Trump news – live: Georgia DA says Trump 2020 case is ‘ready to go’ as Mar-a-Lago worker heads to court

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said that the investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia is “ready to go” – in a hint suggesting a potential indictment could be imminent.

“The work is accomplished,” she told WXIA over the weekend. “We’ve been working for two and half years. We’re ready to go.”

DA Willis said that there will be people unhappy with the outcome of the probe and praised the actions of local officials who ramped up security around the courthouse in Georgia last week.

The DA previously indicated that any charging decisions would likely come in August.

Separately, an indictment may also come soon in DOJ special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and into the January 6 Capitol riot.

This comes after Mr Smith’s office added additional charges against the former president in the case involving his handling of classified documents on leaving the White House. Last week, Mar-a-Lago worker Carlos Oliveira was charged in the case, becoming the third defendant.

The property manager will appear in court on the charges on Monday.

Key points

• Georgia DA says Trump 2020 election probe is ‘ready to go’

• Mar-a-Lago worker Carlos Oliveira to appear in court today

• Trump goes after Special Counsel Jack Smith

• Trump attempts to link his legal woes to Hunter Biden

• Only four out of dozens of former Trump cabinet members say he should be re-elected

Judge rejects Trump suit to block Fulton County DA's election probe

15:44 , John Bowden

A Georgia judge has rejected former president Donald Trump’s attempt to block Fulton County DA Fani Willis from bringing indictments against him or anyone else based on the results of a special grand jury investigation into his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in the Peach State.

In March, Mr Trump sued to have Ms Willis barred from indicting him based on any evidence uncovered during the special grand jury probe and asked to have Ms Willis disqualified from any further investigation or prosecution of his alleged interference in the election he lost to President Joe Biden.

Read more in The Independent:

Judge rejects Trump suit to block Fulton County DA’s election probe

Trump trolls DeSantis with ‘awkward’ video of Florida governor wiping his nose with hand while greeting people

14:30 , John Bowden

Former president Donald Trump mocked Ron DeSantis, his chief rival in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, on Sunday evening by posting a video of the Florida governor wiping his nose with his hand while greeting people.

Mr Trump posted the video on his Truth Social site, which featured the children’s song “One of These Things is Not Like the Other” with Mr DeSantis talking with supporters while holding a beer. The video was created on the right-wing video site Rumble by the pro-Trump Dilley Meme Team.

Watch here:

Trump trolls DeSantis with video of governor wiping his nose while greeting people

Trump, amid legal perils, calls on GOP to rally around him as he threatens primary challenges

14:00 , Jill Colvin, AP

At a moment of growing legal peril, Donald Trump ramped up his calls for his GOP rivals to drop out of the 2024 presidential race as he threatened to primary Republican members of Congress who fail to focus on investigating Democratic President Joe Biden and urged them to halt Ukrainian military aid until the White House cooperates with their investigations into Biden and his family.

“Every dollar spent attacking me by Republicans is a dollar given straight to the Biden campaign,” Trump said at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night. The former president and GOP frontrunner said it was time for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others he dismissed as “clowns” to clear the field, accusing them of “wasting hundreds of millions of dollars that Republicans should be using to build a massive vote-gathering operation” to take on Biden in November.

Read more:

Trump, amid legal perils, calls on GOP to rally around him as he threatens primary challenges

Mar-a-Lago IT worker hit with target letter from DOJ in classified documents probe

13:30 , Rachel Sharp

A Mar-a-Lago IT worker has been hit with a target letter from the DOJ as part of its probe into Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents on leaving the White House.

Sources told CNN that Yuscil Taveras, who oversees the surveillance cameras at the Florida club, received a letter from federal prosecutors telling him he was a target of the investigation after Mr Trump was first indicted in the case in early June.

Mr Taveras has met with investigators in the case though it is unclear if he is cooperating with prosecutors.

The Mar-a-Lago staffer has not been charged with any crime.

He was mentioned – named only as Trump Employee 4 – in the superseding indictment issued last week.

Trump rehearses defence over possible election lies charges at Pennsylvania rally

13:00 , Eric Garcia

Former president Donald Trump floated his potential defence for the charges he may face for promoting lies about the election during a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The already-twice-impeached and twice-indicted former president now faces a potential third indictment for spreading lies about the 2020 presidential election and the attack on the Capitol that was fuelled by them.

But speaking to the crowd in Pennsylvania, a state where he lost 43 lawsuits as he tried to dispute the 2020 presidential election results, Mr Trump pushed back on the potential accusations.

“Why didn’t the corrupt Marxist prosecutors bring these radical and unjustified charges against me two and a half years ago,” Mr Trump asked the crowd. “They had two and a half years. Two and a half years. Nobody even knew they were looking at it. I don’t think they were.”

Read more:

Trump rehearses defence over possible election lies charges at Pennsylvania rally

RECAP: More charges filed against Trump

12:30 , Rachel Sharp

Only four out of dozens of former Trump cabinet members say he should be re-elected

12:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Only four out of dozens of former Trump cabinet members say he should be re-elected in 2024.

NBC News contacted 44 of those who served in then-President Donald Trump’s cabinet between 2017 and 2021. While many declined to comment or didn’t answer, only four have publicly endorsed Mr Trump for the office he once held.

Several of them have been trying to remain as neutral as possible as the Republican primary plays out. There are those who oppose Mr Trump’s return to the presidency. Former Attorney General Bill Barr told NBC, “I have made clear that I strongly oppose Trump for the nomination and will not endorse Trump”.

Mr Barr was asked how he would cast his vote if the 2024 general election ended up being a rematch between Mr Trump and President Joe Biden.

“I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it,” he said.

Read more:

Only four out of dozens of former Trump cabinet members say he should be re-elected

Carlos Oliveira to appear in court today

11:30 , Rachel Sharp

An employee of Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago estate, Carlos De Oliveira, is expected to make his first court appearance Monday on charges accusing him of scheming with the former president to hide security footage from investigators probing Trump’s hoarding of classified documents.

De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s property manager, was added last week to the indictment with Trump and the former president’s valet, Walt Nauta, in the federal case alleging a plot to illegally keep top-secret records at Trump’s Florida estate and thwart government efforts to retrieve them.

De Oliveira faces charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to investigators.

He’s scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge in Miami nearly two months after Trump pleaded not guilty in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

Trump returns to first impeachment roots by saying Ukraine aid should be linked to Biden probes

11:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump returned to the roots of his first impeachment when he suggested that aid to Ukraine should be conditioned on congressional investigations of President Joe Biden.

The former president called for Republicans in Congress to hold back on more support for Ukraine until the White House cooperates with their probes into the business dealings of Mr Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

The Saturday night tirade at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania echoed the conduct that led to Mr Trump’s first of his two impeachments when he used military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into then-candidate Biden in 2019.

“Congress should refuse to authorize a single additional shipment of our depleted weapons stockpiles … to Ukraine until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden Crime Family’s corrupt business dealings,” Mr Trump said on Saturday.

He argued that all Republicans who don’t join the efforts should be challenged in their primaries – Mr Trump endorsed challengers in the 2022 midterms of the Republicans who voted for his impeachment after the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Read more:

Trump returns to impeachment by saying Ukraine aid should be linked to Biden probes

Georgia DA says Trump 2020 election probe is ‘ready to go’

10:30 , Rachel Sharp

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said that the investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia is “ready to go” – in a hint suggesting a potential indictment could be imminent.

“The work is accomplished,” she told WXIA over the weekend. “We’ve been working for two and half years. We’re ready to go.”

DA Willis said that there will be people unhappy with the outcome of the probe and praised the actions of local officials who ramped up security around the courthouse in Georgia last week.

“I think that the sheriff is doing something smart in making sure that the courthouse stays safe,” she said.

“I’m not willing to put any of the employees or the constituents that come to the courthouse in harm’s way.”

The DA previously indicated that any charging decisions would likely come in August.

Joe Biden, America's oldest sitting president, needs young voters to win again. Will his age matter?

10:00 , AP

At 24, Alberto Rodriguez has grandparents younger than Joe Biden. But he’s more interested in the 80-year-old president’s accomplishments than his age.

“People as young as me, we’re all focusing on our day-to-day lives and he has done things to help us through that,” Rodriguez, a cook at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, said of Biden’s support among young voters. Rodriguez pointed specifically to federal COVID-19 relief payments and government spending increases on infrastructure and other social programs.

Voters like him were a key piece of Biden’s winning 2020 coalition, which included majorities of young people as well as college graduates, women, urban and suburban voters and Black Americans. Maintaining their support will be critical in closely contested states such as Nevada, where even small declines could prove consequential to Biden’s reelection bid.

His 2024 campaign plans to emphasize messages that could especially resonate with young people in the coming weeks as the anniversary of the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act approaches in mid-August. That legislation includes provisions that the White House will embrace to argue that Biden has done more than any other president to combat climate change.

Such efforts, however, could collide with Biden’s personal reality — like when he recalled that, while attending a St. Patrick’s Day parade at age 14, he appeared in a photo with President Harry S. Truman.

Read more:

Joe Biden, America's oldest sitting president, needs young voters to win again. Will his age matter?

Who’s qualified for the GOP debates: Doug Burgum

09:00 , AP

Burgum, a wealthy former software entrepreneur now in his second term as North Dakota’s governor, has been using his fortune to boost his campaign.

He announced a program this month to give away $20 gift cards — “Biden Relief Cards,” as a critique of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy — to as many as 50,000 people in exchange for $1 donations. Critics have questioned whether the offer violated campaign finance law.

Within about a week of launching that effort, Burgum announced he had surpassed the donor threshold. Ad blitzes in the early-voting states also helped him meet the polling requirements.

Who’s qualified for the GOP debates: Chris Christie

08:00 , AP

The former New Jersey governor opened his campaign by portraying himself as the only candidate ready to take on Trump. Christie called on the former president to “show up at the debates and defend his record.”

Christie will be on that stage, even if Trump isn’t, telling CNN this month that he surpassed “40,000 unique donors in just 35 days.” He also has met the polling requirements.

Who’s qualified for the GOP debates: Vivek Ramaswamy

07:00 , AP

The biotech entrepreneur and author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam” is an audience favorite at multicandidate events and has polled well despite not being nationally known when he entered the race.

Ramaswamy’s campaign says he met the donor threshold earlier this year. He recently rolled out “Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet” to boost his donor numbers even more, by letting fundraisers keep 10% of what they bring in for his campaign.

Who’s qualified for the GOP debates: Nikki Haley

06:00 , AP

She has blitzed early-voting states with campaign events, walking crowds through her electoral successes ousting a longtime incumbent South Carolina lawmaker, then becoming the state’s first woman and first minority governor. Also serving as Trump’s U.N. ambassador for about two years, Haley frequently cites her international experience, arguing about the threat China poses to the United States.

The only woman in the GOP race, Haley has said transgender students competing in sports is “the women’s issue of our time” and has drawn praise from a leading anti-abortion group, which called her “uniquely gifted at communicating from a pro-life woman’s perspective.”

Bringing in $15.6 million since the start of her campaign, Haley’s campaign says she has “well over 40,000 unique donors” and has satisfied the debate polling requirements.

Who’s qualified for the GOP debates: Tim Scott

05:00 , AP

The South Carolina senator has been looking for a breakout moment. The first debate could be his chance.

A prolific fundraiser, Scott enters the summer with $21 million cash on hand.

In one debate-approved poll in Iowa, Scott joined Trump and DeSantis in reaching double digits. The senator has focused much of his campaign resources on the leadoff GOP voting state, which is dominated by white evangelical voters.

