Closing summary
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Donald Trump is expected to appear in court at 4pm eastern time on Thursday in Washington DC to answer the indictment brought against him by the special counsel Jack Smith over attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Prosecutors in Washington will outline the four conspiracy and obstruction counts and a judge will set bail conditions in the latest criminal case involving the ex-president.
In a possible preview of Trump’s defence, his lawyer John Lauro called the indictment “an attack on free speech and political advocacy”, implying Trump’s lies about election fraud were protected under the constitutional right to freedom of expression. Lauro told CNN the indictment was “an effort to not only criminalise, but also to censor free speech”.
Trump had a private dinner with Fox News executives shortly after learning that he would be indicted a third time, according to a report. During the dinner held in a private dining room at the former president’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Fox News president Jay Wallace and the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, reportedly lobbied Trump to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate later this month.
Federal prosecutors requested a hearing to inform Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, about his lead lawyer’s potential conflicts of interest stemming from his defense work for at least three witnesses who could testify against Nauta and the former president in the classified documents case.
Frightening scenes played out at the US Capitol on Wednesday, when police evacuated Senate office buildings in response to a threatening phone call that was reportedly a hoax. The incident comes amid heightened security concerns created by Trump’s indictment. The former president is due in federal court Thursday just a few blocks from the Capitol.
Barack Obama reportedly warned Joe Biden about how strong a challenge Trump would be in their second election battle in 2024, should Trump win the Republican nomination next year as expected. At a private White House lunch with Biden in June, Obama also reportedly “promised to do all he could to help the president get re-elected”. Polling now shows Trump and Biden closely matched for a second presidential contest.
Kamala Harris fired back at the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, after he invited her to discuss new school standards for the teaching of African American history which claim some enslaved people derived benefits that could be used in later life. Harris had previously attacked the Florida school standards, saying last month the state was “pushing propaganda” at children.
A Super Pac affiliated with the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr owes half its cash to a longtime Republican mega-donor and Trump backer, according to campaign finance reports filed on Monday. The group, American Values 2024, reported receiving $5m from Timothy Mellon, a wealthy businessman from Wyoming.
A powerful Democratic senator, Dick Durbin, has called Samuel Alito’s public expression of opposition to US supreme court ethics reform “unwise and unwelcome”, rejecting the conservative justice’s contention that Congress cannot implement such measures.
The rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s top credit rating, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors. After the announcement, the dollar fell across a range of currencies, stock futures ticked down and treasury futures rose.
Updated
A coalition of voting rights groups and law firms have filed a lawsuit asking Wisconsin’s newly liberal-controlled supreme court to throw out the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps as unconstitutional.
The petition comes a day after the Wisconsin supreme court flipped from a conservative to liberal majority, after Justice Janet Protasiewicz was sworn in on Tuesday night. Protasiewicz had campaigned on abortion access and previously argued that the state’s legislative maps were “rigged”.
The Wisconsin lawsuit is just one of many expected or pending court challenges that could force lawmakers or special commissions to draw yet another set of maps before the 2024 election, the AP reports. It asks that all 132 state lawmakers be up for election that year in newly drawn districts.
The petition filed with the Supreme Court argues that the current maps unconstitutionally retaliate against some voters based on their viewpoint and free speech; create non-contiguous districts that include scattered fragments of detached territory; treat some voters worse than others based on their political views and where they live; and violate the promise of a free government.
Jeff Mandell, board president of Law Forward, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit, said:
Despite the fact that our legislative branch is meant to be the most directly representative of the people, the gerrymandered maps have divided our communities, preventing fair representation.
The lawsuit does not challenge the congressional maps but an attorney at Law Forward said targeting the legislative maps was a “first step” and did not rule out a future challenge to the congressional maps.
Updated
A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that transgender students in Indiana must have access to the bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identities.
The seventh circuit court of appeals ruling on Tuesday upheld a preliminary injunction from the US district court for the southern district of Indiana last year ordering the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville and the Vigo County Schools to give the transgender students such access.
Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, issued a statement welcoming the appeals court ruling.
“Students who are denied access to the appropriate facilities are caused both serious emotional and physical harm as they are denied recognition of who they are. They will often avoid using the restroom altogether while in school,” Falk said.
Schools should be a safe place for kids and the refusal to allow a student to use the correct facilities can be extremely damaging.
The court opinion said the US supreme court will probably step in to hear the case, or cases similar to it. The opinion said:
Litigation over transgender rights is occurring all over the country, and we assume that at some point the supreme court will step in with more guidance than it has furnished so far.
Although Indiana does not have any current laws restricting bathroom access for transgender students, nearly a dozen other states have enacted such laws, including North Dakota, Florida and Kansas.
The chief of the Capitol Police told reporters that the force is “prepared for whatever might happen” when Donald Trump is arraigned in Washington tomorrow.
“We’re prepared for tomorrow,” Thomas Manger said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
He said there is “security plan in place” but declined to go into specifics. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies have “been working together in preparation for whatever [happens]”, he said.
Donald Trump’s new indictment marks the beginning of a legal reckoning that is desperately required, if American democracy is to properly free itself from his malign, insidious influence, the Guardian’s editorial argues.
The stakes could hardly be higher. Democratic elections and the peaceful transfer of power are the cornerstones of the American republic, it says.
It is inconceivable that Mr Trump should not be made to answer for actions that imperilled the constitutional and democratic functioning of the United States. The prosecutors’ case will hinge on their ability to prove that he knew his claims of a stolen election were bogus. But beyond the trial itself, it would be foolish to underestimate Mr Trump’s ability to turn even this situation to his own political advantage.
The legal fronts on which Mr Trump is now engaged will drain his financial resources. But a narrative of victimhood and persecution has become, and will remain, the galvanising theme of his campaign.
Updated
The US supreme court’s approval rating remains at record low levels, according to a new poll.
The Gallup poll conducted in July, just after the court left for summer recess, showed 40% of respondents said they approved of the way the court was handling its job.
Opinions of the court continue to be divided by political party: 62% of Republicans said they approve of the job the supreme court is doing, versus 17% of Democrats and 41% of independents.
The poll was recorded after the court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, and Joe Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan, as well as ruling that business owners can refuse service to some couples based on their sexuality.
The court filing by federal prosecutors requesting a hearing to inform Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, about his lead lawyer’s potential conflicts of interest, said that Yuscil Taveras told prosecutors he was unopposed to his former lawyer, Stanley Woodward, continuing to represent Nauta, but did not consent to Woodward using or disclosing his confidential deliberations in the course of defending Nauta.
That would mean Woodward could face some limits in how vigorously he could defend Nauta at trial, since he might be obligated to stand down certain arguments he might have otherwise used to attack Taveras’s testimony during cross-examination.
The filing said:
An attorney’s cross-examination of a former or current client raises two principal dangers. First, the conflict may result in the attorney’s improper use or disclosure of the client’s confidences during the cross-examination. Second, the conflict may cause the attorney to pull his punches.
Woodward could not immediately be reached for comment, but he has previously indicated he would file a motion in response.
In their court filing, prosecutors added there could be additional conflicts for Woodward because out of the eight total witnesses who were ensnared by the grand jury investigation, the government intended to use at least two of them against Trump and Nauta at trial.
The first witness “worked in the White House during Trump’s presidency and then subsequently worked for Trump’s post-presidential office in Florida” and the second “worked for Trump’s reelection campaign and worked for Trump’s political action committee after Trump’s presidency ended”.
That raised the possibility of Woodward having multiple clients testifying against each other, and ultimately against Trump, with whom Nauta is said to be in an informal joint-defense agreement, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Messages suggest top Trump adviser could be 'co-conspirator 6' in indictment - report
Donald Trump’s latest indictment lists six unnamed co-conspirators alleged to have helped the former president in his efforts to subvert the 2020 election results.
The former president’s six co-conspirators were not charged in the indictment.
These include a justice department official, probably the then assistant attorney general Jeff Clark (“Co-Conspirator 4”), as well as four Republican lawyers, seemingly including Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani (“Co-Conspirator 1”); the law professor John Eastman (“Co-Conspirator 2”), who concocted the false theory that the vice-president had the authority to intervene in the electoral vote counting ceremony; Ken Chesebro (“Co-Conspirator 5”), an author of the fake electors scheme; and the quack pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell (“Co-Conspirator 3”).
Also listed is an unidentified “Co-Conspirator 6”. The indictment describes the person as a “political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding”.
An email sent by Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s campaign adviser and legal counsel, matches the description of an email that the indictment attributed to one of six unnamed co-conspirators, according to a New York Times report.
The email, sent on 7 December 2020, from Epshteyn to Giuliani and Giuliani’s son, Andrew, had the subject line “Attorneys for Electors Memo”, the paper writes. The email states: “Dear Mayor, as discussed, below are the attorneys I would recommend for the memo on choosing electors,” and goes on to identify lawyers in seven states.
The indictment states that Co-conspirator 1 “spoke with Co-conspirator 6 regarding attorneys who could assist in the fraudulent elector effort in the targeted states” and received an email from Co-conspirator 6 “identifying attorneys in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.” Those are the seven states in the email that Epshteyn sent to Giuliani, the paper writes.
Epshteyn has been one of Trump’s closest advisers in recent years, with more knowledge about the former president’s legal entanglements than perhaps anyone else.
He was interviewed in April by special counsel prosecutors investigating Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and his role in the January 6 Capitol attack.
Federal prosecutors requested a hearing to inform Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, about his lead lawyer’s potential conflicts of interest stemming from his defense work for at least three witnesses that could testify against Nauta and the former president in the classified documents case.
The prosecutors made the request to US district court judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday, explaining that Nauta’s lead lawyer, Stanley Woodward, represents two key Trump employees and formerly advised the Mar-a-Lago IT director, Yuscil Taveras, who is cooperating in the case.
Prosecutors wrote in the 11-page court filing:
All three of these witnesses may be witnesses for the government at trial, raising the possibility that Mr Woodward might be in the position of cross-examining past or current clients.
At issue is Woodward’s prior representation of Taveras during the grand jury investigation earlier this year, when prosecutors concluded that Taveras had evidence that incriminated Nauta and had enough of his own legal exposure to warrant sending him a target letter.
After Trump and Nauta were indicted in the classified documents case on 8 June, Taveras changed lawyers and swapped out Woodward, whose legal bills were being paid by Trump’s political action committee Save America, and retained a new lawyer on 5 July.
In the weeks that followed, Taveras decided to share more evidence with prosecutors about how Nauta and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira had asked him to delete surveillance footage – details that resulted last week in a superseding indictment against Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira.
Republican senator Ted Cruz tore into the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s case related to his efforts to overturn the election, claiming she would be “relentlessly hostile” to the former president.
The latest criminal case against Trump will be overseen by the US district court judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who has developed a record of handing down some of the longest criminal sentences against defendants charged with storming the Capitol in the January 6 attack, beyond prosecutors’ recommendations.
In 2021, Chutkan was the judge who rejected Trump’s attempt to block the House January 6 select committee investigating the Capitol riot from gaining access to presidential records. “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president,” she wrote at the time.
Chutkan “has a reputation for being far left, even by DC district court standards”, Cruz said in an episode on his podcast on Wednesday. He added:
We can anticipate a judge who is going to be relentlessly hostile to Donald Trump who is going to bend over backwards for the Biden DOJ, and who is going to make ruling, after ruling, after ruling against Trump.
Cruz – along with every other Republican senator at the time – voted for Chutkan’s confirmation in 2014.
Updated
Donald Trump is a known TV watcher, particularly of Fox News, the right-leaning network that he has had an on again, off again relationship with ever since his first campaign for the White House.
One has to wonder if Trump caught this interview aired today with his former vice-president Mike Pence. Speaking to Fox, Pence condemned the ex-president for hiring “crackpot lawyers” as he sought a way to reverse his election loss in 2020:
Pence: “It wasn't that they asked for a pause. The president specifically asked me — and his gaggle of crack pot lawyers — to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives and literally chaos would have ensued.” pic.twitter.com/LJHyqhmNd4
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 2, 2023
The hint that Trump may have can be found on Truth social, where about 10 minutes ago, he posted the following:
I feel badly for Mike Pence, who is attracting no crowds, enthusiasm, or loyalty from people who, as a member of the Trump Administration, should be loving him. He didn’t fight against Election Fraud, which we will now be easily able to prove based on the most recent Fake Indictment & information which will have to be made available to us, finally - a really BIG deal. The V.P. had power that Mike didn’t understand, but after the Election, the RINOS & Dems changed the law, taking that power away!
Trump’s claims of election fraud have been rejected by almost every judge they have appeared before.
US Capitol offices evacuated after threatening phone call
Frightening scenes played out at the US Capitol a few minutes ago, when police evacuated Senate office buildings in response to a threatening phone call that was reportedly a hoax.
US Capitol police say they dispatched officers after receiving warnings of a possible active shooter:
Our officers are searching in and around the Senate Office Buildings in response to a concerning 911 call. Please stay away from the area as we are still investigating. We will continue to communicate with the public here. pic.twitter.com/vqCY0I7u8m
— The U.S. Capitol Police (@CapitolPolice) August 2, 2023
If you are inside the Senate Buildings, everyone inside should be sheltering in place as the report was for a possible active shooter. It should be noted that we do not have any confirmed reports of gunshots.
