Closing summary
Donald Trump’s legal team was in Atlanta to argue that the charges brought by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis against the former president should be dismissed on first amendment grounds. Other defendants have tried unsuccessfully to make that argument, but Judge Scott McAfee wrapped up the hearing without giving any indication of how he may rule – or, perhaps more importantly, when Trump’s trial will actually start. Speaking of trials, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson sent the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer a letter demanding he get started on homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s impeachment trial as soon as the GOP transmits the charges on 10 April. Schumer’s office said the Senate leader plans to do so, but reports indicate that Democrats are considering voting to dismiss the impeachment articles.
Here’s what else happened:
James Comer, one of the House Republican leaders of the attempt to impeach Joe Biden, invited the president to testify before his committee. Don’t expect him to show up.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he spoke with Johnson about Ukraine aid, though no breakthrough on authorizing more funds was announced.
Progressive groups have written an open letter asking that Trump receive “a prompt and fair trial” in the New York hush-money case.
Biden called New York City mayor Eric Adams to offer condolences on the death of police officer Jonathan Diller. Trump attended his wake.
The Republican National Committee wants to know whether new hires think the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Updated
House Republican impeachment leader Comer invites Joe Biden to testify
James Comer, the Republican House oversight committee chair and one of the leaders of the campaign to impeach Joe Biden, has invited the president to testify at a hearing about his family’s business dealings.
Don’t expect the president to take him up on the offer. When Comer announced last week that he planned to send the invitation, a White House spokesman kept their response succinct: “LOL”.
Indeed, the Republican attempt to bring charges against Biden for alleged corruption appears to be in trouble, in part because they haven’t actually proven their allegations, and also because some in their party don’t support the effort. Comer has reportedly signaled to potential donors that he may settle for making a criminal referral to the justice department, rather than continuing to push for the president’s impeachment.
In a lengthy letter to Biden, Comer proposed that he appear on 16 April:
As the foregoing demonstrates, the Committee has compiled evidence -bank records, contemporaneous electronic communications, and witness testimony - showing your awareness, acquiescence, and participation in self-enrichment schemes of your family members.
As Chairman of the Committee, in addition to requesting that you answer the questions posed in this letter, I invite you to participate in a public hearing at which you will be afforded the opportunity to explain, under oath, your involvement with your family’s sources of income and the means it has used to generate it. As you are aware, presidents before you have provided testimony to congressional committees, including President Ford’s testimony before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee in 1974.
Then there’s the matter of the Senate. Democrats control it by a margin of just one seat, and their best path to maintaining their majority after next year is by getting Joe Biden and two of their senators representing red states re-elected. One of those two is Jon Tester of Montana, where the Guardian’s Kira Lerner reports the state’s highest court today struck down voting restrictions passed by its Republican government:
In a significant win for voting rights, the Montana supreme court on Wednesday struck down four voting restrictions passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature in 2021.
In a 125-page opinion, the state’s highest court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the four laws, passed in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, violate the state constitution. The laws had ended same-day voter registration, removed student ID cards as a permissible form of voter ID, prohibited third parties from returning ballots and barred the distribution of mail-in ballots to voters who would turn 18 by election day.
After a nine-day trial, the lower court found that the laws would make it harder for some state residents to register to vote and cast a ballot.
A spokesperson for the Republican secretary of state, Christi Jacobsen, who appealed the lower court decision in an attempt to get the laws reinstated, said that she was “devastated” by the supreme court decision.
“Her commitment to election integrity will not waver by this narrow adoption of judicial activism that is certain to fall on the wrong side of history,” the spokesperson, Richie Melby, wrote in a statement. “State and county election officials have been punched in the gut.”
Mike Johnson’s time as House speaker may not last long – the Republican majority is small, and Democrats have the opportunity to flip the chamber back to their control in November. But there are lots of variables that will affect whether they are able to do that, including which congressional maps are used in which states. Today in South Carolina, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports that Republicans scored a win in an important redistricting case:
A federal court will allow South Carolina Republicans to use their congressional map for the 2024 election, it said on Thursday, despite an earlier finding that the same plan discriminates against Black voters. The decision is a big win for Republicans, who were aided by the US supreme court’s slow action on the case.
In January 2023, a three-judge panel struck down the state’s first congressional district, which is currently represented by Nancy Mace, a Republican. The judges said legislative Republicans had impermissibly used race when they redrew it after the 2020 census. As part of an effort to make it more solidly Republican, lawmakers removed 30,000 Black voters from the district into a neighboring one. Republicans argued that they moved the voters to achieve partisan ends, which is legal. The district was extremely competitive in 2020, but Mace easily won the redrawn version in 2022.
The ruling is a significant boon to House Republicans, who are trying to keep a razor-thin majority in Congress’s lower chamber this year.
Zelenskiy said he spoke to Republican House speaker Mike Johnson amid ongoing Ukraine aid impasse
In a post on X, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he spoke with Republican House speaker Mike Johnson, who has refused to say whether he will allow a vote on another round of military aid for the country.
Zelenskiy said he updated Johnson about the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine, and continued: “In this situation, quick passage of US aid to Ukraine by Congress is vital. We recognize that there are differing views in the House of Representatives on how to proceed, but the key is to keep the issue of aid to Ukraine as a unifying factor.”
Here’s more:
I spoke with @SpeakerJohnson and thanked him personally, both parties, the American people, and President Biden for their critical support of Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 28, 2024
I briefed Speaker Johnson on the battlefield situation, specifically the…
Updated
Democrats around the US have enjoyed startling electoral successes through campaigning on Republican threats to women’s reproductive rights, just this week even taking a state seat in deep red Alabama.
Marilyn Lands won that race after, in the words of our report, making “Alabama’s abortion ban and access to contraception and in vitro fertilization (IVF) central to her campaign, speaking openly about her own previous abortion experience in a TV ad that featured her saying that it was ‘shameful that today women have fewer freedoms than I had two decades ago’”.
Today, Lucas Kunce, a Missouri Democrat hoping for an upset win over Josh Hawley, a prominent far-right presence in the US Senate, follows suit with a new campaign ad.
In the short ad, headlines (including one from the Guardian) about Hawley’s refusal to back legislation protecting IVF and support for an anti-IVF judge appear on screen as Jessica, described as “a Missouri mother”, says:
After years of trying and disappointment and struggle and health scares, I just had this beautiful baby and I held her and I just like knew I was meant to be her mom. Now there are efforts to ban IVF and Josh Hawley got them started. Josh Hawley has proven that he won’t protect ATF and he would let politicians make me a criminal. I want Josh Hawley to look me in the eye and tell me that I can’t have the child that I deserve.
Kunce said: “Jessica and her family matter. Josh Hawley has built his career on a control-obsessed crusade to outlaw reproductive healthcare. It’s now a threat to IVF and to women in Missouri. We can’t risk giving Hawley’s crusade another six years in the US Senate.
“This race is going to be about freedom. In Missouri, we’re tired of Big Brother elites like Josh Hawley telling us how to live and criminalising our freedoms.”
Hawley’s wife, Erin Hawley, is a prominent lawyer in reproductive rights cases who this week argued before the supreme court that mifepristone, an abortion pill, should be banned.
Here’s more on that case, from Melissa Segura and well worth a lunchtime read:
Pentagon in early talks on assisting post-war Gaza peacekeeping force - report
Officials at the US Department of Defense are having preliminary “conversations” about how to stabilize Gaza with a peacekeeping force when, at some point, the current conflict between the Israeli government and Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian territory, comes to an end, Politico reports.
The US news outlet is reporting that Pentagon chiefs are talking about options, including the possibility that the Pentagon would help fund either “a multinational force or a Palestinian peacekeeping team”.
The report points out that no options include US troops serving on the ground in the Gaza area, citing two Pentagon and other Biden administration officials, who won’t be named by Politico because of the highly-sensitive nature of the discussions.
The outlets suggests any US funding “would go toward the needs of the security force and complement assistance from other countries”.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that the International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to allow unimpeded access of food aid into Gaza, where significant sections of the population are facing imminent starvation, in a significant legal rebuke to Israel’s claim it is not blocking aid deliveries.
Updated
Illinois Democrat Sean Casten’s not holding back about the right-wing majority House impeaching homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and impatiently expecting a trial in the Senate.
“Reminder that MTG [Marjorie Taylor Green], Clay Higgins and Andy Biggs are all named impeachment managers. If you want to make the @HouseGOP look like the clown show it is on national television, this is how you do it,” the congressman posted on X/Twitter.
