Trump

How Mark Milley and others in the Pentagon handled the national-security threat posed by their own Commander-in-Chief.

“Milley would go right at why it’s important for the President to know this about the Army and why the Army is the service that wins all the nation’s wars. Urban told the President that he would connect better with Milley, who was loquacious and blunt to the point of being rude, and who had the Ivy League pedigree that always impressed Trump. “You should go to Europe and just get the fuck out of D.C.,” Kelly said. You shouldn’t run to be the chairman.” Milley later told people that he had replied sharply to Mattis, “I’m not lobbying for any fucking thing. “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” the President replied. “I’m telling you it ain’t me.” Milley even claimed that he had begged Urban to cease promoting his candidacy. “These were very untalented people and once I realized it, I did not rely on them, I relied on the real generals and admirals within the system,” he said. The event seemed to be calculated to appeal to Trump—his sense of showmanship and grandiosity—and he was visibly delighted. But Trump’s love affair with “my generals” was brief, and in a statement for this article the former President confirmed how much he had soured on them over time. “Portugal was a dictatorship—and parades were about showing the people who had the guns. “So, what do you think of the parade?” Trump asked Selva. Instead of telling Trump what he wanted to hear, Selva was forthright. Struggling to dissuade Trump, officials pointed out that the parade would cost millions of dollars and tear up the streets of the capital.

In a statement, the ex-president described the incident as 'an unannounced raid' and did not specify what was taken.

“Because Nara identified classified information in the boxes,” the chief archivist David Ferriero said in a letter to Congress at the time, “Nara staff has been in communication with the Department of Justice.” By the time Trump issued the statement, suggesting the raid was ongoing, the FBI had already left the property. The Justice Department has been quietly examining the prospect of opening a criminal investigation into the matter of Trump’s removal of documents since at least April, according to a source with knowledge of the inquiry.

Images published ahead of new book on 45th presidency offer possible evidence of violations of Presidential Records Act.

Trump, described by Axios as “a notorious destroyer of Oval Office documents”, was the alleged flusher. Most words are illegible, but one name that is clearly visible is that of the New York Republican congresswoman and potential 2024 running mate Elise Stefanik. “You have to be pretty desperate to sell books if pictures of paper in a toilet bowl is part of your promotional plan,” a Trump spokesperson, Taylor Budowich, told Axios in advance of Monday’s report.

Former President Donald Trump takes the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, on August 6, 2022. (CNN) ...

But, Monday's FBI activity suggests that Trump's legal problems are likely to get worse before they get better. "Three former White House officials told CNN they saw Trump, on numerous occasions, manually destroy papers he was no longer interested in or had finished reviewing -- a practice that made it difficult for White House staff secretaries to preserve presidential records. Over the weekend, he convincingly won a straw poll Boxes of items were taken during the search, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN. Agents appear to be focused on the area of the sprawling estate where Trump's living quarters and offices are located. (Worth noting: Trump is not a lawyer.)

That appears to be the intended destination of what look like torn-up presidential documents in photographs released by reporter Maggie Haberman to the news ...

An administration is allowed to exclude personal records that are purely private or don’t have an effect on the duties of a president. As soon as a president leaves office, the National Archivist gets legal custody of all of them Presidents are generally on their honor to be good stewards of history. The government compiles and preserves these records to give an accurate accounting of the leaders the country has chosen. At the conclusion of an administration, these documents form the basis for the formal collections of the Public Papers of the President. But these public documents have so far always been available to the public – and they’ve been available quickly. Until Trump, there have been no missing public speeches in the permanent collection. In most presidencies, the document or transcript is available a few days to a couple of weeks after any event. In 1957, the National Historical Publications Commission, a part of the National Archives, recommended developing a uniform system so all materials from presidencies could be archived. Haberman has a book coming out on former President Donald Trump in early October. One photo, allegedly of a White House toilet, shows a scrap of paper with what Haberman says is Trump’s handwriting on it, sitting at the bottom of the toilet bowl. In speeches that President George W. Bush gave in the 2002 midterm election period, he made the same joke more than 50 times as his icebreaker. Presidential speeches often give a different perception of an administration. This could be the first visual documentation of Trump’s already-reported habit of flushing documents down a White House toilet.

Federal agents searched the Florida residence of Donald Trump on Monday, a significant step by prosecutors against the former president over his handling of ...

Trump, who said on Monday night the FBI was at his home in Mar-a-Lago, faces a string of lawsuits and investigations.

Trump also could be charged with “seditious conspiracy,” a rarely used statute that makes it illegal to overthrow the US government by force. He accused her of lying to drum up sales for a book. The US House of Representatives Oversight Committee at that time said it was expanding an investigation into Trump’s actions and asked the Archives to turn over additional information. Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, agreed to testify in the investigation starting on July 15. The investigation focuses in part on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, on January 2, 2021. A congressional panel investigating the January 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the US Capitol is working to build a case that he broke the law in trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Former US president Donald Trump has said FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago estate last night and broke into his safe.

Several dozen Trump supporters gathered near Mar-a-Lago, which is steps from the ocean, and where several men stood guard next to a dark sport utility vehicle. His trip has been cancelled." A White House official said that Mr Biden was not given advance notice of the search and referred queries to the Justice Department. Eric Trump, told Fox News that the search concerned boxes of documents that his father brought with him from the White House, and that Mr Trump has been cooperating with the National Archives on the matter for months. The US Justice Department declined to comment on the search, which Mr Trump in a statement called a raid and said involved a "large group of FBI agents". The unprecedented search of a former president's home would mark a significant escalation into the records investigation, which is one of several probes Mr Trump is facing from his time in office and in private business.

