Elections

The vote by a Manhattan grand jury to indict former President Donald J. Trump raises novel legal and political questions because he is running for the Republican nomination for president again.Any indictment or conviction would not bar Mr. Trump from running. A clean criminal record is not among the criteria the Constitution sets for who is eligible to be president. (Officials who have been impeached and convicted of “high crimes and misdemeanors” may be barred from future office, but the Senate acquitted Mr. Trump at both his impeachment trials.)Still, it would be extraordinary for a person who is under indictment, let alone convicted of a felony, to be a major party nominee.There are only a few historical examples of somewhat serious candidates who even come close. They include the unsuccessful run in the 2016 Republican primary by Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, after he was indicted on charges of abuse of power (the charges were dismissed months after he dropped out of the race), and the 1920 run by Eugene V. Debs as the Socialist Party nominee while he sat in prison for an Espionage Act conviction.If Mr. Trump were to be elected president while a felony case against him was pending or after any conviction, many complications would ensue.The Justice Department has taken the position since the Nixon administration that even indicting a president while in office would be unconstitutional because it would interfere with the president’s ability to perform duties as head of the executive branch. Mr. Trump would surely try to get the case dismissed on that basis. There is no definitive Supreme Court ruling because the issue has never arisen before.Notably, in 1997 the Supreme Court allowed a federal lawsuit against President Bill Clinton to proceed while he was in office. That was a civil case, however — not a criminal one — and it was in the federal system, not the state courts, as the indictment in Manhattan would be.In that opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in passing that a similar case brought in the state court system might raise “federalism and comity concerns, as well as the interest in protecting federal officials from possible local prejudice,” but he did not say whether those factors would change the outcome.Even more extraordinary complications would arise were Mr. Trump to be convicted and incarcerated and yet elected anyway. One possibility is that he could win a federal court order requiring his release from state prison as a result of a constitutional challenge. Another is that upon the commencement of his second term, he could be immediately removed from office under the 25th Amendment as “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” More

He will be fingerprinted. He will be photographed. He may even be handcuffed.If he surrenders Tuesday, Donald J. Trump is expected to walk through the routine steps of felony arrest processing in New York now that a grand jury has indicted him in connection with his role in a hush-money payment to a porn star. But the unprecedented arrest of a former commander in chief will be anything but routine.Accommodations may be made for Mr. Trump. While it is standard for defendants arrested on felony charges to be handcuffed, it is unclear whether an exception will be made for a former president. Most defendants are cuffed behind their backs, but some white-collar defendants deemed to pose less danger have their hands secured in front of them.Mr. Trump will almost certainly be accompanied at every step — from the moment he is taken into custody until his appearance before a judge in Lower Manhattan’s imposing Criminal Courts Building — by armed agents of the U.S. Secret Service. They are required by law to protect him at all times.Security in the courthouse is provided by state court officers, with whom the Secret Service has worked in the past. But the chief spokesman for the federal agency, Anthony J. Guglielmi, said he could not comment on measures that would be put in place for Mr. Trump.It may take several days for Mr. Trump to appear at the courthouse. Now that the grand jury has voted to indict him — meaning to charge him with felony crimes — the indictment will remain sealed until his expected arraignment on Tuesday, when the charges will be formally revealed.After the indictment, prosecutors contacted Mr. Trump’s defense lawyers and negotiated the terms of his surrender, a common practice in white-collar investigations.Lawyers for Mr. Trump, who is running for president a third time, said late Thursday that he will surrender and he is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday.After he is arraigned, he is almost certain to be released on his own recognizance, because the indictment will likely contain only nonviolent felony charges; under New York law, prosecutors cannot request that a defendant be held on bail in such cases.The former president is already using the charges as part of a campaign strategy to energize his base.Surrender is not in the confrontational former president’s DNA, and he often seems to relish antagonizing and attacking prosecutors who have investigated him, such as Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who secured Thursday’s indictment. He has called Mr. Bragg, who is Black, “a racist” and an “animal” and said that his investigation was politically motivated.In the unlikely event that the former president refuses to surrender, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has already said that his state “will not assist in an extradition request,” should one come from New York authorities. Still, if the New York prosecutors were to actually seek Mr. Trump’s extradition, and Mr. DeSantis attempted to protect his Republican rival, he could possibly face legal action himself. More

