List of All Articles with Tag 'america'

Former vice president Mike Pence refused to answer a question from The Independent about whether he had read the indictment against former president Donald Trump as he left the North Carolina Republican Party’s convention on Saturday. Mr Pence was exiting the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro after he spoke to the convention for its First in Freedom Lunch and was taking a selfie with a supporter. His staff said “no gaggle” when asked whether the former vice president had read the indictment. This came despite the fact that during his speech, he criticised Mr Trump’s indictment by a grand jury as politicised, calling it a “sad day for America.” “I had hoped the Department of Justice would see its way clear to resolve the issues involving the former president without an indictment and I'm deeply troubled to see this indictment move forward,” he said. Mr Pence said he had been one of the first people to call on US Attorney General Merrick Garland to unseal the indictment. “Today, I'm calling on the Attorney General to stand before the American people and explain why this was necessary in his words,” Mr Pence said. “Attorney General Merrick Garland, stop hiding behind the special counsel and stand before the American people and explain why this indictment went forward.” A grand jury under the supervision of Special Counsel Jack Smith chose to indict Mr Trump. The unsealed 49-page indictment showed that Mr Trump faced 37 counts. Mr Trump was charged with “with felony violations of our national security laws as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice” by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida. The indictment accuses Mr Trump of showing classified documents to unauthorised people at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club on two occasions, once with a writer and a publisher working on a book by his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and another time when he showed a classified map of an unnamed country that involved staff working for Mr Trump’s political action committee. Still, the former vice president sought to draw a distinction between himself and the former president on issues ranging from abortion to January 6. “It gives me no pleasure to say, but on that fateful day, the American people deserve to know that President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution,” he told attendees in the reception room. “Under the Constitution, states conduct our elections, certify those elections, court challenges can be had, objections can be heard in the Congress,” he said. Mr Pence warned that if Republicans went the path that Mr Trump prescribed, then Democrats would nationalise elections. “I'm glad he said it just to stand his ground and to completely distance himself,” Burt Johnson, who attended the dinner, said. “I don't think it was needed. But he drew a clear line. He was unequivocal. And I think that's important.” But not everyone was pleased with Mr Pence and many still resent the fact that he refused to overturn the 2020 presidential election results on January 6, which led to the mob yelling “hang Mike Pence.” Patricia Koluch of Pender County had a simple reason for why she did not attend Mr Pence’s speech. “Well, January 6,” she told The Independent. “And a lot of behind-the-scenes information about who he really is and what he stands for.” Mr Pence announced his candidacy this week. He also criticised Mr Trump for his admonishing states for passing legislation restricting abortion and for not supporting reforming entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. Read More Trump indictment: Ex-president kept nuclear and military papers and showed some to unauthorised people Mitt Romney’s blistering response to Trump’s damning indictment Trump news – latest: Trump rages ‘Democrat Communists want to jail their opponents’ after indictment unsealed Trump's GOP defenders in Congress leap into action on charges after months of preparation Fox host Mark Levin screams at camera in rant over Trump’s indictment Trump indicted: What to know about the documents case and what's next

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” has died in federal prison aged 81, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press. Kaczynski was found dead at around 8am in a federal prison in North Carolina. The cause of death was not immediately known. He was serving life without the possibility of parole following his 1996 arrest at the primitive cabin where he was living in western Montana. Kaczynski pleaded guilty to setting 16 explosions that killed three people and injured 23 others, maiming some permanently, in various parts of the US for 17 years between 1978 and 1995. He had been moved to the federal prison medical facility in 2021 after spending more than two decades in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado for the series of bombings that targeted scientists. The deadly bombs were homemade and sent through the mail — some targeted airlines by including altitude sensors to trigger an explosion mid-flight. One threat in 1995 over the July 4th