Closing summary
Another very eventful day in US political news. We are closing this blog now but Guardian US will have a special live blog firing up in just a short while, ready for Joe Biden’s prime-time speech on, so it’s flagged: “The battle for the soul of the nation.”
The fresh live blog will begin at 7pm ET for the run-up to the US president’s speech, which is due at 8pm ET, in Philadelphia, and we’ll have a live stream.
The regular US politics blog will be back tomorrow morning.
Here’s where things stand:
Donald Trump reportedly said on a radio show today that he’ll pardon some of the rioters who took part in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, after being urged by him to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Trump is dangling this prospect if he stands and is elected president again. He has also admitted to financially helping some of them.
The Florida hearing in which Donald Trump’s legal team asked for a “special master” to look at the classified evidence the FBI seized from the former president’s home is over and the judge has not issued a decision on the spot.
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham will have to testify before the special grand jury sitting in Georgia in the criminal case hearing evidence related to allegations that Donald Trump illegally attempted to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election result, in which Trump lost to Biden.
US federal agents have reportedly raided two New York properties belonging to a Russian oligarch and close ally of the country’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Kellye SoRelle, general counsel for the extremist right-wing Oath Keepers group, has been indicted and arrested for alleged involvement in the 6 January 2021, Capitol attack.
New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House committee on oversight and reform stated that at least some of Donald Trump’s key financial papers will be available to a House panel investigating the former president’s “unprecedented conflicts of interest, self-dealing and foreign financial ties”.
A lawyer for Donald Trump is arguing that there is “no cause for alarm” over the fact that the former president stashed top secret government documents at his club resort and residence Mar-a-Lago after leaving office.
Updated
Trump dangles future pardons for insurrectionists - report
Meanwhile in other news … Trump promises pardons for January 6 insurrectionists
The consummate troll Donald Trump – perhaps with half a mind on Joe Biden’s speech tonight warning of the Republican threat to US democracy – has weighed in with the idea that he will pardon January 6 rioters if he is elected president again. He has also admitted to financially helping some of them.
The Washington Post reports: “Former president Donald Trump said he would issue full pardons and a government apology to rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and violently attacked law enforcement to stop the democratic transfer of power.
“I mean full pardons with an apology to many,” he told conservative radio host Wendy Bell on Thursday morning. Such a move would be contingent on Trump running and winning the 2024 presidential election.”
It adds: “Trump, during his conversation with Bell on Thursday morning, also said he met with some January 6 defendants in his office this week and that he is helping some financially.
“I am financially supporting people that are incredible and they were in my office actually two days ago, so they’re very much in my mind,” Trump said. “It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them. What they’ve done to these people is disgraceful.””
Updated
“What is the harm?” judge says of special master request
The judge in the hearing issued no ruling from the bench on whether or not to appoint a special master, instead deferring the decision for a written filing at some future date.
But a hint of judge Aileen Cannon’s thinking came during the court session when she asked: “What is the harm?”
Per AP: There was no immediate ruling, but the judge had indicated last week that she was inclined to grant the request and asked Thursday, “What is the harm?” in such an appointment.
Lawyers for Trump say the appointment of a special master is necessary to ensure an independent inspection of the documents.
This kind of review, they say, would allow for “highly personal information” such as diaries or journals to be separated from the investigation and returned to Trump, along with any other documents that may be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
Trump lawyers claim “overdue library book” defense
To most of the world the retention of a trove of top secret national security documents at Mar-a-Lago would appear pretty serious. But perhaps not to the Trump legal team, who said during today’s hearing it was a bit like forgetting to return a library book on time.
From NBC: While the government characterized the case in grave terms related to national security and classified documents, Trump lawyer Jim Trusty compared it to something more mundane.
“We’ve characterized it at times as an overdue-library-book scenario where there’s a dispute – not even a dispute – but ongoing negotiations with [the National Archives] that has suddenly been transformed into a criminal investigation,” he said, sidestepping that the justice department had issued a subpoena for the documents earlier this year.
Updated
Judge Aileen Cannon also said she would make public a more detailed list of the items the FBI took in the 8 August search, some of which was revealed in the justice department’s legal filing on Tuesday in response to Trump’s “special master” request.
A photograph accompanying the filing showed the covers of a number of top secret and classified folders that were seized. Today’s ruling opens the prospect of a far detailed picture emerging of what documents might be among the classified/secret materials.
