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      in US Politics

      Judge orders Donald Trump to pay Stormy Daniels $44,000 in legal fees

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      A California judge has ordered Donald Trump to pay the adult film actor and director Stormy Daniels $44,100, to cover legal fees in the battle over her non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with the president.Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she had an affair with Trump from 2006 until 2007. Trump denies it.Daniels sued in 2018, seeking to be released from an NDA she signed with Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, 11 days before the 2016 election. The lawsuit was dismissed as the agreement was deemed unenforceable.Trump’s lawyers said Daniels didn’t win the case and therefore wasn’t entitled to lawyer fees. But Judge Robert Broadbelt III disagreed in his ruling on Monday, which determined Daniels to be the “prevailing party” under California law. The ruling was posted online by Daniels’ lawyers.The White House did not immediately comment.Cohen paid Daniels $130,000. After Trump’s election, she sued to void the agreement. Trump and his supporters denied the president knew about the payment, before Trump acknowledged it in May 2018 and said Cohen had been reimbursed.In court, Trump’s lawyers also argued Daniels didn’t prove the president was a part of the NDA, which was made under the name “David Dennison”. Judge Broadbelt wrote there was a large amount of evidence showing Cohen chose Dennison as a pseudonym for Trump.After her lawyer announced the decision, Daniels wrote on Twitter: “Yup. Another win.”But she has not won every battle with her alleged former paramour. Daniels also sued Trump for defamation after he said on Twitter that a man she said threatened her to stay quiet in 2011 was “nonexistent”. Trump also posted side-by-side photos of the composite sketch of the man and Daniels’ husband.That lawsuit was thrown out. Daniels is appealing the decision and an order to pay Trump almost $300,000 in lawyers’ fees.The judge in that case ruled that Trump’s statements on Twitter were protected speech under the first amendment.Since Trump’s election, Daniels has remained in the adult industry, using her fame to promote stripclub appearances and shows, including her latest television venture: a “Spooky Babes Paranormal Show” in which, she says, she is leading a team of investigators to hunt ghosts.Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, among other crimes, and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018.Authorities in New York continue to pursue Trump’s tax records and other financial information, in an investigation of the Daniels payment and others.In a bizarre disquisition on Thursday, during a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania, the president seemed to confirm one famous aspect of Daniels’ story about their alleged relationship: that he is scared of sharks.“They were saying the other night, the shark,” Trump said. “They were saying, ‘Sharks, we have to protect them.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute, wait.’ They actually want to remove all the seals in order to save the shark. I said, ‘Wait, don’t you have it the other way around?’”“It’s true. I’m not a big fan of sharks either. I don’t know, how many votes am I going to lose?”Daniels first said Trump was “terrified of sharks” in an interview in 2011.“He was like, ‘I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks,’” she said. “‘I hope all the sharks die.’”She also considered the subject in Full Disclosure, her autobiography from 2018. She and Trump had settled down for a companionable viewing of Discovery’s Shark Week, she wrote, when Trump received a call from Hillary Clinton, then running for the Democratic presidential nomination, almost a decade before Trump beat her for the White House.“He had a whole conversation about the race, repeatedly mentioning ‘our plan’,” Daniels writes. But “even while he was on the phone with Hillary, his attention kept going back to the sharks”. More