Reminder that MTG, Clay Higgins and Andy Biggs are all named impeachment managers. If you want to make the @HouseGOP look like the clown show it is on national television, this is how you do it. https://t.co/jeRAtuqjQA
— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) March 28, 2024
Arizona Republican Andy Biggs had also posted, saying Mayorkas was “derelict in his duty” to secure the US-Mexico border.
The House and Senate are on a two week recess at the moment.
Reuters adds that: Federal officials including presidents, who are impeached by the House are subject to a trial in the Senate to determine whether they should be removed from office.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s office issued a statement saying that senators will be sworn in as trial jurors the day after the articles are delivered. However, the Democratic-led chamber is highly unlikely to vote to remove Mayorkas from office.
Some more details and reactions coming through on Republican House speaker Mike Johnson’s demand that the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, schedule the trial of homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “expeditiously” after his impeachment last month. The speaker will transmit the articles of impeachment on April 10.
Together with the 11 House impeachment managers, I sent a letter to Senator Schumer telling him we'll deliver the articles of Secretary Mayorkas’ impeachment to the Senate on April 10th and that he must hold a full trial.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) March 28, 2024
The American people deserve accountability. pic.twitter.com/HHchkcnJO9
Louisiana Republican congressman Clay Higgins getting very “we the people”…
Mayorkas is Impeached by the People’s House.
— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) March 28, 2024
Now, We the People shall see where Senate Democrats stand on accountability… pic.twitter.com/Kv1VMVmENH
And, from the White House:
Here’s what REPUBLICAN Senators have said about this phony Mayorkas impeachment:
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) March 28, 2024
“Waste of time”
“Dead on arrival”
“The worst, dumbest exercise and use of time” https://t.co/82TzwLMv0H
The day so far
Donald Trump’s legal team was in Atlanta to argue that the charges brought by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis against the former president should be dismissed on first amendment grounds. Other defendants have tried unsuccessfully to make that argument, but Judge Scott McAfee wrapped up the hearing without giving any indication of how he may rule – or, perhaps more importantly, when Trump’s trial will actually start. Speaking of trials, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson sent the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer a letter demanding he get started on homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s impeachment trial as soon as the GOP transmits the charges on 10 April. Schumer’s office said the Senate leader plans to do so, but reports indicate that Democrats are considering voting to dismiss the impeachment articles.
Here’s what else is going on:
Progressive groups have written an open letter asking that Trump receive “a prompt and fair trial” in the New York hush money case.
Joe Biden called New York City mayor Eric Adams to offer condolences on the death of police officer Jonathan Diller. Trump plans to attend his wake.
The Republican National Committee wants to know if new hires think the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Updated
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer responded to Mike Johnson’s letter by saying they’d get the ball rolling on the impeachment trial as soon as House Republicans send the charges over.
“As we have said previously, after the House impeachment managers present the articles of impeachment to the Senate, senators will be sworn in as jurors in the trial the next day. Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray will preside,” Schumer’s office said in a statement.
There’s plenty they are not saying, including whether they’ll actually go through with holding the trial, or quickly vote on a motion to dismiss the charges, as Democrats are reportedly considering doing.
Republican House speaker Johnson demands Senate Democrats hold Mayorkas impeachment trial 'expeditiously'
The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has demanded the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer schedule the trial of homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “expeditiously” after his impeachment last month.
“As Speaker and impeachment managers of the US House of Representatives, we write to inform you that we will present to you upon the Senate’s return, on April 10, 2024, the duly passed articles of impeachment regarding Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. We urge you to schedule a trial of the matter expeditiously,” Johnson and the 11 Republican impeachment managers wrote in a letter sent today to Schumer.
They continued:
We call upon you to fulfill your constitutional obligation to hold this trial. The American people demand a secure border, an end to this crisis, and accountability for those responsible. To table articles of impeachment without ever hearing a single argument or reviewing a piece of evidence would be a violation of our constitutional order and an affront to the American people whom we all serve.
House Republicans alleged Mayorkas has mismanaged security on the border with Mexico, but Senate Democrats have shown no interest in removing him from office. They are reportedly considering dismissing the charges without holding a trial, and Schumer has said the allegations were ginned up at the behest of Donald Trump:
This sham impeachment effort is another embarrassment for House Republicans. The one and only reason for this impeachment is for Speaker Johnson to further appease Donald Trump.
House Republicans failed to produce any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed any crime.
House Republicans failed to show he has violated the Constitution.
House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense.
This is a new low for House Republicans.