The FBI has already finished a review of the seized materials by agents not involved in the investigation surrounding Trump’s retention of government secrets, and say they identified a number of files that may be privileged and set aside from the evidence cache.
It is not yet known when the detailed inventory authorized by Cannon will be available.
And Trump’s attorneys are staying tight-lipped, it seems, as they await Judge Cannon’s written ruling:
New: Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran declined to answer any questions as he walked out of the courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, just now — including one about whether he had retained his own defense counsel.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) September 1, 2022
Donald Trump’s lawyer Jim Trusty appears to have suggested during the hearing that it was no big deal that numerous “top secret” and “highly classified” documents found at Trump’s Florida resort were not returned to the National Archives, according to Katherine Faulders of ABC News:
During the hearing, Trump lawyer Jim Trusty equated his refusal to return documents to NARA as an “overdue library book,” adding that the ongoing dispute with the National Archives “has been transformed into a criminal investigation.”
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) September 1, 2022
Here’s the Associated Press account of what just went down in the West Palm Beach courthouse:
A federal judge said she would issue a written ruling “at some point” after hearing arguments Thursday on whether to appoint an outside legal expert to review government records seized by the FBI last month in a search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home.
Lawyers for Trump claimed the appointment of a “special master” was necessary to ensure an independent inspection of the documents. Such a review, they said, would allow for “highly personal information” such as diaries or journals to be separated from the investigation and returned to Trump, along with any other documents that may be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
The justice department argued an appointment is unwarranted because investigators have completed their review of potentially privileged records and identified “a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information”.
The government says Trump lacks legal grounds to demand the return of presidential documents because they do not belong to him. The department has also expressed concerns that the appointment could delay the investigation, in part because a special master probably would need to obtain a security clearance to review the records and special authorization from intelligence agencies.
District court judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who has previously indicated she was inclined to agree to the request, said she would issue a written ruling later at an unspecified future time.
Updated
Judge delays Trump 'special master' ruling
The Florida hearing in which Donald Trump’s legal team asked for a “special master” to look at the classified evidence the FBI seized from the former president’s home appears to be over.
There’s no immediate ruling. We’ll have more details coming up.
The hearing here in Florida has wrapped. Judge Cannon is not ruling on Trump’s request for a special master from the bench, she will enter a written order at some point. No indication on timeline.
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) September 1, 2022
Judge Cannon has called a recess after 1 hr 40 minutes. no ruling yet. Focus on special master issue.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) September 1, 2022
A snippet of news from the Trump hearing in West Palm Beach. Looks like the Trump legal team reversed itself, and now wants a detailed inventory of what was taken in the FBI raid kept secret.
BREAKING: Trump team in court now opposes this more detailed inventory becoming public! Tells you everything, as govt said it was okay unsealing this.
— Andrew Weissmann 🌻 (@AWeissmann_) September 1, 2022
Why doesn't Trump team want this detailed MAL search inventory made public-- because it would be inculpatory, not exculpatory. https://t.co/jwNhjCjMhN
Judge Aileen Cannon agrees to the request.
Judge decides to keep the more detailed inventory list under seal.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) September 1, 2022
The wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas contacted at least two Wisconsin state lawmakers, including the chair of the senate elections committee, urging them to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, emails obtained Thursday by The Associated Press show.
Virginia '“Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist, also had sent messages to more than two dozen lawmakers in Arizona, the news agency says.
In her communications with lawmakers in both states, Thomas urged Republicans to choose their own slate of electors after the election, arguing that results giving Biden a victory in the states were marred by fraud.
Despite numerous reviews, lawsuits and recounts, no widespread fraud calling into question the results has been discovered in either state.
The House January 6 committee investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s win is seeking an interview with Thomas.
“We think it’s time that we, at some point, invite her to come talk to the committee,” Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the panel, said in June.
Interim summary
Time for a quick look at where we stand:
Lawyers for the Donald Trump are in court in West Palm Beach, Florida, arguing why a judge should appoint an independent “special master” to review highly classified papers seized in an FBI raid on the former president’s home. The justice department opposes the move. The court has cut off wifi access for the media, so developments are not immediately forthcoming.
A judge has ruled South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham will have to testify to Georgia grand jury hearing evidence related to allegations that Trump illegally attempted to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election result and prevent Joe Biden from taking office.
