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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho in San Francisco (now) and Amanda Holpuch in New York (earlier)

Julian Assange: US charges WikiLeaks founder with violating Espionage Act – as it happened

Julian Assange spent several years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Julian Assange spent several years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Evening summary

Quiet end to an exciting day:

  • Senate passed a disaster relief bill that would provide $19.1bn in aid to Americans suffering from a series of recent national disasters.
  • The Trump administration is looking to bypass Congress in selling weapons to Gulf Nations including Saudi Arabia, a sore point for legislators from both parties following the killing last October by Saudi agents of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
  • Several members of Congress are challenging President Trump’s statement of “I don’t do coverups”.
  • It’s been a hell of a two days for Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Here’s a quick roundup of the events.

It’s been a dramatic two days for President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Here’s a quick rundown of all that went down:

  • Wednesday morning: Trump reportedly storms out of an infrastructure meeting in the Oval Office with Pelosi and the Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer after three minutes.
  • The president then held a hastily calls a press conference in the Rose Garden to say he won’t work with Democrats until they stop investigating him.
  • Pelosi and Schumer hold their own press conference. “To watch what happened in the White House would make your jaw drop,” Schumer said.
  • Pelosi sends out a letter to her colleagues stating that the president “had a temper tantrum for us all to see”.
  • On to Thursday:
  • Trump hit at Pelosi often in this video address, reiterating his claim that he is “an extremely stable genius”. At which point, Pelosi gets the last hit in of the day:

Report: Trump administation to bypass Congress, sell weapons to Gulf Nations

The New York Times is reporting that the Trump administration is planning to bypass Congress “to allow the export to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of billions of dollars worth of munitions that are now on hold.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior aides are pushing for the administration to invoke an emergency provision that would allow President Trump to prevent Congress from halting the sales, worth about $7 billion. The transactions, which include precision-guided munitions and combat aircraft, would infuriate lawmakers in both parties.

They would also further inflame tensions between the United States and Iran, which views Saudi Arabia as its main rival and has been supporting the Houthi rebels in Yemen in their campaign against a Saudi-led military coalition that includes the United Arab Emirates.

This is sure to get contentious with the administration’s tepid response to the killing last October by Saudi agents of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi still fresh.

President Trump said, “I don’t do coverups.” Today, several members of Congress decided to see if he really meant that.

Updated

There’s been a lot of back-and-forth between President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both in news conferences and on the Internet today. The Washington Post is reporting that some have seem to have taken it a step further and edited video of Pelosi to make it appear that she was drunk:

The video of Pelosi’s onstage speech Wednesday at a Center for American Progress event, in which she said President Trump’s refusal to cooperate with congressional investigations was tantamount to a “coverup,” was subtly edited to make her voice sound garbled and warped. It was then circulated widely across Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

One version, posted by the conservative Facebook page Politics WatchDog, has been viewed more than 1.4 million times, been shared more than 32,000 times, and garnered 16,000 comments with users calling her “drunk” and “a babbling mess.”

The origin of the altered video remains unclear but its spread across social media comes amid a growing feud between congressional Democrats and Trump. In addition to links from multiple YouTube and Twitter accounts, the video has appeared in the comments sections of message boards and regional news outlets.

Analyses of the video by Washington Post journalists and outside researchers indicate that the video has been slowed to about 75 percent of its original speed. To possibly correct for how that speed change would deepen her tone, the video also appears to have been altered to modify her pitch, to more closely resemble the sound of her natural speech.

Updated

Here’s some late-day humor to cleanse your breaking news palate: Washington governor Jay Inslee, who is running for president on a platform to defeat climate change, piles on to the Onion’s Captain Planet joke:

Senate passes disaster relief funding bill

This version of the legislation that would provide $19.1bn to aid Americans from a series of recent national disasters does NOT include more funding for the border, as the White House requested.

Hey everybody, Vivian Ho taking over for Amanda Holpuch. Happy Thursday.

Summary

The Guardian’s Jon Swaine has the latest on the Assange indictment, which not only raises questions about the freedom of the press but also could complicate attempts to extradite Assange from London.

The new indictment, approved on Thursday by a grand jury in Virginia, detailed how Assange and WikiLeaks published troves of documents that they received from Chelsea Manning, then a US army intelligence analyst.

Some of the files were published by WikiLeaks in partnership with international news organisations including the Guardian.

Manning was convicted in 2013 under the Espionage Act for stealing classified records. She was released from a military prison in Kansas in May 2017 after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence. Barack Obama granted Manning clemency during his final days in office.

