US Politics

History teaches us few wider lessons. But there are rare exceptions. One of these is that for a nation to put its former leaders on trial is never straightforward. Although such cases are rare, when they do occur they frequently involve the pushing of pre-existing legal boundaries and the reshaping of constitutional norms and assumptions. The evolution of the doctrine of crimes against humanity after the Nuremberg trials in 1945 is the most significant modern example of this.Both at the time they occur and subsequently, the arguments that surround trials of this kind are almost inescapably political to a significant degree. That was true of the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649, an event that divided England then; and some of those divisions of the 17th century can still be felt today. But it will unquestionably also be true of the trials of the former US president Donald Trump, of which the latest step is due to be taken in Atlanta on Thursday.It is important to see that this stubborn political reality applies just as much in the Trump cases as in Charles I’s. In part, this is because many will go out of their way to deny it. Trump’s prosecutors – and many of his political critics – will undoubtedly argue that Trump is simply a defendant like any other, and that their cases are designed to show that no one, not even a former president and commander-in-chief, is above the law. They will be adamant that this is not a political trial, and that it is not Joe Biden’s revenge.In some very fundamental senses, they are right about that. The law is not being altered in order to prosecute Trump. The investigations have followed long-established rules. The verdicts are not foregone conclusions. This is neither a witch-hunt nor a show trial. Yet, however true these points and however honourably such claims are made, they cannot be quite the whole story. The two cases are very different, yet in both 1649 and 2023, the indictments against the king and the president take a stand on behalf of a conception of the nation against a leader set on subverting it.Four separate cases against Trump are now on course for trial. The first three sets of allegations cover: falsification of business records in the Stormy Daniels hush money case; withholding of classified federal documents in his Florida home; and attempting to prevent the US Congress from validating Biden’s 2020 election. This week’s case alleges that Trump tried to interfere with the counting and validation of Georgia’s vote for Biden. All four cases are due in court in the first half of 2024, before the presidential election in which Trump aims to be a candidate.All of these cases also contain multiple allegations. Two – the Florida document cases and the US Congress case – will be heard in federal courts. The others have been brought at state level by New York and Georgia. All the charge sheets are extremely detailed. In the documents case, for instance, the indictment now stretches to 60 pages, with Trump facing 40 separate charges. In the 6 January case, the indictment stretches to another 45 pages, and centres on four separate charges.Like it or not, though, these carefully crafted cases take the US into new legal territory. That is not simply because Trump is the first serving or former American president in the nation’s history to face criminal charges. Nor is it even because, being Trump and still running for office, he will treat the courtroom as a political platform. It is also because a large number of the charges, and the way in which the judges and juries will be asked to test them, relate umbilically to his roles as head of state and upholder of the constitution. These cases are a test of the constitution and, in the broadest sense, of the nation.All of these points repeatedly echo aspects of cases from the past. The Trump cases are still, in the end, an attempt to hold a past leader to account and judge him for the way he handled his office. That was also what the cases against earlier rulers were ultimately about too. The indictments against Charles I for his “crimes and treasons” or against Louis XVI of France for having “plotted and formed a multitude of conspiracies to establish tyranny in destroying liberty” are maybe not a world away from those against Trump, after all.Nor is it a world away from the much more recent example of Marshal Philippe Pétain’s trial for treason after the liberation of France in 1945. Pétain was charged with treason for his role as head of the collapsing French government in 1940, when he signed an armistice with Hitler’s invaders, and then as head of the puppet Vichy regime that collaborated with the Germans until the allied victory in 1945. Pétain was tried and convicted in Paris that same summer. His death sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment by Charles de Gaulle.As described in Julian Jackson’s masterly recent book, France on Trial, the Pétain case has many differences from those facing Trump, but also some similarities. Pétain was put on trial after a war, not an election. His was an unashamedly political trial. The jury was stacked against him, and the outcome a foregone conclusion.But at the same time it was also the trial of a nation, its recent history, its dilemmas and its sense of itself. It was, in the end, a moment of catharsis for postwar France. It was a trial that had to happen, and it was vitally important for the future of France that the former leader in the dock was not acquitted. For all the many differences between the two cases, the exact same applies to the US on the eve of the Trump trials.
Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist More

When President Joe Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act a year ago, Adrien Salazar was skeptical.The landmark climate bill includes $60bn for environmental justice investments – money he had fought for, as policy director for the leading US climate advocacy coalition Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJA).But after much discussion, the grassroots group realized they did not have the resources to chase after IRA funding. It would have to hire new staff and develop a specific program to apply for grants to access those funds. The coalition is stretched thin as is: organizing local and state campaigns, leading community engagement, and planning youth programming. GGJA decided it would not apply to funding opportunities at all.“It is not within our capacity to try to build a program that helps our members access federal funding. We just don’t have the capacity to do that,” Salazar said. Many employees lack the time or knowhow to take on grant opportunities.“We’re a national organization. How can we imagine a small organization that’s doing neighborhood, grassroots-level door-knocking to have the capacity to also navigate the federal bureaucracy?”Indeed, many of the small, community-based organizations that would benefit from funding the most are facing hurdles to competing for these investments.Together, their experiences tell a story that echoes other environmental justice experts’ concerns about the IRA – that the monumental spending package won’t assist the communities that need the money the most.Last year, advocates speaking to the Guardian criticized the bill for its many concessions to the fossil fuel industry: “This new bill is genocide, there is no other way to put it,” said Siqiñiq Maupin, co-founder of the Indigenous-led environmental justice group Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic. Salazar felt similarly: how could he trust the federal government to allocate those billions of dollars to communities of color when it still fails to protect them from polluters?Now, a second major criticism has emerged: some groups simply don’t have the time or resources to navigate the complicated bureaucratic process of applying for funding.A year after the law’s passing, various grant deadlines for funding have already come and gone, representing key opportunities many groups may have missed.Applying for funding opportunities – which is no guarantee of success – requires local community groups that are often run by volunteers to prepare an enormous amount of documentation.Lakiesha Lloyd, an organizer who lives and works in Charleston, West Virginia, is still educating herself on how the application process works. She sees the historic climate bill as a lifeline for her predominantly Black community on the West Side where concrete highways crisscross the neighborhood and poor air quality reigns.“We’ve never seen this kind of investment toward climate in our nation’s history,” said Lloyd, who works as a climate justice organizer for the national veterans rights group, Common Defense.Still, she has a lot to learn until she can tap in herself. Instead, she’s relying on a peer partner to help navigate the federal grant-making process.Morgan King, a climate campaign coordinator in West Virginia who has worked with Lloyd, said applying for grants is often easier said than done.“It’s not something that someone can just sit down alone and write within a several-hour time gap,” she said. “The grant application, especially for federal grants, is a beast and requires basically to set aside a week or two of time just focused on it.”This year, King worked with several non-profits to prepare an application for a public health-focused grant program.They had hoped to develop a pilot program on Charleston’s West Side to provide indoor air monitors to income-eligible households. With this data, local advocates could educate community members and engage them in citizen science while also building a case for electrifying homes that currently run on gas.Ultimately, the groups working with King weren’t able to develop an application that felt competitive before the grant deadline hit.“I think had we had a grant writer or more time, we could’ve gotten it there,” King said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn light of these challenges, some critics of the IRA have said their concerns about the spending bill have only deepened.Maria Lopez-Nuñez, a member of the White House environmental justice advisory council, remains wary of whether the money set aside for environmental justice priorities will outweigh the damage done by the legislation’s further investment in fossil fuels.“On one hand, there’s incredible amounts of money out there for communities to actually deal with the issues at hand,” said Lopez-Nuñez. “On the other hand, there are even larger investments in climate scams that are going to hit communities fast and hard,” she added, referring to IRA money set aside for carbon capture and sequestration, as well as hydrogen projects.With more funding, these types environmental harms are exactly the kinds of problems locals groups would be more effective at combating – if only they could access such grants. The federal government has taken notice of this irony and proposed a solution.In April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the formation of over a dozen regional hubs – better known as TCTACs (pronounced like the mint) – that will aid local community groups attempting to access IRA money.“We know that so many communities across the nation have the solutions to the environmental challenges they face,” said the EPA administrator, Michael Regan, in a statement. “Unfortunately, many have lacked access or faced barriers when it comes to the crucial federal resources needed to deliver these solutions.”In the New York and New Jersey region, for instance, the EPA is funding the national advocacy group We-Act for Environmental Justice, which plans to hire a specialist in government funds and offer grant-writing training and workshops.