Federal agents raided two New York properties belonging Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch and close ally of the country’s president, Vladimir Putin. Vekselberg, billionaire founder of a Russian energy conglomerate, has been under sanctions by the US for four years.
At least some of Trump’s key financial papers will be available to a House panel investigating the former president. New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House committee on oversight and reform, said subpoenas to Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, yielded “critical” documents, and halted his legal action to protect them.
A special election for Alaska’s only seat in the US House was won by Democrat Mary Peltola, delivering a blow to the former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s hopes of a political comeback.
Kellye SoRelle, general counsel for the extremist Oath Keepers group, has been indicted and arrested for alleged involvement in the January 6 Capitol riot, at which a mob of Trump’s supporters attempted to halt Biden’s certification as president.
From what little we’re able to glean, progress appears slow in the West Palm Beach courtroom where Donald Trump’s lawyers are arguing for an independent review of evidence seized in the FBI raid on his Florida home.
This from Harry Litman of the Los Angeles Times:
report from MSNBC reporter who was in courtroom. not much seems to have occurred in 45 minutes. Trump's attorney, Chris Kise (former Fla SG), stressing it's unprecedented and we need to lower temperatures, and insinuating he has right to docs as former Pres.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) September 1, 2022
Obstacle to swift reporting and transparency at the hearing in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Lawyers for Donald Trump and the Department of Justice have been going head to head today in front of federal judge Aileen Cannon as they fight over whether to appoint a “special master” to review the documents seized by the FBI at the-then president’s home at nearby Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.
It’s the latest stage in the dispute that erupted after Trump’s resort and residence was searched on 8 August.
The FBI action, conducted in an active criminal investigation about the alleged harboring of secret documents at Trump’s premises, was the first time a former president has been subject to such an indignity in US history.
The hearing is being covered by the Guardian and many other members of the media, but here’s a disturbing development in the logistics, reported by Reuters.
Bad news friends. Florida court is turning wi-fi off to block the media from reporting the Trump hearing in real-time. This truly sucks and I don't understand it. We do this in DC District Court all the time. It makes courts accessible to the public. I am beyond annoyed.
— Sarah N. Lynch (@SarahNLynch) September 1, 2022
Senator Graham ordered to testify in Georgia election investigation of Trump
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham will have to testify before the special grand jury sitting in Georgia in a criminal case.
The panel is hearing evidence related to allegations that Donald Trump illegally attempted to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election result and prevent Joe Biden from taking power.
Former Trump lawyer John Eastman appeared before the panel yesterday, pleading the fifth throughout, and followed hot on the heels of Rudy Giuliani in making an appearance in that case.
Now a judge has denied Graham’s efforts to avoid testifying, despite putting some limits on what he can be asked.
The prosecutor in the case is Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis in Atlanta.
Here’s Norm Eisen, Brookings fellow and former White House chief ethics lawyer in the Obama administration, on Twitter.
Breaking: Lindsey Graham loses again on his battle not to testify before DA Willis
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) September 1, 2022
i’ll have more analysis to follow but Willis is on a winning streak.
Like the Rolling Stones said, “if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need.” pic.twitter.com/EOhIO8cxeJ
This case is about that call when Trump asked Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s crucial victory in the state in the 2020 election, and a whole lot more, including many of the then-president’s men.
“Graham may be questioned about any alleged efforts to encourage Raffensperger or others to throw out ballots or alter Georgia’s election practices. Likewise, the grand jury may inquire into Graham’s alleged communications and coordination with the Trump Campaign & public stmts.” https://t.co/bZZ7yDaEXh
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) September 1, 2022
Lindsey Graham ran against Trump for the GOP nomination in 2016 and dismissed his opponent as, among other things, a jackass, a “kook, and a race-baiting bigot, but later became an adoring and some would say potentially dangerous loyalist. He’s now in legal danger himself.
Joe Biden is preparing to leave the White House for Pennsylvania, where he will address the country in a primetime speech tonight about “the continued battle for the soul of the nation”.
Mindful there are fewer than 10 weeks until November’s midterm elections, the president has ramped up his rhetoric in recent days against so-called Maga Republicans, extremists in the party and Donald Trump supporters he says have put democracy in the US at risk.
During tonight’s speech in Philadelphia, Biden will expand on the theme, calling out rightwingers and elected Republicans nationwide who have enacted legislation restricting rights over voting and abortions, and attacking the LGBTQ+ community.
He posted a short teaser on Twitter just now.