holiday weekend almost completely shut down air travel on the west coast. He was nicknamed the “Unabomber” because his early targets appeared to consist of universities and airlines. A Harvard-trained mathematician, he railed against advanced technology. His 35,000 word manifesto, Industrial Societ and Its Future, was published by The Washington Post and The New York Times in September 1995. Its publication was backed by federal agencies as he had said he would desist from his campaign of terrorism if it received a national audience. His writing was recognised by his brother David Kaczynski and his sister-in-law, Linda Patrik, who turned him in to the FBI, ending one of the longest and costliest manhunts in US history. When authorities closed in on Kaczynski at his cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, they found it filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients, and two completed bombs. With reporting from the Associated Press

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said his administration will deploy an “inflatable border” composed of floating barriers along the Rio Grande as part of its bid to deter migrants from attempting illegal crossings into the state. The new policy was quickly slammed by some mocking the idea and others who said that Texas taxes could be better spent on other initiatives. The barriers, seen in concept art presented at the state Capitol in Austin on Thursday as the governor signed six new border security bills into law, are effectively a string of interconnected buoys that spin when someone attempts to scale them, making them difficult to pass. Below the waterline, a web of netting weighed down by anchors will prevent anyone from simply swimming underneath The barriers will be placed along known hotspots for attempted crossings, with the first 1,000 feet to be situated near Eagle Pass, where Texas National Guardsman Bishop E Evans, 22, tragically drowned last year while attempting to rescue migrants from the river. The governor’s office said in a statement that the strategy was intended to “proactively prevent illegal crossings between ports of entry by making it more difficult to cross the Rio Grande and reach the Texas side of the southern border”. Continuing to blame President Joe Biden for the perceived failure to secure the US-Mexico border, Governor Abbott said his latest package of bills is aimed at ensuring his state can “hold the line” against illegal immigrants, drugs and weapons entering the United States from the south. They grant the Texas military the authority to use unmanned aircraft in search and recovery missions, authorise trained US Border Patrol agents to carry out arrest, search and seizure operations at checkpoints and compensate rural landowners whose property is damaged by illegal immigration-related activities. They also designate Mexican drug cartels and criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organisations and increase the penalties for those caught destroying illegal drugs and those who operate stash houses. Speaking at Thursday’s signing, Governor Abbott said: “Thanks to the leadership and hard work of [Texas Department of Public Safety] Director [Steve] McCraw, General Thomas Suelzer and their teams, Texas has pushed back against the swell of migrants and held the line to keep people out of Texas – but there’s more that needs to be done. “The Texas Legislature has stepped up to make sure we continue to robustly respond to President Biden’s growing border crisis, including allocating $5.1bn for border security. “Today, I am signing six bills from this year’s regular session to ensure that Texas can continue to do even more to stop illegal immigration at our southern border and provide new tools to the brave men and women along the southern border to protect Texans and Americans from the chaos and crisis of the border.” Regarding the barriers specifically, the governor said: “What we’re doing right now, we’re securing the border at the border. “What these buoys will allow us to do is to prevent people from even getting to the border.” Director McCraw added: “We don’t want people to come across and continue to put their lives at risk when they come between the points of entry.” He explained that the barriers are currently being tested by specialists and will be moveable so that they can be quickly relocated to new areas as needed. Of their role as a deterrent, he said: “You could sit there for a couple of days and hold onto it, but eventually you’re going to get tired and want to go back. You’ll get hungry.” Rodolfo Rosales, director of the Texas chapter of the League of United Latin Americans Citizens has condemned Mr Abbott’s latest approach to the situation as inhumane. “We view it as a chilling reminder of the extreme measures used throughout history by elected leaders against those they do not regard as human beings, seeking only to exterminate them, regardless of the means employed,” he told CBS. “It is with profound horror and shame that we bear witness to the consideration of these measures, which are evidently intended as political theatre but will undoubtedly result in the