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An active duty US Marine was one of two men arrested in connection to the firebombing of a Planned Parenthood in Orange County, California, according to the Department of Justice. Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine and Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano — who is currently a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton — were arrested Wednesday morning, according to the DOJ. Both men have been accused of using an explosive or fire to damage property affecting interstate commerce. The alleged attack occurred on 13 March, 2022, when a molotov cocktail was thrown at the clinic's entrance. The Planned Parenthood Costa Mesa location was forced to close temporarily and cancel 30 appointment as a result. US Attorney Martin Estrada called the attack "entirely unacceptable." “My office takes very seriously this brazen attack that targeted a facility that provides critical health care services to thousands of people in Orange County,” he said in a statement. “While it is fortunate that no one was physically harmed and responders were able to prevent the clinic from being destroyed, the defendants’ violent actions are entirely unacceptable.” Security footage allegedly shows two men wearing hoodies and face masks approaching the clinic around 1am on the day of the fire. The video reportedly shows them lighting a device and throwing it at the front door of the building. “The device landed against a southern wall next to the glass door and erupted into a fire, which spread up the wall and across the ceiling above the glass door,” the affidavit describing the video said. The facility caught fire, but Costa Mesa fire fighters were able to extinguish the flames. A later analysis of the evidence collected at the scene revealed that a glass device filled with gasoline was used to help spread the fire. The men face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison if convicted. The FBI previously offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the men who threw the device. Planned Parenthood locations, which provide abortions as well as a host of other healthcare services for women, are frequent targets of extremist violence. Nine other cases of arson or vandalism against Planned Parenthood facilities were reported in Oregon, Washington, New York, Colorado, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, primarily between May and July of 2022. Nichole Ramirez, the vice president of communications and donor relations for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino counties, called the attacks unacceptable, according to the LA Times. “The safety of our staff, patients and supporters is our highest priority, and we are working in collaboration with the FBI and local law enforcement to prosecute this attack to the fullest extent of the law,” she said in a statement to the paper. “[We] will continue to provide expert, compassionate care for the community as we have done for over 50 years.” Read More ACLU sues Nebraska over combined law targeting abortion and gender-affirming care: ‘Egregious overreach’ Outrage as mother-of-three jailed for taking abortion pills after legal cut off No plans for abortion law reforms following backlash over jailed mother

Donald Trump fans were caught on video harassing a British journalist who asked the indicted former president if he was “ready for jail” as he visited Miami’s Versailles restaurant. Sophie Alexander, a producer for Sky News, was verbally abused inside the famed eatery which Mr Trump quickly stopped at after he pleaded not guilty to mishandling secret documents at the federal courthouse in the city. Alexander posted a video on Twitter of Trump supporters angrily confronting her after she asked the question, with one man shouting “Get out you stupid b***h” in her face as she filmed the scene.

Following the arraignment of Donald Trump on federal criminal charges, more of the Republican primary candidates appear to be finding their footing and changing their tune from their initial response to the indictment against him. One particularly vocal critic from the get-go has been former Trump ally and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has long-aligned himself as anti-Trump and is now running against him for the 2024 GOP nomination. During an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday, Mr Christie did not hold back when asked how he would differentiate himself on the debate stage from Mr Trump. America’s Newsroom host Bill Hemmer asked him where the two candidates disagree on the issues, noting that they seem in lockstep on some giving the examples of abortion and social security. “He’s a failure. He’s a failed leader. We gave him a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and he failed. He failed us, Bill,” said the former governor. “And he failed us by losing the house by losing the Senate and by turning over the White House to Joe Biden, and the most liberal administration and ineffective administration since Jimmy Carter.” Mr Christie continued, running through his record as governor: “Is that the type of leadership we want or do we want someone who has governed in a blue state, showing you can win independent voters, get 61 per cent of the vote for reelection in a state like New Jersey as a Republican, and works with a Democratic legislature to get pension reform; to fire the Camden City Police Department leading to a 75 per cent reduction in the murder rate; and gave more educational choice than in any blue state in the country, more charter schools and choice in the city of Newark, and did that with a Democratic legislature?” The one-time ally of Mr Trump then really went for the jugular, saying: “Is that what we need in Washington or do we need Donald Trump whining, moaning and making everything about him?” He added: “He doesn’t care about the American people, Bill. He’s putting himself first and if you watch that speech yesterday, at Bedminster — where is he talking about America and the American people and their concerns and their needs?” Mr Christie concluded: “This next administration if Donald Trump is president will be all about retribution for him personally, is that the show we want to watch? Is that the rerun of The Apprentice we want to watch?” The former governor appeared on a CNN town hall on Monday night (12 June) in which he also tore into Mr Trump, accusing the former president of “vanity run amok.” “The conduct in there is awful,” Mr Christie said of the former president’s indictment over the trove of classified documents he took with him when leaving office. The former New Jersey governor, who had joined the race to be the Republican Party nominee the week before, also compared Mr Trump to “Voldemort” from the Harry Potter books. Read More Fox News walks back ‘wannabe dictator’ insult aimed at Biden over Trump arrest Christie mocks ‘loser’ Trump for taking secret papers ‘on summer vacation’ and accuses him of ‘vanity run amok’ Chris Christie town hall: Christie slams ex-president as poll shows slight bump in favorability Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Donald Trump is marking his 77th birthday today as the first current or former president arrested on federal criminal charges in American history. On Tuesday, Mr Trump pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse on 37 charges over his handling of classified national security documents after leaving the White House. Miami officials had braced for protests outside the courthouse but much of the Maga army of supporters failed to show up as expected. One anti-Trump protester jumped in front of the former president’s motorcade. After the hearing, Mr Trump stopped by the famous Cuban restaurant Versailles where supporters sang him ‘Happy Birthday’. He then flew back to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he gave a speech launching into his usual unsubstantiated narrative that he is the victim of political persecution. In the remarks, he claimed that the boxes of classified documents discovered in his possession actually contained clothes. “They were containing all types of personal belongings – many, many things, shirts and shoes, everything,” he said as a bizarre explanation for why he wanted to hold onto them. The speech was widely lambasted by critics for its litany of falsehoods. Read More Desperate deflections, revenge plans – and a supplicant Fox News: What we learned from Trump speech Defiant Trump accuses ‘corrupt’ Biden of undermining democracy with ‘evil and heinous’ federal charges Trump addresses reason he refused to give back boxes saying they contained ‘shoes and shirts and everything’ Tucker Carlson blasts ‘filthy and decadent’ Trump aides who exploited his need for flattery

Donald Trump was met with a circus scene on Tuesday in Miami as he was in Florida to face 37 federal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. In a packed restaurant in the Little Havana, supporters alternatively prayed over the ex-president and sang him happy birthday, in honour of his 77th birthday, which is on Wednesday. Mr Trump also posed for a photo with MMA fighter Jorge Masvidal and declared, “Food for everyone!” inspiring cheers from his fans. Earlier that day, Ms Trump was in a federal courthouse, where he pleaded not guilty to 37 charges related to his handling of government documents after leaving the White House. This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information. Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Hours after he was criminally charged in a federal courtroom in Miami, Donald Trump returned to his New Jersey club to deliver a barrage of false statements and declare his innocence in front of a throng of supporters. The former president, who has routinely used his platforms to project allegations he faces toward his political enemies, lambasted the federal case against him as “the most evil and heinous abuse of power” under President Joe Biden, who Mr Trump falsely suggested was responsible for charging him. “This day will go down in infamy and Joe Biden will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country but perhaps, even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy,” Mr Trump said from his golf club in Bedminster on 13 June. Mr Trump – who is formally charged with illegally retaining highly sensitive national defence documents and conspiring to obstruct government efforts to retrieve them for months after he was no longer president – has admitted that he possessed the documents he is accused of withholding, while falsely characterising the laws that govern them by stating that “whatever documents the president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so.” He falsely characterised the classified documents in his possession as his “own presidential papers” and his “own documents”. Dismissing the decades-long prison sentence he could face if convicted, he falsely said that ”just about every other president” also removed papers from the White House in the same manner. A former president accused of hoarding hundreds of classified documents, disclosing them to others and storing them haphazardly was out of the courthouse and visiting a restaurant in Miami within two hours of his arrival before he boarded a private plane to one of his many resorts and cast himself as the most persecuted man alive. After his arrival at his golf club’s outdoor stage, he absorbed the crowd’s applause while a sound system blasted Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”. Moments