MAGA Republicans have awakened a powerful force in America: the women of this nation. pic.twitter.com/p93C0GmuFQ
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 1, 2022
Biden’s speech is scheduled for 8pm. Meanwhile here’s Robert Reich writing for the Guardian on the “hard truths” the president will be laying out:
FBI raids New York homes of Russian oligarch Vekselberg
Federal agents have reportedly raided two New York properties belonging to a Russian oligarch and close ally of the country’s president, Vladimir Putin.
According to NBC New York, teams from the FBI, homeland security department and New York police department were spotted Thursday at a Park Avenue apartment block in Manhattan, and a Long Island house linked to Viktor Vekselberg, billionaire founder of Russian energy conglomerate the Renova Group.
Vekselberg has been sanctioned by the US since 2018, and Spanish police and FBI agents seized his $80m superyacht Tango in Mallorca in April.
In the UK, there have also been calls for the Tate to cut ties with Vekselberg, a prominent donor to numerous western institutions, including the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
In New York on Thursday, observers witnessed agents removing boxes from the Park Lane apartment and residence in Southampton, a waterfront Long Island town. NBC said Vekselberg has been the subject of a justice department investigation surrounding allegations of bank fraud, although no charges have been filed.
Spokespeople for the FBI and department of homeland security confirmed their agents were at the properties on Thursday but declined further comment. The NYPD did not return a request for comment.
Vekselberg, who was born in Ukraine, is banned from doing business with US entities. Previously, he gave testimony to the Mueller inquiry looking into then-president Donald Trump’s business ties with Russia.
Updated
A bronze plaque commemorating the Ku Klux Klan should be removed from the science centre at West Point, a congressional commission said, even though it falls outside the panel’s remit because the racist terror group was formed after the American civil war.
The Naming Commission was established in March 2021, in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd and the protests for racial justice it inspired.
The eight-member panel is tasked with recommending which US military assets should be renamed, to remove associations with Confederates who fought to maintain slavery.
In May, the commissioners released part one of their report, concerning the renaming of military bases – a process opposed by conservatives including Donald Trump.
For one example, the commission said Fort Benning, a major infantry base in Georgia named for a Confederate general, should be renamed Fort Hal and Julie Moore, after a Vietnam-era soldier and his wife, who changed the way the US army notifies next of kin when soldiers die in combat.
In part two of its report, published this week, the commission considered the US Military Academy, at West Point in New York, and the US Naval Academy, at Annapolis in Maryland.
Regarding West Point, the report said: “On the triptych at the entrance to Bartlett Hall, there is a mounted marker bearing the words, ‘Ku Klux Klan’. The marker falls outside the remit of the commission. However, there are clearly ties in the KKK to the Confederacy.”
The Klan was founded in Tennessee in 1865, in the aftermath of the defeat of the slave-holding south. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a general whose troops massacred Black Union soldiers at Fort Pillow in April 1864, was one of the first Klan leaders.'
Read more:
Oath Keepers attorney indicted over Capitol riot
Kellye SoRelle, general counsel for the extremist Oath Keepers group, has been indicted and arrested for alleged involvement in the January 6 Capitol riot, at which a mob of Donald Trump supporters attempted to halt the certification as president of Joe Biden.
SoRelle has been charged with conspiracy to “obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding”, according to court papers filed on Thursday.
Several other members of the Oath Keepers, who describe themselves as patriots, have been criminally charged in connection with the riot.
Just in: Oath Keepers general counsel Kellye SoRelle charged over Capitol attack with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and obstruction of justice — SoRelle had previously cooperated with Jan. 6 committee and FBI, per sources familiar.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) September 1, 2022
We’ll have more details soon. Meanwhile, Politico has SoRelle’s indictment here.
My colleague Ed Pilkington has taken a look at Sarah Palin’s defeat in Alaska, and the remarkable swing in voting that has lifted the Democratic party’s fortunes in a traditionally Republican state:
A special election for Alaska’s only seat in the US House was won by the Democrat Mary Peltola, delivering a blow to the former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s hopes of a political comeback and putting wind in the sails of the Democratic party as it heads for November’s midterm elections.
Peltola’s victory, by 51.5% to 48.5%, marks a stunning turnaround in a state known for its solid conservative leanings. The single House seat was held for almost 50 years by the Republican Don Young, until his death in March.
