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The Georgia grand jury that is expected to consider charges against former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies for trying to overturn the 2020 election was sworn in Tuesday after a three-hour selection process in Atlanta.

Virginia's Gov. Glenn Youngkin is encouraging Republicans to vote absentee by mail or early in-person ahead of his state's pivotal legislative elections this year.

An NBA insider has reported that if Lillard gets traded to Boston, it might be more trouble than it is worth. What does this mean for the Celtics?According to Shams Charania, Damian Lillard has one team on his mind when it comes to filling his trade request: The Miami Heat. This could make it ha...

Throughout the confirmation hearing for the most senior US military officer, Democratic senators and the nominee alike spoke out against an ongoing hold on military nominations, saying it is hurting military families and could discourage officers from staying in uniform.

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama expanded on his comments about White nationalists in the military, insisting "racism is totally out of the question."

The New Democratic Coalition, which says it has a 98-House member bloc, is ramping up pressure on Speaker Kevin McCarthy to reject hardliners in his party and instead work with Republicans and Democrats to pass its annual defense legislation in a timely manner.

For months, federal prosecutors have brought witnesses in front of a grand jury in Washington, DC, to investigate efforts by former President Donald Trump and his close allies to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election.

By Rami Amichay TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Thousands of protesters blockaded Israel's main airport and major highways on Tuesday as Prime