Trump says DeSantis wouldn’t have won 2018 governor’s race even if ‘George Washington and Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead'

04:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Who’s qualified for the GOP debates: Ron DeSantis

03:15 , AP

The Florida governor has long been seen as Trump’s top rival, finishing a distant second to him in a series of polls in early-voting states, as well as national polls, and raising an impressive amount of money.

But DeSantis’ campaign has struggled in recent weeks to live up to the sky-high expectations that awaited him when he entered the race. He let go of more than one-third of his staff as federal filings showed his campaign was burning through cash at an unsustainable rate.

If Trump is absent, DeSantis may be the top target on stage at the debate.

Trump claims to be getting calls from DeSantis donors

02:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against CNN over 'the Big Lie' dismissed in Florida

01:45 , AP

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN in which the former U.S. president claimed that the network’s referring to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” was tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

Trump had been seeking punitive damages of $475 million in the federal lawsuit filed last October in South Florida, claiming the references hurt his reputation and political career. Trump is a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in what is his third run for the presidency.

U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, who was appointed by Trump, said Friday in his ruling that the former president’s defamation claims failed because the references were opinions and not factual statements. Moreover, it was a stretch to believe that, in viewers’ minds, that phrase would connect Trump’s efforts challenging the 2020 election results to Nazi propaganda or Hitler’s genocidal and authoritarian regime, the judge said.

Read more:

Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against CNN over 'the Big Lie' dismissed in Florida

Trump says Philadelphia ‘has gone to hell'

01:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Chris Christie slams Trumps as ‘Corleones with no experience’

Monday 31 July 2023 00:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Chris Christie launched yet another attack on former President Donald Trump and his team following the filing of further charges against him in relation to his handling of classified documents.

The former New Jersey governor and ex-Trump ally called the Trump team “the Corleones with no experience” in reference to the crime family in the Godfather movies.

“This is bad stuff. And you can’t say there was no underlying potential crime here,” Mr Christie said on CNN on Sunday.

“This was the withholding of confidential classified information from the government. After 18 months of asking Donald Trump to return it voluntarily, not only did he not return it. He lied about having it,” he added.

In the updated indictment, prosecutors state that two of Mr Trump’s employees, Walt Nauta, an aide, and maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira, tried to delete surveillance footage at Mar-A-Lago, Mr Trump’s private club and residence in Florida, after the Department of Justice had issued a subpoena seeking the footage.

Read more:

Chris Christie slams Trumps as ‘Corleones with no experience’

Who’s qualified for the GOP debates: Donald Trump

Monday 31 July 2023 00:15 , AP

The current front-runner long ago satisfied the polling and donor thresholds. But he is considering boycotting and holding a competing event.

Campaign advisers have said the former president has not made a final decision about the debate. One noted that “it’s pretty clear,” based on Trump’s public and private statements, that he is unlikely to appear with the other candidates.

“If you’re leading by a lot, what’s the purpose of doing it?” Trump asked on Newsmax.

In the meantime, aides have discussed potential alternative programming if Trump opts for a rival event. One option Trump has floated is an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who now has a program on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

Nikki Haley urges McConnell and Feinstein to ‘walk away’ after recent health concerns

Monday 31 July 2023 00:00 , John Bowden

Nikki Haley is once again pressing Washington’s greying political establishment to step aside after a pair of concerning moments involving two of the Senate’s oldest members grabbed headlines in recent days.

The former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador spoke to CBS’s Margaret Brennan in an interview that aired on Sunday; she is currently campaigning in early primary states as she seeks the GOP nomination for president. A central tenet of her campaign’s message since its onset has been a call for a new generation of leaders to take the helm in both parties.

As such, Brennan asked her about the moment that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell froze and appeared unable to speak at a press conference on Wednesday, after which he was led away by a colleauge. It was later revealed that the Senate GOP leader had suffered an undisclosed fall earlier in July while still recovering from a concussion suffered in the spring.

“I think Mitch McConnell did an amazing job when it comes to our judiciary. When we look at the judges, when we look at the Supreme Court, he’s been a great leader. But I do think that this is one – you know, we’ve got to stop electing people because they look good in the picture or they hold a baby well,” she told CBS News.

Read more:

Nikki Haley urges McConnell and Feinstein to ‘walk away’ after recent health concerns

Trump bashes timeline of his indictments

Sunday 30 July 2023 23:30 , Gustaf Kilander

‘Do you not think that’s something he could’ve gotten done’

Sunday 30 July 2023 23:05 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump calls on Republicans to halt authorization of additional military support to Ukraine

Sunday 30 July 2023 22:45 , AP

Trump, during the 2022 midterm elections, made it his mission to punish those who had voted in favor of his second impeachment and succeeded in unseating most who had by backing primary challengers.

At the rally, Trump also called on Republican members of Congress to halt the authorization of additional military support to Ukraine, which has been mired in a war fighting Russia’s invasion, until the Biden administration cooperates with Republican investigations into Biden and his family’s business dealings — words that echoed the call that lead to his first impeachment.

“He’s dragging into a global conflict on behalf of the very same country, Ukraine, that apparently paid his family all of these millions of dollars,” Trump alleged. “In light of this information,” Congress, he said, “should refuse to authorize a single additional payment of our depleted stockpiles ... the weapons stockpiles to Ukraine until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden crime family’s corrupt business dealings.”

House Republicans have been investigating the Biden family’s finances, particularly payments Hunter, the president’s son, received from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that became tangled in the first impeachment of Trump.

An unnamed confidential FBI informant claimed that Burisma company officials in 2015 and 2016 sought to pay the Bidens $5 million each in return for their help ousting a Ukrainian prosecutor who was purportedly investigating the company. But a Justice Department review in 2020, while Trump was president, was closed eight months later with insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.

Trump’s first impeachment by the House resulted in charges that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on the Bidens while threatening to withhold military aid. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate.

Right-wing TV host at Trump rally denies he wants to kill liberals, globalists, and RINOs

Sunday 30 July 2023 22:20 , Gustaf Kilander

A broadcaster at the rightwing network Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) interrupted the programming ahead of former President Donald Trump’s rally in Erie, Pennsylvania to reject the notion that he wanted to kill liberals, globalists, and insufficiently conservative or Trump-supporting Republicans, known as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only).

Matthew Alvarez said on Saturday that “There is something that is trending on Twitter right now ... I was interviewing people ... they were talking about how great the country is, how great the president is, and I heard something else that was spoken ... what I’m hearing is somebody said, ‘Well let’s kill them all.’ That is not something that I agree with, obviously,” he said, according to RawStory.

Footage from the pre-rally interviews shows a Trump supporter saying that he will “guarantee” that Mr Trump gets back into the White House. He’s then asked what his opinion is on the globalists and RINOs and he appears to respond “Kill them all” to which Mr Alvarez says “I agree with you on that”.

Read more:

Right-wing TV host at Trump rally denies he wants to kill liberals and RINOs

Trump goes after Special Counsel Jack Smith

Sunday 30 July 2023 22:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Who's in, who's out: A look at which candidates have qualified for the 1st GOP presidential debate

Sunday 30 July 2023 21:30 , AP

With less than a month to go until the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 campaign, seven candidates say they have met qualifications for a spot on stage in Milwaukee.

But that also means that about half the broad GOP field is running short on time to make the cut.

To qualify for the Aug. 23 debate, candidates needed 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 July 1 and Aug. 21, and a minimum of 40,000 donors, with 200 in 20 or more states.

A look at who’s in, who’s (maybe) out and who’s still working on making it:

Who's in, who's out: A look at which candidates have qualified for the 1st GOP presidential debate

Trump attempts to link his legal woes to Hunter Biden

Sunday 30 July 2023 21:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Only four out of dozens of former Trump cabinet members say he should be re-elected

Sunday 30 July 2023 20:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Only four out of dozens of former Trump cabinet members say he should be re-elected in 2024.

NBC News contacted 44 of those who served in then-President Donald Trump’s cabinet between 2017 and 2021. While many declined to comment or didn’t answer, only four have publicly endorsed Mr Trump for the office he once held.

Several of them have been trying to remain as neutral as possible as the Republican primary plays out. There are those who oppose Mr Trump’s return to the presidency. Former Attorney General Bill Barr told NBC, “I have made clear that I strongly oppose Trump for the nomination and will not endorse Trump”.

Mr Barr was asked how he would cast his vote if the 2024 general election ended up being a rematch between Mr Trump and President Joe Biden.

“I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it,” he said.

Read more:

Only four out of dozens of former Trump cabinet members say he should be re-elected

Trump rally attendees boo Mike Pence

Sunday 30 July 2023 20:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump returns to first impeachment roots by saying Ukraine aid should be linked to Biden probes

Sunday 30 July 2023 19:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump returned to the roots of his first impeachment when he suggested that aid to Ukraine should be conditioned on congressional investigations of President Joe Biden.

The former president called for Republicans in Congress to hold back on more support for Ukraine until the White House cooperates with their probes into the business dealings of Mr Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

The Saturday night tirade at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania echoed the conduct that led to Mr Trump’s first of his two impeachments when he used military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into then-candidate Biden in 2019.

“Congress should refuse to authorize a single additional shipment of our depleted weapons stockpiles … to Ukraine until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden Crime Family’s corrupt business dealings,” Mr Trump said on Saturday.

He argued that all Republicans who don’t join the efforts should be challenged in their primaries – Mr Trump endorsed challengers in the 2022 midterms of the Republicans who voted for his impeachment after the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Read more:

Trump returns to impeachment by saying Ukraine aid should be linked to Biden probes

Trump threatens Republicans in Congress who refuse to go along with efforts to impeach Biden

Sunday 30 July 2023 19:00 , AP

At the rally — held in a former Democratic stronghold that Trump flipped in 2016, but Biden won narrowly in 2020 — Trump also threatened Republicans in Congress who refuse to go along with efforts to impeach Biden. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said this past week that Republican lawmakers may consider an impeachment inquiry into the president over unproven claims of financial misconduct.

Trump, who was impeached twice while in office, said Saturday that, “The biggest complaint that I get is that the Republicans find out this information and then they do nothing about it.”

“Any Republican that doesn’t act on Democrat fraud should be immediately primaries and get out — out!” he told the crowd to loud applause. “They have to play tough and ... if they’re not willing to do it, we got a lot of good, tough Republicans around ... and they’re going to get my endorsement every single time.”

VIDEO: Trump takes aim at Atlanta DA

Sunday 30 July 2023 18:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump PAC spent $40m on legal fees in six months

Sunday 30 July 2023 18:00 , AP

The investigations are sucking up enormous resources that are being diverted from the nuts and bolts of the campaign. The Washington Post first reported Saturday that Trump’s political action committee, Save America, will report Monday that it spent more than $40 million on legal fees during the first half of 2023 defending Trump and all of the current and former aides whose lawyers it is paying. The total is more than the campaign raised during the second quarter of the year.

“In order to combat these heinous actions by Joe Biden’s cronies and to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed, the leadership PAC contributed to their legal fees to ensure they have representation against unlawful harassment,” said Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung.

VIDEO: Trump notes China’s military buildup

Sunday 30 July 2023 17:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump turns indictments into core message to return to White House

Sunday 30 July 2023 17:00 , AP

Trump remains the dominant early frontrunner for the Republican nomination and has only seen his lead grow as the charges have mounted and as his rivals have struggled to respond. Their challenge was on display at a GOP gathering in Iowa Friday night, where they largely declined to go after Trump directly. The only one who did — accusing Trump of “running to stay out of prison” — was booed as he left the stage.

In the meantime, Trump has embraced his legal woes, turning them into the core message of his bid to return to the White House as he accuses Biden of using the Justice Department to maim his chief political rival. The White House has said repeatedly that the president has had no involvement in the cases.

At rallies — including Saturday’s — Trump has tried to frame the charges, which come with serious threats of jail time, as an attack not just on him, but those who support him.

“They’re not indicting me, they’re indicting you. I just happen to be standing in the way,” he told the arena crowd in Erie, adding that, “Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it actually a great badge of honor.... Because I’m being indicted for you.”

Trump uses ‘classic authoritarian discourse’ at PA rally

Sunday 30 July 2023 16:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump, amid legal perils, calls on GOP to rally around him as he threatens primary challenges

Sunday 30 July 2023 16:00 , Jill Colvin, AP

At a moment of growing legal peril, Donald Trump ramped up his calls for his GOP rivals to drop out of the 2024 presidential race as he threatened to primary Republican members of Congress who fail to focus on investigating Democratic President Joe Biden and urged them to halt Ukrainian military aid until the White House cooperates with their investigations into Biden and his family.

“Every dollar spent attacking me by Republicans is a dollar given straight to the Biden campaign,” Trump said at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night. The former president and GOP frontrunner said it was time for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others he dismissed as “clowns” to clear the field, accusing them of “wasting hundreds of millions of dollars that Republicans should be using to build a massive vote-gathering operation” to take on Biden in November.

Read more:

Trump, amid legal perils, calls on GOP to rally around him as he threatens primary challenges

VIDEO: Trump calls Biden a ‘dumb son of a b****'

Sunday 30 July 2023 15:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump rehearses defence over possible election lies charges at Pennsylvania rally

Sunday 30 July 2023 15:00 , Eric Garcia

Former president Donald Trump floated his potential defence for the charges he may face for promoting lies about the election during a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The already-twice-impeached and twice-indicted former president now faces a potential third indictment for spreading lies about the 2020 presidential election and the attack on the Capitol that was fuelled by them.

But speaking to the crowd in Pennsylvania, a state where he lost 43 lawsuits as he tried to dispute the 2020 presidential election results, Mr Trump pushed back on the potential accusations.

“Why didn’t the corrupt Marxist prosecutors bring these radical and unjustified charges against me two and a half years ago,” Mr Trump asked the crowd. “They had two and a half years. Two and a half years. Nobody even knew they were looking at it. I don’t think they were.”

Read more:

Trump rehearses defence over possible election lies charges at Pennsylvania rally

Video shows crowd size and Trump rally in Erie, Pennsylvania

Sunday 30 July 2023 14:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Is Donald Trump going to prison?

Sunday 30 July 2023 14:00 , Andrew Feinberg

Donald Trump has already been indicted twice. By the end of the summer, he may be the subject of as many as four criminal cases.

The latest episode in his legal peril appeared to be taking shape on Thursday 27 July, when the ex-president’s legal team met with the prosecution team led by Special Counsel Jack Smith in a last-ditch attempt to convince Mr Smith and his team from seeking another indictment against Mr Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

That same day, the special counsel’s team hit Mr Trump with superseding charges in federal court in Florida. Officials accused the former president and an employee at his Mar-a-Lago club of attempting to destroy security camera footage once Mr Trump learned he was under subpoena in the investigation over his handling of classified documents.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump said prosecutors notified him that he was also a target of Mr Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The former president is understood to be facing the possibility of charges under three federal criminal statutes: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law, and witness tampering.

Read more:

Is Donald Trump going to prison?

‘They’re not indicting me. They’re indicting you,’ Trump says at Pennsylvania rally

Sunday 30 July 2023 13:30 , Gustaf Kilander

How a bombshell leaked tape landed Trump with his latest criminal charge

Sunday 30 July 2023 13:00 , Rachel Sharp

One day in the summer of 2021, Donald Trump sat down for an interview at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

His former chief of staff Mark Meadows was writing his memoir, The Chief’s Chief, and a writer and publisher for the book had come to meet with the former president.

During the recorded conversation that followed, he boasted about possessing “highly confidential” military documents about Iran as the group laughed at his jokes about his political rivals – in particular Hillary Clinton.

Little did Mr Trump know that leaked audio of this conversation might one day lead to his downfall.

Just over two years later, on 27 July 2023, this conversation landed the former president with one of the latest charges in a mounting criminal case over his handling of classified documents since leaving the White House.

Read more:

How a bombshell leaked tape landed Trump with his latest criminal charge

‘Poetic’: Trump takes stage in Iowa to song about going to prison

Sunday 30 July 2023 12:00 , Gustaf Kilander and Andrew Feinberg

Donald Trump took the stage at the Iowa Republican Dinner to a song that started out with the lyrics, “One could end up going to prison, one just might be president”.

The ironic moment came as the former president’s legal woes are mounting. Mr Trump has already been indicted twice. By the end of the summer, he may be the subject of as many as four criminal cases.

The latest episode in his legal peril appeared to be taking shape on Thursday 27 July, when the ex-president’s legal team met with the prosecution team led by Special Counsel Jack Smith in a last-ditch attempt to convince Mr Smith and his team from seeking another indictment against Mr Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

That same day, the special counsel’s team hit Mr Trump with superseding charges in federal court in Florida. Officials accused the former president and an employee at his Mar-a-Lago club of attempting to destroy security camera footage once Mr Trump learned he was under subpoena in the investigation over his handling of classified documents.

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‘Poetic’: Trump takes stage in Iowa to song about going to prison

GOP White House hopeful Will Hurd booed off stage for saying Trump is running to stay out of prison

Sunday 30 July 2023 11:00 , Andrea Blanco

GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd was booed by a crowd after he accused Donald Trump of running for office for a third time in a desperate attempt to avoid prison.

Mr Hurd made the anti-Trump remarks at the 2023 Lincoln Dinner hosted by the Iowa Republican Party on Friday. The 45-year-old former Texas representative and CIA officer became one of the few Republican presidential candidates to publicly criticize Mr Trump over the litany of legal troubles the former president is currently facing.

“Donald Trump is not running for president to make America great again, Donald Trump is not running to represent the people who voted for him in 2016 and 2020, Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison,” he told the 1,200-people crowd in Des Moine. “Listen, I know the truth is hard. But if we elect Donald Trump we are willingly giving Joe Biden four more years in the White House and America can’t handle that.”

Amid booing from the audience, Mr Hurd went on to wrap up his speech and get off stage. But despite the crowd’s audible reaction as evidence of Mr Trump’s hold on the Republican party, Mr Hurd has since doubled down on his stance.

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GOP White House hopeful Will Hurd booed off stage for anti-Trump remarks

Video: Donald Trump walks on stage to song lyrics about going to prison

Sunday 30 July 2023 10:00 , Benji Salmon

Trump attorney claims Trump is truthful because he’s named his social media platform ‘Truth Social'

Sunday 30 July 2023 09:00 , Gustaf Kilander

‘Two more coming, I guess?’

Sunday 30 July 2023 08:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday to slam the federal prosecutors investigating him in multiple probes.

“Why did the Radical Left Democrat Prosecutors wait so long to bring these ridiculous cases against me,” he asked. “They could have been brought years ago but no, they waited to bring them in the middle of my campaign for President because that way they could Interfere and disturb my run for the White House. Two more coming, I guess? What they didn’t count on is the fact that the people of America understand these thugs and lowlifes, and my poll numbers have only gone up!”

Trump takes aim at Will Hurd after ex-congressman blasts him at Iowa GOP dinner

Sunday 30 July 2023 07:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Former President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday: “In Iowa last night I noticed that a little known, failed former Congressman, Will Hurd, is ridiculously running for President.”

“He quit Congress because it would have been impossible for him to win in his district - he did a really bad job. Anyway, he got SERIOUSLY booed off the stage when he said I was running ‘to stay out of jail.’ Wrong, if I wasn’t running, or running and doing badly (like him & Christie!), with no chance to win, these prosecutions would never have been brought or happened!” he added.

Trump rally attendee makes bizarre claims about 2020 election in New York

Sunday 30 July 2023 06:00 , Gustaf Kilander