“Across the federal government, there is no central place you can go to [learn] about the funding opportunities that are available,” said Dana Johnson, senior director of strategy and federal policy for We-Act.Although these hubs are meant to offer more specialized, regional assistance to groups, there are still some concerns as to whether they will be successful owing to the demands that will be made of them; the hub that covers the south-eastern US includes a mammoth territory of eight states.“It’s too soon to know if the IRA will be in any way successful, but it is very clear that the problems that were baked into it are very real and impacting people now,” said Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, a national climate strategist and founder of Climate Critical, an organization working to undo the harm and trauma many climate advocates carry.For Lloyd, the work of unlocking funding sources will continue with or without additional support from the federal government.Since March, she’s been working with King to meet with West Side neighbors and inform them about the IRA – and most importantly, dream with them about the types of projects they want to see emerge from the law’s investments. Together, they have come up with ideas for LED street lights, renewable energy development, green spaces and a farm-to-market grocery store.She’s looking forward to grants opening up and connecting with the technical assistance centers to figure out how to access them. Lloyd remains an optimist. “Optimism is really all we have sometimes,” she said. More

The Republican party faces an electability test on Wednesday when candidates including election deniers, climate deniers and anti-abortion extremists take the debate stage in a city that rebukes them and a state they cannot afford to lose.The first presidential primary debate will be held in Milwaukee, a racially diverse Democratic stronghold in Wisconsin, a battleground that could decide who wins the White House in 2024.Even without Donald Trump, who is skipping the primetime televised event, the juxtaposition between Republicans who have embraced his far-right agenda and their sceptical host city offers a preview of the party’s struggle to broaden its appeal.“This is a debate of bad ideas,” said Mandela Barnes, born and raised in Milwaukee and a former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin. “It’s going to be a bunch of Maga extremists showing up in this city because Wisconsin is a critical state every election year. But regardless of how they perform, the reality is they are choosing a losing strategy of extremism and showing how out of touch they are with the people of this country and specifically people here in the city of Milwaukee.”Republicans chose Milwaukee for the first debate and their national convention next year largely because of Wisconsin’s status as a swing state. Four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by less than one percentage point here, with Trump winning narrowly in 2016 before losing by a similar margin in 2020.In a measure of Wisconsin’s importance, Joe Biden travelled to Milwaukee last week to promote his efforts to create manufacturing jobs. On Sunday his campaign announced it was spending $25m to run ads in seven states, including Wisconsin, to counter Republicans as they debate.While Republicans have the edge in many rural areas, in Milwaukee, the state’s biggest city, the population of about 600,000 – around 40% African American, 40% white and 20% Latino – is heavily Democratic and has even had three socialist mayors. It was once known as the “machine shop of the world” but, like many cities in the industrial midwest, was hollowed out by factory closures and jobs losses in the 1980s and 1990s and is now embarked on a recovery, at least downtown.The city remains highly racially segregated and, in predominantly Black neighbourhoods on the north side, there are areas with cracked roads, overgrown grass and a patina of rust. An otherwise handsome row of houses with well-kept gardens can be punctuated by a derelict property with boarded-up windows.Angela Lang, founder and executive director of Bloc (Black Leaders Organising for Communities), works from an office within view of two big abandoned buildings in the 53206 zip code, which has the highest incarceration rate of Black men in the country. The organisation started in 2017 and works all year round to turn out voters. “Our team of ambassadors are basically canvassers on steroids,” she said.Lang said Republicans have a long history of using racist dog whistles about Milwaukee. “We’re the largest economic engine in the state yet we’re not treated that way and most folks’ conclusion is racism is a part of that. It’s jarring to have folks who otherwise insult Milwaukee in so many ways want to descend here. People are reading between the lines that this is going to be a battleground.“What happens in Milwaukee can determine the rest of the state and ultimately the importance of Wisconsin can influence the rest of the country. So to hear that now they’re showing up, folks see it’s transactional and a little bit disingenuous. I don’t think a lot of folks are welcoming them with open arms given their policies and their comments about Milwaukee.”Lang worries that next year’s convention could bring full Maga extremism to the city. “If this was like George Bush’s Republican party, I’d feel a little bit safer, but just to know how extreme the party has gotten and they haven’t denounced some of these far-right values and ideas and things that people are saying, I’m concerned about the safety of our city next year. I’ve been having some dark conversations and very sobering reality conversations of how to prepare and what that means for our city, especially a party that has embraced far-right violence lately.”In another Black suburb, Greg Lewis sat in the pews of St Gabriel’s Church of God and Christ, where he is assistant pastor. He is also the founder and executive director of Souls to the Polls Wisconsin. Three-quarters of people in the neighbourhood do not care about the debate, he suggested.