Thursday’s indictment said Manning had responded to public appeals from Assange in 2009 for people with access to classified information to leak it to WikiLeaks, violating their legal obligations to keep it secret.

Some early, quick analysis on the impact an Espionage Act charge could have on legal interpretations of the press’s right to publish classified information.

Natasha Bertrand, national security correspondent at Politico:

Matthew Miller, a Justice Department official in the Obama adminstration:

Meanwhile ...

WikiLeaks responded to the new charges in a Tweet, that warns the new indictment is “the end of national security journalism” and the US Constitution’s free speech amendment.

By pursuing Espionage Act charges against Assange, the Justice department is escalating the US government’s crack down on classified information leaks.

This could have a major impact on the rights of journalists because it is difficult to significantly distinguish the work Assange has done from that of a traditional newspaper.

No journalist has been charged under the Espionage Act. Barack Obama’s administration did not bring Espionage Act charges against Assange because of concerns it would chill press freedom.

Last month, the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Trevor Timm, wrote for the Guardian about an earlier Assange indictment and how it showed the Justice Department was trying to reign in press freedom laws in the US:

The larger context surrounding this case is almost as important as the Assange indictment itself. Donald Trump has been furious with leakers and the news organizations that publish them ever since he took office. He complains about it constantly in his Twitter tirades. He has repeatedly directed the justice department to stop leaks, and he even asked former FBI director James Comey if he can put journalists in jail.

Assange and Chelsea Manning made 'unauthorized disclosure' – DoJ

The indictment says that Assange, 47, was complicit with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence officer and whistleblower, in unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to national defense.

Assange conspired with Manning; aided and abetted her in obtaining classified information and received and attempted to receive classified information, according to the indictment.

“Many of these documents were classified at the Secret level, meaning that their unauthorized disclosure could cause serious damage to the United States national security,” the DoJ said in a statement.

WikiLeaks databases included approximately 90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activity reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs and 250,000 US State Department cables.

Updated

DoJ: Assange charged with violating Espionage Act

The Justice Department just announced WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange has been charged with violating the Espionage Act in an 18-count indictment that said he “risked serious harm” to the US.

Assange is currently jailed in London, where he was arrested last month after spending several years in the Ecuadorian embassy there.

According to the AP, the new indictment says Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents, including State Department cables and reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Updated

At the White House, Trump just discussed the $16bn in aid he is giving to farmers hurt by his trade policies.

An Idaho potato farmer in the audience, Dan Moss, wore a hat that said “Make Potatoes Great Again.”

The pool report says a reporter asked Moss if there was ever a time when potatoes were “not” great and Moss responded, with a smile, “Oh no, potatoes have always been great.”

Attorney Tracey Steele pointed out in a Twitter thread this morning that as a tornado ripped through Missouri and killed at least three people, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning alerting people to get out of its path.

Steele said Trump’s pick to head the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), has a potential conflict of interest because of his role as former CEO of the for-profit company AccuWeather.

Trump has nominated Barry Lee Myers, the former CEO of AccuWeather, to head Noaa. He’s been a controversial figure since Trump appointed him in 2017, and has not been confirmed by the full Senate, though a committee approved him last month.

Myers and his company have argued for the weather service to release less information to the public - leaving for-profit companies like AccuWeather to capitalize on the government data.

Trump to give $16bn aid to US farmers

Trump announced today that he is providing $16bn in aid to farmers hurt by his trade policies after failed trade talks with China, reports the AP:

US agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue said the first of three payments is likely to be made in July or August, according to the AP. Purdue suggested it was unlikely a trade deal would be done by then, a sign that US negotiators could be months away from settling a bitter trade dispute with China.

“The package we’re announcing today ensures that farmers do not bear the brunt of unfair retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other trading partners,” Perdue said.
The latest bailout comes atop $11bn in aid Trump provided farmers last year.

Trump, seeking to reduce America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world and with China in particular, has imposed import taxes on foreign steel, aluminum, solar panels and dishwashers and on thousands of Chinese products.

US trading partners have lashed back with retaliatory tariffs of their own, focusing on US agricultural products in a direct shot at the American heartlands, where support for Trump runs high.

Updated

Stephen Calk, who was charged today by the Southern District of New York for attempting to buy a spot in the Trump administration by approving high-risk loans for a former Trump campaign advisor, is set to appear in court this afternoon.

Calk was also a former economic adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Calk, 54, approved $16mn in high risk loans to former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, that were ultimately downgraded, according to the indictment. Manafort lobbied for Calk to be considered for Secretary of the Army, though Calk also provided a ranked list of other government roles he wanted.

