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      in Elections

      Pence says Trump and his ‘gaggle of crackpot lawyers’ urged him to reject 2020 result

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      Mike Pence has lashed out at the “gaggle of crackpot lawyers” who worked with Donald Trump to allegedly try to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as the former vice-president found himself thrust into an unwelcome spotlight.Trump was charged with four felonies this week over his attempts to meddle with the presidential election. The 45-page indictment shows that Pence was a crucial figure in Jack Smith, the special counsel, being able to bring those charges.“Contemporaneous notes” taken by Pence, and referred to in the indictment, document how Trump and his advisers pressured Pence to reject the certification of the election in January, which could have resulted in the House of Representatives handing Trump a second-term in office.On Wednesday, as Trump and his legal team attempted to downplay those efforts – one of Trump’s lawyers suggested that they only asked Pence to do “pause the voting” on January 6 – the usually meek Pence reacted angrily.“Let’s be clear on this point. It wasn’t just that they asked for a pause,” he told Fox News.“The president specifically asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me, to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives, and literally chaos would have ensued.”The former vice-president is unlikely to be thrilled with his newly central role in Trump’s indictment. Pence is running – so far unsuccessfully – for president himself, and is already unpopular with a Republican base which is still largely in thrall to Trump.Along with the notes which Smith used, among other sources, to build the case against Trump, Pence also spent seven hours before a grand jury investigating Trump in April.According to the indictment, Trump repeatedly pressured Pence to reject electoral votes in phone calls across late December and early January, including on Christmas Day.“On December 25, when the vice-president called the defendant to wish him a Merry Christmas, the defendant quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the vice-president reject electoral votes that day,” the indictment reads.“The vice-president pushed back, telling the defendant, as the vice-president already had in previous conversations: ‘You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome’.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionPence, who was a notably obsequious figure through the majority of Trump’s presidency, had earlier stood up to Trump, a little bit, on Twitter.“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” Pence tweeted on Tuesday.“Our country is more important than one man. Our constitution is more important than any one man’s career. On January 6th, Former President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. I chose the Constitution and I always will.” More

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      in US Politics

      Trump will appear in court to respond to charges of election subversion efforts

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      Donald Trump was scheduled to surrender to federal authorities in Washington on Thursday afternoon and enter a not guilty plea to charges that he conspired to defraud the United States among other crimes in seeking to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.The twice-impeached former president, who has now been indicted three times since leaving the White House, was expected to be booked and fingerprinted in the federal district court before being escorted to his arraignment, which has been set for 4pm.Trump was expected to make his first appearance in the case in person, according to people briefed on the matter, and to travel for the arraignment from his Bedminster club in New Jersey to Washington with his lawyers and several top campaign staffers.The initial appearance from Trump to enter a plea formally starts the months-long pre-trial process that will run into the timetable for his other criminal trials next year and the 2024 presidential race, where Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.The charges in Washington came in the second indictment brought by the special counsel Jack Smith, who previously charged Trump in June with retaining national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them.Trump has also been indicted in an unrelated case by the Manhattan district attorney, who charged him over hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. He is expected to be indicted a fourth time over 2020 election-related charges in Georgia.Thursday’s arraignment follows the release of a 45-page indictment alleging fundamentally that Trump convened fake slates of electors and sought “sham election investigations” from the justice department in order to obstruct the certification of the election result in an attempt to remain president.The indictment also listed six co-conspirators who were not charged in the indictment. While they were unnamed, the descriptions of five of the six matched those of the Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Ken Chesebro as well as the former US justice department official Jeff Clark.Thursday’s hearing in the courthouse – just blocks from the Capitol building, where Trump’s efforts to reverse his election defeat to Joe Biden culminated in the January 6 riot – was expected to be overseen by US magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya.Magistrate judges typically handle the more routine or procedural aspects of court cases, such as arraignments, but the case itself has been assigned to US district court judge Tanya Chutkan, a former assistant public defender who was nominated to the bench by Barack Obama.In 2021, Chutkan was the judge who rejected Trump’s attempt to block the House January 6 select committee investigating the Capitol riot from gaining access to presidential records. “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president,” she wrote at the time. More