“There’s one thing about that Republican party: they’re not afraid to go into enemy territory,” he said. “They have an office right in the middle of the central city right here; it’s on Martin Luther King Drive, as a matter of fact. So it’s not surprising. It’s a bit insulting for some of us because we understand how putrid the politics, how they are so nasty and uncaring, unloving and just irrational.“It’s an insult but this is an expectation now. I expect for those things to happen and that doesn’t hardly disappoint me any more. What disappoints me is when we don’t stand up against those things.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe debate is likely to illustrate how far the Republican party has shifted since falling under Trump’s spell. The eight candidates almost uniformly support his border wall and launching military action against drug cartels in Mexico. All except Chris Christie have vowed to fire the FBI director, Christopher Wray. Most have leaned into “culture war” issues such as curbing abortion and transgender rights and some have endorsed Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen.Such positions are wildly out of step with the majority of voters in Milwaukee. Ed Fallone, an associate law professor at Marquette University Law School, who has lived in the city since 1992, said: “Relatively few residents of the city of Milwaukee care about the candidates. Milwaukee is a heavily Democratic city and votes heavily Democratic.“However, residents are viewing this debate and also the convention as this alien entity that has arrived on our body and we’re concerned to see whether it will have a beneficial effect in generating positive interest in our town among the country, or whether it’ll have a negative effect and whether the Republicans are going to attack their host.”Milwaukee is emerging from a violent weekend that saw 28 people shot and four killed. Fallone would not be surprised if Republicans try to exploit this for political gain. “The concern I have as a resident is that the Republican candidates will just try to create their theme, whether it’s American carnage or ‘woke’ efforts to defund the police or whatever fear stoking that they’re going to engage in on public safety, they will try to make Milwaukee into a negative example.“The conservatives in the far suburbs and rural areas of Wisconsin don’t normally attack Milwaukee. They recognise we’re an important economic engine for the state. But I’m worried that conservatives running for president will try to make us exhibit one in the defund the police narrative that they’re trying to sell, which is not fair and not true.”Wisconsin will be one of the most crucial swing states in the general election. Democrats have been able to chip into the once-reliably conservative Milwaukee suburbs that saw Republican support drop in the Trump era, while Republicans have made gains made in rural areas over the same period.Democrats enter the next election cycle feeling emboldened. They have won 14 of the past 17 statewide elections, including Biden in 2020 and Tony Evers in 2022. Earlier this year Janet Protasiewicz’s victory in the Wisconsin supreme court race took majority control of the court away from conservatives for the first time in 15 years, with major decisions looming on abortion access, redistricting and voting rules.Many here say that abortion rights could be decisive in 2024 and Wednesday’s debate will put Republicans’ views on the issue in the spotlight. But Trump, the frontrunner who faces criminal charges in four separate cases, will not attend; he has reportedly pre-recorded an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to be streamed at the same time. Trump has also said he will surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face charges in the case accusing him of illegally scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss.Charlie Sykes, editor at large of the Bulwark website, who lives in Milwaukee, said: “It’s impossible to overstate how surreal this moment is that the former president of the United States will be perp-walked for the fourth time, will face a more than a dozen new felony charges, will have his mugshot taken, will be out on bail and yet is by far the leading Republican candidate for president of the United States.“We have been numbed and battered and bruised for the last eight years but this is an extraordinary moment, the split screen in American politics where you have these Republican candidates running for president over here, Donald Trump facing more felonies and Republican voters looking at that and going, yeah, we’re pretty much OK with the guy – orange is the new black.” More

When the news broke in 2020 that 16 Republicans in Michigan had signed a certificate falsely claiming to be electors for Donald Trump, Rosemary Herweyer was dismayed to find a prominent local politician, Kent Vanderwood, listed among the signatories.“His willingness to sign a fake elector paper and try to send that in and negate Michigan’s actual vote speaks to his integrity,” Herweyer said of Vanderwood, who was then a member of the Wyoming, Michigan, city council. “How can I trust anything he does?”Vanderwood, who served on the city council for 16 years before being elected mayor of the city in 2022, now faces eight felony charges for his role as a false elector during the 2020 presidential election. Fifteen other Republicans, including the former co-chair of the Michigan GOP, have also been criminally charged.Since Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, announced the charges on 18 July – making the state the first to prosecute a full slate of false electors involved in the seven-state scheme – voters and good government groups have begun a push for elected officials involved to resign. Across the state, a mayor, a school board member and a township clerk whose role includes administering elections have each been arraigned and have pleaded not guilty, and in each community, constituents are pushing for accountability.