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      Ex-Trump lawyer says evidence against him ‘overwhelming’ in Mar-a-Lago case

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      A former Trump White House lawyer said the evidence against the former president over his handling of classified documents was now “overwhelming” and would “last an antiquity”, after new charges were filed in the case on Thursday.“I think this original indictment was engineered to last a thousand years and now this superseding indictment will last an antiquity,” Ty Cobb told CNN. “This is such a tight case, the evidence is so overwhelming.”In June, the special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on 37 counts regarding his handling of classified records after leaving the White House.On Thursday, in a superseding indictment filed in a Florida court, four more charges were outlined. A second Trump staffer, the Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira, was charged, alongside Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet. Nauta previously pleaded not guilty.Trump was accused of attempting to destroy evidence and inducing someone else to destroy evidence. He also faces a new count under the Espionage Act, for keeping a document about US plans to attack Iran which he memorably discussed on tape.Trump denies all wrongdoing, in the documents case and in other cases including the criminal investigation in New York in which he faces 34 charges relating to hush-money payments to an adult film star.On Thursday night, on his Truth Social platform, the former president complained about another investigation, of Joe Biden’s own retention of classified material. Trump also called Smith “deranged”.A spokesperson called the new charges “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration to “harass” Trump and “those around him”.On Thursday, Trump told the conservative radio host John Fredericks he had handed over security video footage prosecutors now say he ordered deleted.“These were security tapes,” he said. “We handed them over to them … I’m not even sure what they’re saying.”Smith is also expected to indict Trump over his attempted election subversion. So are prosecutors in Georgia, regarding the former president’s attempts to overturn his defeat by Biden there.Found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll, and fined about $5m, Trump also faces investigations of his business affairs.But his legal problems have not dented his popularity with his party. In polling regarding the Republican nomination for president in 2024, Trump has clear leads in early voting states and is approximately 30 points ahead of his nearest challenger, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, in national polling.Trump told Fredericks he will not end his campaign even if he is convicted and sentenced.“They went after two fine employees yesterday, fine people,” Trump said. “They’re trying to intimidate people so that people go out and make up lies about me. Because I did nothing wrong.”Cobb represented Trump during the investigation by another special counsel, Robert Mueller, into Russian election interference in the 2016 election and links between Trump and Moscow. The attorney later told the Atlantic he did not regret working for Trump, saying: “I believed then and now I worked for the country.”On Thursday, he told CNN: “It’s very difficult to imagine how Trump said that his lawyers met with Jack Smith today to explain to him that he hadn’t done anything wrong [Trump’s claim in the election subversion case], on the same day that Jack Smith produces this evidence of overwhelming evidence of additional wrongdoing.“So this is, I think, par for the course.”Cobb also said he was sure Trump had been advised by his own lawyers “not to destroy, move [documents] or obstruct this grand jury subpoena in any way.“So this is Trump going not just behind the back of the prosecutors, this is Trump going behind the back of his own lawyers and dealing with two people” – Nauta and De Oliveira – “who are extremely loyal”. More

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      DeSantis attacks DoJ’s Trump letter during rare CNN interview – as it happened