later, the crowd sang him “happy birthday.” His 30-minute remarks relied on a familiar tactic: denying wrongdoing, claiming that federal authorities are selectively prosecuting, then blaming his rivals – including Mr Biden and Bill and Hillary Clinton – for allegedly doing the same or worse. Mr Trump defended his actions under the Presidential Records Act, which the National Archives and Records Administration clarified last week “requires that all records” from presidents and vice presidents be turned over to the agency at the end of their administration, and that an outgoing president is required to separate personal documents from such records before leaving office. He closed his remarks by repeating a familiar refrain, arguing that his own criminal cases are evidence of a Democratic conspiracy against his supporters. “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you,” he said. “I am the only one that can save this nation.” Mr Trump allegedly broke the law dozens of times by withholding top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate months after he left the White House in January 2021, then lied to a grand jury and federal agencies trying to recover them them – accusations detailed in a sweeping indictment following a special counsel investigation under the US Department of Justice. Last week, a grand jury in Florida voted to recommend charges against the former president, who now faces years in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty. He has repeatedly rejected any charges and investigations against him in several jurisdictions as political “witch hunts,” pointing to the Democratic majorities in New York City – where was found liable for sexual abuse, hit with a $250m lawsuit from the state attorney general, and criminally charged with more than 30 counts of falsifying business records – and Atlanta, where his efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election are expected to result in state charges this summer. The historic charges against the former president raise the prospect of a potential presidential candidate facing at least two criminal cases in state and federal courts. His arraignment in federal court comes roughly three months after prosecutors in Manhattan criminally charged the former president with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with so-called hush money payments he reportedly arranged to suppress stories about his alleged affairs. He similarly returned to his Mar-a-Lago property hours after his Manhattan criminal court appearance. In his remarks from his estate that night, he lambasted New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the judge overseeing the case, as well as the judge’s family members, and continued his narrative of political persecution. In his remarks from New Jersey, he also took aim at Jack Smith, the independent special counsel appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland to head up investigations into the former president. “He looks like a thug,” he said of Mr Smith, who was in federal court with Mr Trump hours earlier. “He's a raging and uncontrolled Trump hater, as is his wife, who also happened to be the producer of that Michelle Obama puff piece.” (Mr Smith’s wife, Katy Chevigny, is a documentary filmmaker who produced 2020’s Becoming.) The New York and Florida cases are separate from the Justice Department probe into Mr Trump’s role in the events surrounding January 6 and a Georgia prosecutor’s investigation into his attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election in that state, among many of the mounting legal challenges facing the former president as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination for another shot at the White House. Mr Trump remains the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, and he has insisted that he will remain in the race regardless of any outcome in the cases against him. He has relied on the investigations and indictments to raise money for his campaign, which netted millions of dollars in the days after charges were announced in his New York case. But the timeframe for the federal investigation – and, potentially, other pending cases that could result in criminal charges this year – could complicate his campaign ambitions. A first debate among Republican candidates is set for 23 August. A trial for the New York attorney general lawsuit targeting Mr Trump, his adult children and his business is slated to begin in October. And he is scheduled to return to Manhattan Criminal Court on 25 March – days after voting begins in primary states. Read More Trump indictment – live: Trump denounces ‘evil and heinous’ arraignment in address to fans at golf club How Trump’s second indictment unfolded: A timeline of the investigation into Mar-a-Lago documents

While all eyes were on Donald Trump’s arraignment on federal charges of mishandling top secret material at a Miami courthouse on Tuesday, a personal aide who was virtually unknown just days ago sat beside him in the dock. Walt Nauta, 40, is charged alongside his longtime boss and alleged co-conspirator with helping to conceal some of the nation’s most sensitive documents from federal investigators. He was arrested, fingerprinted, and unlike Mr Trump, had his mugshot taken ahead of the arraignment. Mr Nauta did not enter a plea to six charges during the brief appearance, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record and making false statement. This was apparently due to him not having an attorney who was sanctioned to enter a plea for him in Florida. Mr Nauta became a trusted figure within Trump’s inner circle during seven years of service, stretching from the beginning of his presidency until the present day. According