US crime

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      DeSantis pledges $1m to boost security at historically Black college after racist shooting

      by

      The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has announced $1m for heightened security at a historically Black college, a day after he was booed at a memorial gathering for victims of a deadly racist shooting in his state.DeSantis said his administration would give $1m to Edward Waters University to enhance its security after the gunman in this weekend’s racist killings at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville tried to enter the historically Black college but was denied entry.DeSantis said that an additional $100,000 would be given to a charity for the victims’ families.“As I’ve said for the last couple of days, we are not going to allow our HBCUs to be targeted by these people,” DeSantis said. “We’re going to provide security help with them.”DeSantis’s funding measure comes as he faces criticism for limiting Black history education in Florida, a move that many have condemned as racist.DeSantis has also come under renewed scrutiny for his support of expanded gun access in his state. The Florida governor signed legislation in April that allows resident to carry concealed guns without a permit.On Sunday, he was jeered while speaking at a memorial that drew a crowd of nearly 200 to remember the victims of the Dollar General shooting.“He don’t care,” an attendee shouted as DeSantis was being introduced, the Hill reported.At one point, a council member came to DeSantis’s defense and attempted to quiet the crowd, but the booing continued.“It ain’t about parties today,” said Jacksonville city councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman. “A bullet don’t know a party.”DeSantis referred to the shooter as a “major-league scumbag” in his remarks, adding that Florida opposed racist violence.“What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “We are not going to let people be targeted based on their race.”The 21-year-old gunman left behind several manifestos that invoked racist slurs, police confirmed. The rifle used in the attacks also had Nazi symbols painted on, police added.The US justice department announced Sunday that the shooting would be investigated as a hate crime.Police have confirmed that the gunman bought the weapons legally, despite being involuntarily held for a previous mental health crisis and being involved in a domestic violence case that provoked a law enforcement response, the Washington Post reported.Because neither case resulted in criminal convictions, the gunman was legally able to buy the weapons this year, sometime between April and July.“There was no criminal arrest history. There is nothing we could have done to stop him from owning a rifle or a handgun,” Jacksonville’s sheriff, TK Waters, said during a Sunday news conference.“There were no red flags.”The Jacksonville shooting is the latest act of public, racist violence against Black people after 10 were killed in a shooting at a Buffalo grocery store last year.The killer in the Buffalo case has since been given a sentence of life imprisonment. More

    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘Fighting to not be angry’: Jacksonville mourns victims killed by racist gunman