President Donald Trump once told a top adviser that he wanted “totally loyal” generals like the ones who had served Adolf Hitler — unaware that some of ...

Though the resignation letter was ultimately never sent, it showed the degree to which Milley believed Trump had already inflicted damage on the country. “Can you imagine what a group of people who are much more capable could have done?” He wrote that he thought the president had made “a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military” and that he no longer believed he could change that. Trump, he added later, did not seem to believe or value the idea, embodied in the Constitution, that all men and women are created equal. “It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. “I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people.”

Ex-president complained to John Kelly 'why can't you be like the German generals?' according to excerpt from the New Yorker.

And in this country, we don’t do that.” He added: “It’s not who we are.” With each pushback, Trump’s admiration for the military advisers which he used to fawningly refer to as “my generals” cooled. Kelly reportedly told Trump that there were no American generals who observe total loyalty to a president. Kelly asked which generals, prompting Trump to reply: “The German generals in World War II.” During his time in the Oval Office, Donald Trump wanted the Pentagon’s generals to be like Nazi Germany’s generals in the second world war, according to a book excerpt in the New Yorker. According to the excerpt published by the New Yorker from The Divider: Trump in the White House, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, an incredulous Kelly pointed out that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was almost assassinated by one of his own generals.

The former president once asked his chief of staff why his military leadership couldn't be more like the German generals who had reported to Adolf Hitler, ...

But they add that General Milley was “never sure what to make of Meadows. Was the chief of staff trying to land the plane or to hijack it?” “‘Our job is to land this plane safely and to do a peaceful transfer of power the 20th of January,’ Milley told his staff. The authors report that General Milley consulted with Robert Gates, a former defense secretary and a former C.I.A. director. ‘It was important for him to not get fired at the end, too, to be there to the bitter end,’ the senior official said,” according to the excerpt. “‘The crazies have taken over,’” Mr. Pompeo told General Milley, according to the authors. The authors said General Milley later considered his decision to join the president to be a “misjudgment that would haunt him forever, a ‘road-to-Damascus moment,’ as he would later put it.” In the summer of 2017, the book excerpt reveals, Mr. Trump returned from viewing the Bastille Day parade in Paris and told Mr. Kelly that he wanted one of his own. “The challenge, as he saw it, was to stop Trump from doing any more damage, while also acting in a way that was consistent with his obligation to carry out the orders of his commander in chief. During a conversation at the general’s kitchen table, Mr. Pompeo was blunt about what he thought of the people around the president. “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Mr. Trump told John Kelly, his chief of staff, preceding the question with an obscenity, according to an excerpt from “The Divider: Trump in the White House,” by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, published online by The New Yorker on Monday morning. “‘No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,’ the president replied,” according to the book’s authors. Kelly told Trump that there were no such American generals, but the president was determined to test the proposition.”

An obscure criminal law bars the removal of official records, on penalty of disqualification from holding any federal office. But it may not play out that ...

“Yes, I recognize the legal challenge that application of this law to a president would garner (since qualifications are set in Constitution),” he wrote. The Constitution allows Congress to disqualify people from holding office in impeachment proceedings, but grants no such power for ordinary criminal law. If convicted, defendants can be fined or sentenced to prison for up to three years. “But the idea that a candidate would have to litigate this is during a campaign is in my view a ‘blockbuster in American politics.’” The penalties for breaking that law include disqualification from holding any federal office. Mr. Volokh later reported on his blog that Mr. Mukasey — who is also a former federal judge — wrote that “upon reflection,” Mr. Mukasey had been mistaken and Mr. Tillman’s analysis was “spot on.” (Mrs. Clinton was never charged with any crime related to her use of the server.)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's search at former president Donald Trump's Palm Beach home at his Mar-a-Lago club appears to be part of an ...

The FBI did conduct an unannounced raid and seized paper,” she said. Speaking to Sean Hannity, the former president’s son Eric Trump said the raids were in connection with the search concerning boxes of documents that his father brought with him from the White House. In a statement on Monday evening, the former president claimed without offering evidence, that the raid on his Palm Beach residence was “prosecutorial misconduct” and “the weaponisation of the justice system” meant to keep him from running in the 2024 presidential election.

Donald Trump's team and allies are moving swiftly to draw political benefit from an unannounced search by FBI agents at the former president's Mar-a-Lago ...

The search is the latest development in a months-long investigation into whether the Trump administration mishandled presidential records. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his office also weren’t given a heads up about the search. He eschewed making a media appearance even as Eric Trump took to Fox News, and his daughter-in-law, Lara, did the same. Focus groups of Trump 2020 voters have shown that even they have grown wary of the drama that accompanies his political ventures and are ready to move on. Both the person close to Trump and another individual who is in touch with the former president speculated that he would now expedite his decision to announce a presidential bid. Aides said they were pleased with a statement by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who vowed to take action against the Department of Justice over the FBI’s search. By the end of the night, the RNC had dashed off a fundraising text: “THIS IS NOT A DRILL: UNPRECEDENTED move Biden’s FBI RAIDS Pres. Trump’s home. The person noted papers were seized from the home, where Trump has kept his primary residence and set up his post-presidential office. While Trump’s team was bullish about the political benefits of being targeted by the FBI, the situation comes with clear and obvious downsides. The search would require the signoff of a federal judge or magistrate, who would issue the warrant based upon evidence of a potential crime. And, soon enough, a clear narrative emerged from them: The search represented a deliberate political targeting, one that underscored the Democrat’s perception of Trump as a political threat. The FBI and DOJ have declined to comment on the search.

The National Archives and Records Administration announced it was investigating the former president's removal of documents from the White House at the ...

