What we know so far
Thank you for reading along as we learn the latest on the criminal charges being brought against Donald Trump. As always, you can find more of our coverage and analysis here.
Here’s a quick recap of today’s developments:
Former US president Donald Trump faces 37 counts in connection with keeping hundreds of classified documents in his possession after leaving the White House, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.
The National Archives issued a rare statement to respond to misleading statements made by Trump’s legal team. Detailing aspects of the Presidential Records Act, the Archives made it clear that “there is no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office.”
Trump twice disclosed national security information in separate incidents in 2021 and took steps to retain classified documents that he knew he could not keep because they had been subpoenaed by the justice department, the indictment reads.
The former president also hoarded materials of the highest sensitivity after he left the White House, including documents on US nuclear programmes, potential military vulnerabilities of the US and allies, and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, it says.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, said in a brief remarks Friday that his office intended to seek “a speedy trial” against Trump, adding that was “consistent with the public interest”. However, Smith did not say exactly when a trial may be possible.
The indictment also named Trump’s former valet, Walt Nauta, as a co-defendant, alleging that he entered into a conspiracy with Trump to obstruct justice, withheld documents or records, corruptly concealed documents in a federal investigation, engaged in a scheme to conceal and made false statements.
Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm ET. Posting on Truth Social, Trump announced he would be represented by defence lawyer Todd Blanche, while his attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley released a statement to say that they had quit working for him.
A federal judge appointed by Trump who last year drew scrutiny for a ruling that was seen as deferential to the former president may oversee proceedings in the case over his possession of classified documents, a source familiar with the summons told the Guardian.
Have a good evening!
As we noted earlier, the federal judge initially put in place to oversee this criminal case against Trump was appointed by him and has acted favorably to him in the past. Aileen Cannon, a former prosecutor who ruled in Trump’s favor last year during the investigation – temporarily stalling the FBI’s probe – could significantly shape the outcome.
As the Washington Post reports, Cannon could be the decider on whether Trump goes to trial before next November’s election, what evidence can be heard, and what counts or motions are included.
Nominated by Trump in 2020, she was confirmed with help from Democrats (12 Democratic Senators voted in her favor to be exact) and has been on the bench for less than two years. The Post notes that she joined the conservative Federalist Society in law school, commenting that she agreed with “the limited role of the judiciary to say what the law is — not to make the law,” during her confirmation hearing.
As promised by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican representatives are rising to Trump’s defense by attempting to poke holes in the Justice Department investigation.
In a letter issued to Attorney General Merrick Garland today, Congressman and Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan raised questions around the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago that led to the discovery of classified materials Trump had previously claimed he no longer possessed.
“The indictment creates, at the minimum, a serious appearance of a double standard and a miscarriage of justice,” he says in the letter, adding that “additional information recently obtained by the Committee about the Department’s execution of a search warrant on President Trump’s residence only reinforces our grave concerns that your reported actions are nothing more than a politically motivated prosecution.”
As the New York Times reports, Jordan relied on “selective excerpts from an interview” with a former top FBI official, Steven D’Antuono, who raised concerns about the search warrant. Highlighting only the parts of the interview Jordan believed would help his case, he left out details shared by D’Antuono that Democrats said at the time did not cast Trump in a positive light. D’Antuono also told the panel that Trump was present when his lawyer turned over a letter to investigators misleading them that all classified documents were returned, signifying his direct involvement what might be an act of obstruction.
Here’s more from the Times:
But Mr. Jordan omitted several facts from his letter in an apparent effort to place Mr. D’Antuono’s account in the worst possible light.
Mr. D’Antuono has told associates that he was not opposed to executing the search warrant, but wanted to give Mr. Trump’s legal team one last chance to hand over the documents before sending agents into his club — a position that his superiors overruled.
Prosecutors believed that Mr. Trump’s lawyers had already misled them once, falsely certifying to the F.B.I. and the Justice Department that they had searched for documents at the club and turned over everything they could find. The 37-count indictment against Mr. Trump and one of his aides released on Friday laid out in detail the actions the former president took to deceive prosecutors and cause the lawyers to make the false certification.”