— The U.S. Capitol Police (@CapitolPolice) August 2, 2023
Politico reports the Washington DC police department, which helps secure the Capitol complex, said the call appeared to be a ruse:
DC's Metropolitan Police Department spox Hugh Carew tells me the evacuation of Russell Senate Office Building came after a call for an active shooter that "appears to be a bad call"
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) August 2, 2023
"No injuries and no shooter were located"
It’s currently the Congress’s August recess, and most lawmakers are away from the Capitol, though staff are still working. Reporters at the scene saw people being led out from the Senate office buildings by police with their hands in the air:
People being led out of Russell Senate Office Building amid reports of possible active shooter pic.twitter.com/VC4Kpe2Kux
— bryan metzger (@metzgov) August 2, 2023
People are being evacuated from senate office buildings with their hands up. pic.twitter.com/Pd1Ayw7GMu
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) August 2, 2023
Updated
Pence says Trump surrounded himself with 'crackpot lawyers' as he tried to overturn election
Mike Pence kicked off his presidential campaign with a speech condemning former boss Donald Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election.
Pence reiterated that criticism today when asked about the indictment filed by Jack Smith:
Mike Pence on Trump effort to overturn election results: "Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear. ... The president ultimately continued to demand that I choose him over the Constitution." pic.twitter.com/wLhw0mA78Q
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 2, 2023
It’s not exactly a winning message, at least not yet. Polls currently have Pence with single-digit support among Republican voters.
Updated
Trump will not have mugshot taken in Thursday arraignment - report
When Donald Trump appears at a federal courthouse on Thursday afternoon to answer the indictment brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, he will not be formally arrested or have his mugshot taken, Bloomberg News reports.
Citing US Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade, Bloomberg said his appearance in Washington DC will be similar to one he made in June in Miami, where he pled not guilty to charges Smith filed over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Here’s more on what we can expect tomorrow, from Bloomberg:
The 4 p.m. hearing at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse is likely to be short, but it’s an important step in kicking off the latest case brought by Special Prosecutor John L. “Jack” Smith. Trump is expected to be arraigned in person — which means he’ll enter an initial plea to the charges — though the court has yet to announce specific details about the hearing.
Before that, Trump will be processed by the court, which will be similar to the former president’s experience in Florida after he was indicted in June over his handling of classified documents, US Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade said.
Wade confirmed that Trump:
— will have his fingerprints taken digitally
— will be required to provide his social security number, date of birth, address, and other personal information
— won’t have photograph taken, since he’s already easily recognizable and there are already many photographs available
Trump won’t be placed under arrest, according to Wade. In accepting the indictment Tuesday, US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya issued a summons for his appearance, not an arrest warrant.
The former president will then head into the courtroom for his appearance. The summons was issued by Upadhyaya, so the expectation is he’ll appear before her, but the case has been assigned to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama. The court hasn’t put the hearing on the public calendar to confirm whose courtroom he’ll go to.
During the hearing, Trump’s lawyers will likely do most, if not all, of the talking. The government didn’t ask to put Trump in pretrial custody while the Florida case proceeds, and there’s no expectation they’ll ask for that now. If prosecutors want the judge to impose any conditions on his release, however, they could make those requests, and Trump’s lawyers would have a chance to raise objections.
Separately, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi has released a terse statement about what Washingtonians can expect when the former president goes to court tomorrow:
Statement on DC security preparations for Thursday. There may be short term traffic implications due to protectee movements so please monitor this account and @DCPoliceTraffic for latest info. pic.twitter.com/fDc9UbnWmQ
— Anthony Guglielmi (@SecretSvcSpox) August 2, 2023
Donald Trump had a private dinner with Fox News executives shortly after learning that he would be indicted a third time, according to a New York Times report.
The two-hour dinner between Trump, Fox News president Jay Wallace and the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, was held in a private dining room at the former president’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the paper said, citing sources.
During the dinner, the Fox executives lobbied Trump to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate later this month, the report said. The event will be hosted by Fox News with the Republican national committee in Milwaukee.
The Fox executives made a soft appeal for Mr. Trump to attend the debate, two of the people familiar with the dinner said, telling the former president that he excels on the center stage and that it presents an opportunity for him to show off his debate skills.
According to the paper, Trump told the Fox executives he had not yet made a decision and would keep an open mind.
A powerful Democrat senator has called Samuel Alito’s public expression of opposition to US supreme court ethics reform “unwise and unwelcome”, rejecting the conservative justice’s contention that Congress cannot implement such measures.
“Justice Alito is providing speculative public commentary on a bill that is still going through the legislative process,” said Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and the chair of the Senate judiciary committee.
He added in a statement:
Let’s be clear: Justice Alito is not the 101st member of the United States Senate. His intervention … is unwise and unwelcome.
Last week, Alito spoke to the Wall Street Journal, often an outlet for his views and complaints. Discussing Washington scandals about rightwing justices taking gifts from donors with business before the court – most notably over Clarence Thomas’s links to Harlan Crow and Alito’s own fishing trip with Paul Singer – Alito said: “I marvel at all the nonsense that has been written about me in the last year.”
Saying he was defending himself because “nobody else is going to do this”, the George W Bush-appointed conservative, 73, said: “Congress did not create the supreme court.
I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the constitution gives them the authority to regulate the supreme court – period.
Durbin, who with Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has sought to pilot ethics reform in response to the Thomas and Alito scandals, rejected Alito’s position.
“The ethical conduct of supreme court justices is a serious matter within this committee’s jurisdiction,” he said.
Ensuring ethical conduct by the justices is critical to the court’s legitimacy.
A lawyer for John Eastman, one of the co-conspirators named in Tuesday’s indictment of Donald Trump, said he would decline a plea deal if offered one by federal prosecutors.
In a statement, Harvey Silverglate said Eastman has not and will not be engaged in plea bargaining in the case with state or federal prosecutors.
With respect to questions as to whether Dr. Eastman is involved in plea bargaining, the answer is no. But if he were invited to plea bargain with either state or federal prosecutors, he would decline. The fact is, if Dr. Eastman is indicted, he will go to trial. If convicted, he will appeal. The Eastman legal team is confident of its legal position in this matter.
The statement claimed the indictment relies on a “misleading presentation of the record to contrive criminal charges against Presidential candidate Trump and to cast ominous aspersions on his close advisors.”
Here’s our video report of how Democrats and Republicans reacted to Donald Trump’s latest federal indictment on charges relating to his alleged attempted election subversion.
Obama warned Biden of Trump's continued strength - report
Barack Obama warned Joe Biden that Donald Trump would be a formidable election opponent, even with his legal troubles, the Washington Post reports.
The warning came over lunch at the White House between the current president and Obama, whom Biden served under as vice-president from 2009 to 2017. Among the factors Obama cited as helping Trump were “an intensely loyal following, a Trump-friendly conservative media ecosystem and a polarized country”, the Post reports.
Here’s more from the Post’s report:
At the lunch, held in late June in the White House residence, Obama promised to do all he could to help the president get reelected, according to two people familiar with the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversation.
That commitment was a welcome gesture for the White House at a time when Biden is eager to lock down promises of help from top Democrats, among whom Obama is easily the biggest star, for what is likely to be a hard-fought reelection race. The contents of the private conversation have not been previously reported.
Obama was visiting the White House for what Biden aides described as a regular catch-up between the two men who served in the White House together for eight years. During their lunch, Obama made it clear his concerns were not about Biden’s political abilities, but rather a recognition of Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party, according to the people.
Recent polling suggests Trump has a significant lead over his GOP rivals and that he and Biden are essentially tied in a hypothetical rematch.
The White House said there was no specific agenda for the June 27 meeting, and people briefed on the conversation said the two presidents discussed a range of political, policy and personal matters, including updates about their families.
The day so far
Donald Trump is expected to appear in court at 4pm eastern time tomorrow in Washington DC to answer the indictment brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith over attempting to overturn the 2020 election. So far today, we’ve gotten hints of the former president’s potential defense strategy from his lawyer, heard various Republicans reaffirm their allegiance to him and suspicion of the justice department, and learned Smith has concerns about an attorney hired to represent one of Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago case.
That’s not all that’s been happening:
Why did Fitch downgrade the US’s debt from its highest rating? The January 6 insurrection was among the reasons.
Robert F Kennedy Jr is running as Democrat for president, but is being bankrolled by a Republican.
Reporters managed to track down Merrick Garland somewhere that wasn’t the justice department headquarters, but he still had little to say about the new charges against Trump.
Senator and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott highlighted his presence on the “weaponization” bandwagon in response to Donald Trump’s latest indictment:
I remain concerned about the weaponization of Biden’s DOJ and its immense power used against political opponents.
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 2, 2023
What we see today are two different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and another for the son of the current president.
We're watching Biden's DOJ continue to hunt Republicans, while protecting Democrats.