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      in US Politics

      Trump valet lawyer has three potential conflicts of interest, prosecutors say

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      Federal prosecutors requested a hearing to inform Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, about his lead lawyer’s potential conflicts of interest stemming from his defense work for at least three witnesses that could testify against Nauta and the former president in the classified documents case.The prosecutors made the request to US district court judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday, explaining that Nauta’s lead lawyer, Stanley Woodward, represents two key Trump employees and formerly advised the Mar-a-Lago IT director, Yuscil Taveras, who is cooperating in the case.“All three of these witnesses may be witnesses for the government at trial, raising the possibility that Mr Woodward might be in the position of cross-examining past or current clients,” prosecutors wrote in the 11-page court filing. “These potential conflicts warrant a Garcia hearing.”At issue is Woodward’s prior representation of Taveras during the grand jury investigation earlier this year, when prosecutors concluded that Taveras had evidence that incriminated Nauta and had enough of his own legal exposure to warrant sending him a target letter.After Trump and Nauta were indicted in the classified documents case on 8 June, Taveras changed lawyers and swapped out Woodward, whose legal bills were being paid by Trump’s political action committee Save America, and retained a new lawyer on 5 July.In the weeks that followed, Taveras decided to share more evidence with prosecutors about how Nauta and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira had asked him to delete surveillance footage – details that resulted last week in a superseding indictment against Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira.Trump and Nauta were charged last month in a sprawling indictment that outlined how Trump retained national security documents and obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them with the help of Nauta, who was seen moving boxes of documents on surveillance tapes, and lied to the FBI.The superseding indictment, filed in federal district court in Miami, added a new section titled “The Attempt to Delete Security Camera Footage” that described a scheme to wipe a server containing surveillance footage that showed boxes of classified documents being removed from the Mar-a-Lago storage room.The court filing said that Taveras told prosecutors he was unopposed to Woodward continuing to represent Nauta, but did not consent to Woodward using or disclosing his confidential deliberations in the course of defending Nauta.That would mean Woodward could face some limits in how vigorously he could defend Nauta at trial, since he might be obligated to stand down certain arguments he might have otherwise used to attack Taveras’s testimony during cross-examination.“An attorney’s cross-examination of a former or current client raises two principal dangers. First, the conflict may result in the attorney’s improper use or disclosure of the client’s confidences during the cross-examination. Second, the conflict may cause the attorney to pull his punches,” the filing said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWoodward could not immediately be reached for comment, but he has previously indicated he would file a motion in response.In their court filing, prosecutors added there could be additional conflicts for Woodward because out of the eight total witnesses who were ensnared by the grand jury investigation, the government intended to use at least two of them against Trump and Nauta at trial.The first witness “worked in the White House during Trump’s presidency and then subsequently worked for Trump’s post-presidential office in Florida” and the second “worked for Trump’s reelection campaign and worked for Trump’s political action committee after Trump’s presidency ended”.That raised the possibility of Woodward having multiple clients testifying against each other, and ultimately against Trump, with whom Nauta is said to be in an informal joint-defense agreement, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. More

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      in US Politics

      The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s new indictment: America needs this trial | Editorial