Congress is currently out of Washington DC, with the Senate and House set to resume on 8 and 9 April, respectively.
Updated
Progressive groups call for Trump to receive 'prompt and fair trial' in New York hush money case
A coalition of progressive groups has released an open letter calling for Donald Trump to receive “a prompt and fair trial” in New York, where he faces charges related to making hush money payments prior to the 2016 election.
Earlier this week, the judge overseeing that case set 15 April as its start date, making it the first of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial. The other three cases remain mired in pre-trial motions and appeals, and it is unclear if verdicts will be reached in any prior to the November presidential election.
“The facts alleged in the indictment recount much more than a sordid soap opera and corporate malfeasance; they also describe conduct that should matter to anyone who cares about democracy, voter information, and meaningful voter choice,” reads the letter, which was signed by 17 groups organized into the Not Above the Law coalition, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, MoveOn and Indivisible.
In New York, Trump stands accused of channeling funds from his business to adult actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in exchange for their silence on extra-martial affairs ahead of the 2016 election. He allegedly described the payments as legal costs, which New York prosecutors say broke the law.
The groups say this amounted to an “instance of election interference” that “might also be understood as an early sign of Trump’s antipathy for voters, which surfaced again in behavior culminating in the January 6th violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.”
They continue:
If the rule of law is to remain meaningful, no one — not even a former president — should be allowed to be above the law, and all the Trump criminal trials must play out. The first of these trials is important. We, the undersigned organizations, stand united in our desire for a prompt and fair trial that goes wherever the facts and the law lead. The undersigned organizations also express our hopes that as the Manhattan trial unfolds, the full context for the charges is made clear and understandable to the American public. Our nation deserves nothing less.
The White House announced that Joe Biden called Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, to offer condolences on the death of Jonathan Diller, a police officer killed on Monday.
“The president offered Mayor Adams, the City of New York, and the New York Police Department his support in the wake of the tragedy,” the White House said.
Donald Trump plans to attend Diller’s wake today. Biden is also heading to the Big Apple, to hold a major fundraiser alongside Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Updated
Arguments in Donald Trump’s attempt to get the charges against him in the Georgia election subversion case dismissed have wrapped up in Atlanta.
Judge Scott McAfee did not offer any hints of how he might rule or, perhaps more crucially, when the trial may kick off. Trump’s indictment in Georgia is one of the four criminal cases he faces, but has been slowed down by pre-trial motions, including the unsuccessful effort to get the prosecutor, Fani Willis, removed from the case.
Here’s a rundown of where we are on all of Trump’s legal matters, both criminal and civil:
Trump lawyer argues for Georgia election interference indictment to be dismissed on free speech grounds
In the ongoing hearing in Atlanta, Steve Sadow, an attorney for Donald Trump, asked judge Scott McAfee to dismiss the charges related to election interference against the former president, saying they were attempting to criminalize speech protected by the first amendment:
Trump attorney Steven Sadow argues for tossing out the Georgia election interference case on First Amendment grounds at a pretrial hearing:
— The Recount (@therecount) March 28, 2024
“The reason why we don't even get to a trial is because it's unconstitutional to force an accused ... to stand trial on protected speech.” pic.twitter.com/tO4NtNBshw
Joe Biden’s campaign has meanwhile launched its own salvo against Donald Trump.
A new video posted on X contrasts Biden’s recent campaigning in swing states with Trump’s struggles on the golf course:
I’ll tell you this: There’s a difference between the two candidates in this election. pic.twitter.com/yGi2LvPkUH
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 28, 2024
Donald Trump is not attending the ongoing hearing in Atlanta in his election subversion case.
The former president will be in New York City to attend the wake of a police officer shot to death earlier this week during a traffic stop, his campaign spokesman Steven Cheung announced in a typically barbed tweet:
President Trump will be honoring the legacy of Officer Diller and paying respects to his family, friends, and the NYPD.
— Steven Cheung (@TheStevenCheung) March 28, 2024
Meanwhile, the Three Stooges—Biden, Obama, and Clinton—will be at a glitzy fundraiser in the city with their elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors.
This post has been corrected to note Trump is attending Diller’s wake, rather than a funeral.
Updated
Judge hears prosecutor, Trump attorney's free speech arguments in Georgia election subversion case
In Atlanta, judge Scott McAfee is now hearing arguments over whether Donald Trump’s indictment for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election should be dismissed on free speech grounds.
