies are human beings.

“I’ve always described the presidency as a relay race. You take the baton from someone, you run your leg as hard and as well as you can, and then you hand it off to someone else, knowing that your work will be incomplete.

“The portraits hanging in the White House chronicle the runners in that race.

Having unveiled his portrait, Barack Obama is now paying tribute to Joe Biden, saying it is “America’s good fortune” to have him as president:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}You have guided us through some perilous times, you have built on and gone beyond the work we all did together to expand healthcare, to fight climate change, to advance social justice and to promote economic fairness.

Thanks to you our faith in our democracy and the American people, the country is better off than when you took office.

He also acknowledged his aides, staffers and colleagues from his time in the White House. Many are in the audience in the East Room:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}For eight years, even longer for some of you, I drew on your energy and dedication and your goodness. You inspired me and I never wanted to disappoint you.

Even during the toughest times it was all of you that kept me going. It’s good to be back and see all of you…what’s been a special joy to see what’s happened since.

[But] I am a little disappointed I haven’t heard anyone naming a kid Barack yet.

“Or Michelle…” the former first lady interjected from beside him.

Joe Biden is acknowledging Barack Obama as his inspiration for everything he does as president.

Speaking at the official unveiling of the former president and first lady, Michelle Obama, at the White House, Biden said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}With Barack as our president we got up every day and went to work full of hope, for real, full of purpose, and excited about the possibility before us.

Few people I’ve ever known have more integrity, decency, and moral courage than Barack Obama.

Mr President, nothing could have prepared me better, and more, to become president of the United States than to be your side for eight years. I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

No matter what the issue was, no matter how difficult, no matter what it was about, you never did what it was the easy way, the easy way out. It was never about doing it that way, it was always about doing what was right.

To that end, Biden cited Obama’s signature achievement, passage of the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed Obamacare, which survived a bumpy passage and overcame Republican opposition in the Senate to become law:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}He never gave up on the simple truth that health care was a right for all Americans when so many were telling him, including me at one point, take the compromise, take the compromise… we weren’t sure we get anything done.

You refused. You went big. And now the Affordable Care Act is there permanently and it’s even being improved.

Here are the portraits:

Joe Biden is speaking at the White House, where he is unveiling the official portraits of former first lady Michelle Obama, and 44th president Barack Obama, whom he served as vice-president.

“Barack and Michelle, welcome home,” the president began.

Here’s a video interview with the portraits’ artists, Robert McCurdy and Sharon Sprung.

New York state is ending a 28-month-old Covid-19 mandate requiring masks on trains, buses and other modes of public transit, governor Kathy Hochul said at a news conference today, Reuters reports.

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Starting today masks will be optional. We have to restore some normalcy to our lives…Masks are encouraged but optional,” Hochul said, citing recent revised guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

New York first adopted the mandate in April 2020 as Covid-19 was rampaging in the New York City area.

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s always been a visible reminder that something is not normal here, and it was there for the right reason. It protected health and now we’re in a far different place,” Hochul said.

In April, the Biden administration decided to no longer enforce a US mask mandate on public transportation after a federal judge in Florida ruled the directive was unlawful. New York declined to adopt the Biden policy in April.

In recent months, many riders in New York had stopped observing the mask policy.

Hochul said masks will still be required in some places like adult care facilities and some other medical facilities.

The US Justice Department appealed the Florida judge’s ruling invalidating the transportation mask mandate, but a federal appeals court has not yet set the case for oral arguments.

It’s been a lively morning in US political news and there’s more to come. The unveiling at the White House of the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama is just ahead, with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in attendance, and the White House press briefing with Karine Jean-Pierre follows not long after that. We’ll be watching for any other significant breaking news and will bring it to you as it happens.

Here’s where things stand:

• Former Trump administration defense secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark Esper have joined a group of retired military officers who have written an open letter warning of an “extremely adverse environment” for the military – a thinly-veiled attack on the former president’s efforts to use servicemen and women to advance his political goals.

• Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI says federal agents “absolutely had to go in” to retrieve highly classified documents from Donald Trump’s private residence relating to the nuclear secrets of a foreign power.

• Donald Trump’s legal jeopardy could be heightened by the reported discovery of a foreign nation’s nuclear secrets among his hoard of improperly retained classified materials, some experts believe.

• The reported discovery of information about a foreign nation’s nuclear secrets in materials found at Donald Trump’s private residence in the FBI search last month is horrifying intelligence experts. The legal and security situation was already extremely serious and the further revelation has been called “a gamechanger”.

Massachusetts is on course to elect its first woman and first gay governor after Maura Healey won the Democratic primary on Tuesday and a Trump-backed candidate, Geoff Diehl, won the Republican contest to face her.

Healey, the state attorney general, said: “I am honored to receive the Democratic nomination … Together, we’re going to win in November and build a Massachusetts that works for everyone.”

Massachusetts has a long record of electing moderate Republicans. Only one Democrat – Deval Patrick, from 2007 to 2015 – has been governor since 1991.

Healey, a former college and professional basketball player, has been attorney general since 2015. Polls give her huge leads over Diehl.

The Republican backs Donald Trump’s lie that his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election was the result of electoral fraud, opposed the extension of mail-in voting, opposed public health mandates in the Covid pandemic and supports the supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion.

The abortion issue alone has driven electoral successes that have Democrats hoping they can prosper in the midterm elections.

On Monday, Trump – the de facto leader of a party dominated by supporters Biden has called “semi-fascist” – told Massachusetts Republicans that Diehl would push back against “ultra-liberal extremists” and “rule your state with an iron fist”.

Full-story: