Trump wins temporary stay to New York fraud trial after suing judge as he hails ‘best polls ever’ – latest

A New York appeals court has issued a temporary halt to the upcoming 2 October fraud trial in the case filed by attorney general Letitia James against Donald Trump and his family business.

The stay order was issued in response to the former US president’s lawsuit against Justice Arthur Engoron, the trial judge responsible for the case.

Justice David Friedman from the appeals court granted a temporary suspension of the trial and has referred the issue to a five-judge panel – which is expected to rule during the last week of September. That means that the trial could in theory still go ahead on 2 October, depending on the panel’s ruling.

In other news, Mr Trump and 16 other co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case will be tried separately from lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, the judge ruled.

This comes as Mr Trump celebrated the “best polls ever,” writing on Truth Social that they were “rarely shown on television. Leading by 50 and 60 points. Just like they don’t like showing our big Rally CROWDS, they don’t like showing our GREAT POLL NUMBERS. WE HAVE RIGGED ELECTIONS, AND RIGGED TELEVISION!”

Key Points

• Court orders Trump fraud trial be temporarily halted after he sues the judge

• Trump could face an extensive list of trials next year. Here are all the court dates

• VIDEO: Trump, who gave Fauci presidential commendation, claims he doesn’t know who did

• Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained

• Trump defends suspended attorney general Ken Paxton and calls impeachment trial ‘shameful’

• From failed presidential candidate to Trump’s Republican nemesis: The rise, fall and rise again of Mitt Romney

Trump declares he is ‘very unlikely’ to pardon himself should he regain White House

11:30 , Joe Sommerlad

Donald Trump has told NBC’s Meet the Press in a new interview that he is “very unlikely” to pardon himself should he regain the White House next year, saying doing so “would look terrible” and that he had declined the chance to absolve himself at the close of his first term.

“I could have pardoned myself when I left,” the Republican front-runner told Kristen Welker.

“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.

Of the prospect taking place in future, he said: “I think it’s very unlikely. 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?”

Not surprisingly, media pundits were not entirely convinced by the claim last night.

A finding that Trump raped E Jean Carroll

11:00 , Josh Marcus

The hush money payments case wasn’t the only New York-centric legal battle Mr Trump faced this year.

On 9 May, a New York jury found him liable for the sexual abuse of E Jean Carroll.

In 2019, the longtime Elle magazine columnist accused Mr Trump of raping her in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in 1996, which the then-president denied.

The writer sued Mr Trump for defamation that year, and the Justice Department temporarily defended him, claiming his comments were part of his duties as president, though the DoJ ceased this defence in 2023. Ms Carroll later added a sexual battery charge against Mr Trump under a new New York law allowing survivors of sexual abuse to sue their abusers despite the statute of limitations.

The May verdict, which awarded Ms Carroll $5m, wasn’t the end of the matter, however. Though the jury found that Mr Trump was liable for sexually abusing Ms Carroll, it hadn’t technically found he had raped her.

In June, Mr Trump sued Ms Carroll for saying the New York businessman had in fact raped her. In an order made public on 7 August, federal judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed the former president’s counterclaim, finding that the original verdict “establishes against him the substantial truth of Ms Carroll’s ‘rape’ accusations.”

The former president is appealing the $5m verdict, while Ms Carroll is suing Mr Trump in a separate defamation action, after he criticised the original decision, denied ever meeting Carroll, and accused her once again of fabricating her rape allegation.

Ron DeSantis warns Florida residents under 65 not to get Covid booster shot – against CDC guidance

10:00 , Maggie O'Neill

The administration of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is not recommending Covid boosters for people under the age of 65.

The recommendation goes against guidance from federal health authorities. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are recommending updated shots for everyone six months and older.

In a statement from DeSantis’s office released 13 September, the governor said, “I will not stand by and let the FDA and CDC use healthy Floridians as guinea pigs for new booster shots that have not been proven to be safe and effective…Florida is the first state in the nation to stand up and provide guidance based on truth, not Washington edicts.”

State Surgeon General Dr Joseph Ladapo, appointed by the governor, echoed DaSantis’s opinions in the statement.

Read more:

DeSantis warns Floridians under 65 not to get Covid booster – against CDC guidance

Hunter Biden indicted on federal gun charges following special counsel probe

09:00 , Alex Woodward

Federal prosecutors have indicted President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, on three charges stemming from allegedly false statements he made when buying a firearm.

