List of All Articles with Tag 'us politics'

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is offering $20 gift cards to people who donate at least $1 to his presidential campaign. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has promised grassroots fundraisers a 10% cut of the money they bring into his campaign. Other candidates are just pleading for $1 donations or offering campaign swag at a steep discount.

Four days after he claimed a “very credible witness” had emerged to provide the Justice Department with derogatory information about President Joe Biden and his family, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer questioned the timing of charges that the alleged whistleblower was actually spying for the Chinese government and attempting to broker illegal arms sales to Libya. The alleged unregistered foreign agent, Gal Luft, was arrested in February by authorities in Cyprus on arms trafficking charges, but he subsequently disappeared after jumping bail. Mr Luft, who is a citizen of both the United States and Israel, is accused of paying a former adviser to Donald Trump on behalf of principals in China in 2016 without registering as a foreign agent. Prosecutors say that Mr Luft pushed the former government employee, who is not named, to push policies that were favourable to China, and further accuse him of having set up meetings between officials of Iran and a Chinese energy company to discuss oil deals, which would violate US sanctions. Mr Comer, who appeared on Fox News late Monday, insinuated that the charges against the think tank founder were meant to silence him when asked about the timing by host Laura Ingraham. “The timing is always coincidental, according to the Democrats at the Department of Justice,” he said. The Kentucky Republican claimed that Mr Luft was being paid by the same company which entered into a failed business venture with Mr Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and suggested that the speed at which the department moved against Mr Luft is suspicious. “So there are a lot of questions here and it's just amazing. The Department of Justice moves so quickly against some people,” he said, adding that it is ironic that Mr Luft is charged with being an unregistered foreign agent — the same allegation Republicans have levelled against Hunter Biden. The indictment announced on Monday also alleges that Mr Luft “conspired with others and attempted to broker illicit arms transactions with, among others, certain Chinese individuals and entities” by working as a middleman to find both buyers and sellers for “certain weapons and other materials” in violation of the US Arms Control Act. Specifically, prosecutors say he attempted to broker a sale of anti-tank weapons, grenade launchers and mortar rounds to Libya by Chinese companies, and also pushed to arrange for the United Arab Emirates to purchase bombs and rockets, and for Kenya to acquire unmanned aerial vehicles capable of striking targets on the ground. They further alleged that Mr Luft lied to FBI agents during an interview in 2019, when he claims to have provided the bureau with derogatory information on the Biden family. Asked whether the charges that Mr Luft made false statements to FBI agents in any way impacts his credibility as an alleged whistleblower against the president or his son, Mr Comer replied: “Did he lie to the FBI? I don’t know!” He also accused FBI leadership of lying to him “three times this year”. “I have no confidence in the FBI,” he said, adding that his lack of confidence in the country’s premier law enforcement agency was “sad”. One of his Republican colleagues on the House Oversight Committee, South Carolina Nancy Mace, also downplayed the charges in a TV appearance in which she accused the Biden administration of using the prosecution to stop Mr Luft from speaking out. Speaking on Fox Business Network on Tuesday, Ms Mace said Mr Luft “deserves to testify before the Oversight Committee” and accused the department of trying to keep him from doing so. “No one should be surprised here. I don’t trust the DOJ or the FBI, they are trying to silence our witness and this is a way to do that,” she said. She added that it is “obscene” that the government is not charging Hunter Biden with the same crimes despite the fact that Mr Biden has never attempted to broker arms sales or violate US sanctions on Iran. Read More ‘Whistleblower’ who accused Bidens of corruption is charged with arms trafficking and violating Iran sanctions Marjorie Taylor Greene introduces amendment directing Biden to withdraw from Nato Joint Chiefs nominee wins over lawmakers but faces uncertain fate because of senator's hold Biden blames busy schedule for skipping Nato leadership dinner

The Justice Department has taken an unusual step in court to try to protect former President Donald Trump from testifying under oath in a lawsuit from former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

