US Politics

Spiritual messages made the Rev Billy Graham famous, but it was a different sort of message that he transmitted to Lyndon B Johnson in September 1968. Earlier that tumultuous year, the president announced on live television that he would not run for re-election. The race to succeed him pitted the current vice-president, Hubert H Humphrey, against a previous VP, Richard Nixon. An anti-establishment third-party candidate, George Wallace, a segregationist former governor of Alabama, was attracting unexpected support, amid backlash to Johnson’s Great Society reforms.Graham’s message to Johnson came from Nixon and contained an unorthodox proposal. If elected, Nixon offered to make a variety of conciliatory gestures to Johnson, from avoiding criticism to meeting him for consultations, even crediting him with a role in ending the Vietnam war, once it was finally over.This is one of many revelations in a new book, The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968, by Luke Nichter, a professor of history at Chapman University in California.In sum, Graham promised “everything Nixon could do to give LBJ a place in history”, Nichter marvels. “Imagine something like that leaking out. It’s incredible.”It also continued some surprisingly conciliatory behind-the-scenes behavior between ostensible rivals, much of it mediated by Graham. In his diary, the evangelist quoted Johnson: “I don’t always agree with [Nixon] but I respect him for his tremendous ability.” Graham asked if he could let Nixon know. LBJ said yes. The incumbent was hardly as supportive to his own vice-president. As Humphrey said: “I’ve eaten so much of Johnson’s shit in this job that I’ve grown to like the taste of it.”The 1968 election unfolded during a year of seemingly endless challenges. In Vietnam, the Tet offensive convinced many Americans of the futility of the war. On 1 March, Johnson stunned the public by dropping out of the race. On 4 April, Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis. On 6 June, another assassination rocked America: the New York senator and Democratic presidential contender Robert F Kennedy, whose brother, President John F Kennedy, had been killed just five years before, was shot dead at an LA hotel. Race riots erupted, from Newark to Detroit and Washington. At the Democratic national convention in Chicago, demonstrators and cops squared off.Yet in his 15 chapters, Nichter manages to upend conventional wisdom.“This is a lesson about the essence of history itself,” he says. “It’s never really over.”As Nichter explains, the traditional 1968 narrative posits that Johnson stayed out of the picture; that Humphrey rode a late surge based on his call for an unconditional bombing halt in Vietnam; and that Nixon employed questionable methods to win, from a “southern strategy” targeting racist white voters to trying to sabotage peace talks in Vietnam.Nichter questions this entire account, often on the basis of evidence he uncovered, whether in Graham’s diaries or in a conversation with a former Humphrey adviser, Vic Fingerhut. He even spoke to Anna Chennault, the Washington socialite at the heart of the Chennault affair, in which she was accused of encouraging the South Vietnamese to avoid peace talks, based on promises of better treatment under Nixon.“I sort of assumed it was true,” Nichter reflects. “A lot of people have reported it over the years.” Yet, he says, “the first thing I noticed right away as a red flag was that nobody I talked to actually interviewed Chennault or the South Vietnamese. I’m not a journalist, but a historian. I’m trained to look at dusty records in archives. But all of this didn’t make sense.”Nichter does have extensive experience in the subject area, not only as the author of multiple books but as the editor of the nixontapes website, where the public can access 3,000 hours of secret recordings. A member of the Freedom of Information Act advisory board, Nichter has conducted hundreds of hours of research in the US and Vietnam, calling the latter one of the friendliest destinations an American can now visit.The Year That Broke Politics germinated from a conversation with Walter Mondale in December 2017. Between 1977 and 1981, Mondale was vice-president to Jimmy Carter. In 1968, he was Humphrey’s campaign co-chair. To Nichter, he hinted that LBJ had leaned toward Nixon.The following February, Graham died at 99. Nichter traveled to the evangelist’s alma mater, Wheaton University, outside Chicago. He gained access to Graham’s diaries, a trove of information about conversations with presidents from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. Nichter calls the diaries “a potential whole new window on the entire American presidency”, with “content that’s not in the National Archives or any presidential library”.Graham enjoyed relationships with all four principals in the 1968 campaign – Johnson, Humphrey, Nixon and Wallace – while professing an apolitical stance. When Johnson decided not to run, Graham asked if he could let Nixon know in advance and got the OK to do so. When Nixon wanted to send Johnson his September proposals, he entrusted Graham with the message.At the chaotic Democratic convention, while protesters and Mayor Richard Daley’s police fought outside, Graham reportedly had a fateful behind-the-scenes influence, talking the Texas governor, John Connally, out of being Humphrey’s running mate, promising a cabinet role under Nixon. Had Connally accepted Humphrey’s offer, it “might have been enough to deny Nixon a victory, divide the conservative vote [and] balance the ticket geographically”, Nichter says.By the fall, Humphrey was struggling. On 30 September, in a speech in Salt Lake City, he promised to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. Although this speech is widely credited for Humphrey’s revival, it didn’t close the gap in the polls, Nichter says. What proved more persuasive, Nichter finds, were appeals to traditional Democratic domestic issues from jobs to social security, and a get-out-the-vote push from organized labor that siphoned blue-collar voters from Wallace.These late moves by Humphrey narrowed the gap, but not enough. Nixon, once vice-president to Dwight Eisenhower, completed a remarkable comeback. On the campaign trail, he had promised to essentially continue LBJ’s Great Society programs. Nichter notes that many of Nixon’s policy achievements – visits to China and the USSR, the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency – were initially considered under Johnson.As for Wallace, he showed surprising strength, topping out at 23% in the polls, making the ballot in every state and finding support among disaffected working-class white voters that set a precedent for future populists.