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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Léonie Chao-Fong (now) and Chris Stein US politics live blogger (earlier)

Federal prosecutors to seek Hunter Biden indictment by 29 September – as it happened

Donald Trump Evan Corcoran Sidney Powell Jack Smith Bernie Kerik CNN Joe Biden FBI Kamala Harris Jennifer Little
Hunter Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, in July.
Hunter Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, in July. Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

Closing summary

It’s 6pm ET. Here’s a recap of today’s developments:

  • Federal prosecutors are seeking to bring a new indictment against Hunter Biden by the end of September, according to court documents. The exact charges the president’s son would face were not immediately clear, but he has been under investigation in Delaware on gun and tax charges.

  • Donald Trump is making “daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool” in the federal criminal case dealing with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, attorneys for special counsel Jack Smith said in a court filing.

  • A watchdog group is suing to remove Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot, saying he violated the constitution and is disqualified from holding future office. The lawsuit is so far one of the strongest challenges to Trump’s eligibility to seek re-election.

  • Trump should “absolutely” be held accountable in court for attempting to overturn the 2020 election and inspiring the January 6 attack on Congress if the evidence proves it, said Kamala Harris, speaking after a former leader of a far-right group involved in the riot was sentenced to 22 years in jail.

  • The judge presiding over the Georgia election subversion case denied Kenneth Chesebro’s request to separate his case from Sidney Powell, a co-defendant in the case. Both Powell and Chesebro’s trials will begin on 23 October.

  • Mitch McConnell rejected speculation about his future as Republican leader in the US Senate, telling reporters: “I’m going to finish my term as leader and I’m going to finish my Senate term.” The remarks came amid intense speculation about the 81-year-old Kentucky senator’s health, after two recent freezes in front of reporters, one on Capitol Hill in July and another in McConnell’s home state last week.

  • A federal judge ordered Texas to remove floating barriers that were placed in the Rio Grande to block migrants from illegally crossing the US-Mexico border, in a tentative win for the Biden administration. Texas governor Greg Abbott said the state would appeal.

  • Democrats worried about Joe Biden’s re-election prospects are “fucking bedwetters” and should not worry so much, the former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said. Polling shows Trump is the clear leader in the Republican race to face Biden next year. Polling also shows Trump and Biden in a close race, and Biden’s approval ratings remain stubbornly low, even regarding an economy most observers consider to be in good shape.

Updated

Judge orders Texas to move anti-migrant buoys in Rio Grande

A federal judge ordered Texas to remove floating barriers that were placed in the Rio Grande to block migrants from illegally crossing the US-Mexico border, in a tentative win for the Biden adminstration.

The US district court judge David Ezra ordered Texas to relocate the buoys, currently near the city of Eagle Pass, to an embankment on the Texas side of the river by 15 September.

The order came as part of a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration against Texas, who argued that the barrier illegally disrupts navigation and was installed without permission from the US army corps of engineers.

“Governor Abbott announced that he was not ‘asking for permission’ for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier,” Ezra wrote in a 42-page order.

Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters.

He added that the state “did not present any credible evidence that the buoy barrier as installed has significantly curtailed illegal immigration across the Rio Grande River”.

The ruling is a setback for the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, who said the state would appeal. He said:

Today’s court decision merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along.

Updated

The former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee warned that if Donald Trump is prevented from winning in the 2024 presidential election, then it will be the last election “decided by ballots rather than bullets”.

Huckabee, in an episode on his TBN show, argued that the former president’s various legal battles are part of a political motivated scheme from the Biden administration. He said:

Here’s the problem: if these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election decided by ballots rather than bullets.

He also accused the justice department, IRS and FBI of “conspiring to hide the Biden family crimes, while all the time being obsessed with charging Donald Trump with crimes”.

Updated

Mitch McConnell is the longest-serving Republican party leader in Senate history, in place since 2007. His power over his caucus has rarely been questioned but health scares including the freezes and a series of falls have stoked speculation about whether he will finish his seventh six-year term, which ends in January 2027.

Earlier, in a sign of growing uncertainty in Senate Republican ranks, McConnell’s fellow Kentuckian, Rand Paul, cast doubt on the assurances from congressional physician.

Paul, once a practising opthalmologist, told reporters:

When you get dehydrated you don’t have moments when your eyes look in the distance with a vacant look and you’re sort of basically unconscious with your eyes open. That’s not a symptom of dehydration.

Dr Brian P Monahan has also said “several medical evaluations” of McConnell included “brain MRI imaging, EEG [electroencephalogram] study and consultations with several neurologists for a comprehensive neurology assessment”.

“It is a medical mistake to say someone doesn’t have a seizure disorder because they have a normal EEG,” Paul said.

My point is that I’m just trying to counter the misinformation from the Senate doctor. It is basically not believable to come up and say that what’s going on is dehydration. It makes it worse.

Paul also said his remarks had “nothing to do with [McConnell’s] fitness to serve and whether he’s doing a good job or a bad job”.

Mitch McConnell rejected speculation about his future as Republican leader in the US Senate, telling reporters:

I’m going to finish my term as leader and I’m going to finish my Senate term.

The remarks on Wednesday came amid intense speculation about the 81-year-old Kentucky senator’s health, after two recent freezes in front of reporters, one on Capitol Hill in July and another in McConnell’s home state last week.

“I think Dr [Brian P] Monahan covered [the question of my health] fully,” McConnell said, regarding two public letters in which the congressional physician has discussed possible causes of the freezes and cleared his patient to continue working.

The first letter said McConnell might be suffering the after-effects of a concussion, sustained in a fall in March, or from dehydration. The second letter said McConnell was not suffering from a “seizure disorder”, a stroke or a “movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease”. That letter also called McConnell’s freeze in Kentucky last week a “brief episode”.

“I have no announcement to make on that subject,” McConnell said.

The exact charges Hunter Biden would face were not immediately clear, but appeared related to a gun possession charge in which he was accused of illegally possessing a gun.

The latest development comes a month after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss special counsel to oversee the ongoing investigation into the president’s son, who has also been under investigation by federal prosecutors for his business dealings.

Hunter Biden has said in court filings that prosecutors reneged on a plea deal that would have resolved the charges in his tax and firearms case.

The special counsel appointed to oversee the federal investigation into Hunter Biden intends to seek a grand jury indictment of the president’s son before the end of September, his office said in a new filing.

Special counsel David Weiss’ office wrote:

The Speedy Trial Act requires that the Government obtain the return of an indictment by a grand jury by Friday, September 29, 2023, at the earliest. The Government intends to seek the return of an indictment in this case before that date.

Federal prosecutors say they plan to indict Hunter Biden by 29 September

In a court filing, federal prosecutors have said they plan to indict Hunter Biden by 29 September, Reuters reports. It is unclear what charges he will face.

The president’s son has been under federal investigation since 2018 for potential violations of tax and gun laws. In July, he was expected to plead guilty to charges related to failing to declare some income, and enter a diversion program to resolve a gun charge, but the deal unexpectedly fell apart amid scrutiny from a federal judge in Delaware, and after prosecutors made clear that the investigation into Biden’s business dealings remains ongoing.

Updated

The health concerns surrounding top GOP senator Mitch McConnell and the second-highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives Steve Scalise could affect delicate negotiations aimed at keeping the government funded beyond the end of September, the Guardian’s Mary Yang reports:

Lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill as they race to reach a short-term funding deal by the end of the month to keep federal agencies open and avert a government shutdown. But worries about the health of two top Republicans loom over the high-stakes talks as politicians’ age has become a growing concern.

Speaking to reporters last week in Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, the 81-year-old Senate Republican leader, appeared to freeze for 30 seconds after calling the possibility of a shutdown “a pretty big mess”. The incident raised questions about his health and mirrored an earlier incident where he suddenly paused for several seconds while speaking to reporters at the US Capitol.

In July, McConnell stopped mid-sentence during a weekly Republican news conference, stoking concerns about his ability to lead months after sustaining a concussion from a fall that kept him away from Capitol Hill for six weeks.

There is “no evidence” McConnell experienced a stroke during last week’s episode or has a seizure or movement disorder, such as Parkinson’s disease, Brian Monahan, the Capitol attending physician, wrote in a letter to McConnell on Tuesday. Monahan said he didn’t recommend treatment changes.

“I think we’ll end up with a short-term congressional resolution, probably into December, as we struggle to figure out exactly what the government spending level is going to be for next year,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky. “The speaker and the president reached an agreement, which I supported, in connection with raising the debt ceiling to set spending levels for next year.”

He added that the House then passed spending bills below those levels, but “that’s not going to be replicated in the Senate”.

Prosecution, defense rest in Navarro contempt of Congress trial

Just over five hours after attorneys made their opening arguments in former Trump White House official Peter Navarro’s contempt of Congress trial, Politico reports that both the defense and prosecutions have rested their cases:

That leaves closing arguments as the only unfinished business, which will take place tomorrow. After that, the jury is expected to start deliberations. Navarro was indicted for defying subpoenas from the congressional committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection last year.

Earlier in the trial today, Politico reports that prosecutors called three witnesses who worked for the committee and testified about the process for issuing Navarro the subpoenas, and how he did not respond to them. The defense called no witnesses.

Here’s footage of reporters pressing Mitch McConnell for more details about his health following two instances where he was temporarily unable to respond to questions in public – and the Republican Senate minority leader declining to provide any:

In remarks to reporters gathered at the Capitol, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell declined to share further details about his health troubles, but said he had no plans to step down as minority leader, or resign his seat:

Here are more details from CNN of what Mitch McConnell told Republican senators in a closed-door meeting regarding recent concerns about his health:

The 81-year-old Senate Republican leader attracted quite the audience when he spoke to reporters this afternoon:

Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows has made his own request to be tried separately from the other 18 defendants in the Georgia election subversion case.

The Messenger reported the filing first:

Meadows, who held the position in the last month’s of Trump’s term, including when he was trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, is also attempting to get his case tried in federal court. Legal experts say that could result in a jury pool that skews more conservative.

Last week, Meadows took the stand and testified in a hearing to determine wether that request will be granted.

Georgia judge denies request to separate defendants' trials in election subversion case

Scott McAfee, the judge presiding over the Georgia election subversion case, has denied Kenneth Chesebro’s request to separate his case from Sidney Powell, a co-defendant in the case.

Powell and Chesebro, both attorneys who worked with Donald Trump’s campaign in late 2020, when he sought to overturn his election loss, have filed to have their cases resolved quickly, and McAfee ordered Chesebro’s trial to begin on 23 October. Chesebro and Powell then sought to have their cases handled separately, arguing that the charges they are facing are different enough that there’s no reason to try them together.

In today’s hearing, McAfee disagreed, and as a result, both Powell and Chesebro’s trials will begin on 23 October.

McConnell tells Republican senators he intends to remain as leader despite health concerns - report

Mitch McConnell told senators in a behind-closed-doors meeting that he will remain as the Republican leader in the chamber, despite two public instances where he appeared unable to speak in recent months, CNN reports:

McConnell, 81, has been the highest-ranking Republican senator since 2007.

Trial of 19 defendants in Georgia election subversion case to take four months, says prosecutor

Federal prosecutors in the Fulton county case said a joint trial for all 19 defendants in the Georgia election subversion case would take about four months.

The trial would involve 150 witnesses and the timeline does not account for jury selection, prosecutor Nathan Wade said.

He added that prosecutors would want to try everyone together and not have to repeat the same trial multiple times.

Updated

Fulton county superior judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the Georgia election subversion case, said he hopes to “resolve as many of these issues as we can” and to begin scheduling orders for the defendants by the end of the week or early next week.

Former Trump lawyer Ken Chesebro’s attorney said it would be better to sever the cases, arguing that the number of defendants in the case could cause the jury to confuse the evidence or law, and that the Fulton county racketeering conspiracy is so wide-ranging that his client could be sitting through months of testimony that has nothing to do with him.

Chesebro’s lawyer stressed that some of the conduct that former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, another of the codefendants in the case, is accused of has nothing to do with his client.

Judge McAfee asked if Powell and Chesebro never interacted and have no overlap with respect to these counts, where the spillover that would impact Chesebro is. Chesebro’s lawyer said the very fact that the pair are sitting next to each other will “carry a lot of weight” with the jury.

Powell’s “charges are way more provocative” rather than the “boring charges” alleged against Chesebro, his attorney argued.

During the interview with the rightwing radio host Hugh Hewitt, Donald Trump said he would “absolutely” testify in his own defense as he faces 91 criminal charges across four separate cases against him.

Hewitt asked the former president, “If you have to go to trial will you testify in your own defense?”

Trump replied:

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Asked if he would take the stand, Trump said:

I would do. That, I look forward to.

Updated

Fulton county judge to consider Trump codefendants' requests to sever cases in first Georgia election hearing

The first hearing in the Georgia election interference case has begun and is being televised live.

Fulton County superior court judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case against Donald Trump and 18 other codefendants, is presiding over today’s hearing.

McAfee will consider motions from attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell who are requesting their cases be severed from each other and the rest of those charged in the case.

Updated

The day so far

It’s been another big day for the legal profession, particularly as it applies to Donald Trump. In Colorado, watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is suing on behalf of six residents to keep the former president off the ballot, arguing he violated the constitution with his involvement in the January 6 insurrection. In New York, a judge determined a second defamation suit against Trump from writer E Jean Carroll will go to trial – but only to determine damages, in a significant victory for her case.

Here’s what else has gone on today so far:

Donald Trump will not debate his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination but he does want to debate the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, the former president told a rightwing radio host.

Meghan Markle.
Meghan Markle. Photograph: Newspix International

In an interview conducted during the US Open, a tennis tournament with which Trump has long been linked, the host, Hugh Hewitt, asked about the famous Battle of the Sexes match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, 50 years ago this month. Trump dutifully reminisced.

Hewitt said: “The reason I bring it up: 90 million people watched that. 90 million people.”

Trump said: “Right.”

Hewitt said: “And the only thing I think that might draw an audience that even approaches that would be if you were to sit down with the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry, they don’t like you much.

“Would you do that for the ratings?”

Trump, it turned out, would.

“Well, I don’t know that they don’t like me,” he said. “I said that I don’t think they are very appropriate what they’re saying, what they’re doing, and I didn’t like the way she [Markle] dealt with the Queen.”

Claiming to have “become very friendly” with Elizabeth II, “an incredible woman”, Trump tried to use the late monarch as a contrast in elderly dynamism to Joe Biden, his likely opponent next year who at 80 is only three years older than Trump but who Trump later said is so old “his eyes are almost closed”.

Getting back to the point, Trump said Meghan and Harry, whose relationship with the rest of the British royal family is a source of global fascination, “treated [the Queen] with great disrespect, and I didn’t like it.

“And I didn’t like the idea that they were getting US security when they came over here. No, I think it’s not a good situation going on with the two of them, but I didn’t know that they don’t like me. Somebody mentioned it might be possible. They wouldn’t be the only ones.”

Hewitt cut in, saying a Trump-Meghan debate “would get ratings, wouldn’t it”.

Trump said: “Oh, if you want to set it up, let’s set it up. Let’s go do something. I’d love to debate her. I would love it. I disagree so much with what they’re doing.”

Hewitt said: “All right, now let’s get serious.” He then asked Trump if he thought “the Democratic prosecutors are indict[ing] you again and again in order to nominate you as the Republican…or in order to beat you and keep you off the ticket?”

The former president, who faces (and denies) 91 criminal charges as well as assorted civil cases, said his enemies wanted to keep him out of the race.

Updated

Leader of failed McConnell revolt in Senate says no need for GOP leader to step down despite health concerns

Earlier this year, Florida’s Rick Scott tried to oust Mitch McConnell from his role as the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, and was resoundingly defeated.

Now, concerns about McConnell’s health are swirling after the Kentucky lawmaker fell down and suffered a concussion in March, and then froze up twice while giving public remarks in recent months. McConnell is 81, and the episodes have amplified concerns that his health may undermine his ability to continue leading the party.

But CNN reports that Scott is not pondering another revolt against McConnell:

Other GOP senators aren’t so sure. The Hill reports that McConnell’s Kentucky counterpart Rand Paul publicly doubted his office’s explanations that dehydration was behind the most recent freezing episode, which happened last week:

Group sues to bar Trump from Colorado ballot over January 6

Ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced that they have filed a lawsuit in Colorado to prevent Donald Trump from appearing as a presidential candidate on ballots in the state next year, arguing that his involvement in the January 6 insurrection is disqualifying.

CREW made a similar case last year when the group successfully sued to remove Couy Griffin from his position as a county commissioner in New Mexico after he was found guilty of crimes related to his involvement in the Capitol attack. Today’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado, and cites section 3 of the 14th amendment to the constitution, which states:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

CREW argues that Trump “violated that oath by recruiting, inciting and encouraging a violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a futile attempt to remain in office.”

“We aren’t bringing this case to make a point, we’re bringing it because it is necessary to defend our republic both today and in the future,” said Noah Bookbinder, the group’s president. “While it is unprecedented to bring this type of case against a former president, January 6th was an unprecedented attack that is exactly the kind of event the framers of the 14th Amendment wanted to build protections in case of. You don’t break the glass unless there’s an emergency.”

Once a swing state, Colorado has become increasingly Democratic in recent elections. CREW signaled that its lawsuit will be the first of several to keep the former president from appearing on ballots next year, despite his ongoing presidential campaign that polls show is the most popular among Republican voters.

“Based on its laws, the calendar, and our courageous set of plaintiffs and witnesses, Colorado is a good venue to bring this first case, but it will not be the last,” the group said.

Obsequiousness to Donald Trump has its consequences. Yesterday, former leader of the Proud Boys militia group Enrique Tarrio was given the longest sentence yet handed out for the January 6 insurrection, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:

The former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Tuesday for his part in the failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the 2020 election.

Prosecutors sought a 33-year term. The judge did not agree but nonetheless handed down the longest sentence yet in a case relating to 2020 and the January 6 Capitol attack. The longest sentence previously handed down was 18 years, to both Ethan Nordean, a member of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia.

Tarrio was a top target in one of the most important cases prosecuted by the US justice department over the deadly attack on Congress on 6 January 2021.

In May, Tarrio and three lieutenants were convicted of charges including seditious conspiracy, a civil-war-era offense previously rarely brought but now levied against members of far-right groups that took part in the January 6 attack.

In remarks to the court in Washington, Tarrio said he was sorry for the events of January 6, and credited police officers for their bravery in resisting the attack.

“What happened on January 6 was a national embarrassment,” Tarrio said, adding that he both now knew Trump lost to Joe Biden and blamed himself for actions that led to him losing his freedom.

Becoming emotional, Tarrio said: “I do not think what happened that day was acceptable.”

At the opening of Peter Navarro’s trial, a federal prosecutor told jurors that the case was simply about the defendant defying a court order, Reuters reports.

“Mr. Navarro ignored his subpoena,” John Crabb said in his opening statement. “He acted as if he’s above the law, but he’s not above the law.”

Navarro is facing contempt of Congress charges for defying two subpoenas from the committee. Last year, Trump confidante Steve Bannon was convicted of similar charges and sentenced to four months in prison, though he is appealing the verdict.

“Congress believed that Mr. Navarro had information about what happened on Jan. 6, or more specifically about why it happened,” Crabb continued. “So Congress issued Mr. Navarro a subpoena. It wasn’t voluntary. It wasn’t an invitation.”

Navarro, a former White House aide who advised Trump on both Covid-19 and trade policy, is being represented by attorney Stan Woodward. Before the trial began, the defense attempted to argue that an assertion of executive privilege by Trump prevented Navarro from complying with the subpoena, but a judge rejected that strategy.

In his opening statement, Reuters reports that Woodward told the 12 jurors that Navarro’s lack of cooperation was not “willful”, and that he had asked the committee to contact Trump to negotiate his cooperation, which it did not do.

Opening arguments are starting today in the trial of a former White House aide to Donald Trump who is accused of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the January 6 committee, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:

Federal prosecutors are expected to present the case on Wednesday that former Trump White House official Peter Navarro should be convicted of contempt of Congress because he wilfully ignored a subpoena issued last year by the House January 6 committee during the investigation into the Capitol attack.

The only standard that prosecutors will have to reach is that Navarro’s failure to comply with the subpoena was deliberate and intentional – and Navarro will not be able to argue in defense that he blew off the subpoena because he thought Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege.

Navarro is about to face his contempt of Congress trial without what he had hoped would be his strongest defense, after the presiding US district court judge Amit Mehta ruled last week Navarro had failed to prove Trump had actually asserted executive privilege to block his cooperation.

In an added twist, prosecutors also said the day before trial that they intend to argue that Navarro’s claim of executive privilege was actually self-incriminating because it reinforced his failure to comply with the subpoena was calculated and deliberate, according to court documents.

That sets the stage for a trial in federal court in Washington which could end in a quick defeat for Navarro given his lack of defenses, though the consequential nature of the case could also mean it immediately becomes tied up for months on appeal.

E Jean Carroll’s defamation suit is not the only instance where Donald Trump’s words are getting him into trouble. As the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports, attorneys for special counsel Jack Smith are complaining about the former president’s constant public comments as the federal case against him for trying to overturn his election loss moves forward:

Donald Trump is making “daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool” in the federal criminal case dealing with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, attorneys for special counsel Jack Smith said in a court filing.

Trump has not hesitated to criticize the US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case. He has called her “highly partisan” and “VERY BIASED & UNFAIR,” pointing to her comments sentencing one of the January 6 rioters. Trump has also attacked Smith, calling him “deranged” and someone with “unchecked and insane aggression”.

Chutkan has warned Trump’s attorneys about his comments. She has also imposed a protective order in the case, limiting what documents and other materials can be made with the public.

“I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case,” she said to John Lauro, one of his lawyers, during a hearing in August. “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.”

Here’s more from Reuters on E Jean Carroll’s latest lawsuit against Donald Trump, which seeks damages based on allegations that he raped her in the 1990s, then lied about it two decades later:

A federal judge on Tuesday said E Jean Carroll, the New York writer who last month won a $5m jury verdict against Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation, can pursue a related $10m defamation case against the former US president.

US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ruled in favor of the former Elle magazine columnist, after Trump had argued that the defamation case must be dismissed because the jury had concluded he never raped her.

Kaplan said he may explain his reasoning later.

Through a spokeswoman, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba maintained that Carroll should not be allowed to change her legal theory supporting the defamation case “at the 11th hour” to conform to the jury verdict.

Habba was in Miami, where Trump pleaded not guilty in a separate case to federal criminal charges that he mishandled classified files.

Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to Judge Kaplan, said: “We look forward to moving ahead expeditiously on E Jean Carroll’s remaining claims.”

Both of Carroll’s civil lawsuits arose from Trump’s denials that he had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

On 9 May, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $2m for battery and $3m for defamation over Trump’s October 2022 denial.

Updated

Judge says trial in E Jean Carroll's latest lawsuit against Trump limited to damages only

The judge presiding over E Jean Carroll’s second civil defamation case against Donald Trump said a forthcoming trial will only determine the damages she is to receive from the former president, in a major victory for the writer.

Politico obtained a copy of the judgment:

Earlier this year, Carroll prevailed in her first lawsuit against Trump when a jury found him liable for sexually abusing her, and ordered him to pay $5m in damages. According to Reuters, the second suit Carroll filed accused Trump of defaming her by denying in 2019 that he had raped her in the mid-1990s.

Because of the jury’s finding earlier this year, New York-based federal judge Lewis Kaplan found that Trump made his 2019 statements with “actual malice”, and a jury will only need to decide how much in damages he should pay.

Last month, the same judge dismissed a counterclaim filed by Trump against Carroll, an advice columnist.

Updated

Let 'the facts take it where it may' in January 6 cases, Harris says

In an interview with the Associated Press, Kamala Harris broke the White House’s relative silence on the prosecutions of Donald Trump and others for trying to overturn the 2020 election, and said those responsible for the campaign should be held accountable.

“Let the evidence, the facts, take it where it may,” the vice-president in an interview held during a trip to Indonesia, where she is attending a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“I spent the majority of my career as a prosecutor,” said Harris, a former attorney general of California. “I believe that people should be held accountable under the law. And when they break the law, there should be accountability.”

Biden and other top White House officials have generally stayed mum as prosecutors have indicted Trump for the Mar-a-Lago documents and his campaign to overturn the 2020 election. Two of the cases Trump is facing were brought by Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, whom Biden nominated for the job.

Updated

People typically hire lawyers to give them advice on how to handle legal matters.

But as ABC News’s report this morning on Evan Corcoran’s recollections of his time representing Donald Trump shows, the former president was not immediately interested in his advice on handling a grand jury subpoena to return whatever classified documents he had at Mar-a-Lago:

Corcoran and another Trump attorney, Jennifer Little, flew to Florida to meet with Trump. “The next step was to speak with the former president about complying with that subpoena,” Corcoran recalled in a voice memo the next day.

But while sitting together in Trump’s office, in front of a Norman Rockwell-style painting depicting Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and Trump playing poker, Trump, according to Corcoran’s notes, wanted to discuss something else first: how he was being unfairly targeted.

As Corcoran later recalled in his recordings, Trump continuously wandered off to topics unrelated to the subpoena -- Hillary Clinton, “the great things” he’s done for the country, and his big lead in the polls in the run-up to the 2024 Republican presidential primary race that Trump would officially join in November. But Corcoran and Little “kept returning to the boxes,” according to the transcripts.

Corcoran wanted Trump to understand “we were there to discuss responding to the subpoena,” Corcoran said in the memos.

…

As Corcoran described it in his recordings, he explained to Trump during that meeting what the former president was facing. “We’ve got a grand jury subpoena and the alternative is if you don’t comply with the grand jury subpoena you could be held in contempt,” Corcoran recalled telling Trump.

Trump responded with a line included in the indictment against him, asking, “what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?”

The transcripts reviewed by ABC News reveal what Corcoran says he then told Trump. “Well, there’s a prospect that they could go to a judge and get a search warrant, and that they could arrive here,” Corcoran recalled warning the former president as they sat at Mar-a-Lago.

Investigators question ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell's fundraising to prove 2020 election conspiracy theories

According to CNN, investigators from special counsel Jack Smith’s office are asking witnesses about fundraising done by Donald Trump’s former lawyer Sidney Powell, and whether it was used to fund efforts to breach voting systems in four swing states:

According to sources, witnesses interviewed by Smith’s prosecutors in recent weeks were asked about Powell’s role in the hunt for evidence of voter fraud after the 2020 election, including how her nonprofit group, Defending the Republic, provided money to fund those efforts.

Powell promoted Defending the Republic as a non-profit focused on funding post-election legal challenges by Trump’s team as it disputed results in key states Biden had won. Those challenges and fundraising efforts underpinning them were all based on the premise that evidence of widespread voter fraud was already in hand.

But according to documents reviewed by CNN and witness testimony obtained by the House select committee that investigated January, 6, 2021, the group was used to fund a desperate search to retroactively back-up baseless claims that Trump’s lawyers had already put forward in failed lawsuits challenging the results in several states.

A series of invoices and communications obtained by election integrity groups including The Coalition for Good Governance and American Oversight show Defending the Republic contributed millions of dollars toward the push to access voting equipment in key states.

In a court filing after her indictment in Georgia, Powell denied involvement in the Coffee County breach but acknowledged that “a non-profit she founded” paid the forensics firm hired to examine voting systems there.

Powell did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Smith’s investigators have also dived deep into the bewildering conspiracy theories that Trump allies pedaled following his election loss to try to convince his supporters that the polls were rigged:

Smith’s team has specifically asked witnesses about certain conspiracy theories pushed by Powell including that Dominion Voting Systems had ties to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and featured software he used to rig his own election. The software company, Smartmatic, has previously said the turnout in those Venezuelan elections, not the voting system, was manipulated.

Both Dominion and Smartmatic have said that they are competitors with no corporate links, knocking down the claim pushed by Powell.

One witness who met with Smith’s team earlier last month, former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik, spoke at length about how Trump allies accessed voting systems in Antrim County, Michigan, shortly after Election Day. Kerik also discussed the origins of a theory that voting machines could switch votes from one candidate to another, according to his lawyer Tim Parlatore.

Kerik also acknowledged the breach of voting systems in Coffee County during his interview with federal prosecutors, Parlatore told CNN, adding that while his client raised the topic, the conversation did not delve into specifics.

Kerik and another witness who met with Smith’s team in recent weeks were both asked if Powell was ever able to back-up her various claims of fraud, including conspiracy theories that foreign countries had hacked voting equipment.

Both were also asked about Defending the Republic and how it was used as a source of funding efforts to find evidence of voter fraud, sources told CNN.

Special counsel continues January 6 investigation as report emerges Trump was warned FBI could raid Mar-a-Lago

Good morning, US politics blog readers. New reports have emerged in recent days that offer more details of the legal peril that Donald Trump has found himself in. Weeks after he indicted Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, CNN reports that special counsel Jack Smith is continuing his investigation, focusing in particular on attorney Sidney Powell’s activities in Georgia. Powell was last month among the 19 people – Trump included – who were charged by Atlanta-area district attorney Fani Willis in a racketeering indictment over the campaign to block Joe Biden from winning the state’s electoral votes.

Separately, ABC News reports this morning that another attorney for Trump, Evan Corcoran, specifically warned the president that if he did not comply with the government’s efforts to retrieve classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, the FBI could search the property. But then another attorney for the former president warned Corcoran that if he continued to press him, Trump is “going to go ballistic”. In June of this year, Smith indicted Trump and his aides on charges related to the documents hidden at the resort.

Here’s what’s happening today:

  • Officials from border security agencies will appear before a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee to testify about the touchy subject of asylum law at 2.30pm eastern time.

  • Secretary of state Antony Blinken snuck away to Kyiv for a surprise visit. Follow our live blog for all the latest news from Ukraine.

  • White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters at 1pm.

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