US Politics

Amid the Hollywood writers’ strike, Jack Smith, the special counsel, delivered a jolt of real-life drama. Late Tuesday afternoon, he dropped a four-count, 45-page conspiracy indictment on Donald Trump for his efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Six other unnamed conspirators also appear in the text. The charges go to the heart of our constitutional system.“Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power,” the indictment charges. “So for more than two months following election day … the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election that he had actually won. These claims were false, and Defendant knew that they were false.”If convicted, the 77-year-old former president could face years in jail and possibly die in prison. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.In the interim, he towers over the Republican field with the support of a majority of the party’s voters. College grad or blue-collar, it makes little difference. The Republican party belongs to him. He did not fade after two earlier indictments. Rather, his grip on the Republican party tightens. He has pledged to run even if convicted and from behind bars.Cloaked in the aura of seeming inevitability, Trump holds a 37-point lead over Ron DeSantis, his closest rival. With a half-year to go before the first nominating contest, Florida’s thuggish and humorless governor has burned through millions of dollars. His campaign reset resembles a cry for help. He is down to 17 points in the polls and falling.When you’re a presidential candidate who is forced to fire people for posting Nazi-symbols, it doesn’t inspire confidence. Likewise, if you’re busy looking for slavery’s upside or dangling the possibility of appointing RFK Jr as head of the FDA or CDC, national politics is not where you belong.Past candidates have bounced back from edges of the abyss. Here, the late John McCain’s run in 2008 comes to mind. After squandering an early lead, he demonstrated under-appreciated tenacity. But DeSantis is no McCain. He is not fun. Rather, “mean”, “petty” and “dull” are the words that best do justice to the latest iteration of Florida Man.All that having been said, obstacles in the form of nearly-endless legal proceedings will likely complicate Trump’s political path and life. Just days before Tuesday’s indictment, the government leveled new and serious allegations against him in the already pending documents case.According to federal prosecutors, Trump and two aides schemed to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance video in a bid to stymie Smith’s investigation. To say the least, it’s not a good look.“It seems like you know you’re committing a crime if you’re having an employee delete security camera footage,” declared Will Hurd, the ex-Texas congressman and long-shot Republican contender. Chris Christie, former New Jersey governor and federal prosecutor, branded Trump a “one-man crime wave.”Reality check: Christie is at low-single digits; Hurd is at a fraction of a percent. As the song goes, “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”By contrast, the rest of the Republican field remains studiously quiet. DeSantis refuses to say whether Trump’s indictments disqualify him from running, and does not rule out issuing a pardon.The latest indictment adds to Trump’s considerable legal woes. Between the race for the Republican presidential nod and his considerable troubles, Trump’s dance card is looking full. His legal bills are already straining the resources of his Save America political action committee. He is spending more than he rakes in. He is still two months away from a full-blown trial in a nine-figure action.In October, the New York attorney general’s $250m civil suit against the Trump Organization and Trump individually begins. On 15 January 2024, Iowa Republicans will caucus, and the second E Jean Carroll defamation case commences.Then come the criminal cases against the backdrop of nomination season. Next March, Trump is slated to be tried in Manhattan in connection with alleged hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star. Two months later, in late May, he is scheduled to go on trial in Florida for his alleged mishandling of government documents. Expect Melania Trump to be a no-show at both trials.Whether Trump is convicted and how his base reacts are the tests of his staying power. At the moment, Tim Scott, South Carolina’s junior senator, is receiving well-deserved attention. He is sober and measured, in stark contrast to Trump and DeSantis. He is also a people person.Still, Scott’s appeal beyond the Republican donor class appears limited. In his home state, he barely cracks double-digits, running fourth. In Iowa, he is running a distant third. Practically speaking, he represents a real threat to DeSantis but is a logical running mate for the former guy. A Trump conviction might shake things up but that is no certainty.Trump once led chants of “lock her up”. Now he’s a perpetual defendant. Beyond that, each time he speaks, he provides prosecutors with fresh targets. Discipline is not his strong suit.Trump is set to be arraigned on Thursday. At this rate, he stands to be the first nominee out on personal recognizance on four separate indictments, in four different jurisdictions. Possible indictment in Georgia looms. The 2024 election will be one for the ages. Regardless of the outcome, the US may never be the same.
Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 More

Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the latest criminal case before the former president that comes just weeks after he was charged with retaining national defense information.The latest charges compound the mounting legal peril for Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, after he was indicted earlier this year in Miami for illegally retaining classified documents, and in New York for paying hush money to an adult film star before the 2016 election.Trump is also expected to face state charges in Georgia over Trump’s efforts there to reverse his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has signalled her intent to file multiple indictments around the first two weeks of August.More details soon … More

Burning through campaign funds thanks to mounting legal fees, Donald Trump has been forced to recall $60m from a Super Pac, money originally intended for TV advertising in the Republican presidential primary.In filings with the Federal Election Commission FEC) on Monday, Trump’s political action committee, Save America, said that at the end of June it had less than $4m cash on hand, having paid tens of millions of dollars in legal fees for the former president and associates.Trump faces 40 criminal charges over his retention of classified documents after leaving office; 34 criminal charges over hush-money payments to a porn star in 2016; the imminent prospect of federal and state charges over his election subversion; ongoing proceedings involving the writer E Jean Carroll, to whom he was ordered to pay $5m after being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation; and assorted investigations of his business affairs.Denying all wrongdoing and claiming political persecution, Trump leads his nearest challenger, the stalling Ron DeSantis, by more than 30 points in Republican polling.Given that cushion, the New York Times reported, Trump has recalled $60m from a separate pro-Trump super political action committee, or Super Pac, a refund “believed to be larger than any other refund on record in the history of federal campaigns”.Super Pacs are not meant to coordinate with campaigns.And speaking to the Times, the former FEC lawyer Adav Noti – now legal director for the Campaign Legal Center watchdog group – questioned the legality of manoeuvres between Save America and the Super Pac Make America Great Again.“I don’t know that calling it a refund changes the fundamental illegality,” Noti said. “For the Super Pac and the Trump Pac to be sending tens of millions dollars back and forth depending upon who needs the money more strongly suggests unlawful financial coordination.”Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told the Times: “Everything was done in accordance with the law and upon the advice of counsel. Any disgusting insinuation otherwise, especially by Democrat donors, is nothing more than a feeble attempt to distract from the fact that President Trump is dominating this race – both in the polls and with fundraising – and is the only candidate who will beat crooked Joe Biden.”Allies of Trump have created the Patriot Legal Defense Fund, which according to an Internal Revenue Service filing is intended to raise money to defray costs for those “defending against legal actions arising from an individual or group’s participation in the political process”. The group is run by two senior Trump advisers, Susie Wiles and Michael Glassner.In a statement to the Associated Press, Cheung leveled familiar abuse at the federal special counsel who indicted Trump on records charges and is expected to soon file charges regarding election subversion.“The weaponised Department of Justice and the deranged Jack Smith have targeted innocent Americans associated with President Trump,” Cheung said. “In order to combat these heinous actions by Joe Biden’s cronies and to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed, a new legal defense fund will help pay for their legal fees.”Citing an anonymous source, the AP said Smith’s team “has expressed interest in the payment of legal fees for Trump-aligned witnesses in the investigations and has sought information about it”.Trump launched Save America after his defeat by Biden in 2020, purporting to raise money for an “election defense fund”, to be used to contest the result.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe effort raised $170m in less than a month but the money was used to pay campaign debt, to fund the Republican National Committee and to save for future use. Last year, the US justice department issued grand jury subpoenas seeking information about such fundraising practices.Before the 2022 midterms, Trump pledged to back loyal Republicans. But of about $65m earmarked by Save America for political spending, only about $20m was used.Paul S Ryan, a campaign finance attorney in Washington, told the AP there was “no legal issue” about spending on legal expenses.He said: “It’s really just a question for [Trump’s] donors: do they want to be funding lawyers?”Donors who have given large sums include Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner who received a pardon when Trump was president. He gave $1m.Christina Pushaw, a senior DeSantis aide, sought to highlight Trump’s appeal to smaller donors, saying: “Maga grandmas were scammed … out of their social security checks, in order to pay a billionaire’s legal bills.”Associated Press contributed to this report More