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      From 1h agoRon DeSantis is defending Donald Trump, his chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination, during his first non-Fox News interview.Florida’s governor is speaking on CNN now, repeating the former president’s claim that the justice department is being “weaponized”, though, notably, trying to distance himself from Trump over his January 6 conduct.DeSantis told host Jake Tapper:
      This country is going down the road of criminalizing political differences. And I think that’s wrong. [Manhattan district attorney] Alvin Bragg stretched the statute to be able to try to target Donald Trump.
      Most people, even people on the left, acknowledge if that wasn’t Trump, that case would not have likely been brought against the normal civilian.
      As president, my job is to restore a single standard of justice to end weaponization of these agencies. We’re gonna have a new FBI director on day one, we’re gonna have big changes at the department of justice.
      Americans across the political spectrum, need to have confidence that what is going on is based on the rule of law, not based on what political tribe you’re in.
      DeSantis’s interview looks like it’s going to be played in chunks throughout the coming hour, rather than as one big block.Before it began, Tapper wondered at the timing of Trump’s decision to announce he had received the “target” letter from justice department special counsel Jack Smith, noting it was suspiciously close to the DeSantis interview.The Trump target letter story has dominated the day’s headlines and assuredly stolen some of DeSantis’s thunder.Ron DeSantis’s brief interview on CNN has finished, and we’re closing the US politics blog now. But look out shortly for my colleague Martin Pengelly’s analysis of what DeSantis had to say.We’ll leave you with news, as promised, of the decision by authorities in Michigan to charge 16 “fake electors” over the scheme to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.Please join us again tomorrow for what is shaping up to be another lively day.Ron DeSantis claims he’s “doing better than everybody else” in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, despite overwhelming evidence he is far behind Donald Trump.The eye-raising claim came as he attempted to explain his lackluster recent polling in his CNN interview, which, as we’ve noted, is the first time the rightwing Republican governor has strayed beyond the friendly confines of Fox News.He referenced his re-election in Florida in November:
      I took a state that had been a one-point state, and we won it by 20 percentage points, 1.5 million votes. Our bread and butter were people like suburban moms, we’re leading a big movement for parents be involved in education, school choice, get the indoctrination out of schools.
      I was getting a lot of media attention at the time coming off the victory. I had to do my job as governor with my legislative session, and we had a great legislative session. I had to do that and I was basically taking fire.
      A lot of people view me as a threat. I think the left views me as a threat because they think I’ll beat Biden and actually deliver on all this stuff. And then of course people that have their allegiances … [and people] have gone after me.
      But the reality is this is a state by state process. I’m not running a campaign to try to juice you know, whatever we are in the national polls, and then whatever we did in the CNN [poll]. It’s fine. I’m definitely doing better than everybody else.
      Ron DeSantis is insisting that “nobody really knows what wokeness is” as he attempts to defend his attacks on the US military for being “woke”.The Florida governor and presidential hopeful gave a campaign speech earlier today condemning “woke” in the armed forces that he says is becoming a deterrent to recruitment.Jake Tapper, the CNN host of DeSantis’s interview, is pushing back, citing recruitment statistics that say “wokeness” in the military is a long way down the list.DeSantis said:
      People see the military losing its way, not focusing on the mission, and focusing on a lot of these other things, which we see that in other aspects of society.
      People want to join the military because they think it’s something different. And I think some of the civilian leaders in the military are trying to have the military mimic corporate America, academia, that’s ultimately not going to work.
      Nobody really knows what wokeness is. I defined it, but a lot of people who railed against wokeness can’t even define it. There’s huge amount of concern about the direction that the military is going with all this.
      DeSantis brushed off a question on the war in Ukraine, calling it a “secondary or tertiary” priority for the US:
      The number one threat to our country is from China. We are going to approach the world instead of Europe being the focus, like it has been since world war two, and it was understandable why it would be, Nato stopping the Soviets, but now the Asia Pacific really needs to be to our generation what Europe was to the post-world war two generation.
      Prosecutors in Michigan have filed felony charges against 16 state residents “for their role in the alleged false electors scheme” that followed the 2020 US presidential election.The scheme, repeated in several swing states, attempted to install voters to falsely certify that Donald Trump had won the state, and deny Joe Biden victory.We’ll have more details soon.The court hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida, has wrapped up, with federal judge Aileen Cannon indicating she is not minded to move towards a quick trial for Donald Trump over his hoarding of classified documents.According to the CNN account of proceedings, Cannon, a Trump appointee, called the justice department’s proposed timeline for a December start as “rushed”, and she “challenged prosecutors to explain to her exactly how this was not what is called a complex trial”, referring to the espionage element of some of the charges against Trump.Lawyers for the defense also spoke, arguing Trump “is unlike any other defendant”, and repeating their request to delay the trial until after the 2024 election.While Cannon reportedly does not look minded to grant that request, she said she would look at the timeline and make a ruling shortly.Ron DeSantis is defending Donald Trump, his chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination, during his first non-Fox News interview.Florida’s governor is speaking on CNN now, repeating the former president’s claim that the justice department is being “weaponized”, though, notably, trying to distance himself from Trump over his January 6 conduct.DeSantis told host Jake Tapper:
      This country is going down the road of criminalizing political differences. And I think that’s wrong. [Manhattan district attorney] Alvin Bragg stretched the statute to be able to try to target Donald Trump.
      Most people, even people on the left, acknowledge if that wasn’t Trump, that case would not have likely been brought against the normal civilian.
      As president, my job is to restore a single standard of justice to end weaponization of these agencies. We’re gonna have a new FBI director on day one, we’re gonna have big changes at the department of justice.
      Americans across the political spectrum, need to have confidence that what is going on is based on the rule of law, not based on what political tribe you’re in.
      DeSantis’s interview looks like it’s going to be played in chunks throughout the coming hour, rather than as one big block.Before it began, Tapper wondered at the timing of Trump’s decision to announce he had received the “target” letter from justice department special counsel Jack Smith, noting it was suspiciously close to the DeSantis interview.The Trump target letter story has dominated the day’s headlines and assuredly stolen some of DeSantis’s thunder.Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
      A new indictment for Donald Trump could be imminent after the former US president announced on Tuesday morning he had received a letter from special prosecutor Jack Smith identifying him as a “target” in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection. People who receive target letters from federal authorities are often – but not always – indicted. It is unclear what specific charges Trump could face.
      Federal prosecutors have reportedly interviewed officials from all seven battleground states targeted by former Trump and his allies in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results – Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Mexico.
      Republicans defended Trump after news of the latest development, criticizing the Biden administration for his prosecution. Speaker Kevin McCarthysuggested the government was targeting Trump out of fear he could win next November, while House majority leader Steve Scalise questioned the timing of the new development in the January 6 investigation.
      President Joe Biden “respects the Department of Justice, their independence”, the White House’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing.
      Lawyers for Trump and federal prosecutors have appeared before US district judge Aileen Cannon for a first hearing in Florida that could decide the crucial timing of the former president’s criminal case concerning the mishandling of classified documents. Tuesday’s session is Cannon’s first time hearing arguments in the case since Trump’s indictment last month.
      Trump is already facing criminal charges in Florida for illegally hoarding classified documents from his presidency, and prosecution in New York for a hush-money payment to an adult movie star.
      Trump is also under investigation in Fulton county, Georgia, for efforts to overturn his defeat to Biden there. Georgia’s supreme court on Monday unanimously rejected a request by Trump to block the prosecutor, Fani Willis, from prosecuting the case. His lawyers had argued that a special grand jury report that is part of the inquiry should be thrown out.
      Ron DeSantis is formally a candidate in South Carolina’s 2024 presidential primary after the Republican Florida governor filed paperwork during a campaign stop. He’s the first presidential candidate from either major political party on the ballot for the primary, which will take place on 3 February, the first of any other southern state.
      Democratic divisions over Israel were on stark display, as lawmakers prepared to welcome Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, the president of Israel, for an address to a joint session of Congress. Several progressive House members, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, intend to boycott Herzog’s speech on Wednesday to protest the treatment of Palestinians under the government of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
      US district judge Aileen Cannon said a proposal from federal prosecutors that a trial in the classified documents case against Donald Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta, be held in mid-December was “a bit rushed”, CNN is reporting. Cannon did not decide on a trial date but said she plans to “promptly” issue an order on the matter, the news channel said.Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is due to sit down with CNN’s Jake Tapper for a rare interview that will air at 4pm ET.It will be his first discussion with a major news organization other than Fox News.The interview comes days after a report said DeSantis had reduced campaign staff as his campaign has struggled to meet fundraising goals. Fewer than 10 staffers were reportedly laid off.Democratic divisions over Israel were on stark display on Tuesday, as lawmakers prepared to welcome Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, the president of Israel, for an address to a joint session of Congress.Several progressive House members, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, intend to boycott Herzog’s speech on Wednesday to protest the treatment of Palestinians under the government of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.“In solidarity with the Palestinian people and all those who have been harmed by Israel’s apartheid government, I will be boycotting President Herzog’s joint address to Congress,” Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat of Michigan, said on Monday.
      I urge all members of Congress who stand for human rights for all to join me.
      House Democratic leaders have struck a much more conciliatory tone toward Herzog, embracing the opportunity to hear from the Israeli president.“President Bougie Herzog has been a force for good in Israeli society,” Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said on Friday.
      I look forward to welcoming him with open arms when he comes to speak before Congress.
      The tension between House Democrats reached a boiling point over the weekend, after Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, described Israel as a “racist state” while speaking at a conference in Chicago. More