loss of innocent lives among the refugees seeking asylum in the United States.” Social media users were quick to respond to Mr Abbott on Twitter. “Texas will deploy new marine floating barriers to deter illegal border crossings between ports of entry. We continue to hold the line in Biden’s absence,” the governor tweeted on Friday. “You know they can swim under it right?” one Twitter user said. The director of the Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative at the Strauss Center at The University of Texas at Austin, Stephanie Leutert, wrote: “Some places of the Rio Grande will be shallow enough that this won’t be effective. And smugglers moving people across in rafts will quickly figure out how to cut these apart or hoist people over them from raft to raft. But... they will 100 percent cause more drowning deaths.” “I bet they didn’t think about sharp objects that can penetrate said buoys or holding ones breath. Also this seems like a waste of money, time & labor,” one account holder added. Several Twitter users compared the barrier to objects used in the NBC show American Ninja Warrior and Wipeout on TBS. “Welcome to Wipeout: Illegal Immigration special!” one Twitter user said. Gustaf Kilander contributed to this report Read More Texas businessman tied to impeachment of attorney general Ken Paxton to appear in federal court Texas camp teens airlifted to hospital after elevated walkway collapses in Surfside Beach photo Mexico charges migrant in detention center fire that killed 40 Analysis: What makes a fair election? Recent redistricting the most politically balanced in years New voting districts could change again in some states before the 2024 elections Homeland Security names Border Patrol veteran Jason Owens to lead the agency

The Department of Justice is likely to attempt to have former President Donald Trump incarcerated if he’s convicted following the indictment laying out 37 charges against him in relation to his handling of classified national defence information. National security lawyer and George Washington University law professor Kel McClanahan said that the department will probably “want to go for incarceration” in the case of Mr Trump, according to Insider. Mr McClanahan said that the evidence in the indictment that was unsealed on Friday afternoon is intended to show that Mr Trump “is a kingpin who knowingly broke the law, endangered national security, endangered nuclear weapon security, [and] endangered other countries’ national security”. The charges include 31 counts of “willful retention” of documents under the Espionage Act. The consensus among most legal experts commenting on the indictment appears to be that Mr Trump is in serious legal jeopardy. If Mr Trump is convicted, he could be sentenced to decades in prison. A former assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, Sarah Krissoff, told Insider that “to the extent that there’s a conviction here, the Department of Justice is going to want to be seeking a real sentence” because of the “nature of the conduct, how long it lasted, his involvement, the involvement of other people, working allegedly at Trump’s direction”. She noted that if Mr Trump is convicted, the sentence would depend on the judge, which seems likely to be Trump-appointee Aileen Cannon in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Mr McClanahan noted the novelty of possibly having to find a proper way to put a former president behind bars. He questioned how the authorities would go about imprisoning someone “who has a Secret Service detail and who has national security secrets bouncing around his brain, such that if someone holds a shiv to his neck, he’ll reveal the location of our missile bases”. He added that Mr Trump might become a “foreign intelligence gold mine for most countries on earth” if he’s imprisoned. Mr McClanahan sees it as more likely that if Mr Trump is convicted, he would be sentenced to house arrest with an ankle monitor. But Ms Krissoff told the outlet that “Trump can share that information that is in his head whether he is incarcerated or not incarcerated. So I’m not particularly concerned that, as a citizen, the incarceration will trigger the sharing of information that wouldn’t be shared otherwise”. Fox News legal commentator Jonathan Turley didn’t hold back after the indictment was unsealed. Mr Trump showed classified documents to others twice in 2021, the legal filing states. Mr Turley, the Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, said on Fox News on Friday afternoon that “it is an extremely damning indictment”. “There are indictments that are sometimes called narrative or speaking indictments. These are indictments that are really meant to make a point as to the depth of the evidence, there are some indictments that are just bare bones,” he added. This is not one of those indictments, Mr Turley said. “The Special Counsel knew that there would be a lot of people who were going to allege that the Department of Justice was acting in a biased or politically motivated way. This is clearly an indictment that was drafted to answer those questions. It’s overwhelming in detail,” he continued. “The Trump team should not fool itself. These are hits below the waterline. These are witnesses who apparently testified under oath [and] gave statements to federal investigators, both of which can be criminally charged, if they’re false.” “Those witnesses are directly quoting the president in encouraging others not to look for documents or allegedly to conceal them. It’s damaging,” Mr Turley said. “This is not an indictment that you can dismiss. There are a lot of people who are testifying under oath, and they’re saying highly incriminating things,” the attorney added. Speaking about the images from Mar-a-Lago of the boxes of documents found in a ballroom and a bathroom, in addition to other less-than-ideal places, Mr Turley said, “It’s really breathtaking. Obviously, this is mishandling. Putting the classified documents into ballrooms and bathrooms borders on the bizarre. And these are the types of pictures that hit you below the waterline in a trial. “It’s hard to show a picture of these boxes surrounding a toilet and saying ‘we really acted responsibly,’” he added, going on to note that “the government is bringing dozens of counts – they only have to land one of those punches”. “Keep in mind that every one of these counts is coming with a substantial potential sentence,” Mr Turley said. The lawyer said that the Trump legal team has “to run the table, they have to take out every single count, or you’ve got a 76-year-old man looking at a potentially terminal sentence”. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump ‘plotted to hide documents from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’ Trump kept classified documents from seven agencies including CIA, DoD, and NSA Jonathan Turley tells Fox News the Trump indictment is ‘extremely damning’ and a ‘hit below the waterline’

Former president Donald Trump is speaking at two Republican state conventions today in Georgia and North Carolina, just one day after he was indicted for showing highly-classified information to unauthorised persons on two separate occasions. The 49-page, 38-count indictment was unsealed on Friday after Mr Trump released a series of social media posts revealing that he has been indicted by a grand jury under the supervision of Special Counsel Jack Smith. The indictment details the charges against Mr Trump and Walt Nauta, a former US Navy noncommissioned officer who left government service to work for Mr Trump after his term ended in January 2021. According to the indictment, the 38 charges against Mr Trump and Mr Nauta include willful retention of national defence information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations. The former president has fumed online about the charges and lashed out at Mr Smith calling him a “deranged lunatic”. The special counsel for his part gave a brief explanation of the sweeping indictment and reiterated that in America, the law applies to everyone. Read More What is an indictment? Here’s what Donald Trump is facing Trump indicted in classified documents case in a historic first for a former president Conspiracy, false statements and retaining national defence documents: The federal charges against Donald Trump Trump has been caught on tape. Congratulations, Donald – you played yourself Trump lashes out at ‘deranged lunatic’ and ‘psycho’ Jack Smith as startling secret papers charges revealed

Donald Trump kept classified documents from seven agencies after leaving the White House, the 49-page and 37-count unsealed indictment against the former president has revealed. The agencies include the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Department of Energy, and the Department of State and its Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The indictment outlined the responsibilities of each agency with the CIA being in charge of “providing intelligence on foreign countries and global issues to the president”, the DoD being responsible for “providing the military forces needed to deter war and ensure national security”, the NSA working on “foreign signals intelligence and cybersecurity”, the Geospatial Intelligence Agency leading “the exploitation and analysis of imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information in support of the national security objectives”. A number of the agencies are under the umbrella of the Defense Department, including the Reconnaissance Office which is “responsible for developing, acquiring, launching, and operating space-based surveillance”, while the Department of Energy is in charge of “maintaining a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent to protect national security”. “The Department of State was responsible for protecting and promoting United States security, prosperity, and democratic values. Within the Department of State, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research was a member of the USIC and responsible for providing intelligence to inform diplomacy and support United States diplomats,” the indictment states. The indictment, unsealed on Friday afternoon, stems from Mr Trump’s allegedly unlawful retention of hundreds of documents at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago. Trump aide Walt Nauta has also been charged after he was apparently spotted on surveillance footage moving boxes at the property. The ex-president stands accused of having moved classified documents from the White House at the end of his presidency despite not having the right to do so. In a short statement on Friday, the man in charge of DoJ’s investigations into Mr Trump, Special Counsel Jack Smith, said: “Today, an indictment was unsealed, charging Donald J. Trump of felony violations of our national security laws, as well participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice. This indictment was voted by a grand jury of citizens in the southern district of Florida.” “It is very important for me to note that the defendant in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. To that end, my office will seek a speedy trial in this matter,” he added. Fox News commentator Jonathan Turley said: “It is an extremely damning indictment ...This is not an indictment you can dismiss.” Mr Trump took to Truth Social to slam the Special Counsel, calling him a “Trump Hater” and a “deranged ‘psycho’”. The ex-president said Mr Smith “shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘Justice,’ other than to look at Biden as a criminal, which he is!” “Under the Presidential Records Act, I’m allowed to do all this,” Mr Trump claimed in a subsequent statement. “There was no crime, except for what the DOJ and FBI have been doing against me for years,” he added. “Nobody said I wasn’t allowed to look at the personal records that I brought with me from the White House,” Mr Trump said. Read More Read Donald Trump’s 37-count federal indictment in full Trump indictment: Ex-president kept nuclear and military papers and showed some to unauthorised people Trump indictment — latest: Trump ‘plotted to hide documents from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’

Donald Trump has been mocked for praising an attorney who deleted 30,000 of Hillary Clinton’s emails, according to the unsealed indictment from special counsel Jack Smith. As a candidate and president, Mr Trump repeatedly called for his 2016 presidential opponent to be locked up after she was found to have been “extremely careless” in using a private server for official communications as secretary of state. Privately, he joked about how her lawyers had “done a great job” deleting the emails and in his telling, protecting her from scrutiny, according to the indictment. The unsealed indictment details a conversation Mr Trump held with two lawyers, listed as Trump Attorney 1 and Trump Attorney 2, on 23 May 2022. The lawyers informed Mr Trump he would have to comply with a Department of Justice subpoena to turn over any classified materials to the National Archive. “I don’t want anyone looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes,” Mr Trump said, according to the indictment. Mr Trump later asked: “Well, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?” In a subsequent conversation, “memorialised” by Attorney 1, Mr Trump praised Ms Clinton’s lawyers for deleting the emails. “He was great, he did a great job,” Mr Trump allegedly said. “He said that it... was him. That he was the one who deleted all of her emails, the 30,000 emails because they basically dealt with her scheduling and her going to the gym and her having beauty appointments. “So she didn’t get in any trouble because he said that he was the one who deleted him.” The identity of the attorney who supposedly deleted Ms Clinton’s emails was redacted. Trump Attorney 1, who was apparently recording the conversation, was said to be Evan Corcoran, according to CNN. The indictment, released a day after Mr Trump announced its existence, revealed that he has been charged with 37 counts including conspiracy to obstruct justice and scheme to conceal that laid bare for the first time the vast scope of the classified document investigation. Special Counsel Jack Smith alleges that he took classified documents containing nuclear secrets and military invasion plans, and stored them in rooms at Mar-a-Lago. According to the indictment, FBI agents collected a total of 102 classified documents during a search of Mar-a-Lago last August. Ms Clinton’s use of a personal email system was the subject of two FBI probes during the height of the 2016 presidential campaign. In July of that year, an FBI investigation concluded that no “reasonable prosecutor” would bring a case against Ms Clinton. The FBI said that she and her aides had been “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information. Then 11 days before the election, then-FBI director James Comey sensationally announced he was reopening the case after discovering new emails, which turned out to be duplicates of the ones the FBI had already examined. The investigation was widely blamed for tilting the election in Mr Trump’s favour. After the indictment was announced, Ms Clinton trolled her former opponent on Twitter. “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”. Twitter users were quick to comment on Mr Trump praising Ms Clinton’s aide. “The indictment made clear an abiding Trump trait: his