The Department of Justice has told a federal judge in New York that it will no longer defend former president Donald Trump in a defamation case brought by writer E Jean Carroll, who earlier this year won a civil judgement against the ex-president for sexual battery and defamation in a separate matter. In a letter to the attorneys for Mr Trump and Ms Carroll, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton said the department would now decline to certify that Mr Trump was acting in the scope of his job as President of the United States when he denied attacking Ms Carroll in June 2019 and accused her of fabricating a sexual assault claim against him to boost book sales. Mr Boynton said the decision, which reversed an earlier effort to defend Mr Trump which had begun during his term in the White House, came due to clarified appellate court precedent which stated that courts need not always find that an elected official’s statements to the press were in the scope of their employment. “Applying the clarified D.C. respondeat superior standard, the Department has determined that it lacks adequate evidence to conclude that the former President was sufficiently actuated by a purpose to serve the United States Government to support a determination that he was acting within the scope of his employment when he denied sexually assaulting Ms. Carroll and made the other statements regarding Ms. Carroll that she has challenged in this action,” he said. The Justice Department official also said the department had considered new evidence of Mr Trump’s state of mind when he made the statements at issue, and determined that it “does not establish that he made the statements at issue with a ‘more than insignificant’ purpose to serve the United States Government”. Additionally, Mr Boynton noted that even though the defamatory statements regarding Ms Carroll and the allegations she was making against Mr Trump were made during a press gaggle on the South Lawn of the White House, they were not made in the context of “a work-related incident”. “Here, although the statements themselves were made in a work context, the allegations that prompted the statements related to a purely personal incident: an alleged sexual assault that occurred decades prior to Mr Trump’s Presidency. That sexual assault was obviously not job-related,” he said. Although the Justice Department official conceded that an elected official’s “ability to retain the trust of his constituents” is “an important part of his ability to effectively perform his job,” he said the “evidence of personal motivation” in the case at hand “outweighs any public- purpose inference one might draw in other circumstances,” and cited statements Mr Trump made about Ms Carroll after he left office — and after a New York jury found that he had defamed her in a separate trial in May. “The later statements are substantially similar to the three June 2019 statements at issue in this action, and because he was no longer the President when he made the later statements, Mr. Trump could not have been motivated by any interest in serving the United States Government,” he said. He added later that the jury’s finding that Mr Trump sexually assaulted Ms Carroll in a department store changing room in the 1990s “supports an inference that Mr Trump was motivated by a ‘personal grievance’ stemming from events that occurred many years prior to Mr Trump’s presidency”. Without the Department of Justice’s intervention to defend the twice-impeached ex-president, he will not be able to argue that he enjoys any immunity from the lawsuit and he will not be able to substitute the US government as a defendant in the case. And because a prior jury already found similar statements he made about the former Elle magazine writer to be defamatory, legal experts say it will be a simple matter for Ms Carroll to obtain another jury verdict against him when the case goes to trial. Ms Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said: “We are grateful that the Department of Justice has reconsidered its position. We have always believed that Donald Trump made his defamatory statements about our client in June 2019 out of personal animus, ill will, and spite, and not as President of the United States. Now that one of the last obstacles has been removed, we look forward to trial in E Jean Carroll’s original case in January 2024.” Read More Trump loses bid to throw out E Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit Donald Trump countersues E Jean Carroll for defamation over rape claims Trump is funneling 10% of 2024 campaign donations to cover his legal bills Judge lets columnist amend defamation claim with over $10 million demand for damages from Trump