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      The indictment served on Donald Trump on Monday marks the beginning of a legal reckoning that is desperately required, if American democracy is to properly free itself from his malign, insidious influence. Mr Trump already faces multiple criminal charges relating to the retention of classified national security documents and the payment of hush money to a porn star. But the gravity of the four counts outlined by the special counsel, Jack Smith, is of a different order of magnitude.Mr Trump stands accused of conspiring, in office, to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. Following Joe Biden’s victory, the indictment states, Mr Trump “knowingly” used false claims of electoral fraud in an attempt “to subvert the legitimate election results”. A bipartisan congressional committee report last year came to similar conclusions and provides much of the basis for the charges. But this represents the first major legal attempt to hold Mr Trump accountable for events leading up to and including the storming of the Capitol by a violent mob on 6 January 2021.The stakes could hardly be set higher. Democratic elections and the peaceful transfer of power are the cornerstones of the American republic. The testimony given to Congress indicates that Mr Trump used his authority to try to bully federal and state officials into supporting his claims that the election had been “stolen” from him. Repeatedly told that his assertions were baseless, he then mobilised a hostile crowd on 6 January to intimidate lawmakers charged with ratifying Mr Biden’s victory.It is inconceivable that Mr Trump should not be made to answer for actions that imperilled the constitutional and democratic functioning of the United States. The prosecutors’ case will hinge on their ability to prove that he knew his claims of a stolen election were bogus. But beyond the trial itself, it would be foolish to underestimate Mr Trump’s ability to turn even this situation to his own political advantage.The legal fronts on which Mr Trump is now engaged will drain his financial resources. But a narrative of victimhood and persecution has become, and will remain, the galvanising theme of his campaign. Two previous criminal indictments saw his poll ratings lift, helping him to establish a huge lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination for 2024. Whatever the evidence to the contrary, a sizable proportion of American voters will continue to back Mr Trump’s self-serving version of reality.One of the most dangerously polarising elections in US history thus looms as, over the next 15 months, Mr Trump uses political cunning to evade the legal net that is closing around him. Through his lawyers, he will do all he can to delay matters, hoping eventually to dictate the course of events from the White House. For his part, Mr Smith said on Monday that the justice department will seek “a speedy trial”.It is in the interests of American democracy, to which Mr Trump represents a clear and present danger, that the justice department gets its wish. A healthy body politic cannot allow its founding values and core principles to be trashed with apparent impunity. Prosecutors will need to proceed with care and be alert to the complex political dynamics. But this climactic reckoning in court needs to take place before Mr Trump gets the chance to besmirch the country’s highest office all over again. More

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      in US Politics

      Can Trump still run in 2024 after his indictment – and can he pardon himself?

