US Politics

Louisiana woman denied abortion despite fetus’s fatal abnormality to travel to North CarolinaHospital feared loss of license as state law did not explicitly allow the procedure for this rare condition An expectant Louisiana woman who is carrying a skull-less fetus that would die almost immediately after birth has cemented plans to travel to North Carolina to terminate her pregnancy, she said on Friday.Nancy Davis, 36, has been facing a choice of either carrying the fetus to term or traveling several states away for an abortion after she says her local medical provider would not perform the procedure amid confusion over whether the state’s abortion ban outlawed it.Standing on the steps of Louisiana’s capitol building in her home town of Baton Rouge, Davis announced that her trip would be next week. The trip is being financed by more than $30,000 in donations raised by an online GoFundMe campaign that was launched after she went public with her plight earlier this month.Her lawyer, the prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, also called on Louisiana’s lawmakers to at least clarify the wording of their abortion ban – or to repeal it altogether – to prevent anyone else there from enduring what Davis and her family had during the last several weeks. He said the state’s governor, John Bel Edwards, should call a special legislative session in advance of the regular one scheduled to begin in April of next year to do that if necessary.“Louisiana lawmakers inflicted unspeakable pain, emotional damage and physical risk upon this beautiful mother,” Crump said, gesturing at Davis, who was accompanied Friday by her partner, Shedric Cole, their young daughter and her two stepchildren. “They replaced care with confusion, privacy with politics and options with ideology.“Ms Davis was among the first women to be caught in this crosshairs of confusion due to Louisiana’s rush to restrict abortion. But she will hardly be the last.”Louisiana is among the American states that have outlawed abortion with very few exceptions following the US supreme court’s decision in June to strip away nationwide abortion rights that had been in place since the 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade.Davis was about 10 weeks pregnant in late July when an ultrasound at Woman’s hospital in Baton Rouge revealed that her fetus was missing the top of its skull, a rare but devastating condition known as acrania that kills babies within days – if not minutes – of birth.Because Louisiana’s list of conditions justifying an exception from the state’s abortion ban did not explicitly include acrania, hospital officials turned down terminating Davis’ pregancy, apparently fearing they could be subject to prison time, costly fines and forfeiture of their operating licenses if they performed the procedure.“Basically, they said I had to carry my baby to bury my baby,” Davis remarked Friday.Her providers said her Medicaid insurance would not cover the procedure anyway and directed her to an abortion clinic.Yet Louisiana’s abortion clinics have announced plans to leave the state amid brewing legal battles over whether the ban can constitutionally be enforced.After Davis went public with her story and retained Crump to help her sort out her options, the state senator who authored Louisiana’s abortion ban, Katrina Jackson, has insisted that Woman’s hospital could have legally terminated Davis’s pregnancy. The statute contains a general exception for fetuses that cannot survive outside their mothers’ wombs.However, Crump said, that exception was clearly not worded in a way that gave Davis’s providers confidence that they could proceed without potentially being heavily penalized.Davis instead raised money through a GoFundMe that attracted more than 1,000 donors and booked arrangements to travel with Cole, her partner, to North Carolina. That state – more than 900 miles from Baton Rouge – allows abortions up to the 20th week of pregnancy.“The law in Louisiana is clear as mud,” Crump said. “We’re going to prepare ourselves to go out of state and trust the people who are saying they can perform the termination of the pregnancy safely and without anybody having to risk going to prison.”Cole on Friday asked the public to imagine what Davis and the rest of her family had experienced since learning of their baby’s fatal diagnosis and being forced to make the decision to head to North Carolina to abort the baby whom the couple had been expecting.“It’s really complex – it’s really difficult,” Cole said. “From afar, it’s really easy to have an opinion about something … but you don’t understand how complex it is” until you personally go through it.Davis, for her part, said: “This is not fair to me, and it should not happen to any other woman.“Being a mother starts when the baby is inside the womb, not on the outside, [because of] the attachment and everything that comes with it. As a mother, as a parent, it’s my obligation to have my children’s best interests at heart.”TopicsAbortionUS politicsLouisiananewsReuse this content More

Biden decries Republican loyalty to Trump as ‘semi-fascism’ President condemns Republicans’ current political ideology in remarks at Democratic National Committee fundraiser In fiery remarks on Thursday night that set out a combative platform for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, Joe Biden decried Republican loyalty to Donald Trump’s political brand as “semi-fascism”.The US president delivered a barbed speech in Maryland, calling out Trump as a threat to US democracy and decrying his penchant for embracing political violence and stoking anger.Biden went further at a $1m fundraiser in a wealthy suburb on the outskirts of Washington DC, before the campaign rally, condemning Republicans’ current political ideology as approaching “semi-fascism”.President Biden condemns MAGA at DNC fundraiser: “What we’re seeing now is the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s the the entire philosophy that underpins the – I’m going to say something – it’s like semi-fascism.”— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 25, 2022“Trump and the extreme Maga Republicans have made their choice – to go backwards full of anger, violence, hate and division,” Biden told several thousand supporters at an event hosted by the Democratic National Committee at Richard Montgomery high school, nodding to Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) campaign slogan.The campaign rally kicked off a nationwide White House effort aimed at bolstering Democrats ahead of the midterm elections in November, as Biden and Democrats alike attempted to capitalize on frustration among voters.Chief among standout themes for Democrats are the US supreme court’s decision to overturn longstanding abortion protections, the recent passage of a historic climate, tax and healthcare package, and the White House’s decision to cancel millions of Americans’ student loan debt.All of this happens against the backdrop of a high-profile congressional investigation arguing that Trump, while in office, incited an “attempted coup” at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, as he struggled to stay in office despite his defeat by Biden in the 2020 election.During Thursday’s speech, Biden touted recent accomplishments and argued that Trump and Republicans increased the federal deficit by $2tn in tax cuts while Biden and Democrats reduced it with the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.He described a rocky political terrain following the supreme court’s overturning of the landmark 1973 abortion case Roe v Wade, where Republican-controlled states have now put trigger laws into effect that prevent women obtaining an abortion there.If Republicans took control of Congress in the midterms, Biden argued, women “won’t have the right to choose anywhere”. He vowed to veto legislative attempts by Republicans to further restrict abortion access at the federal level.But if Democrats kept their wafer-thin control of the Senate and also kept the House, Biden pledged to offer a different “vision of a better America” providing voters turned out in November and make sure “no one ever has the opportunity to steal an election again”.Biden: “If we elect two more [Democratic] senators, we got a lot of unfinished business we’re gonna get done. Folks, look, we’re gonna codify Roe v Wade. We’ll ban assault weapons, we’ll protect Social Security & Medicare, we’ll pass Universal Pre-K …” pic.twitter.com/VIVc8tsFmn— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2022Biden warned on Thursday that “Democrats, independents and mainstream Republicans” needed to coalesce to push back against Trump-backed Republicans who, he noted, “refuse to accept the will of the people”.Biden winds down his speech in Maryland: “In this moment, those of you who love this country — Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans — we must be stronger, more determined, & more committed to saving American than the MAGA Republicans are to destroying America” pic.twitter.com/NnSHnbqTnc— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2022“America must choose. You must choose,” Biden told supporters. “Whether our country will move forward or backward.”Earlier, Biden met Democratic donors for a $1m party fundraiser in a backyard in a leafy neighborhood north of Washington.Strolling with a handheld mic, Biden detailed the tumult facing the US and the world from the climate crisis. He spoke about economic upheaval and the future of China and was strongly critical of the direction of the Republican party.“We’re seeing now either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme Maga agenda. It’s not just Trump … It’s almost semi-fascism,” he said.Republicans are hoping to ride voter discontent with inflation, questions about Biden’s policies and cultural resentment from its majority white base to victory in November.The party that controls the White House usually loses seats in Congress in a new president’s first midterm elections.TopicsJoe BidenUS midterm elections 2022Donald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

The lesson from Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness? Go big or go homeHamilton NolanBiden will get backlash from Republicans whether he does a little or a lot – so you might as well do a lot Politics is not like regular life; it’s worse. Things that are held as treasured virtues in the normal world are often political liabilities. We’ve all just been served with a shining example of how reflexive moderation – which is good when estimating measurements for recipes, or having drinks at a work party – becomes the tendency of a political fool. The wellbeing of countless Americans has long been sacrificed on the altar of moderation by the Democratic party, and all the Democrats win for it is maximal disgust.Share your views on Biden’s student loan forgiveness policy for millionsRead moreThis week Joe Biden announced that he will be canceling $10,000 in federal student loan debt (or $20,000 for Pell grant recipients) for people who earn under $125,000 a year. This policy is both unquestionably wise, and unquestionably a half-measure. There has long been a movement on the left to cancel all student debt, and even Democratic stalwarts like Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren were pushing for the cancellation of $50,000 in debt. Joe Biden was pulled towards this action, in large part, by his inability to get other, bigger economic policies through Congress. But even in taking unilateral action, he has succumbed to the overwhelming tendency of Clintonian Democrats to cut any good policy idea in half and call it political wisdom.And what did Biden earn for his unforced, personal decision to keep this program much smaller than it could have been? Within a day, mainstream Republican pundits and politicians called the policy an executive “coup”, “an abuse of the law”, “utterly revolting”, and a “fuck you to every financially responsible person”. Republicans in Congress screeched that it would cause wild and uncontrolled borrowing, and Mitch McConnell, predictably, called it “socialism”.In other words, Republicans – whose party has spent the past 50 years single-mindedly crushing worker power and funneling all of our nation’s proceeds to the rich – suddenly became very concerned that this policy might be regressive in its benefits. The party that prevented the passage of any broader measures that might have relieved not just student debt, but housing and healthcare costs and poverty wages, is now alarmed that this policy does not address all of those other matters. Republicans have taken one day off of trying to eradicate labor unions and destroy public education and put poor people in jail to theatrically moan about how this is unfair to all of the hardworking folks who didn’t go to college. Whatever.Here is the very simple lesson to take from this episode: you will get all of the backlash whether you do a little, or a lot. So do a lot. What is this loan forgiveness policy really driving at? It is, at its core, one small step on the road to a world in which America has free, high-quality, public higher education for all. We are not dreaming of a world in which student loan debt is somewhat smaller, but rather a world in which student loan debt does not need to exist. That is the goal we should reach. When, after many years of struggle, we get a chance to take a step down that road, make it a big step. To do otherwise is stupid. By slashing the debt relief number far down from what it could have been, Biden is acting like a man who is forced to rush into a burning building to save two kittens, and decides to break it up into two trips so his arms don’t get tired. Hey, buddy: let’s just get this thing done all at once.Incredibly, this basic truth of how politics works seems to forever elude Democrats. The issue of healthcare is an obvious parallel here. Free public healthcare – Medicare for all – is the intuitive, compassionate and eminently achievable goal that all of our peers in the wealthy western world have already built. So naturally, that goal is considered a fringe position in the Democratic party. Instead, Democrats have spent decades in the excruciating process of building and defending Obamacare, an insufficient half-measure that has cost the same amount of political capital and prompted the same amount of political opposition that Medicare for all would have, while leaving in place most of the ruinous flaws of our broken system. This resolute determination to never propose full solutions to our problems is proudly embraced by Democratic leadership and packaged into campaign ads as “reasonableness” and “moderation”.Of all of the perversities in American politics, the most frustrating is its conviction that idealism is a weakness. The conflation of defeatism with wisdom means that expressing the belief that we should just do what needs to be done in order to make the world a just place is enough to convince the political world that the speaker is a rube. This is ironic, because the very opposite is true, as anyone who has ever accomplished something ambitious can tell you. There is nothing more foolish than negotiating against yourself. That woeful quality has long been the hallmark of Democrats, who are like timid children who long to express themselves but are too scared to ever stray from the tepid crowd.What do we need? Public ownership of public goods for the public benefit. Public education, public healthcare, public transportation, public art. We are all the public, and helping the public is good. That’s called socialism, folks. Republicans will accuse the Democrats of it no matter what. Might as well stop shuffling along, and get right to it.
Hamilton Nolan is a writer based in New York
TopicsJoe BidenOpinionUS politicsBiden administrationUS student debtDemocratscommentReuse this content More

‘Democrats have their mojo’: has the tide shifted for Biden and his party?A flurry of wins – passage of a climate and healthcare package, and the Inflation Reduction Act – give hope for the midterm elections Joe Biden has transformed his rough July into a jubilant August. Last month, the US president was drowning in negative headlines about his handling of numerous crises, from the war in Ukraine to record-high gas prices and the apparent demise of his signature legislative proposal.Now, as the summer draws to a close, Biden is riding high, powered by the passage of Democrats’ climate and healthcare package and glimmers of hope for his party’s prospects in the midterm elections. That optimism was on vivid display on Thursday, as Biden took the stage for a rally held by the Democratic National Committee in Rockville, Maryland.Biden’s chief of staff says president is comparable to historic predecessorsRead more“We’ve come a long way in 18 months. Covid no longer controls our lives. A record number of Americans are working,” Biden told the cheering crowd. “We never gave up. We never gave in. We’re delivering for the American people now.”Biden’s speech offered a preview of Democrats’ closing message to voters as they enter the final sprint leading up to the November elections. With the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law and Roe v Wade overturned by the conservative-led supreme court, Democrats believe they have a successful strategy to win re-election this fall, and they are prepared to defy previous predictions of a Republican shellacking.“At the top of the year, it was almost like Democrats were counted out, and most were preparing for the absolute worst,” said Anthony Robinson, political director of the National Democratic Training Committee. “I think that we’re in a completely, completely different headspace going into the midterms. There’s still a lot to do, but I think there’s a definite shift in the tide.”This week saw fresh indicators that Democrats may be able to avoid the widespread losses usually suffered by the president’s party in the midterms. Democrat Pat Ryan narrowly won a special congressional election in upstate New York on Tuesday, giving him the chance to represent a bellwether district that flipped from supporting Donald Trump in 2016 to backing Biden in 2020. Democrats have similarly outperformed expectations in other recent special elections in Nebraska and Minnesota.Ryan focused his campaign on the need to protect abortion rights in the wake of the Roe reversal, which ended the federal right to abortion access. Democrats say Ryan’s campaign could provide a playbook to other candidates looking to motivate voters to go to the polls in November.“I think that he found what resonated in his community and met people where they are,” Robinson said. “It wasn’t about a bunch of figures and numbers. It was just about the raw emotion and that people’s lives are at stake. That’s something that I think is important to everyone.”The passage of Democrats’ spending package has also helped mitigate concerns that candidates would have little to campaign on, despite the party’s control of the White House and Congress. The Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law last week, includes $369bn in funds to reduce America’s planet-heating emissions and several provisions aimed at lowering healthcare costs, particularly for Medicare recipients.“Democrats have their mojo after passing numerous policies that will tangibly impact people’s lives, and now the key is to really sell it with confidence before the midterms,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Lowering prescription drug prices, lowering healthcare costs and making water and air healthier for people’s kids is a very good message to take to voters who wonder, does it matter if I vote Democrat or vote at all?”Biden continued the string of victories on Wednesday, as he signed an executive order to cancel at least $10,000 in student loan debt for millions of borrowers. The order fell far short of what progressives had demanded, but even Democrats who had pushed for more debt cancellation celebrated the news.“At the end of the day, Biden exceeded the expectations of most progressives on what he would do on student debt,” Green said. “If people want more, they’re certainly not going to get it with Republicans. But this is going to wipe out debt completely for about 20 million people and be a giant chunk out of their debt for many others.”Before Thursday’s rally, Biden met Democratic donors for a $1m fundraiser, where he attacked Donald Trump and his Republican predecessor’s party loyalists and voter base.“We’re seeing now either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme Maga agenda,” he said, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign slogan. “It’s not just Trump … It’s almost semi-fascism,” Biden added.As Biden has enjoyed this recent wave of wins, his approval rating has ticked up as well, although it remains underwater. A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday found that 41% of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance, marking the first reading above 40% since early June.Earlier this month, Democrats overtook Republicans on the generic congressional ballot for the first time since last November, according to FiveThirtyEight.Those developments have led some election forecasters to shift their predictions for the November elections. FiveThirtyEight’s forecast model suggests Democrats are now slightly favored to maintain control of the Senate, and the Cook Political Report downgraded its outlook for Republican gains in the House after Ryan’s victory in New York.But Republicans are still favored to regain control of the House, reflecting the strong headwinds that Democrats face as they look toward November. Republicans secured several key victories in redistricting battles, giving them a more favorable House map. Considering Democrats’ extremely narrow majority in the House, redistricting alone may provide enough of an advantage for Republicans to recapture the lower chamber.Americans’ anxiety over the economy presents additional challenges for Democrats. Inflation is higher than it has been in more than 40 years, squeezing families’ budgets amid concerns that the US has entered a recession. An NBC News poll taken this month found that 74% of voters believe the country is on the wrong track, marking the fifth month in a row that the reading was over 70%.Republicans remain confident that the pessimistic national mood will convince voters to reject Democrats in November, and they predicted that the student debt cancelation would end up backfiring on Biden. Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, attacked the policy as a “bailout for the wealthy”.“Biden’s bailout unfairly punishes Americans who saved for college or made a different career choice, and voters see right through this short-sighted, poorly veiled vote-buy,” McDaniel said on Wednesday.Democrats acknowledge they still have their work cut out for them over the next three months, which is more than enough time for Republicans to address their sudden reversal in fortune. But as he addressed an exuberant crowd chanting “four more years”, Biden seemed more ready than ever to overcome historical trends and protect his party’s majorities in Congress this fall.“‘We the people’ are the first words of our constitution, and ‘we the people’ will still determine the destiny of America. If ‘we the people’ stand together, we will prevail,” Biden said on Thursday. “We just have to keep the faith. We just have to persevere. We just have to vote.”Reuters contributed reportingTopicsJoe BidenDemocratsBiden administrationUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022newsReuse this content More

DoJ to release redacted Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit after judge’s orderAffidavit contains key information about investigation into retention of government secrets at ex-president’s Florida home The justice department is expected to file on Friday a redacted version of the affidavit justifying the search warrant used to seize sensitive government documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida earlier this month, after being ordered to do so by a federal judge.The order from judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the warrant and is overseeing the case from West Palm Beach, Florida, instructed the justice department to submit the redacted affidavit that he had reviewed – itself previously under seal – in the public docket before noon.In an earlier two-page ruling, the judge said the justice department’s proposed redactions were narrowly tailored to keep secret grand jury material, the identities of uncharged individuals and sources and methods used in the criminal investigation – and the remainder could become public.“The government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit,” Reinhart wrote.The affidavit contains key information – notably the probable cause – about the justice department’s investigation into the unauthorized retention of government secrets at Mar-a-Lago, which, according to the warrant, could constitute violations of at least three criminal statutes.The imminent partial release of the affidavit is set to prove a major juncture in the developing investigation, being led by the justice department’s national security division, and the attorney general, Merrick Garland, who personally approved the warrant after days of deliberations.Exactly how much of the affidavit will be redacted was not clear, but they are expected to be extensive. The justice department had originally opposed unsealing the affidavit at all, and only filed a redacted version after being forced by Reinhart last week.But depending on how the affidavit was produced, several former US attorneys said, it could also contain elements that are not directly related to the investigation, such as descriptions of potential crimes that the justice department suspected were being committed at Mar-a-Lago.The former president has indicated on his social media website that he supports unsealing the affidavit but his lawyers never filed a formal motion to that effect, and instead left the effort to a coalition of media outlets that pushed to have the affidavit become public.Trump has since filed a separate motion to have a so-called special master appointed to determine what seized materials prosecutors can use as evidence in the investigation, and to force the justice department to provide a more detailed list of what was retrieved by the FBI.TopicsDonald TrumpMar-a-LagoFBIUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

‘This you?’: the seven letters exposing rightwing hypocrisyAs Biden eases student loan debt for millions, a simple phrase is puncturing criticism from conservatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene Conservatives are frothing at the mouth over Joe Biden’s decision to forgive $10,000 in student debt for millions, railing against what they call “student loan socialism”. But their carefully crafted tweets have been undermined over and over again with two words: “This you?”Were there ever seven letters more powerful? On Twitter, the phrase is an instant marker of hypocrisy, cutting down the mighty from politicians to celebrities to brands. It typically comes as a reply to an opinionated tweet, accompanied by a screenshot of an earlier remark from the same person endorsing the opposite point of view. Now Biden’s debt cancellation has given the phrase new life: “This you?” is rolling through Twitter like a bowling ball, toppling critic after critic as it nullifies their claims. The source of many of the “receipts”, in this case, is the public record of those who had their Payment Protection Plan (PPP) loans – the federal funds intended to keep businesses afloat early in the pandemic – forgiven.The conservative advocacy group PragerU proclaimed: “It’s not complicated. Bailing out irresponsible behavior will spur more irresponsible behavior.” “This you”? asked @kaoticleftist, showing hundreds of thousands of dollars in forgiven PPP funds.Ok it began as a joke now it’s on the threshold of turning into a second job 🤦‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/oTB0hcPtzf— rayne (@trayne_wreck) August 25, 2022
The rightwing Daily Caller published a piece headlined: “Biden debt forgiveness could send tuition through the roof”, prompting another Twitter user, @coreyastewart, to post a screenshot of the PPP funds that organization reportedly had forgiven.“Student loan forgiveness sounds really nice to illegal immigrants, people with no life experience, people who don’t have families yet, and people who use preferred pronouns,” wrote the conservative commentator Steven Crowder, earning a host of “This you?” replies – with screenshots highlighting more than $71,000 in loan forgiveness for his company.Those closer to the seats of power also received helpful feedback. The Iowa senator Chuck Grassley also criticized Biden’s plan, saying it would “fuel further inflation hurting those who can least afford it UNFAIR.” “This you?” asked a candidate for local office, pointing to Grassley’s application for a federal farm bailout.This you? https://t.co/bqgtjPlZ4b pic.twitter.com/69QCNKl0pW— Kimberly Graham for Polk County Attorney (@KimberlyforIowa) August 24, 2022
Users also accused the rightwing pundit Ben Shapiro of a double standard, but he denied having received any PPP money and said he’d issued cease-and-desist letters to organizations claiming otherwise – pointing to the messy nature of internet sleuthing. But it wasn’t just everyday Twitter users calling out hypocrisy.On Thursday evening, the White House entered the fray. The Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said it was “completely unfair” for the government to “say your debt is completely forgiven” – after her loan of more than $180,000 was forgiven, the official White House account noted. It was just one of a series of digs at critics: the Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, the White House said, had more than $482,000 in PPP loans forgiven, while the Pennsylvania congressman Mike Kelly got off the hook for more than $987,000. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.https://t.co/4FoCymt8TB— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 25, 2022
It’s not the first time the meme has been widely deployed to illustrate double standards on a national scale. As brands and celebrities touted their support for the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, social media quickly exposed many as simply trend followers, juxtaposing their posts with examples of past offensive behavior – marking what Aisha Harris described in the New York Times as “a swift undercutting of performative wokeness”. Users drew attention to an NFL star posting a symbolic black square after hanging out with Donald Trump; the Baltimore police department’s supportive words years after the death of Freddie Gray; and a host of other apparent changes of heart.As Harris wrote, there’s power in such a sharable medium. It’s true that, as the Twitter user @trayne_wreck – who collected countless examples of loan-based double standards – writes, highlighting hypocrisy is unlikely to change the minds of those who are called out.But, she says, it could make a difference to those of us reading: “You, who can do something about it, who can build power to make them obsolete. I hope it will resonate with you.”TopicsSocial mediaTwitterUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

Federal judge orders release of redacted Trump search affidavit Affidavit is expected to contain information about investigation into Trump’s retention of government secrets at Mar-a-Lago A federal judge ordered on Thursday that the affidavit justifying the search warrant used to seize sensitive government documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida earlier this month should be partly unsealed according to redactions proposed by the justice department.The order from Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the FBI search warrant and is overseeing the case, instructed the justice department to release a redacted version of the affidavit that he had reviewed before noon on Friday.Trump is reading my memoir, Kushner claims of famously book-shy bossRead moreIn a two-page ruling, the judge said the justice department’s proposed redactions were specifically restricted to keep secret grand jury material, the identities of uncharged individuals and sources and methods used in the criminal investigation – and the remainder could become public.“The government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit,” Reinhart wrote.The affidavit is expected to contain key information – notably the probable cause -about the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s unauthorized retention of government secrets at Mar-a-Lago, which could arise to potential charges including under the Espionage Act or obstruction of justice.How much of the affidavit will be redacted was not clear. The justice department had opposed unsealing the affidavit in any way, and only submitted proposed redactions after being ordered to do so by Reinhart last week, warning redactions could be so extensive as to make it meaningless.But depending on how the affidavit was produced, former US attorneys said, it could also contain elements that are not directly related to the investigation, such as descriptions of potential crimes that the justice department suspected were being committed at Mar-a-Lago.The submission – and partial release of the affidavit – is a major juncture in the developing investigation, being led by the justice department’s national security division, and the attorney general, Merrick Garland, who personally approved the warrant after days of deliberations.The FBI earlier this month quietly executed a search warrant at Trump’s beachfront, pay-for-membership resort in Palm Beach, Florida, retrieving 26 boxes of highly sensitive government records, including some documents with “top secret” markings.Trump has attempted to hit back at the justice department in subsequent days, and on Monday filed a motion seeking the appointment of a so-called special master to determine what documents federal investigators can use as evidence, and to get a more detailed list of what was seized.The ruling from Reinhart, which came just hours after the justice department submitted its proposed redactions – also under seal – was expected to some degree after he said last week in court in West Palm Beach, Florida, that he was inclined to make some of the affidavit public.“I’m not prepared to find that the affidavit should be fully sealed,” Reinhart said, explaining that he thought it was important that the public have as much information as it could, while acknowledging the redactions sought by the justice department would likely be extensive.The preview of his decision on Thursday followed a disclosure from the chief of the counter-intelligence section at the justice department, Jay Bratt, that the criminal investigation surrounding the FBI’s seizure of government documents from Mar-a-Lago remained in “early stages”.Bratt had argued in court against the release of any portion of the affidavit or even a redacted version of the highly-sensitive document, saying it could risk revealing the roadmap of the investigation and chill cooperation from other witnesses who may come forward.The judge, however, disagreed that the justice department could make nothing of the affidavit public, and ordered Bratt to file one with redactions to protect the probe in case he decided to make it public. He assured the government: “This is going to be a considered, careful process.”Reinhart presided over arguments between the justice department and several media organizations. Trump has said he supports unsealing the affidavit but filed no motion of his own. One of his lawyers, Chrsitina Bobb, nonetheless attended the hearing last week to observe proceedings.The justice department that day did support unsealing several ancillary documents that were not directly related to the affidavit, including the cover sheet to the search warrant application, and the court’s sealing order – which Reinhart agreed to make public.Those unsealed documents offered more detail about the case. Notably, the cover sheet showed the department’s descriptions of potential crimes at Mar-a-Lago: wilful retention of national defense information, concealment or removal of government records, and obstruction of a federal investigation.TopicsDonald TrumpFloridaMar-a-LagoUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that a federal judge has ordered a redacted version of the affidavit for the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago unsealed:Just in: Federal Judge orders the Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit to be unsealed in part with redactions https://t.co/zzd7gNASgf— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 25, 2022
Bruce Reinhart, the magistrate judge handling the case, gave the government until noon eastern time tomorrow to make the redacted document public.“I find that the Government has met its burden of showing a compelling reason/good cause to seal portions of the Affidavit,” Reinhart wrote in the filing. The portions that will be excluded include identifying information of witnesses, grand jury material and details of the investigation’s strategy and direction, he said.“I further find that the Government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the Government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit.”Tomorrow may bring more details of just what the FBI was looking for when it searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month, after a federal judge ordered the affidavit for the search made public by Friday at noon eastern time. However, the justice department will redact the document first and could appeal the decision entirely, meaning it’s unclear how many new details will be released, if any.Here’s what else happened today:
Barack Obama is set to appear at Democratic fundraisers ahead of the midterm elections, as the party aims to maintain its majority in the Senate.
Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr said the ex-president controls the Republican party through “extortion”.
A brass band appeared before the White House to thank Joe Biden for relieving student debt, though some Democrats aren’t comfortable with the plan.
The Biden administration plans to unveil a federal rule to protect “dreamers”, as undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children are known, but it could still face a court challenge.
Texas, Tennessee and Idaho became the latest US states to ban abortion.
Biden pledged continued support for Ukraine in a phone call with its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that a federal judge has ordered a redacted version of the affidavit for the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago unsealed:Just in: Federal Judge orders the Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit to be unsealed in part with redactions https://t.co/zzd7gNASgf— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 25, 2022
Bruce Reinhart, the magistrate judge handling the case, gave the government until noon eastern time tomorrow to make the redacted document public.“I find that the Government has met its burden of showing a compelling reason/good cause to seal portions of the Affidavit,” Reinhart wrote in the filing. The portions that will be excluded include identifying information of witnesses, grand jury material and details of the investigation’s strategy and direction, he said.“I further find that the Government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the Government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit.”In Alabama, The Guardian’s Sam Levine has the story of how one resident’s lawsuit opened the door for a majority Black city to finally have a city council representative of its racial makeup:A few years ago, Eric Calhoun felt out of touch with his city council in Pleasant Grove, a small Alabama city of just under 10,000 people outside of Birmingham.Calhoun, who is 71 and has lived in the city for nearly three decades, couldn’t find contact information for any of the five council members online. During the 2016 election, none of the white candidates running asked him for his vote. Voters in the city had never elected a Black person to the city council. Calhoun, like 61% of the city, is Black.In 2018, Calhoun became a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit that argued the racial makeup of the city council in Pleasant Grove was not an accident. The way the city was choosing its city council candidates made nearly impossible for a Black candidate to get elected. Essentially, the city allowed city council candidates to run citywide, instead of in districts, allowing blocs of white voters in the city to come together and defeat candidates preferred by Black voters.He challenged his all-white city council in Alabama. Now he’s on itRead moreIn yet another sign that the two men are no longer friends, Bill Barr, Donald Trump’s attorney general from 2019 until just before the end of his time in the White House, accused the former president of using “extortion” to control Republicans.The comments came during an interview with Barr on podcast Honestly with Bari Weiss:Former Attorney General Bill Barr accuses Donald Trump of using “extortion” to “exert control over the Republican Party”:”That shows what he’s all about. He’s all about himself.” pic.twitter.com/EgPVwXUghQ— The Recount (@therecount) August 25, 2022
The Associated Press reports that guilty pleas have been entered in the bizarre case of two people in Florida who tried to sell possessions belonging to Joe Biden’s daughter to conservative activists:Two Florida residents have pleaded guilty in a scheme to sell a diary and other items belonging to Joe Biden’s daughter to the conservative group Project Veritas for $40,000, prosecutors said on Thursday.Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, the office of the Manhattan US attorney Damian Williams said.“Harris and Kurlander sought to profit from their theft of another person’s personal property, and they now stand convicted of a federal felony as a result,” Williams said.Requests for comment were sent to lawyers for Harris, 40, of Palm Beach, and Kurlander, 58, and to Project Veritas.Duo plead guilty to plot to sell Biden daughter’s stolen diary to Project VeritasRead moreUS president Joe Biden called Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy today, and reaffirmed his support for the country against Russia’s invasion.Here’s the full readout from the White House:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. He congratulated Ukraine on its Independence Day and expressed his admiration for the people of Ukraine, who have inspired the world as they defended their country’s sovereignty over the past six months. He reaffirmed the United States’ continued support for Ukraine and provided an update on the ongoing provision of security assistance, including yesterday’s announcement of nearly $3 billion to support Ukraine’s defense capabilities for the long term. The two leaders also called for Russia to return full control of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant to Ukraine and for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to the plant. And here’s Zelenskiy’s take:Had a great conversation with @POTUS. Thanked for the unwavering U.S. support for Ukrainian people – security and financial. We discussed Ukraine’s further steps on our path to the victory over the aggressor and importance of holding Russia accountable for war crimes. pic.twitter.com/4edng8vkvn— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 25, 2022
Joe Biden announces $3bn in fresh Ukraine military aidRead moreA federal grand jury found a Florida man guilty on hate crime charges for a “racially motivated” attack on a Black man traveling with his family in Seminole, 24 miles west of Tampa, the US justice department announced on Thursday.The Black man, identified only by as “JT”, was driving with his daughter and girlfriend last August when Jordan Patrick Leahy, 29, spewed racial slurs and attempted to run him off the road for nearly a mile.The two drivers then encountered each other at a light, where Leahy got out of his car and “tried to assault” the Black man as he continued to yell racist invective, prosecutors said.Hate crimes, especially against Black, Asian and Jewish Americans, climbed across the US throughout the coronavirus pandemic.Florida man found guilty on hate crime charges for attacking Black manRead moreThe Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is in touch about Joe Biden’s student debt cancellation plan, and unsurprisingly it is not happy.The nonpartisan Washington think tank says: “President Biden yesterday announced a set of changes to student loans – including cancellation of up to $20,000 for some borrowers – that will cost between $440bn and $600bn over the next ten years, with a central estimate of roughly $500bn. “Combined with today’s announcement, the federal government’s actions on student loans since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic have cost roughly $800bn. Of that amount, roughly $750bn is due to executive action and regulatory changes.”The CRFB adds: “It is extremely troubling to see the administration reverse the legislative progress made on deficit reduction. “It is long past time that student