Key events
The last-minute legal challenge by Donald Trump’s lawyers takes aim at the judge overseeing the civil fraud suit – Manhattan supreme court Justice Arthur Engoron.
Thursday’s court filing claims Engoron and New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, are both acting to defy appellate orders that could narrow James’ $250m lawsuit, the Daily Beast reported.
The lawsuit against Engoron, filed under a provision of state law known as Article 78, is the former president’s latest attack on judges presiding over his many legal cases.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers sought to disqualify another judge involved in a case against him: US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing his 2020 election subversion case. The former president’s legal team argued her previous public comments about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying.
Trump has also sought to remove the judge in his New York criminal trial. The former president’s lawyers argued Judge Juan Manuel Merchan should step aside because of what they say is bias and a conflict of interest arising from his daughter’s work for leading Democrats.
Trump’s New York fraud trial in limbo after last-minute legal challenge
A New York state appeals court judge put the civil fraud trial involving the New York attorney general’s office and Donald Trump and his company on temporary hold after a last-minute legal challenge by the former president’s legal team.
Justice David Friedman, a judge on the state’s intermediate appellate court, ordered a potential postponement of the non-jury trial, which had been scheduled to start on 2 October. The judge granted an interim stay of the trial and ordered the full appeals court to consider the lawsuit on an expedited basis.
The order came after an emergency request by lawyers for Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization, who accused the trial judge, Arthur Engoron, of repeatedly abusing his authority. The news was first reported by the Daily Beast. Trump lawyers cited Engoron’s “terse” refusal to grant their recent request for a three-week trial delay on the basis that it was “completely without merit”.
The full appeals court indicated it would issue a decision the week of 25 September – a week before the $250m fraud trial is set to go on trial.
The civil trial stems from a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who has accused Trump, his business and members of his family of fraudulently overvaluing their assets by billions of dollars.
In a statement, James said:
We are confident in our case and will be ready for trial.
Trump has denied wrongdoing.
Here’s our video report on Friday’s auto workers strike – the first one in the 88-year history of the United Auto Workers union (UAW).
About 13,000 workers have launched a series of strikes after their union failed to reach agreement with the US’s three largest manufacturers – Ford, General Motors, Stellantis – over a new contract.
Auto workers strike after contract talks with US car giants fail
About 13,000 auto workers launched a series of strikes after their union failed to reach agreement with the US’s three largest manufacturers over a new contract, kicking off the most ambitious industrial labor action in decades.
The deadline for talks between Ford, General Motors, Stellantis and the United Auto Workers (UAW) expired at midnight on Thursday, with the sides still far apart on the union’s new contract priorities.
The strike, which marks the first time all three of the Detroit Three carmakers have been targeted by strikes at the same time, kicked off at midnight at a General Motors plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, and a Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan.
Joe Biden is expected to speak on the strike later today. For more updates, my colleague Gloria Oladipo is covering the strike on our dedicated live blog.
Dominic Rushe
As well as being wrong about the unemployment data, respondents were unaware of, or chose to mischaracterize, other major economic data points.
The widest measure of economic growth – gross domestic product – increased at a 2.1% annualized rate last quarter and has been steadily improving since the Covid downturn. But more respondents (59%) believe that the US economy is shrinking this year than those who believe it is growing (41%). More Republicans (72%) and independents (63%) believe the economy is shrinking than do Democrats. But still, a sizeable 44% of Democrats believe the economy is shrinking.
The S&P 500 stock market index is up 16% so far this year. But 59% of respondents wrongly said they believe the S&P is down for the year compared with those who said they believe it is up (41%). The majority of all those asked said the S&P was down whether Republican (66%), independent (60%) or Democrat (52%).
US wages are, finally, growing faster than inflation. But 75% of those polled wrongfully believe that wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. That view is held by the majority of Republicans (84%), independents (75%) and Democrats (67%).
There was some good news for Joe Biden. The poll found that 75% of respondents support at least one of the four main branches of Bidenomics: improving infrastructure, attracting high-tech electronics manufacturing, building clean energy manufacturing facilities and attracting more high-paying union jobs.