Trump será el primer expresidente estadounidense en enfrentar cargos criminales. El caso, cuyos detalles se desconocen, está centrado en un pago realizado a una actriz pornográfica a cambio de su silencio.Donald Trump fue imputado en Manhattan este jueves por su rol en el pago de un soborno a cambio de silencio a una actriz pornográfica, según cinco personas con conocimiento del asunto. Esta es una decisión histórica que moverá los cimientos de la contienda presidencial de 2024 y que por siempre marcará a Trump como el primer expresidente de la nación en enfrentar cargos criminales.El jueves por la noche, después de que se difundiera la noticia de los cargos, la oficina del fiscal de distrito confirmó que Trump había sido acusado y que los fiscales se habían puesto en contacto con el abogado de Trump para coordinar su entrega. Dos personas con conocimiento del caso dijeron que se esperaba que Trump se entregara y enfrentara la lectura de cargos a principios de la próxima semana, momento en el que se revelarán los cargos específicos.Por décadas, Trump ha logrado evadir las acusaciones penales a pesar de un constante escrutinio y repetidas investigaciones, lo que creó cierta aura de invencibilidad legal que esta acusación formal ahora amenaza con romper.Sus acciones vinculadas a su derrota electoral de 2020 son el enfoque de otra investigación federal, y una fiscal de Georgia está en las etapas finales de una investigación a los intentos de Trump por revertir el resultado de las elecciones en ese estado.Pero a diferencia de las investigaciones que surgieron durante su periodo en la Casa Blanca, este caso se basa en un sórdido episodio que precede a la presidencia de Trump. La estrella de telerrealidad convertido en candidato presidencial, que conmocionó a la clase política al ganar la Casa Blanca, enfrenta las consecuencias del pago de un soborno monetario a cambio de silencio para acallar un escándalo sexual en los últimos días de su campaña presidencial de 2016.Este jueves, los tres fiscales principales en la investigación a Trump entraron al recinto donde estaba el gran jurado, en los minutos previos a la reunión programada del panel, a las 02:00 p. m. Uno llevaba una copia del derecho penal —con visibles notas adhesivas Post-it— la cual probablemente fue usada para leerles los estatutos penales al gran jurado antes de su votación. Aproximadamente tres horas después, los fiscales entraron a la secretaría del tribunal por una puerta trasera, para comenzar el proceso de la presentación de la acusación formal.Durante semanas, la atmósfera alrededor de la fiscalía parecía la de un circo. Pero el fervor se había calmado en los últimos días, y este jueves, las inmediaciones del recinto estuvieron más vacías.Trump ha negado una y otra vez haber cometido algún delito y ha atacado a Bragg, demócrata, al cual ha acusado de liderar una persecución con fines políticos. También ha negado haber tenido un amorío con la actriz pornográfica, Stormy Daniels, quien había estado tratando de vender su historia de una cita con Trump durante la campaña presidencial.Estos son otros datos que necesitas saber:Trump siempre se ha referido a la investigación como una conspiración mayor promovida por sus oponentes políticos. Aunque insultó a Bragg, optó por culpar a su sucesor en el Despacho Oval. “Creo que esta caza de brujas será contraproducente para Joe Biden”, dijo.El testigo principal de la fiscalía es Michael D. Cohen, antiguo colaborador de Trump que pagó los 130.000 dólares para que Daniels guardara silencio. Cohen ha declarado que Trump le dio la orden de sobornar a Daniels, y que Trump y su empresa familiar, la Organización Trump, ayudaron a ocultar toda la situación. Los registros internos de la compañía identificaron de manera falsa los reembolsos como gastos legales, lo que ayudó a ocultar el verdadero propósito de los pagos.Aunque todavía no se conocen los cargos específicos, los abogados de Bragg se han centrado en ese soborno y en los falsos registros creados por la compañía de Trump. No hay garantías de que se produzca un fallo condenatorio: el intento de combinar un cargo relacionado con los registros falsos con una violación de las leyes electorales en relación con el pago a Daniels estaría basado en una teoría legal que no ha sido evaluada por ningún juez, lo que incrementa la posibilidad de que un tribunal pueda desestimar o limitar los cargos.La acusación formal, producto de una investigación de casi cinco años, inaugura una fase nueva y volátil en la vida de Trump después de la presidencia, en un momento en el que intenta por tercera vez ocupar la Casa Blanca. Además, podría hacer que la contienda por la candidatura republicana —la cual lidera en la mayoría de las encuestas— incursione en un territorio desconocido.Bragg es el primer fiscal que acusa formalmente a Trump. Es probable que se convierta en una figura nacional, y tendrá que lidiar con una agresiva atención política.Maggie Haberman More