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      Donald Trump’s most recent indictment marked the first time the former president has faced criminal consequence for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A historic moment on its own, the indictment was all the more extraordinary because it came as Trump is running to return to the White House and is the frontrunner to win the Republican nomination.Here’s a look at what the most recent charges could mean for Trump.Do the charges mean Trump can’t run for president? If convicted, can he be blocked from holding office?No. The US constitution does not bar those convicted of a crime from running for president.There could be a pathway to blocking him, however, through the constitution’s 14th amendment. That provision says that someone cannot hold office if they have taken an oath to the United States, as Trump did when he was inaugurated, and engage in “insurrection or rebellion” against the country. There’s likely to be a flurry of separate civil lawsuits in state courts seeking to disqualify Trump on that basis. Some activists have already begun a push to disqualify Trump in Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and California.“The new charges against Trump, and especially a conviction on those charges, would bolster the case that Trump should be disqualified under the 14th amendment. But much is uncertain here, and I expect attempts to disqualify Trump to go forward regardless of what happens with the new charges,” Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in an email.Last year, a judge in New Mexico used the 14th amendment to remove a county commissioner from his post after the commissioner was found guilty on federal charges related to January 6. It was the first time since the civil war that an official had been removed from their post for engaging in an insurrection.Noah Bookbinder, the president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), which filed the New Mexico case, said his organization had already been planning to file civil cases to disqualify Trump under the 14th amendment. He noted that the 14th amendment doesn’t require a criminal conviction to mount a challenge and that litigation is likely to be ongoing while Trump’s criminal charges are pending.“Obviously an indictment and particularly a conviction would strengthen the case under the 14th amendment,” he said.What do Trump’s most recent charges mean for his re-election campaign?Legally, the charges do not block Trump from continuing to run for president. After his initial court appearance in Washington, he is likely to continue his campaign as usual.Politically, just as he has done after his other two indictments, Trump is likely to seize on the charges and try to spin them to his advantage. “They’re not indicting me, they’re indicting you. I just happen to be standing in the way,” he said in Pennsylvania last weekend. “Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it actually a great badge of honor … Because I’m being indicted for you.”With few exceptions, Trump’s Republican rivals in the presidential race have hesitated to use the criminal charges to attack the former president.Financially, the charges are likely to add to an already enormous bill for legal fees. Trump’s political action committee has already spent $40m on legal fees this year alone, as his campaign continues to burn through cash.If convicted before election day, Trump would probably be unable to vote in the 2024 race. He is a registered voter in Florida, which bars anyone convicted of a felony from voting while they are serving a criminal sentence. In order to vote, those convicted must complete their sentence, including any parole and probation, and repay any costs associated with their case.What happens if Trump goes on trial during the presidential primaries?A trial in the middle of the presidential primary would be a blockbuster moment in American politics. It would offer an unvarnished look at all of the ways Trump knowingly tried to subvert the results of the 2020 election, with key aides and allies forced to testify under oath. The trial would not be televised, since federal courts do not allow cameras in the courtroom.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“A trial is the best chance to educate the American public, as the January 6 House committee hearings did to some extent, about the actions Trump allegedly took to undermine American democracy and the rule of law,” Hasen wrote in the online newsmagazine Slate. “Constant publicity from the trial would give the American people in the middle of the election season a close look at the actions Trump took for his own personal benefit while putting lives and the country at risk.”Practically, it’s unclear what impact a trial would have on Trump’s campaigning. While it could pull him off the campaign trail, Trump favors large rallies that are typically held in the evening or on weekends.Trump’s legal schedule for next year remains unclear. He already has criminal trials scheduled in Manhattan in March over hush-money payments and another in May over his handling of classified documents. It’s not yet clear when the trial related to his efforts to overturn the election will be. Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting the case, has sought a speedy trial.What happens if Trump is found guilty after winning the GOP nomination?A conviction after Trump wins the GOP nomination is unlikely to have any real practical effect. If convicted, he will almost certainly appeal the case all the way to the US supreme court, where there is a conservative supermajority. The conviction would also only further efforts to get him disqualified from the ballot under the 14th amendment.What happens if Trump wins the election next November?If Trump takes office while the charges are still pending against him, he’s likely to move to quickly get rid of the charges. He would almost certainly appoint an attorney general who would fire Smith. If he has already been convicted, Trump could theoretically pardon himself, an untested legal idea.A Trump win would also throw the justice department into uncharted legal territory. While the department has long held that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, it’s unclear how that would affect a prosecution of a former president that began when he was out of office.“It would be very chaotic. It would put a lot of stress on our democratic system,” Bookbinder said. “You certainly don’t want a situation where Donald Trump would try to use the presidency to get himself out of criminal liability.” More