Her first day as the chief prosecutor for Fulton County came with news that then-President Donald Trump attempted to pressure Georgia’s top election officials to reverse his loss in the state during the 2020 presidential election. A phone call between Mr Trump and Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger was published by The Washington Post late at night on 3 January, 2021. Hours later, Fani Willis would walk into her first day on the job as Fulton County’s district attorney, an office that is now spearheading a criminal investigation into Mr Trump, with the phone call serving as a central damning piece of evidence against him. For more than two years, her office has been investigating efforts to overturn election results in the state and the baseless allegations of widespread election fraud that fuelled them, adding to a long list of investigations and other legal consequences facing Mr Trump and others who rejected 2020 results. A grand jury seated on 11 July is expected to consider charges against the former president and his allies. She has previously indicated that any potential indictments could follow in August. The closely watched case against the former president could result in racketeering charges similar to those that Ms Willis has made a career out of bringing against dozens of others. An anti-racketeering RICO statute – typically used to prosecute members of the Mafia and break up organised crime – has been used by her office in indictments against more than two dozen people connected to a sprawling Atlanta hip-hop empire, 38 alleged gang members, and 25 educators accused of cheating Atlanta’s public school system. Such charges could also await Mr Trump, leaving Ms Willis in an unprecedented position of deciding whether to charge a former president – who is once again running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 – for a criminal offence. “It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, Black, white, Democrat or Republican,” Ms Willis told CNN last year. “If you violated the law, you’re going to be charged.” ‘Get out of my county’ Ms Willis graduated from Howard University in 1992 and Emory University School of Law in 1996. She began her career in the Fulton County District Attorney’s office in 2001, with roles in nearly every division in the agency, and serving as lead prosecutor in more than 100 jury trials. She is the first Black woman elected to lead the count’s district attorney’s office. Last year, her office charged rappers Young Thug and Gunna and 26 others in a sprawling, 65-count RICO case following an 88-page grand-jury indictment characterising their YSL group as a “criminal street gang” behind 182 instances of gang activity and criminal conspiracies. Her office also led RICO indictments against 12 alleged members of the Bloods gang, including the rapper YFN Lucci, and 26 alleged members of the Drug Rich gang, connected to a gang string of robberies and home invasions across Atlanta. “I have some legal advice: Don’t confess to crimes on rap lyrics if you do not want them used,” she told reporters at a press conference last year. “Or at least get out of my county.” In a controversial case from 2014, she served as the lead prosecutor in a RICO case involving 35 Atlanta public school educators tied to an infamous cheating scandal, ultimately resulting in racketeering convictions against 11 of 12 people accused of manipulating students’ standardised test scores. As the county’s chief prosecutor, she has expanded her office’s gang unit and lobbied for passage of a statewide measure that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders and increase the power of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in an effort to crack down on gang violence. Following RICO charges against alleged members of the Drug Rich gang, accused of a series of high-profile robberies and shootings involving Atlanta’s wealthy, Ms Willis told reporters: “If you thought Fulton was a good county to bring your crime to, to bring your violence to, you are wrong and you are going to suffer consequences.” ‘Imminent’ charges Over the last two years, the Fulton County district attorney’s office has helmed a criminal probe into whether Mr Trump and his allies illegally interfered with the 2020 election in the state, which several recounts have confirmed President Joe Biden won definitively against Mr Trump. In January 2022, Ms Willis convened a special grand jury, a 26-member panel given subpoena power and investigative authority to interview witnesses and ultimately deliver a report, as per state law, that includes charging recommendations. The grand jury does not have authority to issue an indictment. It will ultimately be up to Ms Willis to determine whether to charge Mr Trump and others connected to her case. Her office sent letters to people connected to the so-called “alternate electors” scheme, including Georgia lawmakers and the chair of the Georgia Republican Party, and more than a dozen others who signed “unofficial electoral certificates” to subvert the Electoral College process and pledge the state’s votes for Mr Trump, who lost in Georgia. Central to the investigation is Mr Trump’s call on 2 January, 2021, which he made days before a joint session of Congress convened to certify Mr Biden’s victory, while those faithful to Mr Trump made last-ditch efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject the election’s outcome, or stormed the US Capitol in an antidemocratic show of force that has led to hundreds of federal prosecutions, including more than a dozen on treason-related charges. A list of grand jury witnesses included former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, US Senator Lindsey Graham and former Senator Kelly Loeffler, and five members of Mr Trump’s legal team, including Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and “fake elector” architect John Eastman, among several others. The grand jury investigation also looked into a phone call on 13 November, 2020 from Senator Graham to Mr Raffensberger, as well as Mr Trump’s own remarks to a rally crowd months after he left the White House in which he appeared to publicly brag that he had asked Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp to “help us out” and re-do the election. In all, the special grand jury heard from roughly 75 witnesses before dissolving in January. As a judge heard arguments on 24 January whether to publicly release the grand jury’s report, Ms Willis said that a decision from her office on whether to bring criminal charges was “imminent”. In a series of Truth Social posts during the hearing, Mr Trump continued to lie about the results of the 2020 election, defended his “perfect” phone call to Georgia officials, and baselessly alleged widespread vote manipulation. Judge Robert McBurney granted a partial release of the special grand jury’s report, which includes its introduction and conclusion and a section in which jury members expressed concerns that some witnesses may have lied under oath. The recommendations to Ms Willis include “a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.” A partially released report shows that the jury unanimously agreed that “no widespread fraud took place” in Georgia’s election following interviews with election officials, analysis and poll workers. It also includes a recommendation to Ms Willis’s office to seek indictments for “one or more” witnesses who likely committed perjury, and it will ultimately be up to her office to “seek indictments where she finds sufficient cause”. The publicly released filing does not include witness names, names of people reccomended for indictments, or other reccomended charges. Asked on 13 Febrary how she feels about the judge’s decision to publicly release parts of the document, Ms Willis smiled and told reporters: “I’m pleased with it.” This story was first published on 15 February and has been updated with developments Read More ‘I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break’: The Georgia phone call that could bring down Donald Trump The 20 major lawsuits and investigations Trump is facing now that he’s left office Why Donald Trump’s phone call seeking to overturn Georgia election results was so damaging

Donald Trump is now seeking to have his federal criminal trial delayed until after the 2024 election. In a court filing late on Monday, Mr Trump’s lawyers asked the judge for a lengthy delay to his classified documents case, saying that due to the extraordinary nature of the case it would not be possible to try it before the election. Mr Trump has been charged with 37 federal counts over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. The filing was submitted just hours before a Georgia grand jury was slated to meet on Tuesday as part of the investigation into the efforts of the former president and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating Mr Trump after he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in early 2021 and urged him to “find 11,780 votes” to flip the state in his favour. As his legal troubles heat up, Mr Trump is lashing out at Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds for staying neutral in the 2024 race. Other GOP presidential candidates including Ron DeSantis jumped to defend her from Mr Trump’s attacks. Read More Trump strains relations with Iowa Republicans with no-show at charity event Trump says ‘damaged’ DeSantis is ‘desperately trying to get out’ of 2024 race Trump’s encounter with Guy Fieri at UFC fight sparks mixed reactions Trump lawyer Alina Habba leaves his defence team in New York fraud case