A federal investigation was launched into Mrs Clinton in 2016 after it transpired she had classified information sent to her personal email account. The raid is an escalation of Mr Trump's legal tangles. Mr Garland also defended the FBI, countering "unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors" by saying: "The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants." He cited "substantial public interest in this matter" and said he "personally approved" the decision to carry out the search, noting the decision was "not made lightly". As a result, he described the search as "not necessary or appropriate", "prosecutorial misconduct", the "weaponisation of the justice system" and "an attack by radical Democrats who desperately don't want me to run for president in 2024". Mr Trump could have also potentially broken legislation on the appropriate handling of government documents while he was still in office or be charged for obstruction of justice if he were found to have been covering his tracks.

Whether the DOJ is no longer scared of the Republicans, or the January 6 hearings have changed things, Trump is the subject of a serious criminal inquiry, ...

In the hours after the raid, Trump and his Republican allies made it clear that they thought they could gain a political advantage by casting themselves as the victims of an aggressive federal bureaucracy that was overstepping its authority. He didn’t want to pursue what could look like a politically motivated prosecution of a political opponent; he didn’t want to annoy the sizeable minority of the US that sees Trump as a beloved, almost messianic figure. The DOJ investigating Trump for his 15 boxes of documents is a bit like when the FBI was finally able to prosecute the mobster Al Capone – for tax evasion. But some accountability is better than none, and it could be that the agencies are pursuing the easiest possible case against Trump in an effort to leverage their way to more information. The raid is a significant escalation of the department’s relationship with Trump. It’s now difficult to think, as many of us long did, that the DOJ is unwilling to make Trump himself the object of a serious criminal inquiry. The former president has long been dogged by accusations that 15 boxes of secret material came with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after he was finally forced to leave office in January 2021, a move that would violate federal codes governing the destruction or removal of such materials.

Unprecedented search of an ex-president's home for official documents provoked outrage from supporters but proving intent will be key to any charge.

At the start of the meeting, Trump paid a visit and chatted to the investigators but without answering questions. In the end, the DoJ decided not to prosecute Clinton because it found no evidence of intent on her part. According to CNN, the extra boxes had been identified in June when DoJ investigators travelled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with two of Trump’s lawyers to discuss possibly classified material. Several prominent conservatives likened the search to the actions of a tinpot dictator. At the time, father and son were in Trump Tower in Manhattan, where the former president is preparing to be deposed in a civil lawsuit brought by New York state relating to his company’s financial bookkeeping. According to NBC News, they stayed on site most of the day.

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. search of former President Donald J. Trump's residence in Florida has raised the question of whether the criminal investigation ...

“Yes, I recognize the legal challenge that application of this law to a president would garner (since qualifications are set in Constitution),” Mr. Elias wrote. After the Mar-a-Lago search warrant came to light, one of the most prominent voices pointing to Section 2071 was that of Marc Elias, who served as general counsel for Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the state had no power to add qualifications to the list of eligibility criteria established by the federal Constitution. In a 1969 case, the Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the House of Representatives, by majority vote, to block Adam Clayton Powell Jr. from taking his seat; voters in his district had re-elected him despite allegations of misconduct. Mrs. Clinton was never charged with any crime related to her use of the server. Notably, the Constitution does authorize Congress to render people ineligible to hold federal office as a penalty for convictions in impeachment proceedings. If convicted under that law, defendants can be fined up to $2,000 and sentenced to prison for up to three years. But there is reason for caution before concluding that if Mr. Trump were to be charged and convicted under that law, he could not legally return to the White House even if voters wanted him to. Early reports citing sources familiar with the matter have indicated that the criminal investigation behind the search warrant relates to suspicions that Mr. Trump unlawfully took government files with him when he left the White House. Section 2071 is not limited to classified information. There are several laws that could potentially cover such a situation. But by its nature, the warrant means a criminal investigation is underway.

We'll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Donald Trump news every morning. The US Department of Justice is under pressure to provide a ...

"Trump's supporters hold the FBI in contempt and suspicion - they see its agents as the long arm of Washington elites and in league with the Democratic ...

The sooner the better might be his legal advice too. Once again he is the victim, they say, of a bent criminal justice system and its political patrons. A fresh fundraising drive was launched off the back of the news. Trump's supporters also hold the FBI in contempt and suspicion. Recent polls suggest even half of Republicans want anyone else but him to stand as their candidate in 2024. But Joe Biden's popularity is woefully low.

Pence and Trump have been at political odds for months, with Trump endorsing Republican candidates who embrace his false claims about the 2020 election and ...

One reason that the Mar-a-Lago search might “unite [the] different factions in the party,” as a Trump aide told Politico, is that it isn’t pro-Trump but anti-FBI. Republicans from both the pro- and less-pro-Trump segments of the GOP get to express outrage at a group that Republicans are primed to distrust. Never quite as popular as Trump, he saw his favorability ratings with the GOP tank in the wake of Trump’s criticisms of him. Cast the FBI as the left, and you gain support on the right. In polling released on Tuesday, 2 in 5 Americans said they thought Trump should face criminal charges related to the Capitol riot. Pence’s argument that the FBI was politically motivated certainly derives largely from the narrative that Trump and his allies constructed to backstop that position. Following an example set in part by Trump himself, GOP officials rushed to offer up products in the robust marketplace of social media commentary. More than three-quarters of Republicans still view Trump favorably, down only slightly from the height of the 2020 campaign. The Barr probe led by special counsel John Durham is ongoing but has completely failed to demonstrate that the Russia investigation was not warranted by the facts available at the time. It also had an added benefit: Should the FBI launch further probes, his team would already be conditioned to respond with skepticism. Set aside Pence’s self-incriminating framing (that the FBI was acting on political motivation during the Trump-Pence administration), and remember where this idea originated. “… After years where FBI agents were found to be acting on political motivation during our administration, the appearance of continued partisanship by the Justice Department must be addressed.” The rationale was uncomplicated and now quite familiar: He didn’t want anyone thinking he had lost the race but for Russian involvement.