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      in US Politics

      William Barr told Murdoch to 'muzzle' Fox News Trump critic, new book says

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      The attorney general, William Barr, told Rupert Murdoch to “muzzle” Andrew Napolitano, a prominent Fox News personality who became a critic of Donald Trump, according to a new book about the rightwing TV network.Barr’s meeting with Murdoch, at the media mogul’s New York home in October 2019, was widely reported at the time, with speculation surrounding its subject. According to Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, by CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, subjects covered included media consolidation and criminal justice reform.“But it was also about Judge Andrew Napolitano.”Stelter’s in-depth look at Fox News, its fortunes under Trump and its links to his White House will be published on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.In early 2019 it was reported that Napolitano, a New Jersey superior court judge who joined Fox News in 1998, told friends he had been on Trump’s shortlist for the supreme court. But he broke ranks later in the year, labeling Trump’s approaches to Ukraine, seeking political dirt on rivals, “both criminal and impeachable behavior”.“The criminal behavior to which Trump has admitted,” Napolitano wrote, in a column dated 3 October, “is much more grave than anything alleged or unearthed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and much of what Mueller revealed was impeachable.”Citing an unnamed source, Stelter writes that Trump “was so incensed by the judge’s TV broadcasts that he had implored Barr to send Rupert a message in person … about ‘muzzling the judge’. [Trump] wanted the nation’s top law enforcement official to convey just how atrocious Napolitano’s legal analysis had been.”Barr has been widely accused of riding roughshod over the rule of law, in service of Trump and his own authoritarian view of the presidency.Though Barr’s words to Murdoch “carried a lot of weight”, Stelter writes, “no one was explicitly told to take Napolitano off the air”. Instead, Stelter reports, Napolitano found digital resources allocated elsewhere, saw a slot on a daytime show disappear, and was not included in coverage of the impeachment process.In Stelter’s telling, Napolitano thought he was being kept off air by “25-year-old producers” who didn’t think viewers could handle his analysis. Stelter, however, says an unnamed “twentysomething staffer” confirmed that one host, Maria Bartiromo, would only book Napolitano to discuss non-Trump topics, because he would upset Bartiromo too much if he criticised the president.Fox News’ audience remains loyal to Trump as his campaign for re-election continues. Some Fox employees, Stelter writes, “justified the benching of the judge by claiming that viewers hated him: ‘Why are we going to book someone who kills our ratings?’”Napolitano has continued to appear on Fox News and to publish opinion columns. He has remained critical of Trump, for example slamming the actions of federal officers sent to confront protesters in Portland, Oregon; opposing attempts to provide coronavirus relief without congressional involvement; and saying Senate Republicans should have called new witnesses in the president’s impeachment trial.He has also had harsh words for Barr, for example calling his conduct in the case of Trump ally Roger Stone “Stalinistic”; blasting his handling of the Mueller report to Trump’s advantage; and hitting him for “insulting” Congress.Napolitano did, however, back Barr’s attempt to drop charges against Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russian officials. More

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      After a repentant Trump voter's one-man protest, what happened next?