admiration for people who exhibit gamesmanship w authorities. He allegedly praised an unnamed Hillary Clinton aide who deleted her emails. Why? Because, in Mr. Trump’s account, the aide ensured that Mrs. Clinton ‘didn’t get in any trouble’,” Maggie Haberman of The New York Times tweeted. “Remember when he bragged about avoiding payment of taxes during a debate? We’ve known this for a while,” consultant Joni Kletter responded. “And was praised for having done so. Presumably by people who will never have the $ to hire the accountants and lawyers that can save them should they be audited,” one Twitter user added. “Does he have any redeeming qualities. Does he really love golf, because he cheats. So no,” another account holder said. “He’s such a two-bit criminal,” a third wrote. “That he idolized Roy Cohn should have been enough long ago,” Roger Schwab said. “He was literally raised on deceit,” Jessica Heintz added. Read More Trump indictment — live: Justice Department unseals classified papers indictment as aide also faces charges Trump described Pentagon ‘plan of attack’ and shared classified military map with PAC member, indictment shows Conspiracy, false statements and retaining national defense documents: The federal charges against Donald Trump 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

Fox News legal commentator Jonathan Turley didn’t hold back after the indictment charging former President Donald Trump with 37 counts was unsealed. The indictment, unsealed on Friday afternoon, stems from Mr Trump’s allegedly unlawful retention of hundreds of documents at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago. Trump aide Walt Nauta has also been charged after he was apparently spotted on surveillance footage moving boxes at the property. The ex-president stands accused of having moved classified documents from the White House at the end of his presidency despite not having the right to do so. Mr Trump showed classified documents to others twice in 2021, the legal filing states. Mr Turley, the Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, said on Fox News on Friday afternoon that “it is an extremely damning indictment”. “There are indictments that are sometimes called narrative or speaking indictments. These are indictments that are really meant to make a point as to the depth of the evidence, there are some indictments that are just bare bones,” he added. This is not one of those indictments, Mr Turley said. “The Special Counsel knew that there would be a lot of people who were going to allege that the Department of Justice was acting in a biased or politically motivated way. This is clearly an indictment that was drafted to answer those questions. It's overwhelming in detail,” he continued. “The Trump team should not fool itself. These are hits below the waterline. These are witnesses who apparently testified under oath [and] gave statements to federal investigators, both of which can be criminally charged, if they're false.” “Those witnesses are directly quoting the president in encouraging others not to look for documents or allegedly to conceal them. It's damaging,” Mr Turley said. “This is not an indictment that you can dismiss. There are a lot of people who are testifying under oath, and they're saying highly incriminating things,” the attorney added. Speaking about the images from Mar-a-Lago of the boxes of documents found in a ballroom and a bathroom, in addition to other less-than-ideal places, Mr Turley said, “It's really breathtaking. Obviously, this is mishandling. Putting the classified documents into ballrooms and bathrooms borders on the bizarre. And these are the types of pictures that hit you below the waterline in a trial. “It's hard to show a picture of these boxes surrounding a toilet and saying ‘we really acted responsibly,’” he added, going on to note that “the government is bringing dozens of counts – they only have to land one of those punches”. “Keep in mind that every one of these counts is coming with a substantial potential sentence,” Mr Turley said. The lawyer said that the Trump legal team has “to run the table, they have to take out every single count, or you've got a 76-year-old man looking at a potentially terminal sentence”. “The visual and the audio tape evidence is really daunting. The audio tape that they transcribe makes it sound like the President was using some of these documents as trophies. And that's likely to be the narrative that comes out of the trial, that he's boasting. That's going to undermine it even further in the eyes of these jurors,” Mr Turley concluded. According to the indictment, “In July 2021, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (‘The Bedminster Club’), during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, TRUMP showed and described a ‘plan of attack’ that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official”. “TRUMP told the individuals that the plan was ‘highly confidential’ and ‘secret.’ TRUMP also said, ‘as president I could have declassified it,’ and, ‘Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret’,” the filing says. A transcript of the 2021 tape was revealed by CNN on Friday morning, hours after news emerged that Mr Trump had been indicted. On the tape, first reported last week, he specifically referenced a classified Department of Defense document regarding an attack on Iran, according to the transcript. It was reported last week that prosecutors had procured the audio recording, which was made in 2021 at Mr Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, resort with two individuals working on the autobiography of Mr Trump’s final White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in addition to aides to the former president, such as Marco Martin, a communications staffer. The transcript implies that Mr Trump is showing the document he’s speaking about during the conversation.CNN reported that several sources have said that the sound from the recording includes the rustling of papers, indicating that Mr Trump may have been moving the document around. But it’s not clear if it was the document regarding Iran. “Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Mr Trump said. “This was done by the military and given to me.” At the time, Mr Trump was complaining about the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. The meeting took place not long after a story published by The New Yorker outlined how Gen Milley told the Joint Chiefs during the last days of Mr Trump’s time in office to make sure that the then-president not give any illegal orders and that Gen Milley should be made aware if there were any concerns. “Well, with Milley – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,” Mr Trump said, the transcript shows. “They presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.” “All sorts of stuff – pages long, look. Wait a minute, let’s see here. I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Mr Trump added. “Secret” and “confidential” are both degrees of classified information. Read More Hiding documents from the FBI and foreign nuclear plans: Key allegations in Trump’s unsealed indictment Mystery over female Trump family member allegedly involved in decisions over secret papers Trump news — latest: Trump ‘plotted to hide documents from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’

Republican US Senator Mitt Romney said that former president Donald Trump had brought an indictment upon himself for his taking classified documents and refusing to return them. Mr Romney released a statement on Friday after news that a grand jury indicted Mr Trump for his alleged unlawful of retention of national defence information at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Mr Trump said he must report to a court in Miami by Tuesday at 3pm ET. “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,” Mr Romney said. “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,” he said. “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.” The 2012 Republican presidential nominee, whom Mr Trump endorsed in that election, has since emerged as one of the GOP’s most outspoken critics of the former president. Mr Romney voted to convict Mr Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2020, the only Republican Senator to do so, for attempting to withhold aid for Ukraine in exchange for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigating Joe Biden’s son when Mr Trump was running for re-election. In 2021, six other Republicans joined Mr Romney to convict Mr Trump for his incitement of the January 6 riot. Mr Romney alluded to those cases in his statement. “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,” he said. The statement stands in contrast to Mr Romney’s statement after a New York grand jury indicted Mr Trump in April, when Mr Romney expressed some scepticism. New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office charged Mr Trump on 34 counts related to his allegedly making hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. “Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda,” Mr Romney said at the time. “No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.” Read More Trump-appointed judge will initially preside over ex-president’s federal court appearance Trump indictment — live: Trump’s brazen classified document admission revealed amid MAGA meltdown over charges Jailhouse Rock? Trump followed his furious indictment announcement with a DJ set

California Governor Gavin Newsom pushed back when Fox News host Sean Hannity repeatedly questioned whether President Joe Biden was up to the task of leading the US and whether the governor himself has been urged to run in 2024. “Do you think he’s cognitively strong enough to be president?” Hannity asked the California governor, in a preview of the Fox News host’s exclusive interview airing next week. Mr Newsom said he had no qualms about Mr Biden’s cognitive faculties. “I have conversations with him all the time. Yes,” Mr Newsom said, adding: “And I’ll tell you what. I’m dead serious about that. I’ve talked to him when he’s been overseas, I’ve been in Air Force One, Marine One, I’ve been in the limo with him. I’ve spent time with him privately and publicly.” Hannity kept trying, though. “How many times does your phone ping a day, people saying, ‘You