US Politics

The New York judge who presided over the arraignment of Donald Trump and the judge’s family have reportedly received multiple threats following the historic arrest of the former president.In court in Manhattan on Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to his hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.NBC was among outlets to report that the judge, Juan Merchan, and his family subsequently received “dozens” of threats.Citing two sources familiar with the matter, NBC said the threats, like those recently directed towards the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, and other officials, had come in the form of calls, emails and letters.In addition to increased security surrounding Merchan and the court, New York police were providing “extra security to all affected staff members”, NBC said. Biographies of employees at Bragg’s office had been removed from the district attorney’s website.The New York Daily News also reported threats to Merchan and his family, a source telling the paper “the content of the calls, emails and letters was … harassing and defamatory, with most of the trolls calling from out of state”.Lucian Chalfen, a spokesperson for the New York office of court administration, told the paper: “We continue to evaluate and re-evaluate security concerns and potential threats. We have maintained an increased security presence in and around courthouses and throughout the judiciary and will adjust protocols as necessary.”Elsewhere, J Michael Luttig, the retired conservative judge and adviser to the former vice-president Mike Pence who came to national prominence with testimony to the House January 6 committee, warned Trump he risked a gag order over his attacks on Judge Merchan.“There is no court that would want to impose a gag order on a president of the United States,” Luttig told Axios. But “if the former president forces the Manhattan criminal court, the court will have no choice”.Mike Scotto, a former rackets bureau chief for the Manhattan district attorney, told the same site: “A gag order is used to protect the defendant’s rights to a fair trial and also the government’s rights to a fair trial, so that the potential jurors don’t learn anything about the case that they’re not going to learn in court.”Luttig is an influential voice in conservative circles, widely deemed unlucky not to have reached the supreme court. He has predicted “the beginning of the end of Donald Trump”.But the former president enjoys comfortable leads in polling regarding the Republican nomination in 2024 and senior party figures have rallied round him in response to his historic indictment.Before his arraignment in the New York case, Trump stoked controversy with inflammatory social media posts about the case and Bragg and calls for protest.On Tuesday, the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene led a rally for Trump in a park outside the court in Manhattan.Inside the court, Merchan warned Trump to “refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence and civil unrest”. He also told a Trump lawyer: “I don’t share your view that certain language is justified by frustration.”Hours later, in a speech at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, Trump called Merchan “a Trump-hating judge”; attacked the judge’s family (“I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris”); and went after Bragg (“a criminal”) and other prosecutors overseeing investigations of his behaviour in the White House and out of power.Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county, Georgia, is investigating Trump’s election subversion attempts there, with an indictment believed likely.Trump called her “a local racist Democrat”.At the US justice department, the special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing investigations of Trump’s election subversion and incitement of the Capitol attack, and of Trump’s retention of classified records.Trump called him “a radical-left lunatic known as a bomb-thrower”.The Lincoln Project, a group formed by anti-Trump Republicans, condemned what it called “a paranoid and delusional speech cheered on by fanatical cult members who do not care about democracy and American values”.“Trump got the circus he wanted,” the group said. “The rest of the GOP has fallen in line.” More

Robert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of the most famous American political families, is running for president.Kennedy, 69, filed a statement of candidacy on Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.The campaign to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination is a long shot, in the vein of that launched by the self-help author Marianne Williamson.Kennedy, a nephew of President John F Kennedy and son of the US attorney general and New York senator Robert F Kennedy, was once a bestselling author and environmental lawyer who worked on issues such as clean water.But more than 15 years ago he became fixated on a belief that vaccines are not safe. He emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement, his work described by public health experts and members of his own family as misleading and dangerous.Kennedy’s efforts intensified amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the development of a vaccine.His anti-vaccine charity, Children’s Health Defense, prospered, with revenues more than doubling in 2020 to $6.8m, according to filings with charity regulators.The organization has targeted false claims at groups that may be more prone to distrust the vaccine, including mothers and Black Americans, experts have said, which could have resulted in deaths during the pandemic.In 2021, Kennedy released a book, The Real Anthony Fauci, in which he accused the top infectious disease doctor of assisting in “a historic coup d’etat against western democracy” and promoted unproven Covid treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.His push against the Covid vaccine has linked him with anti-democratic figures and groups. Kennedy has appeared at events pushing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and with people who cheered or downplayed the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.A photo posted on Instagram showed Kennedy backstage at a July 2021 Reawaken America event with the Trump ally Roger Stone, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and anti-vaccine profiteer Charlene Bollinger. All three have promoted the lie about the 2020 election being stolen.Bollinger has appeared with Kennedy at multiple events. She and her husband sponsored an anti-vaccine, pro-Trump rally near the Capitol on January 6. Bollinger celebrated the attack and her husband tried to enter the Capitol. Kennedy later appeared in a video for their Super Pac.Kennedy has repeatedly invoked Nazis and the Holocaust when talking about measures aimed at mitigating the spread of Covid, such as mask requirements and vaccine mandates.He has sometimes apologized for those comments, including when he suggested that people in 2022 had it worse than Anne Frank, the teenager who died in a Nazi concentration camp after hiding with her family in Amsterdam for two years.Kennedy has invoked his family’s legacy in his anti-vaccine work, including sometimes using images of JFK.His sister Kerry Kennedy, who runs Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, an international rights group founded by their mother, Ethel, said her brother has at times removed content at her request.She told the Associated Press in 2021 her brother is “completely wrong on this issue and very dangerous”. More

The far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene risked stoking the wrath of New Yorkers for a second time this week, calling their city “disgusting”, “filthy”, “repulsive” and a “terrible place”.“I compared it to what I called Gotham City,” the Georgia Republican told Fox News. “The streets are filthy, they’re covered with people basically lying, on drugs. They can’t even stand up. They’re falling over. There’s so much crime in the city. I can’t comprehend how people live there.”The blogger Aaron Rupar responded: “Imagine if [the New York progressive] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on MSNBC and said this about a town in Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s district. Republicans would try to expel her from Congress.”Mehdi Hasan, the MSNBC host, said: “No Democratic politician from the coasts could ever go visit a Republican-led city in the south and then go on a liberal media outlet and call it repulsive, smelly and disgusting. No way.”Greene’s comments, Hasan said, were “a reminder of the double standards, and asymmetry, in our politics and our media”.Greene is a conspiracy theorist and controversialist who has made antisemitic and racist claims and was barred from committees by Democrats after threatening fellow members of Congress. She was restored to key assignments by Kevin McCarthy when the Republican became House speaker in January, dependent on far-right support.Greene visited New York on Tuesday, to protest in support of Donald Trump as the former president – and former New Yorker – pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to his hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.Greene attempted to speak in a park outside the courthouse in downtown Manhattan. She was jostled and drowned out by whistles blown by counter-protesters.“It was absolute chaos,” she told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday. “And that’s what the mayor of New York City wanted to happen to me.”Eric Adams had warned Greene to “be on your best behavior”.“He threatened me and basically put on a dog whistle for violence against me,” Greene claimed, also claiming the protest against her was “against the law, by the way, Tucker.“You see, they didn’t want me to be able to protest and use my first amendment right. And they wanted violence. I think they wanted that to happen, because they want to repeat January 6 all over again, want all of us Trump supporters, Maga, basically Republicans and just good Americans to look like criminals, and that’s what they do in communist countries.”On 6 January 2021, supporters Trump told to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat stormed the US Capitol. Nine deaths are now linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides. More than a thousand arrests have been made and hundreds of convictions won, some for seditious conspiracy. With other Republicans, Greene has visited January 6 rioters in jail.On Fox News, Greene called Democrats “fascists … in hysterics” over Trump. But she wasn’t finished with New York.Carlson, whose network is based in midtown Manhattan but who built a home studio in Maine, said: “Mayor Adams describe New York as quote his ‘home’. How did his home look? Pretty neat and tidy?”Greene made her comparison to Gotham City – where Batman lives – and added: “It was repulsive, it smells bad. And I just, I think it’s a terrible place.”Perhaps thinking of his bosses in midtown, at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, Carlson said: “Yeah, with some nice people. I will say that.” More

Taiwan authorities are monitoring Chinese military activity including a carrier strike group about 200 nautical miles (370km) off the main island’s coastline, after the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, met US House speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.In the meeting, held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, McCarthy stressed the urgency of arms deliveries to Taiwan, while Tsai praised the “strong and unique partnership” with the US..Taiwan’s defence minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, said on Thursday that the island’s military was studying the carrier group, led by the Shandong aircraft carrier. Chiu said the group – a fleet of navy vessels led by an aircraft carrier – appeared to be on a training exercise and no planes had been detected taking off from the ship, but the timing was “sensitive”. He later confirmed that the US aircraft carrier Nimitz, which had been participating in joint drills with Japan and Korea in the East China Sea this week, was also in the same area as the Shandong on Thursday.The carrier group was sent to waters south-east of Taiwan’s main island on Wednesday, shortly before Tsai and McCarthy met in Los Angeles.Japan’s defence ministry confirmed it was also monitoring the strike group, which it detected 300km from Okinawa on Wednesday evening. The ministry said the Shandong was accompanied by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) frigate Liuzhou and a fast combat support ship as it travelled east towards the Philippines Sea, entering the Pacific Ocean for the first time.Separately, Japan said a PLAN guided-missile destroyer had been detected sailing between Taiwan and the Japanese island of Yonaguni, about 100km off Taiwan’s coast on Tuesday. Taiwan’s defence ministry would not confirm or comment on the detection.Taiwan’s defence ministry also reported three additional PLAN vessels and one anti-submarine helicopter operating near Taiwan in the 24 hours to Thursday morning.Chiu said a separate patrol of the Taiwan Strait announced by Chinese maritime authorities on Wednesday was not a military exercise, but appeared to be Beijing attempting to set a “new normal” in terms of enforcing their domestic law in wider maritime spaces. China’s coastguard, which comes under the command of the central military commission, claims authority to stop and inspect vessels in the area under a controversial 2021 law, though it is not believed to have done so before. The Taiwan defence ministry has instructed Taiwanese vessels, including cargo and ferry services, to not cooperate with attempts by this patrol to board and inspect them.Beijing has reacted angrily to the meeting between Taiwan’s leader and McCarthy, who is the second in line to the US presidency, accusing the pair of undermining its claim over Taiwan, conniving on “separatist” aims, and degrading China-US relations.McCarthy, a Republican who became the most senior figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on American soil in decades, was joined by a bipartisan group of US politicians who voiced support for dialogue with Taiwan amid simmering tensions with China.“We must continue the arms sales to Taiwan and make sure such sales reach Taiwan on a very timely basis,” McCarthy said at a news conference after the meeting, adding that he believed there was bipartisan agreement on this. “Second, we must strengthen our economic cooperation, particularly with trade and technology.”Beijing quickly denounced the meeting. Its foreign ministry said in statement that China will take “resolute and effective measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”A China defence ministry spokesperson called on the US to “stop its blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”.“We firmly oppose all forms of official interaction between the United States and Taiwan and any visit by leader of the Taiwan authorities to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext,” it said in a statement.China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a position the government in Taipei strongly contests. Tsai says they are already a sovereign nation, and Taiwan’s future is for its people to decide.It is the second time Tsai has met the holder of the high-ranking office in less than a year, having welcomed McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan in August. That visit, which took place on what China considers to be sovereign soil, provoked a stronger reaction from Beijing, including days of live-fire military exercises around Taiwan.So far, the reaction to the California meeting is far more muted. It is understood the McCarthy meeting was held on US soil instead of in Taiwan as McCarthy originally wanted, at least in part to reduce its provocativeness. On Thursday, Taiwan’s national security chief also noted the presidents of France and the European Union were currently visiting China, and “China must practice peaceful diplomacy”.McCarthy told Tsai a shared belief in democracy and freedom formed “the bedrock” of their enduring relationship.“The friendship between the people of Taiwan and America is a matter of profound importance to the free world, and it is critical to maintain economic freedom peace and regional stability,” he said.While stressing that there was no need for retaliation from China after the meeting, McCarthy also said he looked forward to, “more meeting like this in the future”.Republican Mike Gallagher, chair of the House Chinese Communist party committee, responded to China’s objections to the meeting, saying: “If the duly elected leader of one of our most important democratic partners can’t meet with American leaders on American soil, then we are merely feeding the crocodile that will eventually eat us.”Tsai’s US stops have been attended by crowds of pro- and anti-Taiwan protesters. The opposing groups scuffled outside the Ronald Reagan library, and were separated by police. Wednesday’s meeting was also attended by more than a dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers, highlighting the bipartisan consensus in Congress when it comes to supporting Taiwan.Tsai thanked them for their “unwavering support”, which she said “reassures the people of Taiwan that we are not isolated and we are not alone”.Since 1979, the US has officially recognised the People’s Republic of China as the sole government of the “one China” that is mainland China and Taiwan. But the US also sells arms to Taiwan to deter any military advances from Beijing, something that McCarthy said should continue.He drew an explicit comparison between Hong Kong and Taiwan, saying that when China “reneged” on its promise to allow Hong Kong autonomy for 50 years after the handover to Chinese rule, “that harmed [Beijing’s reputation] around the world”.Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a thinktank, warned that the meeting could accelerate the downward spiral of US-China relations. He warned that it could trigger a “show of resolve” from Beijing, which could itself “drive Washington to move even closer to Taiwan in order to demonstrate its own resolve”.On Wednesday the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told Euronews that a move by China to annex Taiwan would have far reaching repercussions “for quite literally every country on Earth”.Chi Hui Lin and Reuters contributed to this report More

The former vice-president Mike Pence will not appeal an order compelling him to testify in the US justice department investigation of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, attempts which culminated in the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.The order was handed down last week. A spokesperson for Pence announced the decision on Wednesday, clearing the way for Pence to appear before a grand jury in Washington.Other Trump administration officials have testified in the investigation, as well as in an investigation of Trump’s retention of classified documents. Pence would be the highest-profile witness to appear before a grand jury.His closed-door testimony could offer a first-hand account of Trump’s state of mind in the weeks after he lost to Joe Biden and further expose a rift in Trump’s relationship with his former vice-president.Lawyers for Trump objected to the subpoena on grounds of executive privilege, an argument rejected by James Boasberg, a federal district court judge in Washington. Boasberg did accept arguments by Pence’s lawyers that for constitutional reasons he could not be questioned about his actions on January 6.Lawyers for Pence argued that because he served that day as president of the Senate, overseeing the certification of electoral college results, he was protected from being forced to testify under the “speech or debate” clause of the US constitution, which protects members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.On Wednesday, Pence’s spokesperson, Devin O’Malley, said: “Having vindicated that principle of the constitution, vice-president Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law.”Lawyers for Trump could still appeal the executive privilege ruling.The justice department investigation, under the special counsel Jack Smith, is just one form of legal jeopardy faced by Trump, even as he continues to enjoy big leads in polls regarding the Republican presidential nomination.The former president was indicted in New York this week on charges related to a hush money payment to a porn star who claims an affair.Trump also faces a Georgia state election subversion investigation, the federal investigation of his retention of classified documents and civil suits in New York over his business practices and a defamation case arising from an allegation of rape.Trump denies all wrongdoing and claims to be the victim of political witch-hunts.Pence, who is expected to announce his own run for the presidency, was almost a victim of the mob Trump sent to the Capitol on 6 January 2021, seeking to block certification of Biden’s win. As rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and erected a makeshift gallows, Pence was sent running for safety.Nine deaths have been linked to the attack, including law enforcement suicides. More than a thousand people have been arrested and hundreds convicted, some of seditious conspiracy.Pence has publicly addressed his interactions with Trump after election day and up to and including January 6, not least in a book, So Help Me God, seemingly meant to prepare the ground for a presidential run.As he tries to balance his own ambitions with Trump’s dominance among Republican voters, Pence has sought to distance himself from his former president.Last month, Pence told the Gridiron dinner in Washington: “President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”Associated Press contributed reporting More

It was a lively day in Washington with developments on several fronts this afternoon.
Former Vice-president, Mike Pence, will not fight a judge’s order compelling him to appear before a special grand jury hearing testimony in the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
King Charles invited Biden to the United Kingdom for an official state visit and the US president accepted, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. She offered no timeline for when the visit would take place.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed the repeal of a dormant 1931 law that the banned abortion and criminalized providers who performed them.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in California today, becoming the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979, despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own.
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has weighed in to say he does not agree with the criminal charges brought against former president Donald Trump in the US, calling the case political, Reuters reports.
Reflecting on his day in court, Trump said he sees a silver lining.“As much as I can enjoy a day like Tuesday,” the former president wrote, denouncing liberals as “Radical Left Lunatics” and insisting there was “no crime” committed, “it was an unbelievable experience, perhaps the Best Day in History for somebody who had just suffered Unjustifiable Indictment!”In a burst of posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump shared polling, promoted by conservative outlets, that showed him stretching his lead over the nominal Republican presidential field.While Trump’s arraignment have appeared to rally Republican voters to his side, polling also shows that a majority of Americans agree with indictment, suggesting his legal woes could hinder him with the broader electorate.He added: “My Poll Numbers have never been better, almost $10 Million was raised for the Campaign and, the day was capped off with a very important Speech. If we don’t stop the Radical Left, America is DEAD!”Nevada senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, will seek re-election, an expected but nevertheless welcome announcement for the party facing a tough electoral map in 2024.The Silver State has proved to be one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds. In 2022, Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto narrowly eked out a victory against her Republican opponent, while the state’s Democratic governor lost re-election to the Trump-backed Joe Lombardo.Next year Senate Democrats are defending seats in a handful of states Trump won as well as a number of swing states. This comes after they expanded their narrow majority to 51 in 2022 by flipping a seat Pennsylvania.Rosen’s launch video emphasizes her biography, her support for the infrastructure law and legislation reducing the cost of prescription drug prices, and her focus on issues like abortion access and climate change.Republican-led legislatures around the country are considering – and passing – new laws to control the lives of trans youth – from the care they can seek, to the sports’ team they can play on and the school bathrooms they can use.On Wednesday, Indiana’s Republican governor, Eric Holcomb, signed into law a measure banning all gender-affirming care for minors, after telling reporters the bill sent to his desk was “clear as mud”. With his signature, Indiana joins at least 12 other states that have enacted similar bans or restrictions on such care.Opponents of such legislation say the care, which includes hormone therapy and puberty blockers endorsed by top medical associations, are safe, largely reversible and can be life-saving for trans youth.Republican lawmakers in Kansas, meanwhile, overrode the Democratic governor, Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill banning transgender athletes from participating in girl’s and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, per the Associated Press.It follows a measure approved by Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday that critics say is among the most restrictive in the nation. The bill, which Kelly is expected to veto, would prevent trans people from using public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities that do not align with the gender on their birth certificate. It would also prevent them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s license.Former Vice-president, Mike Pence, will not fight a judge’s order compelling him to appear before a special grand jury hearing testimony in the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.“Vice-president Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” a spokesman for Pence said.“The court’s landmark and historic ruling affirmed for the first time in history that the speech or debate clause extends to the vice-president,” the spokesperson said. “Having vindicated that principle of the constitution, VP Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena.”The president and the first lady are “very much looking forward” to welcoming LSU Tigers basketball team to the White House after they defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes to win their first NCAA championship, Jean-Pierre said.But it appears unclear whether the team, or its star player, Angel Reese, is planning to attend after a verbal flap by the first lady, who attended the championship game, suggested both teams be invited to the White House.Traditionally, only the champions are invited. Reese called the remark a “JOKE” on Twitter. The White House attempted to walk back the comment, saying Jill Biden’s comments were “intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes”.“She looks forward to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win at the White House.”But in a podcast interview, according to CNN, Reese told the hosts that she did not accept Biden’s “apology”. “You can’t go back on certain things that you say … They can have that spotlight. We’ll go to the Obamas.’ We’ll go see Michelle. We’ll see Barack,” the star said.Jean-Pierre said King Charles invited Biden to the United Kingdom for an official state visit and he accepted. The king extended the invitation during a recent call with the president, which Jean Pierre described as “very friendly”. She offered no timeline for when the visit would take place.Biden is not planning to attend King Charles’ coronation next month in keeping with past precedent. The US delegation will be lead instead by the first lady, Jill Biden.Pressed repeatedly on why Biden wasn’t attending, Jean-Pierre insisted that the British people should not see the decision as a “snub.”“I will leave it at that,” she said. “It is not a snub.”On whether he would meet with the king during his visit to the UK and Ireland next week, Jean-Pierre said to stay tuned.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is at the podium this afternoon answering reporters’ questions on a range of subjects. Here’s a quick rat-a-tat.
She declined to offer a timeline of when the White House would release a comprehensive strategy for combatting antisemitism, as Biden announced in a CNN op-ed this morning.
She would not comment on Trump’s arraignment, citing the White House’s position that it does not comment on ongoing legal cases. However, she did in general terms say that the White House and the president condemns “any type of attacks on any judge or our judicial system”.
Biden was briefed by senior advisers about the charges against Trump, Jean-Pierre said, insisting his focus was not on the former president. “He’s not focused on this indictment,” she said.
On McCarthy’s meeting with the Taiwanese president, Jean Pierre said: “There is no reason for Beijing to turn this transit into something that is used as a pretext to overreact … We just do not see, there should not be a reason, for the PCR to overreact here.”
She would not say whether Biden planned to take family members with him on what he views as a return to his ancestral home. She said he would use his family’s history and Irish roots to tell a broader story about Irish immigrants influence on the nation.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed the repeal of a 1931 law that the banned abortion and criminalized providers who performed them.A backlash to the supreme court’s to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion helped power Whitmer and a slate of Democratic candidates to victory in last year’s midterm elections.Voters overwhelmingly approved a citizen-led initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution, which rendered the 1931 law unconstitutional. However, if at some point in the future, voters were to gather enough signatures to amend the state’s constitution and overturn abortion right, the 1931 ban would then have been enforceable.Whitmer’s signature eliminated that possibility entirely, erasing the nearly-century old law completely.Testifying before a federal grand jury, former top Trump administration officials Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli said they repeatedly informed the then-president that he could not seize voting machines as part of his efforts to cling to power in the wake of his defeat in 2020, according to new reporting by CNN.Citing three people familiar with the proceedings, CNN reported that Wolf and Cuccinelli were to describe discussions within the administration related to seizing voting machines when they appeared before the grand jury earlier this year.One of the sources told CNN that Cuccinelli testified to the grand jury that he “made clear at all times” that the Department of Homeland Security did not have the authority to seize voting machines.That line of questioning goes to the heart of [special counsel Jack] Smith’s challenge in any criminal case he might bring — to prove that Trump and his allies pursued their efforts despite knowing their fraud claims were false or their gambits weren’t lawful. To bring any potential criminal charges, prosecutors would have to overcome Trump’s public claim that he believed then and now that fraud really did cost him the election, per CNN.House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in California today, becoming the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979, despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own, Reuters reports.McCarthy, a Republican who through his House position is number three in the US leadership hierarchy, welcomed Tsai on Wednesday morning at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, near Los Angeles.China staged war games around Taiwan last August following the visit to Taipei of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Taiwan’s defense ministry said a Chinese aircraft carrier group was in the waters off the island’s southeast coast ahead of the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy in California.US secretary of state Antony Blinken said there was nothing new about a Taiwanese president transiting through the United States and Beijing should not use it as an excuse to take any action or ratchet up tensions.Supporters waving Taiwan flags and pro-Taiwan and Hong Kong banners chanted “Jiayou Taiwan” – the equivalent of “Go Taiwan.”Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.A meeting in California is seen as a potentially less provocative alternative to McCarthy visiting Taiwan, something he has said he hopes to do.Even the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has now weighed in to say he does not agree with the criminal charges brought against former president Donald Trump in the US, calling the case political, Reuters reports.Supposedly legal issues should not be used for electoral, political purposes. That’s why I don’t agree with what they are doing to ex-president Trump,” Lopez Obrador said at a news conference this morning.That’s a heck of a lot more than current US president Joe Biden has said on the matter, as he and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre continue to rebuff requests for comment by political journalists on Trump’s legal crisis.Trump is the first sitting or former US president to face criminal charges, as he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to business fraud, allegedly to cover up election finance fraud, in New York on Tuesday afternoon.Leftist populist “Amlo” compared Trump’s case to the December ousting of former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo, who was removed from office and arrested after trying to dissolve congress.It should be the people who decide,” said López Obrador, who added that he could not say whether Trump was guilty or not.Here’s where things stand today
Donald Trump continues to lash out at his opponents – real and perceived – the morning after his historic arraignment. In a pair of social media posts, he attacked the investigations against him, accused Democrats of “weaponizing” federal law enforcement agencies and called on Congressional Republicans to “defund” the DOJ and FBI.
Janet Protasiewicz won her race for the Wisconsin’s supreme court, beating out a conservative candidate who had advised Republicans on legal efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in the state through the use of “fake electors”. Her win will flip the ideological balance of the state’s highest court, in an election which democracy observers have called the most consequential one of the year, with abortion rights, redistricting and election rules at stake.
Progressive Cook county board commissioner Brandon Johnson won the election for Chicago mayor on Tuesday evening after pulling ahead of his opponent Paul Vallas on Tuesday.
The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that it had reached a tentative $144.5m settlement with victims and relatives of those killed in the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
Still to come: House speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers will sit down with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen today in California, a carefully choreographed encounter that comes amid rising tensions between the US and China.
The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that it had reached a tentative $144.5m settlement with victims and relatives of those killed in the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.Dozens of worshipers were killed or injured when gunman Devin Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service at First Baptist church of Sutherland Springs. The gunman, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, had served in the Air Force. Twenty-six people, including a pregnant woman, were killed and 22 others were injured.After the shooting, dozens of victims and their relatives sued the US air force, alleging that it failed to report the gunman’s history of violence, including an assault conviction, to the FBI’s national background check system. That conviction, they argued, should have prevented the former airman from being able to purchase the guns he used in the assault.A judge had previously ruled that the air force was “60% liable” for the attack as a result of its failure to report the conviction.“No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs,” said associate attorney general Vanita Gupta in the press release. “Today’s announcement brings the litigation to a close, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime.”The DoJ said the settlement was still subject to court approvals.In an op-ed published by CNN, Joe Biden marked the start of Passover by imploring Americans and democratic citizens around the world to speak out against rising antisemitism.He said the White House would soon release the “first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism”, which he said would outline actions the federal government will take based on outreach to more than a thousand “Jewish community stakeholders, faith and civil rights leaders, state and local officials and more.”During his time in office, the president noted, the White House hosted the first High Holiday reception and lit the first permanent White House Hanukah menorah in our nation’s history.Here’s a bit more of Biden’s passover message:To the Jewish community, I want you to know that I see your fear, your hurt and your concern that this venom is being normalized. I decided to run for President after I saw it in Charlottesville, when neo-Nazis marched from the shadows spewing the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s,” Biden wrote.