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      Regrets, he’s had a few, but then again, there’s one he’d like to mention.James Walker voted for Donald Trump in 2016. That fateful decision, and a subsequent act of public of repentance, rippled through his family and friendships, his dating life, his career, where he makes his home and countless thousands of posts on social media.Walker’s story is a parable of the times, a glimpse of how the Trump era has awakened ordinary citizens, who might otherwise sit on the sidelines as presidents come and go, and how the internet has become a turbocharged amplifier of division and hatred, healing and redemption.It was March 2017 when Trump, still in the foothills of his presidency, held a rally in Nashville, Tennessee. As usual, there was a small group of protesters outside the venue, the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. Unmissable among them stood Walker wearing beard, sunglasses, black North Face jacket, khaki trousers. Most strikingly, he wore a red “Make America great again” (Maga) cap on his head and a sign in his hands that announced to the world: “I’ve made a huge mistake.”As a picture it was worth a thousand tweets. It soon went viral on social media, featured on the Guardian and Reddit websites and was cited by the comedian Bill Maher on his HBO show Real Time. A Twitter post from this Guardian reporter that day has now accumulated 42,000 retweets and 82,000 likes. Among the earliest comments: “no worries man. Join the #resistance”; “Wow – James Walker – takes guts to do that – no matter who you voted for. Most people wouldn’t do that.”I felt frustrated and didn’t know which way to go and then immediately felt like I had made the wrong callMany wanted to know: why did he vote for Trump? And why did he change his mind? Walker grew up in a conservative family in northern California and spent two years in the military but, by 2016, had begun to question the direction of the Republican party; nevertheless, he plumped for Trump over Hillary Clinton.“I was mid-transition when that election came up and I felt frustrated with both candidates that were put up and didn’t know which way to go and then immediately felt like I had made the wrong call,” he explained by phone from Los Angeles, where he now lives. “Within a few months I had become so frustrated that I felt it was necessary to stand up and do something.”Walker, 35, did not own a Maga hat but ordered one when “a random, crazy” idea took hold in his mind. When the president came to town, he put the red cap on and took along his sign expressing repentance. He was “scared” what reaction he might get as thousands of Trump supporters poured into Nashville, he admits, and had two friends standing nearby as “bodyguards”.“I intended to stand there for like five minutes and get a photo that I could post as my own private protest, but within two minutes you [Guardian reporter] walked up to me and I didn’t even entirely know how to react to that. I thought if someone came up to me, I would probably need to start running for the exit.“Immediately after that, more people started coming up to me and I ended up staying for hours. I marched all around with the protesters and so many of them came up to me and gave me hugs and thanked me and said me taking a stand like that was inspiring. It really moved people.“People were crying and it just felt like a really healing moment which was not what I expected. It reinforced my hope that I could find a way to be an activist, even in my own kind of quirky way of standing there in a red hat and holding up a sign as a regretful Trump voter.”But when Walker approached people attending the Trump rally, the reception was rather less warm. “It felt like there was a lot of toxicity and I didn’t even feel safe over there.”He went home and assumed that would be the end of it.But that evening he started getting text messages from friends and family members saying he was going viral on Twitter. “That kind of freaked me out,” he admits. “Most of the responses from people who were sending me screenshots were positive, but my family was not happy and were rather upset with me doing that.That was the point at which I almost felt like I might have made a mistake because the comments turned very nasty“They said, ‘Why would you do something to hurt Trump?’ I was surprised by that because I thought, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that I could do something that hurt Trump’, so that was rather exciting but, at the same time, it started a longstanding rift down party lines in the family, which is kind of the thing that the whole protest was about, hoping to break down those walls.”The morning after his protest, Walker received more text messages telling him he had made it to the front page of Reddit.“That was the point at which I almost felt like I might have made a mistake because the comments turned very nasty and started to attack every aspect of my character and all these unknowable things. I became a target for a lot of people’s frustration, and that’s when I felt like I need to shut down and just regroup and think through whether or not I would take another interview.“I only read the comments for a couple hours and I never went back but I remember that they targeted my physical appearance. Of course they attacked me as someone who would admit to voting for Trump and therefore a fool, and then they homed in on other details from the picture like me wearing my military-issue pants, and so they attacked by military service record.”The reaction among friends in the liberal bastion of East Nashville was mixed. “I had a surprising amount of friends on my side but then there were those who just didn’t understand why I would do something like that. To an extent, I didn’t either. I just felt compelled because it seemed like such a critical moment that, in any way I could, I needed to do something and it seemed to work.”He recalls: “I started dating someone and she had to tell all of her friends that she was dating the guy who went viral in the Maga hat in Nashville a week or two ago.” More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Iran sanctions: nearly all UN security council unites against 'unpleasant' US