Readers speculate about the impact and wisdom of bringing the hush money charges.To the Editor:Re “Trump Indicted” (nytimes.com, March 30):Our country is struggling to determine if Donald Trump’s hush money payments to Stormy Daniels warrant his indictment. Some consider this action as inconsequential compared with his actions in Georgia in an effort to overturn the election or with his coup plot on Jan. 6.To them the hush money payment and concealment were just a continuation of his immoral personal and business practices before his election and of minimal significance.It was, however, in fact a brazen attempt to influence the results of the election. His actions in Georgia and his attempted coup were brazen attempts to ensure his re-election. They all reveal a basic principle of Trump actions: One can cheat if necessary to attain or retain power.Each action was an equally serious attack on the core principles of our democracy. Each one must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.Only this will ensure that he does not try them again.Sidney Weissman Highland Park, Ill.To the Editor:Folks, be careful what you wish for. Yes, the evidence is compelling that Donald Trump paid hush money to silence Stormy Daniels.But let’s be pragmatic. The worst transgression that Mr. Trump committed was against his wife, who bears the deep and endless scars of humiliation. And if the D.A. decides to test the uncharted waters by linking the Stormy Daniels payoff to election violations, he not only enrages Mr. Trump’s base but also sets himself up for failure.Why then provoke Mr. Trump’s legion with a spark to cause mayhem when more damaging charges against Mr. Trump are under review?Howard QuinnBronxTo the Editor:Without in any way minimizing or discounting the politics surrounding an indictment, what I find really galling is that an indictment of Donald Trump, whether in New York or Georgia, will provide him with yet another opportunity to raise funds from his benighted constituency.Lawrence WeismanWestport, Conn.To the Editor:Most major, non-right-wing media in this country, publicly and privately, have been asking themselves for years about Donald Trump: How does he get away with this stuff? Seeing a man with no experience in government and no clearly demonstrated ability to lead the government and the public beyond his core supporters, we wondered: When will the shoe drop?With the indictment in the Stormy Daniels case, and potential indictments in Georgia and in other investigations, people who are not in love with him will have to stop and think: Should this guy really be president again?When Mr. Trump first ran in 2016, most of the public knew him only as a figure on television and by his pumped-up P.R. reputation as a successful business executive. That image was fixed.An indictment, with even more coming, could shock people out of complacent attitudes and force urgent reassessment. Stay tuned.Doug TerryOlney, Md.The writer is a former radio and television reporter and a current documentary producer.To the Editor:Most know the parable of the emperor who parades around naked, asserting that he is wearing the most beautiful garments in the world. His faithful subjects, afraid of being deemed disloyal fools, dismiss the reality they see and praise the emperor’s apparel.In today’s world, a former president struts about claiming to be clothed in innocence. His followers, fearful of his wrath, ignore their own eyes, affirming his innocence.In the old fable, it was a child who perceived the stark reality and proclaimed the obvious, that the emperor had no clothes. In the present-day story, it will be up to a jury to see through the ex-president’s preening about in his fake cloak of innocence and to declare the naked truth: “Guilty!”Stephen F. GladstoneShaker Heights, OhioTo the Editor:I cannot help but be surprised at the consistently sexist ways in which the national media not only nonchalantly reduces Stephanie Gregory Clifford to her professional pornographic name, Stormy Daniels, but also refers to her simply as a “porn star,” a “porn actress,” an “adult film star,” etc.Ms. Clifford’s appearance in two well-recognized films by Judd Apatow (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up”), her roles as a successful producer and director in the adult film industry, as well as her relative success as an American businesswoman are hardly ever mentioned.Her role as a young successful American businesswoman (even if we don’t approve of the industry in which she works), and the professionalism and grace with which Stephanie Gregory Clifford has dealt with the legal troubles of a former American president, deserve their proper recognition and definitely more validation by the national media.Alejandro LugoPark Forest, Ill.The writer has taught anthropology and gender studies at several universities in the last three decades and is a co-editor of “Gender Matters: Rereading Michelle Z. Rosaldo.”To the Editor:I feel as if I am forever forced to watch a Trump soap opera called “Days of His Lies.”William Dodd BrownChicago More

