US midterms campaigns kick into high gear after Labor Day as Senate returns from month-long break
Lawyers for Donald Trump are conferring with justice department counterparts to come up by Friday with a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district court judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
Aileen Cannon’s surprise ruling on Monday has delayed the department’s inquiry into Trump’s possession of government documents at his Florida residence. Some law experts are pointing out the “deeply problematic” nature of the decision, and the fact it was made by a jurist appointed by Trump himself.
Samuel W Buell, a Duke University law professor, told the New York Times in an email:
To any lawyer with serious federal criminal court experience who is being honest, this ruling is laughably bad, and the written justification is even flimsier.
Donald Trump is getting something no one else ever gets in federal court, he’s getting it for no good reason, and it will not in the slightest reduce the ongoing howls that he is being persecuted, when he is being privileged.
Cannon’s deadline of Friday doesn’t give much time for the two sides to agree candidates to act in the role of independent arbiter, typically a retired lawyer or judge, to go through material seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion.
They will look be looking for any that might be beyond the scope of the warrant or protected by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.
The attorneys must submit a joint filing to the court by Friday.
As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell and Victoria Bekiempis report, a special master was used, for instance, to review materials seized in the searches of the homes and offices of two of Trump’s former attorneys – Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen.
Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, also called the special master request a “crock of shit”, in an interview with the New York Times.
In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Barr said: “Even if [the documents] are subject to executive privilege, they still belong to the government. And any other documents that were seized… those were seize-able under the warrant”.
That’s all for today from our US politics blog. Thanks for being with us.
Here’s what we looked at:
Lawyers for Donald Trump began conferring with justice department counterparts to meet a Friday court deadline for a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
Joe Biden said he would work with Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss on the war in Ukraine, and bettering close ties. “I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression” Biden said in a tweet.
A New Mexico state district court judge disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. State district court judge Francis Mathew ruled Griffin was permanently barred from holding or seeking local or federal office.
Patrick Leahy, the eight-term Democratic senator for Vermont, has been nominated by Biden to become congressional representative for the US at the United Nations general assembly.
Voters were at the polls in Massachusetts, where Republicans were choosing their nominee for governor in November’s midterms: election denier Geoff Diehl or moderate Chris Doughty.
Please join us again tomorrow when Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama return to the White House for the unveiling of their official portraits.
One more tweet from Joe Biden before we wrap for the day. He’s still underwater in the polls, and Democrats have their work cut out for them with exactly nine weeks to go until the midterm elections.
But inside the White House, at least, there were smiles, as the president hosted a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon:
Today, I met with my Cabinet to lay out how we’re going to swiftly implement recent legislative wins like the Inflation Reduction Act. This experienced and dedicated Cabinet is working to lower costs for families, create good-paying jobs, and increase American manufacturing. pic.twitter.com/liVG3y9O5b
Joe Biden will mark the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and elsewhere by delivering remarks and laying a wreath at the Pentagon on Sunday, the White House said.
Nearly 3,000 people died on 11 September 2001 when al-Qaida flew hijacked commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, while another jet crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
Jill Biden, the first lady, will speak on Sunday at the Flight 93 national memorial observance in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Vice-president Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, will go to New York City for a commemoration ceremony at the national September 11th memorial.
Joe Biden says he’s looking forward to working with Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss on global challenges, including the war in Ukraine, and bettering the close ties between the US and UK.
In a tweet, the president said: “I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression”.
Congratulations to Prime Minister Liz Truss. I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression.
Biden told reporters before a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon that he would be calling Truss later in the day to offer his congratulations.
But, according to Reuters, he declined to answer a question about whether the two leaders would discuss negotiations with the European Union over Northern Ireland.
“We’re going to be talking about a lot of things,” he said.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was asked about possible bilateral tensions over Northern Ireland at her earlier briefing. She also would not say if the issue would come up in the call, but added:
He has been clear about his continued interest in Northern Ireland. Our priority remains protecting the gains of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and preserving peace, stability and prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland.
While there was good news for Democrats in new polling from Navigator Research, as we reported earlier, there were also warning signs for Democrats, as the party prepares for the midterm elections this November.
According to the progressive polling firm’s findings, Joe Biden’s approval rating remains in the tank, with 42% of voters approving of the president’s job performance while 56% disapprove.
Biden’s approval rating, which has been underwater for more than a year, could sink Democrats’ hopes of retaining their narrow majorities in the House and the Senate. Historically, the president’s party loses congressional seats in the midterm elections.
The economy could also prove to be a weakness for Democratic candidates this election cycle. When asked about which party they trusted more to handle specific issues, voters said they trusted Republicans more to rebuild the economy and address record-high inflation, Navigator found.
Given that roughly three-quarters of US voters say the economy will be very important to their vote in this year’s congressional elections, Democrats will need to address those concerns if they want to avoid a Republican wave this fall.
Some Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups are taking proactive steps to reframe the narrative around which party is better for the economy, as I reported over the weekend.
We’ve heard little, correction, nothing so far of the progress of negotiations between lawyers for Donald Trump and the justice department over a list of candidates to become “special master” overseeing the classified documents inquiry.
But that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening in the case. District judge Aileen Cannon, who ordered the appointment yesterday, has been busy on Tuesday, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has discovered:
New: Judge Cannon — overseeing Trump special master case — rejects proposed amicus brief submitted by former DOJ and state officials who served in GOP admins that opposed appointing a special master, per new paperless order
Hillary Clinton is having none of Republicans’ “whataboutism” amid the controversy over Donald Trump’s hoarding of highly classified materials belonging to the US government at his private Florida residence.