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      in US Politics

      Wednesday briefing: The big one – Trump indicted for January 6

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      Good morning.Donald Trump has been indicted for “conspiring to defraud the United States” and other alleged crimes connected to his efforts to overturn the 2020 US election result.The news, which broke late last night UK time, marks the first time Trump has faced criminal charges over his actions after his defeat by Joe Biden, and throws the run-up to next year’s presidential election into even greater turmoil.Trump is bidding to regain the White House in 2024; he leads in polling for the Republican presidential nomination by a substantial majority. He called the case “ridiculous”.Our newsletter this morning rounds up the latest developments on an extraordinary story.First, the other news headlines.Five big stories
      UK news | The family of Captain Tom Moore have objected to an enforcement notice ordering them to pull down an unauthorised spa pool block at the home of the late charity fundraiser.
      Conservatives | Jeremy Hunt oversaw the signing of a low-tax treaty with San Marino that was championed by a leading Tory donor, who with his companies has given more than £700,000 to the party and £30,000 to the chancellor. Maurizio Bragagni, a prominent businessman and diplomat for San Marino, was present in No 11 Downing Street when a “double taxation” treaty was signed in May.
      AI | UK intelligence agencies are lobbying the government to weaken surveillance laws, which they argue place a “burdensome” limit on their ability to train artificial intelligence models with large amounts of personal data.
      Rights | Anti-protest laws and culture wars perpetrated by the government are among the issues highlighted as “urgent and alarming” by two thinktanks that argue the threat to Britain’s democratic spaces is growing, with charities and civil society groups come under “political attack” by ministers.
      Science | Adults’ penchant for the landscapes of Vincent van Gogh is mirrored in babies, researchers say. Infants and adults were shown a selection of 10 of Van Gogh’s landscapes among 40 possible images. The infants tended to gaze longer at artworks that adult participants rated higher for pleasantness. Van Gogh’s Green Corn Stalks had the highest shared preference.
      In depth: ‘Defendant spread lies that he had actually won’Former president Donald Trump has been summoned to appear in a Washington court to answer charges linked to his bid to overturn the 2020 US presidential election.The development, announced by special counsel Jack Smith is not wholly a surprise: a congressional panel created to investigate the January 6 insurrection recommended criminal charges last December. The US Justice Department has been investigating this and further evidence since.But that does not make this news any less astonishing. A former president, who otherwise may stand a very good chance of being re-elected, has been charged with, among other things, conspiring to defraud the country he wants to lead. It is the first time a US president has faced charges for trying to overturn an election.The indictmentTrump has been indicted on four charges:* Conspiracy to defraud the United States* Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding* Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding* Conspiracy against rightsYou can read the full indictment on the US courts website – but here is a flavour: “The Defendant lost the 2020 presidential election,” the 45-page document states. “Despite having lost the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies … that he had actually won.”It alleges that Trump repeated false claims of election fraud, despite repeated warnings from multiple people in his circle, including senior leaders in the justice department and senior attorneys who had been appointed by Trump, and the former vice-president Mike Pence, who told him “he had seen no evidence of outcome-determinative fraud”.As our US team report today, the indictment describes a conspiracy which, at its core, involves Trump and his co-conspirators allegedly trying to dupe Pence into falsely suggesting the outcome of the 2020 election had been in doubt.To do so, prosecutors say Trump tried to use the Justice Department to open “sham election fraud investigations” and repeatedly tried to co-opt Pence into rejecting electoral college votes for Joe Biden in a bid to stop his election win being certified.When that failed, the indictment says, Trump tried to block the certification and exploited the January 6 Capitol attack by trying to push false claims of election fraud and to convince members of Congress to continue to delay the certification.Six other co-conspirators are listed but not named, though the indictment says they are four attorneys, a justice department official and a political consultant.They have been tentatively identified, however, and they are thought to include Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who was Trump’s attorney in the wake of his presidential defeat.The six have not been charged at this time, but could be in future.The background, in briefThe indictment stems from Trump’s refusal, in the weeks and months after his defeat by Joe Biden in November 2020, to accept he had lost, and from the violent attempt by a group of Trump’s supporters on 6 January 2021 to disrupt the congressional certification of Biden’s victory.That event caused the deaths of seven people, a bipartisan Senate report found, and has already resulted in more than 1,000 arrests.Trump is also facing other serious legal charges in New York and Florida over an alleged hush-money scheme during the 2016 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Separately, he was found liable in May for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll – he has appealed. And he could face other charges in Georgia over alleged election code violations.What does Trump say?The former president hit back on Truth Social: “Why didn’t they bring this ridiculous case 2.5 years ago? They wanted it right in the middle of my campaign, that’s why!”The Trump campaign earlier issued a statement calling the indictments “nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner”.What do others say?There have been a range of responses from Trump’s Republican rivals and supporters.Pence, who is also running in 2024, said: “Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the constitution should never be president of the United States.” Florida governor Ron DeSantis said he hadn’t read the indictment, but would enact reforms: “Washington DC is a ‘swamp’ and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality,” he tweeted.Others have been more vocal. Ohio congressman Jim Jordan tweeted: “When you drain The Swamp, The Swamp fights back. President Trump did nothing wrong!”