A central area of expertise for Dustin Carmack, who will leave his post at the Heritage Foundation, is national security, with a focus on cybersecurity.Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida plans to install his former congressional chief of staff as a senior adviser specializing in national security when he formally begins his presidential campaign, according to three people briefed on the plans.Dustin Carmack served as a key aide to Mr. DeSantis, whose tenure in the House lasted from 2013 until 2018, and he was chief of staff for the director of national intelligence during the Trump administration. Now at the Heritage Foundation, Mr. Carmack intends to leave that post to join the DeSantis campaign-in-waiting on the payroll of the Republican Party of Florida, the people said.The party apparatus has become something of a staging ground for prospective DeSantis campaign staff while the governor waits to make an official announcement.The planned appointment makes Mr. Carmack the most significant prospective policy hire to date for a DeSantis campaign. It indicates the governor will continue his pattern of filling key roles with trusted loyalists. Traditional Republican foreign policy elites, who are monitoring Mr. DeSantis’s every move for clues about his intentions, will most likely be relieved that, in Mr. Carmack, Mr. DeSantis will have an adviser who leans more hawkish than the governor’s allies on the Tucker Carlson-adjacent New Right.Mr. Carmack’s portfolio with an eventual DeSantis campaign will be broadly focused on policy. But one of his key areas of expertise is national security, with a focus on cybersecurity.Mr. Carmack did not respond to requests for comment. An official with the Republican Party of Florida did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Mr. DeSantis, Lindsey Curnutte, declined to comment.During his most recent stint at Heritage, Mr. Carmack took a hawkish approach to his foreign policy writings, especially as they related to cybersecurity and Russia and China.In an article in The Daily Signal on July 20, 2021, Mr. Carmack argued that President Biden should consider “offensive cyber reprisals” or tougher sanctions to hit back against Chinese cyberattacks.“As we move further into the digital age, we need to take the kid gloves off when dealing with China,” he wrote.And, while Mr. DeSantis has recently declared that defending Ukraine is not a vital national interest, Mr. Carmack is on the record as a Ukraine hawk. He has called on the Biden administration to include “offensive cyber operations in the package of military assistance to Ukraine.”“The United States has sent Ukraine a variety of military equipment, including killer drones, Stinger surface-to-air missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles, small arms and ammunition,” he said in an April 2022 article co-written with Michael J. Ellis, the former senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council. “We should do more.”“If ordered,” Mr. Carmack and Mr. Ellis wrote, “U.S. Cyber Command could develop the ability to temporarily disable key Russian military, intelligence or logistics networks. This would be a tremendous boon to Ukrainian forces. Moreover, such cyber operations would not be clearly traceable back to the U.S. — reducing the possibility of escalating tensions with Russia.”When Mr. DeSantis previously supported a more hawkish posture toward Russia, as a congressman in 2015, Mr. Carmack was his chief of staff.As a sitting governor and undeclared candidate, Mr. DeSantis has no official campaign apparatus. Instead, a super PAC that is backing him has been making a number of hires, as has the Republican Party of Florida, from which staff members are expected to move to an eventual campaign.Mr. DeSantis, who is polling the closest to former President Donald J. Trump but is still trailing by a large margin in national polls of the Republican primary electorate, is not expected to declare a candidacy until after the Florida legislative session ends in May.That delay is giving Mr. Trump, who announced his candidacy in November, and his allies a window to try to define Mr. DeSantis and harden public opinion about him before he can formally enter the race. The dynamic of the 2024 campaign was upended on Thursday, however, when a grand jury in Manhattan voted to indict Mr. Trump in a hush-money case.Make America Great Again Inc., the super PAC supporting Mr. Trump’s candidacy, has begun running commercials for the first time, with a roughly $1.3 million ad buy on CNN and Fox News for a spot attacking Mr. DeSantis.As expected, the ad focuses on Mr. DeSantis’s votes on Social Security and Medicare while he was a congressman. He once vocally supported restructuring both programs and raising the retirement age when he was a budget hawk in 2012. It’s a position that Mr. Trump has attacked him for relentlessly, and with reason: Such votes have historically been unpopular with seniors, who make up a substantial chunk of the Republican voting base.“He’s just not ready to be president,” the ad narrator intones. More