After Trump announced in a statement that his resort and residence was “currently under siege, raided, and occupied”, angry supporters rushed there to protest ...

“If there was a 99% chance” of Trump running again, “it’s 100% now,” Politico’s source added. “Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships,” he said on Twitter. “But never before in America.” Now the US justice department may have handed Trump a gift in disguise. After Trump announced in a statement that his resort and residence was “currently under siege, raided, and occupied”, angry supporters rushed there to protest as police with rifles looked on. Similarly, Republican voters’ enthusiasm for the idea of Trump running for president again had been declining. Trump’s influence on the Republican party had appeared to wane somewhat in recent months.

Yesterday, the FBI raided Donald Trump's home in Florida – a heavy-handed move that has put new energy into his base of true believers and radical ...

But we are still waiting for one or both of those expected events to take place: Donald Trump announcing he is running for president again and him being charged with something by the Attorney General. But not the only figure. So why come in now with a full-on raid? Which is true. A radical move by the Justice Department and this is a radical move, will have its counterpart in the radical populist movement that Mr Trump rode to the White House in 2016. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. But Donald Trump has not been idly letting the Committee narrative seize the high ground: he has been very active in engagements across the country staking out his own version of events, a version that casts him as the victim of a vindictive "deep state" that is engaged in a campaign of "persecution" of Mr Trump aimed at blocking his route to the nomination. But no other President has been involved in conduct like Mr Trump that have led to so many investigations by so many Federal and State Agencies. The whole situation is unprecedented, not just the raid by the FBI. Is it simply a case of Federal Agencies plodding their way through the rules and regulations – or is the fact of breaking new ground and getting a judge to sign a search warrant for the home of a former President of the United States a sign that there is a lot more to this than just a few documents that should have been in the Archives in Washington, not the archives in Mar-a-Lago? A group of federal officials had visited Mar-a-Lago at the start of June to inspect the storage conditions of the documents which they were in negotiations with Mr Trump and his lawyers to recover. Mr Trump and his organisation have denied all allegations of wrongdoing and there is the inquiry by the House Oversight Committee into documents which Mr Trump removed from the White House on his departure from office, which belong in the National Archive to preserve the historic record. Mr Trump was in the Trump Tower in New York, so could not have got down to Florida to frustrate the execution of the subpoena, he argued.

Trump is believed to be pursuing a presidential run in 2024, and many calculate the Mar-a-Lago raid would benefit him politically.

The top comment on a pro-Trump message board was “Lock and load.” Trump is widely believed to be pursuing a presidential run in 2024, and many speculated that the raid would benefit him politically. Trump sought to exploit the investigation and encouraged chants of “lock her up” during campaign rallies. And in New York, the state attorney general, Letitia James, is leading an investigation into Trump’s family business. “It is a horrible precedent for the Department of Justice to investigate a former president of the United States,” said congressman Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California who was a manager during Trump’s second impeachment trial. “I’ve seen enough,” the California Republican wrote in a statement that he posted online.

The Justice Department official who oversaw the investigation of Hillary Clinton's handling of classified records says there's simply no comparing the ...

Engel has testified to the Jan. 6 select committee about his resistance to Trump’s plan to remove Justice Department leaders and replace them with compliant officials who would support his effort to remain in power. In fact, some of the very Trump allies who cooperated with the House’s January 6 probe were among those charged by Trump with managing his presidential records after leaving office. In addition, Trump can speak to the nature of any potentially classified material that may have been the basis for the search and whether he took steps to declassify any of it as he left office. “He could describe what was at stake and what the point of disagreement was. CNN reported that one of the DOJ officials involved in the Trump investigation is his immediate successor. In the absence of more detailed information about the investigation, it’s unclear what potential crimes DOJ is probing.

A day after federal agents searched Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home as part of a widening investigation, there were few signs that Republicans were ready to ...

Christina Bobb also said that Florida magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart signed off on the warrant that allowed FBI agents to search the former president's ...

The search of Trump’s expansive residence took hours on Monday. The former president was not at Mar-a-Lago during the search but at Trump Tower in New York, POLITICO reported. His lawyers likely have a copy of the search warrant, though they won’t have access to the affidavit or other documents that are typically kept confidential until the case is resolved. The former president has called the search unprecedented and politically motivated. Trump lawyer Christina Bobb fleshed out other details surrounding the case. Trump is likely best positioned to provide the details his allies are asking for. His son Eric Trump informed him of the FBI’s search of his property.

The F.B.I. search of Mar-a-Lago will either strengthen or erode public trust in the Justice Department and its leader.

Trump and his allies will take any opportunity to attack and discredit the Justice Department, the F.B.I., the January 6th committee, prosecutors in Georgia and New York, and anyone else who investigates the former President as engaging in a political “witch hunt.” Trump almost certainly received a copy of the search warrant and could release it publicly, but is unlikely to do so. “The only thing unusual in this case is that the classified material apparently was under the possession and control of a former President of the United States who fancies himself above the law.” Trump, in a statement issued after the raid, on Monday, claimed that “after working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.” A federal judge, nonetheless, had ruled that investigators had probable cause that a crime had been committed, and issued a search warrant. Now the best way for him to counter the former President’s false narratives and to create public trust in the Justice Department is to prioritize transparency over secrecy. If Garland does not indict Trump and reveal there is clear evidence that he committed a potential crime, he risks emboldening the lawlessness of the former President and his allies on the far right. Since Watergate, the Justice Department has strengthened rules that require prosecutors to keep investigations secret, and to not announce indictments at times when they can impact elections. An individual with knowledge of the probe said evidence that the former President had knowingly mishandled classified documents, by removing them from the White House, is strong. Attention immediately focussed on a little-known federal law that makes it a crime when someone who has custody of government documents or records “willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies or destroys” them. The raid may prove to have simply been an effort to recover classified documents that belong in secure government facilities. Otherwise this search on a former President’s home is a disgrace.” During his more than twenty years on the bench as a federal judge, he issued hundreds of rulings, on issues ranging from national security to tax law. In his time as a federal prosecutor, Merrick Garland tried dozens of cases, from street crimes to the Oklahoma City bombing.