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      Trump valet Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in Mar-a-Lago documents case – as it happened

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      From 6h agoDonald Trump’s valet Walt Nauta has pleaded not guilty to federal charges related to hiding secret government documents at the former president’s south Florida resort, Reuters reports.Donald Trump’s aide Walt Nauta appeared in Miami federal court for a brief hearing where he pleaded not guilty to six charges related to concealing secret government documents at Mar-a-Lago. Neither Trump nor Nauta’s cases are expected to be resolved anytime soon, but a new survey found most Americans would like the former president’s trial to conclude before the 2024 election, if not the Republican primaries. Meanwhile, the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election continues, with a former top Republican lawmaker in Arizona confirming he spoke to the FBI.Here’s what else happened today:
      Newly unsealed portions of the affidavit used to justify federal agents’ search of Mar-a-Lago last year revealed some fresh details of the investigation.
      A top Senate Democrat vowed to move forward with legislation to impose a code of ethics on the supreme court after a term marked by controversies.
      Marjorie Taylor Greene had a rough day, with Joe Biden zinging her in a speech and a group of fellow rightwing Republicans booting her out of their caucus.
      Cocaine in the White House: not as uncommon as you might think.
      For as long as we live, and as long as our children live, and our children’s children, and their children, and their children, and their children, and their children, and for generations to come, school funding in Wisconsin will increase.
      On the campaign trail, former vice-president Mike Pence defended his actions on January 6, when he rejected Donald Trump’s request that he meddle in Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.The moment came during a meeting with voters in Iowa, and saw Pence elaborate on statements he made when announcing his campaign for the Republican nomination last month:Polls indicate Trump remains far and away the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination next year.Senate Democrats will move forward with legislation imposing a court of ethics on the supreme court, after a term in which the conservative-led bench struck down affirmative action and Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan while dealing with a swirl of ethics controversies.Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee, says the body will take up the legislation when lawmakers return from the current Independence Day break:
      ‘God save the United States and this Honorable Court!’ These are the words spoken by the Marshal when she gavels the Supreme Court into session. But many questions remain at the end of the Court’s latest term regarding its reputation, credibility, and ‘honorable’ status. I’m sorry to see Chief Justice Roberts end the term without taking action on the ethical issues plaguing the Court—all while the Court handed down decisions that dismantled longstanding precedents and the progress our country has made over generations.
      The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards. That’s why, as I previously announced, the Senate Judiciary Committee will mark up Supreme Court ethics reform legislation when the Senate returns after the July 4th recess. An announcement on the timing of this vote will be made early next week.
      Since the Chief Justice has refused to act, the Judiciary Committee must.
      In a May hearing on the supreme court’s ethics following revelations of ties between conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch and parties with interests in its decisions, Republicans made clear they were opposed to any ethics legislation, potentially derailing chances of any bill getting through Congress.Congress is on recess and lawmakers are dispersed across the country, taking time off, meeting with constituents, and, if you are Missouri’s Republican senator Josh Hawley, getting called out by their local newspaper for a loose relationship with the truth. The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington tells the tale:Josh Hawley has become the poster boy for blurring fact and fiction in the era of Donald Trump: the Republican senator from Missouri will forever be remembered as having raised a manly fist in solidarity with January 6 protesters at the US Capitol then, hours later, having been caught on security camera fleeing the rioting mob he helped to incite.But even for a public figure known for his use of trolling imagery to foment culture wars, Hawley’s current record is impressive. His local Missouri newspaper, the Kansas City Star, has had to call him out twice in almost as many weeks for his egregious distortion of the facts.Earlier this week, Hawley reframed Independence Day on Twitter as a great Christian event, quoting the founding father Patrick “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Henry as saying that America was founded “not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”In addition to getting voted out of her rightwing House caucus, Marjorie Taylor Greene was today turned into a laugh line by Joe Biden.Speaking in South Carolina about his efforts to boost domestic manufacturing, he said he would attend the groundbreaking of a factory in the rightwing lawmaker’s district:The president has lately taken to singling out Republicans who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law he signed in 2021, but then applauded the fact their districts or states were set to benefit from its billions of dollars in funds.For what it’s worth, Politico reports that Marjorie Taylor Greene has been kicked out of the House Freedom Caucus.Greene is one of the most prominent far-right lawmakers in Congress, and known for all sorts of stunts and incidents. The Freedom Caucus is a grouping of rightwing Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives, many of whom supported the effort to stop Kevin McCarthy from becoming speaker for days in January, until he acceded to their demands.You would think they would get along, but as Politico reports, they apparently do not. The disagreement, which culminated in the group voting to expel Greene, appears to center on her support for McCarthy and his agenda, including his deal with Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling:The Biden administration is expected to announce a new Ukraine weapons aid package on Friday – and it will include cluster munitions, two US officials have told Reuters.The weapons, which were first used during the second world war, typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets and are notorious for killing civilians.They do not always explode, posing a future risk to civilians, and were banned by most of the world under a 2008 treaty called the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which