The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into Donald J. Trump’s hush-money payments to a pornographic film star, which led to the indictment of the former president, has spanned nearly five years.Here are some key moments:Aug. 21, 2018Michael D. Cohen says he arranged hush-money payments for the president, and the investigation begins.Mr. Cohen, previously a personal lawyer and fixer for Mr. Trump, pleaded guilty to federal crimes and told a court that Mr. Trump had directed him to arrange hush-money payments to two women. The payments were made during the 2016 campaign to keep the women from speaking publicly about affairs they said they had conducted with Mr. Trump.Soon after Mr. Cohen’s admission, the Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation to examine if the payments broke New York State laws. The office soon paused the inquiry at the request of federal prosecutors, who were still looking into the same conduct.August 2019The district attorney’s office subpoenas the Trump Organization.After federal prosecutors said that they had “effectively concluded” their investigation, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney at the time, revived his own inquiry. Late in the month, prosecutors in his office issued a subpoena to the Trump Organization and another subpoena to Mr. Trump’s accounting firm, demanding eight years of Mr. Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns.Sept. 19, 2019Mr. Trump’s lawyers sue to protect his tax returns.The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, argued that a sitting president cannot be criminally investigated. It led to a lengthy delay.July 9, 2020Mr. Vance wins his first key victory at the U.S. Supreme Court.After appellate judges ruled against Mr. Trump, the lawsuit found its way to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled that the presidency did not shield Mr. Trump from criminal inquiries and that he had no absolute right to block the release of his tax returns.The ruling left Mr. Trump with the opportunity to raise different objections to Mr. Vance’s subpoena.AUTUMN 2020The investigation intensifies.Prosecutors interviewed employees of the main bank and insurance company that serve Mr. Trump and issued several new subpoenas.The district attorney’s office also signaled in another court filing that it had grounds to investigate the president for tax fraud.The investigation that led to the indictment of Donald J. Trump has spanned nearly five years.Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesFeb. 22, 2021The Supreme Court denies Mr. Trump’s final bid to block the release of his returns.The brief unsigned order was a decisive defeat for Mr. Trump and a turning point in Mr. Vance’s investigation.Just hours later, eight years of financial records were handed over to Mr. Vance’s office.March 1, 2021The investigation’s focus turns to a top executive.In the spring, Mr. Vance’s prosecutors set their sights on Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s long-serving chief financial officer, whom they hoped to pressure into cooperating with their investigation.The prosecutors were particularly interested in whether the Trump Organization handed out valuable benefits to Mr. Weisselberg as a form of untaxed compensation.July 1, 2021The Trump Organization is charged with running a 15-year tax scheme.When Mr. Weisselberg refused to testify against his boss, prosecutors announced charges against him and Mr. Trump’s company, saying that the company helped its executives evade taxes by compensating them with benefits such as free cars and apartments that were hidden from the authorities.JAN. 1, 2022A new Manhattan district attorney takes office.Mr. Vance left office, and his successor, Alvin L. Bragg, took over the case. Both are Democrats.Mr. Bragg, a former federal prosecutor, retained two of the investigation’s leaders, Mark F. Pomerantz, an experienced former federal prosecutor and white-collar defense lawyer, and Carey Dunne, Mr. Vance’s general counsel.Feb. 23, 2022Two prosecutors resign, leaving the investigation’s future in doubt.After Mr. Bragg expressed reservations about the case, Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Dunne suspended the presentation of evidence about Mr. Trump to a grand jury. A month later, they resigned, prompting a public uproar over Mr. Bragg’s decision not to proceed with an indictment.In his resignation letter, which was later obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Pomerantz said that Mr. Trump had been guilty of numerous felonies.Aug. 18, 2022Mr. Bragg’s investigation continues.After staying mostly silent through weeks of criticism, the district attorney publicly discussed his office’s investigation of Mr. Trump for the first time. His fundamental message: The inquiry would continue.Aug. 18, 2022Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty and agrees to testify against the Trump Organization.Though the chief financial officer declined to turn on Mr. Trump himself, he agreed to testify at the October trial against the company that he had served for nearly half a century.Late Summer, 2022The prosecutors turn back to hush money.After several months, Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors returned to the long-running investigation’s original focus: a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actress who said she had a sexual relationship with Mr. Trump.Dec. 24, 2022The Trump Organization is convicted, securing a significant victory for the district attorney.Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors won a conviction of Mr. Trump’s family business, convincing a jury that the company was guilty of tax fraud and other crimes.January 2023The district attorney impanels a new grand jury.The grand jury met throughout the next three months and heard testimony about the hush-money payment from at least nine witnesses.Midwinter 2023Prosecutors signal that an indictment is likely, offering Mr. Trump a chance to testify before the grand jury.Such offers almost always indicate an indictment is close; it would be unusual to notify a potential defendant without ultimately seeking charges against him.March 18, 2023Mr. Trump predicts his arrest and calls for protests.Without any direct knowledge, the former president posted on his Truth Social account that he would be arrested three days later and sought to rally supporters to his side. His prediction was soon walked back, and he was not arrested at that time.March 30, 2023Mr. Trump is indicted by a grand jury.The charges, which are still unknown, will be the first against any president, current or former. More