The president’s transition team interviewed Calk in January 2017, according to prosecutors, though he never got an administration post.

Calk’s attorney, Jeremy Margolis, told the Washington Post that the charges are a “travesty.”

“Mr. Calk has done nothing wrong and will be exonerated at trial of the baseless isolated charge brought against him,” Margolis of Loeb & Loeb said in a statement.

Congress may have finally reached a breakthrough on a disaster relief bill that stalled for weeks because of setbacks including the president’s reluctance to provide aid money to Puerto Rico.

Congressional reporters said the Senate will vote today on a disaster aid bill that Trump has said he will support. The bill will not include more funding for the border, which the White House requested, according to reports.

It will include money for Puerto Rico, which has so far received $11.2bn of $40.8bn allocated to assist its recovery from Hurricane Maria.

Republican Justin Amash renews call for impeachment

Republican representative Justin Amash is reiterating his calls for Donald Trump’s impeachment.

This past weekend, Amash tweeted the acts outlined in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election amounted to “impeachable offenses.”

Republicans were not happy about it – but that didn’t stop Amash from making the case for impeachment, again, on Thursday afternoon.

In a series of 20 (!) tweets, Amash outlined examples of impeachable offenses recorded in the Mueller report.

Hours before Amash sent these tweets, the Democratic house leader, Nancy Pelosi, said she would not pursue impeachment at this stage, though she said the president had committed impeachable offenses.

Updated

There’s an interesting article in the Atlantic about how Barack Obama is “more popular than Jesus” among Democrats, but the crowded field seeking the party’s nomination for the 2020 election doesn’t quite know what to do with his popularity:

Obama remains firm that he won’t endorse soon, while aides are stressing that he might get involved later in the process—presumably, the thinking goes, to stop a candidate he sees as too divisive or likely to lose from becoming the nominee. (This hasn’t been specified, but most assume it would be to stop Bernie Sanders.)

Obama and his aides have carefully guarded when and how to deploy him; some have even theorized he could be called on to broker who the 2020 nominee is, if the primaries finish without a clear winner and Democrats face a contested convention.

Afternoon summary

And today’s political pup is Ladybird, who belongs to a scheduler in the office of Senator Martha McSally, a Republican from Arizona.

Pete Buttigieg, a military veteran and Democratic candidate for president, has accused Donald Trump of faking disability to avoid serving in the Vietnam war.

The US president received five deferments from the draft, four for university and one for the medical reason of bone spurs in his heels. Last year the New York Times reported claims that a doctor made the diagnosis as a favour to Trump’s father.

Buttigieg, who took a seven month leave of absence from his job as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to serve in Afghanistan as a lieutenant in the navy reserve, said: “I have a pretty dim view of his decision to use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam.”

Speaking at a Washington Post event on Thursday, the 37-year-old continued: “I mean, if he were a conscientious objector, I’d admire that, but this is somebody who, I think it is fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was a child of a multimillionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place.

“I know that dredges up old wounds from a complicated time during a complicated war, but I am also old enough to remember when conservatives talked about character as something that mattered in the presidency, and so I think it deserves to be talked about.”

Buttigieg also described the challenge of taking on Trump in a debate as “crazy uncle management”.

Pelosi just wrapped the press conference, where she made clear that she is not pushing for impeachment despite describing the president’s actions as impeachable.

“I think impeachment is a very divisive place for us to go in the country,” Pelosi said.

She also repeatedly expressed concern about the president’s well-being, which she said reflected a broader concern about the well-being of the US. Pelosi said:

Again, I pray for the president of the United States. I wish that his family or his administration or staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.

Before the press conference, Pelosi told colleagues Trump’s actions were “villainous” according to NBC News.

Updated

Pelosi: 'The White House is just crying out for impeachment'

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she still does not plan to pursue impeachment, though the president would like Democrats to pursue it for political reasons.

“The White House is just crying out for impeachment - that’s why he [Trump] flipped yesterday,” Pelosi said in an ongoing press conference.

Pelosi said impeachment would be divisive, but she was listening to the members of her caucus who are pushing for it.

Updated

When Donald Trump visits the UK next month, he will be joined by his children and their spouses, according to ABC News.

The children are set to attend a dinner with Queen Elizabeth II and will potentially meet with Prince William and Kate, according to the report.

The three-day trip starts 3 June and coincides with D-Day commemorations.

Trump visited the UK in 2018, but this would be his first state visit.

Large protests are expected during his trip, including the resurrection of a baby Trump blimp over London.

Queen Elizabeth II stands with Donald and Melania Trump at Windsor Castle on the second day of Trump’s UK visit in July 2018
Queen Elizabeth II stands with Donald and Melania Trump at Windsor Castle on the second day of Trump’s UK visit in July 2018 Photograph: Steve Parsons/AFP/Getty Images

Banker arrested for trying to buy spot in Trump admin

Federal prosecutors have charged a bank CEO, Stephen Calk, for approving millions of dollars in high-risk loans to Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, with the hope it would pan out to a position in the Trump administration.

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) said Thursday morning that Calk tried to buy himself a role in the Trump administration while serving as CEO of The Federal Savings Bank in Chicago.

“As alleged, Stephen M Calk abused the power entrusted to him as the top official of a federally insured bank by approving millions of dollars in high-risk loans in an effort to secure a personal benefit, namely an appointment as Secretary of the Army or another similarly high-level position in the incoming presidential administration,” said US attorney, Audrey Strauss, in a statement.

In March, Manafort was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for charges including bank fraud, tax fraud and conspiracy.

Abolitionist Harriet Tubman’s debut on the $20 bill has been delayed until after Donald Trump leaves office, Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said yesterday.

Tubman was supposed to appear on the $20 in 2020, under an Obama administration initiative that would have made Tubman the only woman or person of color on an American note. Tubman escaped enslavement, rescued at least 70 people enslaved people on the underground railroad and campaigned for women’s rights.

Mnuchin said the bill release would be delayed until at least 2026, leaving former president and slaveholder, Andrew Jackson, as the famous face on the $20 bill.

Mnuchin did this out of concerns the president would cause an uproar about the bill’s redesign, according to the New York Times, citing senior Treasury department officials.

Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to Barack Obama, said of Mnuchin’s announcement: “Not moving forward is an insult not just to the African American community, but to all Americans who believe we should honor an American who contributed so greatly to the nation’s history.”

Trump opposed the decision to put Tubman on the $20 while running for president in 2016, saying she should be put on the much less common $2 bill instead.

Jackson signed the Indiana Removal Act of 1830, which forced thousands of Native Americans off their lands, including the forced relocation of about 16,000 Cherokees in what became known as the Trail of Tears.

Jackson’s portrait hangs in the Oval Office and Trump has praised him for being a populist.

Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign released a list of 56 legal cases she worked on during her time as a law professor on Wednesday night, just before a Washington Post investigation with more detail on the cases was published.

Together, the list and investigation provide the most in-depth information released on Warren’s legal work, which dates back to at least 1991.

It is not uncommon for a law professor to also do legal work, which led some to criticize the Post investigation. Others championed Warren for managing to work on so many cases while having a robust academic career.

Warren is a nationally recognized expert in bankruptcy law and served on government advisory panels in the 1990s and 2000s before running for office for the first time in 2012.

Putin out-prepared Trump at Germany summit – Tillerson

Trump’s former secretary of state Rex Tillerson told a Congressional committee this week that Vladimir Putin out-prepared Donald Trump during their 2017 meeting in Germany.

Tillerson told lawmakers the conversation, which was supposed to be short, turned into a two hour meeting that surveyed geo-political issues, according to the Washington Post, which cited anonymous sources.

“Committee aides said that Tillerson refrained from openly disparaging the president but that his inability to answer certain questions was revealing,” the Post reported.

Trump appointed Tillerson to one of the most senior positions in American government and in response to the report tweeted that Tillerson was “a man who is ‘dumb as a rock’ and totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary of State.”

Tillerson has made few public comments about Trump since he was fired in March 2018.

When Tillerson was critical of Trump in a December 2018 review, the president also responded that his appointee was “dumb as a rock.”

Updated

Good morning,

It’s time for the US politics live blog to begin - I promise we won’t storm out on you.

Donald Trump abruptly left a meeting with Democratic leaders yesterday, making the extraordinary declaration he would not work with Democrats unless they stopped investigations into the Mueller report findings and Trump’s business dealings.

White House aides have downplayed Trump’s threat, which comes as Democrats weigh impeachment.

House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has been reluctant to back impeachment proceedings but she will face pressure today from members of her party who support its symbolic value as well as using it as a tool to access documents Trump is trying to stop Congressional investigators from getting.

This morning, Trump called his former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, “dumb as a rock” following reports that Tillerson testified this week that Vladimir Putin was more prepared than Donald Trump for their 2017 meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

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