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 2, 2023
Special counsel concerned lawyer for Trump co-defendant has conflict of interest
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that special counsel Jack Smith is concerned that Stanley Woodward, a lawyer for Donald Trump’s valet Walt Nauta, has a conflict of interest:
New: Special Counsel requests a hearing case about potential conflicts re Trump lawyer Stanley Woodward, who represents Walt Nauta — as well as two potential trial witnesses and formerly the now-cooperating Mar-a-Lago IT worker asked to delete tapes https://t.co/9eS30PPyfR
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 2, 2023
Smith indicted Nauta alongside Trump on charges related to hiding classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago and working the keep them out of the hands of government archivists. Nauta was arraigned in Florida last month in proceedings that were delayed because he struggled to find a lawyer:
In an interview with Fox News, Florida governor Ron DeSantis called for Donald Trump’s trial over the January 6 insurrection and effort to overturn the 2020 election to be moved out of Washington DC:
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), when asked about Donald Trump's third indictment, says the case needs to be moved out of Washington D.C.:
— The Recount (@therecount) August 2, 2023
“A D.C. jury would indict a ham sandwich and convict a ham sandwich if it was a Republican ham sandwich.” pic.twitter.com/MmwKehamHq
The US capital city is deeply Democratic, and during his presidency, Trump rarely ventured into its streets, except to visit his hotel.
Polls show that DeSantis is Trump’s strongest challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, but his campaign is going much worse than expected.
The House of Representatives is home to some of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress, and in the wake of his indictment on charges related to the January 6 insurrection, several lawmakers are reiterating their support for the former president.
Such as Jim Banks, who may soon be headed to represent Indiana in the Senate:
Stating the obvious here but today’s indictment only further solidifies support for President Trump and makes him an even stronger candidate to defeat Joe Biden next November
— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) August 2, 2023
Dan Meuser adopted the “weaponization” allegation Trump has repeatedly leveled against the Biden administration:
Every time bombshell evidence drops in the Biden scandal and POTUS needs a distraction, a new Trump indictment follows. This is weaponization of the DOJ against Biden’s leading opponent, particularly when no crime is defined.
— Congressman Dan Meuser (@RepMeuser) August 2, 2023
A double standard in justice is no justice at all. pic.twitter.com/rodwPJOUZm
Mike Bost keeps his message simple:
Another day, another attempt by the Biden administration to take down Donald J. Trump. I still stand with President Trump and countless Southern Illinoisans do too!
— Rep. Mike Bost (@RepBost) August 1, 2023
In an interview with CNN, a Washington DC police officer who was assaulted on January 6 shared his thoughts on Donald Trump’s indictment over the attack:
D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who was crushed by rioters on January 6th, reacts to Trump’s indictment:
— The Recount (@therecount) August 2, 2023
“Ultimate accountability would be cultural — how the name Donald Trump would be held in disgust by Americans — but that's a long way off.” pic.twitter.com/uyGyVH5AqR
Here’s more from Reuters on Fitch’s surprise decision to downgrade the US debt rating yesterday, citing factors that polarized economists and investors:
The rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s top credit rating on Tuesday, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors.
Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills. It is the second major rating agency after Standard & Poor’s to strip the US of its triple-A rating.
Fitch had first flagged the possibility of a downgrade in May amid the US debt ceiling negotiations, then maintained that position in June after the crisis was resolved, saying it intended to resolve the review in the third quarter of this year.
Concerns over January 6 played a role in Fitch downgrade of US debt
Credit agency Fitch’s surprise downgrade of US debt from its top rating yesterday was motivated in part by concerns over the January 6 insurrection, Reuters reports.
“It was something that we highlighted because it just is a reflection of the deterioration in governance, it’s one of many,” senior director at Fitch Ratings Richard Francis told Reuters in an interview.
“You have the debt ceiling, you have Jan. 6. Clearly, if you look at polarization with both parties ... the Democrats have gone further left and Republicans further right, so the middle is kind of falling apart basically.”
Fitch now rates US debt at AA+ rather than its top AAA level. The Biden administration is unhappy with the downgrade, which Treasury secretary Janet Yellen called “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”
Fitch is the second of the three major ratings agencies to downgrade US debt. In 2011, S&P downgraded the US from its top level rating after a protracted standoff over raising the debt ceiling.
Donald Trump’s legal troubles are not the only thing happening in the world of American politics. The Guardian’s Mary Yang reports that a prominent Democratic challenger to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination is, surprise, surprise, being funded by a Republican:
A Super Pac affiliated with Robert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist running for president as a Democrat, owes half its cash to a longtime Republican mega-donor and Trump backer, according to campaign finance reports filed on Monday.
The group, American Values 2024, reported receiving $5m from Timothy Mellon, a wealthy businessman from Wyoming, according to NBC News and Politico. It registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in April, days before Kennedy officially launched his campaign, according to FEC records.
Mellon, 81, is the grandson of Andrew Mellon, a former US treasury secretary who made his fortune in banking. The Texas Tribune reported that Mellon, a top donor to Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election effort, supported controversial immigration laws and was responsible for 98% of the contributions to the Texas governor Greg Abbott’s fund to build a border wall. Mellon, who twice gave $10m to the Trump-aligned America First Action Super Pac in 2020, also used racist stereotypes to describe Black people in an autobiography he self-published in 2015.
Reporters managed to track down attorney general Merrick Garland somewhere to ask him about the latest indictment against Donald Trump.
Publicly, Garland has taken a hands-off approach to the work of Jack Smith, the special counsel he appointed to investigate the former president. As you can see from the clip below, his response to questions from the press amounts to one long “no comment”:
“[Jack] Smith and ... prosecutors have followed the facts and the law wherever they lead. Any questions about this matter will have to be answered by the filings made in court.”
— The Recount (@therecount) August 2, 2023
— AG Garland on Tuesday, reacting to Trump's indictment for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election pic.twitter.com/g3xAcCHTkQ
Trump lawyer argues January 6 indictment criminalizes speech
Donald Trump’s attorney John Lauro appeared on NBC’s Today show, and gave a few hints of the former president’s legal strategy in defending against the indictment he faces for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Lauro first indicated that he objects to special counsel Jack Smith’s push to hold the trial in 90 days, calling it “absurd”:
One of former President Trump’s attorney’s John Lauro speaks about the indictment and the timing of the trial.
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023
“To take President Trump to trial in 90 days, of course, is absurd. The question is why do they (the special counsel) wanna do that,” Lauro told @SavannahGuthrie. pic.twitter.com/WXzSTpii3F
Smith made a similar attempt with the charges he filed against Trump over the Mar-a-Lago documents, but a federal judge has now pushed that trial to May 2024.
Lauro also indicated that he planned to argue Smith was putting Trump on trial over his speech, which would go against the first amendment:
.@SavannahGuthrie: The indictment specifically says that the President has a first amendment right to speech, he even has a first amendment right to lie. (…) This indictment is criminalizing conduct, not speech.
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023
Lauro: No, it’s criminalizing speech (…) pic.twitter.com/VAo3jCFvwL
Updated
As the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports, reactions to Trump’s indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election have thus far fallen mostly along partisan lines:
While Democrats and progressives welcomed Donald Trump’s federal indictment on four charges relating to his attempted election subversion, the former president’s chief rival for the 2024 Republican nomination rallied to his defense.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is a distant second to Trump in primary polling, swiftly issued a statement that notably did not mention Trump by name.
“As president,” DeSantis said, “I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans.”
DeSantis, who has indicated he will pardon Trump if elected, said he had not seen the indictment handed down by the special counsel, Jack Smith, regarding Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020. Nonetheless, DeSantis complained that the charges were brought in Washington DC, a Democratic city.
This is now the third indictment Donald Trump has faced this year alone, but historians who spoke to the Washington Post say this one is more serious than the rest.
“Just as the tearing down of the Berlin Wall showed the weakness in the former Soviet Union, the mob on January 6 trying to use force to overturn the will of voters shocked the world and showed our democracy’s weakness,” Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Post.
Here’s more from their story on the indictment’s historical significance:
Historians and legal scholars say the new indictment, brought by federal special prosecutor Jack Smith, is fundamentally more consequential than the earlier ones, which related to hush money paid to an adult-film actress and the mishandling of classified documents.
While those are serious allegations, Tuesday’s indictment accuses a former president of the United States with attempting to subvert the democracy upon which the nation rests. And with Trump again running for the White House, the charges he faces pose an extraordinary test to the rule of law, experts say.
“This gets right to the question of how elections work, how power is transferred peacefully,” said Jon Grinspan, a curator of political history at the National Museum of American History. “This is really a question about the functioning of American democracy.”
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University legal scholar, said, “The crimes indicted are an order of magnitude beyond anything that has been committed against this country by any American citizen, let alone a former president.”
“This is essentially an indictment for an attempt to overturn the Republic and its most crucial process of preserving democratic governance, the process of peaceful and lawful transition of power,” said Tribe, who taught Barack Obama and advised his presidential campaign and administration.
Americans digest latest charges against Trump ahead of court appearance
Good morning from Washington DC. Tomorrow, Donald Trump will appear at the federal courthouse here to answer the indictment filed against him by special prosecutor Jack Smith, accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, allegations with few to no peers in American history. This will be his third court appearance this year, the first being in Manhattan to answer charges related to falsifying business records, and the second occurring in Miami, where Smith indicted over allegedly hoarding government documents at Mar-a-Lago.
While the indictment filed yesterday is historic, it was a long time coming, and likely will have done little to change the immediate political dynamics surrounding Trump. He remains a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and polls have recently shown him far and away the frontrunner in the race. He also maintains a dedicated following among GOP voters, to the extent that many rival candidates are hesitant to criticize him directly. We’ll see if any signs emerge of those trends shifting today.
Here’s what else is happening:
The White House is fuming after ratings agency Fitch downgraded US debt from its highest mark. The agency cited the country’s finances, as well as its repeated bouts of fiscal brinksmanship.
Who is the sixth co-conspirator? Smith’s indictment against Trump name six people who helped Trump in his alleged plot. Five of these are clearly identifiable based on what we know about the events leading up to January 6, but one, described as a political consultant, is not. Expect lots of digging by the press into who this might be.
Trump, meanwhile, is doing his usual thing on Truth social, the platform that has become his mouthpiece after getting banned from Twitter following January 6.
It’s just gone 8 am in Washington DC.
I’m going to hand over now to the US politics live blogger, Chris Stein, who will guide you through the rest of the day.
Updated
Here are some key takeaways from the latest indictment:
Trump's legal calendar before the 2024 election
Trump has quite the legal calendar ahead of him, while also seeking to run for president in the 2024 election.
Here is a rundown of all his legal dates alongside the political calendar. As you can see, it’s going to be impossible to untangle the two.
The Trump campaign's response to the indictment is here. An extract below:
These un-American witch hunts will fail and President Trump will be re-elected to the White House so he can save our Country from the abuse, incompetence, and corruption that is running through the veins of our Country at levels never seen before.
Below is the video of the announcement:
A reader has sent in a couple of questions that I’m sure are on everyone’s mind:
1.) “Will he go to jail”
2.) “Will he run in 2024”
The answer to the first one is “possibly” and the second is “still very likely”.
Trump faces charges that have maximum jail sentences of many, many years.
There is even a scenario in which Trump both goes to jail and runs in 2024 (and even wins!).
University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard L. Hasen, told CNN that there is no constitutional rule that bars “anyone indicted, or convicted, or even serving jail time, from running as president and winning the presidency”.
“How someone would serve as president from prison is a happily untested question,” Hasen said.
For those just waking up, here is our most recent news story:
Trump summoned to court on Thursday
The former president has been summoned to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Washington DC on Thursday.
Things are moving relatively fast. Jack Smith, the special counsel, said he would seek a “speedy trial”, and stressed that Trump was entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
Trump is expected to be arraigned – a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant – at the DC district court before magistrate judge Moxila A Upadhyaya.
Indictment says Trump knowingly 'spread lies'
The case against Trump was announced last night by special counsel Jack Smith. He is a federal prosecutor – a government lawyer who is tasked with prosecuting criminal cases.
When announcing the charges, Smith encourages everyone to read in full the 45-page indictment. The document is written in quite a straightforward, readable way, and it packs a punch, calling Trump a liar.
You can read it in full here, but here are parts of the introduction:
“The Defendant [Trump] lost the 2020 presidential election. Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day … the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”
(Note: “outcome-determinative” means that the alleged election fraud was so big that it would have changed the outcome of the election ie mean Trump had won)
Trump charged over attempts to stay in power despite election loss
Donald Trump has been indicted with several crimes in connection with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a frenzied attempt to stay in power.
The indictment, filed in federal district court in Washington, charges Trump with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
In short (and avoiding legalese) the charges relate to Trump’s alleged effort to deny the American people their democratic right to choose their own leader.
Hello readers! Oliver Holmes here, and I’ll be kicking off today’s US live blog.
There are now a dizzying number of legal cases swirling around the Republican leader, but I promise to try to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible.
The stakes are high. Tuesday’s indictment marks the first time a US president has faced criminal charges for trying to overturn an election. And next year, Americans will vote in an election where Trump looks set to be the Republican candidate.
Stay with us…
