Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was arrested and questioned by police investigating the finances of Scotland's pro-independence governing party

As former President Donald Trump prepares for a momentous court appearance Tuesday on charges related to the hoarding of top-secret documents, Republican allies are amplifying, without evidence, claims that he is the target of a political prosecution. To press their case, Trump's backers are citing the Justice Department's decision in 2016 not to bring charges against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in that year's presidential race, over her handling of classified information. His supporters also are invoking a separate classified documents investigation concerning President Joe Biden to allege a two-tier system of justice that is punishing Trump, the undisputed early front-runner for the GOP's 2024 White House nomination, for conduct that Democrats have engaged in. "Is there a different standard for a Democratic secretary of state versus a former Republican president?” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump primary rival. “I think there needs to be one standard of justice in this country.” But those arguments overlook abundant factual and legal differences — chiefly relating to intent, state of mind and deliberate acts of obstruction — that limit the value of any such comparisons. A look at the Clinton, Biden and Trump investigations and what separates them: WHAT DID CLINTON DO? Clinton relied on a private email system for the sake of convenience during her time as the Obama administration's top diplomat. That decision came back to haunt her when, in 2015, the intelligence agencies' internal watchdog alerted the FBI to the presence of potentially hundreds of emails containing classified information. FBI investigators would ultimately conclude that Clinton sent and received emails containing classified information on that unclassified system, including information classified at the top-secret level. Of the roughly 30,000 emails turned over by Clinton's representatives, the FBI has said, 110 emails in 52 email chains were found to have classified information, including some at the top-secret level. After a roughly yearlong inquiry, the FBI closed out the investigation in July 2016, finding that Clinton did not intend to break the law. The bureau reopened the inquiry months later, 11 days before the presidential election, after discovering a new batch of emails. After reviewing those communications, the FBI again opted against recommending charges. WHAT IS TRUMP ACCUSED OF DOING? The indictment filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith alleges that when Trump left the White House after his term ended in January 2021, he took hundreds of classified documents with him to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago — and then repeatedly impeded efforts by the government he once oversaw to get the records back. The material that Trump retained, prosecutors say, related to American nuclear programs, weapons and defense capabilities of the United States and foreign countries and potential vulnerabilities to an attack — information that, if exposed, could jeopardize the safety of the military and human sources. Beyond just the hoarding of documents — in locations including a bathroom, ballroom, shower and his bedroom — the Justice Department says Trump showed highly sensitive material to visitors who without security clearances and obstructed the FBI by, among other things, directing a personal aide who was charged alongside him to move boxes around Mar-a-Lago to conceal them from investigators. Though Trump and his allies have claimed he could do with the documents as he pleased under the Presidential Records Act, the indictment makes short shrift of that argument and does not once reference that statute. All told, the indictment includes 37 felony counts against Trump, most under an Espionage Act pertaining to the willful retention of national defense information. WHAT SEPARATES THE CLINTON AND TRUMP CASES? A lot, but two important differences are in willfulness and obstruction. In an otherwise harshly critical assessment in which he condemned Clinton's email practices as “extremely careless,” then-FBI Director James Comey announced that investigators had found no clear evidence that Clinton or her aides had intended to break laws governing classified information. As a result, he said, “no reasonable prosecutor" would move forward with a case. The relevant Espionage Act cases brought by the Justice Department over the past century, Comey said, all involved factors including efforts to obstruct justice, willful mishandling of classified documents and the exposure of vast quantities of records. None of those factors existed in the Clinton investigation, he said. That is in direct contrast to the allegations against Trump, who prosecutors say was involved in the packing of boxes to go to Mar-a-Lago and then actively took steps to conceal the classified documents from investigators. The indictment accuses him, for instance, of suggesting that a lawyer hide documents demanded by a Justice Department subpoena or falsely represent that all requested records had been turned over, even though more than 100 remained. The indictment repeatedly cites Trump's own words against him to make the case that he understood what he was doing and what the law did and did not permit him to do. It describes a July 2021 meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which he showed off a Pentagon “plan of attack” to people without the security clearances to view the material and proclaimed that “as president, I could have declassified it.” “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” the indictment quotes him as saying. That conversation, captured by an audio recording, is likely to be a powerful piece of evidence to the extent that it undercuts Trump's oft-repeated claims that he had declassified the documents he brought with him to Mar-a-Lago. WHERE DOES BIDEN FIT IN? The White House disclosed in January that, two months earlier, a lawyer for Biden had located what it said was a “small number” of classified documents from his time as vice president during a search of the Washington office space of Biden's former institute. The documents were turned over to the Justice Department. Lawyers for Biden subsequently located an additional batch of classified documents at Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the FBI found even more during a voluntary search of the property. The revelations were a humbling setback for Biden's efforts to draw a clear contrast between his handling of sensitive information and Trump's. Even so, as with Clinton, there are significant differences in the matters. Though Attorney General Merrick Garland in January named a second special counsel to investigate the Biden documents, no charges have been brought and, so far at least, no evidence has emerged to suggest that anyone intentionally moved classified documents or tried to impede the probe. While the FBI obtained a search warrant last August to recover additional classified documents, each of the Biden searches has been done voluntarily with his team's consent. The Justice Department, meanwhile, notified Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, earlier this month that it would not bring charges after the discovery of classified documents in his Indiana home. That case also involved no allegations of willful retention or obstruction. _____ Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP ___ More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement Jim Jordan rejects Trump statement suggesting Mar-a-Lago papers weren’t declassified Kimberly Guilfoyle posts chilling warning over Trump indictment Trump-appointed judge will stay on Mar-a-Lago documents case unless she recuses