Still, 51% of Americans believe that government spending under the current administration is having a negative impact on the US economy (Republicans: 72%, independents: 54%, Democrats: 30%) rather than a positive impact (21%) or no impact (28%). And only just over a third of Democrats (35%) believe it’s having a positive impact (Republicans: 11%, independents: 16%).
John Gerzema, the CEO of Harris Poll, said:
All these perceptual-reality gaps underscore Biden’s difficulty in claiming credit for economic gains. Americans either view the economy through their politics or aren’t feeling it in real life, or both.
Dominic Rushe
The lack of confidence in the economy has many academics and politicians puzzled.
Some have blamed the US’s polarized politics and this was illustrated in the poll. But Harris’s data also shows that fears are widespread – and reinforced by disbelief of or ignorance about official figures and a mistrust of the media’s reporting of them.
Some 82% of Republicans and 66% of independents believe the economy is worse than the media’s portrayal. But nearly half of Democrats (49%) also said the media viewed the economy too favorably.
Overall, the poll found widespread despondency about the state of the economy. More than half of Americans (53%) believe the economy is getting worse instead of better or staying the same. Republicans and independents are more likely to think it’s getting worse (72% and 58%, respectively, v Democrats: 32%), while more Democrats think it’s getting better (32% v Republicans: 8%, independents: 13%).
The results paint a difficult picture for Joe Biden, who is making “Bidenomics” – his economic policy record – a central plank of his re-election platform. The views of those familiar with Bidenomics showed a perhaps unsurprising party split. Some 60% of Democrats believe his plans are improving the US economy overall compared with 12% of Republicans.
There is a widespread belief that Bidenomics is good in theory but isn’t being implemented well – something both Democrats and Republicans agree with (62% v 58%).
Biden supporters have just launched a $13m advertising campaign extolling the president’s economic achievements, which include a landmark $1.2tn infrastructure and climate bill, massive investment in domestic microchips production and green energy solutions. His legislative actions are predicted to create 1.5m jobs per year for the next decade.
That message may be hard to sell given the widespread disbelief of and ignorance about the health of the US economy highlighted by the poll.
Exclusive: US economy going strong under Biden – but Americans don’t believe it
Dominic Rushe
Americans do not trust the government’s economic news – or the media’s reporting of it – according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian that presents the White House with a major hurdle as it pushes Joe Biden’s economic record ahead of next year’s election.
The US has roared back from the Covid recession by official measures. But two-thirds of Americans are unhappy about the economy despite consistent reports that inflation is easing and unemployment is close to a 50-year low. And the poll suggests many are unaware of or don’t believe the positive economic news the government has reported.
The results illustrate a dramatic political split on economic views – with Republicans far more pessimistic than Democrats. But unhappiness about the economy is widespread.
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Two-thirds of respondents (68%) reported it’s difficult to be happy about positive economic news when they feel financially squeezed each month (Republicans: 69%, Democrats: 68%).
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Two-thirds of Americans (65%) believe that the economy is worse than the media makes it out to be rather than better (35%).
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In August the unemployment rate was 3.8%, close to a 50-year low. But the poll found that 51% wrongly believe that unemployment is nearing a 50-year high rather than those who believe it’s actually low (49%).
Trump says it’s ‘very unlikely’ he’d pardon himself if elected
Donald Trump, in the NBC Meet the Press interview that will air on Sunday, said it is “very unlikely” he would pardon himself if he is reelected in 2024.
Trump, at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, said:
I think it’s very unlikely. What, what did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything wrong. You mean because I challenge an election, they want to put me in jail?
The former president, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, faces 91 criminal counts in four jurisdictions stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, retention of classified documents after leaving office, and hush-money payments made to an adult film star.
Trump continued:
People said, ‘Would you like to pardon yourself? I had a couple of attorneys that said, ‘You can do it if you want. I had some people that said, ‘It would look bad if you do it, because I think it would look terrible.
He claimed he told his attorneys that “the last thing I’d ever do is give myself a pardon”, adding:
On the last day, I could have had a pardon done that would have saved me all of these lawyers and all of this — these fake charges, these Biden indictments.