Good afternoon readers! Gabrielle Canon here, taking over on the west coast.
The National Archives has released a statement with a “Frequently Asked Questions” section that goes into detail on expectations and the Presidential Records Act, directly countering claims made by Trump and his legal team.
“The Presidential Records Act (PRA) requires the President to separate personal documents from Presidential records before [sic] leaving office,” the Archives wrote. “There is no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office to sort through, such as for a two-year period as described in some reports.”
Tim Parlatore, who served as part of Trump’s legal team until recently, has repeatedly said the former president was operating within his rights, telling CNN that a president “is supposed to take the next two years after they leave office to go through all these documents to figure out what’s personal and what’s presidential.”
The National Archives made it clear in their statement that this is not true and also highlighted how previous presidents handled their transition out of office.
When President Obama left office in 2017, NARA took physical and legal custody of the records of his administration in accordance with the Presidential Records Act. NARA made arrangements to move the roughly 30 million pages of paper Presidential records of the Obama administration to a federally acquired, modified, and secured temporary facility that NARA leased in Hoffman Estates, IL, which meets NARA’s requirements for records storage and security. NARA moved the records to Hoffman Estates because of the intention of President Obama to build a Presidential Library in the Chicago area.
You can read the statement in full here.
Summary of the day so far
Here’s a quick recap of today’s developments:
Former US president Donald Trump faces 37 counts in connection with keeping hundreds of classified documents in his possession after leaving the White House, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.
Trump twice disclosed national security information in separate incidents in 2021 and took steps to retain classified documents that he knew he could not keep because they had been subpoenaed by the justice department, the indictment reads.
The former president also hoarded materials of the highest sensitivity after he left the White House, including documents on US nuclear programmes, potential military vulnerabilities of the US and allies, and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, it says.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, said in a brief remarks Friday that his office intended to seek “a speedy trial” against Trump, adding that was “consistent with the public interest”. However, Smith did not say exactly when a trial may be possible.
In addition, the indictment named Trump’s former valet, Walt Nauta, as a co-defendant, alleging that he entered into a conspiracy with Trump to obstruct justice, withheld documents or records, corruptly concealed documents in a federal investigation, engaged in a scheme to conceal and made false statements.
Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm ET. Posting on Truth Social, Trump announced he would be represented by defence lawyer Todd Blanche, while his attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley released a statement to say that they had quit working for him.
A federal judge appointed by Trump who last year drew scrutiny for a ruling that was seen as deferential to the former president may oversee proceedings in the case over his possession of classified documents, a source familiar with the summons told the Guardian.
Donald Trump spent the morning playing golf with Florida Republican Carlos Gimenez, the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported earlier today.
Gimenez later responded to Haberman’s tweet with a photo of him with the former president:
Tee Time With Trump! 🇺🇸 https://t.co/kYXgEtiTWI pic.twitter.com/kQg5iCssJm
— Carlos A. Gimenez (@CarlosGimenezFL) June 9, 2023
A lawyer for the Republican congressman and serial fabulist, George Santos, has said that the co-signers on a $500,000 bail package connected to Santos’ federal indictment are members of his family.
In a letter to a New York judge, attorney Joseph Murray appealed an order this week to reveal the identities of three people who guaranteed Santos’ $500,000 bond on fraud charges.
Murray wrote:
Defendant has essentially publicly revealed that the suretors are family members and not lobbyists, donors or others seeking to exert influence over the defendant.
At his arraignment in Long Island last month, Santos, 34, pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements.
The New York Times sought the identification of Santos’s bail guarantors, arguing they should be identified as they had a chance to exert political influence over a congressman. Other news outlets joined the Times in its effort.
In news not related to Donald Trump but involving one of his supporters, Markus Maly of Virginia received a six-year prison sentence for his role in the January 6 attack on Congress, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
A grand jury had previously found Maly, 49, guilty of interfering with police during a civil disorder, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon as well as entering and remaining in a restricted building while armed, among other charges, prosecutors said.