As a grand jury in Georgia convened to potentially consider criminal charges against him, and as a partisan investigation into his political enemies appears to have imploded, Donald Trump lashed out on his Truth Social with a series of unhinged posts suggesting President Joe Biden’s son should get the death sentence and that a “crackhead” is running the White House. The leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential nomination, facing what could be a third criminal indictment within a year, lambasted a federal prosecutor who directly refuted baseless allegations that the investigation into Hunter Biden was marred by political interference. In another post, he said the “deranged” US Department of Justice special counsel investigating Mr Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and his attempts to overturn 2020 election results should instead investigate the “Cocaine dilemma” at the White House. “I’d bet they already know the answer, but just in case, it could be done in 5 minutes,” Mr Trump wrote. “Is it Crooked Joe and his wonderful son, Hunter? Release the findings, release the tapes. We can’t have a crackhead in charge of our Nuclear Arsenal!!!” Mr Trump called US Attorney David Weiss a “COWARD” and a “smaller version” of his Attorney General Bill Barr, who “never had the courage to do what everyone knows should have been done.” “He gave out a traffic ticket instead of a death sentence,” Mr Trump wrote. Last month, the Justice Department approved a plea deal with Hunter Biden that will likely allow the 53-year-old to avoid prison in exchange for a guilty plea over failing to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. Shortly before that plea deal was struck, IRS agent Gary Shapley alleged before a congressional committee that the Justice Department had buried a more-serious case against the president’s son, and that Mr Weiss unsuccessfully persuaded federal prosecutors to bring charges, prompting Mr Weiss to request his appointment as a special counsel. Mr Weiss, who was appointed by Mr Trump, has shot down those claims. “To clarify an apparent misperception and to avoid future confusion, I wish to make one point clear: in this case, I have not requested Special Counsel designation,” he wrote in a recent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. On Monday, the Justice Department announced charges against a “whistleblower” who has repeatedly accused the Bidens of corruption with arms trafficking, acting as a foreign agent for China and violating Iran sanctions – charges that have roiled Republican officials who have repeatedly accused the Bidens of wrongdoing without presenting such evidence. Meanwhile, Republicans like Mr Trump have baselessly accused the Bidens of trafficking cocaine into the White House after the drug was allegedly discovered at an entry while the family was in Maryland. Congressional Republicans have demanded a briefing from the US Secret Service. The former president’s latest statements come as a grand jury in Atlanta was sworn in to consider charges against Mr Trump and his allies in their attempts to subvert the outcome of Georgia’s election results in that state. A potential indictment in that state would follow federal charges in Florida stemming from the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case and in New York City, where prosecutors have criminally charged him with 36 counts of falsifying business documents. The Georgia case is separate from the Justice Department special counsel probe into his attempts to overturn 2020 election results. On Monday, Mr Trump’s lawyers asked a federal judge in Miami to indefinitely delay his trial on charges over his handling of classified documents, claiming that it would not be possible to try the case 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. Read More Trump news – live: Georgia grand jury sworn in for 2020 election case as Trump calls Biden ‘crackhead’ Georgia grand jury sworn in to consider Trump charges over attempts to upend 2020 election He claimed to have dirt on the Bidens. Now the DoJ say he’s a Chinese spy. Who is Gal Luft? Karine Jean-Pierre shuts down ‘incredibly irresponsible’ question about White House cocaine

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio is calling on Congress to stop funding Department of Justice investigations into elected officials, political candidates and their families until a new policy for how they are managed is developed.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama Republican, does not consider himself to be a racist -- which is an important place to start from since you're about to hear quite a bit about his apparent defense of White nationalists, who he suggested Monday might not be racist either.

The Justice Department has reversed course and said it no longer believes that Donald Trump should be entitled to immunity for his response to E. Jean Carroll's accusation of sexual assault, allowing the case to move forward to trial in January.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told CNN on Tuesday afternoon that she still hasn't been informed by the House Freedom Caucus that she has been kicked out of the far-right group.

The Pentagon is seeking to increase pressure on Sen. Tommy Tuberville in an attempt to break the Alabama Republican's one-man hold on hundreds of senior military nominations.