need to get in this race’ because they agree with me that he’s not up to the job?” the Fox host asked once again. “I see where you’re going with that, Sean,” Mr Newsom said. “I’m asking,” Hannity said. “I’m not answering,” the California governor responded. Mr Biden, 80, is the oldest president in US history. Republicans have long sought to make hay out of the president’s advanced age, arguing that he is senile and confused during public events. Mr Biden’s doctor, however, has said the president remains in good health and fit for duty. “The President remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” Dr Kevn O’Connor said in a statement on 16 February. Read More California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes constitutional amendment to tighten access to guns ‘Small, pathetic man’: Inside the bitter rivalry between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom Gavin Newsom suggests kidnap charges over Ron DeSantis’s migrant flights

Nine people were wounded in a shooting in San Francisco that police describe as “targeted and isolated”. The shooting took place on Friday evening in the Mission District. The authorities have signalled that all those injured are likely to survive, according to CBS News. Police responded to the shooting at about 9pm in the area close to 24th Street and Treat Avenue. After 11pm, police said that several people had been taken to hospital and that all of them were set to survive. The authorities said that since the shooting appeared to have been isolated, there was no further threat to the public. The shooting took place at a community block party, according to KTVU. Witnesses said it was a drive-by shooting. The ages of the victim ranged from 19 to 35 with one individual’s age being unknown. The victims, most of whom are in their 20s, have “varying degrees of injuries from non-life threatening to life-threatening,” SFPD Investigations Deputy Chief Raj Vaswani said, according to KTVU. An aide to Supervisor Hillary Ronen, Santiago Lerma, said that one victim was in surgery. Mr Lerma said that four people were receiving treatment for minor injuries. He added that he heard gunshots and spotted ambulances arrive. “I was about 10 feet away with my three-month-old son about an hour before this happened. This is an outlier. This is a very safe neighbourhood generally,” he said, according to the local TV station. He added that he often walks around the area along with his family. “So do many other people, so we’re very concerned about this incident. We want there to be a resolution.” More follows...

Mike Pence struggled to take a clear stance on troubles concerning former US president Donald Trump’s indictment in the classified documents case. Mr Trump is reportedly facing 37 counts of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate. These charges come less than three months after he was charged in New York with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Earlier this week, during an appearance on CNN, Mr Pence shared his views about Trump’s indictment. The politician, who has launched his 2024 Presidential campaign, said: “I hope the DOJ thinks better of it and resolves these issues without an indictment. “I think it would also send a terrible message to the wider world,” he added. “I mean, we’re the emblem of democracy. We’re the symbol of justice in the world.” Mr Pence also ended up criticising the FBI’s raid on Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, saying: “I was very troubled last summer when, for the first time in history, there was a search warrant executed at the home of a former president of the United States. He added: “There had to be dozens of ways that could have been handled.” After making these statements, Mr Pence undercut his own views, saying: “I don’t know the facts of the former president’s case.” The former vice president’s contradictory statement led to the host asking him whether what he was “saying is that, if they believe he committed a crime, they should not go forward with an indictment?” Mr Pence replied: “No, look, let me be clear that no one’s above the law.” He then added: “But with regard to the unique circumstances here, it – look – I – I. No one is above the law. But … unique circumstances.” Ultimately, Mr Pence ended up conceding that Trump and President Joe Biden “had no business” having classified documents after leaving office. “But I would just hope that there would be a way for them to move forward without the dramatic and drastic and divisive step of indicting a former president of the United States,” he said. Read More Trump boasts about having non-declassified papers in bombshell recording: ‘I have a big pile’ Trump news — latest: Trump ‘plotted to hide documents from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’ Fox host Mark Levin screams at camera in outrage at Trump indictment over secret papers Trump set for first public appearances since federal indictment, speaking in Georgia, North Carolina DeSantis pledges to restore name of Confederate general Braxton Bragg to Fort Liberty Will Trump’s growing laundry list of legal woes hurt his standing with GOP voters?