But he declined to completely rule out a self-pardon when pressed whether he might grant himself one “even if you were re-elected in this moment”.
EXCLUSIVE: Fmr. Pres. Trump tells Kristen Welker that he was “given an option to pardon” himself before leaving office.
Trump: “I had a couple of attorneys that said, ‘You can do it if you want.’ … I said, ‘The last thing I’d ever do is give myself a pardon.’” pic.twitter.com/nrdUZJMFp8
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 15, 2023
Federal prosecutors expanded the indictment against Donald Trump in late July to include retaining national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
The superseding indictment by special counsel Jack Smith accused Trump of attempting to destroy evidence and inducing someone else to destroy evidence, and named Mar-a-Lago club maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira as the third co-defendant in the case. Trump’s valet Walt Nauta was previously indicted for obstruction with the former president in June.
The expanded indictment added a new section titled “The Attempt to Delete Security Camera Footage” that alleged in detail how Trump engaged in a scheme with Nauta and De Oliveira to wipe a server containing surveillance footage that prosecutors subpoenaed which showed boxes of classified documents being removed from the storage room.
According to the indictment, Trump seemingly instructed Nauta to unexpectedly travel to Mar-a-Lago to have the tapes destroyed. Nauta then enlisted the help of De Oliveira, and they walked to a security booth where the camera angles were displayed on monitors before walking down to the cameras and pointing them out with flashlights.
The following week, De Oliveira asked the director of IT at Mar-a-Lago, described as “Trump Employee 4” but understood to be Yuscil Taveras, how long surveillance footage was stored for and then told him “the boss” wanted the server deleted.
When the director of IT replied that he did not know how to delete the server and suggested De Oliveira ask the security supervisor at the Trump Organization, De Olivera again insisted that “the boss” wanted the server deleted, the indictment said.
Trump faces more than three dozen total charges in the case, including more than 30 violations of the Espionage Act.
Here’s Donald Trump’s full response to Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker when asked if he would testify under oath that he did not ask a staffer to delete surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Look, it’s a fake charge by this deranged lunatic prosecutor who lost in the Supreme Court nine to nothing, and he tried to destroy lots of lives. He’s a lunatic. So it’s a fake charge.
But more importantly, the tapes weren’t deleted. In other words, there was nothing done to them. And they were my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them the tapes, I don’t think. I think I would have won in court. When they asked for the tapes, I said, “Sure.” They’re my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them. Just so you understand, though, we didn’t delete anything. Nothing was deleted.
Welker said: “So that’s false. The people who testified –”, to which Trump replied:
Number one, the statement is false. Much more importantly, when the tapes came, and everybody says this, they weren’t deleted. We gave them 100%.
‘I’ll testify’: Trump denies he ordered Mar-a-Lago security video deleted
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump said in an interview on Thursday that he would testify under oath denying he asked a staffer to delete surveillance footage at the center of an investigation into whether he mishandled classified documents.
The former US president, speaking to Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, was asked whether he had asked a staffer to delete security camera footage at his Mar-a-Lago residence in an effort to obstruct a federal investigation into the records. Trump responded:
That’s false.
Pressed about whether he would testify to that under oath, the former president said:
Sure, I’m going to – I’ll testify.
“But more importantly, the tapes weren’t deleted,” he added.
In other words, there was nothing done to them. And they were my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them the tapes, I don’t think.
WATCH: Former President Trump calls allegations that he asked a staffer to delete video evidence from Mar-a-Lago is “false.”
Kristen Welker: “Would you testify to that under oath?”
Trump: “Sure.” pic.twitter.com/PYqgS6O4Sn
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 15, 2023
In a superseding indictment filed by special counsel Jack Smith’s office in late July, Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, faced obstruction counts based on allegations that they instructed an unidentified Trump employee to delete surveillance video footage “to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury”.
“I think I would have won in court,” Trump told Welker.
When they asked for the tapes, I said, ‘Sure.’ They’re my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them. Just so you understand, though, we didn’t delete anything. Nothing was deleted.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
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11.45am ET: Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing.
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1pm: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will brief.