Joe Biden has decided to keep US space command headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-ditch decision by the administration of his presidential predecessor Donald Trump to move it to Alabama while also ending months of politically fueled debate, according to senior federal officials.The officials said Biden was convinced by the head of space command, Gen James Dickinson, who argued that moving his headquarters now would jeopardize military readiness. Dickinson’s view, however, was in contrast to air force leadership, who studied the issue at length and determined that relocating to Huntsville, Alabama, was the right move.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the decision ahead of the announcement.The president, they said, believes that keeping the command in Colorado Springs would avoid a disruption in readiness that the move would cause, particularly as the US races to compete with China in space. And they said Biden firmly believes that maintaining stability will help the military be better able to respond in space over the next decade. Those factors, they said, outweighed what the president believed would be any minor benefits of moving to Alabama.Biden’s decision is sure to enrage Alabama lawmakers and fuel accusations that abortion politics played a role in the choice. The location debate has become entangled in the ongoing battle between the US senator Tommy Tuberville and the defense department over the move to provide travel for troops seeking reproductive healthcare.Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, opposed the policy and has blocked hundreds of military promotions in protest.The US officials said the abortion issue had no effect at all on Biden’s decision. And they said the president fully expected there would be different views on the matter within the defense department.Formally created in August 2019, the command was temporarily based in Colorado. And air force and space force leaders initially recommended it stay there. But in the final days of his presidency, Donald Trump decided it should be based in Huntsville.The change triggered a number of reviews.Proponents of keeping the command in Colorado have argued that moving it to Huntsville and creating a new headquarters would set back its progress at a time it needs to move quickly to be positioned to match China’s military space rise. And Colorado Springs is also home to the air force academy, which now graduates space force guardians, and more than 24 military space missions, including three space force bases.Officials also argued that any new headquarters in Alabama would not be completed until sometime after 2030, forcing a lengthy transition.Huntsville, however, scored higher than Colorado Springs in a federal government accountability office assessment of potential locations and has long been a home to some of the earliest missiles used in the nation’s space programs, including the Saturn V rocket. It is home to the army’s space and missile defense command.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAccording to officials, the air force secretary, Frank Kendall, who ordered his own review of the matter, leaned toward Huntsville, while Dickinson was staunchly in favor of staying put. The officials said the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, presented both options to Biden.The decision was good news for Colorado lawmakers.“For two and a half years we’ve known any objective analysis of this basing decision would reach the same conclusion we did, that Peterson space force base is the best home for space command,” Colorado’s Democratic US senator John Hickenlooper said in a statement. “Most importantly, this decision firmly rejects the idea that politics – instead of national security – should determine basing decisions central to our national security.”Colorado’s other Democratic US senator, Michael Bennet, said the decision “restores integrity to the Pentagon’s basing process and sends a strong message that national security and the readiness of our armed forces drive our military decisions”. More