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Donald Trump is now seeking to have his federal criminal trial delayed until after the 2024 election, citing his status as a candidate for president and other legal arguments which experts say lack any grounding in actual law. In a court filing in Miami late on Monday, Mr Trump’s lawyers asked the judge to indefinitely delay his trial on charges over his handling of classified documents, saying that due to the extraordinary nature of the case it would not be possible to try it before the presidential election. In the 12-page filing, they called the government’s case against him “extraordinary” and claim it “presents a serious challenge to both the fact and perception of our American democracy” because Mr Trump is seeking his party’s nomination to run against the incumbent president who defeated him in 2020, Joe Biden. “The Court now presides over a prosecution advanced by the administration of a sitting President against his chief political rival, himself a leading candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Therefore, a measured consideration and timeline that allows for a careful and complete review of the procedures that led to this indictment and the unprecedented legal issues presented herein best serves the interests of the Defendants and the public,” they said. While prosecutors had asked Judge Aileen Cannon to set a trial date of 11 December, the former president has opposed that request on the grounds that to “begin a trial of this magnitude within six months of indictment is unreasonable, telling, and would result in a miscarriage of justice” for him and his co-defendant, longtime aide Walt Nauta. In a brief order issued shortly after Mr Trump’s arraignment last month, Judge Cannon set a trial date for 14 August, but Special Counsel Jack Smith later asked for the four-month delay the ex-president and his co-defendant now oppose. Instead, Mr Trump is seeking an indefinite delay to the proceedings against him. “Based on the extraordinary nature of this action, there is most assuredly no reason for any expedited trial, and the ends of justice are best served by a continuance,” his attorneys wrote in Monday’s filing. “The Court should, respectfully, before establishing any trial date, allow time for development of further clarity as to the full nature and scope of the motions that will be filed, a better understanding of a realistic discovery and pre-trial timeline, and the completion of the security clearance process,” they said, adding later that the trial should also be delayed because Mr Trump’s presidential campaign “requires a tremendous amount of time and energy,” and makes trial preparation too difficult. Mr Trump’s attorneys also say that the case poses “significant” legal questions that could see the case dismissed long before trial, and suggest in their filing that they plan to argue that Mr Trump declassified the documents at issue, challenge the constitutionality of the Classified Information Procedures Act — the law used to allow classified evidence in criminal trials — and they further suggest that it would be impossible to select an impartial jury during the 2024 election. “Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication,” they said, citing a Justice Department policy that “cautions against taking prosecutorial action for the purpose of affecting an election or helping a candidate or party” even though that policy pertains only to investigations and indictments, not the conduct of criminal cases that have already been brought. The ex-president’s lawyers later suggested that they intend to repeat baseless legal claims Mr Trump has advanced on his Truth Social page, namely the argument that under the Presidential Records Act and a 2012 court precedent regarding tapes belonging to former president Bill Clinton, he had the right to keep the documents at issue in this case. “Contrary to the Government’s assertion regarding the nature of the legal issues in this matter ... this case presents novel, complex, and unique legal issues, most of which are matters of first impression. As noted above, this Court will need to evaluate the intersection between the Presidential Records Act ... and the various criminal statutes forming the basis of the indictment. These will be questions of first impression for any court in the United States, and their resolution will impact the necessity, scope, and timing of any trial,” they said. Continuing, they also said they plan to challenge the constitutionality of the Espionage Act under which Mr Trump is being prosecuted, as well as Mr Smith’s ability to indict a former president. Mr Smith’s office has not yet responded to the filing. Last month, Mr Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges over his handling of classified documents, including national defence information, after leaving the White House. The indictment, which was unsealed on Friday (9 June), alleges that Mr Trump deliberately lied to and misled authorities so that he could hold onto documents that he knew were classified. On at least two separate occasions, Mr Trump then showed some of the classified documents to people not authorised to see them, the indictment alleges. Stunning photos revealed that many of the documents were stored around a toilet, shower and ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information and single counts of false statements and representations, and counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document, concealing a document in a federal investigation and a scheme to conceal. He pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse, becoming the first current or former US president ever charged with a federal crime. Mr Trump’s longtime aide Walt Nauta was also charged with six obstruction- and concealment-related charges after he allegedly helped move boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago to Mr Trump’s residence and then lied to investigators about having any knowledge of the handling of the papers. The two men appeared in court together but Mr Nauta did not enter a plea as he did not have legal counsel in Florida. Mr Nauta appeared for his arraignment last week where he pleaded not guilty. 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