A grand jury in Georgia has been sworn in to consider charges against Donald Trump and his allies in their attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state. The office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has helmed the investigation into the former president and his allies for more than two years, following Mr Trump’s pressure campaign targeting state officials to reject the results. Ms Willis began investigating Mr Trump shortly after his call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top elections official, who was pressed to find “11,870 votes” – just enough needed for then-President Trump to beat Joe Biden in the state. A special grand jury previously heard testimony from 75 witnesses, including aides and former attorneys to Mr Trump. That jury concluded its report in January with recommendations for state prosecutors to bring charges that will soon be reviewed by the newly impaneled grand jury. The investigation is among several facing the former president, who is separately the subject of a US Department of Justice special counsel probe into his attempts to subvert the election. He also faces 37 federal charges stemming from the alleged mishandling of dozens of sensitive government documents and has been criminally charged in New York City on fraud-related charges from hush-money payments to bury potentially damaging stories about his affairs in the leadup to the 2016 election. Mr Trump has repeatedly rejected any charges and investigations against him in several jurisdictions as political “witch hunts” and has called the Democratic elected prosecutor in Atlanta, who is Black, “racist” and a “lunatic Marxist.” He has similarly characterised prosecutors in Manhattan, 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. Ms Willis has previously suggested that any potential charges stemming from the grand juries could come in August. What happens now? The new grand jury in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and surrounding suburbs, was sworn in on 11 July. Two jury panels selected at a courthouse in downtown Atlanta each have 26 participants. One of those panels will handle the Trump investigation. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who previously handled the special grand jury that collected evidence in the investigation, will preside. What happened to the special grand jury? Roughly one year into her investigation, Ms Willis took the unusual step of asking for a special grand jury to rely on its subpoena power to compel testimony from witnesses who otherwise would not be willing to talk with prosecutors. That special grand jury was seated in May 2022 and concluded its work in January 2022. A list of 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. In all, the 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”. A partially released report from the special grand jury shows that jurors 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 that prosecutors 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 recommended for indictments, or other recommended charges. Who could be charged in the case? Lat year, Ms Willis’s office sent letters warning several people – including fake electors and Mr Giuliani – that they could face charges in the case. She also may be considering a wider set of charges that Ms Willis has made a career out of bringing against dozens of others. The state’s anti-racketeering RICO statute – typically used to break up organized 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. The RICO Act allows prosecutors to bring charges against multiple people that they believe committed separate crimes while working toward a common goal. How common are regular grand juries? Two grand juries are typically seated in Fulton County in each two-month term of court. They usually meet every week – one on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other on Thursdays and Fridays. Their work takes place behind closed doors, not open to the public or to news media. What will they do? Georgia law requires an indictment from a grand jury to prosecute someone in most felony cases. When prosecutors present a case, they’re trying to convince the grand jurors that there is probable cause that one or more people committed crimes and to get the grand jurors to agree to bring charges against them. For each case, prosecutors read or explain the potential indictment and then call witnesses or present any other evidence. Any witnesses who testify must swear an oath to tell the truth. Often in Georgia, the only witnesses the grand jury hears from are law enforcement officers, including investigators for the district attorney’s office. They can tell the grand jurors what they’ve learned in their investigation, including what suspects or witnesses have said and what other evidence they have. Members of the grand jury are allowed to question witnesses. In general, a person who is named as a defendant on the potential indictment cannot be called to testify before the grand jury. After a case is presented, members of the grand jury convene to deliberate the case and whether to vote for a “true bill” or a “no bill” indictment, the former meaning that there is probable cause to believe a person committed a crime. A “no bill” means jurors did not believe a person committed a crime or that there is not enough evidence to indict them. An indictment is then presented in open court. Additional reporting from the Associated Press Read More Who is Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who could take down Trump Trump news – live: Trump wants classified documents trial delayed to after 2024 as Georgia grand jury meets Ethics board recommends Rudy Giuliani be disbarred for ‘destructive’ attempts to undermine 2020 results Trump valet charged in classified documents case set again for arraignment after earlier delays

US climate envoy John Kerry is set to travel to Beijing this weekend for climate talks with his Chinese counterparts, a Biden administration official told CNN.