Closing summary
As the jury heard closing arguments in Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments, Joe Biden’s re-election campaign organized a press conference outside the courthouse with actor Robert De Niro and two former police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. De Niro described Trump as the sort of “clown” common in New York, but warned he could “destroy the world”, while Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn recounted their encounters with his violent supporters. Trump’s entourage quickly appeared on the scene, where top adviser Jason Miller said the appearance by Biden surrogates was proof that the president was “weaponizing the legal system”.
Here’s what else happened today:
The Democratic National Committee will virtually nominate Biden and Kamala Harris in order to meet a deadline to appear on ballots in Ohio.
Aileen Cannon, the federal judge handling Trump’s trial over possessing classified documents, denied a request from prosecutors to impose a gag order, after the former president claimed that justice department agents were authorized to kill him.
Nikki Haley appears to have written “finish them” on artillery shells during a visit to Israel.
Biden will hold a rally with Harris tomorrow in Philadelphia, in a rare joint campaign appearance between the president and his running mate.
Some Democrats are reportedly having a “freakout” over his re-election prospects.
The man who was convicted of assaulting then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in 2022 was re-sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, with no change in the original sentence after the case was reopened so he could speak during his sentencing hearing, local news reported.
David DePape was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison on 17 May for forcibly entering Pelosi’s home in San Francisco early on 28 October 2022 and clubbing her husband Paul in the head with a hammer in a politically-motivated attack.
DePape apologized for the attack before being sentences again to 30 years in prison
Democrats plan to nominate Biden virtually to ensure access to Ohio ballot - report
The Democratic Party has decided to virtually nominate Joe Biden prior to its scheduled convention in late August, in order to ensure the president appears on the ballot in Ohio, CBS News reports.
The decision will not affect plans for the convention, which is scheduled for 19 to 22 August in Chicago, but is necessary to meet a 7 August deadline to certify Ohio’s ballots.
The Buckeye State was once viewed as winnable by Democratic candidates, but has tilted towards Republicans in recent elections, and the Biden campaign is not expected to bank on carrying it this year. CBS News reports that the virtual nomination, which comes after Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris were nominated virtually in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be formalized at a meeting of party officials next week.
Here’s more:
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has recalled state legislators for a special session this week to try to change state ballot requirements. Talks between Democrats and Republicans before the regularly scheduled session ended in Columbus failed to reach a deal.
“Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting president of the United States, on the ballot this fall,” DeWine said last week. “Failing to do so is simply unacceptable. This is ridiculous. This is (an) absurd situation.”
The Democrats are scheduled to hold their convention Aug. 19-22, meaning the president’s formal nomination would miss the current Ohio deadline.
To avoid any confusion and to ensure access to the Ohio ballot, DNC officials say the party’s rules and bylaws subcommittee plans to vote next Tuesday to recommend to the full body that the president and vice president be nominated virtually. Officials noted this is similar to what occurred in 2020, when Mr. Biden and Harris had to be nominated virtually after the pandemic severely curtailed the meetings of the party’s quadrennial convention.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all 50 states, and Ohio Republicans agree. But when the time has come for action, they have failed to act every time, so Democrats will land this plane on our own,” DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement. “Through a virtual roll call, we will ensure that Republicans can’t chip away at our democracy through incompetence or partisan tricks and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice.”
A DNC official said that despite the virutal nomination, the Chicago convention “will continue to serve as an important convening event for Democrats across the country.”
Anthony Fauci will be making his return to Capitol Hill next week.
A household name for taking charge of the response to Covid-19 under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Fauci stepped down as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022, and now teaches at Georgetown University.
He will appear before the Republican-controlled House select subcommittee on the Coronavirus pandemic, where its chairman Brad Wenstrup made clear he will be in for some tough questions.
“Retirement from public service does not excuse Dr. Fauci from accountability to the American people. On June 3, Americans will have an opportunity to hear directly from Dr. Fauci about his role in overseeing our nation’s pandemic response, shaping pandemic-era polices, and promoting singular, questionable narratives about the origins of Covid-19,” Wenstrup said in a statement.
