List of All Articles with Tag 'election'

The special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results obtained a search warrant for the former president’s Twitter account in January, according to newly unsealed records. Twitter was prohibited from telling Mr Trump about the search, but the platform – now called “X” – was fined $350,000 for failing to meet the deadline to produce records under court order. The company ultimately produced the records three days after that deadline, according to the filing. Twitter and the office of US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith spent several months debating whether to inform Mr Trump about the warrant, a dispute that surfaced with a Washington DC appeals court’s unsealing of a decision that upheld a lower court ruling to prohibit the platform from telling the former president about the case. A federal court agreed there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that disclosing the warrant would “seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation” by giving him “an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates,” according to the decision. A footnote adds that the court “found reason to believe” that Mr Trump could “flee from prosecution”. “The government later acknowledged, however, that it had ‘errantly included flight from prosecution as a predicate’ in its application,” the footnote adds. “The district court did not rely on risk of flight in its ultimate analysis.” Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to three criminal conspiracy charges and a charge of obstruction for his attempts to overturn 2020 election results. This is a developing story Read More Trump 2020 election plan detailed in ‘fake elector’ memo as Chris Christie reacts to ‘fat pig’ attack - latest

Donald Trump and officials in Atlanta are bracing for a new indictment that could come as soon as next week in a Georgia prosecutor’s investigation into the Republican ex-president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state

Failed Republican gubernatorial candidate and election denier Kari Lake is reportedly considering jumping into Arizona’s Senate race, Axios reported. The former news anchor and darling of the MAGA Republican right rose to prominence thanks to her promoting lies about the 2020 presidential election and calling for the decertification of election results. Last year she lost to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs but has refused to concede and has taken her complaints to courts, which have summarily rejected her attempts to overturn the election. In May, Maricopa Superior Court Judge Peter A Thompson said Ms Lake failed to prove that Maricopa, where Phoenix is located, did not verify signatures on mail-in ballots. Since then, she’s become a fixture in right-wing media and at conservative gatherings such as the Conservative Political Action Conference, where she gave the Reagan Dinner speech. Earlier this week, she campaigned for Bernie Moreno, who is running for Ohio’s Senate seat, and praised fellow MAGA Republican Sen JD Vance, who won his race. “I'm really, really excited about [Mr Vance], I'm super excited that Bernie Moreno's going to be in the Senate. And if they're in the Senate, I just might have to join them,” she said. Former president Donald Trump’s campaign praised Ms Lake and the idea of her running for Arizona’s Senate seat. “When President Trump gets back in the White House he's going to need fighters like Kari Lake in Washington, DC to help enact his Agenda 47,” senior Trump adviser Caroline Wren told Axios. Arizona’s incumbent Sen Kyrsten Sinema has not indicated whether she will seek another term in the Senate. In 2018, she became the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Arizona in 30 years. But Ms Sinema left the Democratic Party to become an independent in December. Rep Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) announced he would run for Arizona’s Senate seat as a Democrat and outraised Ms Sinema in the last fundraising quarter. But despite her consistent opposition to many parts of his agenda, Ms Sinema joined President Joe Biden when he designated the greater Grand Canyon as a national monument on Tuesday. But a poll from Noble Predictive Insights showed that Ms Sinema would trail both Mr Gallego and Ms Lake in a hypothetical three-way matchup. Read More Biden to announce historic Grand Canyon monument designation during Arizona visit Senator who once worked at a Planned Parenthood warns that Republicans are planning a national abortion ban Sinema cites bill targeting leaders of failed banks after criticism of her Wall Street ties Trump ‘fake elector’ memo details 2020 election plan as Christie reacts to new insult Ron DeSantis removes Florida’s only Black woman state prosecutor from office Senator Dianne Feinstein briefly hospitalised after fall

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday suspended a county prosecutor after accusing her of being soft on crime,

Former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik has met with investigators from special counsel Jack Smith’s team

President Joe Biden is traveling west this week on a mission to ramp up excitement for an agenda that -- so far -- is yielding little political upside.

WASHINGTON Fox Business will hold the second debate of the 2024 Republican presidential contest, Politico news outlet reported

Donald Trump may be eventually forced to return millions of dollars of campaign funds he raised after the 2020 elections on fraudulent claims, a retired FBI official said on Tuesday. Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director, said it “isn’t over” for Mr Trump after he was indicted over alleged efforts to overturn 2020 election results in charges led by special counsel Jack Smith in federal district court in Washington DC. “When you raise millions based on a fraudulent claim, you’ve committed a crime. And, you just might have to give those millions back... Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC,” Mr Figliuzzi said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. His comments came on the heels of a Politico report which said investigators held a closed-door interview on Monday with Bernard Kerik, the disgraced ex-NYPD Commissioner who was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2020. His lawyer Tim Parlatore told the outlet that Mr Kerik was quizzed with multiple questions on the enormous fundraising haul by Save America’s PAC in the weeks between Election Day and Jan 6 riots at the Capitol. The special counsel has been long thought to have been focusing the investigation on whether Mr Trump or his PAC broke federal laws by soliciting funds based on false voter fraud allegations. However, the recent indictment of Mr Trump does not contain any accusations of financial wrongdoing. The report said the interview was the clearest indication yet of Mr Smith’s focus on fundraising and spending by Mr Trump’s political action committee. “It’s a laser focus from Election Day to Jan. 6,” Mr Parlatore reportedly said. Kerik, a longtime ally of former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, was pardoned by the ex-president in 2020. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to eight felony charges involving tax fraud and making false statements to the federal government. Read More Trump makes shocking claims about DA’s sex life days before she’s due to indict him – latest Trump vows to keep campaigning on his criminal cases despite prosecutors seeking order to stop Who are the 2024 presidential election candidates? Meet the Republicans and Democrats campaigning

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is highlighting her public safety platform in a bid to help Democrats retake control of the House

Abortion rights advocates on Tuesday won a critical victory in Ohio, beating back a measure that would have made their push to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution more difficult.