Authorities established that Maly joined a mob of Trump supporters who rioted at the Capitol on the day Congress convened to certify the former president’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
He was convicted of spraying a chemical irritant at a line of police officers who were defending the Capitol’s lower west terrace. In addition to serving time in prison, Maly must also spend three years under supervision after his release, prosecutors said.
His co-defendants Jeffrey Scott Brown and Peter Schwartz were also found guilty of roles in the case. Schwartz later received a 14-year prison sentence. And Brown was given a prison sentence of four years.
Maly raised more than $16,000 in funds for his defense from an online campaign that described him as a January 6 prisoner of war, the Associated Press had reported earlier. Prosecutors sought to take that money back in the form of a fine, arguing that Maly had a public defender and did not owe any legal fees.
But neither court records nor prosecutors’ announcement about Maly’s sentence mentioned a fine for him as part of his sentence.
Maly is among more than 1,000 people to be charged in connection with the January 6 attack, according to prosecutors. Numerous defendants have been convicted and sentenced to prison.
Top congressional Democrats urge Trump supporters to 'let case proceed peacefully'
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, the two top Democrats in the Congress, have released a joint statement calling for the indictment to “play out through the legal process, without any outside political or ideological interference”.
The statement reads:
No one is above the law – including Donald Trump.
It goes on to say:
We encourage Mr Trump’s supporters and critics alike to let this case proceed peacefully in court.
Updated
The US secret service is preparing for Donald Trump’s appearance at a federal court in Miami on Tuesday, but the agency “will not seek any special accommodations outside of what would be required to ensure the former Presidents continued safety”, according to spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.
A statement by Guglielmi reads:
As with any site visited by a protectee, the Secret Service is in constant coordination with the necessary entities to ensure protective requirements are met,
He added:
We have the utmost confidence in the professionalism and commitment to security shared by our law enforcement partners in Florida.
Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm ET.
Donald Trump took classified documents including information on nuclear weapons in the US and secret plans to attack a foreign country, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.
The former US president, alongside a military valet, now faces a sweeping 37-count felony indictment related to the mishandling of classified documents.
Here are five of the most shocking revelations in the indictment, according to my colleague Maya Yang.
We have a clip of the statement by Jack Smith, the US justice department special counsel who filed charges against Donald Trump.
In a short address earlier today, Smith said his team would seek “a speedy trial” after the department unsealed a 37-count indictment against the former president.
Donald Trump ally, Republican Arizona representative Andy Biggs responded to Trump’s indictment from the justice department by saying that “we have now reached a war phase.”
Biggs, who previously spoke out against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg over Trump’s indictment in March, went on to add:
Eye for an eye.
Biggs spox says this is in reference to Trump indictment, and how the Republicans has to step up and counter their efforts. "The Republican Party has to prosecute people like Hunter and Joe Biden as the party now has a mountain of evidence." https://t.co/s3OJm2MPmt
— Billy House (@HouseInSession) June 9, 2023
Updated
John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, has reacted to his former boss’s indictment, calling for his immediate withdrawal as a presidential candidate.
Donald Trump should immediately withdraw as a candidate for president. Criminal charges are piling up around him. If Trump truly stood for America First policies, he would support the rule of law instead of continually flouting it. Withdraw now!
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) June 9, 2023
With Donald Trump being the first US president to be federally indicted, what will come next? Will he go to prison? What are other Republicans, including his presidential contenders such as Florida governor Ron DeSantis, saying?
The Guardian’s David Smith reports:
It is often tempting to hype every Trump drama out of proportion and then lose sight of when something genuinely monumental has happened. Thursday night’s action by the justice department was genuinely monumental.
First, it raises the question: what was Trump doing with government secrets? It was reported last month that prosecutors obtained an audio recording in which Trump talks about holding on to a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran.
Second, Trump could soon join a notorious club that includes Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac of France and Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak of South Korea. All have been prosecuted and convicted of corruption in the past 15 years.
It’s Trump’s latest stress test for American democracy: can the state hold a former president accountable and apply the rule of law? There was a near miss for Richard Nixon, who could have faced federal charges over Watergate but was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.