      by

      The pastor of a church near the site of the racist fatal shooting of three Black people in Florida told congregants Sunday to follow Jesus Christ’s example and keep their sadness from turning to rage.Jacksonville’s mayor wept. Others at the service focused on Florida’s political rhetoric and said it has fueled such racist attacks.The shooting traumatized an historically Black neighborhood in Jacksonville on Saturday as thousands visited Washington DC, to attend the Rev Al Sharpton’s 60th anniversary commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where the Rev Martin Luther King Jr delivered his historic I Have A Dream speech.The latest in a long history of American racist killings was at the forefront of Sunday services at St Paul AME church, about 3 miles from the crime scene.“Our hearts are broken,” the Rev Willie Barnes told about 100 congregants Sunday morning. “If any of you are like me, I’m fighting trying to not be angry.”The attorney general, Merrick Garland, said Sunday that the justice department was “investigating this attack as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism”.“No person in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence and no family should have to grieve the loss of a loved one to bigotry and hate,” he said.The Jacksonville mayor, Donna Deegan, cried as she addressed the congregation.“It feels some days like we’re going backward,” she said.“I’ve heard some people say that some of the rhetoric that we hear doesn’t really represent what’s in people’s hearts, it’s just the game. It’s just the political game,” Deegan said. “Those three people who lost their lives, that’s not a game.”The choir sang Amazing Grace before ministers said prayers for the victims’ families and the broader community. From the pews, congregants with heads bowed answered with “amen”.A masked white man carried out the shooting with at least one weapon bearing a swastika inside a Dollar General store, leaving two men and one woman dead.The shooting happened just before 2pm within a mile of Edward Waters University, a small, historically Black university. In addition to carrying a firearm painted with a symbol of Germany’s Nazi regime of the 1930s and 1940s, the shooter issued racist statements before the shooting. He killed himself at the scene.“He hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters said.At the St Paul AME church service, elected officials said racist attacks like Saturday’s have been encouraged by political rhetoric targeting “wokeness” and policies from the Republican-led state government headed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, including one taking aim at the teaching of Black history in Florida.“We must be clear, it was not just racially motivated, it was racist violence that has been perpetuated by rhetoric and policies designed to attack Black people, period,” said state representative Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat and one of several elected officials to speak during the church service.“We cannot sit idly by as our history is being erased, as our lives are being devalued, as wokeness is being attacked,” Nixon said. “Because let’s be clear – that is red meat to a base of voters.”Professor David Jamison, who teaches history at Edward Waters, attended St Paul AME Church on Sunday morning with four students from the university. The Rev Barnes acknowledged them from the pulpit.“These young men, they were within feet of their lives being taken,” Barnes told the congregation. “And we’re grateful God spared their lives.”The four students declined to speak with reporters after church. The pastor didn’t elaborate on what happened to them, and Jamison said he didn’t know details.“They’re overwhelmed,” the professor said, “and thankful to be alive.”Rudolph McKissick, a national board member of the Rev Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Baptist bishop, and senior pastor of the Bethel church in Jacksonville, was in Jacksonville on Saturday when the shooting occurred in the historically Black New Town neighborhood.“Nobody is having honest, candid conversations about the presence of racism,” McKissick said.DeSantis, who spoke with the sheriff by phone from Iowa while campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, called the shooter a “scumbag”.“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions. He took the coward’s way out,” DeSantis said.McKissick, the Jacksonville pastor, was one of those saying that DeSantis’s politics were contributing to racial tensions in Florida.“This divide exists because of the ongoing disenfranchisement of Black people and a governor, who is really propelling himself forward through bigoted, racially motivated, misogynistic, xenophobic actions to throw red meat to a Republican base,” McKissick said.Past shootings targeting Black Americans include one at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in 2022 and a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.The Buffalo shooting, which killed 10 people, stands apart as one of the deadliest targeted attacks on Black people by a lone white gunman in US history. The shooter was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      Belligerence and hostility: Trump’s mugshot defines modern US politics

      by

      Mugshots define eras.Bugsy Siegel peering malevolently from beneath his fedora in a 1928 booking photo summed up the perverse romance of gangsters in the prohibition age.Nearly half a century later, mugshots of David Bowie, elegantly dressed but dead-eyed after his arrest for drug possession, and a dishevelled Janis Joplin, detained for “vulgar and indecent language”, spoke to the shock waves created by 1960s counterculture.Now comes what Donald Trump Jr described as “the most iconic photo in the history of US politics” before the booking picture of his father glaring into the camera was even taken. But whether deeply divided Americans view the first ever mugshot of a former president as that of a gangster or a rock star is very much in the politics of the beholder.Trump’s hostility shines through as he turns his eyes up toward the camera above him and in his taut, downturned mouth as he is booked into the Fulton county jail on charges of trying to steal the 2020 presidential election. Dressed in a blue suit, white shirt and red tie, he makes no attempt to put on a smile like some of his co-defendants in their mugshots.The picture does not flatter but it does convey the message many of Trump’s supporters want to hear – belligerence.The six-pointed star of the Fulton county sheriff’s office badge and the name of the sheriff, Patrick Labat, sits in the top left hand corner of the picture. But some will be disappointed that Trump is not seen in the classic pose holding a board in front of his chest with his name and date of arrest.For all that, the former president’s supporters are already embracing the booking photo as a badge of honour and defiance. It will be held up as evidence that their man will not give up the fight against a system his followers see as ever more determined to bring him down and prevent him returning to the White House.Far-right congresswoman Lauren Boebert led the way with a tweet proclaiming: “Not all heroes wear capes.”The president’s detractors, on the other hand, will see the booking photo as evidence that even a man who was once the most powerful person in the land cannot escape the might of the justice system. Some will welcome anything that makes him look even a little bit more criminal as a confirmation that sooner or later he is going to prison. The accused may be presumed innocent until a plea or a jury says otherwise but mugshots can have a way of conveying guilt.For Trump though, the picture is likely to prove yet another money spinner. The mugshot’s rapid appearance on T-shirts, posters and, well, mugs glorifying a martyred Trump can be expected.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAs it happens, an official Trump fundraising website is already selling T-shirts and coffee mugs with an image manipulated to appear as if the former president is in a booking photo with height markers behind him and a board in front with his name and the date, “04 04 2023” – the day he was indicted in New York on fraud charges.Merchandise with the real thing is likely to sell briskly given the enthusiasm with which the former president’s supporters now treat each public humiliation as an accomplishment.Two impeachments and four sets of indictments, from financial fraud to a slew of charges over the 2020 election, have done little to damage Trump’s standing among the true believers, and have only bolstered his run for the Republican presidential nomination. Such is the strength of that belief that a recent CBS poll showed Trump voters trust him more than their own family members and religious leaders.Ordinary Americans have already got creative in response to the flood of indictments by mocking up pictures of the former president in an orange jump suit a la Guantánamo prison and in printing T-shirts with Trump in various states of detention with slogans declaring “Trumped up charges”, “Guilty AF”,“Guilty of winning” and “Legend”.There will be plenty who will challenge Don Jr’s claim that the mugshot has instantly become the most iconic photo in US political history. Pictures of John F Kennedy’s assassination or Martin Luther King Jr leading the march for freedom or a host of other historic moments will surely prove more enduring.But as with the gangsters and rock stars, Trump’s booking photo may come to define an era – one of unusual political turmoil that has yet to resolve whether his next mugshot is as an inmate. More