to an indictment unsealed on Friday, he allegedly moved boxes containing classified material from the White House to the ex-president’s Florida home and then lied about it to investigators. Beyond Mr Trump’s orbit, Mr Nauta’s name was known only to a few seasoned political observers and until a few days ago. He now finds himself in the centre of the most high profile criminal investigation in the country, his fate likely resting in the hands of a man who has shown little loyalty to associates who find themselves in legal jeopardy. Who is Walt Nauta? Waltine Torre Nauta, 40, was born in the US territory of Guam in the Western Pacific, and grew up one of six siblings in the small village of Agat, according to the Washington Post. Most of the inhabitants of Agat are Chamorros, the indigenous population of Guam, and a large US naval base is near by. He enlisted in the US Navy in 2001, where he worked primarily as a cook. From 2012 to 2021, Mr Nauta served in the Presidential Food Service in Washington DC, according to his service record. The unsealed indictment listed him as a “valet”, and he’s also been described as Mr Trump’s “body man”, an assistant who follows a political leader around the clock carrying out whatever tasks he may need. In Mr Trump’s case, this would reportedly involve bringing him Diet Cokes on a silver platter when he pressed the presidential call button on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. Mr Nauta was also constantly by his boss’s side during domestic and foreign trips. When Mr Trump’s term ended in disgrace after the January 6th riots, Mr Nauta was one of the few White House staff members who followed his boss to Mar-a-Lago. He would travel with the former president to his private Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, and to campaign rallies and press conferences. Mr Nauta reportedly earned a salary of $135,000 for his labours. ‘Key witness’ Mr Nauta earned a reputation as someone who could stay out of the bitter fights between Trump staffers, according to a Washington Post article in March that identified him as a “key witness” in the classified documents probe. It was only when the Justice Department unsealed a 49-page indictment last Friday, that the extent of his alleged involvement in concealing the documents became apparent. Mr Nauta is alleged to have helped a maintenance worker move boxes of classified materials from Mar-a-Lago after a subpoena had been issued, and prior to an FBI raid last August. Mr Nauta initially denied knowledge of classified materials being kept at Mar-a-Lago when questioned by investigators. However after surveillance footage seized by the FBI apparently contradicted his account, Mr Nauta reportedly admitted in a second interview that he had moved boxes at Mr Trump’s direction. He later stopped cooperating with investigators, according to CNN. In an interview in March with the Post, his aunt Elly Nauta said he had kept his immediate family informed about the Justice Department investigation. “He told his mom there’s nothing to worry about. He didn’t do anything wrong. All he was instructed was to put the boxes where they were supposed to go,” his aunt told the Post. The few pictures that exist of the pair together appear to show a natural rapport between the two men. In images captured in March, Mr Nauta was seen disembarking from the former president’s private plane and into a black Suburban carrying papers and a black bag. Two months later, the soft spoken aide was pictured adjusting the ex-president’s collar at an LIV Golf Pro-Am golf tournament at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. ‘A wonderful man’ Mr Trump’s attorneys, accountants, aides and family members have found themselves entangled in the estimated 4,000 investigations he’s been embroiled in over the course of his business and political career. Longtime fixer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison for helping to arrange hush money payments in the lead up to the 2016 election. Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, served three months in Riker’s Island after he pled guilty to accepting $1.7m in untaxed compensation. And three of Mr Trump’s children have been jointly accused alongside him in a $250m lawsuit of perpetrating what some observers dubbed “the art of the steal” through a litany of fraudulent business practices by the New York Attorney General’s office. In a Truth Social post on Friday, Mr Trump criticised what he called the “‘Thugs’ from the Department of Injustice” for indicting a “wonderful man”. He described Mr Nauta as a member of the US Navy, “who served proudly with me in the White House, retired as Senior Chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide”. Mr Trump said that federal investigators were “trying to destroy his life”. Early on in the criminal process, Mr Nauta appears to be unmoved in his support for Mr Trump. According to the Post, his legal fees are being covered by the Trump-aligned Save America PAC. Because he did not have legal counsel in Florida at the time of the arraignment, he was unable to enter a plea and must do so at a later date. Several of the charges he is facing carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison. Read More Trump indictment – live: Trump claims boxes of classified papers actually held clothes in post-arrest speech Mike Pence has sudden change of heart over Trump classified documents: ‘I can’t defend it’ Desperate deflections, revenge plans – and a supplicant Fox News: What we learned from Trump speech Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Donald Trump has now claimed that the boxes of classified documents discovered in his possession actually contained clothes in his first speech since he was arrested and