Key events
Trump pleads not guilty to new charges in classified documents case
Joan E Greve
Donald Trump had already indicated he would plead not guilty to the expanded set of charges after the former president’s legal team submitted a court filing waiving his right to appear at the arraignment in person.
The filing read:
I have received a copy of the Indictment and the plea is NOT GUILTY to the charged offense(s).
At his initial arraignment in June, Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 federal counts, including 31 violations of the Espionage Act, over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
According to Smith’s indictment, Trump intentionally withheld dozens of classified documents from federal officials even after a subpoena was issued to recover the materials from Mar-a-Lago. Some of those documents included information on America’s nuclear programs, the US military’s vulnerabilities and the White House’s plans for retaliation in the event of an attack.
The former president appears to have been aware of the illegality of retaining the documents, as recordings obtained by the special counsel show Trump acknowledging he could no longer declassify information after leaving office.
The judge overseeing the case, US district court judge Aileen Cannon, has set a trial date of May 2024.
Joan E Greve
Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, appeared in court in Ft Pierce, Florida on Thursday in charges stemming from the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
The hearing came two weeks after special counsel Jack Smith filed his superseding indictment adding De Oliveira as a codefendant in the case and outlining further charges against Trump and Nauta.
De Oliveira faces four federal criminal charges, including making false statements and conspiring to obstruct justice. Smith’s superseding indictment alleges that Trump engaged in a scheme with Nauta and De Oliveira to wipe a server containing Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage that was subpoenaed by prosecutors and showed boxes of classified documents being removed from the storage room.
House Republicans issued a memo on Wednesday laying out their intention to accuse Joe Biden of corruption even without direct evidence that he financially benefited from foreign business dealings by his son, Hunter Biden.
The 19-page memo outlines “new information obtained in the [Oversight] Committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s influence peddling schemes”, according to House oversight committee chair, James Comer, including more than $20m in payments from “foreign sources” to shell companies controlled by Hunter Biden and his associates. As with the previous two memos released by Comer this year, it does not show a direct payment to Joe Biden.
The memo states:
President Biden’s defenders purport a weak defense by asserting the Committee must show payments directly to the President to show corruption. This is a hollow claim no other American would be afforded if their family members accepted foreign payments or bribes. Indeed, the law recognizes payments to family members to corruptly influence others can constitute a bribe.
The memo marks a clear shift in House Republicans’ strategy and could signal that House GOPs are gearing up to launch an impeachment inquiry into the president this fall, Punchbowl reported.
“Up to this point, Republicans haven’t tied any official actions by Biden as vice president to the money received by Hunter Biden, other family members or their business associates. The Republicans’ basic thrust is that there has to be corruption or something illegal going on because it all seems so sordid,” it writes.
Republicans have sought to use testimony from Devon Archer, a former associate of Hunter Biden, to prove wrongdoing by father and son. Speaking behind closed doors to members of the committee last week, Archer testified that Hunter Biden sold the illusion of access to his father and that he was “not aware of any” wrongdoing by Joe Biden.
In a statement following its release, White House spokesperson Ian Sams described the memo as “full of years-old ‘news,’ innuendo, and misdirection – but notably missing, yet again, is any connection to President Biden”.
Comer, in a statement on Wednesday, said Republicans “will continue to follow the money trail and obtain witness testimony to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised or corrupt, and our national security is threatened.”
Oliver Milman
Videos that compare climate activists to Nazis, portray solar and wind energy as environmentally ruinous and claim that current global heating is part of natural long-term cycles will be made available to young schoolchildren in Florida, after the state approved their use in its public school curriculum.
Slickly-made animations by the Prager University Foundation, a conservative group that produces materials on science, history, gender and other topics widely criticized as distorting the truth, will be allowed to be shown to children in kindergarten to fifth grade after being adopted by Florida’s department of education.
Teachers who use the materials “will not be reprimanded, cannot be pushed back on about it, we are approved on the curriculum”, said Jill Simonian, director of outreach at PragerU Kids, the youth arm of the organization. “More states are following. Florida – I’m applauding. This is step in the right direction.”
But experts who have studied the videos and other PragerU output have warned that many of Florida’s 3 million public schoolchildren risk being exposed to a form of rightwing indoctrination that conforms to the worldview of the organization’s funders but bares little resemblance to reality.
Michigan fake electors for Donald Trump arraigned on felony charges
Sixteen Michigan Republicans who acted as fake electors for Donald Trump in 2020 have pleaded not guilty to felony charges including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery.
The group were hit with state charges last month and accused of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan.
Nine of the defendants were arraigned on the state charges at a virtual court hearing in Lansing on Thursday, CNN reported. The other seven defendants had already pleaded not guilty in the past few weeks.
The group includes the head of the Republican national committee’s chapter in Michigan, Kathy Berden, as well as the former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, Meshawn Maddock, and Shelby township clerk Stan Grot. The top charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
In announcing the felony charges last month, Michigan’s attorney general Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said:
The false electors’ actions undermined the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan.