Putting the former president in the dock risks civil strife, but a failure to act would also carry dangers.

It is little wonder that Garland would want to be super-confident of a conviction before he filed any indictments. Yet the common sense reading of Trump’s criminal intent is no guarantee a jury of US citizens would see it the same way. None of these figures is likely to be a primary target. To borrow a Trumpism, putting the possible next president in the dock in the build-up to an election would be “unpresidented”. It would also risk civil strife. For two months, the US public has been treated to the most compelling congressional hearings since the 1974 Watergate investigations that felled Nixon. Fronted mostly by Liz Cheney, the Republican congresswoman, television viewers have heard Trump-incriminating testimony from a potent roster of former White House staff, Trump lawyers, Republican officials and even members of the former president’s family. Even if Nixon had been prosecuted, it would not compare with a trial of Trump today.

The attorney general has not commented on the search at Donald J. Trump's home in Florida, and the former president and his allies are filling the void with ...

In a statement on Monday night about the Mar-a-Lago search, Mr. Trump repurposed that line of criticism. Doing so will give you access to the work of over 1,700 journalists whose mission is to cover the world and make sure you have accurate and impartial information on the most important topics of the day. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned.” I’d like to thank you for reading The Times and encourage you to support journalism like this by becoming a subscriber. “I understand that this may not be the answer some are looking for,” he said during a speech marking the first anniversary of the Capitol attack. Mr. Garland enjoys a significant advantage over Mr. Mueller as he heads into battle. Mr. Trump’s broadsides helped define the Russia investigation as a partisan attack, despite the fact that Mr. Mueller was a Republican. But it comes with its own peril — ceding control of the public narrative to Mr. Trump and his allies, who are not constrained by law, or even fact, in fighting back. But people close to Mr. Garland say that while his team respects Mr. Mueller, they have learned from his mistakes. The Mar-a-Lago search warrant was requested by the Justice Department’s national security division, whose head, Matthew G. Olsen, served under Mr. Mueller when he was the F.B.I. director. The Justice Department would not acknowledge the execution of a search warrant at Mr. Trump’s home on Monday, nor would Mr. Garland’s aides confirm his involvement in the decision or even whether he knew about the search before it was conducted. “Under Justice Department policy, we were not allowed to take on those criticisms,” Mr. Weissmann added.

The attorney general needs to demonstrate that no one is above the law and indict the former president regardless of political fallout.

What matters now is whether Garland has the resolve to place all of that damning evidence before a jury, and whether that jury can be convinced that Trump broke the law. Garland appears to be convinced that Trump and a collection of his advisers committed crimes, so that’s no longer a debating point. And those worried that holding a former president accountable for his crimes runs the risk of sparking a constitutional and political crisis should consider the converse: Allowing Trump to end-run the law also threatens to shred the fabric of American democracy and justice. The FBI’s search, and the broader effort to hold Trump accountable, are anything but that, of course. Trumpistas in the House of Representatives also fell into line, likening the FBI search to “weaponization” of federal investigations. Depending on how aggressively Garland pursues Trump for the attempted coup that he and his co-conspirators tried to engineer after he lost the 2020 presidential election, the list of criminal charges could include seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the US and obstruction of official proceedings.

The US Justice department is remaining tight-lipped about the search, but it is claimed the former president took boxes from the White House to his home in ...

The NARA then referred the case to the US Justice Department to probe whether Mr Trump's unauthorised handling of the documents amounted to a violation of federal law. The search of Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence. Former senior Justice Department officials have testified at the inquiry into the 6 January riots at the US Capitol building that Mr Perry had "an important role" in Mr Trump's effort to try to install Jeffrey Clark - a top Justice official who was pushing Mr Trump's baseless claims of election fraud - as the acting attorney general.

Donald Trump had his own way of keeping records during his presidency: heaping documents in boxes, tearing up papers to signal a discussion was over, ...

Donald Trump's presidency at times threatened to tear America apart, and the country's democracy, institutions and equilibrium staggered away from his ...

And the vitriol was pouring out on social media, recalling the violent speech that led up to the Capitol attack. And it demonstrated how many Republicans with aspirations of winning elections know they must show total loyalty to the former President, whatever his alleged transgressions. This new national nightmare is sure to color yet another election since Trump is already a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination and millions of supporters will buy into his storylines. The unhinged rhetoric was, if anything, more extreme on conservative media outlets that supported and enabled Trump while he was president. The former President met 12 of his closest House allies at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Tuesday and got nothing but support for a bid to get his old job back. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who raised a fist in encouragement to Trump's mob before it stormed the Capitol on January 6 said that, at a minimum, Garland should be impeached or resign. The FBI search on Monday represented a remarkable development in just one of the legal fronts bearing down on Trump. It recently emerged that his lawyers are in discussions with Justice Department prosecutors conducting a probe into the circumstances surrounding the January 6, 2021, insurrection. And because government prosecutors don't typically talk about ongoing investigations unless they reach a decision to charge someone -- to ensure the integrity of the probe and the privacy of those under investigation -- it is unlikely there will be clarity on the situation anytime soon. And he is set to be deposed on Wednesday While the furious reaction from Trump world builds, his defenders are ignoring one key fact: The FBI didn't just turn up at his Palm Beach residence on a whim. That includes FBI Director Christopher Wray (a Trump appointee), Attorney General Merrick Garland and the former President himself, who has not said what was written in the search warrant. Such procedures are how it's supposed to work in the justice system, which rests on the principle that no one -- not even former presidents -- are above the law.

Republican Tim Michels, a construction executive endorsed by former President Donald Trump, will face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in what could be a tight ...

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Republicans in Wisconsin will pick their gubernatorial candidate Tuesday night, setting up one of the most important and closely contested general elections ...

And two reach seats for Republicans in Connecticut — to challenge Democratic Reps. Jahana Hayes and Joe Courtney — have no-drama, unopposed primaries Tuesday as well. She was able to beat back a well-funded primary challenger by 20 points in 2020. Trump also targeted Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, backing a primary challenger running against one of the most influential state legislative leaders in the country. Trump also squared off with the local GOP in Connecticut’s Senate race — and won. Meanwhile, Vermont Democrats are getting ready to send a woman to Congress for the first time in state history. Michels will face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in November, in what is expected to be a highly competitive governor race in the battleground state. Last week, Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejected a state constitutional amendment that would have cleared the way for new abortion restrictions there. She will be heavily favored in November. Kleefisch was seen as an early favorite for the GOP nod until Michels’ late entry into the race. Wade era, which appears to show Democrats getting a boost even as Republicans held the seat. But it remains an open question how strongly voters will consider abortion as they make their picks for elected offices. Trump has been angered by Vos’ refusal to push for “decertifying” the 2020 election results — a legally impossible notion that has nevertheless gained traction on the right — even as Vos has led the state legislature in funding an investigation into the state’s elections.

Former president Donald Trump's preferred candidate, Tim Michels, won the Republican nomination for governor of Wisconsin on Tuesday, defeating a rival ...

Every seat in the House and a third of the seats in the 100-member Senate are up for election. Here’s a complete calendar of all the primaries in 2022. As of April 25, 46 of the 50 states had settled on the boundaries for 395 of 435 U.S. House districts. The AP had not officially signaled that Herrera Beutler would not advance to the general election as of Tuesday evening. Scott Jensen, a physician who is skeptical of coronavirus vaccines, was projected to win the Republican nomination for governor of Minnesota. He will face Gov. Tim Walz, won the Democratic nomination. The Senate seat is favored by nonpartisan analysts to remain in Democratic hands in November. Trump won the district by about 10 points in 2020, and though it was favored to remain red heading into the day, the results were being closely watched as a barometer for voter attitudes. Democrats say his working-class background will give him a favorable contrast to Johnson, who is among the wealthiest members of the Senate. In addition to Wisconsin and Minnesota, voters in Connecticut and Vermont also picked nominees. In addition to Wisconsin and Minnesota, voters in Connecticut and Vermont also picked nominees. And when people feel threatened by the kind of progress that’s being made, they’ll do anything to take it back.” Two and a half hours after the polls closed, Kleefisch told supporters that she had conceded the race to Michels and urged the party to quickly come together.

Donald Trump's presidency at times threatened to tear America apart, and the country's democracy, institutions and equilibrium staggered away from his ...

And the vitriol was pouring out on social media, recalling the violent speech that led up to the Capitol attack. And it demonstrated how many Republicans with aspirations of winning elections know they must show total loyalty to the former President, whatever his alleged transgressions. This new national nightmare is sure to color yet another election since Trump is already a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination and millions of supporters will buy into his storylines. The unhinged rhetoric was, if anything, more extreme on conservative media outlets that supported and enabled Trump while he was president. The former President met 12 of his closest House allies at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Tuesday and got nothing but support for a bid to get his old job back. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who raised a fist in encouragement to Trump's mob before it stormed the Capitol on January 6 said that, at a minimum, Garland should be impeached or resign. The FBI search on Monday represented a remarkable development in just one of the legal fronts bearing down on Trump. It recently emerged that his lawyers are in discussions with Justice Department prosecutors conducting a probe into the circumstances surrounding the January 6, 2021, insurrection. And because government prosecutors don't typically talk about ongoing investigations unless they reach a decision to charge someone -- to ensure the integrity of the probe and the privacy of those under investigation -- it is unlikely there will be clarity on the situation anytime soon. And he is set to be deposed on Wednesday While the furious reaction from Trump world builds, his defenders are ignoring one key fact: The FBI didn't just turn up at his Palm Beach residence on a whim. That includes FBI Director Christopher Wray (a Trump appointee), Attorney General Merrick Garland and the former President himself, who has not said what was written in the search warrant. Such procedures are how it's supposed to work in the justice system, which rests on the principle that no one -- not even former presidents -- are above the law.

Tim Michels, the former president's choice in the primary for governor, beat an establishment-backed rival to set up a closely watched November race against ...

Mr. Trump and his Wisconsin supporters hold a grudge against Justice Hagedorn because he cast the deciding vote in rejecting Mr. Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the election results in December 2020. Mr. Michels, who was the 2004 Republican nominee for Senate in Wisconsin, has spent much of the time since then living in New York and Connecticut, where he owns a $17 million estate and his children attended school. In the final week before Tuesday’s primary, Mr. Michels said he would consider signing legislation to claw back Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes — something for which there is no legal mechanism. Mr. Michels called the search “a political witch hunt,” while Ms. Kleefisch said it was “shocking and unprecedented.” When the former president demanded last summer that the state review its election results, Mr. Vos instead appointed a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, Michael Gableman, to pursue a state-funded investigation of his own. Then, in April, Mr. Michels entered the race. Ms. Gray campaigned as a liberal conciliator, more willing to work among the moderate figures in her party. Mr. Vos resisted the proposal, including in multiple conversations with the former president. He pledged to consider signing legislation that would overturn Mr. Trump’s defeat to Joseph R. Biden Jr. in Wisconsin and withdraw the state’s 10 electoral votes — a move that has no basis in state or federal law. Mr. Michels has projected a tough-on-crime stance, pledging to fire the Democratic district attorney in Milwaukee, hire more police officers and increase prison sentences for gun-related crimes. We’d like to thank you for reading The Times and encourage you to support journalism like this by becoming a subscriber. Doing so will give you access to the work of over 1,700 journalists whose mission is to cover the world and make sure you have accurate and impartial information on the most important topics of the day.

Polls have closed in Wisconsin, where Republican primaries Tuesday will provide the latest measure of former President Donald Trump's influence and ...

Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District also is hosting a special election Tuesday to fill the remaining months of Rep. Jim Hagedorn’s term. Some Kleefisch voters who spoke with NBC News in the days leading to Tuesday's primary said they were impressed with the work she and Walker did together. Democrats in recent weeks cleared the field for Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who will face Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, a Trump ally, in another key matchup this fall. In Connecticut, Trump-endorsed Leora Levy had won the GOP Senate primary, NBC News projects. The co-owner of a successful family pipeline construction company, Michels had tread cautiously in the closing weeks of the race, sending mixed messages about how much he was willing to abide Trump’s pressure to back decertification of the state's 2020 election results. In Vermont’s at-large congressional district, Democratic state Sen. Becca Balint will face Republican Liam Madden, NBC News projects. Republicans also nominated Jim Schultz, a political newcomer, to face Attorney General Keith Ellison this fall. State Rep. Tim Ramthun, who has vowed to challenge the results, finished in a distant third place. “They have been left behind by the Democratic Party that just wants to focus on the social issues,” Michels said. As Michels skated out to a lead, an increasingly amped-up audience broke into sporadic and enthusiastic chants of “U-S-A” and celebratory screams. It’s another swing state victory for Trump, who continues to lie about his losses in Wisconsin and other battlegrounds in 2020 while aiming to install allies he hopes will be loyal if he mounts another White House bid in 2024. Michels and Kleefisch had both echoed Trump’s debunked claims of voter fraud during the primary.

Donald Trump cried foul on Monday after FBI agents searched his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, while his fellow Republicans have rushed to ...

Search warrant executed by FBI agents suggests investigation comes with potentially far-reaching political ramifications for former president.

Trump was not there at the time of the raid and learned about it while he was in New York. The justice department is understood, at some point since the investigation was opened in April this year, to have asked for the return of classified materials. Corcoran declined to comment. The officials asked to see where the White House records were being kept. For years, Trump has ignored the statute. And the extraordinary search, the sources said, came after the justice department grew concerned – as a result of discussions with Trump’s lawyers in recent weeks – that presidential and classified materials were being unlawfully and improperly kept at the Mar-a-Lago resort.

President Biden stood outside the White House on Tuesday, celebrating what was arguably the best stretch of his presidency. He smiled.

But while reports about Trump continue to dominate the news, the former president is not the one setting the agenda or driving the coverage. “The president was not briefed, was not aware of it,” she said. And about three weeks after he took office, Biden was pushing his first big legislative initiative, the American Rescue Plan. The country is still experiencing the aftershocks from the Trump earthquake of four years. Efforts to corral countries into imposing caps on Russian oil imports were no match for former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony about a purported assault by Trump on one of his Secret Service protectors and a fit of anger in which he threw a porcelain plate at a White House wall and left dripping ketchup in his wake. In Biden’s remarks on Tuesday on signing the semiconductor bill, he never mentioned Trump but seemed to allude to him. Biden continues with his earnest attempts at enacting and touting policy achievements, from infrastructure to veterans’ health. No president in memory has had to contend with a predecessor who falsely claims he won the last election and hints broadly that he will run again, while land mines from his time in office continue to erupt. The news is often not particularly positive for the former president — revelations about his term, congressional testimony and hearings, legal rulings and complications — but it can nonetheless eclipse Biden’s ability to deliver his message and command public attention. George W. Bush did not have to worry about Bill Clinton. Trump himself did not have to worry about Obama, who made it a point not to offer regular commentary on his successor. A new book excerpt reported that Trump had expressed appreciation for the loyalty that Nazi generals showed Adolf Hitler. The day concluded with the bombshell that the FBI had searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, a tempest that shows little sign of abating. Over the course of several hours on Monday, as Biden was visiting flood victims in Kentucky, photos emerged purporting to show that Trump had flushed documents down the toilet.

Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels, who has been endorsed in the race by former President Donald Trump, has won Wisconsin's Republican primary ...

Some Kleefisch voters who spoke with NBC News in the days leading to Tuesday's primary said they were impressed with the work she and Walker did together. The co-owner of a successful family pipeline construction company, Michels had tread cautiously in the closing weeks of the race, sending mixed messages about how much he was willing to abide Trump's pressure to back decertification of the state's 2020 election results. Michels and Kleefisch had both echoed Trump's debunked claims of voter fraud during the primary. State Rep. Tim Ramthun, who has vowed to challenge the results, finished in a distant third place. Michels has embraced Trump's debunked claims that a second term was stolen from him. Michels is the latest Trump-endorsed candidate for governor to advance to the general election in a battleground narrowly won by Biden in 2020, joining Kari Lake in Arizona, Tudor Dixon in Michigan and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania. Trump's efforts to unseat Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who refused to overturn the state's election results, failed in a primary this year.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to be deposed by lawyers from New York Attorney General Letitia James' office Wednesday, people familiar with the ...

"I would give my opinion," Trump said in the deposition. Last year he provided videotaped testimony for a lawsuit involving an assault outside of Trump Tower. The case is set to go to trial in the fall. A special grand jury hearing evidence in the case expired in April, but a new one could be seated in the future. "I think everybody" exaggerates about the value of their properties, he testified, adding: "Who wouldn't?" In his statement Wednesday, Trump said, "Now I know the answer to that question" and decried James' investigation. James left at the lunch break and Trump shook her hand as she was leaving. Trump said in a post on Truth Social earlier Wednesday morning that he would be "seeing" James "for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history! Under oath, Trump confirmed that he wanted to testify but he would not answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. When an individual declines to answer a question by "taking the Fifth," he or she invokes that right. Another consideration that had been discussed, the people familiar say, is the political implications of not answering questions as Trump is widely expected to announce that he will run for president in 2024. The Fifth Amendment guarantees that an individual cannot be compelled by the government to provide information that might be incriminating against themselves. But once the questioning began, with the state attorneys saying he could repeat the "same answer," the atmosphere turned professional and cordial.

Former US President Donald Trump has indicated that he would testify in a New York investigation by the state's attorney general into his family's business ...

Ms James is conducting "a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history!" Banana Republic!" Please review their details and accept them to load the content. The New York attorney general's probe is one of several legal battles in which Mr Trump is embroiled, threatening to complicate any bid for another run for the White House in 2024. "My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides. In a statement Mr Trump said he declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the US Constitution, saying he took the advice from his legal counsel.

The FBI's search of former President Trump's estate in Florida is a political thunderbolt that on Tuesday had a number of Republicans thinking it could ...

Democrats immediately seized on the news as yet more proof that Trump is unfit to govern. “It’s the typical conundrum.” Campaign Campaign “One thing I can tell you: I believed he was going to run before. “The FBI raiding Trump’s beloved Mar-a-Lago rips the 2024 Republican primary wide open.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower the day after FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago Palm Beach home, in New York City, U.S., August 9, 2022 ...

NBC News reported Trump Jr. was interviewed a couple of weeks ago and Ivanka spoke to investigators last week. Trump's two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, recently testified in the civil probe. My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides.

Donald Trump is being questioned by the New York attorney general, part of her probe into potentially fraudulent asset valuations by his company.

Former President Donald Trump will sit for a deposition on Wednesday with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James amid its ongoing probe into ...

They also cited the Fifth Amendment as an option for the president in his deposition. But New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron in February rejected the lawyers’ attempts to dodge the testimony and asserted that Trump and his children all had the right to show up to the depositions and claim their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The former president’s meeting on Wednesday came just days after the attorney general’s office questioned Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, both of whom did not plead the Fifth. The former president is also the subject of a parallel criminal investigation being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into whether he fraudulently inflated property values. Trump had tried for months to avoid Wednesday’s deposition — which comes at a high stakes moment for the former president just two days after the FBI raided his Florida home in an investigation into the alleged mishandling of White House records. A crush of media followed the former president from his Midtown Manhattan apartment at Trump Tower downtown to the attorney general’s office around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Two of Trump's children, Donald Jr and Ivanka, are believed to have testified in the investigation in recent days.

However, it ran into problems after a new district attorney, Alvin Bragg, raised questions internally about the viability of the case, and its lead prosecutors resigned. Trump’s testimony was initially scheduled for last month but was delayed after the 14 July death of his ex-wife Ivana Trump. He declined to answer questions about the hours-long search Monday at Mar-a-Lago. Fischetti added that Trump’s decision to take the fifth had been made shortly before the interview started. “[She] will pursue the facts and the law wherever they may lead. Trump’s deposition, which took place in lower Manhattan, appears to have lasted roughly four hours.

NEW YORK — Donald Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment and wouldn't answer questions under oath in the New York attorney general's long-running civil ...

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Donald Trump says he will sit for a deposition by the office of Attorney General Letitia James, who is examining his business practices and property ...

Congressional hearings: The House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has conducted a series of hearings to share its findings with the U.S. public. This person said Pompeo was asked about the 25th Amendment, which allows for the removal of a president if they are unfit for duty, among other topics. And the work of the House panel probing Jan. 6 continues. The former president has a week to appeal the ruling before it takes effect. “This is one of the best outcomes they could have hoped for going into this,” said Snell, who worked on the state’s case against Trump University, which resulted in a $25 million settlement. The Fifth Amendment is invoked when there is a possibility of incriminating oneself in criminal activity. Separately, Trump partisans have come under scrutiny in an investigation by local authorities in Georgia about his efforts to overturn the state’s election results. Incredibly, his deposition marked just the halfway point of what has been a frenetic week for Trump and his lawyers. Trump emerged from the question-and-non-answer session with praise for the “very professional” way Attorney General Letitia James’s team handled the meeting, in which he refused more than 400 times to answer questions about his businesses, property valuations and loans, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion. James could file a lawsuit against the Trump Organization and its executives if she concludes that their conduct legally amounted to wrongdoing. Their brother Eric Trump, who was also a lieutenant in the company, took the Fifth more than 500 times when he sat for questioning in October 2020 in the same investigation, according to public disclosures made by James. Then, on Wednesday morning, Trump arrived at a Manhattan office building to be deposed in James’s investigation of his business dealings.