Despite Donald Trump’s penchant for attacking his political rivals on social media, the former president has taken issue with a tweet where Joe Biden is seen sipping coffee from a “Dark Brandon” themed mug. In a court document filed in Washington DC on Monday, Mr Trump’s attorneys complained that Mr Biden is capitalising on the former president’s legal troubles with the meme post. “President Biden has likewise capitalized on the indictment, posting a thinly veiled reference to his administration’s prosecution of President Trump just hours before arraignment,” his attorneys wrote in the filing. The court document then included a photo of the offending image, showing Mr Biden’s video post on his personal account on X – formerly known as Twitter. In the video, the president is seen drinking a cup of coffee from a mug featuring an image of Mr Biden with lasers coming out of his eyes – also known as “Dark Brandon”. In the clip, captioned “A cup of Joe never tasted better,” Mr Biden says: “I like my coffee dark.” The social media post includes a link to buy the mug, which is part of the merchandise being promoted by Mr Biden’s campaign as he seeks to capitalise on a trend that was first adopted by his critics. The “Dark Brandon” moniker was born out of the right-wing chant “Let’s Go Brandon” – a thinly-veiled chant meaning “f*** Joe Biden” – before it was adopted and turned into a merchandise opportunity by the president himself. Mr Biden’s tweet was posted on Thursday morning, hours before Mr Trump was arrested and arraigned on charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his role in the lead-up to the January 6 Capitol riot. Mr Trump’s complaint about the “Dark Brandon” meme post came in a court document filed by his defence attorneys on Monday arguing against a protective order in the case. Last week, special counsel Jack Smith’s office had requested a protective order in the federal criminal case limiting what Mr Trump can publicise about the case. Such an order would not stop Mr Trump from commenting on the case altogether, but would simply prevent him from disclosing evidence such as secret grand jury materials. The request specifically referred to a seemingly threatening Truth Social post from the former president where he wrote: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” On Monday, Mr Trump’s defence team filed a motion pushing back against the protective order, claiming that his political rivals are campaigning off the back of his legal troubles. They also claim a protective order would violate Mr Trump’s right to free speech in what they say is “a trial about First Amendment rights”. Instead, Mr Trump’s defence is asking the judge to narrow limits of a protective order so that his right to free speech is protected. Mr Smith’s office quickly filed a motion in response, accusing the former president of trying to “litigate this case in the media”. Now, Judge Tanya Chutkan has ordered that a court hearing will take place this week over the issue of a protective order in the case. The judge told both parties to give her two proposed dates and times by 3pm ET on Tuesday for when a hearing can be held over the matter. The hearing must take place by Friday, she said, and Mr Trump is not required to attend. The irony of Mr Trump’s issue with the president’s post comes as the former president has repeatedly railed against Mr Biden, the DOJ, Mr Smith and the judges overseeing his criminal cases in angry tirades on his Truth Social page. Meanwhile, Mr Biden has made no public comments on Mr Trump’s indictment on criminal charges. The former president was arrested last Thursday on four federal charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. He appeared in court in Washington DC for his arraigment that afternoon, where he pleaded not guilty to all charges. The former president is accused of conspiring with his allies to overturn the 2020 election, in a bid to sabotage the vote of the American people. A grand jury, which has spent months hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, returned a federal indictment on 1 August hitting him with four federal charges. The Justice Department alleges that Mr Trump and his circle of co-conspirators knew that he had lost the election but launched a multi-prong conspiracy to do everything they could to enable him to cling to power. This included spreading “knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendant’s opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant”, the indictment states. Mr Trump and his allies also allegedly plotted to send slates of fake electors to seven “targeted states” of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which President Joe Biden had won – to get them to falsely certify the election for Mr Trump. The indictment also alleges Mr Trump tried to use the DOJ to “conduct sham election crime investigations”, sending letters to the seven states claiming that “significant concerns” had been found in the elections in those states. As well as the false claims about the election being stolen from Mr Trump, the scheme also involved pushing false claims that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to alter the results – and pushing Mr Pence to “fraudulently alter the election results”. When Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in a violent attack that ended with five deaths, Mr Trump and his co-conspirators “exploited” the incident by “redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims,” the indictment claims. At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Smith placed the blame for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol firmly on Mr Trump’s shoulders. “The attack on our nation’s capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” he said. “As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government – the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.” The indictment marks Mr Trump’s second federal indictment, his third criminal indictment overall – and arguably his most serious. While the former president is the only person charged in the case, the indictment also refers to six co-conspirators who worked with him to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The six individuals – four attorneys, one Justice Department official and one political consultant – have not been named in the charging documents because they have not yet been charged with any crimes. However, based on the details in the indictment and records already known about the events leading up to the Capitol riot, the identities are apparent as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Kenneth Chesebro and Boris Epshteyn. This marks Mr Trump’s third indictment after he was hit with New York state charges following an investigation into hush money payments made prior to the 2016 election and then separate federal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents on leaving office. He has pleaded not guilty in both of those charges as well. Read More Trump judge demands court hearing as Jack Smith and ex-president spar over protective order – latest Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon sides with Trump again in classified documents case Special counsel accuses Trump of wanting to try Jan 6 case in media after bid to use evidence during 2024 run

Ohio voters rejected a proposal that would have made it more difficult for voters to amend the state constitution, including one measure set for the November ballot that would guarantee abortion rights in the state