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      The extent of US isolation at the UNhas been driven home by formal letters from 13 of the 15 security council members opposing Trump administration attempts to extend the economic embargo on Iran.The letters by the council members were all issued in the 24 hours since the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, came to the UN’s New York headquarters to declare Iran in non-compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal.Under that deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), comprehensive UN sanctions on Iran would be restored 30 days after the declaration. But almost every other council member has issued letters saying that the US has no standing to trigger this sanctions “snapback” because it left the JCPOA in May 2018.The US has said it is still technically a participant because it is named as one in a 2015 security council resolution endorsing the JCPOA. The argument was rejected by France, the UK and Germany even before Pompeo made his declaration.Since then, Reuters reported that it had seen letters from Russia, China, Germany, Belgium, Vietnam, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Indonesia, Estonia and Tunisia, all rejecting the US position.Only the Dominican Republic has yet to issue a formal letter on the subject. Last week the Caribbean state was the only security council member to back the USwhen it tried to extend an arms embargo on Iran. Pompeo visited the island two days after that vote.Council members who normally consider themselves US allies on most issues said they would have supported Washington if a compromise had been found, in which the arms embargo could have been extended for a limited time period. The defeat of the US resolution on the embargo led directly to Pompeo’s legal gambit to try to snap back UN sanctions.Diplomats at the UN said the depth of US isolation was in part a reflection of the abrasive style used by Pompeo, who accused Europeans of choosing to “side with the ayatollahs”, and the US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, a political appointee.“The Americans were actually being over the top in their ridiculousness,” one diplomat said.“The underlying point here is that most countries on the security council basically agree with the US that Iran is not a nice country and it having nuclear weapons and more arms is not a good thing,” the diplomat said. “But the Americans misplayed their hand so often, so aggressively, that they isolated themselves from people not on policy, but on just being unpleasant.” More

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      in US Politics

      USPS chief Louis DeJoy says he won't restore mail-sorting machines ahead of election – live

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      Postmaster general concedes changes causing mail delays
      Bannon dismisses fraud charges as ‘political hit job’
      Firefighters stretched thin as California blazes grow rapidly
      1,042 new Covid-19 deaths and 46,029 new cases in US yesterday
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      1:03

      USPS chief says he won’t restore mail-sorting machines ahead of election – video

      Key events

      Show

      5.01pm EDT17:01
      Today so far

      2.31pm EDT14:31
      Bannon dismisses fraud charges as a ‘political hit job’

      2.12pm EDT14:12
      Golden State Killer sentenced to life in prison

      1.38pm EDT13:38
      Republican governor of Vermont says he will not vote for Trump

      1.20pm EDT13:20
      Today so far

      1.05pm EDT13:05
      Trump predicts election winner won’t be known for ‘months’

      12.37pm EDT12:37
      Barr is ‘vehemently opposed’ to Snowden pardon

      Live feed

      Show

      5.16pm EDT17:16

      Why didn’t Democrats talk more about the Supreme Court at the DNC?
      This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live politics coverage from our California office.
      “None of the proposals discussed [at the Democratic National Convention] this week, even if signed into law by a President Biden, will stay on the books for very long given our current Supreme Court. And yet we heard so little on the issue.”
      That’s Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, a progressive advocacy group focused on the court system, talking to NBC News about the Democratic Party’s striking lack of rhetoric this past week about what they might do about Trump’s victory in securing what could likely be a long-term conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
      More from other progressive advocates about this issue in the piece.

      Sahil Kapur
      (@sahilkapur)
      NEW: Progressives seethe as Democrats largely ignore Supreme Court at conventionThe party adopted a plank calling for “structural court reforms.” But almost none of the speakers mentioned the enormous stakes for SCOTUS at the 4-day event.https://t.co/9UP4nh82sA

      August 21, 2020

      5.01pm EDT17:01

      Today so far

      That’s it from me this week. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
      Here’s where the day stands so far:
      Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he does not intend to restore mail sorting machines that have been removed from some USPS locations. Testifying before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, DeJoy argued the machines that had been removed were “not needed.” However, DeJoy acknowledged that some of the operational changes he has implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.
      A federal judge denied Trump’s request for a stay of the subpoena for his tax returns. The president’s lawyers now reportedly intend to go to the 2nd circuit court of appeals to try to get a stay of the subpoena issued by Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance. The federal judge’s decision comes a month after the supreme court ruled that the president was not exempt from grand jury requests.
      Steve Bannon dismissed the federal charges against him as a “political hit job.” The former Trump adviser, who was arrested yesterday for allegedly using money from his anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall for personal expenses, said on his podcast today, “I’m not going to back down. This is a political hit job. … I’m going to continue to fight.”
      Attorney general William Barr said he was “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Trump floated the idea of a pardon for Snowden last week, saying, “It seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently … and I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
      The Golden State Killer was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Judge Michael Bowman said Joseph James DeAngelo “deserves no mercy” after pleading guilty to 13 murder charges and 13 kidnapping-related charges.
      Lois will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      4.38pm EDT16:38

      A couple dozen House members are demanding an investigation into the deaths of thousands of mail-order chicks, as cost-cutting measures cause delays in mail deliveries.

      Chellie Pingree
      (@chelliepingree)
      For 100+ years, agriculture businesses have relied on @USPS, but recent mail disruptions have taken a huge toll on them. In Maine, thousands of mail-order chicks have died in transit—a tragic & unprecedented occurrence. I’m urging @USPS & @USDA to investigate now. My ✉️ ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/9Brlf1xhDB

      August 21, 2020

      Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy demanding an investigation into reports of the issue.
      “USPS is the only carrier that will deliver chicks from hatcheries to local, independent poultry producers and has been an essential and reliable partner for rural America since it first began providing this service over 100 years ago,” Pingree said in the letter.
      “We are deeply concerned that the recent issues with live chick deliveries may have been significantly exacerbated by recent changes to USPS service that have led to mail delays and staffing challenges.”
      During a Senate hearing today, DeJoy acknowledged that the operational changes he has recently implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.

      4.14pm EDT16:14

      The justice department announced the arrest of a former Army Green Beret for allegedly conspiring with Russian operatives to provide US defense information.
      The US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia said in a statement that Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, repeatedly visited Russia and met with Russian intelligence officials between December 1996 and January 2011. Debbins even allegedly received a code name from Russian intelligence agents.

      U.S. Attorney EDVA
      (@EDVAnews)
      Former Army Green Beret charged in Russian espionage conspiracy. @TheJusticeDept @FBIWFO https://t.co/VW6YzS29bW

      August 21, 2020

      “Our military is tasked with the awesome responsibility of protecting our nation from its adversaries, and its service members make incredible sacrifices in service of that duty,” said US attorney G Zachary Terwilliger.
      “When service members collude to provide classified information to our foreign adversaries, they betray the oaths they swore to their country and their fellow service members. As this indictment reflects, we will be steadfast and dogged in holding such individuals accountable.”

      3.52pm EDT15:52

      Fact-check: was Trump actually as unaware as he claims about the anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall?
      The president’s former senior adviser, Steve Bannon, was arrested yesterday on fraud charges stemming from allegations he used some of the group’s money on personal expenses.
      When asked about Bannon’s arrest, Trump said, “I know nothing about the project other than I didn’t like when I read about it. I didn’t like it.”
      But one Republican involved in the project previously said he had spoken to Trump about the group multiple times.
      CNN has the details:

      Trump ally Kris Kobach said in an interview last year that he had spoken with the President three times about the private border wall project that is currently at the center of a federal fraud investigation, and that Trump was ‘enthusiastic’ about the project and it carried his blessing.
      Speaking on an episode of the ‘We Build The Wall’ show in May 2019, Kobach, both the general counsel and a board member for the project, said he periodically spoke to the President to give him updates on progress of the project. …
      ‘I’ve spoken to the President about this project on three occasions now,’ Kobach said. ‘And he said — the first time I told him about it — he said, ‘well, you tell the guys at We Build The Wall, that they have my blessing.’ And he used those exact words.’

      3.35pm EDT15:35

      Documents obtained by NBC News contradict Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s comments this morning about restricting postal workers’ overtime.
      Many postal workers have told news outlets that their overtime hours have recently been cut, contributing to delays in mail delivery.
      But DeJoy told the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee this morning, “We’ve never eliminated overtime … It has not been curtailed by me or the leadership team.”
      But the documents obtained by NBC indicate DeJoy’s cost-cutting measures included prohibiting extra or late mail trips to ensure that carriers “return on time.”

