Trump jokes about his legal challenges after receiving target letter
Donald Trump sought to downplay his legal challenges while railing against special counsel Jack Smith and the justice department, after announcing he had received a letter naming him as the target of the DoJ’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump, headlining a Republican county meeting in eastern Iowa on Tuesday night, attacked federal investigators as he tried to make light of what could be his third criminal indictment since March. He said:
I didn’t know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries. Now I’m becoming an expert. I have no choice.
Trump also taped an interview on Tuesday night with Fox News host Sean Hannity, who opened the town hall event by saying that the former president didn’t seem to be bothered by “never-ending attacks”.
“It bothers me,” Trump replied, adding:
It’s a disgrace what’s happening to our country.
Key events
DOJ assessing Texas-Mexico border situation amid “troubling reports”
The department of justice said that it is assessing the situation by the Texas-Mexico border following “troubling reports” that have emerged over Texas troopers’ treatment of migrants.
Speaking to CNN, DOJ spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said, “The department is aware of the troubling reports, and we are working with DHS and other relevant agencies to assess the situation.”
Earlier this week, the Houston Chronicle reported email exchanges between a trooper and a superior over alleged mistreatment of migrants crossing the border.
The emails alleged that officers working along the border have been ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande, and have also told to not give water to migrants, despite scorching temperatures.
“Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well,” the trooper wrote, adding, “I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”
A statement released by Abbott’s office on Tuesday pushed back against the allegations, saying:
“No orders or directions have been given under Operation Lone Star that would compromise the lives of those attempting to cross the border illegally.”
Martin Pengelly
Amid speculation about whether or not Rudy Giuliani has “flipped” on Donald Trump in the federal investigation of the former president’s election subversion and incitement of the January 6 attack on Congress, one former Trump White House insider had a somewhat…dry response.
The former New York mayor turned Trump adviser and lawyer might have turned on his boss “Cause they don’t have happy hour up the river”, the former insider said in a message viewed by the Guardian.
Reports of Giuliani’s fondness for alcohol are legion. “Up the river” is, according to Collins dictionary, an American idiom meaning to be sent “to or confined in a penitentiary”.
Speculation about Giuliani flowered on Tuesday after Trump announced that he had received a letter naming him as a target in the investigation led by the special counsel Jack Smith.
CNN said Giuliani “did a voluntary interview with special counsel investigators several weeks back” and “his lawyer does not expect him to be charged”.
That lawyer, Ted Goodman, said: “Any speculation that Mayor Rudy Giuliani ‘flipped’ against President Donald Trump is as false as previous lies that America’s Mayor” – Giuliani’s post-9/11 nickname – “was somehow a Russian Agent.
“In order to ‘flip’ on President Trump – as so many in the anti-Trump media are fantasising over – Mayor Giuliani would’ve had to commit perjury, because all the information he has regarding this case points to President Trump’s innocence.”
Many observers pointed out that Giuliani, whose law licenses have come under review arising from his work for Trump, may not be out of the woods on the other investigation of Trump’s election subversion, in Fulton county, Georgia.
Some further reading:
Trump could face new indictment within days after target letter
The letter identifying Donald Trump as a target in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection could mean that the former president face a new indictment as early as the end of the week.
“A third indictment appears to be forthcoming,” Brookings Institution senior fellow Benjamin Wittes posted on the Lawfare blog, adding:
It’s reasonable to expect the grand jury to act as early as the end of this week.
The Republican governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, has announced he will not be running for re-election next year.
After much consideration, I have decided not to run for another term as Governor in 2024.
Be assured we will keep working and that the Granite State will continue to be our priority for the next 18 months. pic.twitter.com/VSNNd9BlaA— Chris Sununu (@ChrisSununu) July 19, 2023
Wesleyan University announced it would end legacy admissions, after the supreme court struck down affirmative action in the college admission process last month.
In a statement on Wednesday, university president Michael Roth said legacies – a practice that favors relatives of alumni – had played a “negligible role” in the school’s admission process for many years. He added:
Nevertheless, in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action, we believe it important to formally end admission preference for ‘legacy applicants’.
Relatives of Wesleyan alumni will continue to be admitted to the school “on their own merits”, Roth said.
Legacy admissions came under fire after the nation’s highest court ruled that schools could not give preferential treatment to applicants based on race or ethnicity.
A small number of schools have ended the practice, including Johns Hopkins, MIT and Amherst college.
News that Donald Trump may imminently face another indictment drew shrugs from some Republicans and a muddled response from his rivals, according to a New York Times report.
The former president’s indictments, past and pending, are becoming the background music of the 2024 presidential campaign, the paper writes.
At one Republican congressional fund-raising lunch on Tuesday in Washington, the news of a likely third Trump indictment went entirely unmentioned, an attendee said. Some opposing campaigns’ strategists all but ignored the development.
E Jean Carroll’s lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, has released a statement following the judge’s decision to deny Donald Trump’s request for a new trial.
The statement reads:
Now that the court has denied Trump’s motion for a new trial or to decrease the amount of the verdict, E Jean Carroll looks forward to receiving the $5 million in damages that the jury awarded her in Carroll II.
“Carroll II” is how lawyers in the case refer to the May lawsuit that resulted in a jury finding Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer and awarded her $5m in damages.
Trump jokes about his legal challenges after receiving target letter
Donald Trump sought to downplay his legal challenges while railing against special counsel Jack Smith and the justice department, after announcing he had received a letter naming him as the target of the DoJ’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump, headlining a Republican county meeting in eastern Iowa on Tuesday night, attacked federal investigators as he tried to make light of what could be his third criminal indictment since March. He said:
I didn’t know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries. Now I’m becoming an expert. I have no choice.
Trump also taped an interview on Tuesday night with Fox News host Sean Hannity, who opened the town hall event by saying that the former president didn’t seem to be bothered by “never-ending attacks”.
“It bothers me,” Trump replied, adding:
It’s a disgrace what’s happening to our country.
The letter to Donald Trump by special counsel Jack Smith identifying him as a “target” in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection listed the federal statutes under which the former president could be charged, according to multiple reports.
Trump announced on Tuesday morning that his attorneys handed him a letter from Smith as he was having dinner on Sunday night. Posting to his Truth Social website, Trump wrote:
Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter … stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and an Indictment.
The letter indicates that a new indictment of the former president could be imminent.
It mentions three federal statutes: conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under color of law, and tampering with a witness, victim or an informant, according to ABC and the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The context surrounding the statutes cited in the target letter is unclear, and their citation in the letter does not necessarily mean that Trump will be charged with related counts.
There are no additional details in the letter and it does not say how Smith’s office claims Trump may have violated the statutes listed, sources told ABC.
DeSantis’ campaign manager ‘hanging by a thread’ as he lags behind Trump – report
Allies of Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis are pressing for a shake-up of his campaign amid financial pressure and flagging poll numbers.
DeSantis has reduced campaign staff as his campaign has struggled to meet fundraising goals, as he lags substantially in second place behind former president Donald Trump. Fewer than 10 staffers were laid off last week, according to an anonymous staffer, reported Politico.
His campaign manager, Generra Peck, is also “hanging by a thread”, according to a DeSantis donor who is close to the campaign, reported NBC.
Some allies have communicated that they want DeSantis to fire Peck or demote her, according to two other sources. One donor told the news channel:
It is the chatter among donors, and it extends beyond the first rung of the bundler class. Money people are losing confidence quickly. It’s time for that kind of change. It’s time for a shake-up at the top.
The idea that more shake-ups within the campaign is widely held among Republicans, according to conversations NBC had with strategists and donors.
Even in DeSantis’s home state of Florida, Trump still has a 20-point lead over the governor, according to a recent Florida Atlantic University poll.
Wisconsin’s top elections administrator was interviewed this spring by federal investigators as part of the special counsel’s probe into the 2020 election, NBC reported.
Meagan Wolfe, the Wisconsin elections commission administrator, answered questions from the FBI and justice department officials in person in April, according to her spokesperson.
Election leaders in Wisconsin’s two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, have also spoken with investigators as part of the justice departments probe.
Investigators working for special counsel Jack Smith have interviewed officials from all seven battleground states targeted by Donald Trump and his allies as they sought to overturn the 2020 election results, according to CNN.
In a 59-page decision rejecting Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in a civil case brought by E Jean Carroll, a federal judge said the jury’s May verdict was not seriously erroneous or a serious miscarriage of justice.
“There is no basis for disturbing the jury’s sexual assault damages,” US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan wrote in his ruling.