“Over 2 million people voted for Joe Biden in Michigan, and Stan Grot decided that our votes didn’t matter,” said Alisa Diez, a Democratic party activist in Shelby Township, where Stanley Grot, one of the 16 false electors, currently serves as township clerk.After Grot was charged, the state stripped him of his ability to administer elections, but he remains in office.At a packed public meeting of the township board of trustees on 15 August, residents questioned Grot’s ability to serve as clerk, given the pending charges and the fact that he can no longer perform a key function of his post. “What, we pay him for a job he can’t do?” said Diez, who organized a protest at the meeting demanding Grot’s resignation. “It’s ridiculous.”Grot’s lawyer, Derek Wilczynski, said in a statement that there “is no merit to the charges alleged against Mr Grot”, and called the secretary of state’s directive that Grot pause his election-related responsibilities “improper”. Wilczynski added in an email to the Guardian that Grot “does not intend to resign his position as Township Clerk”.In a statement, Vanderwood’s attorney wrote that the mayor “had no intent to defraud anyone” when he signed his name as an elector in 2020 and added that Vanderwood “will not resign or voluntarily recuse himself from the important and completely unrelated work he is required to perform as the duly-elected Mayor of the City of Wyoming”.In Grand Blanc, a small city south of Flint, Michigan, Amy Facchinello, a school board member who in 2021 generated outrage for promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory on social media and now faces charges for her participation in forging the false electors’ certificate, could face a recall. On 14 August, the Genesee county elections commission approved a filing to recall Facchinello – meaning residents can begin to collect signatures to petition for an election.“Eight felony charges aren’t a good look for a school board member,” said Michelle Ryder, who filed the recall language. Ryder, who has two children in the school district, said school board meetings became chaotic and politicized during the pandemic, with Facchinello’s radical beliefs often a focal point.Ryder said she hoped the felony charges would inspire residents to recall Facchinello, whose term will otherwise end in 2026. “This is an opportunity for our community to say ‘this isn’t who we are,’” said Ryder.Facchinello and her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.Vanderwood, Grot, Facchinello and the 13 others charged met “covertly” in the basement of the Michigan Republican party headquarters in December 2020 to sign paperwork falsely claiming to be official electors, Nessel said, calling the action “an attempt to outmaneuver and circumvent the longstanding electoral college process”.The Michigan plan formed part of a broader push by Trump and his inner circle to overturn the results of the 2020 election by delivering alternate slates of electors for Trump and Pence in seven swing states. The multistate effort has emerged as a critical element in the prosecution of the former president and his allies, with several of Georgia’s false electors now facing charges in Fulton county.At least 17 fake electors across the US currently serve in public office, including the Arizona state senator Anthony Kern, Georgia’s lieutenant governor, Burt Jones and Robert Spindell, a member of the Wisconsin elections commission. The prosecutions in Michigan and Georgia have brought increased scrutiny on the false electors, and Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, has confirmed her office is investigating the slate of fake electors there.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionA coalition of activists and progressive organizers from groups including the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, All Voting Is Local Michigan, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and the Michigan People’s Campaign are supporting efforts in Wyoming and Shelby Township to oust their elected officials who served as fake electors. In letters to the Wyoming city council and the Shelby Township board of trustees, the advocates, referring to themselves as the Democracy Coalition, called on the local governments to address the issue of the false electors.The charges, the group wrote, “raise serious concerns” about the officials’ ability to fulfill their responsibilities “in a manner that upholds the values and principles an elected official should abide by”.Daniel Rivera, an organizer with the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and a resident of Wyoming, Michigan, said he helped get the word out before a tumultuous city council meeting on 7 August, where residents lined up to call for their mayor’s resignation. “When I saw the formal charges, that’s where I decided to really push for recruiting folks to come to the meeting and provide public comment myself,” said Rivera. “As a resident, it just raises a lot of concerns, because we deserve to trust our government.”Herweyer, who worked the polls during the 2020 presidential election and spoke at the 7 August city council meeting, said she already believed Vanderwood’s role as a false elector in 2020 disqualified him for public office when he ran for mayor in 2022. The idea that a longtime civil servant had apparently participated in the effort to overturn the presidential election upset Herweyer deeply.“It didn’t take the [attorney general] filing charges to get me upset,” said Herweyer. “I wanted him off immediately.”But while some individuals like Herweyer were bothered by the news about Vanderwood back in 2020, the issue didn’t get much local play until the charges dropped.Ivan Diaz, a Kent county commissioner whose district includes parts of Wyoming, said the false electors news wasn’t a major campaign talking point during Vanderwood’s mayoral race, and that he was “pleasantly surprised” when residents flooded the city council meeting to demand the mayor’s resignation.“Once there were actual charges, I think it kind of just elevated to a situation where it’s [in] everybody’s awareness,” he said.Residents cannot launch a recall until Vanderwood’s first year in office concludes in December.“At that point, he’ll probably very much be in danger of being recalled,” said Diaz.
This article was amended on 23 August 2023 to correct a name. More

Donald Trump’s decision to spurn the Republican primary debate on Wednesday in favor of a pre-taped interview with Tucker Carlson solves the political question of how to inflict damage on the 2024 field, but it also eliminates concerns his remarks in the high-profile event could increase his legal exposure.The former president confirmed over the weekend that he would not attend the debate in Milwaukee, saying in a post on his Truth Social platform: “New CBS poll, just out, has me leading the field by ‘legendary’ numbers… I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES.”Instead, Trump has settled on counter-programming the debate by having the interview he recorded with the former Fox News host go live at the same time, with the aim of starving the other Republican presidential candidates of attention and publicly humiliating Fox News, which is hosting the debate with the RNC.The move to upstage the debate tackles Trump’s political goals for his 2024 campaign, but it also quietly solves worries that Trump could deepen his legal jeopardy were he to be questioned about his four criminal cases by debate moderators or the other candidates.Criminal defendants typically avoid speaking publicly about their cases, because prosecutors could use their statements against them. Trump has developed a pattern of discussing his indictments after getting angered about the framing of questions.The interview with Carlson is not expected to touch on any of his legal issues, according to a person familiar with the matter, as Carlson believes questions around his retention of national security materials and Trump’s bid to stop Biden’s certification have been sufficiently litigated elsewhere.The more pressing issue for Trump is that he has a habit of lashing out at prosecutors and potential witnesses in the cases, leading the federal judges overseeing his cases to issue protective orders and in one instance, a warning that inflammatory remarks would speed up the trial schedule.That had the potential to cause trouble for Trump at the debate, given his former vice-president, Mike Pence, who is taking part in the debate, is also almost certain to be a trial witness in the case involving Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.While Trump did not appear to violate the protective order for the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case when he was last interviewed by the Fox News host Bret Baier, a debate moderator, the former president made a series of admissions that undercut his defenses.The admissions included that he personally had sorted through some of the boxes with classified documents brought down from the White House to the Mar-a-Lago club at the end of his presidency after the National Archives requested their return.Trump also seemed to concede that he delayed complying with a grand jury subpoena for the classified documents issued by the justice department in order to separate out any personal records that might be in the boxes, indicating a further level of personal knowledge of what he retained.“Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out,” Trump said. “These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things.”And when Trump participated in a live town hall event on CNN this year – before the classified documents indictment – he made a series of remarks that led to a court filing and gave ammunition to the prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith.The writer E Jean Carroll filed for additional damages from Trump after he insulted her anew at the town hall immediately after a New York jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation and $5m in damages.On CNN, Trump echoed his earlier denials and called Carroll’s account “fake” and “a made-up story”. And despite a photo showing them together, he claimed he had never met Carroll, calling her a “whack job” and adding that the civil trial was “a rigged deal”. More

Donald Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, according to two people briefed on the matter.The former president – seeking to distract from the indignity of the surrender by turning things into a circus – in essence had his lawyers negotiate the booking to take place during the prime viewing hours for the cable news networks.Trump has posted on his Truth Social platform that he would be arrested on Thursday, but the prime-time scheduling was finalized in recent days after his lawyers met with the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, at her office on Monday.The former president became a criminal defendant in a fourth case last week when a grand jury handed up a sprawling 41-count indictment that accused Trump and 18 co-defendants of engaging in a criminal enterprise and committing election fraud in trying to reverse his 2020 defeat.Trump returned to his instinct to maximize television ratings to his benefit for his surrender to authorities in Atlanta, the people said, and could extend the coverage of the proceedings by speaking afterwards in front of cameras and reporters.The strategy to turn surrenders in each of his four criminal cases into spectacles has been an effort to discredit the indictments, as well as to capitalize on the information void left by prosecutors after such events to foist his own spin on the charges.While he would prefer not to be charged, once indicted, Trump has moved to present himself as defiant and lament to his supporters that he supposedly is the victim of partisan investigations, for which he needs their political and financial support.A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The surrender itself is expected to be mundane. At the Rice Street jail north-west of downtown Atlanta, where defendants charged in Fulton county are typically taken, the booking process involves a mug shot, fingerprinting and having height and weight recorded.Trump asked his lawyers and the US secret service to get him an exemption from being photographed, the people said, though it was not clear whether he will get special treatment. The Fulton county sheriff, Patrick Labat, has previously said Trump would be treated no differently.The other 18 co-defendants in the 2020 election subversion case appear to be receiving regular treatment based on online jail records for the former Trump election lawyer John Eastman and others, who had their height, weight and personal appearance made public.Once the booking is complete, Trump is expected to be released immediately on conditions that include stringent witness intimidation restrictions that have not been put in place for his co-defendants, court filings show, until he is due back in state court for arraignment.The Trump legal team could file a motion to remove the case to federal court before then, under a federal statute that allows for such venue changes if the case involves federal officials’ actions taken “under color” of their office – as in, if it was part of official duties.Trump could face major difficulties with that argument, however, since he would have to show that taking steps to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia amounted to him acting in his official capacity as president, legal experts have said. More

From 2h agoMark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, has filed an emergency motion to a federal court to “protect” him from arrest by Fulton county law enforcement, according to court documents.The filing by Meadows’ legal team comes after he was denied a request to delay the arrest while he tries to move his case to federal court.Meadows claims that his alleged actions, including participating with Donald Trump in a phone call to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, should be immune from state prosecution because they were performed in his capacity as a federal official.Hello again, US politics live blog readers. It’s been a very interesting day, especially in terms of a certain election-related criminal racketeering case in Georgia … This blog will be back on Wednesday for all the political news during the day but also live coverage of the first Republican debate of the 2024 election campaign in the evening. Do click join us then, but for now, this blog will close. You can read the separate story on Mark Meadows that has just launched on our site here.Here’s where things stand:
Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff to Donald Trump, filed an emergency motion to a federal court to “protect” him from arrest by Fulton county law enforcement in Georgia.