      Geoff Bennett
      (@GeoffRBennett)
      Louis DeJoy told Sen. @GaryPeters today that he has not cut postal workers’ overtime. But this internal #USPS talking points document I obtained show how his policy changes have the same effect: prohibiting “extra”or “late” trips and mandating that carriers “return on time.” pic.twitter.com/fVreXlqZSZ

      August 21, 2020

      3.19pm EDT15:19

      George W Bush endorsed Republican Senator Susan Collins’ reelection bid, marking the former Republican president’s first endorsement of the 2020 election season.
      “She’s honest period. She’s forthright period. She brings dignity into a world that has gotten really ugly,” Bush said after meeting with Collins in her home state of Maine, according to the AP.
      Democrats have targeted Collins’ seat, attacking the senator over her support for Brett Kavanaugh’s supreme court nomination and Trump’s tax cuts.
      Collins is currently locked in a heated race with Sara Gideon, the Democratic speaker of the Maine House.

      2.52pm EDT14:52

      Trump’s legal team intends to once again fight a subpoena of his financial records at the 2nd circuit appeals court, according to an NPR reporter.

      Carrie Johnson
      (@johnson_carrie)
      Source tells me Trump’s lawyers once again are seeking relief at the 2nd circuit appeals court. If they lose there, imagine this: Trump asking the Supreme Court to intervene next week, in the middle of the Republican National Convention. https://t.co/fPlRgh8zE7

      August 21, 2020

      If the appeals court rejects the president’s request for a stay of the Manhattan district attorney’s subpoena, Trump’s lawyers may then take their case to the supreme court, which could overlap with next week’s Republican National Convention.
      However, the supreme court sent the case back to the lower courts last month, when the justices ruled 7-2 that the president was not exempt from grand jury requests, so it seems somewhat unlikely the high court would intervene at this stage.

      2.31pm EDT14:31

      Bannon dismisses fraud charges as a ‘political hit job’

      Steve Bannon dismissed the federal charges against him as a “political hit job,” a day after he was arrested on a yacht off the coast of Connecticut.
      The former Trump adviser was released on bail yesterday after pleading not guilty to fraud charges, stemming from allegations that he used money from his anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall on personal expenses.

      [embedded content]

      “I’m not going to back down. This is a political hit job,” Bannon said today on his podcast War Room.
      “I’m in this for the long haul,” Bannon added. “I’m in this for the fight. I’m going to continue to fight.”
      After the charges were announced yesterday, Trump attempted to distance himself from his former adviser, saying he knew “nothing about the project.”
      “I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time,” the president said.

      Updated
      at 4.53pm EDT

      2.12pm EDT14:12

      Golden State Killer sentenced to life in prison

      Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, four decades after he terrorized the suburbs of Sacramento and stalked neighborhoods in southern California, breaking into homes to rape and torture women and girls, and killing couples and young women in their beds.
      His crimes left a trail of destruction that has haunted survivors and their families. The sentencing – which took place in Sacramento on Friday, on the 40th anniversary of two of the murders – follows three days of testimony from dozens of women and men who survived DeAngelo’s crimes, as well as family members of those who did not.
      Judge Michael Bowman said he was “moved by all their courage, their grace, their strength.”
      “All qualities you lack,” he said, addressing DeAngelo. “Are you capable of comprehending the pain and anguish you’ve caused?”
      The defendant “deserves no mercy”, Bowman said before the sentencing, which was met with applause.

      1.56pm EDT13:56

      Trump will travel to the swing state of North Carolina on Monday, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, confirmed in a tweet.

      Ivanka Trump
      (@IvankaTrump)
      Look forward to joining @realDonaldTrump and @SecretarySonny in North Carolina on Monday for a Farmers to Families Food Box Program event.+70 million boxes delivered and going strong! 👩‍🌾👨‍🌾 https://t.co/uRXrJfEeKS

      August 21, 2020

      The North State Journal reports:

      According to a White House official, President Trump will visit Mills River, located in Henderson County, to visit a Farmers to Families Food Box program site and deliver remarks on the administration’s support for American farmers and families through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.

