[ad_1]
Trump says investigations are about ‘retribution’
Donald Trump is either reading the news or knows something we all don’t because he’s spent the morning on his Truth social network account blasting the ongoing investigations into his conduct.
“They are also going after me as RETRIBUTION for the Republicans in Congress going after them. The difference is, they have created major crimes, I have created none!” he wrote.
He further elaborated on the theme of being treated unfairly, citing the classified documents found at Joe Biden’s properties and also at Mike Pence’s residence:
The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong. Joe Biden kept (keeps) thousand of documents, in many locations, some illegally taken from skiffs while he was a Senator, a big portion of which were classified. He didn’t want to give them back, and still doesn’t. Nothing happens to him, with same reasonable prosecutor who correctly exonerated Mike Pence. I have a much different prosecutor, a Trump hater!
Write it off as the ramblings of a has-been former president if you want, but before you do, take a look at the poll below, which confirms the same trend that’s been present for months and which could ultimately put Trump back in the White House:
Key events
House GOP pushes forward with plan to hold FBI director in contempt
House Republicans say they plan to vote on holding FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for declining to turn over a document outlining an unverified allegation of corruption against Joe Biden.
As the Associated Press reports, Republican House oversight committee chair James Comer along with GOP senator Chuck Grassley last month said they had heard the FBI possesses a document detailing “an alleged criminal scheme” “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” between a foreign national and Biden when he was vice-president. While Comer and other Republicans have played up the allegation, they haven’t offered any proof to substantiate it.
Comer sent a subpoena to Wray for the document, and on Monday was briefed on it alongside Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee. But Comer said the briefing does not satisfy the demands of the subpoena, and demanded the document be handed over to the committee – something the FBI has resisted, saying it contains sensitive information.
“We will now initiate contempt of Congress hearings this Thursday,” Comer said yesterday.
In a sign that the push has the support of the chamber’s Republican leaders, House majority whip Steve Scalise today elaborated on the reasons for the contempt proceedings at a news conference:
House Majority Leader Scalise defends contempt of Congress hearings against FBI Director Wray, despite FBI showing and explaining the Hunter Biden documents to House Oversight:
“The FBI are trying to block our ability to exercise our legal right to go look at those documents.” pic.twitter.com/eCN0Li2OUm
— The Recount (@therecount) June 6, 2023
Ukraine planned to bomb Nord Stream pipeline – report
Ukraine’s government developed a plan to bomb the Nord Stream pipeline transporting gas from Russia to Germany that was discovered by American intelligence, though it remains unclear if Kyiv was ultimately behind the pipeline’s sabotage last September, the Washington Post reports.
The story, based on documents allegedly posted online by Jack Teixeira, a US Air National Guardsman arrested in April on charges related to leaking a trove of government intelligence, strengthens the case for Ukraine being the perpetrator of the mysterious attack that sent natural gas pouring into the Baltic sea.
Here’s more from the Post’s report:
Three months before saboteurs bombed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the undersea network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Details about the plan, which have not been previously reported, were collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022. They provide some of the most specific evidence to date linking the government of Ukraine to the eventual attack in the Baltic Sea, which U.S. and Western officials have called a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage on Europe’s energy infrastructure.
The European intelligence reporting was shared on the chat platform Discord, allegedly by Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira. The Washington Post obtained a copy from one of Teixeira’s online friends.
The intelligence report was based on information obtained from an individual in Ukraine. The source’s information could not immediately be corroborated, but the CIA shared the report with Germany and other European countries last June, according to multiple officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence operations and diplomatic discussions.
The highly specific details, which include numbers of operatives and methods of attack, show that for nearly a year Western allies had a basis to suspect Kyiv in the sabotage. That assessment has only strengthened in recent months as German law enforcement investigators uncovered evidence about the bombing that bears striking similarities to what the European service said Ukraine was planning.
Trump plans 19 June interview with Fox News journalist
Donald Trump will give an interview to Fox News’s editorial side for the time since his 2020 election defeat on 19 June, the Hill reports.
While the former president has repeatedly spoken to the conservative network’s opinion hosts, including at a town hall hosted by Sean Hannity last week, he has openly feuded with its news division, accusing them of being partial to his 2024 rival, Ron DeSantis. According to the Hill, Trump will sit down with anchor Bret Baier.
“For all the bluster, we are finalizing an interview in the next couple of weeks,” a Fox News source told the Hill. “It’s going to be fair, but it’s not going to be easy.”
Republican Ron DeSantis is campaigning on his record as governor of Florida, including his enactment of the so-called “don’t say gay” bill that prohibits teachers from educating children between kindergarten and third grade on sexual orientation or gender identity. The law is part of a push by conservative states to crack down on LGBTQ+ rights, which as the Guardian’s Amelia Abraham reports has real-life consequences for the people caught up in them:
This month, Lauren Rodriguez will move out of her home in Texas, a state where she has lived for 20 years, to relocate to New Zealand. “People think we are dramatic for leaving, but when you look at what’s happened to my family, we’re not,” she says, amid packing up her life’s belongings. “It has been a total witch-hunt. It takes its toll.”
Six years ago, Rodriguez’s son Grey told her that he was transgender. That first night, she stayed up Googling “what to do when your kid tells you they’re trans”. From there, she took him to get his “first boy haircut” and contacted local LGBTQ+ organizations for advice.