    • 225 Shares139 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump on his way to Georgia to surrender at Fulton county jail in election interference case – live

      by

      From 2h agoDonald Trump has left his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort for Georgia, where he is expected to be formally arrested this evening, CNN reports.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that a federal judge has set a September 18 hearing for former Donald Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark’s request to remove his case to federal court. Clark has been charged alongside Trump in a 41-count indictment over efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential elections in Georgia.Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie appeared on Morning Joe following Wednesday evening’s debate during which he refused to raise his hand when the presidential candidates were asked whether they would support Donald Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee.Christie spoke about the other candidates who raised their hands, saying: “I can only assume it’s because they’re auditioning for what they’re praying to be a future vice-president nomination or cabinet bid in a Trump administration.”
      The problem for them is that Donald Trump is never going to be president of the United States again … When someone says they’re willing to suspend the constitution, that they took an oath to preserve, protect and defend. That’s just wrong … It’s not a hard answer for them either, but they’re playing a political game.
      As Donald Trump makes his way to Atlanta, Georgia, his former vice-president and current Republican opponent Mike Pence has urged him to join the other candidates in the next GOP debate.Speaking to the Associated Press in a new interview after Wednesday night’s debate, Pence said:
      I believe that this country’s in a lot of trouble and every man and woman who aspires to carry the banner of the Republican party owes it to the American people to get on that stage to answer the tough questions and to articulate their vision for the future of the country and let the voters decide.
      The legal gears continue to grind forward for the other people indicted in Georgia alongside Donald Trump, including Jeff Clark, the former justice department official who has asked to move his trial to federal court.Politico reports that the judge handling his case will hold a hearing on 18 September on the matter:This was the scene as the motorcade of Donald Trump made its way from his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, to the airport in Newark:Squint through the gloomy Newark, New Jersey weather in this Sky News footage and you can see the flashing lights of what appears to be Donald Trump’s motorcade arriving at the plane that will take him to Georgia:Donald Trump has arrived at the airport in Newark, New Jersey, where he will board his flight to face arrest in Atlanta, CNN reports.In his order to begin Kenneth Chesebro’s trial on 23 October, Judge Scott McAfee noted that the schedule does not apply to anyone else.“At this time, these deadlines do not apply to any co-defendant,” the judge wrote. That’s good news for the 18 other people indicted by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, including Donald Trump, whose lawyers are currently trying to get his case moved to federal court, which could delay it for months – potentially long enough for him to win his race for the White House.Kenneth Chesebro, another of Donald Trump’s attorneys who advised him on his plot to overturn his 2020 election loss, requested a speedy trial after being indicted in Georgia, and it appears his wish has been granted.The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the judge handling his case has said Chesebro’s trial will begin on 23 October – as Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis had proposed:When Donald Trump appears at the Rice Street jail in Atlanta this evening, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that he will be treated like any other defendant. That includes having his mugshot taken, and his height and weight recorded:Donald Trump was expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, yielding to the criminal justice process in Georgia that will involve him being processed like any other defendant.The former president’s arrival in Georgia follows a presidential debate featuring his main rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination, a race in which Trump remains the overwhelmingly dominant frontrunner despite his many legal troubles.Trump had his legal team negotiate his booking to take place during the primetime viewing hours for the cable news networks, as he sought to discredit the charges and distract from the indignity of the surrender by turning it into a spectacle.But Trump was expected to be booked by authorities without the special privileges afforded to him in his other criminal cases, being subject to a mugshot that he had desperately sought to avoid, having his fingerprints taken, as well as having his height and weight recorded.Trump faced his fourth indictment since leaving office when he was charged in a 41-count indictment by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, last week, that described Trump and 18 allies as having engaged in a criminal enterprise to reverse his 2020 election defeat.Donald Trump has left his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort for Georgia, where he is expected to be formally arrested this evening, CNN reports.In a post on his Truth social account, Donald Trump said he expected to be arrested in Georgia at 7.30pm eastern time, and fired off his typical string of insults at Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis.Here it is, in full:
      231,000,000 Views, and still counting. The Biggest Video on Social Media, EVER, more than double the Super Bowl! But please excuse me, I have to start getting ready to head down to Atlanta, Georgia, where Murder and other Violent Crimes have reached levels never seen before, to get ARRESTED by a Radical Left, Lowlife District Attorney, Fani Willis, for A PERFECT PHONE CALL, and having the audacity to challenge a RIGGED & STOLEN ELECTION. THE EVIDENCE IS IRREFUTABLE! ARREST TIME: 7:30 P.M. More