the US, Russia and Ukraine did not sign.You can read the latest updates from the Russia-Ukraine war in our live blog:Joe Biden has spoken of his economic plans – or “Bidenomics” at a manufacturing plant in South Carolina.The US president told the audience that he had created more jobs than any other US president in the first two years of an administration. He said inflation is down, job satisfaction up and more working-age Americans are in jobs.CNN has a clip of his remarks:Donald Trump’s aide Walt Nauta appeared in Miami federal court for a brief hearing where he pleaded not guilty to six charges related to concealing secret government documents at Mar-a-Lago. Neither Trump nor Nauta’s cases are expected to be resolved anytime soon, but a new survey found most Americans would like the former president’s trial to conclude before the 2024 election, if not the Republican primaries. Meanwhile, the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election continues, with a former top Republican lawmaker in Arizona confirming he spoke to the FBI.Here’s what else has happened today:
      Newly unsealed portions of the affidavit used to justify federal agents’ search of Mar-a-Lago last year revealed some fresh details of the investigation.
      Cocaine in the White House: not as uncommon as you might think.
      For as long as we live, and as long as our children live, and our children’s children, and their children, and their children, and their children, and their children, and for generations to come, school funding in Wisconsin will increase.
      Meanwhile, answers remain elusive in the cocaine discovered in the White House over the weekend (though Donald Trump didn’t fail to mention it in yesterday’s Truth social tirade). But as the Guardian’s Wilfred Chan reports, the presence of drugs in the executive mansion should not come as a surprise:Cocaine in the White House? Chances are it’s not the first time – and the drug could well have been used by at least one past president, according to a leading presidential historian.Lab tests confirmed that a white substance found inside the building on Sunday was indeed cocaine, the Secret Service told reporters. The discovery, on the floor near an entrance to the West Wing that’s commonly used by tour groups, led to a security alert and a brief evacuation of the executive mansion. Authorities are working to figure out who brought the drug into the building. (At the time, Joe Biden and his family were at Camp David in Maryland.)Still, there’s good reason to think that coke has entered the US presidential office on past occasions – and that its most famous user may have been Franklin D Roosevelt.Rusty Bowers, the former Republican speaker of Arizona’s House of Representatives, told CNN that he had spoken to FBI agents looking into the campaign by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election result:Last year, Bowers told the January 6 committee that Trump had pressured him to send Congress a fake slate of electors. The then-president and his allies made the request of lawmakers and officials in several states critical to Joe Biden’s election win.Bowers was later ousted from his post by a Trump-endorsed primary challenger.Donald Trump’s valet Walt Nauta has left the courthouse in Miami, Reuters reports, after he pleaded not guilty to six federal charges related to hiding classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago.He did not respond to reporters’ questions as he left the building. Legal proceedings for both Nauta and Trump are expected to take months.A post by Donald Trump on his Truth social account kicked off a chain of events that led to an armed man being arrested near Barack Obama’s house, the Associated Press reports.Trump uses the social network, which he owns, as his main platform ever since being booted off Twitter after the January 6 insurrection (his account there has since been reactivated by owner Elon Musk, but remains dormant).According to the AP, the former president posted what he said was the address for Obama’s home on Truth, a soon after, an armed man was arrested nearby. Here’s more from their report:
      Former President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was the home address of former President Barack Obama on the same day that a man with guns in his van was arrested near the property, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in revealing new details about the case.
      Taylor Taranto, 37, who prosecutors say participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, kept two firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside a van he had driven cross-country and had been living in, according to a Justice Department motion that seeks to keep him behind bars.
      On the day of his June 29 arrest, prosecutors said, Taranto reposted a Truth Social post from Trump containing what Trump claimed was Obama’s home address. In a post on Telegram, Taranto wrote: “We got these losers surrounded! See you in hell, Podesta’s and Obama’s.” That’s a reference to John Podesta, the former chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Democratic presidential campaign.
      Taranto also told followers on his YouTube live stream that he was looking to get a “good angle on a shot,” prosecutors said.
      A federal defender representing Taranto did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment. But in a motion seeking to have him released pending trial, the lawyer wrote that Taranto was not a flight risk, had a family in Washington state and had served in Iraq before being honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy.
      “Mr. Taranto has been available and in plain sight for the last two and a half years,” wrote the lawyer, Kathryn D’Adamo Guevara.
      Newly released portions of an affidavit have revealed more about what prompted federal agents to search Mar-a-Lago last August. Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell:Federal prosecutors used surveillance footage to determine within weeks of collecting subpoenaed classified documents from Donald Trump last year that there might be more national security materials at Mar-a-Lago, according to newly unsealed descriptions in the FBI search warrant application.Much of the justification for executing a search warrant on Trump’s residence in Florida was detailed in the sprawling indictment charging him with retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice.But the parts of the affidavit released on Thursday – filed by the justice department after the federal magistrate judge in the Trump documents case ordered the release – provided a clearer explanation of the probable cause used to justify the FBI search.Reuters reports that Walt Nauta’s arraignment lasted just a few minutes, with the aide to Donald Trump heading into a conference room afterwards and not answering questions from reporters.Attorney Stanley Woodward entered Nauta’s plea in the hearing that was also attended by Sasha Dadan, the lawyer he hired to represent him in Florida. More