Novak Djokovic created history on Sunday when he captured a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam title with a third French Open triumph, reinforcing his case to be crowned...

Novak Djokovic has won his men’s-record 23rd Grand Slam title with a 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-5 victory over Casper Ruud in the French Open final

PARIS (Reuters) -Novak Djokovic claimed a record-breaking 23rd men's singles Grand Slam title when he beat Norway's Casper Ruud 7-6(1)

One of Donald Trump’s most loyal champions in the House of Representatives battled a CNN reporter on Sunday over whether all the documents retained without the consent of the National Archives at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate were declassified. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Oversight Committee, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union for an interview with Dana Bash. During the interview, the two disagreed over whether Mr Trump himself had admitted that some of the documents he retained were still classified, which statements cited by the Justice Department in his indictment suggest was the case. “In this indictment, he states on at least one occasion that he did not declassify the information,” Bash told the Republican congressman in the interview. Mr Jordan responded, however, by pointing to numerous public statements by the former president insisting otherwise, an apparent contradiction of the statements cited by the DoJ in the agency’s investigation. “Dana, he has said time and time again that he declassified all this material,” Mr Jordand responded. He later added: “I go on the president's word and he said he did.” It’s an interesting defence of the former president’s remarks, given that Mr Trump has a long and well-documented history of spreading false claims and misinformation. Most recently, the twice-impeached ex-president has been reported, according to The New York Times, to have told supporters at his events at Mar-a-Lago that he will be reinstated as president in some sort of vindication of his (also false) claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Mr Jordan has long been a defender of the former president amid his various legal escapades, a role more establishment-aligned Republicans (especially those in the Senate) have shunned. In recent weeks he has sought to use his powerful chairmanship of the Oversight Committee to impose an investigation on the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in response to that office’s prosecution of Mr Trump for falsifying business records in connection to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Mr Trump was charged with 34 criminal counts in that case earlier this year; he now additionally faces 37 felony counts brought by the US Department of Justice. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump defiant at post-indictment speeches as Florida judge he appointed set to keep case Kimberly Guilfoyle joins chorus of violent rhetoric over Trump indictment Trump-appointed judge will stay on Mar-a-Lago documents case unless she recuses What is an indictment? Here’s what Donald Trump is facing Jonathan Turley tells Fox News the Trump indictment is ‘extremely damning’ and a ‘hit below the waterline’ Fox host Mark Levin screams at camera in outrage at Trump indictment over secret papers

Ukraine’s military has claimed to have recaptured their first village since launching counter-offensive actions against Russia. Ukrainian soldiers were filmed hoisting their blue and yellow flag at a damaged building in what the army said was the village of Blahodatne, in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region in the southeast of the country. The unverified video was published by the 68th Separate Hunting Brigade of the Armed Forces. It comes after president Volodymyr Zelensky said that counter-offensive and defensive actions are under way against Russian forces in an apparent confirmation of the long-awaited pushback of Putin’s troops. The Russian Defence Ministry has continued to insist that it is repelling Ukrainian attacks in the Donetsk region. It said in a statement that Ukrainian attempts at offensive operations on the southern Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia axes of the frontline over the past 24 hours have been “unsuccesful”. Read More Ukraine goes on attack in Zaporizhzhia – as counteroffensive steps up Ukraine tells ‘clown’ Tucker Carlson to check his facts after pro-Kremlin rant in first Twitter show Before-and-after satellite images show profound toll of Ukraine dam collapse

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