“His 1968 message was more sophisticated,” Nichter says. “Race was folded into a broader set of grievances. He got a little Trump-like: anti-elite, anti-media, anti-establishment. He never used the words ‘drain the swamp’. If it had occurred to him, he probably would have.“I think all populist candidates on both sides of the aisle, Democrat or Republican – more recently, clearly Republican, because of Trump – have brought Wallace’s rhetoric [and] message [to] target voters [from the] blue-collar, lower-middle class.“Trump is the most aggressive to go after them. The most fascinating takeaway for 2024, the thing to watch for, is who is going to be the preferred candidate of this voting bloc.”
The Year That Broke Politics is published in the US by Yale University Press More

Five House Democrats led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote to the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, to demand a federal investigation of the conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, over his acceptance of undeclared gifts from billionaire rightwing donors.“We write to urge the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into … Clarence Thomas for consistently failing to report significant gifts he received from Harlan Crow and other billionaires for nearly two decades in defiance of his duty under federal law,” the Democrats said.As well as Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive popularly known as AOC, the letter was signed by Jerrold Nadler of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House judiciary committee; Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a professor of constitutional law; Ted Lieu of California; and Hank Johnson of Georgia.This week saw publication of a bombshell ProPublica report which said Thomas had taken 38 undeclared vacations funded by billionaires and accepted gifts including expensive sports tickets.The report followed extensive reporting by ProPublica and other outlets including the New York Times regarding Thomas’s close and financially beneficial relationships with Crow, a real-estate magnate, and other influential businessmen.Thomas, 75, denies wrongdoing, claiming never to have discussed with his benefactors politics or business before the court. He has said he did not declare those benefactors’ gifts, over many years, because he was wrongly advised.Ethics experts say that Thomas broke federal law by failing to declare such largesse.Supreme court justices are nominally subject to the same ethics rules as all federal justices but in practice govern themselves.The chief justice, John Roberts, has rebuffed requests for testimony in Congress. Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee have advanced supreme court ethics reform but it will almost certainly fail, in the face of Republican opposition.Calls for Thomas to resign or be impeached and removed have proliferated but are also almost certain to fail. Confirmed in 1991, Thomas is the most senior of six conservatives on a nine-member court tipped dramatically right by three justices installed during the presidency of Donald Trump.In their letter to Garland on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow Democrats noted that Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, is “a far-right activist who often champions conservative causes that come before the court”.They were addressing, they said, “a matter of critical importance to the integrity of our justice system”.Outlining reporting about Thomas, the representatives said his “consistent failure to disclose gifts and benefits from industry magnates and wealthy, politically active executives highlights a blatant disregard for judicial ethics as well as apparent legal violations.“No individual, regardless of their position or stature, should be exempt from legal scrutiny for lawbreaking … as a supreme court justice and high constitutional officer, Justice Thomas should be held to the highest standard, not the lowest and he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to violate federal law.”Refusing to hold Thomas accountable, the Democrats said, “would set a dangerous precedent, undermining public trust in our institutions and raising legitimate questions about the equal application of laws in our nation.“The Department of Justice must undertake a thorough investigation into the reported conduct to ensure that it cannot happen again.” More

Fox Corp said Friday that its chief legal officer Viet Dinh was stepping down, a high-profile exit that follows the media company’s $787.5m settlement in April of a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over its 2020 US election coverage.Dinh, who will exit the role at the end of 2023, joined Fox in 2018 and headed its legal and compliance divisions during the months-long legal battle sparked by the network’s coverage of false claims that Dominion rigged the election.As part of a separation agreement, Dinh will get a lump sum cash payment of $23m, Fox said. He will become a special adviser to the company after leaving the role of legal head.The move marks another major departure at the network since the settlement. Top-rated host Tucker Carlson agreed to part ways with Fox in April, just days after the legal resolution.In June, the company also settled a lawsuit by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, who claimed gender discrimination and accused the network’s lawyers of pressuring her to make misleading statements in the Dominion Voting Systems case. More