He noted that Fauci sat for a private, two-day interview with the committee earlier this year, where he disclosed that he “believes the lab leak hypothesis he publicly downplayed should not be dismissed as a conspiracy theory” and “testified to serious systemic failures in our public health system that deserve further investigation, including his testimony that the ‘6 feet apart’ social distancing guidance — which was used to shut down small businesses and schools across America — ‘sort of just appeared.’”
“As the face of America’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, these statements raise serious questions that warrant public scrutiny,” Wenstrup said.
Meanwhile, in New York, the prosecution has begun its closing arguments in Donald Trump’s business fraud trial.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass has told jurors that the former president is at the heart of a “conspiracy and a cover-up”, and should be found guilty. We will see if they agree. Follow our live blog for more:
An investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call has revealed how the country has for years used hacking and surveillance against the international criminal court, whose chief prosecutor last week requested arrest warrants against two top Israeli leaders. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Harry Davies and Bethan McKernan, and Israeli journalists Yuval Abraham and Meron Rapoport:
When the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) announced he was seeking arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders, he issued a cryptic warning: “I insist that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence the officials of this court must cease immediately.”
Karim Khan did not provide specific details of attempts to interfere in the ICC’s work, but he noted a clause in the court’s foundational treaty that made any such interference a criminal offence. If the conduct continued, he added, “my office will not hesitate to act”.
The prosecutor did not say who had attempted to intervene in the administration of justice, or how exactly they had done so.
Now, an investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call can reveal how Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the court. The country deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.
Israeli intelligence captured the communications of numerous ICC officials, including Khan and his predecessor as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents.
The surveillance was ongoing in recent months, providing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with advance knowledge of the prosecutor’s intentions. A recent intercepted communication suggested that Khan wanted to issue arrest warrants against Israelis but was under “tremendous pressure from the United States”, according to a source familiar with its contents.
Hunter Biden has lost an appeal to have gun charges against him thrown out, a federal court ruled on Tuesday, according to Fox News.
The president’s son is facing three federal charges related to allegedly possessing a firearm and lying about his drug addiction on federally mandated gun forms in 2018.
Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has admitted he struggled with addiction during that time period.
The US court of appeals for the third Circuit dismissed the appeal. The trial is set to begin in June in Delaware.
Updated
Nikki Haley pictured writing 'finish them' on IDF artillery shells
Nikki Haley is visiting Israel in a show of support for the country to continue the war.
“I want Israelis to know you’re doing the right thing. Don’t let anybody make you feel wrong because Israel is not wrong in this,” Haley said in a press conference on Monday.
In northern Israel, the former ambassador to the UN and South Carolina governor signed artillery shells of the Israeli Defense Forces with the words: “Finish them! America loves Israel!”
Danny Danon, a former UN envoy, wrote: “This is what my friend, the former ambassador, Nikki Haley wrote today on a shell during a visit to an artillery post on the northern border.”
Finish them!
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) May 28, 2024
זה מה שכתבה היום חברתי, השגרירה לשעבר, ניקי היילי על פגז במהלך ביקור במוצב של תותחנים בגבול הצפון.
הגיע הזמן לשינוי משוואה - תושבי צור וצידון יתפנו, תושבי הצפון יחזרו.
צה"ל יכול לנצח! pic.twitter.com/qvLNCXPl7o
“Finish Them, America ♥️ Israel Always!”
— Team Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaleyHQ) May 28, 2024
Message from @NikkiHaley, written on an Israeli missile intended for Hamas. pic.twitter.com/DgPQYNvkWM
Last week, the former 2024 republican presidential candidate said she will vote for Trump in November, and Trump said Haley would be on his team “in some form.”
Updated
Despite the great loss of civilian life, the US State Department has said it appears going after Hamas had been Israel’s aim in the Rafah Attack.
Referencing Israel’s airstrike Sunday attack on Rafah in Gaza, which resulted in a fire where at least 45 people were killed, State Dept. spokesperson Matthew Miller Miller repeated the US’s opposition to “any full scale military operation” in Rafah.
But he underscored it is not the US’s judgment that Israel is committing a genocide.
Miller added Israel should not carry out strikes in the designated safe areas where they have told people to move.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described Sunday’s strike as a “tragic mistake” but vowed to press forward.
Updated
The day so far
As a jury hears closing arguments in Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments, Joe Biden’s re-election campaign organized a press conference outside the courthouse with actor Robert De Niro and two former police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. De Niro described Trump as the sort of “clown” common in New York, but warned he could “destroy the world”, while Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn recounted their experiences with his violent supporters. Trump’s entourage quickly appeared on the scene, where top adviser Jason Miller said the appearance by Biden surrogates was proof that the president was “weaponizing the legal system”.
Here’s what else has happened today thus far:
Aileen Cannon, the federal judge handling Trump’s trial over possessing classified documents, denied a request from prosecutors to impose a gag order, after the former president claimed that justice department agents were authorized to kill him.
Biden will hold a rally with Kamala Harris tomorrow in Philadelphia, in a rare joint campaign appearance between the president and his running mate.
Some Democrats are reportedly having a “freakout” over his re-election prospects.
The press conference by Joe Biden’s campaign surrogates outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial was the sort of only-in-New Yawk spectacle that the former president would be very familiar with.
First up was Robert De Niro, a prominent Trump foe who warned that he could “destroy the world” if re-elected:
Then came Michael Fanone, a former Washington DC police officer who was beaten by the former president’s supporters on January 6:
Up after him was Harry Dunn, a former Capitol police officer who just lost the Democratic primary for a Maryland congressional seat. But look closely at the picture below, and on the far left you can see Jason Miller, a top Trump adviser:
Miller and other Trump officials would appear before the cameras right after Biden’s team departed to excoriate their appearance as evidence that the administration was “weaponizing the legal system” against the former president.
De Niro, meanwhile, would get in a squabble with pro-Trump hecklers as he left the scene:
Updated
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will hold a joint rally in Philadelphia tomorrow, their campaign announced this morning.
Biden often visits the most populous city in Pennsylvania, a swing state vital to his re-election hopes. However, campaigning there alongside his vice-president is somewhat rare, as Biden and Harris usually hold separate events.
The campaign did not offer details of the rally’s venue, or attendees.
Rightwing Republican senator Marsha Blackburn accused Joe Biden of “election interference”, after his surrogates held a press conference to attack Donald Trump outside the New York City courthouse where his business fraud trial is wrapping up.
It was actually the all-caps version of “election interference” that Trump so often uses in his social media posts:
Joe Biden sent campaign surrogates to attack President Trump outside of the courthouse.
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) May 28, 2024
Just more proof that Biden is behind this whole thing.
ELECTION INTERFERENCE!
And it’s worth noting that Trump has endorsed Blackburn for another term representing deep-red Tennessee:
President @realDonaldTrump knows that I always have – and always will – put America first.
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) May 28, 2024
Thank you, President Trump for your endorsement! pic.twitter.com/Nz3EH7La8J
A lawyer for E Jean Carroll suggested the author could file yet another lawsuit against Donald Trump, following comments he made over the weekend denying rape and defamation allegations she has made against him. Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Lauren Aratani:
After Donald Trump on Monday again denied rape and defamation claims successfully brought against him by E Jean Carroll, a lawyer for the writer said “all options are on the table”.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, has previously suggested that she could file a third defamation lawsuit against the ex-president for comments he has continued making against Carroll.
During the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social a long rant about his various civil and criminal court entanglements, including litigation leveled against him by Carroll. In April, a federal judge upheld a jury’s decision to award Carroll $83.3m and denied Trump a new trial.
“Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country,” he wrote. He referred to Caroll as “a woman, who I never met before (a quick handshake at a celebrity event, 25 years ago, doesn’t count!)”.
“She didn’t know when the so-called event took place – sometime in the 1990s – never filed a police report, didn’t have to produce the ‘dress’ that she threatened me with (it showed negative!) … The Rape charge was dropped by a jury!”
Donald Trump’s trial on charges related to possessing classified documents and hiding them from investigators remains delayed indefinitely.