    • 175 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump to surrender at Georgia jail on charges he sought to overturn 2020 election

      by

      Donald Trump was expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, yielding to the criminal justice process in Georgia that will involve him being processed like any other defendant.The former president’s arrival in Georgia follows a presidential debate featuring his main rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination, a race in which Trump remains the overwhelmingly dominant frontrunner despite his many legal troubles.Trump had his legal team negotiate his booking to take place during the primetime viewing hours for the cable news networks, as he sought to discredit the charges and distract from the indignity of the surrender by turning it into a spectacle.But Trump was expected to be booked by authorities without the special privileges afforded to him in his other criminal cases, being subject to a mugshot that he had desperately sought to avoid, having his fingerprints taken, as well as having his height and weight recorded.Trump faced his fourth indictment since leaving office when he was charged in a 41-count indictment by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, last week, that described Trump and 18 allies as having engaged in a criminal enterprise to reverse his 2020 election defeat.In a clear sign of Willis’s desire for a swift legal process, she on Thursday asked for the trial of all 19 defendants to begin on 23 October – a date that defense lawyers are certain to seek to aggressively push back. Within hours, Trump’s legal team filed a motion opposing the date.The bond for Trump was agreed at $200,000, the highest amount of any of his co-defendants, including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani who turned himself in for booking a day earlier after his bond was set at $150,000 after being charged with principally the same counts.Trump was expected to leave in the afternoon from his Bedminster club in New Jersey, where he spends his summers, and fly by private plane to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport. He was then expected to travel into Atlanta by US Secret Service motorcade, a person familiar with the matter said.The schedule will involve Trump arriving at the Rice Street jail, located north-west of downtown Atlanta, in the early evening and the motorcade is expected to snake around into the jail premises down a road lined with dozens of TV cameras.The strategy to turn the surrender into a made-for-television circus has been an effort to discredit the indictments, the person said, as well as to capitalize on the information void left by prosecutors after the events to foist his own spin on the charges.To that end, once Trump is done with the booking process and returns directly to the airport, Trump is weighing delivering impromptu remarks to reporters there before boarding his plane as he liked to do when he was president talking to a pool of reporters, the person said.Ahead of the surrender, Trump shook up his legal team and retained the top Georgia attorney Steven Sadow, who filed a notice of appearance with the Fulton county superior court as lead counsel, replacing Drew Findling. Trump’s other lawyer in the case, Jennifer Little, is staying on.The reason for the abrupt recalibration was unclear, and Trump’s aides suggested it was unrelated to performance. Still, Trump has a record of firing lawyers who represented him during criminal investigations but were unable to stave off charges.Findling was also unable to exempt Trump from having his mugshot taken, according to people familiar with the matter – something that personally irritated Trump, even though the Fulton county sheriff’s office had always indicated they were uninterested in making such an accommodation.A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The other 18 co-defendants in the 2020 election subversion case appear to be receiving regular treatment based on online jail records for the former Trump election lawyer John Eastman and others, who had their height, weight and personal appearance made public.Once the booking is complete, Trump was expected to be released immediately on conditions that include stringent witness intimidation restrictions that have not been put in place for his co-defendants, court filings show, until he is due back in state court for arraignment.The Trump legal team could file a motion to remove the case to federal court before then, under a federal statute that allows for such venue changes if the case involves federal officials’ actions taken “under color” of their office – as in, if it was part of official duties.Trump could face major difficulties with that argument, however, since he would have to show that taking steps to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia amounted to him acting in his official capacity as president, legal experts have said. More