The decision by the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, to appoint a special counsel in the investigation of Hunter Biden has rankled some of the same congressional Republicans who have demanded more scrutiny of the president’s son.Republicans might have celebrated Garland’s announcement as a vindication of their dogged efforts to uncover wrongdoing in Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, which have become a central focus of their investigative work since regaining control of the House of Representatives in January. Instead, Republicans voiced doubt that the special counsel appointment would result in a fair investigation, and they took the opportunity to repeat their unfounded claims about Joe Biden’s allegedly corrupt financial activities with his son.Garland announced that he was naming David Weiss, the US attorney in Delaware who has overseen the investigation of Hunter Biden for roughly four years, as special counsel, due to “the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter”. The news comes as a previously agreed upon plea deal negotiated between prosecutors and Hunter Biden’s lawyers appears to have fallen apart, after the judge overseeing the case expressed concern over its parameters.“Today’s announcement affords the prosecutors, agents, and analysts working on this matter the ability to proceed with their work expeditiously, and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law,” Garland said.Republicans generally scoffed at Garland’s reassurance. They pointed to Hunter Biden’s “sweetheart” plea deal as evidence that the Department of Justice cannot be trusted to handle the case, even though legal experts have noted the tax and gun charges initially brought against the president’s son are rarely prosecuted.Donald Trump, who has been indicted three times this year and faces dozens of criminal charges, has repeatedly cited Hunter Biden’s plea deal as an example of a double standard in law enforcement, and his presidential campaign was quick to release a statement on the announcement.A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign claimed the Bidens “have been protected by the justice department for decades” and that they “should face the required consequences”. A Trump-aligned Super Pac released a statement casting doubt upon Weiss’s ability to adequately conduct the investigation, even though Trump appointed Weiss to his post.The congresswoman Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican from Colorado, expressed similar skepticism over Weiss’s impartiality. “Given how Hunter has been treated this far, pardon me if I’m not extremely excited that anything will actually come of this,” she wrote on Twitter, which is now known as X.Republicans pointed to the timing of Weiss’s appointment as another knock against the justice department, arguing that Garland should have named a special counsel far earlier. Weiss said last month he had never asked to be named as a special counsel in the case, contradicting a whistleblower’s claims otherwise. In his announcement, Garland said Weiss requested a special counsel designation earlier this week so he could continue his investigation into Hunter Biden.“A year too late,” Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, said of Garland’s announcement.House Republican leaders also emphasized that the special counsel appointment must not interfere with their own inquiries into Hunter Biden and his business dealings, which now span across multiple committees.“This action by Biden’s DoJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption,” House Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Twitter. “House Republicans will continue to pursue the facts for the American people.”Congressman James Comer, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, described the special counsel appointment as “part of the justice department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family cover-up in light of the committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals”.In reality, House Republicans have so far presented no direct evidence that Joe Biden profited from Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings. Hunter Biden’s business associate, Devon Archer, told the committee last week that he was not aware of any wrongdoing on the part of Joe Biden.Despite that, Comer pledged his committee “will continue to follow the Biden family’s money trail” and “hold bad actors accountable for weaponizing law enforcement powers”.As Republicans prepared to ramp up their investigations, Democrats remained largely silent about the special counsel announcement. Democratic lawmakers appeared to greet the earlier news of Hunter Biden’s plea agreement with quiet relief, perhaps eager to put the matter behind them before the 2024 elections.But Weiss’s appointment as special counsel guarantees Hunter Biden will remain under investigation and in the headlines for a while longer, a reality that could complicate his father’s hopes of winning a second presidential term next year. More

From 3h agoThe US house committee on oversight and accountability has issued a statement on attorney general Merrick Garland’s announcement of David Weiss’s appointment as special counsel.“The DoJ is attempting a Biden family coverup,” the committee said.The statement continued:
“This is part of the DoJ’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of our Committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling “the brand” for millions of dollars to foreign nationals.
