Trump’s second arraignment: Watch how it happened
Donald Trump repeatedly rejected his attorneys’ efforts to settle the classified documents case ahead of a looming indictment, according to a bombshell new report.
Insiders told The Washington Post that the former president’s attorney Christopher Kise advised him multiple times to return all classified documents to the correct authorities and then tried to persuade him to try to reach a deal with Attorney General Merrick Garland in late 2022. Mr Trump reportedly dismissed the advice.
As a result, on Tuesday, the former president was arrested and arraigned on 37 charges over his handling of classified national security documents after leaving the White House to which he pleaded not guilty, claiming he was a victim of political persecution. He marked his 77th birthday as the first current or former president arrested on federal criminal charges in American history.
Bush administration veteran Karl Rove slammed the former president for his “reckless petulance” over the classified documents in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. Mr Rove said both the country and Mr Trump will pay a high price for his actions.
Meanwhile, a two-year criminal investigation into Mr Trump’s Westchester County golf course has been dropped to his delight.
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Eric Trump forgets Barron’s age as he goes on bizarre Newsmax rant
Eric Trump proved the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree this week – when a rambling rant on Newsmax saw him widely mocked on social media.
The son of former president Donald Trump lashed out at the Democratic Party in a fiery monologue where he claimed the party would raid his teenage half-brother Barron’s underwear drawer.
Rachel Sharp has the story.
Oliver O’Connell16 June 2023 05:45
Indictment is all the fault of ‘mutants’, according to Trump
In a characteristically rambling post on the social meda site on Wednesday, Mr Trump said that the indictment “hoax” was the fault of misfits, marxists and communists – as well as “mutants”.
Oliver O’Connell16 June 2023 04:15
Recap: Is Donald Trump going to prison?
It’s the question everyone wants to know the answer to…
Oliver O’Connell16 June 2023 03:15
Report: Trump was not interested in negotiating settlement over mishandling of secret papers
A current member of former President Donald Trump’s legal team suggested as far back as 2022 that his client should seek a settlement with the federal government over allegations that he retained presidential records and classified materials including, reportedly, defence documents.
That lawyer was Christopher Kise, according to the Washington Post, who was seen with the twice-impeached ex-president as recently as Tuesday for the latter’s appearance before a Miami judge.
Oliver O’Connell16 June 2023 02:15
Karl Rove says Trump and America will pay high price for ex-president’s ‘reckless petulance’
He echoed some other Republicans — including Bill Barr, Chris Christie, and Mike Pompeo — in his criticism of the former president, though certainly not all of his fellow Republicans.
“The blame for this calamity rests solely on Mr Trump and his childish impulse to keep mementos from his time in the Oval Office, no matter what the law says,” wrote Mr Rove.
Oliver O’Connell16 June 2023 01:15
Voices: Trump’s indictment puts his Republican opponents in an impossible position
The wrath of GOP voters means Republican primary candidates cannot offer even the mildest critiques of him.
Oliver O’Connell16 June 2023 00:15
Asked about allegations of bribery, Biden chuckles
“Are there tapes that you accepted bribes, President Biden? Is that true?” Mr Biden was asked by the New York Post on Tuesday as he left an event attended by US diplomats at the White House.
Mr Biden stopped walking for a moment before smiling and chuckling, shaking his head as he carried on down the hall.
Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, DC.
Oliver O’Connell15 June 2023 23:45
World leaders stay quiet on Trump indictment
In the final days of the 2016 U.S. election campaign, European Union leader Donald Tusk could no longer contain himself: “One Donald is more than enough!” he wrote on Twitter. When Trump was elected less than a week later, it made for an awkward start to what proved to be four difficult years of trans-Atlantic relations.
As Trump becomes the first former president to face federal charges that could put him in jail, many Europeans are watching the case closely. But hardly a single world leader has said a thing recently about the man leading the race for the Republican party nomination.
Oliver O’Connell15 June 2023 23:15
Meanwhile in another classified documents case…
US Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston on Thursday for allegedly leaking highly classified materials on social media, according to the Justice Department.
The Massachusetts man, 21, could face a sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 if convicted.
Oliver O’Connell15 June 2023 22:45
Criminal probe into Trump Westchester golf course is closed, DA says
A two-year criminal investigation into the Trump Organization’s valuations of a golf club in Westchester County, New York, has been closed, the county’s district attorney, Miriam Rocah, confirmed Thursday.
“Part of why I’m saying anything at all is that I think it’s really important, more important than ever in our country, to make sure that people understand that we have independent prosecutors, we have a justice system that operates independent of politics,” Rocah, a Democrat, told CBS News after a press conference announcing arrests and other updates in several cold case homicides.
“I can stand here and proudly say that I’m one of those prosecutors, and I look at every subject of any investigation, every organization that’s a subject of an investigation, the same way.”
Oliver O’Connell15 June 2023 22:40