There’s a decent chance that, come January 2025, Donald Trump will either be in the White House or in a prison cell. Last November, my money was on the prison cell. The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, was the Republicans’ golden boy and Trump was experiencing a major slump; for one thing, he had a mindboggling number of legal problems to deal with.He seemed to have lost his last crumbs of credibility: an embarrassing number of candidates he’d backed were defeated in the midterms, making the former president look like a loser and causing his allies to turn on him. “TRUMPTY DUMPTY” crowed the once-loyal New York Post on its front page. “Trump has no political skills left,” a Trump campaign insider said in messages seen by the Guardian. “His team is a joke. The ship is sinking.”First offboard that sinking ship? Ivanka Trump. The entrepreneur and women’s empowerment champion has always excelled in putting her own interests first. As soon as it seemed as if her dad had gone from a powerbroker to a liability, she fled to Miami with her family and kept a low profile. When Trump officially announced that he would be running for the 2024 nomination, Ivanka made sure that everyone knew she was staying out of it. “I do not plan to be involved in politics,” she said in a statement. She also skipped the official announcement at Mar-a-Lago.Several months on, the political landscape looks drastically different. DeSantis has gone from being feted as the future of the Republican party to being the butt of many jokes. His far-right policies may play to some voters’ fascist fantasies, but his creepy demeanour and Disney villain laugh have rendered him unelectable. There has been report after report about his odd behaviours – like consuming chocolate pudding cups with his fingers and eating “like a starving animal who has never eaten before”. DeSantis is off-putting, even to extremists.Trump, meanwhile, is back on top of the polls. A New York Times/Siena College poll published this week found that 71% of Republican voters still stand with the former president amid the multiple investigations he’s facing. That’s partly because many of them don’t seem to believe his many legal troubles are a big deal: 91% of people who have Fox News as their main source of information don’t think the former president committed serious crimes, the poll revealed. In any case, Trump is trouncing his competition and has a 37% lead over DeSantis. He’s the clear favourite for the Republican nomination.The biggest sign that Trump’s fortunes may be reversing, however? Ivanka and Jared Kushner, the most fair-weather of family, are now being seen in public with Trump again. “They’ve been spotted more frequently this summer,” one top campaign strategist told Vanity Fair. “They’ve made it clear they’re supportive. They pop into meetings to say hi.” The pair also set tongues wagging after they showed up at a recent screening of the child-trafficking movie Sound of Freedom that Trump hosted at his Bedminster golf club.Vanity Fair’s sources didn’t mince their words about why they reckon the power couple are suddenly so family-oriented. “Now that the president is 40 points ahead, of course Jared is pretending he’s involved,” a former Trump administration official told the outlet. “If he’s president again, Jared needs to protect his turf, especially in the Middle East.” We can’t have anyone else claiming the Middle East now, can we?One imagines that Ivanka also wants to protect her turf and finish what she started in 2017. The former first daughter had big dreams, after all. She was going to be the first female president! She was going to run the World Bank! She was going to empower every woman in the world, starting with herself! And then democracy got in the way.Unfortunately for Trump, democracy is still in the way. He may be the Republican favourite, but he still has to battle his way through numerous lawsuits and face off against Joe Biden (the presumptive Democratic nominee) to regain his place on the world stage. I won’t even begin to speculate about whether he might be able to pull that off, but I can tell you this: if you want to know how close Trump is to regaining power don’t look at the polls, look at Ivanka. If she’s keeping her distance, he’s in trouble. But if she’s cosying up to her dad? Then we’re all in a lot of trouble. More

Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, said Hunter sought to create an “illusion of access” to his father Joe Biden to impress clients and business associates, but he insisted the then vice-president was never directly involved in any deals.The Republican-led House oversight committee conducted a more than-five hour interview with Archer as part of its expanding congressional inquiry into the Biden family businesses.The interview focused on the 2010s, when Hunter Biden sat on the board of the Ukraine energy company Burisma and his father was vice-president under President Barack Obama.Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers inside the closed-door interview said Archer testified that over the span of 10 years, Hunter Biden put his father on the phone around 20 times while in the company of associates but “never once spoke about any business dealings”, AP reported.Democratic Representative Dan Goldman told reporters that Archer testified that Hunter sold the “illusion of access” to his father and “tried to get credit for things that [Hunter] had nothing to do with”.But Republican representative Andy Biggs, who has co-sponsored legislation to impeach Biden, said Archer’s testimony implicated the president and quoted the witness as saying Burisma could not have survived without the “Biden brand”. He told reporters:
I think we should do an impeachment inquiry.
The Susan B Anthony List, the nation’s leading anti-abortion group, called Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’ failure to support federal abortion restrictions “unacceptable”.DeSantis signed into law a controversial six-week abortion ban in Florida in April. In a recent interview with Megyn Kelly, DeSantis was asked if he would support abortion bans at the federal level.He replied:
I’ve been a pro-life governor. I’ll be a pro-life president and I’ll come down on the side of life.
DeSantis added that he would “be a leader with the bully pulpit to help local communities and states advance the cause of life but he avoided answering if he would enact a federal abortion ban.In response, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America group, criticized DeSantis, saying that “a pro-life president has a duty to protect the lives of all Americans”.Dannenfelser said in a statement:
Gov. DeSantis’s dismissal of this task is unacceptable to prolife voters. A consensus is already formed. Intensity for it is palpable and measurable.
A super PAC backing Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr raised $6.47m in July, according to a press release from American Values 2024.The press release noted that American Values 2024 has received donations from both Democrats and Republicans, including the Trump mega donor Timothy Mellon, Democratic Party donor Abby Rockefeller, and Gavin de Becker, a security consultant close to Jeff Bezos.Mellon said in the press release:
The fact that Kennedy gets so much bipartisan support tells me two things: that he’s the one candidate who can unite the country and root out corruption and that he’s the one Democrat who can win in the general election.
The super PAC said it raised $6.47m in July, bringing its total fundraising for Kennedy to about $16.82m.About $5m of that haul came during his testimony in front of the House judiciary select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, according to the press release.Kennedy’s appearance before the House subcommittee on 20 July came days after he told reporters at a press dinner that Covid-19 had been “ethnically targeted” at Caucasians and Black people, while Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people had greater immunity.The false claim was enthusiastically embraced by neo-Nazi groups, while being condemned by scientists and Jewish organizations.Donald Trump is demanding Republican support for impeaching Joe Biden over corruption allegations against Hunter Biden, the president’s surviving son.“Any Republican that doesn’t act on Democrat fraud should be immediately primaried and get out,” Trump told a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.Republicans hold the US House, where impeachment would start, by just five seats. GOP members in Democratic areas seem likely to suffer at the polls next year.“If they’re not willing to do it,” Trump said, “we’ve got a lot of good, tough Republicans around.
People are going to run against ’em, and people are going to win. And they’re going to get my endorsement every single time. They’re going to win ’cause we win almost every race when we endorse.
Factcheckers dispute that. Surveying the 2022 midterms, the New York Times said: “Mr Trump endorsed more than 250 candidates, and his 82% success rate is, on the surface, impressive. But the vast majority of those endorsements were of incumbents and heavy favorites to win.”The paper added:
In the 36 most competitive House races … Mr Trump endorsed candidates in five contests. All five lost.
Trump’s influence on key Senate races won by Democrats has been widely discussed.In Pennsylvania, Trump also called for conditioning aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia on White House cooperation with investigations of Hunter Biden. Trump’s own first impeachment was for withholding aid to Ukraine in an attempt to uncover dirt on the Bidens. Pundits noted the irony.“So much for denying the quid pro quo, as he did in 2019,” said Peter Baker, the Times’ chief White House correspondent.A month out from the first debate of the Republican presidential primary, Donald Trump’s domination of the field increases with each poll.On Monday, the first 2024 survey from the New York Times and Siena College put Trump at 54% support. His closest challenger, Ron DeSantis, was at 17%. No one else – including Mike Pence, Tim Scott and Nikki Haley – was higher than 3%.DeSantis’s hard-right campaign is widely seen to be out of fuel and on a glide path to destruction. Trump dominates early voting states and in national averages leads the Florida governor by more than 30 points.Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county, Georgia, is “ready to go” with indictments in her investigation of Trump’s election subversion. In Washington, the special counsel Jack Smith is expected to add charges regarding election subversion to 40 counts already filed over the former president’s retention of classified records.Trump already faces 34 criminal charges in New York over hush-money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels. Referring to Trump being ordered to pay $5m after being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll, a judge recently said Carroll proved Trump raped her. Lawsuits over Trump’s business affairs continue.Heading for trials in primary season, Trump denies wrongdoing and claims political persecution. But his chaos-agent campaign, which he has said he will not abandon even if convicted and sentenced, does not just threaten the national peace. It threatens his own party.Joe Biden just decided to keep the US Space Command headquarters in Colorado, rather than move it Alabama, the Associated Press reports. And, surprising as it might seem, Biden’s decision may soon be caught up in the debate over abortion access.First, a recap: Donald Trump created Space Force in 2019, and near the end of his presidency ordered it moved from its temporary home in Colorado Springs, Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama. Biden has now reversed that decision, dealing a blow to the economy of a deeply Republican state whose senator Tommy Tuberville has lately been blocking hundreds of military promotions in protest of defense department policies intended to help service members obtain abortions.While there is no indication yet that Biden’s decision has anything to do with Tuberville’s blockade, the president has personally decried the senator’s campaign, calling it “ridiculous” and saying it threatens the military’s readiness.Here’s more on the decision, from the AP:
The officials said Biden was convinced by the head of Space Command, Gen. James Dickinson, who argued that moving his headquarters now would jeopardize military readiness. Dickinson’s view, however, was in contrast to Air Force leadership, who studied the issue at length and determined that relocating to Huntsville, Alabama, was the right move.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the decision ahead of the announcement.
The president, they said, believes that keeping the command in Colorado Springs would avoid a disruption in readiness that the move would cause, particularly as the U.S. races to compete with China in space. And they said Biden firmly believes that maintaining stability will help the military be better able to respond in space over the next decade.
House Republicans have announced an investigation into the deal reached between Hunter Biden and the justice department that would have seen the president’s son plead guilty to tax charges and enter a diversion agreement to resolve a gun charge.Biden was expected to formally accept the agreement with prosecutors during a federal court hearing in Delaware last week, but judge Maryellen Noreika objected to portions of the deal and ordered the two sides to renegotiate it and present it to her at a future date.Republicans have for years accused the president’s son of corruption, and since it was announced have called the plea agreement a “sweetheart deal”. In a letter to attorney general Merrick Garland, the Republican chairs of the House judiciary, ways and means and oversight committees demand a range of documents and explanations from the justice department.“The Department’s unusual plea and pretrial diversion agreements with Mr. Biden raise serious concerns — especially when combined with recent whistleblower allegations — that the Department has provided preferential treatment toward Mr. Biden in the course of its investigation and proposed resolution of his alleged criminal conduct,” the committee chairs write. Earlier this month, the House oversight committee heard from two Internal Revenue Service agents who claimed politicization of the Hunter Biden investigation, despite statements from the Donald Trump-appointed US attorney who led the case that he had the ultimate authority to bring charges.The letter marks the latest instance of the House GOP using the chamber’s powers to investigate the Biden administration. Since the start of the year, it has launched investigations into topics including the “weaponization” of the federal government under the Biden administration, and the state and federal prosecutions targeting Trump.A small group of progressive lawmakers led by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday urged the United States to bring lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry for its alleged efforts to sow doubt about the climate crisis.“The actions of ExxonMobil, Shell, and potentially other fossil fuel companies represent a clear violation of federal racketeering laws, truth in advertising laws, consumer protection laws, and potentially other laws, and the Department must act swiftly to hold them accountable for their unlawful actions,” reads the letter, which was also signed by Democratic senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.The letter, addressed to attorney general Merrick Garland, references the well-documented climate misinformation campaign waged over decades by oil and gas companies, and the dozens of lawsuits filed by states, municipalities, and the District of Columbia about that campaign.The letter was sent as swaths of the United States bake under sweltering temperatures. This summer’s record-breaking heatwaves in America and southern Europe, which have put tens of millions of people under heat advisories, would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, according to a recent study by scientists at World Weather Attribution.The senators also implore the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and other law enforcement agencies to file their own lawsuits against parties who participated in climate deception, and request a meeting with Garland.“The polluters must pay,” the senators wrote.Andy Biggs, a rightwing Republican member of the oversight committee, said Devon Archer revealed that Hunter Biden’s family name helped Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma’s business.That’s according to Punchbowl News:Fox News reports a unnamed source saying the same:It is unclear if Biden actually participated in the meetings, or just took the calls to speak with his son, as Democratic congressman Dan Goldman, who attended the interview with Archer, characterized the conversations.However, Punchbowl reports Biggs said Archer had no knowledge of an unverified bribery allegation against Joe and Hunter Biden that was reported to the FBI:Following the Republican-led House oversight committee’s interview with Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, a Democratic lawmaker on the committee downplayed the president involvement in his son’s business.Archer testified that Hunter would call up Joe Biden during business meetings in the period when they served on the board of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma, but only for “casual conversation,” Democratic congressman and committee member Dan Goldman said, Punchbowl News reports.