The defendants were released on a $1,000 bond. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for 18 August.
A Florida attorney, Donnie Murrell, sat by Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira before US magistrate judge Shaniek Mills Maynard in the Florida courtroom on Thursday, but he had not yet filed a notice of appearance in the case.
Murrell told the judge that he hoped to do so by Friday afternoon after ironing out some details, and that it was “close to being handled”, NBC reported.
Murrell asked to have De Oliveira be arraigned on August 25, when there is already a pre-trial hearing scheduled, but Maynard rejected that request.
De Oliveira and his co-defendant, Trump valet Walt Nauta, arrived at the courthouse this morning separately. Nauta pleaded not guilty to conspiring with the former president in the latest charges through his lawyer. The report says:
Asked if he understood the charges, Trump’s aide, speaking softly, said that he did. ‘Thank you, your honor,’ Nauta responded when the judge wished him a good day.
Trump valet pleads not guilty to latest charges in classified documents case
Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, appeared before a judge in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, and pleaded not guilty to conspiring with the former president to obstruct the investigation into his possession of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Nauta’s co-defendant and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker, Carlos De Oliveira, was also due to be arraigned on Thursday on charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
But De Oliveira was again unable to enter a plea because he has not yet secured a local attorney, which is required under local court rules. He is now scheduled to be arraigned on 15 August.
The magistrate judge also formally accepted the latest not guilty plea of Trump, who in a court filing last week waived his notice of appearance at the arraignment.
US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas has been embroiled in ethics scandals for months following bombshell revelations by ProPublica, which included how Thomas repeatedly accepted luxury vacations such as a $500,000 trip to Indonesia in 2019 from Harlan Crow, a billionaire businessman, Republican donor and longtime friend.
Thomas, Samuel Alito and the Trump-appointed Neil Gorsuch – all conservative hardliners on the supreme court – have fallen foul of recent ethics disputes.
As a result, many Democrats have called for tighter ethics rules for the supreme court’s justices, who they say lack conduct rules that are comparable to other federal authorities.
The latest ProPublica report expands upon the publication’s previous investigation into Clarence Thomas’s relationship with conservative billionaire Harlan Crow.
Crow was revealed to have treated Thomas and his wife to extravagant vacations, private jet flights, gifts, tuition payments, and even the purchase of his mother’s house in Georgia.
The latest investigation reveals a pattern of gifts to Thomas from Crow and three other wealthy benefactors: David Sokol, a former top executive at Berkshire Hathaway, Paul “Tony” Novelly, an oil baron, and the late billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga.
The total value of the undisclosed trips they’ve given Thomas since 1991, the year he was appointed to the court, is likely in the millions, according to the report.
Huizenga, who died in 2018, is believed to be Thomas’ first “billionaire benefactor”, sending his personal private plane to fly the justice to South Florida at least twice, the report says.
Justice Clarence Thomas received ‘unprecedented’ number of gifts from billionaire friends – report
US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas has received dozens of luxury vacations, private jet flights and other gifts from his wealthy friends, according to a new ProPublica report that goes beyond the publication’s previous reporting about Thomas’ relationship with GOP mega donor Harlan Crow.
Thomas has received a series of gifts from a “cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives” during his three decades on the supreme court, the report says, including:
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“At least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas”
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Twenty-six private jet flights and eight helicopter flights
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A dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, “typically perched in the skybox”
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Two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica
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A standing invitation “to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast”
Thomas appears to have violated the law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets, the report says, citing ethics experts. The pattern also “exposes consistent violations of judicial norms”, current and former federal judges appointed by both parties told the publication.
“In my career I don’t remember ever seeing this degree of largesse given to anybody,” said Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who served for years on the judicial committee that reviews judges’ financial disclosures. “I think it’s unprecedented.”
If Donald Trump does decide to attend the first GOP presidential debate on 23 August, here are the candidates he will likely share the stage with:
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Florida governor Ron DeSantis
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South Carolina Tim Scott
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Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley
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Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie
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Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy
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North Dakota governor Doug Burgum
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Former vice president Mike Pence
To qualify for the debate, candidates need to satisfy polling and donor requirements set by the Republican national committee: at least 1% in three high-quality national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls, between 1 July and 21 August, and a minimum of 40,000 donors, with 200 in 20 or more states.
Trump says he won’t sign loyalty pledge ahead of first GOP debate
Donald Trump said he will not sign the loyalty pledge required by the Republican national committee (RNC) for candidates to participate in the first GOP primary debate this month.
Trump, in a Newsmax interview on Wednesday, said:
I wouldn’t sign the pledge. Why would I sign a pledge if there are people on there that I wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t have certain people as somebody that I would endorse.
He declined to specify which candidates he would not support, but he said he “can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president”. Trump specifically criticized Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson during the course of the interview.
Trump said he would announce next week whether he will attend the 23 August debate in Milwaukee. The RNC has said candidates must sign a pledge stating that they will support the eventual party nominee in 2024, in order to participate in the primary debate.