arraigned on federal criminal charges. In remarks at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Tuesday night, Mr Trump insisted that he wanted to hold onto the boxes because “they were containing all types of personal belongings – many, many things, shirts and shoes, everything”. He insisted he wanted to sort through the boxes but had been “busy” as he went on his usual unsubstantiated narrative that he is the victim of political persecution. His speech came hours after he pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse on 37 charges over his handling of classified national security documents after leaving the White House. Miami officials had braced for protests outside the courthouse but much of the Maga army of supporters failed to show up as expected. One anti-Trump protester jumped in front of the former president’s motorcade. After the hearing, Mr Trump stopped by the famous Cuban restaurant Versailles where supporters sang him ‘Happy Birthday’ ahead of his 77th birthday today. Read More Desperate deflections, revenge plans – and a supplicant Fox News: What we learned from Trump speech Defiant Trump accuses ‘corrupt’ Biden of undermining democracy with ‘evil and heinous’ federal charges Trump addresses reason he refused to give back boxes saying they contained ‘shoes and shirts and everything’ Tucker Carlson blasts ‘filthy and decadent’ Trump aides who exploited his need for flattery

Former President Donald Trump has finally addressed the reason he allegedly failed to return boxes of classified documents to the federal government: he’d put his clothes in them. “Many people have asked me why I had these boxes, why did you want them?” Mr Trump said to supporters at his golf club in Bedminster on Tuesday evening. “The answer, in addition to having every right under the Presidential Records Act, is that these boxes were containing all types of personal belongings — many, many things, shirts and shoes, everything.” Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Mr Trump was arraigned on 37 felony counts relating to his handling classified documents after leaving the presidency in 2021. For months, Mr Trump has dodged or ignored questions about why he decided to keep custody of a number of boxes of classified documents that the government has alleged he took with him after losing the presidency. On Tuesday, after his arraignment, that changed. Mr Trump unleashed a barrage of false accusations during his address to supporters in New Jersey, including that a widely-disseminated photograph of boxes piled up in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago were staged. He also accused “someone, not me” of dumping the contents of one of the boxes onto the floor. Mr Trump then said that he would have gone through the boxes, presumably to weed out the highly classified material from the contents of his wardrobe and memorabilia, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. “I hadn’t had a chance to go through all the boxes,” Mr Trump said. “It’s a long tedious job, it takes a long time — which I was prepared to do, but I have a very busy life. I’ve had a very busy life.” Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed that his indictment for refusing to give back classified documents is a politically motivated stunt designed to derail his 2024 presidential campaign and called President Joe Biden a “dictator” — a remarkable accusation considering it was Mr Trump who attempted to overthrow the country’s democracy just more than two years ago. Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Jack Smith, the experienced war crimes prosecutor who unveiled an unprecedented federal indictment against former US president Donald J Trump, is no stranger to high-profile probes of public figures. The Department of Justice veteran returned to the US last November after being appointed a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The first mission was to consider, “whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the electoral college vote held on or about January 6, 2021”. The second, which led to Mr Trump being indicted and arraigned in 37 federal charges, was about whether the former president had violated US laws prohibiting unlawful retention of national defence information and obstruction of justice. It marks the first time in US history that an ex-president — let alone one who is a declared candidate in the next presidential election — faces criminal charges. But Mr Trump will not be first public figure who Mr Smith has put in the dock. From 2010 to 2015, he oversaw anti-corruption prosecutions against multiple US politicians in his role as the head of the Department of Justice public integrity section. One of those cases was against former Virginia governor Robert McDonnell, a Republican against whom he secured a conviction on bribery charges, though the case was later thrown out by the US Supreme Court. He also won a conviction of former GOP Representative Rick Renzi of Arizona, who received a sentence of three years in prison before being pardoned by Mr Trump. A Harvard Law School graduate, Mr Smith also served in prosecutorial roles in US Attorney offices in the Middle District of Tennessee and the Eastern District of New York. Prior to his appointment by Mr Garland, Mr Smith lived in the Dutch city of The Hague, where he has been serving as a “specialist prosecutor” overseeing investigations into war crimes in Kosovo since 2018. He also served as a coordinator of investigations for the prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court from 2008 to 2010, where he worked on cases against foreign government officials and members of militias accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Yet will even that be ample preparation for the punishing national spotlight to which he will now be subjected, including Mr Trump’s infamous social media broadsides? Following the indictment in June, Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Smith, accusing him of being a “Trump hater” and “a deranged ’psycho’ that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘justice,’ other than to look at Biden as a criminal – which he is!” Subsequently, Mr Trump’s allies and supporters began attacking Mr Smith, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, Matt Gaetz and Mark Levin. “Special Counsel Jack Smith is atrocious,” MAGA War Room tweeted on 13 June. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced an appropriations rider to the House floor on Tuesday (12 June) to “defund Jack Smith’s Special Counsel, his office and the investigation.” Ms Greene said: “This is a weaponized government attempt to take down the top political enemy and leading presidential candidate of the United States Donald J. Trump.” Mr Smith kept an even keel in his response. “Adherence to the rule of law is a bedrock principle of the Department of Justice, and our nation’s commitment to the rule of law sets an example for the world,” he told reporters later that day. “We have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone.” Read More Trump indictment – live: Trump denounces ‘evil and heinous’ arraignment in address to fans at golf club Trump turns his day in court into a campaign event despite serious political and legal threats Trump pleads not guilty as he makes history as first president to be criminally charged – twice Trump pleads not guilty as he makes history as first president to be criminally charged – twice Special counsel Jack Smith stared at Trump throughout historic court appearance, report says Supporters pray over Trump and sing him ‘Happy Birthday’ immediately after arrest

Tucker Carlson pushed a new conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is being prosecuted for calling out Washington DC insiders over Iraq and weapons of mass destruction in his latest Twitter show. The former Fox News host defied his former employer’s threats after they sent him a “cease-and-desist” letter stating that his new show is a violation of his contract with the right-wing network. Carlson told his audience that the former president was now in legal trouble because of his position on Iraq during the 2016 Republican primary debates, in which he said the US had “destabilised” the Middle East with its invasion of Iraq. “Seven-and-a-half years later we can point to the precise moment when permanent Washington decided to send Donald Trump to prison,” said Carlson on Tuesday evening as he played footage of the debate in Greenville, South Carolina. In it Mr Trump excoriates Washington DC insiders, saying “We should have never been in Iraq...they said there were weapons of mass destruction and there were none, they lied, they knew there were none.” Carlson insisted that by calling them “liars” Mr Trump had “sealed his fate.” “That was the one thing you were not allowed to say as it implicated too many people on both sides, which on this topic is really just one side,” he said. “Hillary Clinton was guilty, but so was Paul Ryan, all of them were guilty, they all knew and they all lied and to a person they hated Donald Trump for exposing them.” Carlson said that from the start of his administration, Mr Trump was targetted by “flatterers”, and name-checked Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo and Lindsey Graham. He then accused them of “piling on with maximum force” in the wake of Mr Trump being charged over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House. Carlson then accused Mr Pompeo of not supporting Mr Trump’s agenda and “undermined at every turn” the former president’s policies and ideas, before accusing him of “toadying up” to his boss. “Now the same person is telling Fox News he fears for the safety of our military...because Donald Trump took some classified documents home and didn’t immediately return them to the National Archives. What a lie that is,” he said. Carlson then said that the prosecution of Mr Trump was not “just political it is ideological.” “Nobody with Trump’s views is allowed to have power in this country. Criticise our wars and you are disqualified, if you keep it up we will send you to prison,” he said. “That’s the message that Washington DC is sending, not just the Democratic party but the message both parties are sending.” Read More Trump indictment - live: Trump pleads not guilty and turns arraignment into 2024 rally in Miami and Bedminster Special counsel Jack Smith stared at Trump throughout historic court appearance, report says Supporters pray over Trump and sing him ‘Happy Birthday’ immediately after arrest Trump lashes out at ‘Fake’ Tapper after disgusted CNN host cuts away from arraigned ex-president meeting fans Trump's historic federal arraignment was virtually invisible to the public Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Donald Trump was met with a circus scene on Tuesday in Miami as he was in Florida to face 37 federal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. In a packed restaurant in the Little Havana, supporters alternatively prayed over the ex-president and sang him happy birthday, in honour of his 77th birthday, which is on Wednesday. Mr Trump also posed for a photo with MMA fighter Jorge Masvidal and declared, “Food for everyone!” inspiring cheers from his fans. Earlier that day, Ms Trump was in a federal courthouse, where he pleaded not guilty to 37 charges related to his handling of government documents after leaving the White House. This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information. Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement