That is all for today’s Guardian politics live blog. Here’s what’s happened so far:
Joe Biden met with leaders from South Korea and Japan at Camp David. The trio discussed their ongoing cooperation. Biden says he believes the trilateral summit marks a new era of partnership between the US, Japan and South Korea, which he says are “capable and indispensable” allies.
According to a report from CNN, Kenneth Chesebro, one of the alleged legal architects of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, was in the crowd outside the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 and spent part of that day closely following the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Miami’s Republican mayor and GOP presidential candidate Francis Suarez has claimed that he has reached the polling and fundraising threshold needed to qualify for the GOP presidential debate set to take place next week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Associated Press reports.
Matt Gaetz introduced a resolution to censure the judge overseeing the federal trial into Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In a statement, Gaetz, a Republican congressman from Florida, accused US district judge Tanya Chutkan of “showing open bias and partisanship in her official duties on the bench”.
Updated
Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of defense, has released a statement following Biden’s summit with leaders from South Korea and Japan at Camp David.
Today’s summit reaffirmed that cooperation among our three countries delivers security and prosperity for our people, the Indo-Pacific region, and the world … Our leaders have charted an ambitious course for our mutual defense and for the security of our people, and I look forward to continued cooperation with Minister Hamada and Minister Lee as our teams work to implement these initiatives moving forward,” Austin said in a statement.
Read the entirety of the defense secretary’s statement here.
Updated
Biden: summit 'not about China'
Biden says Friday’s summit “was not about China”. He says:
That was not the purpose of the meeting. But obviously China did come up.
That is not to say we don’t share concerns about the economic coercion or heightened tensions caused by China.
But this summit was really about our relationship with each other and deepening cooperation across the entire range of issues that went well beyond just the immediate.
Updated
Prime minister Kishida says the three leaders made progress in the area of export controls during Friday’s summit at Camp David.
Kishida did not give details, but Japan lifted export curbs on hi-tech materials to South Korea in March, according to Reuters.
President Yoon says the three leaders believe that “togeher we can make a contribution to freedom and peace” amid the threat from the DPRK and across the world.
Our interests are well aligned with the universal interests of the members of the global community.
The trilateral agreement made during Friday’s summit provides a framework of cooperation where the three countries will work together on global supply chain resilience, global financial market stability, and cooperation in the frontier technology sectors and science, he says.
Biden says Trump foreign policy 'made us weaker'
Biden says there is “not much of anything” that he agrees with his predecessor, Donald Trump, on foreign policy. Trump’s American First policy “made us weaker, not stronger’, Biden says.
He says today’s summit is unprecedented because the three countries are launching a series of initiatives that are institutional changes that tackle security, economic, technology, development cooperation.
Updated
Asked for his reaction to the special counsel appointment in the investigation into his son, Hunter Biden, President Biden declines to comment.
Biden says:
I have no comment on any investigation that’s going on. That’s up to the Justice Department. That’s all I have to say.
Kishida says international order 'shaken from its foundation' by Russia-Ukraine war
Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida says that the “international order is shaken from its foundation”, citing Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, nuclear and missile threats from North Korea and the “unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force in the east and South China Seas”.
The three leaders have gathered today "to declare our determination to pioneer a new area” of Japan-US-South Korea partnership, he says.
We will consider the Camp David principles issued today as a historic turning point for the international community to be a new compass for trilateral cooperation.
Updated
Yoon says leaders consulted on how to respond to North Korea nuclear threat
Yoon says the leaders consulted on how to improve joint response capabilities to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat, which he describes as having become “more sophisticated than ever”.
He says real time sharing of DPRK missile warning data between the three countries will be activated this year, which will mean significant progress in strengthening the capacity to detect and track North Korea’s missiles.
Yoon adds that the three countries “oppose any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force” and agree on a “respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, the peaceful settlement of disputes”.
Updated
President Yoon of South Korea also notes the historical significance of Camp David “where important diplomatic decisions were made at critical junctures of modern history”.
He says the three leaders today agreed on principles that will function as guidelines for the countries’ trilateral cooperation “to bolster the rules-based international order and play key roles to enhance regional security and prosperity based on our shared values of freedom, human rights and rule of law”.
He says that in addition to holding regular trilateral summits, they agreed to have government personnel at all levels – including foreign ministers, defense ministers and national security advisers – meet every year.
Updated
Biden ends his speech by saying that Camp David is a fitting location to begin this new era of partnership between the US, Japan and South Korea, as it has “long symbolized the power of new beginnings and new possibilities”.
In the months and years ahead, we’re going to continue to seize those possibilities together, unwavering in our unity and unmatched in our resolve.
This is not about a day a week or month. This is about decades and decades of relationships that we’re building.
US, Japan and South Korea to double down on joint defense against threats
Biden says the US, Japan and South Korea will bring their trilateral defence cooperation to “unprecedented levels”.
We’re doubling down on information sharing, including on the DPRK missile launches and cyber activities, strengthen our ballistic missile defence cooperation, and critically, we’ve all committed to swiftly consult with each other in response to threats to any one of our countries from whatever source that occurs.
The leaders will have a “hotline” to share information and coordinate responses in the event of a crisis in the region, he says.
They also reaffirmed “our shared commitment to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits”, he says.
Together, we’re going to stand up for international law, freedom of navigation and a peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea.
They also committed to launch a “supply chain early warning system” that will alert nations to disruptions of certain products and materials, Biden says.
Updated
Biden kicks off press conference hailing 'historic moment'
President Joe Biden begins the joint press conference by describing his talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as a “great, great meeting” and a “historic moment”.
Biden says he believes the trilateral summit marks a new era of partnership between the US, Japan and South Korea, which he says are “capable and indispensable’” allies.
The US’ commitment to Japan and South Korea is “ironclad”, he says, hailing the countries’ commitment “to meet together on the leader level annually”.
Biden says:
I want to recognize the important work that both of you have done and the political courage that you both demonstrated to resolve difficult issues that would have stood in the way for a long time and the close relationship between Japan and Korea and with the United States.
The world “stands at an inflection point”, he says, adding that he is proud that the three countries are answering a call to lead.
Updated
The White House has released a joint statement of Japan, South Korea and the United States after a trilateral summit at Camp David focused on strengthening security and economic ties between the three countries.
The leaders of the three countries convened to “inaugurate a new era of trilateral partnership” at a time of “a hinge point of history” that requires unity and coordinated action, the statement reads.
Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States are determined to align our collective efforts because we believe our trilateral partnership advances the security and prosperity of all our people, the region, and the world.
The leaders committed to strengthen their economies, bolster regional and global peace and security, and enhance strategic coordination in order to ensure that the Indo-Pacific region “is thriving, connected, resilient, stable, and secure”, it continued.
The statement says the leaders “share concerns” about actions “inconsistent with the rules-based international order”.
South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol said a trilateral partnership with the US and Japan “is opening a new chapter, which carries great significance”.
The three countries “must tighten our solidarity” in order to face “challenges that threaten regional security”, Yoon added.
Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, in his opening remarks at the summit, said that the fact that the three leaders got together “means that we are indeed making a new history as of today”. He added:
I wish to expand and deepen our collaboration in extensive areas, including economic security, such as critical and emergent technology, cooperation, and supply chains resilience.
Updated
President Joe Biden welcomed his counterparts from Japan and South Korea to Camp David earlier today as he opened a historic trilateral summit focused on strengthening security and economic ties at a time of increasing concerns about an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.
“Strengthening the ties between our democracies has long been a priority for me,” Biden said in opening remarks to Japanese prime minister Kishida Fumio and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea.
Our countries are stronger and the world will be safer as we stand together. And I know this is a belief we all three share.
Biden to hold joint press conference with leaders of South Korea and Japan
President Joe Biden is scheduled to hold a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japan’s prime minister, Kishida Fumio, at 3pm Eastern time.
The trilateral summit marks the first time Biden has invited foreign leaders to Camp David, and comes as the three countries look to tighten security and economic ties amid increasing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear threats and China’s provocations in the Pacific.
Updated
Kenneth Chesebro, one of the alleged legal architects of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, was in the crowd outside the US Capitol on January 6 2021 and spent part of that day closely following the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, according to a CNN report.
Photographs and videos suggest Chesebro recording Jones with his phone as the far-right broadcast agitator ascended to the restricted area of the Capitol grounds where pro-Trump activists eventually broke in.
There is no indication Chesebro entered the Capitol building or was violent, but the photographs and videos place him outside the building at the same time as his alleged plot to keep Trump in office unraveled inside it.
Jared Holt, a disinformation and extremism expert, told CNN:
Even if Chesebro is simply a diehard Infowars fan, I think that would further illustrate how thin the line was between the serious, credentialed people who sought to undermine election results and the extremist figures who sought to unleash havoc was in that period, to the extent it meaningfully existed at all.
Matt Gaetz introduces resolution to censure judge in Trump's January 6 case
The Republican Florida congressman Matt Gaetz introduced a resolution to censure the judge overseeing the federal trial into Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
In a statement, Gaetz accused US district judge Tanya Chutkan of “showing open bias and partisanship in her official duties on the bench”.
“It is deeply concerning that a United States District Court judge would exhibit such blatant political bias from the bench,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter.
Judge Tanya Chutkan’s extreme sentencing of January 6th defendants, while openly supporting the violent Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, showcases a complete disregard for her duty of impartiality and the rule of law.
It is deeply concerning that a United States District Court judge would exhibit such blatant political bias from the bench. Judge Tanya Chutkan’s extreme sentencing of January 6th defendants, while openly supporting the violent Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, showcases a… pic.twitter.com/JzLKrU6Ryh
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) August 18, 2023
Here’s more on the NYT report that says Donald Trump plans to skip next week’s GOP primary debate and sit for an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson instead.
Trump has told people close to him that he has made up his mind about skipping the debate, the report says, citing sources.
For weeks, the former president has been quizzing aides, associates and rally crowds about what he should do. Until earlier this week, Mr. Trump had been giving people the impression he was considering a last-minute surprise appearance on Wednesday.
Still, people close to him had said for months that he was unlikely to take part in the first two Republican debates, both of which are sponsored by the Republican National Committee. And Mr. Trump’s apparent decision to skip the first debate of the presidential nominating contest is a major affront to both the R.N.C. and Fox News, which is hosting the event.
New York Republican representative George Santos continues to defend his resume despite being charged 13 counts of frauds, money laundering and theft of public funds.
Santos, whose resume has been shown to be mostly fabricated, doubled down on his resume on Fox 5, saying:
“A lot of people have those insecurities. Actually, studies point that most people lie on their resumes ...”
In response, Fox 5’s Rosanna Scotto said, “Yeah, but you lied about everything,” to which Santos said, “Not true.”
Rep. George Santos (R-NY): “A lot of people have those insecurities. Actually, studies point that most people lie on their resumes ...”
— The Recount (@therecount) August 18, 2023
Fox 5's Rosanna Scotto: “Yeah, but you lied about everything.”
Santos: “Not true.”
Scotto: “You lied about your mom.” pic.twitter.com/GQJq3KhPic
Donald Trump to skip GOP debate - reports
Donald Trump plans to skip the Republican primary debate next Wednesday for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the New York Times reports.
According to sources speaking to the Times, Trump told those close to him that he has decided to skip the first primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Earlier this week, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, “Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?”
The Times reports that the timing of the online interview with Carlson remains unclear.
Miami’s Republican mayor and GOP presidential candidate Francis Suarez has claimed that he has qualified for the GOP presidential debate set to take place next week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Associated Press reports.
In order to participate in the debates, candidates are required to meet certain fundraising and polling thresholds, including at least 1% in three high-quality national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls and a minimum of 40,000 donors, with 200 in 20 or more states.
However, according to senior advisers with the Republican National Committee who spoke to the AP, Suarez, who has emerged as a fierce critic of Florida governor and opponent Ron DeSantis, has not yet officially met the criteria.
Speaking to the AP about DeSantis, Suarez said, “You’ve got to be able to create coalitions and you’ve got to bring people together. The country’s broken divided, How are you going to unify the country? And I don’t think he’s displaying those characteristics.”
The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe is at Miami’s Cafe Versailles where Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie is attempting to win over Cuban-American voters.
Despite Christie being a vocal critic of Donald Trump – the GOP’s leading candidate, he told Fox News that he is “uncomfortable” with the “unnecessary” indictment delivered by Georgia’s Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis against Trump and 18 co-defendants.
“I think that this conduct is essentially covered by the federal indictment… I would have less of a problem with this if she decided, ‘OK, I’m not going to charge Donald Trump here, because he has been charged for, essentially this conduct, by Jack Smith,’” Christie told Fox.
Chris Christie attempts to win over Cuban-American voters during his obligatory campaign stopover at Miami’s #cafeversailles. So far there are way more media than customers pic.twitter.com/UAQ4VuoH3s
— Richard Luscombe (@richlusc) August 18, 2023
Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department official who was charged alongside Donald Trump in a sweeping racketeering case in Georgia, asked a judge on Thursday to reject Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis’ proposed March 2024 trial date.
Clarks attorney, Harry MacDougald, called Willis’ proposed schedule “highly premature”, adding that it “could be interpreted as an attempt to stake out a place at the head of the line of prosecutors seeking the ‘prize’ of trying the former President before the 2024 presidential election.”
MacDougald wrote:
To our knowledge, not one of the 19 defendants named in the indictment has been served with any warrant, taken into custody, had a first appearance, or been arraigned, or waived arraignment.
Clark has been charged with one count of violating Georgia’s racketeering law and one count of criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings. He has denied wrongdoing.
Seeking to resurrect his flagging US presidential campaign, Ron DeSantis suffered a major embarrassment when memos about his preparation for the first Republican debate were reported by the New York Times.
Including advice not to attack the clear frontrunner, Donald Trump, the memos to the rightwing Florida governor ahead of the debate in Milwaukee next Wednesday were posted online by a consulting firm owned by Jeff Roe, chief strategist to Never Back Down, a Super Pac backing DeSantis.
Such documents are often published quietly, the Times said, to satisfy laws against such fundraising committees co-ordinating with candidates in private. In this case, someone tipped off the paper.
“There are four basic must-dos,” one memo advised:
Attack Joe Biden and the media 3-5 times.
State [DeSantis’s] positive vision 2-3 times.
Hammer Vivek Ramaswamy in a response.
Defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack.
DeSantis has long held second place in polling but in recent months, even as Trump has been hit with four indictments containing 91 criminal charges, the governor has slipped further and further behind.
DeSantis’s hold on second place is now threatened by Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur. Advice lines publicised by the Times included the suggestion DeSantis should attack Ramaswamy on his past stances on abortion, immigration and Covid.
“Take a sledgehammer to Vivek Ramaswamy,” the memo said, advising DeSantis to coin a Trump-style nickname: “‘Fake Vivek’ Or ‘Vivek the Fake.’”
At a briefing this morning, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Ukrainian pilot training on F-16s will be followed by a transfer of jets to the country.
Sullivan’s comments came after Denmark and the Netherlands said the US had cleared the way to allow F-16 fighters to be re-exported to Ukraine after some of its pilots are trained to fly them.
What we did this week is formalised through a letter from Secretary Blinken to his counterparts in Europe, that upon the completion of that training, the United States would be prepared in consultation with Congress to approve third party transfer of F 16 aircraft to Ukraine.
For more updates from the Russia-Ukraine war, please follow our live blog.
Biden welcomes South Korean president and Japanese PM to Camp David
President Biden was photographed with South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol to his left and Fumio Kishida to his right after welcoming the two leaders to Camp David.
Updated
US officials are confident that its two main allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, share Washington’s view on most global issues, although a joint statement is expected to stop short of directly referring to China to reflect South Korean reservations about openly criticising Beijing.
“Japan and South Korea are core allies – not just in the region, but around the world,” the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said this week, adding that Biden’s summit would “mark what we believe is a new era in trilateral cooperation”.
Blinken said he expected a continued focus on North Korea “given the endless provocation it’s taken” but added that the meeting would address a “much more expansive agenda”.
China has denounced the summit, saying it “opposes relevant countries forming various cliques and their practices of exacerbating confrontation and jeopardising other countries’ strategic security.”
Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said this week:
We hope the countries concerned will go with the trend of the times and do something conducive to regional peace, stability and prosperity.
A standalone summit bringing together the leaders of Japan and South Korea would have been almost unthinkable just over a year ago, when the north-east Asian neighbours were embroiled in disputes over their bitter wartime legacy.
Bilateral ties were at a low point before the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, took office in May 2022, due to compensation claims by Koreans over Japan’s use of forced labour during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, and the longstanding controversy over Korean women who were coerced into working in Japanese military brothels.
Yoon, a conservative, and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, appear to have resolved the forced labour dispute and established a warm relationship that has included a joint visit to a memorial to Korean victims of the Hiroshima atomic bombing when the city hosted the G7 summit in May.
This week, Yoon described Japan as a “partner” with shared values and interests, as his county marked the 78th anniversary of its liberation from 35 years of Japanese colonial rule.
The thaw in ties has been greeted with relief in Washington as it attempts to present a united regional front against Chinese military activity near Taiwan and North Korea’s development of more powerful weapons of mass destruction in defiance of UN-led sanctions.
Updated
“Suffice it to say, this is a big deal,” National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Friday shortly before the formal start of the daylong summit.
It is a historic event, and it sets the conditions for a more peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and a stronger and more secure United States of America.
Friday’s summit will be the first time Joe Biden has used Camp David to host international leaders.
Biden to host historic summit with Japan and South Korea
Joe Biden will welcome his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, to Camp David for the first-ever trilateral summit with the three countries amid a recent thaw in ties between Japan and Korea.
The US has promised to usher in a “new era” in relations with its most important allies in Asia, as the region struggles to address the threat posed by an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Washington’s ties with Tokyo and Seoul are “stronger than they have been at any point in modern memory”, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a Friday briefing, as he confirmed the US will announce “significant steps to enhance trilateral security cooperation” including new collaborations on missile defence and technology when the three leaders meet for their first standalone summit.
The leaders are also expected to detail plans to invest in technology for a three-way crisis hotline and offer an update on the progress the countries have made in sharing early-warning data on missile launches.
Kishida, before departing Tokyo for Washington on Thursday, called the summit a “historic occasion to bolster trilateral strategic cooperation based on our stronger-than-ever bilateral relations with the United States and South Korea”.
The US justice department is seeking 33 years in prison for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the attack on the US Capitol to block the transfer of presidential power in the hopes of keeping Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election, according to court documents.
The sentence, if imposed, would be by far the longest punishment that has been handed down in the massive prosecution of the riot on 6 January 2021. The Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in a separate case, has received the longest sentence to date – 18 years.
Tarrio, who was not at the Capitol riot itself, was a top target of what has become the largest justice department investigation in American history. He led the neo-fascist group – known for street fights with leftwing activists – when Trump infamously told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first election debate with Democrat Joe Biden.
During the months-long trial, prosecutors argued that the Proud Boys viewed themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Trump as the Republican spread lies that Democrats stole the election from him, and were prepared to go to war to keep their preferred leader in power.
“They unleashed a force on the Capitol that was calculated to exert their political will on elected officials by force and to undo the results of a democratic election,” prosecutors wrote in their filing on Thursday.
The foot soldiers of the right aimed to keep their leader in power. They failed. They are not heroes; they are criminals.
Federal judge rejects Trump's appeal in E Jean Carroll case
A judge declared Donald Trump had filed a “frivolous” appeal from his decision not to dismiss the first of writer E Jean Carroll’s two defamation lawsuits against him.