Donald Trump, who endorsed Palin and campaigned for her at a rally in Anchorage, won Alaska by 10 points in the 2020 presidential election. That marks a swing of 13 points to Peltola’s three-point lead.
Analysts pored over the results of the vote, which was held two weeks ago under a new ranked-choice system but finalized on Wednesday. It was being seen as a significant outcome on several levels – as a potential response to the recent US supreme court overturning of the constitutional right to abortion, to Trump’s enduring grip on the Republican party, and to Palin herself.
The Washington Post pointed out that Democrats have shown gains over their 2020 margins in all five special elections held since abortion right enshrined in Roe v Wade in 1973 was slung out by the Trump-supercharged supreme court in June. Of the five contests, the Alaska result showed the biggest surge in Democratic support.
When people forget your name. #MaryPeltola pic.twitter.com/FlC9XwxeXh
— Mary Peltola (@MaryPeltola) September 1, 2022
Democratic strategists will seek to capitalize on this tendency going into the midterms. Prominent Republicans had hoped ending abortion rights would work in their favour but the exact opposite appears to be happening – a progressive wave, given overwhelming national support for the right to terminate a pregnancy in at least some circumstances.
Palin, who left the Alaska governor’s mansion in 2009, had been hoping to use the special election as a stepping stone towards a return to the national political stage. The flamboyant conservative, who styled herself as a “mama grizzly” and who has been seen as a precursor of Trump’s populism, was thrown into the limelight as John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate against Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2008.
Read the full story:
House panel secures Trump's financial records
At least some of Donald Trump’s key financial papers will be available to a House panel investigating the former president’s “unprecedented conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and foreign financial ties”.
New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House committee on oversight and reform, issued a statement Thursday stating that subpoenas to Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, had yielded “critical” documents, and halted his legal action to protect them:
After numerous court victories, I am pleased that my committee has now reached an agreement to obtain key financial documents that former president Trump fought for years to hide from Congress.
In April 2019, the oversight committee issued a lawful subpoena for financial records as part of our investigation into President Trump’s unprecedented conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and foreign financial ties.
After facing years of delay tactics, the committee has now reached an agreement with the former president and his accounting firm, Mazars USA, to obtain critical documents. These documents will inform the committee’s efforts to get to the bottom of former president Trump’s egregious conduct and ensure that future presidents do not abuse their position of power for personal gain.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, testified to the committee in 2019 that financial statements falsely represented the then-president’s assets and liabilities, and Trump “inflated his total assets when it served his purposes” or, at other times, “deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes”.
Cohen, who served a short prison term after pleading guilty to evading taxes, lying to Congress and facilitating campaign finance crimes, also faced questions from New York prosecutors last year investigating Trump’s business dealings.
There is no indication that the papers being turned over to the House panel include the tax returns that Trump has long refused to release.
Last month a federal appeals court ruled that another House committee looking into Trump’s finances, ways and means, could demand to see the returns stretching back several years, but Trump’s legal team is expected to appeal.
After a federal judge said New York could implement new gun restrictions passed after the US supreme court struck down a century-old law, the state attorney general saluted “a victory in our efforts to protect New Yorkers”.
“Responsible gun control measures save lives and any attempts by the gun lobby to tear down New York’s sensible gun control laws will be met with fierce defense of the law,” Letitia James said on Wednesday night.
In June, in the aftermath of mass shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, the conservative-dominated US supreme court overturned a New York law passed in 1911.
The law said anyone wanting to carry a handgun in public had to prove “proper cause”.
Justice Clarence Thomas said the 111-year-old law was a violation of the second amendment right to bear arms and also the 14th amendment, which made second-amendment rights applicable to the states:
Apart from a few late-19th-century outlier jurisdictions, American governments simply have not broadly prohibited the public carry of commonly used firearms for personal defense.
In dissent, Stephen Breyer, a liberal, wrote: “In 2020, 45,222 Americans were killed by firearms. Since the start of this year there have been 277 reported mass shootings – an average of more than one per day.”
The same source, the Gun Violence Archive, now puts that total at 450.
Read the full story:
Sarah Palin has been knocked back in her attempt to win a seat in Congress. Democrat Mary Peltola won the special election for Alaska’s only US House seat, besting a field that included the Republican former vice-presidential candidate in a state where she was once governor.
Peltola, who is Yup’ik and turned 49 on Wednesday, will become the first Alaska Native to serve in the House and the first woman to hold the seat, the Associated Press reports.
