Obstruction emerges as key focus in Trump documents probe
The Justice Department has released its first image of documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The photo shows papers strewn across a floor with markers bearing the reading “secret” and “top secret” on classified documents – and one document’s heading indicates that the contents refer to human source intelligence.
Mr Trump has accused the department of staging the photo.
“Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see,” he wrote on Truth Social this morning. “Thought they wanted them kept Secret? Lucky I Declassified!”
The documents in the picture are in fact mostly obscured except for their cover pages. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr Trump declassified the documents, and it is not clear he would have had the authority to do so.
Any resulting potential charges will likely not be known until after the midterm elections due to DoJ policy, reports say.
The ex-president is planning a speech to supporters in Pennsylvania this weekend. Predicting it will be “BIG”, he told his followers: “Crowds already forming. Much, Much, Much to say. Don’t miss it!
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Palin defeat in Alaska and Kansas abortion vote show 2022 midterms will be Roe election
Democratic candidate Mary Peltola’s victory against former governor Sarah Palin in the special election to fill Alaska’s sole congressional seat would be a political earthquake on its own given the fact a Democrat has not won that seat since 1972, writes Eric Garcia.
Palin defeat and Kansas abortion vote show 2022 will be Roe election
Turns out Joe Biden was right when he said ‘Roe is on the ballot’, writes Eric Garcia
Graeme Massie1 September 2022 03:04
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Ann Coulter declares ‘Trump is done’
Right-wing media commenter Ann Coulter was once a huge fan of former President Donald Trump, going so far as to publish a book titled In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! detailing all the reasons she loved for former celebrity gameshow host.
But she has cooled in recent years, turning on her former favourite and instead launching a criticism campaign as his power has waned.
Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter declares ‘Trump is done’ in new podcast
Ms Coulter went from writing a gushing book about the president to calling him a ‘lazy ignoramous’
Graeme Massie1 September 2022 02:55
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Trump legal team says classified records ‘no cause for alarm’ in bizarre filing
Attorneys for former president Donald Trump on Wednesday told a federal judge that the presence of highly classified records at the ex-president’s Palm Beach, Florida social club and residence “should have never been cause for alarm” because such records should be expected to be found among presidential records.
The ex-president’s lawyers’ assertion, which flies in the face of every regulation and law concerning the care and handling of national defence information, came in a court filing made in response to the Department of Justice’s arguments against the appointment of a third-party special master to review the hundreds of documents seized from Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property during an 8 August search.
Andrew Feinberg has the story.
Graeme Massie1 September 2022 02:42
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Karl Rove tells Fox News that Trump wasn’t allowed to take papers from White House: ‘It’s verboten’
Former George W Bush administration adviser Karl Rove tore into Donald Trump on Wednesday for taking sensitive White House documents to Mar-a-Lago, saying the former president had “no right to do so” under the law.
“Let’s be clear on this. None of these government documents are his to have taken,” Mr Rove said, interrupting a host on Fox News who referred to some of the documents in question as belonging to Mr Trump.
Josh Marcus has the details.
Karl Rove tells Fox News that Trump wasn’t allowed to take papers: ‘It’s verboten’
Former Bush administration official said ex-president can’t claim documents are his
Graeme Massie1 September 2022 02:29
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Top takeaways from the DOJ’s most recent Mar-a-Lago documents court filing
A late-night court filing from the Department of Justice revealed yet more of the evidence the government could bring in a case against former president Donald Trump for taking hundreds of documents containing sensitive national defence information home with him and keeping them more than a year after his time in the White House had ended.
In the 36-page filing submitted just before midnight on Tuesday in response to Mr Trump’s demand for the appointment of a third-party special master to review documents seized during the 8 August search of his Palm Beach, Florida home and office, prosecutors argued that Mr Trump “lacks standing to seek judicial relief or oversight as to Presidential records because those records do not belong to him”.
Andrew Feinberg reviewed the filing for The Independent.
Top takeaways from the DOJ’s most recent filing in the Mar-a-Lago documents probe
A Tuesday court filing by the Department of Justice shows former president Donald Trump and his legal team facing significant peril
Oliver O’Connell1 September 2022 02:00
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Trump lawyer complains Justice Department investigation is for ‘mundane’ offences like ‘espionage’
An attorney for Donald Trump appeared to dismiss the US Department of Justice investigation into the former president’s alleged mishandling of sensitive government documents as “mundane” crimes such as “espionage” and “obstruction”.
A damning 36-page filing from federal prosecutors on 30 August alleges that Mr Trump and his team “likely concealed and removed” documents in an effort to “obstruct” the government’s probe into whether the former president hoarded classified documents at his Florida compound after he left the White House in January 2021.
Alex Woodward has the story.
Trump lawyer dismisses DOJ probe for ‘mundane’ offences like ‘espionage’
Alina Habba also submitted court filings claiming she performed ‘comprehensive search’ of Mar-a-Lago for separate New York case
Graeme Massie1 September 2022 01:46
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Eastman advised to plead the Fifth in Georgia probe
Lawyers for John Eastman, a lead architect of some of Donald Trump’s efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election, said Wednesday they advised their client to assert attorney-client privilege and invoke his constitutional right to remain silent when testifying before a special grand jury investigating possible illegal election interference in Georgia.
Lawyers: Eastman advised to plead the Fifth in Georgia probe
Lawyers for John Eastman say they advised their client to assert attorney-client privilege and invoke his constitutional right to remain silent when testifying before a special grand jury investigating possible election interference in Georgia
Oliver O’Connell1 September 2022 01:15
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Democrat Mary Peltola defeats Sarah Palin to become first Native Alaskan woman to win congressional race
Former state legislator Mary Peltola beat former governor Republican governor Sarah Palin to become the first Democrat to represent Alaska in Congress in almost fifty years.
Ms Peltola, a former state representative whose mother was Yup’ik, will also be the first Native Alaskan to represent the state since it formally joined the union as a state in 1959.
Eric Garcia has the story.
Mary Peltola beats Sarah Palin to become the first Native Alaskan congresswoman
Controversial former vice-presidential candidate’s bid to return to frontline politics dramatically falls short
Graeme Massie1 September 2022 01:11
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Trump accuses FBI of staging photo of secret documents on floor of Mar-a-Lago: ‘They dropped them not me’
DonaldTrumphas accused the FBI of staging a photo of secret documents on the floor of his Mar-a-Lagohome insisting, “They dropped them not me.”
The first image of documents seized by agents during the 8 August raid of Mr Trump’s luxurious Florida estate was released as part of a court late-night filing by the Justice Department.
Trump accuses FBI of staging photo of secret documents on floor of Mar-a-Lago
‘They took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet, making it look like a big ‘find’ for them’
Graeme Massie1 September 2022 00:51
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Results expected in special election for lone Alaska House seat
State elections officials plan to release results Wednesday of the special election for Alaska’s only US House seat, with Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Mary Peltola vying to become the first woman to hold the seat.
The results are expected 15 days after the Aug. 16 election, in line with a deadline for state elections officials to receive absentee ballots mailed from outside the US This is the first statewide race in Alaska in which ranked choice voting was used. Ranked voting is among a suite of elections changes approved by voters in 2020 that also included replacing party primaries with open primaries.
Special election results expected for lone Alaska House seat
State elections officials plan to release results Wednesday of the special election for Alaska’s only U.S. House seat, with Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Mary Peltola vying to become the first woman to hold the seat
Oliver O’Connell1 September 2022 00:30
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