The justice department’s misconduct and politicization in the Biden criminal investigation already allowed the statute of limitations to run with respect to egregious felonies committed by Hunter Biden.
Justice department officials refused to follow evidence that could have led to Joe Biden, tipped off the Biden transition team and Hunter Biden’s lawyers about planned interviews and searches, and attempted to sneakily place Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal.
Let’s be clear what today’s move is really about. The Biden justice department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption.”
The committee said that it will continue the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Biden family.It is slightly past 4pm in Washington DC. Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
In a surprise announcement on Friday, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced that he has appointed US attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, as special counsel in the investigation of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son. Garland said that Weiss had told him earlier this week that his investigation had “reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be so appointed.”
Prominent Republicans including Kevin McCarthy, Nikki Haley and Steve Scalise have criticized Weiss’s appointment, with many calling the appointment a “sham” and an attempt by the DoJ to protect the Biden family.
The US judge Tanya Chutkan, presiding in the federal criminal investigation alleging Donald Trump tried to subvert the 2020 presidential election, rejected Trump’s request to designate witness transcripts and videos as non-sensitive (and thereby exclude them from the protective order requested by the prosecution).
Chutkan said at the first hearing after Trump was arraigned on federal charges in the election case: “Trump has the right to free speech but that right is not absolute.”
Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Donald Trump attended a court hearing in Washington DC, over special counsel Jack Smith’s request to limit Trump’s ability to publicly reveal evidence collected during the criminal investigation into the insurrection on 6 January 2021.
The White House said on Friday that it is open to training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets in the US if training capacity is reached in Europe. Reuters reports White House spokesperson John Kirby saying that Washington is eager to move forward with the training.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.The White House said on Friday that it is open to training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets in the US if training capacity is reached in Europe.Reuters reports White House spokesperson John Kirby saying that Washington is eager to move forward with the training.Nikki Haley, one of the Republican presidential candidates and Donald Trump’s former US ambassador to the UN, told Fox News that she does not trust the justice department’s decision to appoint David Weiss.“I don’t trust it. I don’t think the American people trust it. I don’t think that the American people trust the Department of Justice or anything that this is going to do. I think this was meant to be a distraction,” Reuters reports Haley saying.Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for ex-president Donald Trump, issued a statement on David Weiss’s appointment, accusing the justice department of protecting the Biden family.Reuters reports the statement:
“Crooked Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the entire Biden Crime Family have been protected by the Justice Department for decades even though there is overwhelming evidence and credible testimony detailing their wrongdoing of lying to the American people and selling out the country to foreign enemies for the Biden Cartel’s own financial gain.
If this special counsel is truly independent – even though he failed to bring proper charges after a four year investigation and he appears to be trying to move the case to a more Democrat-friendly venue – he will quickly conclude that Joe Biden, his troubled son Hunter, and their enablers, including the media, which colluded with the 51 intelligence officials who knowingly misled the public about Hunter’s laptop, should face the required consequences.”
Another prominent Republican has warned against David Weiss’s appointment, with the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, warning that “this action by Biden’s DoJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations.”
“If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a special counsel?
House Republicans will continue to pursue the facts for the American people,” he said.
Steve Scalise, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, also weighed in David Weiss’s appointment, calling it a “sham”.
“Don’t be fooled. Garland appointing Weiss as a sham special counsel on Hunter is a way to block info from Congress while claiming they’re investigating.
Weiss approved the sweetheart plea deal. This is an even better deal for Hunter since charges may never come. Outrageous,” he tweeted.