Trump’s attorneys have argued that any false statement he made were protected by the first amendment, an argument prosecutors are encouraging the judge to reject.
In the words of Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis, today’s arguments boil down to this:
The real fight here is over whether the state is prosecuting false speech for the sake of punishing falsity ~or~ whether mistruths uttered by Trump were intended to induce criminal acts under Georgia law.
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) March 28, 2024
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, here are two things to watch in today’s hearing as Donald Trump challenges his indictment for trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election:
This is the first hearing since McAfee ruled on the Fani Willis disqualification motion, which defendants have until Monday to appeal.
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) March 28, 2024
It's also the first hearing without special prosecutor Nathan Wade quarterbacking for the DA's office. We'll see who replaces him today
An appeal by defendants of judge Scott McAfee’s ruling allowing Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the case but only if special counsel Nathan Wade quits could further delay Trump and his co-defendants’ trial dates.
Joe Biden hopes to rake it in this evening at a campaign fundraiser alongside Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, his two Democratic predecessors who won re-election. Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly:
Joe Biden will appear onstage with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, his two most recent predecessors as a Democratic president, in New York City on Thursday night, a presidential extravaganza the Biden-election campaign said would raise a “historic” $25m.
Such a haul, which Politico called an “NYC money bomb”, will widen Biden’s lead over Donald Trump in fundraising for the November election.
Amid improving polling for Biden, the two presidential campaigns recently posted February fundraising figures. Federal filings showed Biden nearly $40m up in cash raised, leading the president’s campaign to taunt their rival as “Broke Don”.
Biden’s Thursday night show at Radio City Music Hall in midtown Manhattan will be compered by the actor Mindy Kaling, feature performances by artists including Queen Latifah and Lizzo, and culminate with a three-way presidential conversation moderated by the late-night TV host Stephen Colbert.
Tickets start at $250 but top-ups include $100,000 for a picture with Biden, Obama and Clinton – three men recently ranked by political scientists as the 14th-, seventh- and 12th-greatest presidents of all time. In the same survey, Trump finished 45th and last.
RNC props up baseless 2020 election fraud claims after Trump takeover
Georgia judge Scott McAfee will today weigh whether Donald Trump was just exercising his first amendment rights when he insisted, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen.
Such claims are alive and well at the Republican National Committee, where Trump recently installed several lieutenants in leadership position. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that new employees are being quizzed about their views on fraud in the 2020 election:
A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump did not deny a Washington Post report that said prospective RNC employees are being asked if they believe the 2020 election was stolen, constituting a “litmus test” as the 2024 election approaches.
“Candidates who worked on the frontline in battleground states or are currently in states where fraud allegations have been prevalent were asked about their work experience,” Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for the RNC and Trump, said in a statement.
“We want experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches.”
Trump has pursued his stolen election lie through his conclusive defeat by Biden; his attempts to overturn results in key states; his incitement of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress; his resulting impeachment and acquittal; his attempts to delay or avoid trial on four federal and 10 state criminal charges concerning election subversion; and his surge to a third successive presidential nomination.
Trump lawyers to argue for dismissal of Georgia election subversion case on free speech grounds
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today in Georgia, Donald Trump’s legal team will argue that the case brought against him by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis for allegedly trying to overturn the state’s 2020 election result should be dismissed on first amendment grounds, CNN reports. The hearing in Atlanta will be the first held since judge Scott McAfee ruled Willis could continue handling the case, but only if special prosecutor Nathan Wade quit, which he did. For Trump, the odds are not looking particularly good: two of his 18 co-defendants have made similar claims that they were merely exercising their free speech rights when claiming, without evidence, that the 2020 election was marred by fraud, but McAfee rejected their arguments.
Today’s hearing nonetheless represents a return to sorting out the actual merits of Willis’s case, which was delayed for weeks after defense attorneys alleged she had created a conflict of interest by hiring Wade, a romantic partner. The Georgia case is one of four criminal indictments against Trump, but still has no trial date – a crucial element to sort out, considering that a conviction could upend the 2024 presidential race.
Here’s what else we are watching today:
Joe Biden this evening will head to a New York City campaign fundraiser where he is reportedly expecting to rake in a mammoth $25m, thanks to a little help from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, both of whom will be there.
Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was briefly a presidential candidate, said he would not pursue a third-party presidential bid, leaving No Labels’s much-worried-over ticket empty once again.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will see what reporters want to know, sometime after 11.40am ET.