“Rest assured that I am committed to the safety of the Jewish people. I stand with you. America stands with you. Under my presidency, we continue to condemn antisemitism at every turn. Failure to call out hate is complicity. Silence is complicity. And we will not be silent.” More

The hush money payments Donald Trump has been accused of making involve not only adult film star Stormy Daniels, who has dominated headlines in recent months, but also Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model.In 2018, McDougal told CNN she had an extramarital affair with the former president that began in 2006, which Trump denies. He has been married to his third wife, Melania Trump, since 2005.According to McDougal, the affair involved having sex with Trump “many dozens of times” and occurred in multiple locations including at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, and at his private golf club in New Jersey, as well as in Trump Tower in New York City, where she was allegedly brought in through the back entrance.Despite Trump’s denials that an extramarital affair with McDougal ever occurred, the New York prosecution team has cited evidence of payments made to McDougal by Trump.Born in Indiana, McDougal is a 52-year old actress and former Playboy model. According to her website, she began her career in her 20s as a fitness model for various health and fitness publications. In 1997, McDougal became a Playboy “playmate” and made “playmate of the year” in 1998.In 1999, McDougal appeared on the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine.Since then, McDougal made various appearances as a sports radio personality and was cast in the 2001 direct-to-video film The Arena by Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov. In The Arena, McDougal plays an Amazon slave who is forced to become a gladiator in Rome.According to her website, McDougal is a national advocate for breast implant illness and is an active member in various support groups, following her implant removal in 2017. Her activism work also includes raising awareness on deep vein thrombosis and animal rights.In 2018, the New Yorker published a letter written by McDougal about her alleged experiences with Trump during their first date at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In the letter, McDougal wrote: “We talked for a couple hours – then, it was ‘ON’! We got naked + had sex. After we got dressed (to leave), he offered me money. I looked at him (+ felt sad) and said, ‘No thanks – I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you – NOT for money’ – He told me ‘you are special.’”That same year, McDougal publicly apologized to Melania Trump for the alleged affair, saying on CNN: “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t want it done to me … When I look back, where I was back then, I know it’s wrong … I’m really sorry for that. I know it’s a wrong thing to do.” More

When Donald Trump was photographed entering his Trump Tower skyscraper on Monday evening in New York and then emerging again on Tuesday to face criminal charges in a Manhattan court, in a historic low for a former US president, he cut a solitary figure.And as he flew back on his private jet to Florida after pleading not guilty to 34 charges accusing him of covering up hush-money payments to an adult film star and an ex-Playboy model while he was married, the woman to whom he was then (and is now) married, Melania Trump, was not there.As people increasingly wondered “Where’s Melania?” Donald Trump gathered supporters and family members in the glittering ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach and delivered a rambling but defiant speech on Tuesday evening, part tirade against his indictment, part thanks to his family. But Melania was neither mentioned nor anywhere to be seen.“I built a great business with my family, a fantastic business,” Trump said to the assembled, as his family watched from the front row, alongside Melania’s father, Viktor Knavs.His oldest sons Donald Jr and Eric were there, as was Tiffany Trump, his daughter with his second wife, Marla Maples. His other daughter, Ivanka Trump, was not present, having distanced herself from her father’s 2024 presidential campaign and her time serving as a key aide in his White House, and neither was Trump’s only child with Melania, Barron. But all the offspring got a mention.“I have a son here who has done a great job, and I have another son here who has done a great job,” Trump said, referring to his sons Eric and Donald Jr, before adding, “And Tiffany, and Ivanka. And Barron will be great someday. He is tall, he is tall and he’s smart.“But I have a great family and they have done a fantastic job and we appreciate it very much. They have gone through hell,” he added.In a family line-up photo Melania is noticeably absent.At one point on Tuesday afternoon there had been a smattering of reports that Melania was sighted in New York as if to join her husband at Trump Tower, but a picture claiming to capture the moment was inconclusive. No verification or confirmation was ever forthcoming and no further evidence of anyone seeing Melania in New York or Palm Beach in public emerged.A source told People last month Melania was “leading her own life, and still feels happy being at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by people who love her and who never talk about reality, or bad things about her husband”.Nevertheless, the source said Melania “remains angry” about her husband’s extramarital affairs, adding that she “doesn’t want to hear [the alleged hush money payment] mentioned … She is aware of who her husband is and keeps her life upbeat with her own family and a few close friends.”In addition to being accused of falsifying business records in what prosecutors claim to be a conspiratorial attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election by quashing claims of a sexual encounter with the adult film star Stormy Daniels, Trump is also accused of paying hush money to a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, over an affair. Trump denies having affairs with either woman. More