Republican representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who also serves as chairman of the House judiciary committee, also lambasted David Weiss’s appointment.In a tweet on Friday, Jordan said:“David Weiss said he didn’t have the power he needed and wanted special counsel status.”He went on to say, “Thought we had the plea agreement all worked out. Now Weiss needs to be special counsel? What?”The US house committee on oversight and accountability has issued a statement on attorney general Merrick Garland’s announcement of David Weiss’s appointment as special counsel.“The DoJ is attempting a Biden family coverup,” the committee said.The statement continued:
“This is part of the DoJ’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of our Committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling “the brand” for millions of dollars to foreign nationals.
The justice department’s misconduct and politicization in the Biden criminal investigation already allowed the statute of limitations to run with respect to egregious felonies committed by Hunter Biden.
Justice department officials refused to follow evidence that could have led to Joe Biden, tipped off the Biden transition team and Hunter Biden’s lawyers about planned interviews and searches, and attempted to sneakily place Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal.
Let’s be clear what today’s move is really about. The Biden justice department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption.”
The committee said that it will continue the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Biden family.Here is some context to explain how Hunter Biden and David Weiss arrived at this moment, from our recent analysis.Last month, Hunter Biden arrived in a Delaware courtroom expecting to finalize a plea agreement with federal prosecutors over two misdemeanor tax charges.Hours later, Hunter Biden unexpectedly pleaded not guilty to the charges after the judge overseeing the case expressed skepticism about the specifics of the proposed deal. The court adjourned without a clear next step – until today.Weiss, who has just been made special counsel, has been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018 over potential violations of tax and gun laws. Weiss, who was appointed by Donald Trump, announced earlier this year that his office had reached a plea agreement with the president’s son. As well as admitting the charges of tax violations, Biden would enter a pre-trial diversion program on a separate felony gun charge.Prosecutors were expected to recommend two years of probation, with Biden avoiding jail.The pre-trial diversion program would have ultimately resulted in the gun charge being dropped, assuming Hunter Biden met certain terms laid out by prosecutors. The felony charge is otherwise punishable by up to 10 years in prison.Republicans had attacked the plea agreement as a “sweetheart deal” that reflected a double standard of justice, but legal experts note the charges brought against the president’s son are rarely prosecuted.The US district judge Maryellen Noreika at the time gave prosecutors and Hunter Biden’s defense team 30 days to further hash out the details of the agreement, and the court is expected to reconvene in the coming weeks to re-examine the case.Now we have a special counsel appointed, so it’s a brand new day.Hello again, US politics live blog readers, the news day took off straight away and continues fast and furious with high-profile connections between politics and criminal investigations from both sides of the party political world. There are more developments and reactions to come, so do stay with Guardian US. We’re also covering the tragic wild fires in Hawaii and you can follow that news, live, here.Here’s where things stand in political news:
The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced that he has appointed US attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, as special counsel to continue his criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, president Joe Biden’s son.
The US judge Tanya Chutkan, presiding in the federal criminal investigation alleging Donald Trump tried to subvert the 2020 presidential election, rejected Trump’s request to designate witness transcripts and videos as non-sensitive (and thereby exclude them from the protective order requested by the prosecution).
Chutkan said at the first hearing after Trump was arraigned on federal charges in the election case: “Trump has the right to free speech but that right is not absolute.”
Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Donald Trump attended a court hearing in Washington DC, over special counsel Jack Smith’s request to limit Trump’s ability to publicly reveal evidence collected during the criminal investigation into the insurrection on 6 January 2021.
A court filing on Friday showed that Weiss had said the parties in the Hunter Biden case were at an impasse in their plea negotiations and that a trial was necessary.As special counsel, Weiss now has additional authority to investigate whether Biden engaged in improper business dealings.In a surprise announcement on Friday, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced that he has appointed US attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, as special counsel in the investigation of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son.Weiss has been overseeing the investigation into the financial and business dealings of Hunter Biden.Garland said that Weiss had told him earlier this week that his investigation had “reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be so appointed”.Garland said:
Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel.”