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionChuck Schumer, the (Democrat) Senate majority leader, and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, issued a joint statement saying that the violence of 6 January 2021 “was the culmination of a months-long criminal plot led by the former president to defy democracy and overturn the will of the American people”.There was no immediate comment from President Joe Biden, who is on holiday in Delaware; he went to the cinema with his wife, Jill, to watch Oppenheimer shortly after the indictment was announced.What happens next?The former president has been summoned to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Washington DC on Thursday.Jack Smith, the special counsel, said he would seek a “speedy trial”, and stressed that the former president was entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.Smith described the January 6 insurrection as “an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy” that was “fuelled by lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing the bedrock function of the US government admissions process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election”.If convicted on all counts, Trump could, in theory, spend decades in prison, but federal penalties are rarely as high as the maximum possible sentence.Trump’s latest indictments would not bar him from standing for office – and nor would a conviction. At any other time it would be inconceivable to imagine a candidate facing multiple indictments to win the Republican nomination, but Trump’s political career has never conformed to expectations.What else we’ve been reading
      I have been enjoying the second season of the Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That …, but Louis Staples in Harper’s Bazaar hits the nail on the head on what is missing from the show: its inner cynic. Self-conscious and concerned with the life of Manhattan’s elite, the show’s lack of healthy scepticism leaves it feeling a little hollow, writes Staples. Nimo
      We all know the things that irritate us when we eat out – but what do chefs find most annoying about diners? Tony Naylor reports. (A tip: standing on your chair to take food pics isn’t always popular.) Esther
      After running a successful experiment last year, Jo Hunter has decided to commit to taking every August off, along with the rest of her staff. She explains why her company runs on an 11-month year and how transformative it has been for their business and employees. Nimo
      I loved this brief story from novelist Colin Walsh’s school days, about the moment one of his teachers broke off from the exam script to tell “a bunch of lads, all acne and adrenaline” about the unimaginable ways their awareness of life was about to expand. Esther
      During the London press preview screening of Barbie, influencers and writers alike were encouraged to share their positive feelings about the film on Twitter – but embargos for full reviews remained in place for two more days. Manuela Lazić left feeling censored. She asks what the role for film criticism is when studios can rely on influencers for glowing reviews. Nimo
      SportFootball | Inspired by two goals and three assists from Lauren James, England’s Lionesses topped Group D after a sensational 6-1 victory against China in their final Women’s World Cup group game. Denmark took down Haiti 2-0 after captain Pernille Harder converted a first-half penalty to also qualify from the group, while the Netherlands thrashed Vietnam 7-0 England in the knockout stage and the USA squeezed into the next round after drawing 0-0 with Portugal.Netball | England clinched their place in the World Cup semi-finals with a match to spare after defeating Fiji 89-28 in a late-night game in Cape Town.Football | Chelsea have signed the midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu from Rennes for €27m (£23.2m) and are deciding whether to explore an offer to take Dusan Vlahovic from Juventus as part of a swap deal involving Romelu Lukaku. Jürgen Klopp has laughed off suggestions Liverpool are in the running to put together a loan deal for the France striker Kylian Mbappé who has rejected the chance to hold talks with the Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal after Paris Saint-Germain accepted a world-record £259m bid and Anfield has been touted as a possible destination.The front pages“Asylum seeker barge may be ‘deathtrap’, firefighters warn” is on the front of the Guardian today, and there’s another story there on medical research, about which the Times says “AI can help medics spot more breast cancer cases”. “Cancer ‘holy grail’” says the Metro but it’s a different breakthrough – a pill that has the potential to kill tumours. The Daily Express has “Biggest house price fall in 14 years … but rise on way” while the i reports “Recession fears grow as interest rates set to rise until Christmas”. “We’re shaping Labour policy, boasts eco-mob” – that’s the Daily Mail, about you guessed it, Just Stop Oil. Top story in the Financial Times is “Business ‘breathes sigh of relief’ after post-Brexit goods safety mark ditched”. The Daily Telegraph tells us: “First-time criminals to avoid court”. “Anton: My dad stabbed me” reports the Daily Mirror under the strapline “Strictly judge’s agony”.Today in FocusLife in the UK for one of China’s most wantedHong Kong activist Finn Lau has vowed to continue his fight for democracy despite the Chinese bounty on his head.Cartoon of the day | Steve BellThe UpsideA bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all badThe longlist for the Booker prize, the UK’s most prestigious literary award, has been released and, writes Ella Creamer, it features an “original and thrilling” number of diverse novelists. For the first time, novels by Irish writers comprise one-third of the list, making Ireland the country that has produced the most nominees relative to population size. The judges have also chosen smaller debuts instead of the expected major novels of the year, with seven of the titles coming from independent publishers. Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ is the fifth Nigerian author to be nominated for the Booker, for her novel A Spell of Good Things, which was described by judges as a “powerful, staggering read” in its “examination of class and desire in modern-day Nigeria”. The list has been seen as a breath of fresh air, with its focus on lesser-known writers. Esi Edugyan, the chair of the panel which read 163 books in across seven months, said the longlist is defined by “the irreverence of new voices, by the iconoclasm of established ones”, and the novels are “small revolutions, each seeking to energise and awaken the language”.Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every SundayBored at work?And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
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      in US Politics