The indictment – the first ever against a sitting president’s son – came after a plea agreement on tax and gun charges collapsed in July under scrutiny from a federal judge.

Charges announced on Thursday follow a multi-year investigation by David Weiss, who was appointed as US attorney for Delaware by Donald Trump in 2018 and has remained under the current administration in an effort to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Mr Weiss was appointed as special counsel in August.

Read more:

Hunter Biden indicted on federal gun charges following special counsel probe

Meet the Bidens: Who’s who in the first family

08:00 , Joe Sommerlad, Abe Asher

Democrat Joe Biden won the presidency after a bitterly fought campaign in 2020 marred by the Capitol riot that followed its conclusion and is now officially gunning for a second term.

Mr Biden, 80, is no stranger to public office. He was first elected to the US Senate in 1972 and has been in Washington almost ever since, leaving public office only for a brief period between the expiration of Barack Obama’s second term as president and the beginning of his own first term.

Mr Biden’s 2020 campaign focused heavily on his character, drawing on his working-class Irish Catholic roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the tragedies he has suffered. Shortly after being elected at the age of 30, Mr Biden lost his first wife Neilia Hunter and their one-year-old daughter Naomi in a car accident.

Mr Biden’s young sons Beau and Hunter were both in the car that day but escaped with minor injuries. Beau Biden, an Iraq war veteran, passed away from a brain tumour in 2015, aged just 46.

Mr Biden is known for his empathy for ordinary people in times of trial and is thought of as a family man throughout Washington. After Mr Biden announced his bid for reelection on 25 April, here is a look at a selection of the family members closest to him.

Read more:

Meet the Bidens: Who’s who in the first family

A New York ‘catch and kill’ scheme involving hush money, porn stars, and tabloids

07:00 , Josh Marcus

Mr Trump is also under scrutiny from local officials in New York.

On 30 March, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict the former president for allegedly falsifying business records relating to hush money payments he made to porn actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from revealing an alleged affair during the 2016 election.

Mr Trump faces 34 first-degree felony charges for allegedly working through his former attorney Michael Cohen and former National Enquirer David Pecker to “catch and kill” embarrassing stories, passing out hundreds of thousands of dollars to silence allegations of affairs and a child born out of wedlock, then allegedly falsifying records to conceal the payments.

“We cannot allow New York businesses to manipulate their records to cover up criminal conduct,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is leading the prosecution, said in a statement.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to the indictment. The trial will begin 25 March 2024.

A classified documents case in Florida

06:00 , Josh Marcus

The charges in Washington followed another special counsel prosecution against Mr Trump in Florida.

On 8 June, a federal grand jury indicted Mr Trump on 37 charges for allegedly retaining classified national defence information after leaving the White House, then conspiring to obstruct justice and making false statements when federal officials sought to take back the official documents.

Nearly two months later, on 28 July, federal prosecutors added three additional charges in the case, accusing Mr Trump and employees of his Mar-a-Lago estate of attempting to delete security footage pertaining to the documents so it couldn’t be used in a future investigation as evidence.

The indictments allege Mr Trump recklessly handled sensitive materials he had access to as president, storing classified files in the bathroom and shower at his Florida club. Mr Trump was also recorded at one of his New Jersey properties in 2021 appearing to brag about possessing a “highly confidential” Pentagon document regarding hypothetical battle plans against Iran.

The former president pleaded not guilty in early August. He will go on trial 20 May 2024.

(Another) election conspiracy case in Washington, DC

05:00 , Josh Marcus

Just two weeks before the Georgia charges dropped, Mr Trump was indicted on federal charges in Washington, DC, for allegedly trying to overthrow the 2020 election. The historic moment was the culmination of an investigation that began in November 2022 with the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith.

On 1 August, a grand jury approved an indictment accusing Mr Trump of conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, and deprivation of civil rights under colour of law, the latter charge using a post-Civil War law designed to prosecute the Klu Klux Klan.

The four-count indictment alleges Mr Trump and his allies knew they lost the 2020 election, but sought to hold onto power anyway. They did so, according to federal prosecutors, by pressuring officials to ignore the popular vote, organising slates of illegitimate electors, conducting sham Justice Department investigations into state election counts, coercing Vice President Mike Pence to reject certifying the legitimate election results, then fueling the mob of supporters who sacked the Capitol on January 6.

Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed he was the victim of a political prosecution.

“This was never supposed to happen in America. This is the persecution of the person that’s leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot so if you can’t beat them you persecute them or prosecute ‘em,” he said on 3 August.

Judge Tanya Chutkan set his trial date to begin on 4 March 2024 in Washington DC despite Mr Trump’s team arguing they need until 2026 before going to trial.

Court orders Trump fraud trial be temporarily halted after he sues the judge

04:48 , Maroosha Muzaffar

A judge from a New York state appeals court has issued a temporary halt to the upcoming 2 October trial in the fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Donald Trump and his family business.

The judge’s directive was issued during a surprise virtual hearing that was closed to the public.

The order was issued in response to the former US president’s lawsuit against Justice Arthur Engoron, the trial judge responsible for the case.

In his lawsuit, Mr Trump accused Justice Engoron and Ms James of disregarding a court order that could limit the scope of the lawsuit, the Daily Beast reported.

A court spokesperson said that Justice David Friedman from the appeals court has granted a temporary suspension of the trial and has referred the issue to a five-judge panel – which is expected to rule during the last week of September. That means that the trial could in theory still go ahead on 2 October, depending on the panel’s ruling.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs law restricting release of her travel, security records

04:00 , Andrew Demillo, AP

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law Thursday restricting release of her travel and security records after the Legislature wrapped up a special session marked by a fight to more broadly scale back the state Freedom of Information Act.

The law, which took effect immediately, allows the state to wall off details about the security provided the GOP governor and other constitutional officers, including who travels on the State Police airplane and the cost of individual trips. Proposed changes to the 1967 law protecting the public’s access to government records were among several items Sanders had placed on the agenda for a session that met this week.

Sanders has argued the restrictions are needed to protect her and her family, citing threats she’s faced since taking office and going back to her time as White House press secretary for former President Donald Trump.

“We protected the police officers who protect our constitutional officers and my family in keeping their security information and tactics exempt from Freedom of Information Act disclosure,” Sanders said before signing the measure, about two hours after lawmakers gave it final it approval.

Read more:

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs law restricting release of her travel, security records

An election conspiracy case in Georgia

03:15 , Josh Marcus

On 14 August, Mr Trump and 18 allies were charged in Georgia’s Fulton County for conspiring to subvert the state’s 2020 presidential election results.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wallis began investigating the former president shortly after he left office in 2021. At the time, an infamous recording had just gone public of Mr Trump pressuring election officials to “find” him just enough votes to win him the state.

A grand jury empaneled by Ms Willis found that there was persuasive evidence that Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants, including high-profile lieutenants like Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff, sought to tamper with the state’s election results through various schemes like coercing local officials and attempting to send a slate of false electors to Washington for the final Electoral College certification process.

Mr Trump personally faces 13 charges, including for violating the state’s RICO organised crime statute, and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. He has denied wrongdoing.

The ex-president surrendered to authorities in Fulton County on the evening of 24 August where he was booked, processed and for the first time, received a mug shot.

He and his co-defendants were set to face arraignment on 6 September.

But on 31 August, Mr Trump entered a not guilty plea and waived his arraignment – in a move to avoid appearing in court where the judge had already granted cameras.

Georgia officials have proposed a 23 October 2023 trial date.

Tracking Trump’s criminal charges and lawsuits - and where they stand

02:30 , Josh Marcus

Donald Trump has never been more vulnerable.

Without the privileges and prestige of the presidency to protect him, Mr Trump is facing serious lawsuits and criminal indictments across New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington.

Federal officials, local prosecutors, and individuals are going after him for everything from his private conduct to his political maneuvering during the 2020 election. If even just one of these efforts are successful, the US could see its first-ever former president in prison.

Here, The Independent explains each major case:

Tracking Trump’s criminal charges and lawsuits - and where they stand

Trump claims that he’s ‘allowed’ to have classified documents

01:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Mark Milley denies Trump claim that he planned to attack Iran

01:00 , Graeme Massie

The highest-ranking officer in the US military has denied Donald Trump’s claims that he recommended a US strike on Iran.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, pushed back on the claims made by the former president in an audio recording made in July 2021.

“I can assure you that not one time have I ever recommended to attack Iran,” Gen Milley told CNN.

Mr Trump made the claim during a conversation at his Bedminster golf club with biographers of his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, which emerged during the Mar-a-Lago documents probe.

A transcript of the recording is now part of the investigation into the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.

Read more:

Mark Milley denies Trump claim that he planned to attack Iran

Nancy Pelosi makes graphic hand gesture while describing McCarthy’s predicament

Friday 15 September 2023 00:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi used a graphic hand gesture to symbolise something being slowly crushed when speaking about Kevin McCarthy’s “incredibly shrinking speakership”.

The San Francisco Democrat appeared on CNN on Wednesday night, speaking to Anderson Cooper, slamming her successor for opening an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

She said the probe was launched as part of a deal with the far-right flank of the House Republicans pushing Mr McCarthy to give in to their demands or risk losing the speakership.

“You have to impeach the president or else we’re going to vacate the chair of speaker. You have to shut down government or else we’re going to vacate the chair of speaker,” she said. “This is not responsible governance, but it’s the chaos on the Republican side.”

Cooper asked if Mr McCarthy had put himself in an “impossible situation”.

Read more:

Nancy Pelosi makes graphic hand gesture while describing McCarthy’s predicament

Democratic lawmaker invokes Jared Kushner to accuse Republicans of hypocrisy over Biden impeachment

Thursday 14 September 2023 23:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz accused Republicans of hypocrisy regarding the Biden impeachment.

Mr Muskowitz was taking part in a hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Wednesday morning when he argued that Republicans were guilty of hypocrisy as they accused President Joe Biden of benefiting from suspicious foreign interests.

“We sit here, we hear our colleagues bring up certain things like, ‘Oh, the Biden family took money from a foreign entity’,” he said with mock concern.

“I mean, do they really not know that Jared Kushner took $2bn from the Saudis? They go on Twitter and blame the Saudis for 9/11. But then Jared Kushner, who, by the way, was not a wealth expert, before he worked in the White House, nor was he a Middle East expert, before he worked there, gets $2bn from the Saudis, and they don’t have any questions.”

Read more:

Democrat invokes Kushner to accuse GOP of hypocrisy over impeachment

VIDEO: Trump waives right to a speedy trial in Georgia election case

Thursday 14 September 2023 22:45 , Gustaf Kilander

What is an arraignment? Trump has just avoided his fourth

Thursday 14 September 2023 22:00 , Abe Asher, Gustaf Kilander, Ariana Baio

Donald Trump has waived his arraignment in his election interference case in Georgia – a move that means he can now avoid what would have been his first televised court hearing.

The former president pleaded not guilty on 31 August to the slew of 13 charges accusing him of running a criminal enterprise to stay in power at all costs.

“As evidenced by my signature below, I do hereby waive formal arraignment and enter my plea of NOT GUILTY to the indictment in this case,” the filing states.

Now, he will no longer appear for his arraignment which had been slated to take place in Fulton County court on 6 September.

The arraignment would have been his fourth after a grand jury in Georgia indicted the ex-president and 18 other defendants on 14 August on 13 counts related to his alleged efforts to change the outcome of the 2020 election in the state.

Read more:

What is an arraignment? Trump has just avoided his fourth in Georgia

Trump could face an extensive list of trials next year. Here are all the court dates

Thursday 14 September 2023 21:30 , Ariana Baio

Donald Trump’s 2024 calendar is quickly booking up with court dates corresponding to his plentiful criminal indictments and civil lawsuits.

The ex-president and his legal team are preparing for a busy year ahead as they attempt to juggle the many trial dates while Mr Trump continues his campaign for 2024 president.

So far, Mr Trump has been criminally indicted four times – two of which are on the federal level and two are on the state level. This is on top of two civil lawsuits the ex-president is involved in New York City.

Though Mr Trump’s legal team has continuously pushed judges to delay trial dates until after the 2024 election, nearly all of the dates for his criminal indictments have been set for next spring.

Here are the trial dates for Mr Trump thus far:

When is Donald Trump going on trial?

VIDEO: Trump, who gave Fauci presidential commendation, claims he doesn’t know who did

Thursday 14 September 2023 21:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Americans sharply divided over whether Biden acted wrongly in son's businesses, AP-NORC poll shows

Thursday 14 September 2023 20:30 , Colleen Long, Emily Swanson, AP

About half of Americans say they have little or no confidence that the Justice Department is handling its investigation into Hunter Biden in a fair and nonpartisan way, and 1 in 3 are highly concerned about whether President Joe Biden may have committed wrongdoing related to his son’s business dealings, according to a new poll. But the political divide is stark.

Sixty-six percent of Republicans -- and just 7% of Democrats — are very or extremely concerned about whether Joe Biden committed wrongdoing when it comes to his son’s business dealings, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Overall, Democrats are far more wary of faulting the president at all with regard to his son’s business dealings.

“The way I look at it, if Biden did something wrong, then he should be held accountable,” said Pilar DeAvila-Pinsley 60, a New York Democrat. “But there is no proof of this.”

The poll was conducted just before House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched a formal impeachment inquiry aiming to link the president to the business dealings of his son and deflect attention from Donald Trump’s legal peril as the two men battle anew for the White House. A special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland is investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings, after a plea deal on tax and gun charges fell apart.

Read more:

Americans sharply divided over whether Biden acted wrongly in son's businesses, AP-NORC poll shows

Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained

Thursday 14 September 2023 20:00 , Alex Woodward

Aformer president has been charged with crimes connected to his attempts to overturn the results of an American election.

The federal investigation into the efforts from Donald Trump and his allies to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election has yielded four criminal charges in a 45-page indictment, outlining three alleged criminal conspiracies and the obstruction of of Joe Biden’s victory and detailing a multi-state scheme built on a legacy of lies and conspiracy theories to undermine the democratic process.

A charging document under US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith follows a grand jury vote to indict Mr Trump after months of evidence and witness testimony. A tentative trial date has been set for 4 March, 2024 in Washington DC.

Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants are separately charged in Georgia in a sprawling racketeering case outlining the multi-state scheme to pressure state officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to subvert election results against the will of Georgia voters.

The indictments follow a separate, lengthy House select committee investigation into the events surrounding and leading up to the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, including a series of blockbuster public hearings laying out evidence and witness testimony describing the depth of Mr Trump’s attempts to remain in office at whatever cost.

Read more:

The federal investigation into Trump and January 6, explained

VIDEO: Woman confronts Pence on his tough LGBTQ policies

Thursday 14 September 2023 19:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump defends suspended attorney general Ken Paxton and calls impeachment trial ‘shameful’

Thursday 14 September 2023 19:00 , Ariana Baio

Suspended Texas attorney general Ken Paxton can count on a certain former president who faced two impeachment trials to stand beside him as proceedings in his own impeachment trial unfold.

Donald Trump gave Mr Paxton a boost of confidence in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Thursday morning calling him “one of the TOUGHEST & BEST” attorney generals.

Mr Trump’s words of affirmation mark the first time he has spoken about the trial of his longtime ally since it began on 5 September – though the ex-president issued a statement of support earlier this year when Mr Paxton was first impeached.

In Thursday’s post, Mr Trump accused Republicans in Texas of being “RINOS” (Republican in name only” in their decision to bring 16 articles of impeachment against Mr Paxton.

“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was easily re-elected last November, but now establishment RINOS are trying to undo that Election with a shameful impeachment of him,” Mr Trump wrote.

Read more:

Trump defends Ken Paxton and calls impeachment trial ‘shameful’

Mike Pence awkwardly dodges question about eating dinner alone with a female vice president

Thursday 14 September 2023 18:30 , Bevan Hurley

Mike Pence refused to say if he would dine alone with a female vice president during a town hall debate in Chicago on Wednesday.

The Republican presidential candidate, 64, awkwardly demurred when quizzed on the issue by NewsNation moderator Leland Vittert, as his wife Karen Pence watched on from the audience.

“One of the things that has been said about how you conduct your personal life is you will not eat alone or meet alone with a woman,” Mr Vittert said, referring to remarks in an infamous 2002 profile of Ms Pence in The Hill, that resurfaced in 2017 when he was vice president.

“How would that work out if you had a female vice president?”

Mr Pence replied with an ironic smile: “That’s a very clever question. It really is.”

Read more:

Mike Pence awkwardly dodges question about eating alone with a female vice president

VIDEO: Michigan secretary of state won't keep Trump off ballot

Thursday 14 September 2023 18:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Appeals court to quickly consider Trump's presidential immunity claim in sex abuse case

Thursday 14 September 2023 18:00 , Larry Neumeister, AP

A federal appeals court will quickly consider former President Donald Trump’s claim that presidential immunity protects him from being held liable for statements he made in 2019 when he denied that he sexually attacked a New York writer in the 1990s, the court said Wednesday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued an order to say it will expedite the appeal a day after Trump attorney Alina Habba told a three-judge panel of the court that the appeal raised “an important question that will affect the delicate balance between the judiciary and the executive branch for many years to come.”

The 2nd Circuit set a schedule for written arguments to be filed within a month.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has set a Jan. 15 date for a jury to decide damages in a long-delayed lawsuit brought by the writer, E. Jean Carroll. She claimed Trump defamed her in 2019 when he said she fabricated claims in a memoir in which she said Trump sexually attacked her in a luxury Manhattan department store in 1996.

In May, a jury rejected Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her in the department store’s dressing room, but it concluded that he sexually abused her. It awarded $5 million for sexual assault and for defamatory remarks that it concluded Trump made last fall. Trump had vehemently denied ever sexually attacking Carroll or encountering her at a store.

Read more:

Appeals court to quickly consider Trump's presidential immunity claim in sex abuse case

From failed presidential candidate to Trump’s Republican nemesis: The rise, fall and rise again of Mitt Romney

Thursday 14 September 2023 17:30 , John Bowden

Mitt Romney is leaving politics. Again.

Utah’s junior senator announced on Wednesday that he would not seek a second term. Mr Romney, 76, noted to reporters that he would be well into his 80s by the end of his next six years in office were he to run again, an otherwise innocent remark that may as well have been a shiv to the sides of the two frontrunners for the 2024 Democratic and Republican nominations.

Ever a creature of the political establishment, Mr Romney announced his move in an interview with The Washington Post, eschewing his hometown papers despite having just spent the entire month of August back in Utah. Concurrently with the interview’s publication, he released a short video message addressed to Utahns on Twitter.

The GOP centrist stalwart was in true form as he announced his retirement. In the Post interview, he derided his own party’s voting base, accusing them of falling for a “populist demagogue” message in either Donald Trump or his would-be replacement, Ron DeSantis.

Read more:

Failed presidential candidate to Trump nemesis: The fall and rise of Mitt Romney

VIDEO: Nancy Pelosi uses suggestive hand gesture to describe Kevin McCarthy

Thursday 14 September 2023 17:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Federal judge rules DACA programme for childhood undocumented ‘Dreamers’ is illegal

Thursday 14 September 2023 17:00 , Graeme Massie

A federal judge in Texas has again ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as youngsters, is illegal.

Judge Andrew Hanen, of the Southern District of Texas, ruled that DACA violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which sets out how agencies make regulations.

The ruling does not impact anyone currently protected under DACA, but the judge banned the government from approving anyone else for it.

“To be clear, neither this order nor the accompanying supplemental injunction requires the (Department of Homeland Security) or the Department of Justice to take any immigration, deportation, or criminal action against any DACA recipient, applicant, or any other individual that would otherwise not be taken,” Judge Hanen wrote.

Texas and eight other states had sued to end the Obama-era DACA programme and the ruling is now expected to be appealed to the US Supreme Court for a third time.

Read more:

Federal judge rules DACA programme for childhood undocumented ‘Dreamers’ is illegal

Meadows withdraws emergency motion to stay the proceedings

Thursday 14 September 2023 16:42 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has withdrawn his emergency motion to stay the proceedings in the Georgia election interference case in Fulton County after Judge Scott McAfee severed the case of ex-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro from the rest of the defendant.

“Mr. Meadows wishes to withdraw his pending requests, presented in his Emergency Motion for Stay Pending Appeal and for Expedited Review, see ECF No. 4, for a stay of the Remand Order, or in the alternative, for an injunction against the State’s prosecution of Mr. Meadows pending appeal,” the motion states.

Why Trump’s DOJ could help Biden with House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry

Thursday 14 September 2023 16:30 , Graeme Massie

A rule on impeachment inquiries put in place by the Justice Department during Donald Trump’s administration could help Joe Biden, according to a report.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced on Tuesday that Republicans would open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden without taking a vote.

However, this goes against a declaration by Mr Trump’s Department of Justice that a formal vote must be taken before any such inquiry can begin, according to Politico.

That ruling was made in January 2020 as then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Democrats would investigate Mr Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The four-times indicted former president was historically impeached twice, the first time being in December 2019 for which Senate Republicans acquitted him.

Read more:

Why Trump’s DOJ could help Biden with House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry

VIDEO: AOC 'thanks' Nancy Mace for listing 'special interests' involved in hearing

Thursday 14 September 2023 16:15 , Gustaf Kilander

How two US senators ended up in the crosshairs of a Georgia grand jury

Thursday 14 September 2023 16:00 , Alex Woodward

Several current and former elected officials – including Georgia’s two former Republican senators – are on a list of prominent Donald Trump allies who narrowly avoided criminal charges in the state’s sweeping racketeering case against him.

The unsealed report from a special purpose grand jury tasked with investigating Trumpworld attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results revealed a much wider picture of the subsequent criminal case against the former president and his 18 co-defendants.

That report – the product of an eight-month investigation separate from an Atlanta grand jury’s indictment – revealed that grand jurors recommend criminal charges against 39 people for nearly 160 counts of violations against more than a dozen state laws.

Read more:

How two US senators ended up in the crosshairs of a Georgia grand jury

Fulton County prosecutors will reveal 30 unindicted co-conspirators to Trump and other Georgia defendants

Thursday 14 September 2023 15:40 , Alex Woodward

Fulton County prosecutors will share the identities of 30 unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators listed throughout a sweeping criminal indictment targeting alleged effort from Donald Trump and his allies to overturn 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Attorneys for co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, Trump-linked attorneys implicated in an alleged criminal enterprise that unlawfully rejected the former president’s loss, have asked a judge to compel prosecutors to reveal those names with them.

During a hearing in Atlanta on 14 September, prosecutors with the Fulton County District Attorney’s office agreed to share those names with the defendants, a practise that Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said is an “otherwise fairly routine part of the discovery” process as the case heads to trial.

Read more:

Georgia prosecutors will reveal unindicted co-conspirators to Trump and co-defendants

Jan 6 rioter compares herself to Jesus as she is sentenced to 30 months in prison

Thursday 14 September 2023 15:30 , Amelia Neath

A January 6 rioter has compared herself to Jesus after she was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for her involvement in the Capitol insurrection.

Yvonne St Cyr, 55, was sentenced on Wednesday to 30 months in jail, 36 months of supervised release, a $1,000 fine and $2,000 restitution to the Architect of the Capitol following her conviction on two felony counts of civil disorder and several misdemeanours.

After the sentence was handed down, she immediately took to Facebook to claim that she now knows how Jesus felt.

“I understood what Jesus felt like when he was in the garden of Gethsemane praying and felt so alone,” she said, according to KTVB.

She then launched a Facebook Live where she stated that “the spirit” assured her that she was not going to go to prison – but that if she did, it would give her “plenty of time to write a book”.

Read more:

Jan 6 rioter compares herself to Jesus as she’s sentenced to 30 months in prison

VIDEO: Pence refuses to say if he would dine alone with a female VP

Thursday 14 September 2023 15:17 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump will be tried separately from Powell and Chesebro in Georgia election interference case, judge rules

Thursday 14 September 2023 15:01 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump and 16 other co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case will be tried separately from lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, the judge in the case has ruled.

“Defendants Chesebro and Powell will join each other at trial, however, the other 17 defendants are severed from these two. Additional severances may follow. All pretrial deadlines will proceed as scheduled without a stay of proceedings,” Judge Scott McAfee at the Superior Court of Fulton County wrote in a ruling issued on Thursday.

The move comes after Mr Chesebro and Ms Powell invoked their right to a speedy trial, the judge noted.

Read more:

Trump will be tried separately from Powell and Chesebro in Georgia case, judge rules

Ted Cruz calls Biden impeachment evidence circumstantial

Thursday 14 September 2023 15:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Texas Senator Ted Cruz declared that any evidence against President Joe Biden is only circumstantial, arguing convictions have been based on such evidence in the past.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced an impeachment inquiry into Mr Biden on Tuesday, claiming that there are serious allegations of corruption, including that Mr Biden worked to aid his son’s foreign business interests while he was vice president and that he benefitted financially from the arrangement.

No public evidence has been shared to substantiate the claims against the president.

“It’s pretty damn good evidence – circumstantial evidence – people are convicted and sent to jail every day of the week based on circumstantial evidence,” Mr Cruz said on Fox News. “Circumstantial evidence is you draw inferences from the circumstances.”

Ted Cruz says evidence for Biden impeachment inquiry is circumstantial

Hunter Biden sues former Trump aide over laptop hacking

Thursday 14 September 2023 14:40 , Alex Woodward

Attorneys for Hunter Biden have filed a lawsuit accusing a former Trump-era White House aide of launching a “sustained, unhinged and obsessed campaign” against President Joe Biden’s son and the Biden family, including hacking the alleged contents of a laptop.

Since leaving Donald Trump’s administration, Garrett Ziegler has “devoted most of his waking time and energy to accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and otherwise using” allegedly compromised computer and iPhone data, emails and photos, according to the lawsuit filed in US District Court in California on 13 September.

“While Defendant Ziegler is entitled to his extremist and counterfactual opinions, he has no right to engage in illegal activities to advance his right-wing agenda,” the suit alleges.

Hunter Biden sues former Trump aide tied to laptop hack

Ramaswamy pitches mass federal layoffs

Thursday 14 September 2023 14:20 , AP

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday laid out his ideas to shut down the FBI and fire more than 1 million federal workers, lining up with increasingly sweeping conservative proposals targeting the federal government and particularly law enforcement.

Candidates trying to beat former President Donald Trump have responded to growing anger among GOP primary voters about the indictments against Trump as well as federal investigations and policies seen as unfairly targeting conservatives.

Ramaswamy’s proposals are among the broadest in the field. Speaking at the America First Policy Institute in Washington, he said he would try to reduce the federal employee headcount by half in his first year in office and by 75% during his first term if he makes it to the White House.

Continued...

Trump delights in Mitt Romney not seeking re-election

Thursday 14 September 2023 14:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump has reacted with glee that one of his chief foes, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, is not seeking re-election.

The Republican senator and former presidential nominee in the 2012 election announced he would not seek a second term in the Senate.

Mr Romney, who also served as the governor of Massachusetts, has held the seat since 2018 and said in a video message that at the age of 76 he did not think he would be capable of continuing in the role.

In response to the news that one of his most vocal critics was stepping away from politics, the former president took to his social media platform Truth Social in celebration.

In an all-caps post, he wrote: “Fantastic news for America, the great state of Utah, & for the Republican Party.”

Here’s what else Trump wrote.

Trump: Putin using Biden’s ‘illegal Banana Republic style treatment’ of him to condemn US

Thursday 14 September 2023 13:40 , John Bowden

Donald Trump newest complaint about his four criminal prosecutions: They are supposedly ammo for Vladimir Putin as he criticises the United States.

The ex-president took to Truth Social on Wednesday to protest what he derided as “illegal Banana Republic style treatment” of him by the US government — continuing his baseless insistence that Joe Biden is somehow involved in the separate cases against him.

“The whole World is watching as the USA is being torn apart by dreams of Election Interference!” the ex-president wailed.

Worth mentioning, a “banana republic” is a term to describe politically unstable nations with few constitutional protections, derived from South and Central American dictatorships typically propped up by the United States. The capitalised alternative, “Banana Republic”, is a famous clothing brand.

Trump says Putin using Biden’s ‘Banana Republic style treatment’ of him to condemn US

Might Trump go to prison?

Thursday 14 September 2023 13:20 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump faces four criminal indictments in three separate jurisdictions. Nearly 100 felony criminal charges are leveled against the former president, who remains the odds-on favourite to win the 2024 Republican primary.

As his legal battles grow more complex by the day, a serious question has emerged: Whether Mr Trump will win the nomination and campaign for the general election as a convicted criminal.

That possibility, in turn, raises another, simpler question: Will the 45th President of the United States go to prison?

Will Donald Trump go to prison?

Can Trump still run for president after four indictments?

Thursday 14 September 2023 13:00 , Oliver O'Connell

It’s complicated and the framers of the Constitution probably didn’t think Donald Trump’s unique situation would arise, but here we are...

Mr Trump remains the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination for president and has insisted that he will remain in the race regardless of any outcome of the criminal cases against him.

He also has relied on news of the investigations and indictments to raise money for his campaign, which has netted millions of dollars from sympathetic supporters buying into his “political persecution” narrative.

But with potential convictions and judgments in both federal and state indictments and with multi-million dollar lawsuits to fight, what will all of this rolling chaos mean for Mr Trump’s political future?

Continued...

Pence gives hilarious deadpan response to heckler at Iowa campaign event

Thursday 14 September 2023 12:40 , Oliver O'Connell

Mike Pence is characterised as unflappable and someone who keeps his cool in the face of adversity.

While he can get fired up on the campaign trail when dealing with more emotive issues, he also appears to know when to engage and when not to.

This was especially evident at an event in which the former vice president was sipping coffee and meeting voters out on the 2024 campaign trail in Iowa.

As Mr Pence chatted with a crowd of older people, a heckler appeared in an open doorway to the shock of event organisers.

The bearded man in a black baseball cap then shouted into the room at the former vice president.

Here’s what happened next:

Mike Pence gives hilarious deadpan response to heckler at Iowa 2024 campaign event