“But her emails …” is a longstanding call of Trump supporters, referring to the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server at her home while she was in office from 2009 to 2013. Trump led numerous chants of “lock her up” during his campaign rallies.
The FBI concluded Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information but that she should not face charges.
Trump’s conservative faithful has been quick to resurrect the issue as their leader faces increasing scrutiny over his own actions. But as her own string of tweets today show, Clinton herself is not impressed:
I can’t believe we’re still talking about this, but my emails… As Trump’s problems continue to mount, the right is trying to make this about me again. There’s even a “Clinton Standard." The fact is that I had zero emails that were classified.
A New Mexico state district court judge has disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, the Associated Press reports.
State district court judge Francis Mathew issued a ruling today that permanently prohibits Griffin from holding or seeking local or federal office.
Griffin was previously convicted in federal court of a misdemeanor for entering Capitol grounds on January 6, without going inside the building. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served.
The new ruling immediately removes Griffin from his position as a commissioner in Otero County in southern New Mexico.
Mr Griffin aided the insurrection even though he did not personally engage in violence. By joining the mob and trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds, Mr Griffin contributed to delaying Congress’s election-certification proceedings,” Mathew wrote.
Griffin was notified of his removal from office by Otero County staff, who prevented him from accessing his work computer and office space at a county building in Alamogordo.
Griffin, who served as his own legal counsel at a two-day bench trial in August, called the ruling a “total disgrace” that disenfranchises his constituents in Otero county.
The ruling arrives amid a flurry of similar lawsuits around the country seeking to punish politicians who took part in January 6 under provisions of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which holds that anyone who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution can be barred from office for engaging in insurrection or rebellion.
The lawsuit against Griffin was brought by three plaintiffs in New Mexico with support from the Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The NAACP and progressive watchdog group Common Cause filed briefs in support of Griffin’s removal.
Griffin, a Republican, forged a group of rodeo acquaintances in 2019 into the promotional group called Cowboys for Trump.
The blank-check acquisition firm that agreed to merge with former US president Donald Trump’s social media company has failed today to secure enough shareholder support for a one-year extension to complete the deal, Reuters reports.
At stake is a $1.3bn cash infusion that Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which operates the Truth Social app, stands to receive from Digital World Acquisition Corp, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that inked a deal in October to take TMTG public.
The transaction has been on ice amid civil and criminal probes into the circumstances around the deal. Digital World had been hoping that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is reviewing its disclosures on the deal, would have given its blessing by now.
Digital World chief executive Patrick Orlando told a special meeting of his shareholders today he would push back to noon on Thursday the deadline for the vote on extending the life of the SPAC by 12 months.
Digital World needs 65% of its shareholders to vote in favor of the proposal, but the support as of late Monday fell far short, Reuters reported. Digital World did not disclose the margin on Tuesday. Digital World shares fell 17% to $20.74 in New York early Tuesday afternoon.
Digital World is set to liquidate on Thursday and return the money raised in its September 2021 initial public offering to shareholders unless action is taken.
Digital World shareholders had been given more than two weeks to vote on the SPAC’s extension and it is unclear if two additional days would make a difference.
Most Digital World shareholders are individuals and getting them to vote through their brokers has been challenging, Orlando said last week.
If Digital World fails to get enough shareholder support, its management has the right to unilaterally extend the life of the SPAC by up to six months. Trump appeared to manage expectations for the deal with a post over the weekend on Truth Social:
I don’t need financing, ‘I’m really rich!’ Private company anyone???”
Digital World has disclosed that the SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and federal prosecutors have been investigating the deal with TMTG, though the exact scope of the probes is unclear.
It’s been a relatively quiet morning on the US politics front, although the White House has been defending itself against criticism that Joe Biden’s recent attacks on extremist Maga Republicans had alienated regular Republican voters.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the 75m Republican voters who supported Donald Trump in 2020 “weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overruling an election. They were voting for philosophy he put forward.”
Here’s what else has been happening:
Biden will call the new British prime minister Liz Truss this afternoon to pass on his congratulations, Jean-Pierre said.
Patrick Leahy, the eight-term Democratic senator for Vermont, has been nominated by Biden to become congressional representative for the US at the United Nations general assembly.
It’s primary day in Massachusetts, where Republican voters are choosing their nominee for governor in November’s midterms: election denier Geoff Diehl or moderate Chris Doughty.
Lawyers for Donald Trump are conferring with justice department counterparts to meet a Friday court deadline for a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
The White House is defending itself against criticism that Joe Biden’s recent attacks on Maga Republicans as “semi-fascists”, and posing a threat to democracy, alienated the 75m voters who supported Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Even though the president noted in a primetime address in Pennsylvania last week that he was referring only to the extremist wing of the Republican party, not regular Republican voters, conservative commentators have seized on the speech as divisive.
In Philadelphia, Biden warned that US democracy was imperiled by Trump and his supporters who “fan the flames” of political violence in pursuit of power at any cost.
In her daily briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said:
When people voted for Donald Trump they weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overruling an election. They were voting for philosophy he put forward, so I’m not talking about anything other than its inappropriate.
It’s not only happening here, but other parts of the world where there’s a failure to recognize and condemn violence whenever it is used for political purposes, a failure to condemn an attempt to manipulate electoral outcomes, a failure to acknowledge when elections were won or lost.
Talking specifically about the deadly 6 January Capitol insurrection incited by Trump and carried out by his supporters, Jean-Pierre added:
We saw an insurrection, a mob that was incited by the person who occupied this campus, this facility, and at that time, and it was an attack on our democracy.
Let’s not forget people died that day. Law enforcement were attacked that day. That was the danger that we were seeing at the time. That’s what the president has called out. And that’s what he’s going to continue to call out.