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      Trump valet arraigned over role in classified documents case

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      Waltine “Walt” Nauta, widely known for his role as Donald Trump’s personal valet, was arraigned on Thursday over his role in the federal classified documents case.Nauta, 40, arrived in the former president’s orbit by way of a military assignment.Trump’s “body man”, as he would become known, was raised as one of six siblings in the village of Agat, Guam, which has a population of about 4,515. His aunt Elly Nauta told the Washington Post in March that he was always a “good boy” and had enlisted in the Navy as a cook in 2001 “to see the world”.After rising to the rank of culinary specialist, Nauta was assigned to presidential food service in 2012, which prepares meals for the president and first family, as well as catering dinners for visiting heads of state.Nauta worked in a small White House passageway connecting the West Wing to a private dining room. After Trump was elected president, Nauta was assigned to Trump’s military valet. It fell to him to answer the presidential call button, often to serve Diet Cokes, sometimes Big Macs.“Everyone realized Walt is the one who Trump knows and feels comfortable with. So let’s just give Trump what he wants, which is familiarity,” a former official told the Post.But he was not regarded as a political operator, doing no more or less than what was required of him. When Trump’s term ended in January 2021, Nauta followed the ex-president to Florida.“There was a need for someone who wasn’t too proud to get a new tie, pick up dry cleaning, follow him around on the golf course, staff his dinners, do things that a lot of people just aren’t dying to spend their whole life doing,” a Trump adviser told the Post.But Nauta now faces six federal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record, and making false statements, over his alleged role in the classified documents case.According to the government, Nauta moved boxes from the White House in the dying days of Trump’s presidency, repeatedly moved them again at Trump’s direction at Mar-a-Lago, and then lied about it to investigators.The allegations include claims that Nauta discovered that several boxes in a storage room at Mar-a-Lago had fallen, spilling classified documents, and photographed the mess that allegedly included documents restricted to the “Five Eyes” western intelligence alliance.Later asked by investigators if he knew where the boxes had been stored, he allegedly said: “I wish, I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. I don’t – I honestly just don’t know.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionNauta’s inclusion as an alleged co-conspirator in the case was met with opposition by Trump last month who described him as “a wonderful man” who had “served proudly with me in the White House, retired as senior chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide”.Trump accused the government of “trying to destroy” Nauta’s life.Former White House attorney Ty Cobb told the Associated Press last month that he feels sorry for Nauta, whom he described as a dutiful worker who “nods and then does what he’s been told to do”.Nauta’s aunt Elly told the Post that her nephew had relayed to the family that he was merely following instructions when he moved the boxes at Mar-a-Lago.“He told his mom there’s nothing to worry about. He didn’t do anything wrong. All he was instructed [to do] was to put the boxes where they were supposed to go,” she said. More