And Mr. Trump’s arguments with respect to the defamation damages are no stronger.
Carroll’s lawsuit, filed in 2022, said Trump raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York in the mid-1990s, and defamed her by denying it happened.
On 9 May, a jury found Trump had sexually abused Carroll. The former president’s lawyers said the jury’s $2m award for the sexual abuse portion of the verdict was “excessive” because the jury had found that Carroll was not raped.
Judge Kaplan ruled:
The definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance, its definition in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere.
The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.
Judge appears inclined to delay Trump classified documents trial into 2024
Hugo Lowell
The reality of conducting pre-trial proceedings under Cipa is that Cannon’s trial date still has the potential to be pushed back. In the prosecution of former NSA analyst Reality Winner, the trial date was delayed multiple times during the discovery phase.
The consequences of an extended delay could be far-reaching. If the case is not adjudicated until after the 2024 election and Donald Trump is re-elected, he could try to pardon himself or direct the attorney general to have the justice department drop the case.
Ahead of the pre-trial conference, Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Chris Kise argued in court filings that Cannon should not bother setting a tentative trial date until the major pre-trial motions were finished because they could not know how long classified discovery might take.
The Trump legal team also claimed that going to trial before the 2024 presidential election – prosecutors have outlined a schedule for a trial date in December – would be unrealistic because of supposed challenges in selecting an impartial jury.
In their reply last week, prosecutors took aim at Trump’s arguments for an indefinite delay, rejecting the claims that the charges touched on novel legal issues or that the discovery process was uniquely complex.
“The defendants are, of course, free to make whatever arguments they like for dismissal,” the prosecutors wrote. “But they should not be permitted to gesture at a baseless legal argument, call it ‘novel,’ and then claim the court will require an indefinite continuance.”
The filing took particular issue with the Trump’s lawyers’ suggestion that any trial should be delayed until after the 2024 election because of the supposed difficulty in selecting an impartial jury. Prosecutors wrote:
To be sure, the government readily acknowledges that jury selection here may merit additional protocols (such as a questionnaire) that may be more time-consuming than in other cases, but those are reasons to start the process sooner rather than later.
Hugo Lowell
In response to pointed questions from US district court judge Aileen Cannon, prosecutors seemed to acknowledge that their timetable for a December trial date was aggressive, although Cannon also separately told Trump’s lawyers she could not indefinitely postpone setting a trial date as they had requested.
Trump was charged last month with retaining national defense information, including US nuclear secrets and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, which means his case will be tried under the rules laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa.
The statute was passed in the 1980s to protect the government against the “graymail” problem in national security cases, a tactic in which the defense threatens to reveal classified information at trial, betting that the government would prefer to drop the charges rather than risk disclosure.
While Cipa established a mechanism through which the government can safely charge cases involving classified documents, the series of steps that has to be followed means it takes longer to get to trial compared with regular criminal cases without national security implications.
Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, have pleaded not guilty. The pair are currently co-defendants, though Nauta’s lawyer Stanley Woodward said – in arguing for an indefinite postponement – he might move to “sever” and seek a standalone trial for his client after reviewing the discovery.
Hugo Lowell
The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s classified documents case signaled that she could delay the trial until 2024, appearing inclined to find that the matter was sufficiently complex after hearing arguments from prosecutors and the former president’s lawyers on Tuesday.
The US district court judge Aileen Cannon did not rule from the bench on a timetable during the roughly two-hour pre-trial conference at the courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, and concluded the hearing by saying she would enter a written order at a later date.
Prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the documents case and the investigation into Trump’s efforts to obstruct the transfer of power, had asked Cannon last week to reject Trump’s suggestion to postpone the trial until after the 2024 election.
The dueling requests from Trump and the justice department present an early test for Cannon, a Trump appointee who is under heightened scrutiny for issuing favorable rulings to the former president during the criminal investigation, before they were overturned on appeal.
Cannon appeared skeptical of arguments from both sides at the hearing, telling prosecutors she was unaware of any trial involving classified information that went to trial in six months and telling Trump’s lawyers that the 2024 election would not factor into her scheduling decisions.
The judge said at issue was whether the documents case was sufficiently “complex” – because of novel legal issues and the volume of discovery materials that prosecutors will turn over to the defence – to warrant a timetable that would delay pre-trial proceedings beyond December.