    • 163 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump replaces lawyer on team hours before surrender at Georgia jail – reports

      by

      While former president Donald Trump was preparing to surrender at an Atlanta jail on Thursday, he was apparently also reconsidering his legal defense team.Just hours before Trump is supposed to turn himself in, reports broke that he had shaken up his team. Criminal defense lawyer Steve Sadow is reportedly going to replace Trump’s existing lawyer, Drew Findling, according to the New York Times.Notably, Findling, alongside Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg, was key in negotiating Trump’s $200,000 bond.Little will reportedly stay on the team.In a statement to ABC News, Sadow said: “I have been retained to represent President Trump in the Fulton county, Georgia case. The president should never have been indicted. He is innocent of all the charges brought against him. We look forward to the case being dismissed or, if necessary, an unbiased, open minded jury finding the president not guilty. Prosecutions intended to advance or serve the ambitions and careers of political opponents of the president have no place in our justice system.”The Guardian has contacted Sadow for further comment.The latest shake-up with Trump’s legal team comes as the former president is expected to surrender at a Fulton county jail Thursday night, announcing his plans in a post to Truth social.“Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED by a Radical Left District Attorney, Fani Willis, who is overseeing one of the greatest Murder and Violent Crime DISASTERS in American History,” Trump posted on his social media platform on Monday, referring to the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis.Trump will be booked on 13 felony charges in connection with his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.Last week, Trump along with 18 co-defendants was charged with 41 indictments that accuse them of attempting to overturn the election results through election fraud and other criminal means.As part of Thursday’s booking, Trump will be fingerprinted, weighed and have his mugshot recorded, which are all standard processing protocol.The former president has attempted to get an exemption from having his photograph taken, but county jail officials have said Trump will be treated no differently than other criminal defendants.Trump is expected to be immediately released after the booking, but must follow strict rules related to witness intimidation, according to court documents. More

    • 163 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Rudy Giuliani mugshot released after he surrenders in Trump Georgia case – live