      The Republican National Convention was originally supposed to take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, next week, but the convention will now be mostly virtual due to the pandemic.
      According to Politico, the president will also visit the site of the convention, where a few hundred delegates are still convening to formally nominate Trump, on Monday.

      1.38pm EDT13:38

      Republican governor of Vermont says he will not vote for Trump

      Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont, said he would not be voting for Trump in November’s presidential election.
      “I have not decided, at this point, whether to cast a vote for former Vice President Biden, but it’s something that I would consider,” Scott said.

      Ryan Struyk
      (@ryanstruyk)
      “I won’t be voting for President Trump,” says Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont. “I have not decided, at this point, whether to cast a vote for former Vice President Biden, but it’s something that I would consider.”

      August 21, 2020

      Scott has previously said he did not vote for Trump in 2016, and amid the Senate impeachment trial earlier this year, the Republican governor said Trump “should not be in office.”
      Scott’s announcement may have something to do with the fact that he is facing reelection this year in his liberal-leaning state.

      1.20pm EDT13:20

      Today so far

      Here’s where the day stands so far:
      Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he does not intend to restore mail sorting machines that have been removed from some USPS locations. Testifying before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, DeJoy argued the machines that had been removed were “not needed.” However, DeJoy acknowledged that some of the operational changes he has implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.
      A federal judge denied Trump’s request for a stay of the subpoena for his tax returns. The president now has six days to convince an appeals court to grant a stay of the subpoena issued by Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance. The judge’s decision comes a month after the supreme court ruled that the president was not exempt from such grand jury requests.
      Attorney general William Barr said he was “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Trump floated the idea of a pardon for Snowden last week, saying, “It seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently … and I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
      The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      1.05pm EDT13:05

      Trump predicts election winner won’t be known for ‘months’

      Addressing the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, Trump predicted that the nation will not know the winner of the presidential election for weeks or even months after Nov. 3.
      “You’ll never have an election count on Nov. 3,” the president said. “In my opinion, you wouldn’t be able to know the results of this election maybe weeks, months. Maybe never. I don’t think you’ll know two weeks later. I don’t think you’ll know four weeks later.”
      A number of election officials have warned that the much higher number of mail-in ballots this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, could cause a delay in the reporting of results.
      The president also once again attacked mail-in voting, accusing states that are automatically sending ballots to registered voters of causing a “very serious problem for our great democracy.”
      Just to reiterate: despite the president’s allegations, voter fraud is very rare, and mail-in voting has been a staple of US election systems for decades.

      12.49pm EDT12:49

      Trump is currently speaking at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, and he offered some thoughts on his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
      The president opened his remarks by claiming Biden never mentioned China “in any way, shape or form” during his nomination acceptance speech last night.
      In reality, the Democratic nominee did mention China, saying, “We’ll make the medical supplies and protective equipment our country needs. And we’ll make them here in America. So we will never again be at the mercy of China and other foreign countries in order to protect our own people.”
      Trump also compared Biden to the 2016 Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. “Clinton’s much smarter, but not a likable person. Joe is not nearly as smart, but he’s more likable,” Trump said.
      “Maybe I’d rather have the smarter person. Who cares about personality, right?”

      12.37pm EDT12:37

      Barr is ‘vehemently opposed’ to Snowden pardon

      Attorney general William Barr said he is “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden, even though Trump floated the idea last week.
      “He was a traitor and the information he provided our adversaries greatly hurt the safety of the American people,” Barr told the AP.
      Snowden was charged under the Espionage Act in 2013 for disclosing classified information about US surveillance programs.
      “He was peddling it around like a commercial merchant,” Barr said. “We can’t tolerate that.”
      But on Saturday, Trump said he would “look at” the issue. “There are many, many people — it seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently, and other people think he did very bad things,” Trump said. “And I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
      Snowden has been living in Russia since he leaked the information in order to avoid US prosecution.