Garland went on to say that he is confident that Weiss will carry out his responsibilities in an “even-handed and urgent manner”.As special counsel, Weiss will be permitted to “continue his investigation, take any investigative steps he wanted and make the decision whether to prosecute in any district”, Garland added.Garland’s surprise announcement comes amid the justice department’s investigations into Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s main rival in the 2024 presidential election who has been charged for efforts in overturning the 2020 presidential election results.Hunter Biden had been expected to finalize a plea agreement with federal prosecutors over two misdemeanor tax charges. However, he unexpectedly took a sudden turn and pleaded not guilty to the charges in court in Wilmington, Delaware, last month.The Guardian’s full explainer on the plea deal can be found here.When asked whether president Biden would end up pardoning his his son last month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre replied: “No.”As special counsel, David Weiss will be permitted to “continue his investigation, take any investigative steps he wanted and make the decision whether to prosecute in any district”, Merrick Garland said. More

The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s 2020 election subversion case on Friday warned inflammatory remarks from the former president would push her to schedule the trial sooner, saying she would take every step to safeguard the integrity of proceedings and to avoid tainting the potential jury pool.The admonition came as the US district court judge Tanya Chutkan ruled on Trump’s requests to have fewer restrictions in a protective order that will govern what evidence turned over to his lawyers in the discovery process the former president could share publicly.Broadly speaking, Chutkan ruled that Trump was free to share “non-sensitive materials” as designated by prosecutors, but narrowed the scope so closely that it could ultimately amount to only a pyrrhic victory. Chutkan also ended up rejecting the majority of Trump’s other requests.The judge repeatedly emphasized that she would not take into account Trump’s presidential campaign, telling Trump’s lead lawyer John Lauro that the former president’s free speech rights were not absolute and that they came second to the fact that he is now a criminal defendant.“What the effects of my order are on a political campaign are not going to influence my decision. This is a criminal trial,” Chutkan said. “The defendant’s desire to conduct a campaign, to respond to political opponents, has to yield.”Trump has characterized the indictment, charging him with four felonies over his attempt to obstruct the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win on 6 January 2021 and to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as a political witch-hunt and infringing on his first amendment rights.To that end, his lawyers had filed a 29-page brief before the hearing asking the judge to issue a less restrictive protective order, a routine step in criminal cases to ensure evidence turned over to defendants in discovery is used to help construct a defense but not chill witnesses.Trump’s legal team had asked for various accommodations, such as giving Trump the ability to make public any transcripts of witness interviews that are not protected by grand jury secrecy rules and to expand the circle of people who could gain access to the discovery material.Prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith had asked to impose a protective order almost immediately after Trump was arraigned last week, specifically referencing a vaguely threatening post from Trump that read: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”The prosecutors did not ask the judge to impose a gag order on Trump to prevent him from discussing the case, but made an inferential argument that there needed to be clear rules on how Trump could publicly use evidence turned over to him in discovery.The judge was skeptical of the government’s argument that even non-sensitive materials should be subject to the protective order, saying Trump was prohibited from intimidating witnesses as a condition of his pre-trial release, and agreed to limit the scope of the order.But Chutkan was unimpressed by the attempt of Trump’s lawyers to designate witness deposition transcripts and recordings as “non-sensitive” and rejected that request, which will dramatically reduce the volume of records that Trump could discuss publicly.The judge also refused to allow yet-unnamed volunteer attorneys or consultants working for Trump to view the discovery material, saying the request from Trump’s lawyers was so broad that it could “include just about anyone” including potential “unindicted co-conspirators”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“The definition you have currently is simply too broad,” Chutkan told Trump’s lawyers. “It allows just about anybody. You know, I live in Washington, anyone is a consultant.”Chutkan ruled that Trump would be allowed to review the discovery materials without needing his lawyers there with him every time, seemingly sympathetic to the plea from Trump’s lawyer John Lauro that “babysitting” his client while he read transcripts was not practical.The judge, however, imposed caveats after prosecutor Thomas Windom raised concerns that Trump might try to copy sensitive discovery materials if left alone with them. “He has shown a tendency to desire to hold on to material he knows he should not have,” Windom quipped.Chutkan’s final decision was to allow Trump to review the discovery materials alone so long as he did not carry electronic devices that could replicate the records. She also ruled that Trump could take notes, but that his lawyers needed to review them to ensure it did not include “sensitive” content.The judge also made clear that the moment Trump took a break from looking at the the discovery materials, his lawyers needed to regain custody of them from Trump. “Certainly he can’t carry them around with him,” Chutkan said.Trump was represented in court by Lauro, a former federal prosecutor, his law firm partner Gregory Singer, and Todd Blanche. Afterwards, Lauro declined to comment on the hearing. The government was represented in court by prosecutors Windom and Molly Gaston. More