The former president has repeatedly indicated that he may skip the debate but on Wednesday said he had not “totally ruled it out”. “I’ve actually gotten very good marks on debating talents,” he said.
Donald Trump was charged with three additional counts in the case surrounding his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House late last month.
The former president has been charged with one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts, according to court documents.
The superseding indictment also charges Trump, his aides Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta with two new obstruction counts stemming from allegations that they attempted to delete surveillance camera footage last summer at Mar-a-Lago.
Hugo Lowell
The filing, submitted to US district court judge Aileen Cannon, was the latest twist in the back-and-forth negotiation between Donald Trump and prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith over the protective order governing the use of what gets turned over in discovery.
Since Trump was charged with retaining national security materials, including US nuclear secrets and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, his case will be tried according to the time-consuming steps laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa.
The rules require Cannon, under Cipa section 3, to issue a protective order before prosecutors can start the discovery process whereby they turn over to the defense all of the materials they intend to use at trial, just like in any other criminal case.
According to the rules, Trump’s lawyers can challenge the protective order and ask the judge to extend access to Trump himself. Last month, Trump did ask to be able to review the classified discovery materials himself, and prosecutors agreed to his request.
The remaining sticking point, according to an earlier filing by prosecutors, has been where Trump will be allowed to review those materials.
Trump had sought permission to discuss the classified documents with his lawyers at both his Bedminster club in New Jersey, where he spends his summers, and his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where the indictment against him says he hoarded the national security papers.
But prosecutors objected to the final request, noting that they were unaware of any previous case where defendants were allowed to discuss classified information in a private residence and that it was inconsistent with the law.
“There is no basis for the defendant’s request,” prosecutors wrote last month.
It is particularly striking that he seeks permission to do so in the very location at which he is charged with wilfully retaining the documents charged in this case.
Trump requests to review classified documents at Mar-a-Lago ahead of trial
Hugo Lowell
Lawyers for Donald Trump asked a federal judge on Wednesday to approve the re-establishment of an ultra-secure facility at his Mar-a-Lago club to review classified documents produced to him in discovery, an audacious request without precedent in national security cases.
The request essentially would give Trump the freedom to discuss and review the same classified documents he has been charged with illegally retaining in the same location where the alleged crimes took place.
Trump’s lawyers suggested the re-establishment of a sensitive compartmented information facility, often called a “Scif”, at Mar-a-Lago in an 11-page filing that argued Trump’s schedule and security requirements made it impossible for him to make regular trips to such a facility at a courthouse.
The Scif at Mar-a-Lago that existed during the Trump presidency was removed after Trump left office in January 2021. Although the case has elements that are novel, reconstructing a Scif for a private citizen because of their former office would be unprecedented.
Federal prosecutors last month expanded the indictment against Donald Trump for retaining national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
The former president was accused of attempting to destroy evidence and inducing someone else to destroy evidence, as well as an additional count under the Espionage Act for retaining a classified document about US plans to attack Iran that he discussed on tape at his Bedminster club in New Jersey.
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 his valet, Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago club maintenance worker, Carlos 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.
For months, prosecutors in the office of the special counsel have viewed the surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago as key to the case because it showed Nauta removing boxes of classified documents out of the storage room just before Trump’s lawyer was scheduled to search for any classified documents after receiving a subpoena.
Trump’s co-defendants back in court to face charges in classified documents case
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The property manager of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and a personal aide to the former president are due back in federal court in Florida on Thursday to face charges in the case regarding the mishandling of classified documents, after federal prosecutors expanded the indictment against Trump late last month.
Carlos De Oliveira, the Florida property manager, is scheduled to be arraigned in Fort Pierce before a magistrate judge on charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Thursday’s arraignment will be the first time De Oliveira enters a plea in the case. The maintenance worker was charged in a superseding indictment last month but had not yet found a Florida-based attorney to represent him, as required by the court. He was released on $100,000 personal surety bond.
Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet, is expected to enter a plea for a second time after he was charged alongside the former president earlier this summer. He pleaded not guilty to the charges he faced in the original indictment.
Donald Trump was also scheduled to be arraigned today on the new charges, which includes allegations that he schemed with De Oliveira and Nauta to try to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage sought by investigators, as well as new counts of obstruction and willful retention of national defense information.
But the former president submitted a waiver of appearance for Thursday’s arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty. His filing said:
I have received a copy of the Indictment and the plea ls NOT GUILTY to the charged offense(s).
Nauta and De Oliveira are due to be arraigned at a hearing at 10am eastern time before US magistrate judge Shaniek Mills Maynard.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
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1:45pm EST: President Joe Biden is in Utah, where he will join veterans and families to discuss the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (Pact) Act. He will visit the George E Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center to mark the first anniversary of the law that is delivering the largest expansion of veterans benefits in decades.
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2:30pm: Biden will attend a campaign lunch.
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4:25pm: Biden is due to leave Salt Lake City to return to Washington.
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The House and Senate are out.