“The witness was very, very consistent, that none of those conversations ever had to do with any business dealings or transactions,” Goldman said, adding that Hunter and Joe Biden spoke frequently.“[Biden] says hello to someone that he sees his son with. What is he supposed to say? ‘Hi, son. No, I’m not gonna say hello to the other people at the table or the other people on the phone.’”Here’s more of Goldman’s comments to the press:Several Republican presidential candidates have vowed that, in the as-of-now unlikely scenario that they are elected to the White House next year, they would pardon Donald Trump. But as the Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas reports, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson is trying to distinguish himself by promising to do no such thing:Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson has said it is “inappropriate” for some of his fellow Republican presidential hopefuls to publicly discuss potentially pardoning Donald Trump, who is their party’s frontrunner for its 2024 nomination despite his mounting criminal charges.“Anybody who promises pardons during a presidential campaign is not serving our system of justice well,” Hutchinson said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. “And it’s inappropriate.”The remarks from Hutchinson cut a stark contrast with comments from other Republicans in the running for the presidency, who said they would pardon Trump if they eventually defeated the Democratic incumbent, Joe Biden.Nikki Haley, once South Carolina’s governor and the Trump White House’s United Nations ambassador, has said she would be inclined to pardon the former president if she won the election to help the country “move forward”.Former New York city police commissioner Bernard Kerik, a leading Trump ally, will meet with special counsel Jack Smith in the coming days as part of the federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Kerik’s attorney told CNN on Sunday that the special counsel’s office will meet with Kerik and his lawyers “in about a week” to discuss efforts taken by former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate potential election fraud in the wake of the 2020 election. He said:
We have a meeting scheduled in about a week with the special counsel’s office to talk about a lot of the efforts that the Giuliani team was taking at the time to investigate fraud, and that’s really going to get into, you know, the core of whether they can charge somebody with having corrupt intent.
The meeting will come after Kerik turned over thousands of pages of documents to the special counsel’s office connected to the debunked voter fraud claims made by Trump and Giuliani.In early 2020, Trump pardoned Kerik for crimes including tax fraud and lying to investigators, for which Kerik had been sentenced to four years in jail. Later that year, Kerik worked with Giuliani on attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, a push which culminated in the failed but deadly January 6 attack on Congress.Donald Trump said he expects he could be indicted “any day now” as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection.Smith has been looking into Trump’s efforts to remain in office following his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. Federal prosecutors have assembled evidence to charge Trump with three crimes, the Guardian has reported: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and a statute that makes it unlawful to conspire to violate civil rights.Trump, posting to Truth Social on Monday, wrote:
I assume that an Indictment from Deranged Jack Smith and his highly partisan gang of Thugs, pertaining to my “PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY Speech, will be coming out any day now, as yet another attempt to cover up all of the bad news about bribes, payoffs, and extortion, coming from the Biden ‘camp.’ This seems to be the way they do it. ELECTION INTERFERENCE! PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT!
Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager and third co-defendant in the special counsel’s classified documents case, declined to answer questions as he left the Miami courthouse.De Oliveira was escorted by federal agents and his attorney, John Irving, who said it was time for the justice department “to put their money where their mouth is” after charging his client.De Oliveira was added as a third defendant in Donald Trump’s complicated classified documents indictment on Thursday. He faces charges such as trying to obstruct justice, concealing records and documents, and making false statements to the FBI.De Oliveira, 56, was a valet, maintenance worker and more recently a property manager at Trump’s resort, Mar-a-Lago, according to the superseding indictment. The indictment said De Oliveira helped Trump’s personal valet, Walt Nauta, move 30 boxes of documents, from Trump’s residence to a storage room, and asked the person responsible for surveillance at the resort to delete the footage on behalf of Trump. He was also accused of draining the resort pool to flood the rooms that contained surveillance footage.When the FBI discovered the documents at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, Trump allegedly called De Oliveira and said he would get him an attorney.Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, made his first appearance in a Miami courtroom on Monday as part of the special counsel’s investigation into the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.During the roughly 10-minute hearing, De Oliveira, the third and newest co-defendant in Trump’s classified documents case, heard the charges against him and received pre-trial orders. He was unable to enter a plea because he had failed to secure local counsel.Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres granted an extension request, and the arraignment is now scheduled to take place on 10 August at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida. De Oliveira was released on a $100,000 bond pending trial.De Oliveira was indicted on Thursday on four charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements to the FBI.Trump and his longtime valet, Walt Nauta, were charged in the classified documents case last month and face additional counts in the indictment that charged De Oliveira. Both Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty to the initial charges. More