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      Surveillance footage of Trump boxes paved way for FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search

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      Federal prosecutors used surveillance footage to determine within weeks of collecting subpoenaed classified documents from Donald Trump last year that there might be more national security materials at Mar-a-Lago, according to newly unsealed descriptions in the FBI search warrant application.Much of the justification for executing a search warrant on Trump’s residence in Florida was detailed in the sprawling indictment charging him with retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice.But the parts of the affidavit released on Thursday – filed by the justice department after the federal magistrate judge in the Trump documents case ordered the release – provided a clearer explanation of the probable cause used to justify the FBI search.Last June, shortly after Trump’s lawyers returned a folder of 38 classified documents to prosecutors after being issued a subpoena, prosecutors subpoenaed footage from surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the storage room, the affidavit said.The hard drive that was turned over in July 2022 included tapes from a camera called “South Tunnel Liquor” that recorded the gold-painted door to the storage room and had a field of vision just wide enough to capture the exit to the tunnel leading back to the rest of the Mar-a-Lago property.When prosecutors reviewed the footage, they noticed that Trump’s valet Walt Nauta had removed more than 50 boxes from the storage room but did not bring the same number back before Trump’s then lawyer Evan Corcoran looked through them for any classified documents.“The current location of the boxes removed from the storage room but not returned to it is unknown,” said the FBI agent on the investigation who drafted the affidavit, adding that it was clear from the lack of a lid that at least one of the boxes that Nauta removed contained documents.Prosecutors suspected that Trump might have kept some classified documents as his lawyers had only returned 38 papers, a far smaller number than they had anticipated given the 15 boxes Trump sent to the National Archives earlier in the year contained 200 classified documents.The conclusion inside the justice department’s national security division, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter and the language in the affidavit, was that 50 boxes should have yielded hundreds of classified documents if 15 boxes yielded 200.The suspicion that Trump had played what a federal judge later referred to as a “shell game” with the boxes during the criminal investigation last year proved to be correct when the FBI executed the warrant in August 2022 and seized 103 classified documents from the storage room and Trump’s office.Other parts of the affidavit – including the discussion about whether Trump declassified the documents provided by his close associate Kash Patel, who the Guardian has reported was granted immunity in the criminal investigation – are still redacted.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionA Trump spokesperson said in a statement that the affidavit showed Trump was open to curing his retention of national security documents but “the weaponized DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation” in an effort to “inflict maximum political damage” on his 2024 campaign.The US magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the justice department’s application for a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, ordered more parts of the affidavit to be made public after the Guardian and other news organizations filed a motion last week seeking the document to be released.Prosecutors last month charged Trump with violating the Espionage Act for retaining national security documents. They also charged Trump and Nauta with conspiring to obstruct justice by causing classified documents to not be returned to the government by moving the boxes out of the storage room.The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges in federal district court in Miami. Nauta also pleaded not guilty when he appeared for his arraignment on Thursday that was rescheduled after he was unable to find a Florida-based lawyer. More

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      Why was Trump hoarding classified government documents? | Moira Donegan