      Updated
      at 12.37pm EDT

      12.13pm EDT12:13

      Judge denies Trump request for a stay of subpoena for tax returns

      A federal judge has denied Trump’s request for a stay of the Manhattan district attorney’s subpoena for his financial records, including his tax returns.
      The president now has six days to convince an appeals court to grant the stay, but he is quickly running out of options to avoid giving Manhattan DA Cy Vance the requested records.

      Andrea Bernstein
      (@AndreaWNYC)
      BREAKING: Federal judge denies Trump’s request for a stay of Manhattan D.A.’s subpoena for Trump taxes. pic.twitter.com/vp7HS5VaCW

      August 21, 2020

      US district judge Victor Marrero rejected Trump’s challenge to the subpoena yesterday, after the supreme court ruled last month that the president was not exempt from such grand jury requests.
      The president’s legal team has argued the subpoena should be dismissed because they say it is political motivated, but Vance has insisted he needs the records for a “complex financial investigation” of the Trump Organization.

      Updated
      at 12.16pm EDT More

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      in US Politics

      The Guardian view on the US Democrats: Biden seized his moment | Editorial

      by

      There have never been two campaign gatherings like this week’s US Democratic convention and next week’s Republican one. Stripped to their essentials by the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 conventions cannot match the energy of normal years. Yet the big speech by the presidential candidate at the convention remains a defining campaign moment, and this year is no different. The greater severity imposed by the virtual convention is also appropriate. For this is not a normal US election year. It is one in which the central contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will define the future of the United States and the world like few others.Because of the constraints, the Democratic convention lacked true razzmatazz. In that respect it was tailor-made for Mr Biden’s decent, stubborn but markedly unexciting political message. And yet the lack of glitz had certain advantages. It meant that the nightly coverage offered to American voters this week was more serious-minded. The televised broadcasts were full of ordinary people’s video accounts of what they are going through as a result of the pandemic, recession and racism. The format also meant that Mr Biden could use his acceptance speech to cut to the chase about the issues at stake in November’s election, rather than play up the rhetoric that would have been expected in a packed hall. In any case, Barack Obama had powerfully supplied that form of oratory the previous evening.Mr Biden nevertheless delivered an effective and successful speech. He did not mention Mr Trump by name at any point. Yet everything he said in his 25-minute address was completely explicit about the profound contrast between the two candidates. America was experiencing “too much anger, too much fear, too much division”, he said. In the heart of the speech, he zeroed in on four policy crises which together define the choice voters must confront – the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the biggest movement for racial justice since the 1960s, and the “undeniable” threat of climate change. Together, these crises faced America with a perfect storm, through which Mr Biden promised “a path of hope and light”. Such language can sound vacuous, but Mr Biden was absolutely right about the four great issues. He has also usefully cast himself as the candidate of optimism.The Democratic leader made much of his claims to be a unifier. His choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate has helped. The convention also went some way to unite this party for the task to come. There were significant speeches from defeated rivals, notably Bernie Sanders, who has rallied behind Mr Biden since the primary season ended and played his hand well during subsequent policymaking processes. Elizabeth Warren made a strong and humane contribution too. Mr Obama’s speech was a stirring reaffirmation of his belief in an American system of democracy and justice which Mr Trump has done so much to undermine and in which the faith of many natural Democrats has been deeply challenged by events including police killings. Although Mr Biden is a candidate from the heart of old Democratic politics, it is worth noting that this year’s convention had a watershed feel because it was the first for decades not dominated by the Clintons.Mr Biden will not be an inherently exciting Democratic candidate. There are good reasons for asking whether he has either the vision or the capacity to turn post-Trump America around successfully. He is instinctively happier reaching out to the middle ground than driving the new radical agenda that the times also demand. But he came through this week much better than some feared. His campaign, like his life, has shown resilience and judgment. His offer of hope and light is well crafted for such dark times. Now Mr Biden must also beat Mr Trump. Now it gets harder. The world is willing him on. More