The White House knows it cannot afford to put a foot wrong. Joe Biden tries to avoid commenting on Trump’s myriad legal troubles. The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has also kept them at arm’s length by appointing Jack Smith as special counsel. It is Smith who investigated the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, says: “I don’t think he’s an overreaching prosecutor. He’s very rigorous and vigorous and independent and that’s what you want here and that’s what’s needed. I don’t think Merrick Garland had anything to do with it except appointing him.”
For the full story, click here:
Here are some of the images coming out Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort where he has been accused of possessing classified documents:
Updated
Rick Wilson, the founder of the political action committee consisting of moderate Republicans, responded to Donald Trump’s indictment, saying that Trump is “utterly amoral.”
He went on to add, “The man for trade in this indictment is precisely who so many Republicans to this day pretended he was not.”
I’ve had one of the darkest attitudes about Donald Trump from the very very beginning. I have cautioned since 2015 that he was utterly amoral.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 9, 2023
The man for trade in this indictment is precisely who so many Republicans to this day pretended he was not .
Smith urged the public to read the full indictment against Trump “to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged”.
He added that laws protecting national defence information “are critical” and “must be enforced”.
Smith says his office 'will seek speedy trial' in Trump case
Smith delivered a short statement, where he described US department of justice prosecutors working on the case as working to the “highest ethical standards”.
He said it was “very important” to him that “the defendants in this case, must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law”.
He added:
To that end, my office will seek a speedy trial in this matter, consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused. I very much look forward to presenting our case.
• This post was amended on 12 June 2023. An earlier version omitted some key words when it quoted Smith as saying the defendants “must be presumed innocent guilty in a court of law”.
Updated
Special counsel Jack Smith has begun his statement to reporters following the unsealing of the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Updated
Special counsel Jack Smith is due to give press conference on Trump indictment
Jack Smith, the special counsel who pursued criminal charges against Donald Trump, is due to speak to reporters following the unsealing of the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
We will be following it live on the blog. You can also watch it here:
Updated
Donald Trump has attacked the special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, in a social media post.
Trump wrote:
His wife is a Trump Hater, just as he is a Trump Hater—a deranged “psycho” that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with “Justice,” other than to look at Biden as a criminal, which he is!
The indictment reads that some of the documents include some of the most sensitive US military secrets.
One of the documents concerned “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country”, the indictment says.
Materials came from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, the indictment says.
It also includes photographs of Trump’s boxes on a ballroom stage, in a club bathroom and in a storage room, where some were laying on the floor.
Trump stored classified documents all over Mar-a-Lago, according to indictment, including in a bathroom and a storage room that was near the liquor and linen closets, accessible from the pool patio. pic.twitter.com/qC3RC0vpF3
— Amy B Wang (@amybwang) June 9, 2023
Updated
Here’s the full text of the federal indictment of Donald Trump:
The indictment alleges that Trump “endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents”.
It reads that the former president tried to obstruct investigations including by “suggesting that his attorney falsely represent to the FBI and grand jury that [he] did not have documents called for by the grand jury subpoena” and even “suggesting that his attorney hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena”.
Biden says he has not spoken to Garland since indictment
President Joe Biden said he has not spoken to the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, as the justice department unsealed charges against Donald Trump.
Asked by a reporter if he would speak to Garland, Biden responded:
I have not spoken to him at all and I’m not going to speak to him.
Trump and aide 'deliberately moved boxes to avoid search', says indictment
The indictment also says Trump directed his valet and aide, Walt Nauta, to move boxes of records to conceal them from his attorney and the FBI.
Trump and Nauta both face a count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to the indictment. It goes on:
The purpose of the conspiracy was for Trump to keep classified documents he has taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury.
Trump ‘stored classified documents in shower’, says indictment
The indictment reads that Trump stored classified documents in “a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room” at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Trump 'showed secret plan of attack to others', says indictment
The indictment also writes that Trump described a Pentagon “plan of attack” and shared a classified map related to a military operation.
The former president “showed and described a ‘plan of attack’ that Trump said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official” during a meeting at the Trump national golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the indictment reads. It says:
Trump told the individuals that the plan was “highly confidential” and “secret”.
The meeting included individuals who did not have security clearance, the indictment says.
In a later meeting, Trump displayed “a classified map related to a military operation”, acknowledging he “should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close”, the indictment reads.
Updated
Trump 'took secret US nuclear program documents', says indictment
The indictment reads that Trump stored in his boxes “information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack”.
It goes on:
The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.
Updated
Trump indictment unsealed, includes 37 criminal counts
The indictment charging the former US president Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents has been unsealed.
We’ll bring you the key lines as we have them. In the meantime, you can read the indictment here.
Updated
Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating former president Donald Trump over retention of classified government records, is expected to make a statement at 3pm ET (GMT 1900).
Federal indictment of Trump unsealed - report
The federal indictment of Donald Trump and his associate, Walt Nauta, has been unsealed, CNN is reporting.
We’ll bring you more as it comes.
NEWS: The federal indictment of former President Donald Trump & an associate, Walt Nauta, has been unsealed, CNN has learned.
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) June 9, 2023
More to come ...
Updated
Joe Biden, who is at an event in North Carolina, was asked about Trump’s indictment. NBC News’s Kelly O’Donnell reports that the president replied:
I have no comment at all.
President Biden was asked about the Trump indictment while traveling in NC. "I have no comment at all," he said.
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) June 9, 2023
Updated
Here’s some more detail on the reports that federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, in addition to the former president as part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s retention of national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstruction of justice.
Nauta, a former military valet, worked for Trump at the White House before going to work for the former president at his Florida resort.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Nauta became a focus of the investigation after surveillance footage showed him moving boxes from a storage room before and after investigators issued a subpoena seeking the return of all government documents in Trump’s possession.
Investigators spoke with Nauta at least twice and asked him to submit to further questioning, but he refused further questioning, the paper said.
The charges against Nauta and Trump have yet to be formally announced. A lawyer for Nauta declined to comment, the Wall Street Journal reported.
My colleague Hugo Lowell reported yesterday that Nauta’s lawyer has submitted court papers describing a meeting at which a top federal prosecutor brought up his application to be a judge when they tried to gain the valet’s cooperation last year. You can read the piece here:
The former vice-president, Mike Pence, has again called for the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to unseal the indictment against Donald Trump immediately.
Speaking at a campaign rally in New Hampshire today, Pence called on Garland to “stop hiding” and to “stand up and explain to us why this was necessary before the sun sets today”.
Pence said:
The American people deserve to know the basis of this unprecedented action. They deserve to know today.
Once the facts and the laws are explained and revealed in full to the American people, we can all make our own judgment.
Here’s a clip of Pence’s speech:
Updated
Here are some images of President Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, arriving at Seymour Johnson air force base in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
The pair are scheduled to make stops at a community college in Rocky Mount to discuss workforce training programmes as well as at the Fort Liberty military base to talk about new efforts to help veterans and families of those serving in the military.
Updated
Hillary Clinton has also publicly responded to Donald Trump’s indictment, tweeting a meme of herself wearing a hat with “but her emails” on it, with the caption:
Bringing this back in light of recent news. Get a limited-edition But Her Emails hat and support @onwardtogether groups working to strengthen our democracy.
Bringing this back in light of recent news:
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2023
Get a limited-edition But Her Emails hat and support @onwardtogether groups working to strengthen our democracy.https://t.co/4TiUxjmRNY pic.twitter.com/uSofeNjBxy
Trump repeatedly criticised his 2016 presidential election opponent for using a personal email server while she served as secretary of state under the Obama administration.
Following a years-long internal investigation into Clinton’s use of private email, the state department said it had found “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information”.
The White House’s deputy press secretary, Olivia Dalton, repeatedly declined to comment on the federal indictment of Donald Trump as she faced questions from reporters today.
Dalton said:
We’re just not going to comment on this case and would refer you to the DOJ, which runs its criminal investigations independently.
She went on to say that President Biden “is a president who respects the rule of law and has said that since day one, that’s precisely why we’re not commenting here. He believes in respecting the independence of the DOJ and protecting the integrity of their processes”. She added:
That’s, again, why we’ll leave it there.
Dalton was speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, as Biden flew to North Carolina. The president has announced a new executive order aimed at helping military spouses and families.
Today, I'm headed to North Carolina's Fort Liberty where, alongside the First Lady and military-connected families, I'll sign an Executive Order aimed at strengthening economic opportunities for military and veteran spouses, caregivers, and survivors.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 9, 2023
Trump's valet charged as part of Mar-a-Lago documents investigation
Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump’s valet in addition to the former president as part of the criminal investigation examining retention of national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstruction of justice, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The exact charges against the valet, Walt Nauta, were unclear because the indictment remains under seal. One lawyer for Nauta could not confirm the indictment and another lawyer for Nauta who is off on vacation could not immediately be reached for comment.
Nauta has been under scrutiny for potential obstruction charges after he told prosecutors that Trump had instructed him to move boxes of potentially classified documents out of the Mar-a-Lago storage room after the Justice department had issued a subpoena for the return of any such papers.
The lawyers for Nauta were also told last year by prosecutors that he had given them potentially conflicting testimony that could give rise to false statements charges, the people said. Prosecutors recommended that Nauta cooperate against Trump but were rebuffed.
Updated
Trump associate Walt Nauta indicted, reports say
An aide to Donald Trump, Walt Nauta, has been indicted alongside the former president in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents, according to several reports.
Trump has also posted about the news on Truth Social. He said:
I have just learned that the “Thugs” from the Department of Injustice will be Indicting a wonderful man, Walt Nauta, a member of the U.S. Navy, who served proudly with me in the White House, retired as Senior Chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide. He has done a fantastic job! They are trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about “Trump.” He is strong, brave, and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!
Updated
Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who is vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has responded to the news of Trump’s indictment.
Posting to Twitter, Haley said:
This is not how justice should be pursued in our country.
The American people are exhausted by the prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and vendetta politics.
It’s time to move beyond the endless drama and distractions.
This is not how justice should be pursued in our country.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) June 9, 2023
The American people are exhausted by the prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and vendetta politics.
It’s time to move beyond the endless drama and distractions.
Two of Trump's lawyers say they quit
Jim Trusty and John Rowley, two lawyers representing Donald Trump, have issued a statement to say they have quit working for him.
The joint statement reads that the pair “tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation”.
It goes on:
It has been an honor to have spent the last year defending him, and we know he will be vindicated in his battle against the Biden Administration’s partisan weaponization of the American justice system.
Now that the case has been filed in Miami, this is a logical moment for us to step aside and let others carry the cases through to completion.
Updated
President Joe Biden had no advance knowledge of the indictment against Trump and found out about it like everyone else, according to the White House’s spokesperson, Olivia Dalton.
Here’s the full statement by Donald Trump announcing a shake-up of his legal team.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote:
For purposes of fighting the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time, now moving to the Florida Courts, I will be represented by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later. I want to thank Jim Trusty and John Rowley for their work, but they were up against a very dishonest, corrupt, evil, and “sick” group of people, the likes of which has not been seen before. We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days. When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation? MAGA!
Trump announces change in legal team
Donald Trump has announced a shake-up of his legal team on his social media platform, Truth Social, my colleague Hugo Lowell reports.
Breaking: Trump announces on Truth Social that Todd Blanche will be his criminal defense attorney in the Mar-a-Lago docs case with another firm yet to be named. Jim Trusty and John Rowley are out.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 9, 2023
Per ppl familiar: Blanche — also the attorney for Trump adviser and in-house counsel Boris Epshteyn — for several weeks has been seen by Trump advisers as the “head honcho” of the legal team in the docs case.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 9, 2023
Updated
The US senate judiciary committee chairman, Dick Durbin, has said the investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith should be allowed to continue “without interference”.
In a statement on Friday, Durbin added that Donald Trump “should be afforded the due process protections that he is guaranteed by our constitution, just like any other American”.
Updated
Mike Pence has called on the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to address the nation and for the federal indictment against Trump to be unsealed.
Speaking in an interview with the conservative radio host, Hugh Hewitt, this morning, the former vice-president said it was “totally unacceptable” that the justice department had not yet released the indictment to the public.
Pence said:
I think before the sun sets today, the attorney general of the United States should be standing in front of the American people, should unseal this indictment, should provide the American people with all the facts and information here.
And the American people be able to judge for themselves whether this is just the latest incident of weaponization and politicization at the justice department or it’s something different.
Updated
Will the federal criminal indictment prevent Trump from election campaigning or, if he wins the 2024 race, taking office?
Reuters has the answer – no and no.
This becomes surreal when you project the scenario forward, but here goes some of the Reuters explainer:
The indictment is under seal, but Trump’s lawyer said he is charged with seven criminal counts including violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. None of those would bar Trump from office if he is convicted.
A trial would take place many months from now, and Trump can freely campaign during this time. The U.S. Constitution only requires that presidential candidates be natural-born U.S. citizens who are at least 35 years old and have lived in the country for 14 years.
Trump said on Thursday on his Truth Social platform that he is innocent. He would be free to campaign even if he is convicted and sent to prison, and legal experts say there would be no basis to block his swearing-in as president even if he is incarcerated, though this would pose extraordinary logistical and security questions.
It is unlikely that the prosecution would proceed if Trump won the November 2024 election.
The U.S. Department of Justice is part of the executive branch, and presidents are the top federal law enforcement officers in the country. Federal prosecutors generally serve at their pleasure.
The U.S. Justice Department has a decades-old policy that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted. The department can deviate from policy in ‘extraordinary circumstances’ with the approval of the U.S. attorney general.”
This all reminds us that Trump was not charged in the Russia investigation while he was the occupant of the White House, as special counsel Robert Mueller adhered to received protocol – despite seemingly ample evidence alleging that Trump had at least obstructed justice by hampering the inquiry.
Mitt Romney is one of Donald Trump’s few Republican detractors in the Senate, or anywhere in Congress, for that matter.
Here’s what Romney – who was the GOP’s unsuccessful nominee for president in the 2012 election – has to say about Trump’s federal indictment:
Like all Americans, Mr Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence. The government has the burden of proving its charges beyond a reasonable doubt and securing a unanimous verdict by a South Florida jury.
By all appearances, the Justice Department and special counsel have exercised due care, affording Mr Trump the time and opportunity to avoid charges that would not generally have been afforded to others.
Mr Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so.
These allegations are serious and if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest, such as withholding defensive weapons from Ukraine for political reasons and failing to defend the Capitol from violent attack and insurrection.
Updated
The good and non-partisan folks at C-SPAN have unearthed a clip from 2016 in which none other than Donald Trump himself vows to take a hard line against the leaking of classified information.
Wonder if he stands by these comments today:
"In my administration, I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law."
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) June 9, 2023
-- Donald Trump August 18, 2016 (Charlotte NC rally)
pic.twitter.com/b3XNYfKYc8
Ever since Donald Trump rode down that escalator in 2015 and began his journey to the White House, the business mogul’s enemies have been waiting for the day when the Republican party ditches him.
Today is not that day. Just take a look at what speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy had to say last night after news of the indictment broke:
Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America.
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) June 9, 2023
It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.
I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump…
It’s a sentiment that’s being repeated among House Republicans, and the party at large. In fact, the real news will be if any Republican who has not already decides that today is the day they’ll break with Trump. We’ll let you know if that happens.
Trump-appointed judge may oversee Mar-a-Lago case
A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump who last year drew scrutiny for a ruling that was seen as deferential to the former president may oversee proceedings in the case over his possession of classified documents, a source familiar with the summons told the Guardian.
US district judge Aileen Cannon has been listed on the summons sent to Trump’s lawyers, the source said. You may remember the judge’s name from last year, when she granted a request from Trump’s attorneys to appoint a special master to review the records federal agents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August.
The special master review delayed the justice department’s investigation into the materials and how they ended up at Trump’s south Florida property, but in December, Cannon’s decision was overturned by the unanimous decision of a federal appeals court. You can read more about the whole saga below:
Updated
Trump arraignment set for Tuesday in Miami
Now that Donald Trump has been indicted, what happens next? The Guardian’s Joan E Greve has the answer:
Donald Trump is preparing for his second arraignment in two months after learning that he would face seven federal charges in connection to his mishandling of classified documents.
Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm, although the exact charges he will face are still unclear as the seven-count indictment remains under seal.
On Fox News Digital on Thursday night he said he would plead not guilty.
After news of the indictment broke, Trump’s allies rallied to his defense as the US braced for the unprecedented spectacle of a former president forced to defend himself against federal criminal charges.
Trump bragged on tape about keeping 'secret' information - report
Fresh off the news that Donald Trump is being indicted on several felonies related to possessing classified government documents, CNN reports this morning that an audio recording has emerged of him bragging about keeping a “secret” military document that had not been declassified.
“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump says, according to a transcript of the recording that CNN obtained. The network reports that the audio recording captures the sound of paper rustling, indicating that Trump may have actually been waving the document around as he was talking about it.
“Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump says in the transcript. “This was done by the military and given to me.” Prosecutors have this recording, CNN says.
Here’s more from their story:
Former President Donald Trump acknowledged on tape in a 2021 meeting that he had retained “secret” military information that he had not declassified, according to a transcript of the audio recording obtained by CNN.
“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump says, according to the transcript.
CNN obtained the transcript of a portion of the meeting where Trump is discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran. In the audio recording, which CNN previously reported was obtained by prosecutors, Trump says that he did not declassify the document he’s referencing, according to the transcript.
Trump was indicted Thursday on seven counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents. Details from the indictment have not been made public, so it unknown whether any of the seven counts refer to the recorded 2021 meeting. Still, the tape is significant because it shows that Trump had an understanding the records he had with him at Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House remained classified.
Publicly, Trump has claimed that all the documents he brought with him to his Florida residence are declassified, while he’s railed against the special counsel’s investigation as a political witch hunt attempting to interfere with his 2024 presidential campaign.
CNN first reported last week that prosecutors had obtained the audio recording of Trump’s 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort, with two people working on the autobiography of Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as aides employed by the former president, including communications specialist Margo Martin.
The transcript of the audio recording suggests that Trump is showing the document he’s discussing to those in the room. Several sources have told CNN the recording captures the sound of paper rustling, as if Trump was waving the document around, though is not clear if it was the actual Iran document.
“Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump says at one point, according to the transcript. “This was done by the military and given to me.”
Trump's federal indictment sends shockwaves through 2024 race as Republicans rush to his defense
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump is making history again, and not in a good way. Yesterday evening, he announced that he would soon be indicted on federal charges related to the classified documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago resort last year, the first time in US history a former president has faced such allegations. While the justice department has yet to confirm the charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed late last year to investigate the secret materials matter along with Trump’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection and the overall effort to prevent Joe Biden from taking office, the news has become yet another rallying cry for Republicans – even Trump’s opponents for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination. Florida governor Ron DeSantis vowed to “bring accountability” to the justice department, while senator Tim Scott lamented “a justice system where the scales are weighted”. GOP politicians have generally flocked to defend Trump whenever he faces legal trouble, such as when the Manhattan district attorney separately indicted him in March, and today is no different. We’ll keep you posted on this developing story.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Joe Biden has a long day of travel in North Carolina, which will give the traveling press corps plenty of opportunities to ask him what he thinks of the charges against Trump.
Principal deputy White House press secretary Olivia Dalton will brief reporters around 10.30am eastern time, and you can bet that she, too, will be asked about the indictment.
Matt Gaetz, a prominent Trump ally in the House of Representatives, is the subject of a new investigation by the chamber’s ethics committee, Punchbowl News reports. It’s unclear what matter they are looking into, but earlier this year, Gaetz said the justice department ended a sex trafficking inquiry into him without charges.