      by

      Hugo Lowell reports:
      Just in: A federal judge has denied former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ request for an emergency order to prevent his arrest at Fulton County jail while he tries to have his case removed to federal court.
      Furthermore:
      A federal judge has denied former Trump Justice department official Jeff Clark’s request for an emergency stay to avoid having to surrender at Fulton County jail, after he filed to have his case removed to federal court. Clark has until Friday at noon to travel to Atlanta for booking.
      In a fundraising email to supporters, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott offers a (very basic) taste of what he might offer on the debate stage in Milwaukee tonight.“If you had told 7-year-old Tim Scott he would one day be on a presidential debate stage, he would NOT believe you,” the email says.Seven-year-old Tim might also not have believed that his grown-up self would take his debate stage bow with just 1% support, a mere 51 points behind the frontrunner, Donald Trump. But I digress.The email continues: “I’m a child of divorce. When I was 7, my mom, my older brother, and I moved into a two-bedroom rental house that we shared with my grandparents.“My Mama and Granddaddy told me you can be bitter or you can be better. You can be a victim or you can choose victory. Well Friend, I’m ready to choose victory!“Tonight, I’ll share why the truth of my life disproves the Left’s lies and why I believe America can do for anyone what she’s done for me.”What Scott might do in the primary remains of course to be seen. He has big support from the Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison and with a big debate performance, who knows.But the signs are not particularly rosy, even when one zeroes in on Iowa, the first state to vote and one where evangelical Christians, a key Scott constituency, are strong.At the weekend, a major poll from NBC News and the Des Moines Register gave the senator third place. That was better than his position in national averages, linked to above. But though Scott had 9% support, Ron DeSantis of Florida had 19% and Trump – thrice-married and an adjudicated rapist yet still the No1 choice for Christian conservatives – had 42%.Our Washington bureau chief reports from Milwaukee, ahead of tonight’s Republican debate …Donald Trump is missing from the first Republican primary debate but his supporters are not. Nine hours before kick-off, they were roving outside the venue wearing “Make America great again” caps and brandishing signs mocking the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis.Some of the former president’s allies in the US Congress, such as Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, are also on here. Sitting in a hotel lobby, Greene told the Guardian that she backs Trump’s decision to stay away.“I told him to skip it,” the far-right congresswoman and conspiracy theorist said. “It’s a waste of his time.“He’s winning by over 60%, poll after poll depending on what state you’re looking at and the national poll. It’s a complete waste of his time to step out on a stage and be the centre of the attacks when he has a four-year record as president that everybody wants back and none of those people on the stage have anything that they can compare to him.”There has been speculation that Trump could choose Greene as his running mate.She said: “Well, I’d have to think about it and consider it. It’s talked about frequently and I know my name is on a list but really my biggest focus right now is serving the district that elected me.“That’s of course a decision that President Trump has to make. I don’t know who that person is going to be and I don’t even think they’re going to be on that debate stage. I’ll argue that. But, of course, that’s up to him. But I would be honoured and consider it. But my most important job is, of course, to serve the American people and I’ll help him do whatever in any way I can.”Greene said the three Republicans she talks to most frequently are Trump, Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the House of Representatives, and James Comer, chairman of the House oversight committee. Do they all seem to be on the same page?“A lot of times, yeah. Not all the time but a lot of times. It just depends on the issue.”Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges, over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. It is Greene’s home state but she dismisses the sweeping indictment as “garbage” and has not read it.“I wouldn’t waste five seconds of my time,” she said.Booking pictures of those Trump aides and allies who have so far surrendered in Georgia have now been released.Here is the official booking picture of Giuliani:Here are some for more of the co-defendants:Some levity, of a sort, for those wanting a slightly different angle on what until relatively recently would have been the outlandish, outrageous prospect of a former US president being booked at an Atlanta jail on charges including racketeering and conspiracy, related to an attempt to overturn an election.Bookies are offering punters the chance to bet on what Donald Trump’s recorded weight will be when he surrenders at the Fulton County Jail tomorrow. As the Daily Beast puts it, perennially pleasingly snarky…
      The line currently sits over/under 278.5lb, a far cry from the 244lb White House physician Sean Conley recorded for Trump in 2020.
      As the Beast also notes, part of punters’ interest in the former president’s avoirdupois is fueled by the purest schadenfreude, if I might overdo the pretentious italics. Trump, of course, has a habit of abusing his opponents, critics and enemies – see Christie, Chris and O’Donnell, Rosie, passim – about their body mass index.Trump’s height will also be taken. His 2020 White House physical said he was 6ft 3in tall. There is speculation, widespread, that the truth is different:Here’s a slightly fuller version of comments from Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor turned Trump attorney, after his surrender in Atlanta on charges including conspiracy and racketeering.Speaking to reporters, and laughing as he did so, Giuliani said he was “very, very honoured to be involved in this case because this case is a fight for our way of life”.“This indictment is a travesty,” he said. “It’s an attack on not just me, not just President [Donald] Trump, this is an attack on the American people. If this could happen to me, who is probably the most prolific prosecutor maybe in American history and the most effective mayor for sure, it can happen to you.”Giuliani was indeed a prolific prosecutor, back in New York before he became mayor and briefly, after leading New York on and after 9/11, dreamt of a rise to the White House.As US attorney in Manhattan, he memorably cracked down on organised crime by using racketeering statutes.It’s safe to say his current predicament in relation to similar such statutes … has been noticed by quite a few observers.I typed “Giuliani irony” into Google, and this and this and this came up. And more.Here, meanwhile, is some further reading about what Michael Cohen, another Trump attorney who turned on his old boss after being sent to jail, had to say the other day about Trump, Giuliani and the concept of payment for legal services rendered …Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota and GOP presidential candidate, said he will consult a physician before deciding if he will participate at tonight’s debate, after injuring his leg at a basketball game yesterday.Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, Burgum said his debate walkthrough went well despite tearing his achilles tendon.Fulton County officials have released the mug shot of Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of Donald Trump’s fake electors plot.Chesebro surrendered at the Fulton county jail earlier on Wednesday.Here’s the mug shot, as shared by CBS’ Scott MacFarlane:Rudy Giuliani claims he is being indicted because he was a lawyer for Donald Trump.The former New York mayor accuses the FBI of having “stole(n) my iCloud account the day that I began representing Donald Trump”.Rudy Giuliani says the Fulton county district office’s case against him, Donald Trump and his co-defendants is “an attack on the American people”.“If they can do this to me, they can do this to you,” he tells reporters.Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis “will go down in American history for having conducted one of the worst attacks on the American constitution”, Giuliani says.Rudy Giuliani is speaking to reporters after he surrendered to authorities at the Fulton county jail on charges that he helped lead a racketeering enterprise and conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.Asked if he regretted attaching his name to Donald Trump, Giuliani replied:
      I am very, very honoured to be involved in this because this case is a fight for our way of life.
      This indictment is a travesty. It’s an attack on not just me, not just President Trump, not just the people in this indictment, some of them I don’t even know.
      Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis sharply rejected efforts by two of Donald Trump’s co-defendants – former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark – to move their sprawling racketeering cases to federal court.From my colleague Sam Levine:Rudy Giuliani left Manhattan in the morning to travel to Atlanta with his lead lawyer, John Esposito, on a private jet, though the source of the funding for the plane remains uncertain given Giuliani has struggled financially in the wake of mounting legal bills.Giuliani’s financial trouble stemming from having to retain lawyers for the congressional and federal criminal investigations into efforts to subvert the 2020 election results have become particularly acute in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter.The money problems have been exacerbated by Giuliani’s recent setbacks in court – including in a defamation case against two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of stealing ballots – and the suspension of his law license over his election subversion efforts means he has few income streams.The situation has led to Giuliani listing his Manhattan apartment for sale for more than $6m. He also travelled to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in April to ask the former president to help pay his legal bills after Trump rejected his earlier entreaties for support, the people said.When that trip failed to convince Trump to have his Save America political action committee pay for Giuliani’s legal bills, in the way that Trump has doled out $21m for aides’ legal bills tied up in the criminal investigations, Giuliani’s son Andrew made his own trip to see Trump.Trump has never explained why he has consistently refused to help Giuliani, but people in his orbit point to Trump’s complaints that Giuliani was defeated in almost every 2020 election lawsuit that he brought.But the meeting with Andrew Giuliani appears to have helped, and Trump agreed to attend two fundraisers, the people said. Trump will host a $100,000-per-person fundraiser at his Bedminster club in New Jersey next month, according to an invitation reviewed by the New York Times.Rudy Giuliani’s surrender to authorities at the Fulton county jail marks a jarring moment for Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor who made his name with aggressive racketeering cases, now facing a racketeering charge himself.Alongside Donald Trump, Giuliani faces the most charges in the sprawling 41-count indictment handed up by a grand jury last week that described how he played a principal role in marshalling fake slates of electors among other schemes to reverse Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.The bond for Giuliani was set at $150,000 after his lawyers met with the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis earlier in the day. The amount was slightly less than the $200,000 bond for Trump but more than the $100,000 bond for another former Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell.Meanwhile, Joe Biden and his family are on vacation in Lake Tahoe.The president, first lady and members of the Biden family “are taking a Pilates class followed by a spin class”, the White House said earlier.AP’s Seung Min Kim shared a photo of Biden after his pilates and spin classes:Democrats will be denied political oxygen on Wednesday night but hope to turn this to their advantage by framing all the Republican candidates as Donald Trump-adjacent extremists.At a press conference on the top floor of a downtown Milwaukee hotel, Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said:
      Tonight, in prime time, Americans will have an opportunity to see in action the most extreme, the most divisive, the most chaotic slate of presidential candidates in history when these Maga 2024 Republicans take the debate stage here in Milwaukee, and I don’t know if it’s going to be a debate, but more like a circus.
      They may try to differentiate themselves but the truth is that every single one of these candidates from Donald Trump on down are extreme.
      Harrison went on to list the candidates one by one, setting out their positions on abortion, pushing conspiracy theories and past associations with the Tea Party or Trump.
      No matter who you pick, this group is as extreme as it gets. A bag full of Maga apples and they are all rotten. They are wildly out of step with the American people.
      He attempted to draw a contrast between the two parties. “We believe that our better days as a nation are ahead of us, not behind us. They believe that our better days are behind us and that is the difference in this election.
      Joe Biden wakes up every day thinking about how to make the lives of the American people better. They wake up every day thinking about how do I get back in power? That is the difference between the Democratic party led by Joe Biden and a Republican party led by Maga extremists.
      Satya Rhodes-Conway, the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, accused Republicans of pushing a national abortion ban. “Let me be crystal clear about this: the 2024 Maga Republican presidential candidates are running on their extreme anti-choice records,” she said.
      I’m sure that they’re going to talk about freedom on the debate stage tonight. But what about the freedom to make my own health care decisions? I guess that their version of freedom doesn’t include women.
      Rhodes-Conway added:
      Here’s the bottom line: the American people don’t want anything to do with their abortion bans. Voters in states all across this great country, including right here in Wisconsin, have made it clear that the craven abortion bans are wildly unpopular and out of step with the American public.
      Rudy Giuliani has turned himself in at the Fulton county jail over charges tied to his efforts to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election.The former New York City mayor and longtime Trump ally faces 13 charges that include racketeering, soliciting lawmakers to violate their oaths of office, making false statements and conspiracy counts dealing with the recruitment of fake electors.Here’s a look at the Fulton county jail records, as shared by NBC’s Blayne Alexander:Rudy Giuliani has arrived at the Fulton county jail and surrendered to authorities, according to the county sheriff’s website.The former New York mayor and lawyer for Donald Trump faces charges in the sprawling Georgia elections racketeering case. At a meeting earlier today with Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis’ team, Giuliani’s bond was set at $150,000.“I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I am defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” Giuliani told reporters in New York this morning. More