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      There are many surreal revelations in Jack Smith’s federal indictment of Donald Trump. There are the texts between various Trump underlings and Walt Nauta, the Trump body man who has also been indicted, showing the president directing his employees to move the boxes containing classified information back and forth to various locations around his properties in Palm Beach and Bedminster, New Jersey. There is the annoyed missive from Trump’s wife Melania, trying to make sure the boxes don’t crowd out room for her luggage on a private plane. There is the claim from Trump’s former attorney, compelled to testify against him in an unusual arrangement, that the former president suggested, with a Grinch-like pinching gesture, that the lawyer destroy confidential documents to prevent them from being produced in a subpoena. There is a text message Nauta sent to another Trump underling, showing a box having fallen over in a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, secret documents spilling on to the floor – whoops.What there is not, conspicuously, is a motive. Over the course of more than a year following his departure from office, it appears that Trump spent considerable effort and resources in transporting the documents with him and keeping them near at hand – and that later, as the federal government began to demand the boxes back, that he then went out of his way to keep and conceal them, going to great length, sparing no expense, and ultimately breaking the law so much that he incurred himself a series of felony charges. Anyone can tell you how this behavior is typical of Trump: how it reflects his pettiness, his contempt for the law, his willingness to sacrifice and endanger others. What no one can tell you is why he did it.It would be more convenient – legally, for Jack Smith and his prosecutors, and politically, for Joe Biden, for the Democrats, and for the growing number of Republicans who are looking to challenge Trump in the 2024 Republican primary – if we could say precisely why Trump wanted to keep the documents so badly, exactly what he wanted them for. It would be very easy to make a case to a skeptical jury – or to a divided American people – that Trump was a danger and could not be trusted with national secrets again if it could be said that he wanted to keep the documents for any of the straightforwardly dangerous and nefarious reasons that have been speculated: if he was seeking to sell national security secrets to the Saudis, say, or to Israel; if he was hoping, as some have suggested, that he one day might be able to blackmail someone powerful, like the president of France.It’s very possible that Trump had concocted such a plan. There is much that we do not know about the investigations into Trump, including about the special counsel’s query into his illegal document retention. But we do know that in the past, we know that he has gone further, and risked more, in the pursuit of even more harebrained schemes.But what seems the most likely explanation is the simplest, stupidest, and most aggravating one: that Trump had no plan for the documents, except perhaps for use as souvenirs, trophies to be shown off, maybe as evidence for petty score-settling. That the documents that Trump smuggled out of the White House and squirreled away around Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster were not instruments in a coherent, well-formed plan, but instead mere ornaments to Trump’s ego. In transcripts of Trump’s statements about the documents that were included in the indictment, and in audio of Trump showing some of the secret papers off to a writer that was recently released by CNN, Trump uses the documents to contradict a former national security official he was then in a spat with in the press; he tells one interlocutor not to get too close to one of the secret papers, seeming to want to create a hush of reverence for the documents in place of respecting their confidentiality in the first place. At these moments, Trump does not sound as if he has a plan. He sounds as if he wants to impress the people in the room with him, and like he can think no further ahead than to how good it will feel to get their praise.Why did Trump want the secret documents? Why did he refuse to return them? The answer may be the one truest to Trump’s piddling, puerile character: because they looked cool; because they reminded him of his own importance; because the government had asked for them back, and Trump has never missed an opportunity to throw a petulant little tantrum.It is this smallness of Trump’s character, and the possible triviality of his motives, that poses a peculiar risk to both of the cases being made against Trump – the one being pursued in a Miami courthouse, and the one being pursued in public. Because there has always been an uncanny mismatch with Trump, an incongruence: between the awesome and vast powers he had in office, the historical forces he unleashed on America, and the horrible ways his presidency warped millions of lives, on the one hand; and on the other, his pettiness, his vanity, his short-sightedness, his piddling personal grievances and constant need to be flattered and reassured.The gap between the seriousness of Trump’s role in history and his unseriousness as a person is the strange place where the documents case – and, now, much of American political thought – risks getting stuck. The very silliness of Trump’s use of the documents undercuts the grave risks posed by his hoarding of them. How can such a powerful country have been made so vulnerable by someone so stupid?
      Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist More

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      Trump classified documents trial could be delayed until spring 2024

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      Federal prosecutors in the classified documents case against Donald Trump have asked for a tentative trial date in December, but the complex nature of the US government’s own rules for using such secrets in court, and expected legal challenges, could delay the trial until at least the spring of 2024.Trump was charged with retaining national defense information, including US nuclear secrets and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, which means his case will be tried under the rules laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa.The statute was passed in the 1980s to protect the government against the “graymail” problem in national security cases, a tactic where the defense threatens to reveal classified information at trial, betting that the government would prefer to drop the charges rather than risk disclosure.Cipa essentially requires the defense to disclose what classified information they want to use at trial in advance, so the courts can decide whether to add restrictions. If the government feels the restrictions aren’t enough, they can decide whether they still want to continue with the case.While Cipa established a mechanism through which the government can safely charge cases involving classified documents, the series of steps that have to be followed means it takes longer to get to trial compared with regular criminal cases without national security implications.Cipa also requires the defense to review all classified materials and draft briefs in an ultra-secure room designed to handle secret documents called a sensitive compartmented information facility (Scif). If the only Scif is in Miami, just the back-and-forth travel could necessitate a slower schedule.The prosecutors in the Trump case have indicated they want to get to trial quickly, but the complexities of Cipa and Trump’s clear preference for delay – if he wins the election before it gets to trial, the case may be dropped – could significantly push back the government’s proposed timetable.To that end, the timetable amounts to more of a signal from prosecutors that they believe they would be ready to take the Trump case to trial before the end of the year, than a realistic schedule, since it will be subject to multiple hurdles, as identified by legal experts familiar with the process.
      Cipa section 2: timings conference
      Section 2 requires the US district court judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the Trump classified documents case in Florida, to promptly hold a hearing with prosecutors and the Trump legal team to establish a timetable for the discovery of classified materials and their use at trial.The process was started on Monday when Cannon scheduled a hearing to take place on 14 July. That date suggests she will pursue a slower schedule than proposed by the government, which had sought to get the hearing done and start the discovery of classified documents by 10 July.
      Cipa section 3: classified discovery
      Just like in any other case, the government is required to provide to the defense all materials they intend to use at trial – including the classified documents. Section 3 requires Cannon to issue a protective order governing the discovery of classified documents to the defense.The protective order is the first hurdle because it needs to be blessed by Cannon before the government can start with the classified discovery. The Trump legal team may challenge the conditions of the protective order.Trump can challenge the protective order by asking Cannon for an exemption – potentially to extend access to the former president himself – according to an informal handbook for prosecutors known as the Justice Manual, which could delay the start of the classified discovery towards the end of July.
      Cipa section 4: redactions in discovery
      Section 4 stipulates that Cannon can authorize the government to “delete specified items of classified information from documents to be made available to the defendant through discovery” or to substitute the classified documents for “unclassified summaries” of the material.It is unclear whether the government will file a section 4 motion. But if it does, that could prompt a challenge from the Trump legal team. If Cannon then agrees that Trump can have all the discoverable documents without restrictions, the government may seek an interlocutory appeal.In its proposed timetable, the government gave itself a deadline of 14 August for a section 4 motion. Since that motion would govern the extent of the classified discovery, the Trump legal team may use it as a pretext to push back filing their section 5 notice (explained next).
      Cipa section 5: notice from Trump
      After the classified discovery is complete, section 5 requires the Trump legal team to file a notice specifying the precise classified information they intend to disclose at trial, including a “brief description of the classified information”.According to legal experts, the defense at this juncture typically files a notice that the government finds too vague – a problem because it reduces the notice to “graymail” in writing – and the Trump legal team could do the same in this case.In that event, the government would have to ask Cannon to force Trump to produce a more specific section 5 notice, pushing back the proposed deadline of 12 September multiple weeks after adding up the delays in section 4 and 5.
      Cipa section 6(a): trial admissibility
      Twenty-one days after Trump’s section 5 notice, the government has said it would be ready to file a motion asking Cannon to schedule a hearing under section 6(a) of the statute to adjudicate the relevance and admissibility of the classified information Trump wants to disclose at trial.The government then suggests the Trump legal team get two weeks to file a response to the section 6 motion, for the government to get a week to file a reply to Trump’s response, and for Cannon to schedule the hearing to come seven days after the government’s reply.The proposed timetable suggests the hearing takes place on 31 October, though earlier cumulative delays may push it back months, potentially to December.At the hearing, Cannon would consider whether the Trump legal team needs the classified information that it outlined in its section 5 notice to make an effective defense against any potential objections from prosecutors who might want to limit the extent of the disclosure at trial.Cannon would make a determination on each item of classified information. Her final ruling might not come down for days after the hearing, not least because she may choose to look through all of the classified documents and classified discovery herself to reach a decision.
      Cipa section 6(c): redactions for trial
      If Cannon decides in her discretion that Trump can use all the classified information he wants at trial, section 6(c) says the government can propose to Cannon that Trump instead use unclassified “substitutes” or, more commonly, redacted versions of the documents.The substitutes can either be a statement admitting relevant facts that the classified information would prove, or a summary of the classified information instead of the classified documents themselves.But Trump could challenge any redactions on the basis that a jury could draw a prejudicial inference from them – they might see the redactions as evidence the document is sensitive – and Cannon is not required to accept the government’s proposal for substitutions.
      Cipa section 7: final appeals
      If Cannon rejects restrictions sought by the government, prosecutors can appeal under section 7 to the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit. If the appeals court also rules against the government, the attorney general must decide whether to continue the prosecution or drop elements of the case.The proposed timetable from the government suggests a section 6 hearing on 5 December. But the holidays and potential challenges from Trump may push a hearing back into the start of 2024. A final decision about what Trump can use at trial might not come until weeks afterwards. More

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      Will this latest Trump indictment embolden the Maga base? – podcast

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      On Tuesday, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, becoming the first former US president to face federal criminal charges.
      This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to a former Department of Justice prosecutor, Ankush Khardori, about the potential for further political violence in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election as Trump spouts baseless claims against Joe Biden

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know More