US district judge Lewis Kaplan criticized the former president’s “delay” tactics, writing in a 17-page ruling:
This case was largely stalled for years due in large part to Mr Trump’s repeated efforts to delay, which are chronicled in the Court’s prior decisions.
Updated
Trump cancels press conference he claimed would 'exonerate' him in Georgia election case
Donald Trump said he had canceled a press conference scheduled for next week in which he claimed he would release a report containing new “evidence” of fraud in the state of Georgia during the 2020 presidential election.
The former president, who was charged in Georgia last week with conspiring to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, said on Thursday that his lawyers would prefer putting his allegations in court filings instead.
Trump, posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, wrote:
Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings.
Trump had claimed on Tuesday that he would publish a 100-page report at the event, which was due to be held on Monday in Bedminister, New Jersey, that would exonerate him.
No compelling evidence of wide-scale fraud has emerged in the two-and-a-half years since the election in Georgia or elsewhere, despite Trump’s baseless claims.
Donald Trump case tracker: where does each investigation stand?
Twice impeached and now indicted in four cases: Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida, Washington and Georgia over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is also confronting a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of the writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages.
New: Trump appears to have landed on April 2026 as a trial date for 2020 election subversion case based on the “median time” it has taken for other 18 USC 371 cases (conspiracy to defraud) pic.twitter.com/sfULgTRp7m
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 17, 2023
Trump seeks to delay January 6 trial to after 2024 election
Lawyers for Donald Trump asked the judge overseeing his federal election interference trial to push back the start date to April 2026, nearly 18 months after the next presidential election.
The lawyers filed the request to US district court judge Tanya Chutkan, after Trump was indicted earlier this month on charges that he conspired to defraud the United States, conspired to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructed an official proceeding and engaged in a conspiracy against rights.
Federal prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith had proposed to schedule the trial for the start of January 2024, saying there was a significant public interest in expediting the prosecution.
“A January 2 trial date would vindicate the public’s strong interest in a speedy trial,” prosecutors wrote.
It is difficult to imagine a public interest stronger than the one in this case in which the defendant – the former president of the United States – is charged with three criminal conspiracies.
In their court filing on Thursday, Trump’s attorneys argued a years-long delay was necessary due to the “massive” amount of information they will have to review and because of scheduling conflicts with the other criminal cases Trump is facing.
If we were to print and stack 11.5 million pages of documents, with no gap between pages, at 200 pages per inch, the result would be a tower of paper stretching nearly 5,000 feet into the sky. That is taller than the Washington Monument, stacked on top of itself eight times, with nearly a million pages to spare.
Updated
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Lawyers for former president Donald Trump asked the judge presiding over his federal 2020 election interference case to schedule his trial for April 2026 – more than two and a half years from now.
In a 16-page filing on Thursday, the lawyers argued that putting Trump on trial this coming January – as federal prosecutors have requested – would mark a “rush to trial” that would violate his constitutional rights and be “flatly impossible” given the extraordinary volume of discovery evidence they will have to sort through. Trump’s lawyers wrote:
The government’s objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial.
Special counsel Jack Smith is expected to oppose the April 2026 start date, which would put the trial long after the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination. US district court judge Tanya Chutkan has said she wants to set a trial date at her next scheduled hearing on 28 August.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden will welcome his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, to Camp David today for the first-ever trilateral summit with the three countries, as the US hopes to cement ties with its two most important allies in Asia amid an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Washington’s ties with Tokyo and Seoul are “stronger than they have been at any point in modern memory”, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a Friday briefing, as he confirmed the US will announce “significant steps to enhance trilateral security cooperation” including new collaborations on missile defence and technology when the three leaders meet for their first standalone summit.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
11am: Joe Biden will welcome the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, to Camp David for a trilateral summit.
3pm: Biden, Yoon and Kishida will hold a joint press conference.
6pm: Biden will leave Camp David for Andrews, where he will fly to Reno
The House and Senate are out.
Updated