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, sent shockwaves through American politics on Friday when he announced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, the president’s son, ahead of the 2024 election.Garland named David Weiss, the US attorney in Delaware who has been investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings, as special counsel.In remarks to reporters in Washington, Garland said Weiss told him on Tuesday that “in his judgment, his investigation has reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be appointed.“Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel.”It was a momentous move from the usually cautious attorney general. Special counsel investigations of Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner to face Joe Biden in next year’s election, are ongoing, having produced multiple criminal charges and the prospect of trials in an election year.Special counsels are appointed in cases in which the attorney general believes the justice department faces a conflict of interest. Special counsels report to the attorney general but operate with independence.In the investigations of Trump, the special counsel Jack Smith has overseen indictments regarding the former president’s retention of classified information and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.Another special counsel, Robert Hur, is investigating the retention of classified information by Biden after he left the vice-presidency in 2017. It was widely reported on Friday that negotiations are active about terms for a Biden interview.Hunter Biden, 53, is the president’s surviving son, after the former Delaware attorney general Beau Biden died in 2015, aged 46. Hunter Biden has been a lobbyist, lawyer, banker, consultant and artist. He has admitted to struggling with substance addiction.He is accused of failing to pay taxes on more than $1.5m in income in 2017 and 2018. He is also charged with unlawfully owning a firearm while addicted to and using a controlled substance.Last month, after a federal judge in Delaware said she needed more time to review a proposed deal to avoid the felony gun charge, Biden pleaded not guilty to the tax charges. The collapse of the plea deal was unexpected.On Friday, Weiss, who was appointed US attorney by Trump, said in a court filing plea deal negotiations were at an impasse and a trial was in order.Republicans in Congress are pursuing their own investigations of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including in Ukraine and China, as part of a longstanding effort to generate political headaches for his father. They have so far turned up little of substance.In New Mexico on Thursday, Joe Biden generated headlines when he reacted testily to a Fox News reporter who asked about his son’s business dealings and whether Hunter ever put his powerful father on speakerphone when dealing with clients.“I never talked business with anybody,” the president said. “I knew you’d have a lousy question … because it’s not true.”Republicans have long claimed Weiss was being blocked from becoming a special counsel in the matter of Hunter Biden, a claim Weiss and the US justice department denied. On Friday, with Weiss appointed as a special counsel, Republicans still reacted with public displays of anger.In a statement, Republicans on the House oversight committee, which has been piloting congressional investigations of Hunter Biden and pushing for impeachment proceedings against his father, claimed the appointment of Weiss was “part of the DoJ’s efforts to attempt a Biden family cover-up in light of our committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals”.A Democrat on the committee, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, said such a reaction to getting what Republicans wanted showed the oversight chair, James Comer of Kentucky, had “no credibility” on the matter.But Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker, also had complaints.“This action by Biden’s DoJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption,” McCarthy said. “If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a special counsel?”Aaron Fritschner, a staffer for the Virginia Democratic congressman Don Beyer, noted the theatricality of such Republican anger: “Half of the House Republican conference wrote to Merrick Garland last year asking him to appoint a special counsel in the Hunter Biden case. Now that he’s done it they are acting mad.”Liz Harrington, a Trump spokesperson, said: “Crooked Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the entire Biden crime family have been protected by the justice department for decades even though there is overwhelming evidence and credible testimony detailing their wrongdoing of lying to the American people and selling out the country to foreign enemies … for financial gain.”Trump leads Republican primary polling by vast margins despite facing 78 criminal charges regarding hush-money payments to a porn star, retention of classified records and attempted election subversion. Further charges relating to election subversion are expected in Georgia next week.Polling shows both Biden and Trump to be historically unpopular with the voting public.Associated Press contributed to this report More