The majority of likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers said they believe Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, according to a new poll.
Jenna Ellis and Mike Roman, two of the defendants in the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump, entered bond agreements, for $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, attempted to clarify conspiracy-tinged remarks he made earlier this week about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, and the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump hoping to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department official, and David Shafer, one of the Georgia fake electors, who were charged with Donald Trump in the election subversion case in the state, filed to move the case from state to federal court.
Shawn Still, who was also charged in the state’s election subversion case, reached a $10,000 bond agreement with prosecutors.
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy will stand center stage at Wednesday night’s first Republican presidential nomination debate, according to a lineup released by the Republican National Committee.
You can read our latest full report here:Joe Biden was briefed earlier today on the extreme weather that is affecting many parts of the US, according to the White House. The US president also talked to national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the topic and was warned of the peak of the hurricane season that is approaching.Now Biden has issued a statement and unequivocally linked the severity of the weather to the climate crisis:
Across the country, people are experiencing the devastating impacts of extreme weather worsened by climate change. As peak hurricane season approaches, my administration continues taking action to bolster the country’s preparedness, and support response and recovery efforts.
I continue to be briefed on Tropical Storm Harold and its potential impacts on South Texas.
Biden said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) was deploying. Our latest story on Tropical Storm Harold is here.Biden’s statement also said:
I have also been briefed on Tropical Storm Franklin, and I directed FEMA to pre-deploy personnel and resources to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega is highly unimpressed with the efforts of Mark Meadows’ legal team in trying to stave off the prospect of arrest of the former chief of staff to Donald Trump if he doesn’t surrender to be booked in the Georgia election subversion case.There has been some frantic correspondence between Meadows’ team and Fulton county DA Fani Willis.And this:Meanwhile, Jewel Wicker’s recent profile of Willis is a good read, here.Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis doesn’t mince her words.There are some choice reactions from legal experts.And there was this before the latest request, after Meadows asked for his Georgia case to be moved to federal court.Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants face a Friday deadline to surrender after being charged in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case.The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has set a deadline of noon on Friday, 25 August, for Trump and his co-defendants to voluntarily turn themselves in to be booked.On Monday, Trump said he plans to surrender to authorities on Thursday to face charges including criminal conspiracy, filing false documents and violating the Georgia Rico Act.The first two co-defendants have already surrendered today – Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall and former Trump lawyer John Eastman.In the court filing, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows pointed to the Fulton county court’s plans to hold a hearing on Monday on his request that his case be moved to federal court.The filing reads:
District Attorney Fani Willis has made clear that she intends to arrest Mr Meadows before this Court’s Monday hearing and has rejected out of hand a reasonable request to defer one business day until after this Court’s hearing.
Absent this Court’s intervention, Mr Meadows will be denied the protection from arrest that federal law affords former federal officials, and this Court’s prompt but orderly consideration of removal will be frustrated.
Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, has filed an emergency motion to a federal court to “protect” him from arrest by Fulton county law enforcement, according to court documents.The filing by Meadows’ legal team comes after he was denied a request to delay the arrest while he tries to move his case to federal court.Meadows claims that his alleged actions, including participating with Donald Trump in a phone call to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, should be immune from state prosecution because they were performed in his capacity as a federal official.John Eastman, the lawyer facing criminal charges for his alleged efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, made a statement to the press after turning himself in to the Fulton county jail earlier today.Eastman, who has been charged with nine felony counts, including criminal conspiracy, solicitation, filing false documents and violating the Rico Act, said he would “vigorously” contest every count of the indictment in which he had been named.He said he was “confident that when the law is faithfully applied in this proceeding, all of my co-defendants and I will be fully vindicated”.Asked by a reporter if he still believed the 2020 election was stolen, Eastman replied:
Absolutely. No question in my mind.
In December 2020, Eastman reportedly helped orchestrate the plan for Georgia Republican electors to meet and sign a fraudulent certificate that said Trump won the election in what is now known as the fake electors scheme.He also drafted a six-point memo that directed former vice-president Mike Pence to refuse to certify electoral votes on 6 January 2021.The majority of likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers said they believe Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, according to a new poll.The NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll found that 51% of likely caucus-goers said they believe Trump’s claims that he won in 2020, despite no evidence of widespread election fraud, while 41% said they don’t, and 8% said they are not sure. The poll included both Republican and independent voters.Of those who said they believed Trump’s claims were a majority of self-identified Republicans (60%), those making less than $70,000 a year (69%), evangelicals (62%) and those without college degrees (59%), the poll showed.Of those who listed Trump as their first-choice candidate, 83% said they believe he won the 2020 election.Two-thirds of respondents, or 65%, said Trump has not committed serious crimes, despite him being indicted four times over the past year.Jenna Ellis and Mike Roman, two of the defendants in the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump, have entered bond agreements in Fulton county, Georgia, for $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.Ellis, a Trump campaign attorney and former Colorado prosecutor, spread multiple statements claiming voter fraud during the 2020 election and sent at least two memos advising Mike Pence to reject Biden’s victory in Georgia and other states. She was ordered to appear before the special grand jury in 2022.Earlier this year, the Colorado supreme court censured Ellis for making false statements and she acknowledged making misrepresentations as part of the agreement.A former Trump campaign staffer, Roman was involved in the plot to deliver lists of fake electors to Pence on 6 January 2021 in a bid to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.A former White House aide, he served as Trump’s director of election day operations and attempted to convince state legislators to unlawfully appoint alternate electors, according to the indictment.From Politico’s Kyle Cheney:The former Texas congressman Will Hurd, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, did not qualify for Wednesday night’s Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, after his performance in a series of polls fell short of requirements set by the Republican national committee.Hurd has also refused to sign the party’s pledge to support its eventual nominee – another RNC requirement to take part in the debate.Hurd is one of the few GOP candidates prepared to attack Donald Trump in strong terms, not least over scheduled trials that include civil cases over defamation and a rape allegation and investigations of his business affairs.In a statement, Hurd said he was disappointed to be kept off the debate stage but said he would not be deterred.
I have said from day one of my candidacy that I will not sign a blood oath to Donald Trump. The biggest difference between me and every single candidate who will be on the debate stage in Milwaukee is that I have never bent the knee to Trump. More

Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, has asked a federal court to block his arrest in an emergency motion, according to court documents filed on Tuesday.Meadows, a named defendant in the sweeping election interference case against Donald Trump and 18 others in Fulton county, Georgia, has requested the case be moved to federal court, saying the charges concern his actions as an officer of the federal government.Trump’s legal team is also expected to argue that the case should be moved to federal court because he was acting in the capacity of president.In the Tuesday emergency motion, Meadows asked the court to “protect” him from arrest before a Monday, 28 August, hearing on his request to move the case out of the Fulton county superior court to the district court of northern Georgia.Meadows asked the court to either grant his removal request or issue an order prohibiting the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, from arresting him, according to the Tuesday motion.Last week, Willis set the deadline for the 19 defendants to voluntarily turn themselves in to the Fulton county jail, where they would be booked, for noon this Friday, 25 August.Willis rejected Meadows’ request for an extension on the deadline, according to Meadows’ emergency motion.“I am not granting any extensions. I gave 2 weeks for people to surrender themselves to the court. Your client is no different than any other criminal defendant in this jurisdiction. The two weeks was a tremendous courtesy,” Willis wrote in an email on Tuesday morning.Willis also indicated that if Meadows does not turn himself in by noon on Friday, he would be arrested, writing: “At 12:30 pm on Friday I shall file warrants in the system.”Meadows was charged with two felony counts, including violating the Georgia Rico Act and solicitation of violation of oath from a public officer, according to Willis’s indictment. Meadows was on the infamous phone call when Trump asked the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” votes to overturn Biden’s victory in the state.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHe also received hundreds of text messages on 6 January 2021 alerting him and the White House of escalating violence at the US Capitol and asking Trump to intervene.Two of the 19 named defendants, Scott Hall and John Eastman, have turned themselves in and were booked at the Fulton county Rice Street jail on Tuesday.Another two named defendants, Jeffrey Clark and David Shafer, have joined Meadows in making requests that their cases be moved to federal court. More