debt repayments resume, and now it is even more important for policymakers to enact changes that reduce deficits through spending reductions and revenue increases in order to put the national debt on a downward sustainable path.”Here’s more on Biden’s plan, from Edwin Rios:Biden says his student loan relief is ‘life-changing’. Will it fix the system’s inequities?Read moreThe Democratic candidate for governor in Texas, Beto O’Rourke, has released his first general election ads targeting his opponent, the incumbent Republican, Greg Abbott – and the subject is abortion. The ads on an issue proving electorally productive for Democrats across the US as the midterm elections approach, come on the day Texas’s stringent post-Roe v Wade abortion ban goes into effect.One says: “From this day forward, 25 August, women all across Texas are no longer free to make decisions about our own body, no longer free to choose if a pregnancy is right for us or our families, not even in cases of rape or incest. “And women will die because of it. Because of Greg Abbott’s abortion law. It’s too extreme. So I’m voting for Beto, who will give women are freedom back.”Another features a couple, the woman described as a “lifelong Democrat”, the man a “lifelong Republican”.“Of course people are going to disagree on the big issues,” the woman says. “But Greg Abbott signed the most extreme abortion ban in the United States. The man says: “No exception for rape? No exception for incest? $100,000 fines and jail time?” The woman: “Only 11% of Texans agree with it.” The man: “I mean, this is a free country. We need a governor that gets that. That’s Beto.”Polling gives Abbott nearly nine points up on O’Rourke. But here’s Lauren Gambino with a look about how focusing on the supreme court ruling which removed the right to an abortion has paid off so far for Democrats:Democrats’ hopes rise for midterms amid backlash over abortion accessRead moreThree US states saw abortion trigger bans kick-in on Thursday, Tennessee, Texas and Idaho joining eight other states that have formally outlawed the procedure since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June.Depending on the state, trigger laws are designed to take effect either immediately following the overturn of Roe or 30 days after the supreme court’s transmission of its judgement, which happened on 26 July.Nearly one in three women between the ages of 15 to 44 live in states where abortion has been banned or mostly banned. According to US census data, that is nearly 21 million women.“More people will lose abortion access across the nation as bans take effect in Texas, Tennessee and Idaho. Vast swaths of the nation, especially in the south and midwest, will become abortion deserts that, for many, will be impossible to escape,” Nancy Northup, chief executive of the Center of Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.“Evidence is already mounting of women being turned away despite needing urgent, and in some cases life-saving, medical care. This unfolding public health crisis will only continue to get worse. We will see more and more of these harrowing situations, and once state legislatures reconvene in January, we will see even more states implement abortion bans and novel laws criminalizing abortion providers, pregnant people, and those who help them.”More:Slew of trigger laws kick in as three more US states ban abortionsRead moreTaiwan has a new American visitor: Republican senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.I just landed in Taiwan to send a message to Beijing — we will not be bullied.  The United States remains steadfast in preserving freedom around the globe, and will not tolerate efforts to undermine our nation and our allies. pic.twitter.com/yVcaYN7yIA— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) August 25, 2022
She elaborated on her reasons for visiting the island in a statement:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Taiwan is our strongest partner in the Indo-Pacific Region. Regular high-level visits to Taipei are long-standing U.S. policy. I will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island. During my visit to Taiwan, I look forward to hearing directly from the nation’s leadership about their needs and how we can support freedom for the Taiwanese people. I look forward to meeting with leaders in Taipei to advance and strengthen our partnerships.Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island enraged China, which launched military exercises in response. But since then, more American lawmakers have visited what Beijing considers to be a breakaway province.US congressional delegation visits Taiwan on heels of Pelosi tripRead moreThe wheels of justice have ground forward ever so slowly in Donald Trump’s various court battles today. The justice department appears to have submitted the redactions it proposes should a judge decide to release the affidavit for the Mar-a-Lago search. Meanwhile, the ex-president’s lawyers are due to respond to another judge’s questions about their own lawsuit over the case.Here’s what else happened today:
Barack Obama is set to appear at Democratic fundraisers ahead of the midterm elections, as the party aims to maintain its majority in the Senate.
A brass band appeared before the White House to thanks Joe Biden for relieving some student debt, though some Democrats aren’t comfortable with the plan.
The Biden administration plans to unveil a federal rule to protect “dreamers”, as undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children are known, but it could still face a court challenge.
It appears the justice department has filed its proposed redactions to the affidavit in the Mar-a-Lago search, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:Just in: New entry on the Trump Mar-a-Lago docket — under seal — appears to indicate the Justice Dept has now filed proposed redactions for the FBI affidavit— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 25, 2022
Another lawyer for Donald Trump who assisted in his attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 election has filed a court motion resisting a subpoena for his appearance before a special grand jury in Georgia, Politico reports.The panel in Fulton county is looking into election meddling in the state two years ago, and has already heard from testimony Rudy Giuliani, who was informed he is a target of its investigation.JUST IN: Kenneth Chesebro, one of the architects of Donald Trump’s plan to remain in power, is suing to block a Fulton County Grand Jury subpoena, claiming he’s bound by attorney-client privilege to the Trump campaign.https://t.co/r0RWoRI0y0 pic.twitter.com/ypvHxXbd22— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 25, 2022
Republican senator Lindsey Graham has also been subpoenaed by the grand jury, but is currently fighting it in court. More