Pre-trial motions have also put two other cases on hold, even as jurors hear closing arguments today in his New York City trial on charges related to falsifying business records related to hush money payments.
Here’s a rundown of all of the former president’s legal matters, criminal and civil alike:
Judge rejects special counsel request for gag order on Trump in classified documents case over assassination claim
The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s trial on charges related to possessing classified documents has rejected a request from special counsel Jack Smith for a gag order on the former president.
Smith’s prosecutors made the request after Trump last week claimed that federal agents who searched Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort where the documents were found, were authorized to kill him. In an order today, judge Aileen Cannon denied their motion, saying prosecutors had not properly talked with Trump’s lawyers.
Here’s more on the assassination claim, which the FBI said was just part of their standard operating procedure:
Trump adviser accuses Biden campaign of 'weaponizing the legal system' with courthouse press conference
Minutes after Joe Biden’s surrogates concluded their press conference outside the courthouse where closing arguments are being heard in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, the former president’s adviser Jason Miller appeared before reporters.
“The Biden folks have finally done it. After months of saying the politics had nothing to do with this trial, they showed up and made a campaign event out of a lower Manhattan trial day for President Trump,” Miller said.
He continued:
In fact, Biden’s cronies had a printed-out campaign sign saying, Biden-Harris. So why the change? Why is Joe Biden now making this a campaign event after months of weaponizing the legal system against president Trump? Because Joe Biden’s numbers are in the tank. The headline for today in Politico very simply said, “Dems in freak out over Joe Biden”. Joe Biden is losing nationally, is losing in every single battleground state, and president Trump’s numbers continue to rise, and the best that Biden can do is roll out a washed-up actor.
Up next was Harry Dunn, a former Capitol police officer.
He referenced his campaign for Congress representing a Maryland district, which ended last week when he lost the Democratic primary.
“A lot of people that I met out there said they were afraid. They’re scared to see what another Trump presidency looks like. I try to pride myself in having some type of way to make people feel comfortable, saying some kind of a word, a hug, a look or something, it’s going to be okay. I couldn’t say that to those individuals. I couldn’t say it’s going to be okay,” Dunn said.
“We can’t count on these institutions to stop Donald Trump. It’s going to take us Americans at the ballot box to defeat him once and for all.”
Michael Fanone, a former Washington DC police officer, recounted the story of his assault at the Capitol on January 6, and blamed Donald Trump for instigating it.
“I’m just one representative of the hundreds of police officers that were assaulted that day by Donald Trump supporters, inspired by his lies, the lies that continue to this day to inspire my fellow Americans, to turn against their fellow Americans, to turn against police officers,” Fanone said.
“At the end of the day, this election is about Donald Trump and his vision for the office of the president of the United States, not as a public servant who answers to the elected, to the people who elected him, but as an authoritarian, who answers to and serves only himself.”
As Robert De Niro began to introduce Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, two former police officers who fought the Trump supporters that attacked the Capitol on January 6, a heckler interrupted, accusing the duo of lying under oath.
“I don’t even know how to deal with you, my friend, I don’t even know how to deal with you,” De Niro replied.
“They stood there and fought for us, for you, for you,” the actor continued, referring to Dunn and Fanone. “No, no, they fought for you, buddy. You’re able to stand right here now. They are the true heroes.”
Fanone is speaking now.
De Niro says if Trump is elected 'he will never leave'
The press conference grew noisier after a car alarm began blaring near where Robert De Niro was speaking
The actor nonetheless kept up his denunciation of the former president.
“If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye, that we all take for granted. And elections? Forget about it. That’s over, that’s done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave. He will never leave,” De Niro said.
Updated
De Niro warns Trump could 'destroy the world' if elected
Robert De Niro is a native New Yorker, and likened Donald Trump to the sort of clown that is tolerated in the city, but does not belong in the White House.
“Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city, but the country, and, eventually, he could destroy the world,” the actor warned.
He continued:
This city is pretty accommodating. We make room for clowns. We have them all over the city. People who do crazy things in the street, we tolerate it. It’s part of the city, it’s part of the culture, but not a person like Trump who will eventually run the country. That does not work, and we all know that.