She will serve the remaining months of the late Republican US Representative Don Young’s term. Young held the seat for 49 years before his death in March. In November, Peltola, Palin and others will face off again for a full two-year term.
Thank you to all Alaskans who have put their faith in me as the first woman in Alaska’s history to represent our state in the House of Representatives.
— Mary Peltola (@MaryPeltola) September 1, 2022
Tonight, we’ve shown that we can win as a campaign that is pro-choice, pro-fish, pro-worker, and pro-Alaska.
Palin was looking to make a political comeback 14 years after she was vaulted onto the national stage when John McCain selected her to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. In her run for the House seat, she had widespread name recognition and won the endorsement of former president Donald Trump.
But critics questioned her commitment to Alaska, citing her decision to resign as governor in July 2009, partway through her term. Palin went on to become a conservative commentator on TV and appeared in reality television programs, among other pursuits.
Read more:
Updated
Trump lawyers: 'No cause for alarm' over top secret documents
Donald Trump’s push to have an independent “special master” review highly classified documents seized in an FBI raid on his Florida mansion last month returns to court today, amid extraordinary legal wrangling over the criminal probe into the former president.
In a court filing last night, ahead of an afternoon hearing at which district judge Aileen Cannon will consider his request, Trump’s lawyers argued that it shouldn’t be a surprise that a US president would have possession of top secret material.
“Simply put, the notion that presidential records would contain sensitive information should have never been cause for alarm,” the filing said.
NEW: Trump files response to DOJ filing last night that painted portrait of potential obstruction over Mar-a-Lago docs — https://t.co/ALqAM1ztfx
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) September 1, 2022
Because of that, they say, there was no justification for the FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, and no basis for a criminal probe into why he had such documents.
It is not, however, quite that simple.
In its own filing opposing a special master on Tuesday, the justice department said Trump had no business holding on to government-owned documents the National Archives had been trying to retrieve from him for months after he left office.
Trump’s team did not answer why he retained them.
And they suggested Trump, or his representatives, tried to obstruct the investigation by denying that any classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago, then hiding them, months before federal agents found them there, some in a drawer of Trump’s desk.
Notably, Trump’s legal team made no mention of the debunked claim he has espoused publicly, and without evidence, that he had “declassified” the documents before his term in office ended.
Judge Cannon, a Trump-appointee who has previously indicated she is sympathetic to his request for a special master, will attempt to sort it all out in the hearing scheduled to begin at 1pm.
Many analysts believe Trump’s request is a characteristic delaying tactic while he mulls another run at the White House in 2024.
Others warn there is no guarantee of an early resolution. “The judge is unlikely to rule from the bench, and she will probably take the case under advisement and review all of the written and oral arguments”, Carl Tobias, Williams chair in law at the University of Richmond’s school of law, told the Guardian.
We’ll bring you developments from the hearing as we get them.
Meanwhile, here’s Lloyd Green for the Guardian on Trump’s questionable legal strategy:
Updated
Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s US politics blog. It’s a busy day for presidents, current and past.
Donald Trump, or rather his legal team, returns to court in Florida attempting to persuade a judge to appoint an independent “special master” to review highly classified documents seized in a raid by the FBI at his Palm Beach residence last month.
In a legal filing last night, responding to an earlier justice department filing opposing the move, Trump said it shouldn’t be a surprise that a president would have access to top secret material, but failed to address why documents were scattered around his mansion.
The hearing, before district court judge Aileen Cannon, is scheduled for 1pm. We’ll bring you developments as they happen.
Joe Biden, meanwhile, heads back to Pennsylvania for the second time in three days, to give a primetime speech tonight about “the ongoing battle for the soul of the nation”.
The current inhabitant of the White House has stepped up attacks on extremist Republican supporters of his predecessor, whom he says are placing American democracy at risk.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
Sarah Palin’s bid for a seat in Congress crashed when the fiery Republican lost a special election in Alaska to Democrat Mary Peltola, who becomes the first Alaska Native to sit in the House.
Joe Biden has signed a federal disaster declaration, and the White House is promising aid to Jackson, Mississippi, where about 150,000 residents have no access to clean water after a system failure.
Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott is expanding his “protest” over Biden’s immigration policies by busing undocumented migrants to Chicago, having previously sent them to other Democratic strongholds in New York and Washington DC.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will deliver her daily briefing at 2pm.