The Conversation U.S. has commissioned more than three dozen articles relating to the various criminal investigations into the activities of former president Donald Trump before he took office, while he was in the White House in office, and since he left office.

There are four criminal cases that have been made public. It can be hard to keep track of all the different developments in each and what they mean for the country and for democracy.

To help you make sense of it all, here is a list of articles about each of those cases. We have also included articles on related topics, such as the potential prosecution of a former president, the importance of the rule of law to American democracy and some basics of how criminal cases are developed and prosecuted.

Donald Trump appears in court in New York City in a courtroom sketch by Jane Rosenberg.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Prosecuting an ex-president

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits with his attorneys for his arraignment at the Manhattan criminal court on April 4, 2023, in New York City.
Pool/ Getty Images News via Getty Images North America

New York state’s charges of business records falsification

Former President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023.
Kena Betancur/Getty Images

The federal indictment against Donald Trump includes photos such as this one, allegedly of boxes of documents, including classified material, stored in unsecured spaces at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and home.
U.S. Department of Justice

Department of Justice charges for hoarding classified documents

Former President Donald Trump on his airplane on June 10, 2023, two days after his federal indictment.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

‘If you want to die in jail, keep talking’ – two national security law experts discuss the special treatment for Trump and offer him some advice – June 12, 2023.
How the exposure of highly classified documents could harm US security – and why there are laws against storing them insecurely – June 14, 2023.
Despite threats of violence, Trump’s federal indictment happened with little fanfare – but that doesn’t mean the far-right movement is fading, an extremism scholar explains – June 15, 2023.
Trump’s trial will soon be underway in Florida – here’s why prosecutors had little choice in selecting any other courthouse location – June 21, 2023.
Why Trump’s prosecution for keeping secret documents is lawful, constitutional, precedented, nonpartisan and merited – July 14, 2023.
Despite calls for her to recuse herself from Trump’s criminal case, Judge Aileen Cannon’s situation doesn’t meet the standard for when a judge should step away – July 25, 2023.
Trump faces additional charges – 4 essential reads to understand the case against him for hoarding classified documents – July 27, 2023.

A visual of President Donald Trump is shown during the July 12, 2022, congressional hearings investigating the attack on the Capitol.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Department of Justice investigating Jan. 6 Capitol attacks

George state investigation into 2020 election interference More

The Conversation U.S. has commissioned more than three dozen articles relating to the various criminal investigations into the activities of former president Donald Trump before he took office, while he was in the White House in office, and since he left office.

There are four criminal cases that have been made public. It can be hard to keep track of all the different developments in each and what they mean for the country and for democracy.

To help you make sense of it all, here is a list of articles about each of those cases. We have also included articles on related topics, such as the potential prosecution of a former president, the importance of the rule of law to American democracy and some basics of how criminal cases are developed and prosecuted.

Donald Trump appears in court in New York City in a courtroom sketch by Jane Rosenberg.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Prosecuting an ex-president

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits with his attorneys for his arraignment at the Manhattan criminal court on April 4, 2023, in New York City.
Pool/ Getty Images News via Getty Images North America

New York state’s charges of business records falsification

Former President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023.
Kena Betancur/Getty Images

The federal indictment against Donald Trump includes photos such as this one, allegedly of boxes of documents, including classified material, stored in unsecured spaces at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and home.
U.S. Department of Justice

Department of Justice charges for hoarding classified documents

Former President Donald Trump on his airplane on June 10, 2023, two days after his federal indictment.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

‘If you want to die in jail, keep talking’ – two national security law experts discuss the special treatment for Trump and offer him some advice – June 12, 2023.
How the exposure of highly classified documents could harm US security – and why there are laws against storing them insecurely – June 14, 2023.
Despite threats of violence, Trump’s federal indictment happened with little fanfare – but that doesn’t mean the far-right movement is fading, an extremism scholar explains – June 15, 2023.
Trump’s trial will soon be underway in Florida – here’s why prosecutors had little choice in selecting any other courthouse location – June 21, 2023.
Why Trump’s prosecution for keeping secret documents is lawful, constitutional, precedented, nonpartisan and merited – July 14, 2023.
Despite calls for her to recuse herself from Trump’s criminal case, Judge Aileen Cannon’s situation doesn’t meet the standard for when a judge should step away – July 25, 2023.
Trump faces additional charges – 4 essential reads to understand the case against him for hoarding classified documents – July 27, 2023.

A visual of President Donald Trump is shown during the July 12, 2022, congressional hearings investigating the attack on the Capitol.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Department of Justice investigating Jan. 6 Capitol attacks

Even if Jan. 6 referrals turn into criminal charges – or convictions – Trump will still be able to run in 2024 and serve as president if elected – Dec 19, 2022.
What the criminal referral of Trump means – a constitutional law expert explains the Jan. 6 committee action – Dec. 19, 2022.
The Jan. 6 committee makes its case against Trump, his allies and their conspiracy to commit an insurrection: Five essential reads – Dec. 20, 2022.
Targeting Trump for prosecution – 4 essential reads on how the Jan. 6 investigation laid the groundwork for the special counsel – July 18, 2023.
What is a target letter? 3 things to know about how the Justice Department notifies suspects, like Donald Trump, ahead of possible charges – July 18, 2023.
Trump indicted in Jan. 6 case – but his 3 upcoming trials may not keep him off the campaign trail – Aug. 1, 2023.
The most serious Trump indictment yet – a criminal law scholar explains the charges of using ‘dishonesty, fraud and deceit’ to cling to power – Aug. 1, 2023.
George Washington knew when it was time to go, unlike Trump, because the founders worried about the judgment of history – Aug. 2, 2023.

George state investigation into 2020 election interference More