As the actor spoke, protesters could be heard shouting in the background, and chanting “fuck Joe Biden”.
Updated
The Biden campaign did not specify who would be appearing at their press conference outside the courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, saying only that there would be “special guests”.
The event is now getting started, and the campaign has invited actor Robert De Niro, along with two police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6: Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone.
“Trump poses a unique and growing threat to our fundamental rights and our freedoms, our very democracy and our economy. That threat is crystal clear today. It will remain crystal clear tomorrow, and it will be crystal clear on the debate stage in Atlanta,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said as the press conference began.
Updated
Biden campaign to hold press conference outside Trump business fraud trial
Joe Biden’s campaign just announced they will hold a press conference this morning outside the New York City courthouse where closing arguments have begun Donald Trump’s trial on charges related to falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments.
Here is the latest on the closing arguments:
The Biden campaign has enlisted a trio of police officers who fought the rioters that attacked the Capitol on January 6 as campaign surrogates.
Washington DC police officer Daniel Hodges and former Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell will make their first appearance on behalf of the campaign in Arizona, the Arizona Republic reports.
“If I can tell that story a million times, I will. If I can do that, I’ll just be doing my part to save democracy,” Dunn told CNN in an interview. The former officer ran for Congress in Maryland as a Democrat, but last week lost his primary:
I just got off the phone with Senator Elfreth, congratulating her on her hard-fought victory. I look forward to ensuring that we send Senator Elfreth to Congress this November.
— Harry Dunn (@libradunn) May 15, 2024
Although tonight’s results may not have gone like we hoped, all I can feel right now is gratitude.…
Updated
Democrats' anxiety over Biden's chances rises after Trump gains fundraising edge - report
The latest development rattling Democrats is the edge in fundraising that Donald Trump gained over Joe Biden last month, Politico reports.
The former president’s fundraising last month was $25m more than Biden, Politico reports, though the Democrat maintains his edge in cash on hand. The story is otherwise full of alarming quotes from nameless Democratic insiders warning that Biden’s in a far weaker position than he should be, especially considering the stakes of this election.
From one Democratic operative Politico describes as being in touch with the White House:
This isn’t, “Oh my God, Mitt Romney might become president.” It’s “Oh my God, the democracy might end.”
And a Democratic adviser:
The list of why we “could” win is so small I don’t even need to keep the list on my phone.
The response from Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz:
The work we do every day on the ground and on the airwaves in our battleground states — to talk about how President Biden is fighting for the middle class against the corporate greed that’s keeping prices high, and highlight Donald Trump’s anti-American campaign for revenge and retribution and abortion bans — is the work that will again secure us the White House.
Biden enlists January 6 police officers to campaign in swing states as reports of Democratic 'freakout' over poor polling emerge
Good morning, US politics blog readers. With less than six months to go until the 5 November presidential election, Politico has published yet another report about Democrats being nervous about Joe Biden’s chance for re-election against Donald Trump. That the president is unpopular, and has been for year, is practically old news, but his allies have more recently been rattled by successive waves of polls showing him trailing Trump in most of the swing states he will need to win. Citing anonymous sources, Politico reports that some Democrats are in “freakout” mode over Biden’s chances, with the president facing persistent public concerns about his handling of issues as varied as inflation, immigration, and the relative unpopularity of his running mate Kamala Harris.
The Biden campaign has plenty of cards up its sleeve, including reminding voters of the violence at the Capitol on January 6, and Trump’s role in instigating it. Three police officers who fought the insurrectionists will soon be hitting the road to campaign for Biden in battleground states, and warn voters that Trump would pose a threat to the country’s democracy, if he returned to the White House.
Here’s what else is going on:
The big news of today is happening in New York City, where closing arguments are scheduled in Trump’s business fraud trial. Follow our live blog for more.
Texas holds run-off primary elections, where somewhat-vulnerable Republican congressman Tony Gonzales faces rightwing challenger Brandon Herrera.
A majority of voters support filing lawsuits again oil companies for deceiving the public about the climate crisis, new polling shared with the Guardian finds.