Hunter Biden, the president’s son, has been at the center of a years-long investigation into his tax affairs that was set to close with a guilty plea earlier this month. But that plea deal fell apart at a Delaware courthouse after the Trump-appointed judge said she could not agree to the agreement, which ensured Biden would avoid jail time in a separate case of illegally possessing a gun while using drugs.Amid the controversy, the president has repeatedly said he supports his son, and Hunter has been seen regularly at family events. Asked if President Biden would pardon his son in the event of any conviction, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters: “No.”But the younger Biden has been embroiled in a list of unrelated controversies for years, including his overseas dealings and struggles with addiction, which ex-President Trump and his allies have regularly sought to use as fodder for attacks.Here’s a comprehensive timeline of the moments that have propelled Hunter Biden into the limelight.Joe Biden Senate tenure: Hunter Biden’s consulting work for MBNA Corporation, a large Delaware-based banking chain, sparks backlash as his father, then a senator, was pushing for legislation favored by the online banking industry. The Obama-Biden 2008 campaign later rebuffs claims of improper action.Vice-presidency: Hunter Biden joins the board of Burisma, a private Ukrainian energy company, in 2014. Years later, House Republicans and Donald Trump spread baseless claims of wrongdoing by the Biden family, including that the vice-president helped push out the Ukrainian prosecutor general for failing to crack down on corruption in 2016 in order to protect his son.Administration officials say at the time there was no conflict of interest since the president’s son was a private citizen. Hunter Biden later says it was “poor judgment” to take the paid post but insists he did nothing wrong.October 2014: The Wall Street Journal reports Hunter Biden was discharged from the US Navy Reserve in 2013 after a test returned positive for cocaine.2016: After his brother Beau Biden’s death in 2015, Hunter Biden increasingly struggles with addiction, according to his memoir, released in 2021. He begins an affair with his late brother’s wife, Hallie Biden, afterwards. His wife, Kathleen Buhle, files for divorce in December, saying her husband spent extravagantly on alcohol and on gifts for other women.2018: Federal prosecutors reportedly launch an investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances, including his tax affairs and business dealings in China, as early as 2018. Hunter Biden allegedly failed to pay taxes between 2017 and 2018 and separately inked deals with Chinese executives.May 2019: Hunter Biden marries Melissa Cohen, an environmental activist and film-maker from South Africa, days after meeting.August 2019: An Arkansas woman, Lunden Roberts, files a lawsuit asking Hunter Biden for child support, claiming her daughter, Navy, is his son.Trump impeachment: Trump seeks to divert attention from his impeachment inquiry towards Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China and Ukraine.2020 presidential election: Trump repeatedly attacks Joe Biden over his family’s overseas business ties.December 2020: A month after his father wins the presidential election, Hunter Biden confirms a Delaware attorney has been investigating his “tax affairs”. He says he had learned of the investigation, overseen by Trump-appointed US attorney David Weiss, from his lawyer a day before he confirmed it publicly. The investigation had been temporarily paused in the months leading up to the election.2021: Hunter Biden pays back the amount he owed in taxes. He also gets back into art. Insider later reports that the younger Biden sold one of his paintings to a Democratic donor, Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, whom the president appointed to a commission in 2022.April 2023: An anonymous IRS whistleblower sends a letter to Congress saying the investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances was mishandled.20 June 2023: Hunter Biden is expected to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors after a federal court in Delaware announced it had reached a deal that was set to shield him from jail time over gun charges in a separate case.29 June 2023: Hunter Biden settles the lawsuit with Lunden Roberts and agrees to pay a monthly sum in child support, as well as turn over several paintings.19 July 2023: Two former agents at the IRS, including the previously anonymous whistleblower, testify at a GOP-lead House oversight hearing that DoJ officials “constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized” the US attorney, Weiss, in his investigation into Hunter Biden.26 July 2023: In a reversal, Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to two tax misdemeanor charges after the judge, Maryellen Noreika, says she cannot accept the deal over a disagreement between the prosecution and Biden’s legal team.The two sides settled a disagreement over whether Biden could face future charges for violating foreign lobbying laws. After a short recess, Biden’s lawyers said they agreed with the DoJ’s interpretation that he could face additional charges, subject to further investigation.But Noreika again raises a question regarding a diversion agreement – where the prosecutor agrees to dismiss charges, with conditions – that would have cleared Biden of his gun charges after two years if she found him to be compliant with the terms. Noreika said that power belonged to the DoJ, not her, and thus could not approve the deal.1 August 2023: Joe Biden says in an interview he “has seven grandchildren,” acknowledging for the first time Navy, four, the daughter of Hunter Biden and Lunden Roberts.August 2023: This is the deadline Noreika sets for the two sides to file additional briefs defending the constitutionality of the original plea deal.Republican lawmakers are separately targeting the entire Biden family. The GOP-led House oversight committee is investigating whether the family’s business dealings harm US national security, and some extreme members are calling for impeachment.August 11 2023: Merrick Garland, the attorney general, appoints special counsel David Weiss to oversee Hunter Biden case. More