      Donald Trump’s January 6 indictment: six key takeaways

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      Donald Trump has been charged with several crimes in connection with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in a historic indictment that is deepening the former president’s legal peril.The charges, filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in federal district court in Washington DC on Tuesday, accuse Trump of conspiracies that targeted a “bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election”.Here are some key takeaways from the latest indictment:Trump faces four chargesThe former president is accused of conspiring to defraud the United States government, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiring against rights, and obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.In the 45-page indictment, prosecutors laid out their case in stark detail, alleging Trump knowingly spread false allegations about fraud, convened false slates of electors and attempted to block the certification of the election on January 6.The former president was “determined to remain in power”Federal prosecutors said Trump was “determined to remain in power”. Prosecutors said that for two months after his election loss, Trump spread lies to create an “intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger” and “erode public faith in the administration of the election”. They cited an example in Georgia, where Trump claimed more than 10,000 dead people voted in four days even after the state’s top elections official told him that was not true.There are six un-indicted co-conspiratorsThe indictment included six un-indicted co-conspirators as part of Smith’s inquiry, including four unnamed attorneys who allegedly aided Trump in his effort to subvert the 2020 election results, as well as an unnamed justice department official and an unnamed political consultant.While unnamed in the document, the details in the indictment indicate that those people include Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Jeff Clark, a former Department of Justice employee.The special counsel wants a speedy trialIt’s unclear yet when the case will go to trial, but Jack Smith said his office will seek speedy proceedings.“I must emphasize that the indictment is only an allegation and that the defendant must be presumed innocent until proven guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, in a court of law,” Smith said in a press conference on Tuesday.Trump is looking at a complicated calendar for 2024. The former president’s trial in New York on criminal charges over hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels will begin in March 2024. His criminal trial in Florida for retaining national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago property and obstructing the justice department’s efforts to retrieve them will take place in May 2024. The Iowa caucuses, the opening salvo in the Republican race for the 2024 presidential nomination, are scheduled to take place in January.Indictments won’t disqualify Trump from officeTrump’s indictments will not bar him from seeking the presidency again, nor will any conviction.However, it would be highly unusual for a thrice-indicted candidate to win the Republican presidential nomination. The only other presidential nominee to run under indictment in recent history is former Texas governor Rick Perry, who sought the 2016 Republican nomination after he was indicted for abuse of power. Another candidate, socialist party candidate Eugene Debs ran while imprisoned.Trump has three indictments so far. Smith, who indicted him in the January 6 case, has also charged him with the illegal retention of classified documents. Trump was also criminally charged in New York over hush money payments and faces a civil trial over business practices. In Georgia, the Fulton county district attorney has been investigating Trump and his allies’ alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 results – and is expected to announce charging decisions this month.The indictment follows a path laid by the House January 6 committeeThe congressional panel, which was created to investigate the insurrection, concluded last December recommending criminal charges. Over the course of the investigation, the committee conducted more than 1,000 interviews, collected more than a million documents and interviewed key witnesses. In public hearings, some held at prime time, investigators aired dramatic and damning footage, making the case that Trump “was directly responsible for summoning what became a violent mob” despite understanding that he’d lost the election.The justice department received what the committee had uncovered, but conducted its own interviews and used its authority to gain key evidence that wasn’t easily accessible to Congress.The final charges against Trump include ones that the committee had recommended, including conspiracy to defraud the United States. More