Although she describes the climate against trans people then as less hostile than it has become, the news was not well received by some in their neighborhood. At the extreme, neighbors, a teacher, and even family members reported Rodriguez to the Child Protection Agency (CPS) for helping her son, who was then under 18, access gender affirming medical care. Rodriguez, a social worker, has been on the receiving end of more than 10 complaints to the CPS. All cases were opened, investigated and closed.
Donald Trump isn’t the only 2024 presidential contender facing legal trouble. The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports that Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis may be in hot water over his involvement in flying migrants around the United States:
A Texas sheriff’s office has recommended criminal charges over flights that the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, arranged to deport 49 South American migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, last year.
In a statement on Monday, the Bexar county sheriff’s office said it had filed a criminal case with the local district attorney over the flight. The Bexar county sheriff, Javier Salazar, has previously said the migrants were “lured under false pretenses” into traveling to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy liberal town.
The recommendation comes after the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, threatened DeSantis with kidnapping charges on Monday, after Florida flew a group of people seeking asylum to Sacramento. It was the second time in four days Florida had used taxpayer money to fly asylum seekers to California.
Here’s more from the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell on the meeting yesterday between Donald Trump’s attorneys and Jack Smith – a sign that the special counsel’s investigations into the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago could be wrapping up:
Lawyers for Donald Trump met with top US justice department officials on Monday to complain about perceived misconduct in the criminal investigation into the former US president’s handling of national security materials and obstruction, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The meeting involved Trump lawyers Jim Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsay Halligan speaking with the special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation, and a senior career official to the deputy attorney general, one person said. CBS News first reported the meeting.
Trump’s lawyers made a general case as to why Trump should not be charged in the Mar-a-Lago documents case and suggested that some prosecutors working under special counsel Jack Smith engaged in what they considered prosecutorial misconduct, the people said.
Prosecutors in the classified documents case are homing in on an incident at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in which an attempt to drain a pool ended up flooding a room where servers holding video surveillance logs were kept, CNN reports.
Prosecutors believe the sequence of events surrounding the pool’s draining are suspicious, according to the report, though it does not seemed to have harmed evidence they were seeking.
Here’s more from CNN’s report:
At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources.
The incident, which has not been previously reported, came roughly two months after the FBI retrieved hundreds of classified documents from the Florida residence and as prosecutors obtained surveillance footage to track how White House records were moved around the resort. Prosecutors have been examining any effort to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation after Trump received a subpoena in May 2022 for classified documents.
Prosecutors have heard testimony that the IT equipment in the room was not damaged in the flood, according to one source.
Yet the flooded room as well as conversations and actions by Trump’s employees while the criminal investigation bore down on the club has caught the attention of prosecutors. The circumstances may factor into a possible obstruction conspiracy case, multiple sources tell CNN, as investigators try to determine whether the events of last year around Mar-a-Lago indicate that Trump or a small group of people working for him, took steps to try to interfere with the Justice Department’s evidence-gathering.
Donald Trump’s Republican allies in Congress have clearly also heard the rumblings about the investigation into the former president, because they’ve released a new demand letter to attorney general Merrick Garland for details of the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith.
“We previously requested information and documents related to the FBI’s raid on President Trump’s residence and its subsequent investigation. Because you have not provided this information, and in light of your appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel, we write to request an unredacted copy of the memorandum outlining the scope of Mr. Smith’s probes regarding President Trump and any supporting documentation related to his appointment as special counsel,” Jim Jordan, the chair of the judiciary committee and a close Trump ally, wrote to Garland.
The justice department has previously told Jordan that it’s willing to cooperate with his committee, but won’t reveal details of ongoing investigations.
Trump says investigations are about ‘retribution’
Donald Trump is either reading the news or knows something we all don’t because he’s spent the morning on his Truth social network account blasting the ongoing investigations into his conduct.
“They are also going after me as RETRIBUTION for the Republicans in Congress going after them. The difference is, they have created major crimes, I have created none!” he wrote.
He further elaborated on the theme of being treated unfairly, citing the classified documents found at Joe Biden’s properties and also at Mike Pence’s residence:
The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong. Joe Biden kept (keeps) thousand of documents, in many locations, some illegally taken from skiffs while he was a Senator, a big portion of which were classified. He didn’t want to give them back, and still doesn’t. Nothing happens to him, with same reasonable prosecutor who correctly exonerated Mike Pence. I have a much different prosecutor, a Trump hater!
Write it off as the ramblings of a has-been former president if you want, but before you do, take a look at the poll below, which confirms the same trend that’s been present for months and which could ultimately put Trump back in the White House:
Prosecutors near charging decision in Trump documents case, new grand jury hears evidence
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Back in November, attorney general Merrick Garland named Jack Smith as special counsel to handle three major investigations into Donald Trump, and signs are emerging that prosecutors will soon conclude one of these. Trump’s attorneys yesterday met with Smith and other justice department officials, the latest indication that prosecutors could soon announce whether they will file charges over the classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Intriguingly, two sources familiar with the matter told the Guardian a new grand jury has been empaneled in Florida – separate from one sitting Washington DC – to hear evidence in the case, and has already heard from one witness. However the documents inquiry is resolved, Smith is also looking into Trump’s involvement in two other major events: the January 6 insurrection, and the attempts to overturn the 2020 election result. If there’s more news about this today, you can find it here.
Here’s what else is going on today:
-
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are meeting with their cabinet at the White House at 2.15pm eastern time.
-
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie will at 6.30pm announce that he, too, is running for the Republican presidential nomination.
-
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faces off with reporters at 1pm.
[ad_2]
Source link
(This article is generated through the syndicated feed sources, Financetin neither support nor own any part of this article)