    • 150 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump co-defendant Mark Meadows asks judge to block his arrest in Georgia

      by

      Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, has asked a federal court to block his arrest in an emergency motion, according to court documents filed on Tuesday.Meadows, a named defendant in the sweeping election interference case against Donald Trump and 18 others in Fulton county, Georgia, has requested the case be moved to federal court, saying the charges concern his actions as an officer of the federal government.Trump’s legal team is also expected to argue that the case should be moved to federal court because he was acting in the capacity of president.In the Tuesday emergency motion, Meadows asked the court to “protect” him from arrest before a Monday, 28 August, hearing on his request to move the case out of the Fulton county superior court to the district court of northern Georgia.Meadows asked the court to either grant his removal request or issue an order prohibiting the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, from arresting him, according to the Tuesday motion.Last week, Willis set the deadline for the 19 defendants to voluntarily turn themselves in to the Fulton county jail, where they would be booked, for noon this Friday, 25 August.Willis rejected Meadows’ request for an extension on the deadline, according to Meadows’ emergency motion.“I am not granting any extensions. I gave 2 weeks for people to surrender themselves to the court. Your client is no different than any other criminal defendant in this jurisdiction. The two weeks was a tremendous courtesy,” Willis wrote in an email on Tuesday morning.Willis also indicated that if Meadows does not turn himself in by noon on Friday, he would be arrested, writing: “At 12:30 pm on Friday I shall file warrants in the system.”Meadows was charged with two felony counts, including violating the Georgia Rico Act and solicitation of violation of oath from a public officer, according to Willis’s indictment. Meadows was on the infamous phone call when Trump asked the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” votes to overturn Biden’s victory in the state.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHe also received hundreds of text messages on 6 January 2021 alerting him and the White House of escalating violence at the US Capitol and asking Trump to intervene.Two of the 19 named defendants, Scott Hall and John Eastman, have turned themselves in and were booked at the Fulton county Rice Street jail on Tuesday.Another two named defendants, Jeffrey Clark and David Shafer, have joined Meadows in making requests that their cases be moved to federal court. More