The former president returned to a tense political landscape in which he is under investigation for spreading election misinformation and for inspiring the Jan. 8 attack in the capital.BRASÍLIA — Jair Bolsonaro, the former right-wing president of Brazil, returned home on Thursday morning after a three-month self-imposed exile in the United States following his defeat last year in an election that tested the stability of one of the world’s biggest democracies.He returns to a series of investigations and could face arrest if charged over his role in spreading baseless claims that Brazil’s election system was vulnerable to fraud — despite reviews by independent security experts showing otherwise — and that the left was bent on stealing the vote.In January, Brazil’s Supreme Court said it would investigate Mr. Bolsonaro for inspiring the far-right mob that invaded and ransacked the country’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices on Jan. 8, underscoring that the former leader could soon face legal consequences for an extremist movement he helped build.Mr. Bolsonaro is the subject of five other Supreme Court inquiries, including for his handling of the pandemic, accusations of spreading misinformation and a leak of classified information when he discussed a hack of the country’s election agency to support his claims that Brazil’s voting system is unsafe.He also faces over a dozen investigations by the country’s electoral body. If convicted in any of those cases, he would be ineligible for office for eight years.The former president has denied wrongdoing in relation to the January riot, and has defended himself in other investigations into his conduct.The political climate in Brazil has been tense since Mr. Bolsonaro’s departure, with many of his allies calling for his return. For his part, Mr. Bolsonaro has been critical of the current leftist administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.During his time in the United States, which he largely spent in Florida, Mr. Bolsonaro met with conservative activists and pundits, appearing at various events, from the Conservative Political Action Conference to the opening of a burger restaurant.At the airport in Brasília on Thursday morning, dozens of supporters gathered at the arrivals gate to greet Mr. Bolsonaro, though he was prevented from meeting with them. Federal Police officials ordered the former president and his staff to use a separate exit for security reasons.Mr. Bolsonaro’s motorcade then took him to his Liberal Party headquarters, where he met with high-ranking right-wing politicians, family members and some of his staunchest allies.He received a warm welcome there from his colleagues and former cabinet ministers, who chanted “the captain is back” and posted photos and videos of his arrival on social media.“Welcome, Mr. President,” said Valdemar Costa Neto, the Liberal Party’s chair. “You have been missed. You will always be missed.”Mr. Bolsonaro then headed to a closed-door meeting with party leaders and right-wing lawmakers.In a short speech to conservative lawmakers, Mr. Bolsonaro hailed Florida as a model for Brazil. The state’s Republican governor and lawmakers have been advancing a conservative agenda on guns, education and other issues.“Our dream is to follow this North American state in many of the good things it has there,” Mr. Bolsonaro said. “The vast majority of actions are beneficial. That is the Brazilian state that worked.”He added: “Everything there is what we want to implement here too: freedom of expression, private property, the issue of criminality, the legitimate right to self-defense. The most important is freedom for people to work, express themselves and get on with life.”Despite the investigations hovering over him, Mr. Bolsonaro is set to take office next week as the honorary chair of the Liberal Party, the main opposition force in Congress to Mr. Lula’s administration.“I will not lead any opposition,” he told CNN Brasil in an interview published Wednesday, adding that he would simply “participate with my party” and that Mr. Lula’s government would be hampered by its own flaws. More

The Republican representative Lauren Boebert raised a peculiar question in a recent US House hearing. She asked whether a revised Washington DC criminal code, which was previously overturned by Congress, had become law. While her question was met with a reminder of the previous decision of Congress, Boebert continued to express interest in whether or not the revised code would have decriminalised public urination. A dumbfounded Washington DC council member, Charles Allen, repeatedly reminded Boebert that it was still a criminal offence More