Recap
Chris Christie made a rather contrite presidential announcement. “I can’t guarantee you success,” he said at a New Hampshire town hall. The former New Jersey governor with a hot-and-cold relationship with Donald Trump has pitched himself as the only Republican willing to fully stand up to the former president.
Here’s what else :
US intelligence knew of a Ukrainian plan to blow up the Nord Stream pipeline, though it’s unclear if Kyiv was actually behind its sabotage.
The White House will “assess” whether an attack on a dam that flooded a swath of southern Ukraine amounts to a war crime, US national security council spokesman John Kirby said.
Trump has feuded with Fox News’ straight-news division, but will on 19 June sit down for an interview with it for the first time since his 2020 election defeat.
Federal investigators are looking into a swimming pool that was drained at Mar-a-Lago and into a room full of servers containing surveillance footage of the resort, according to a report.
A federal judge has granted media requests to release the names of people who co-signed George Santos’s $500,000 bond in his criminal fraud case, according to the Hill.
An effort by House Republicans to stop the government from banning gas stoves and change the federal rule-making process has been blocked by a revolt from within the party.
– Maanvi Singh and Chris Stein
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“The reason I’m going after Trump is twofold: one, he deserves it, and two, it’s the way to win,” Christie said. “I’m going after him to take out Donald Trump but here’s why: I want to win.”
He’s insisted he’s not running just to to take down Trump. He told Politico: “I’m not a paid assassin.” He also said that Trump “needs to be called out and … needs to be called out by somebody who knows him. Nobody knows Donald Trump better than I do.”
The two have a long history.
Under Christie’s watch, Trump’s indebted casinos in New Jersey paid just $.17 on the dollar of what they owed. After running against Trump in the 2016 presidential race, he endorsed Trump, and became a key adviser and was regarded as a top contender for running mate.
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He does a decent Trump impression:
2024 GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie breaks out his Donald Trump impression on Day 1 of the campaign. pic.twitter.com/x4dz69S2mE
— The Recount (@therecount) June 6, 2023
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Other observations:
After a lengthy lead-up comparing Trump to Voldemort, and largely refusing to say his name, Christie finally clarified: “The person I am talking about who is obsessed with the mirror? Who never admits a mistake? Who never admits a fault and will always find someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong, but find every reason to take credit for anything that goes right, is Donald Trump:
He started the Q&A bit with a well-worn opening line, as Christie biographer Matt Katz notes:
Uses line I heard at more than 100 times at his town halls to begin the Q&A: "If you give it, you're getting it back!"
— Matt Katz (@mattkatz00) June 6, 2023
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This was a notably apologetic presidential announcement. “I can’t guarantee you success,” Christie said. “I’m not perfect.” “I’ve made mistakes.”
On the transition from Trump to Biden, he said: “We’ve gone from chaos, from constant yelling, screaming, blaming, to quiet” … and that’s … bad apparently. “We don’t need someone timid, quiet, who’s not speaking to us regularly the way it happened.”
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Christie announces 2024 presidential bid
“I’ll say to you tonight that I can’t guarantee you success in what I’m about to do,” Christie said at the start of his rather unconventional and contrite presidential announcement. “But I guarantee you that at the end of it, you will have no doubt in your mind, who I am and what I stand for and whether I deserve it. That’s why I came back to New Hampshire to tell all of you that I intend to seek the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2024.”
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Chris Christie began with a tepid rebuke of Trump – saying that Obama, Trump and Biden have been “dividing us”.
He then launched into a sweeping history review, talking about how American leaders thought “big” when it came to the American revolution, the second world war and the space race. He drew a few chuckles, including when he professed: “If you are in search of the perfect candidate, it is time to leave. I am not it.”
He admitted he “trusted people I shouldn’t have trusted and it resulted in me being at one point in my career admitting that I was publicly embarrassed and humiliated by the things that have happened on my watch”.
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Christie has taken the stage.
Christie makes his entrance to Springsteen pic.twitter.com/f093bxvj96
— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) June 6, 2023
Chris Christie is set to announce his candidacy at a town hall in New Hampshire
The former New Jersey governor is expected to present himself as the only Republican willing to take on Trump.
The AP recounts his complicated, hot and cold relationship with the former president:
The former governor, who has known Trump for nearly 20 years, has had a complicated friendship with the former developer and reality TV star. At times, he was one of Trump’s closest advisers: He was on the shortlist to serve as Trump’s vice president, oversaw Trump’s early White House transition efforts, said he was offered – and turned down – multiple Cabinet positions, and helped Trump prepare for each of his general election debates in 2016 and 2020. (It was during those debate preparations that Christie believes he caught COVID-19, landing him in intensive care.)
But Christie also clashed with Trump at times and has described the former president’s refusal to accept his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden as a breaking point. In appearances and interviews, Christie says he was “incredibly disappointed and disillusioned” by Trump’s refusal to concede, which culminated in his followers’ violent storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to halt the certification of Biden’s win.
Christie has since become one of Trump’s top Republican critics and argues the party must disavow Trump’s false claims and move past his complaints to focus on the future – or keep losing elections.
“As Republicans, we need to free ourselves from the quicksand of endless grievances. We need to turn our attention to the future and quit wallowing in the past. We need to face the realities of the 2020 election and learn – not hide – from them,” he wrote in his book, “Republican Rescue.” He called on the party to rid itself of conspiracy complaints and focus on providing voters with a positive alternative to Democratic policies.
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Mark Meadows, who was Donald Trump’s final White House chief of staff, testified before a federal grand jury, the New York Times reports, citing two sources briefed on the matter.
Meadows could be a key witness in the inquiry into Trump’s efforts to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election, and in the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents.
The Guardian has not yet independently verified the Times’ reporting. It is unclear the exact scope of Meadows’ testimony.
Meadows is tangentially related to a key piece of evidence in the documents case. The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell recently reported:
Federal prosecutors obtained audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting where Donald Trump suggested he should have declassified a military document about Iran he admitted retaining, according to people familiar with the criminal investigation into his retention of national security papers.
The recording was made at Trump’s Bedminster golf club in July 2021, when the former president met with people helping his former chief of staff Mark Meadows write a book, by his aide Margo Martin who regularly taped conversations with authors to ensure they accurately recounted his remarks.
For several minutes of the audio recording, the sources said, Trump talks about how he cannot discuss the document because he no longer possesses the sweeping presidential power to declassify now out of office, but suggests that he should have done so when he was still in the White House.
The former White House officials has otherwise kept a low profile.
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While Christie has insisted he is “not a paid assassin”, the 60-year-old is certainly a seasoned brawler.
Christie’s claims to fame include leaving office in New Jersey amid a scandal about political payback involving traffic on the George Washington Bridge to New York, then leaving the Florida senator Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign in pieces after a debate-stage clash for the ages.
Christie was quick to drop out of that campaign, then equally quick to endorse the clear frontrunner. He stayed loyal despite a brutal firing as Trump’s transition coordinator, fueled by old enmities with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and only broke from Trump after the January 6 Capitol attack.
Recently, Christie has worked for ABC News as a political analyst, honing his turn of phrase. Speaking to Politico, he insisted he was serious about winning the primary.
“I’m not a paid assassin,” he said. “When you’re waking up for your 45th morning at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manchester [New Hampshire], you better think you can win, because that walk from the bed to the shower, if you don’t think you can win, it’s hard.”
He also said Trump “needs to be called out and … needs to be called out by somebody who knows him. Nobody knows Donald Trump better than I do.”
Read more:
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Back in the Capitol, here’s more from Fox News on why rightwing lawmakers banded together to frustrate the chamber’s Republican leaders by blocking debate on legislation dealing with gas stoves and federal government rule-making.
The revolt caused a vote to start debate on legislation to fail for the first time since 2002. It came after the far-right lawmakers joined with Democrats in what one of their members, Dan Bishop, told Fox was an expression of frustration with House speaker Kevin McCarthy:
A) From colleague Tyler Olson. GOP NC Rep Bishop says McCarthy violated the pact made for him to become Speaker. That's why he & other GOPers blew up the rule for the gas stove bill.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 6, 2023
B) Bishop: The agreement about discretionary spending to fiscal year 2022 levels. That was one specific provision. I think there are other specific provisions but that's the one that I can call to mind instantly.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 6, 2023
C) Bishop says conservatives did not tell the GOP brass their plan to blow up the rule for the gas stove bill
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 6, 2023
The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh is on deck now to run the blog through the evening’s news, including Chris Christie’s town hall kicking off his presidential campaign.
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Here’s more from the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly on Chris Christie’s return to the presidential campaign trail and his primary rematch against foe turned friend turned foe Donald Trump:
The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has confirmed his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination next year.
Christie filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday afternoon. He was scheduled to announce his presidential run hours later in a town hall hosted at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The pugilistic politician joins the primary as a rank outsider but promises a campaign with a singular focus: to take the fight to Donald Trump, the former president who left office in disgrace after the January 6 attack on Congress but who is the clear frontrunner to face Joe Biden again at the polls.
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A few hours ago, Donald Trump’s allies released a statement welcoming Chris Christie to the presidential race with a grin – a big, toothy, Cheshire cat grin.
“Ron DeSantis’ campaign is spiraling, and President Trump’s dominance over the Republican primary field has opened a mad rush to seize the mantle for [a] runner-up. Ron DeSantis is not ready for this moment, and Chris Christie will waste no time eating DeSantis’ lunch,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Make America Great Again Inc Pac supporting the former president’s campaign.
And now that Christie has announced his candidacy, the Democrats are out with their customary roast. Here’s Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison’s statement:
The American people still remember what happened the last time Chris Christie ran for president. After dropping his own bid in 2016 to wholeheartedly endorse Donald Trump, Christie served as head of Trump’s transition team, gave his presidency an ‘A,’ and used his position as chair of Trump’s Commission on Opioids to land a lucrative consulting contract with big pharma. A longtime champion of the MAGA agenda, Christie backed a federal abortion ban and helped coordinate efforts to restrict access in every state, called for cutting Medicare and Social Security, and vetoed minimum wage increases for working people.
Nothing he says can change the fact that Chris Christie is just another power-hungry extremist in the rapidly growing field of Republicans willing to say anything to capture the MAGA base.
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Chris Christie officially files to run for president
New Jersey’s former Republican governor Chris Christie has officially filed to run for president, according to the Federal Election Commission, setting himself up to face off against Donald Trump and a host of other candidates for the party’s nomination to challenge Joe Biden in the general election next year.
Christie will announce his candidacy at 6.30pm eastern time with a town hall in New Hampshire. This campaign will be a sort of rematch for Christie: he was among the slew of Republicans Trump defeated in 2016 to win the party’s nomination, and later that year, the White House.
While Christie worked with Trump during his time in the White House, they later had a falling out, and Christie recently said Trump “needs to be called out and … needs to be called out by somebody who knows him. Nobody knows Donald Trump better than I do.”
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Gas stove bills go down in flames — for now
An effort by House Republicans to stop the government from banning gas stoves and change the federal rule-making process has been blocked by a revolt from within the party.
Rightwing GOP lawmakers just now joined with Democrats in voting down the rule that would kick off debate on the four bills, a key step before the chamber could vote on their passage:
The House rejected H.Res. 463 by a vote of 206-220. https://t.co/tUNtpxgDKi
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) June 6, 2023
The Biden administration opposes the bills, and there was little chance they would be passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate. We’ll let you know as soon as it becomes clear what fueled the conservative revolt.
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In other House shenanigans, you will recall that Republican congressman, admitted fabulist and potentially soon-to-be federal inmate George Santos tried and failed to keep secret the names of those who paid for his expensive bail.
Reporters at the Capitol have been wondering why he didn’t want these people’s identities publicized, and did what they have done to Santos ever since he first showed up in Washington in January: chased him around while asking him questions. See the pursuit, and the little that he had to say, below, courtesy of CNN:
George Santos, the indicted New York Republican, refused to answer questions about why he’s been shielding the identities of the people who paid for his $500,000 bond.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 6, 2023
Asked him why it’s so important to shield their identities, Santos told me: “Because it is.” pic.twitter.com/PkaJBsAc8q
Republicans control the House and should have no trouble voting to start debate on the bills intended to ensure gas stove access. But they are having trouble, and that says something about the state of the GOP today.
As you can see in the tweet below from Axios, 10 GOP lawmakers are currently opposing the rule to start debate on the four bills that stop the government from banning gas stoves and also changing the federal rule-making process. That’s enough to stop the legislation from being debated by the House, a formal step that must be taken before the bills can be passed.
10 Freedom Caucus members are currently a no on the rule for a GOP bill to prohibit the government from banning gas stoves:
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) June 6, 2023
Biggs
Bishop
Buck
Crane
Gaetz
Good
Gosar
Norman
Roy
Rosendale
If this stands, the vote will fail 218-208.
Intense huddle underway on the House floor.
Who’s doing the revolting? Rightwing members of the House Freedom Caucus, many of whom were behind the days of GOP infighting in January that delayed Kevin McCarthy’s election as speaker of the House. We’ll let you know when we find out what the Freedom Caucus is mad about this time.
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Biden administration considering if Ukraine dam attack is war crime
The White House will “assess” whether an attack on a dam that flooded a swath of southern Ukraine amounts to a war crime, US national security council spokesman John Kirby said at the White House this afternoon.
Follow the Guardian’s live blog for the latest on this developing story from Ukraine:
The Biden administration has taken a look at the two Republican House bills advertised as protecting Americans’ access to gas stoves, and it does not like what it sees.
In a statement, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said it “strongly opposes” the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act and the Save Our Stoves Act, while adding: “The Administration has been clear that it does not support any attempt to ban the use of gas stoves.”
Lawmakers are expected to today vote on passage of the former legislation, and consider the latter tomorrow. The OMB’s statement says the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act would undercut the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s job of using “the best available data to promote the safety of consumer products. This Administration opposes any effort to undermine the Commission’s ability to make science-based decisions to protect the public.”
The OMB criticizes the Save Our Stoves Act for preventing the energy department from creating and enforcing new standards for stove and oven efficiency, denying “the American people the savings that come with having more efficient new appliances on the market when they choose to replace an existing appliance”.
The two bills “would undermine science-based Consumer Product Safety Commission decision-making and block common sense efforts to help Americans cut their energy bills”. While the OMB doesn’t outright say Joe Biden would veto them, it’s hard to see the two pieces of legislation making it through the Democratic-led Senate, or even being considered.
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Republicans move to defend gas stoves
The House of Representatives will this week take up two pieces of legislation aimed at blocking new regulations on the use of gas stoves.
On Tuesday, the House is expected to vote on the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act – a measure to prevent the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal regulatory agency, from taking steps to stop the sale of the appliances, including by labeling them as hazardous.
And on Wednesday, representatives will vote on the Save Our Gas Stoves Act, which would bar the Energy Department from finalizing, implementing or enforcing a proposed rule setting efficiency standards for the appliances.
If the House advances the Republican bills, they will likely face opposition from the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Gas stoves have for months been the subject of ire for rightwingers, after a slew of studies showed that the appliances are damaging to the climate and public health. A recent report found that one in eight cases of childhood asthma in the US is due to the pollution given off by cooking on gas stoves – a level of risk similar to that of exposure to secondhand smoke – while an earlier study found that gas stoves each year pump out as much planet-warming pollution as 500,000 carsr.
Late last year, a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission floated the possibility of banning gas stoves, but the agency quickly backtracked to clarify that no ban is currently under consideration. But US cities and counties are considering policies to limit or even phase out the use of the polluting appliances.
Though it has recently become the topic of public concern, researchers and regulators have long suspected that gas stoves are dangerous. In 1973, the Environmental Protection Agency had preliminary evidence that exposure to gas stoves posed respiratory risks, and in 1985 the Consumer Product Safety Commission raised concerns about gas stoves’ nitrogen emissions.
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The murder rate in a number of large US cities has seen a “sharp and broad decline” this year, new research has found, even as the number of mass shootings around the country continues to climb.
My colleague Richard Luscombe writes that statistics compiled by New Orleans-based AH Analytics show a 12.2% drop in murders in 90 US cities to the end of May over the same period last year, although the study notes there are places, such as Memphis and Cleveland, where the murder rate has actually increased.
The report will do little to weaken calls by weapons control advocates and Joe Biden for Congress to pass meaningful gun reforms as the US remains on track for a record number of mass killings in 2023.
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Judge grants request to release names of people who co-signed George Santos bond
A federal judge has granted media requests to release the names of people who co-signed George Santos’s $500,000 bond in his criminal fraud case, according to The Hill.
#BREAKING: A federal judge granted media organizations’ requests to unseal the names of the people who cosigned Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) $500,000 bond in his criminal fraud case. https://t.co/tWlrl0805k
— The Hill (@thehill) June 6, 2023
Santos’s attorney had asked to keep those names secret and Joseph Murray said he feared “for their health, safety and wellbeing”.
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Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna has criticised what he called the Supreme Court’s partisan decision-making, saying it was a “crisis”.
Speaking at the Indian Impact event in Washington, DC, he said: “What we have right now is a court that has lost the legitimacy of the American people.”
Khanna was addressing the rulings on reproductive rights, affirmative action and other issues that the conservative majority has continued to push forward. Asking for term limits and more stringent ethical boundaries, he said the current court included “political hacks” and referenced times in history when presidents like Abraham Lincoln called for supreme court reform.
“We need a mobilization that is much more explicit and harsh in calling out the supreme court,” he said. “We should get rid of the niceties.”
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The day so far
The investigations into Donald Trump grind on, but one may be nearing a conclusion: the inquiry into the classified documents discovered last year at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. His attorneys met with the justice department yesterday, including special counsel Jack Smith, and the former president spent this morning angrily posting on Truth social about the alleged injustice he was facing. House Republicans are rushing to his defense, while also moving forward with a plan to hold FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt for not turning over a document alleging corruption by Joe Biden. The vote on that is set for Thursday.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
US intelligence knew of a Ukrainian plan to blow up the Nord Stream pipeline, though it’s unclear if Kyiv was actually behind its sabotage.
Trump has feuded with Fox News’s straight-news division, but will on 19 June sit down for an interview with them for the first time since his 2020 election defeat.
Federal investigators are looking into a swimming pool that was drained at Mar-a-Lago and into room full of servers containing surveillance footage of the resort, according to a report.
Punchbowl News reports that speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy also supports the push to hold FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt:
NEW — @SpeakerMcCarthy told House Republicans he will support holding FBI Director Chris Wray in contempt if Oversight doesn’t get the documents it has requested.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) June 6, 2023
House GOP pushes forward with plan to hold FBI director in contempt
House Republicans say they plan to vote on holding FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for declining to turn over a document outlining an unverified allegation of corruption against Joe Biden.
As the Associated Press reports, Republican House oversight committee chair James Comer along with GOP senator Chuck Grassley last month said they had heard the FBI possesses a document detailing “an alleged criminal scheme” “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” between a foreign national and Biden when he was vice-president. While Comer and other Republicans have played up the allegation, they haven’t offered any proof to substantiate it.
Comer sent a subpoena to Wray for the document, and on Monday was briefed on it alongside Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee. But Comer said the briefing does not satisfy the demands of the subpoena, and demanded the document be handed over to the committee – something the FBI has resisted, saying it contains sensitive information.
“We will now initiate contempt of Congress hearings this Thursday,” Comer said yesterday.
In a sign that the push has the support of the chamber’s Republican leaders, House majority whip Steve Scalise today elaborated on the reasons for the contempt proceedings at a news conference:
House Majority Leader Scalise defends contempt of Congress hearings against FBI Director Wray, despite FBI showing and explaining the Hunter Biden documents to House Oversight:
— The Recount (@therecount) June 6, 2023
“The FBI are trying to block our ability to exercise our legal right to go look at those documents.” pic.twitter.com/eCN0Li2OUm
Ukraine planned to bomb Nord Stream pipeline - report
Ukraine’s government developed a plan to bomb the Nord Stream pipeline transporting gas from Russia to Germany that was discovered by American intelligence, though it remains unclear if Kyiv was ultimately behind the pipeline’s sabotage last September, the Washington Post reports.
The story, based on documents allegedly posted online by Jack Teixeira, a US Air National Guardsman arrested in April on charges related to leaking a trove of government intelligence, strengthens the case for Ukraine being the perpetrator of the mysterious attack that sent natural gas pouring into the Baltic sea.
Here’s more from the Post’s report:
Three months before saboteurs bombed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the undersea network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Details about the plan, which have not been previously reported, were collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022. They provide some of the most specific evidence to date linking the government of Ukraine to the eventual attack in the Baltic Sea, which U.S. and Western officials have called a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage on Europe’s energy infrastructure.
The European intelligence reporting was shared on the chat platform Discord, allegedly by Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira. The Washington Post obtained a copy from one of Teixeira’s online friends.
The intelligence report was based on information obtained from an individual in Ukraine. The source’s information could not immediately be corroborated, but the CIA shared the report with Germany and other European countries last June, according to multiple officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence operations and diplomatic discussions.
The highly specific details, which include numbers of operatives and methods of attack, show that for nearly a year Western allies had a basis to suspect Kyiv in the sabotage. That assessment has only strengthened in recent months as German law enforcement investigators uncovered evidence about the bombing that bears striking similarities to what the European service said Ukraine was planning.
Trump plans 19 June interview with Fox News journalist
Donald Trump will give an interview to Fox News’s editorial side for the time since his 2020 election defeat on 19 June, the Hill reports.
While the former president has repeatedly spoken to the conservative network’s opinion hosts, including at a town hall hosted by Sean Hannity last week, he has openly feuded with its news division, accusing them of being partial to his 2024 rival, Ron DeSantis. According to the Hill, Trump will sit down with anchor Bret Baier.
“For all the bluster, we are finalizing an interview in the next couple of weeks,” a Fox News source told the Hill. “It’s going to be fair, but it’s not going to be easy.”
Republican Ron DeSantis is campaigning on his record as governor of Florida, including his enactment of the so-called “don’t say gay” bill that prohibits teachers from educating children between kindergarten and third grade on sexual orientation or gender identity. The law is part of a push by conservative states to crack down on LGBTQ+ rights, which as the Guardian’s Amelia Abraham reports has real-life consequences for the people caught up in them:
This month, Lauren Rodriguez will move out of her home in Texas, a state where she has lived for 20 years, to relocate to New Zealand. “People think we are dramatic for leaving, but when you look at what’s happened to my family, we’re not,” she says, amid packing up her life’s belongings. “It has been a total witch-hunt. It takes its toll.”
Six years ago, Rodriguez’s son Grey told her that he was transgender. That first night, she stayed up Googling “what to do when your kid tells you they’re trans”. From there, she took him to get his “first boy haircut” and contacted local LGBTQ+ organizations for advice.
Although she describes the climate against trans people then as less hostile than it has become, the news was not well received by some in their neighborhood. At the extreme, neighbors, a teacher, and even family members reported Rodriguez to the Child Protection Agency (CPS) for helping her son, who was then under 18, access gender affirming medical care. Rodriguez, a social worker, has been on the receiving end of more than 10 complaints to the CPS. All cases were opened, investigated and closed.
Donald Trump isn’t the only 2024 presidential contender facing legal trouble. The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports that Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis may be in hot water over his involvement in flying migrants around the United States:
A Texas sheriff’s office has recommended criminal charges over flights that the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, arranged to deport 49 South American migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, last year.
In a statement on Monday, the Bexar county sheriff’s office said it had filed a criminal case with the local district attorney over the flight. The Bexar county sheriff, Javier Salazar, has previously said the migrants were “lured under false pretenses” into traveling to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy liberal town.
The recommendation comes after the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, threatened DeSantis with kidnapping charges on Monday, after Florida flew a group of people seeking asylum to Sacramento. It was the second time in four days Florida had used taxpayer money to fly asylum seekers to California.
Here’s more from the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell on the meeting yesterday between Donald Trump’s attorneys and Jack Smith – a sign that the special counsel’s investigations into the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago could be wrapping up:
Lawyers for Donald Trump met with top US justice department officials on Monday to complain about perceived misconduct in the criminal investigation into the former US president’s handling of national security materials and obstruction, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The meeting involved Trump lawyers Jim Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsay Halligan speaking with the special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation, and a senior career official to the deputy attorney general, one person said. CBS News first reported the meeting.
Trump’s lawyers made a general case as to why Trump should not be charged in the Mar-a-Lago documents case and suggested that some prosecutors working under special counsel Jack Smith engaged in what they considered prosecutorial misconduct, the people said.
Prosecutors in the classified documents case are homing in on an incident at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in which an attempt to drain a pool ended up flooding a room where servers holding video surveillance logs were kept, CNN reports.
Prosecutors believe the sequence of events surrounding the pool’s draining are suspicious, according to the report, though it does not seemed to have harmed evidence they were seeking.
Here’s more from CNN’s report:
At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources.
The incident, which has not been previously reported, came roughly two months after the FBI retrieved hundreds of classified documents from the Florida residence and as prosecutors obtained surveillance footage to track how White House records were moved around the resort. Prosecutors have been examining any effort to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation after Trump received a subpoena in May 2022 for classified documents.
Prosecutors have heard testimony that the IT equipment in the room was not damaged in the flood, according to one source.
Yet the flooded room as well as conversations and actions by Trump’s employees while the criminal investigation bore down on the club has caught the attention of prosecutors. The circumstances may factor into a possible obstruction conspiracy case, multiple sources tell CNN, as investigators try to determine whether the events of last year around Mar-a-Lago indicate that Trump or a small group of people working for him, took steps to try to interfere with the Justice Department’s evidence-gathering.
Donald Trump’s Republican allies in Congress have clearly also heard the rumblings about the investigation into the former president, because they’ve released a new demand letter to attorney general Merrick Garland for details of the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith.
“We previously requested information and documents related to the FBI’s raid on President Trump’s residence and its subsequent investigation. Because you have not provided this information, and in light of your appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel, we write to request an unredacted copy of the memorandum outlining the scope of Mr. Smith’s probes regarding President Trump and any supporting documentation related to his appointment as special counsel,” Jim Jordan, the chair of the judiciary committee and a close Trump ally, wrote to Garland.
The justice department has previously told Jordan that it’s willing to cooperate with his committee, but won’t reveal details of ongoing investigations.
Trump says investigations are about 'retribution'
Donald Trump is either reading the news or knows something we all don’t because he’s spent the morning on his Truth social network account blasting the ongoing investigations into his conduct.
“They are also going after me as RETRIBUTION for the Republicans in Congress going after them. The difference is, they have created major crimes, I have created none!” he wrote.
He further elaborated on the theme of being treated unfairly, citing the classified documents found at Joe Biden’s properties and also at Mike Pence’s residence:
The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong. Joe Biden kept (keeps) thousand of documents, in many locations, some illegally taken from skiffs while he was a Senator, a big portion of which were classified. He didn’t want to give them back, and still doesn’t. Nothing happens to him, with same reasonable prosecutor who correctly exonerated Mike Pence. I have a much different prosecutor, a Trump hater!
Write it off as the ramblings of a has-been former president if you want, but before you do, take a look at the poll below, which confirms the same trend that’s been present for months and which could ultimately put Trump back in the White House:
NEW: Tracking the 2024 GOP Primary:
— Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) June 6, 2023
Trump: 56%
DeSantis: 22%
Pence: 7%
Haley: 3%
Scott: 3%
Ramaswamy: 3%
Cheney: 2%
Abbott: 1%
Noem: 1%
Hutchinson: 1%
Christie: 1%
Someone Else: 1%
*June 2-4, 2023 https://t.co/zpObC29kvJ pic.twitter.com/vrOuJEuvz2
Prosecutors near charging decision in Trump documents case, new grand jury hears evidence
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Back in November, attorney general Merrick Garland named Jack Smith as special counsel to handle three major investigations into Donald Trump, and signs are emerging that prosecutors will soon conclude one of these. Trump’s attorneys yesterday met with Smith and other justice department officials, the latest indication that prosecutors could soon announce whether they will file charges over the classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Intriguingly, two sources familiar with the matter told the Guardian a new grand jury has been empaneled in Florida – separate from one sitting Washington DC – to hear evidence in the case, and has already heard from one witness. However the documents inquiry is resolved, Smith is also looking into Trump’s involvement in two other major events: the January 6 insurrection, and the attempts to overturn the 2020 election result. If there’s more news about this today, you can find it here.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are meeting with their cabinet at the White House at 2.15pm eastern time.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie will at 6.30pm announce that he, too, is running for the Republican presidential nomination.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faces off with reporters at 1pm.
Updated
