Trump lawyer hints defense will focus on free speech as Republicans try to discredit case – live | Donald Trump

Trump lawyer argues January 6 indictment criminalizes speech

Donald Trump’s attorney John Lauro appeared on NBC’s Today show, and gave a few hints of the former president’s legal strategy in defending against the indictment he faces for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Lauro first indicated that he objects to special counsel Jack Smith’s push to hold the trial in 90 days, calling it “absurd”:

One of former President Trump’s attorney’s John Lauro speaks about the indictment and the timing of the trial.

“To take President Trump to trial in 90 days, of course, is absurd. The question is why do they (the special counsel) wanna do that,” Lauro told @SavannahGuthrie. pic.twitter.com/WXzSTpii3F

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023

Smith made a similar attempt with the charges he filed against Trump over the Mar-a-Lago documents, but a federal judge has now pushed that trial to May 2024.

Lauro also indicated that he planned to argue Smith was putting Trump on trial over his speech, which would go against the first amendment:

.@SavannahGuthrie: The indictment specifically says that the President has a first amendment right to speech, he even has a first amendment right to lie. (…) This indictment is criminalizing conduct, not speech.
Lauro: No, it’s criminalizing speech (…) pic.twitter.com/VAo3jCFvwL

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023

Key events

Donald Trump had a private dinner with Fox News executives shortly after learning that he would be indicted a third time, according to a New York Times report.

The two-hour dinner between Trump, Fox News president Jay Wallace and the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, was held in a private dining room at the former president’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the paper said, citing sources.

During the dinner, the Fox executives lobbied Trump to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate later this month, the report said. The event will be hosted by Fox News with the Republican national committee in Milwaukee.

The Fox executives made a soft appeal for Mr. Trump to attend the debate, two of the people familiar with the dinner said, telling the former president that he excels on the center stage and that it presents an opportunity for him to show off his debate skills.

According to the paper, Trump told the Fox executives he had not yet made a decision and would keep an open mind.

Martin Pengelly

A powerful Democrat senator has called Samuel Alito’s public expression of opposition to US supreme court ethics reform “unwise and unwelcome”, rejecting the conservative justice’s contention that Congress cannot implement such measures.

“Justice Alito is providing speculative public commentary on a bill that is still going through the legislative process,” said Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and the chair of the Senate judiciary committee.

He added in a statement:

Let’s be clear: Justice Alito is not the 101st member of the United States Senate. His intervention … is unwise and unwelcome.

Last week, Alito spoke to the Wall Street Journal, often an outlet for his views and complaints. Discussing Washington scandals about rightwing justices taking gifts from donors with business before the court – most notably over Clarence Thomas’s links to Harlan Crow and Alito’s own fishing trip with Paul SingerAlito said: “I marvel at all the nonsense that has been written about me in the last year.”

Saying he was defending himself because “nobody else is going to do this”, the George W Bush-appointed conservative, 73, said: “Congress did not create the supreme court.

I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the constitution gives them the authority to regulate the supreme court – period.

Durbin, who with Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has sought to pilot ethics reform in response to the Thomas and Alito scandals, rejected Alito’s position.

“The ethical conduct of supreme court justices is a serious matter within this committee’s jurisdiction,” he said.

Ensuring ethical conduct by the justices is critical to the court’s legitimacy.

A lawyer for John Eastman, one of the co-conspirators named in Tuesday’s indictment of Donald Trump, said he would decline a plea deal if offered one by federal prosecutors.

In a statement, Harvey Silverglate said Eastman has not and will not be engaged in plea bargaining in the case with state or federal prosecutors.

With respect to questions as to whether Dr. Eastman is involved in plea bargaining, the answer is no. But if he were invited to plea bargain with either state or federal prosecutors, he would decline. The fact is, if Dr. Eastman is indicted, he will go to trial. If convicted, he will appeal. The Eastman legal team is confident of its legal position in this matter.

The statement claimed the indictment relies on a “misleading presentation of the record to contrive criminal charges against Presidential candidate Trump and to cast ominous aspersions on his close advisors.”

Here’s our video report of how Democrats and Republicans reacted to Donald Trump’s latest federal indictment on charges relating to his alleged attempted election subversion.

How Washington DC reacted to Trump’s latest indictment – video report

Obama warned Biden of Trump’s continued strength – report

Barack Obama warned Joe Biden that Donald Trump would be a formidable election opponent, even with his legal troubles, the Washington Post reports.

The warning came over lunch at the White House between the current president and Obama, whom Biden served under as vice-president from 2009 to 2017. Among the factors Obama cited as helping Trump were “an intensely loyal following, a Trump-friendly conservative media ecosystem and a polarized country”, the Post reports.

Here’s more from the Post’s report:

At the lunch, held in late June in the White House residence, Obama promised to do all he could to help the president get reelected, according to two people familiar with the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversation.

That commitment was a welcome gesture for the White House at a time when Biden is eager to lock down promises of help from top Democrats, among whom Obama is easily the biggest star, for what is likely to be a hard-fought reelection race. The contents of the private conversation have not been previously reported.

Obama was visiting the White House for what Biden aides described as a regular catch-up between the two men who served in the White House together for eight years. During their lunch, Obama made it clear his concerns were not about Biden’s political abilities, but rather a recognition of Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party, according to the people.

Recent polling suggests Trump has a significant lead over his GOP rivals and that he and Biden are essentially tied in a hypothetical rematch.

The White House said there was no specific agenda for the June 27 meeting, and people briefed on the conversation said the two presidents discussed a range of political, policy and personal matters, including updates about their families.

The day so far

Donald Trump is expected to appear in court at 4pm eastern time tomorrow in Washington DC to answer the indictment brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith over attempting to overturn the 2020 election. So far today, we’ve gotten hints of the former president’s potential defense strategy from his lawyer, heard various Republicans reaffirm their allegiance to him and suspicion of the justice department, and learned Smith has concerns about an attorney hired to represent one of Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago case.

That’s not all that’s been happening:

  • Why did Fitch downgrade the US’s debt from its highest rating? The January 6 insurrection was among the reasons.

  • Robert F Kennedy Jr is running as Democrat for president, but is being bankrolled by a Republican.

  • Reporters managed to track down Merrick Garland somewhere that wasn’t the justice department headquarters, but he still had little to say about the new charges against Trump.

Senator and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott highlighted his presence on the “weaponization” bandwagon in response to Donald Trump’s latest indictment:

I remain concerned about the weaponization of Biden’s DOJ and its immense power used against political opponents.

What we see today are two different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and another for the son of the current president.

— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 2, 2023

We’re watching Biden’s DOJ continue to hunt Republicans, while protecting Democrats.

— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 2, 2023

Special counsel concerned lawyer for Trump co-defendant has conflict of interest

The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that special counsel Jack Smith is concerned that Stanley Woodward, a lawyer for Donald Trump’s valet Walt Nauta, has a conflict of interest:

New: Special Counsel requests a hearing case about potential conflicts re Trump lawyer Stanley Woodward, who represents Walt Nauta — as well as two potential trial witnesses and formerly the now-cooperating Mar-a-Lago IT worker asked to delete tapes https://t.co/9eS30PPyfR

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 2, 2023

Smith indicted Nauta alongside Trump on charges related to hiding classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago and working the keep them out of the hands of government archivists. Nauta was arraigned in Florida last month in proceedings that were delayed because he struggled to find a lawyer:

In an interview with Fox News, Florida governor Ron DeSantis called for Donald Trump’s trial over the January 6 insurrection and effort to overturn the 2020 election to be moved out of Washington DC:

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), when asked about Donald Trump’s third indictment, says the case needs to be moved out of Washington D.C.:

“A D.C. jury would indict a ham sandwich and convict a ham sandwich if it was a Republican ham sandwich.” pic.twitter.com/MmwKehamHq

— The Recount (@therecount) August 2, 2023

The US capital city is deeply Democratic, and during his presidency, Trump rarely ventured into its streets, except to visit his hotel.

Polls show that DeSantis is Trump’s strongest challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, but his campaign is going much worse than expected.

The House of Representatives is home to some of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress, and in the wake of his indictment on charges related to the January 6 insurrection, several lawmakers are reiterating their support for the former president.

Such as Jim Banks, who may soon be headed to represent Indiana in the Senate:

Stating the obvious here but today’s indictment only further solidifies support for President Trump and makes him an even stronger candidate to defeat Joe Biden next November

— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) August 2, 2023

Dan Meuser adopted the “weaponization” allegation Trump has repeatedly leveled against the Biden administration:

Every time bombshell evidence drops in the Biden scandal and POTUS needs a distraction, a new Trump indictment follows. This is weaponization of the DOJ against Biden’s leading opponent, particularly when no crime is defined.

A double standard in justice is no justice at all. pic.twitter.com/rodwPJOUZm

— Congressman Dan Meuser (@RepMeuser) August 2, 2023

Mike Bost keeps his message simple:

Another day, another attempt by the Biden administration to take down Donald J. Trump. I still stand with President Trump and countless Southern Illinoisans do too!

— Rep. Mike Bost (@RepBost) August 1, 2023

In an interview with CNN, a Washington DC police officer who was assaulted on January 6 shared his thoughts on Donald Trump’s indictment over the attack:

D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who was crushed by rioters on January 6th, reacts to Trump’s indictment:

“Ultimate accountability would be cultural — how the name Donald Trump would be held in disgust by Americans — but that’s a long way off.” pic.twitter.com/uyGyVH5AqR

— The Recount (@therecount) August 2, 2023

Here’s more from Reuters on Fitch’s surprise decision to downgrade the US debt rating yesterday, citing factors that polarized economists and investors:

The rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s top credit rating on Tuesday, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors.

Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills. It is the second major rating agency after Standard & Poor’s to strip the US of its triple-A rating.

Fitch had first flagged the possibility of a downgrade in May amid the US debt ceiling negotiations, then maintained that position in June after the crisis was resolved, saying it intended to resolve the review in the third quarter of this year.

Concerns over January 6 played a role in Fitch downgrade of US debt

Credit agency Fitch’s surprise downgrade of US debt from its top rating yesterday was motivated in part by concerns over the January 6 insurrection, Reuters reports.

“It was something that we highlighted because it just is a reflection of the deterioration in governance, it’s one of many,” senior director at Fitch Ratings Richard Francis told Reuters in an interview.

“You have the debt ceiling, you have Jan. 6. Clearly, if you look at polarization with both parties … the Democrats have gone further left and Republicans further right, so the middle is kind of falling apart basically.”

Fitch now rates US debt at AA+ rather than its top AAA level. The Biden administration is unhappy with the downgrade, which Treasury secretary Janet Yellen called “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”

Fitch is the second of the three major ratings agencies to downgrade US debt. In 2011, S&P downgraded the US from its top level rating after a protracted standoff over raising the debt ceiling.

Donald Trump’s legal troubles are not the only thing happening in the world of American politics. The Guardian’s Mary Yang reports that a prominent Democratic challenger to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination is, surprise, surprise, being funded by a Republican:

A Super Pac affiliated with Robert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist running for president as a Democrat, owes half its cash to a longtime Republican mega-donor and Trump backer, according to campaign finance reports filed on Monday.

The group, American Values 2024, reported receiving $5m from Timothy Mellon, a wealthy businessman from Wyoming, according to NBC News and Politico. It registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in April, days before Kennedy officially launched his campaign, according to FEC records.

Mellon, 81, is the grandson of Andrew Mellon, a former US treasury secretary who made his fortune in banking. The Texas Tribune reported that Mellon, a top donor to Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election effort, supported controversial immigration laws and was responsible for 98% of the contributions to the Texas governor Greg Abbott’s fund to build a border wall. Mellon, who twice gave $10m to the Trump-aligned America First Action Super Pac in 2020, also used racist stereotypes to describe Black people in an autobiography he self-published in 2015.

Reporters managed to track down attorney general Merrick Garland somewhere to ask him about the latest indictment against Donald Trump.

Publicly, Garland has taken a hands-off approach to the work of Jack Smith, the special counsel he appointed to investigate the former president. As you can see from the clip below, his response to questions from the press amounts to one long “no comment”:

“[Jack] Smith and … prosecutors have followed the facts and the law wherever they lead. Any questions about this matter will have to be answered by the filings made in court.”

— AG Garland on Tuesday, reacting to Trump’s indictment for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election pic.twitter.com/g3xAcCHTkQ

— The Recount (@therecount) August 2, 2023

Trump lawyer argues January 6 indictment criminalizes speech

Donald Trump’s attorney John Lauro appeared on NBC’s Today show, and gave a few hints of the former president’s legal strategy in defending against the indictment he faces for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Lauro first indicated that he objects to special counsel Jack Smith’s push to hold the trial in 90 days, calling it “absurd”:

One of former President Trump’s attorney’s John Lauro speaks about the indictment and the timing of the trial.

“To take President Trump to trial in 90 days, of course, is absurd. The question is why do they (the special counsel) wanna do that,” Lauro told @SavannahGuthrie. pic.twitter.com/WXzSTpii3F

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023

Smith made a similar attempt with the charges he filed against Trump over the Mar-a-Lago documents, but a federal judge has now pushed that trial to May 2024.

Lauro also indicated that he planned to argue Smith was putting Trump on trial over his speech, which would go against the first amendment:

.@SavannahGuthrie: The indictment specifically says that the President has a first amendment right to speech, he even has a first amendment right to lie. (…) This indictment is criminalizing conduct, not speech.
Lauro: No, it’s criminalizing speech (…) pic.twitter.com/VAo3jCFvwL

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023

As the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports, reactions to Trump’s indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election have thus far fallen mostly along partisan lines:

While Democrats and progressives welcomed Donald Trump’s federal indictment on four charges relating to his attempted election subversion, the former president’s chief rival for the 2024 Republican nomination rallied to his defense.

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is a distant second to Trump in primary polling, swiftly issued a statement that notably did not mention Trump by name.

“As president,” DeSantis said, “I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans.”

DeSantis, who has indicated he will pardon Trump if elected, said he had not seen the indictment handed down by the special counsel, Jack Smith, regarding Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020. Nonetheless, DeSantis complained that the charges were brought in Washington DC, a Democratic city.

This is now the third indictment Donald Trump has faced this year alone, but historians who spoke to the Washington Post say this one is more serious than the rest.

“Just as the tearing down of the Berlin Wall showed the weakness in the former Soviet Union, the mob on January 6 trying to use force to overturn the will of voters shocked the world and showed our democracy’s weakness,” Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Post.

Here’s more from their story on the indictment’s historical significance:

Historians and legal scholars say the new indictment, brought by federal special prosecutor Jack Smith, is fundamentally more consequential than the earlier ones, which related to hush money paid to an adult-film actress and the mishandling of classified documents.

While those are serious allegations, Tuesday’s indictment accuses a former president of the United States with attempting to subvert the democracy upon which the nation rests. And with Trump again running for the White House, the charges he faces pose an extraordinary test to the rule of law, experts say.

“This gets right to the question of how elections work, how power is transferred peacefully,” said Jon Grinspan, a curator of political history at the National Museum of American History. “This is really a question about the functioning of American democracy.”

Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University legal scholar, said, “The crimes indicted are an order of magnitude beyond anything that has been committed against this country by any American citizen, let alone a former president.”

“This is essentially an indictment for an attempt to overturn the Republic and its most crucial process of preserving democratic governance, the process of peaceful and lawful transition of power,” said Tribe, who taught Barack Obama and advised his presidential campaign and administration.

Americans digest latest charges against Trump ahead of court appearance

Good morning from Washington DC. Tomorrow, Donald Trump will appear at the federal courthouse here to answer the indictment filed against him by special prosecutor Jack Smith, accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, allegations with few to no peers in American history. This will be his third court appearance this year, the first being in Manhattan to answer charges related to falsifying business records, and the second occurring in Miami, where Smith indicted over allegedly hoarding government documents at Mar-a-Lago.

While the indictment filed yesterday is historic, it was a long time coming, and likely will have done little to change the immediate political dynamics surrounding Trump. He remains a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and polls have recently shown him far and away the frontrunner in the race. He also maintains a dedicated following among GOP voters, to the extent that many rival candidates are hesitant to criticize him directly. We’ll see if any signs emerge of those trends shifting today.

Here’s what else is happening:

  • The White House is fuming after ratings agency Fitch downgraded US debt from its highest mark. The agency cited the country’s finances, as well as its repeated bouts of fiscal brinksmanship.

  • Who is the sixth co-conspirator? Smith’s indictment against Trump name six people who helped Trump in his alleged plot. Five of these are clearly identifiable based on what we know about the events leading up to January 6, but one, described as a political consultant, is not. Expect lots of digging by the press into who this might be.

  • Trump, meanwhile, is doing his usual thing on Truth social, the platform that has become his mouthpiece after getting banned from Twitter following January 6.



Summarize this content to 100 words Trump lawyer argues January 6 indictment criminalizes speechDonald Trump’s attorney John Lauro appeared on NBC’s Today show, and gave a few hints of the former president’s legal strategy in defending against the indictment he faces for trying to overturn the 2020 election.Lauro first indicated that he objects to special counsel Jack Smith’s push to hold the trial in 90 days, calling it “absurd”:One of former President Trump’s attorney’s John Lauro speaks about the indictment and the timing of the trial. “To take President Trump to trial in 90 days, of course, is absurd. The question is why do they (the special counsel) wanna do that,” Lauro told @SavannahGuthrie. pic.twitter.com/WXzSTpii3F— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023Smith made a similar attempt with the charges he filed against Trump over the Mar-a-Lago documents, but a federal judge has now pushed that trial to May 2024.Lauro also indicated that he planned to argue Smith was putting Trump on trial over his speech, which would go against the first amendment:.@SavannahGuthrie: The indictment specifically says that the President has a first amendment right to speech, he even has a first amendment right to lie. (…) This indictment is criminalizing conduct, not speech. Lauro: No, it’s criminalizing speech (…) pic.twitter.com/VAo3jCFvwL— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023Updated at 10.49 EDTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureDonald Trump had a private dinner with Fox News executives shortly after learning that he would be indicted a third time, according to a New York Times report.The two-hour dinner between Trump, Fox News president Jay Wallace and the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, was held in a private dining room at the former president’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the paper said, citing sources.During the dinner, the Fox executives lobbied Trump to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate later this month, the report said. The event will be hosted by Fox News with the Republican national committee in Milwaukee. The Fox executives made a soft appeal for Mr. Trump to attend the debate, two of the people familiar with the dinner said, telling the former president that he excels on the center stage and that it presents an opportunity for him to show off his debate skills. According to the paper, Trump told the Fox executives he had not yet made a decision and would keep an open mind.Martin PengellyA powerful Democrat senator has called Samuel Alito’s public expression of opposition to US supreme court ethics reform “unwise and unwelcome”, rejecting the conservative justice’s contention that Congress cannot implement such measures.“Justice Alito is providing speculative public commentary on a bill that is still going through the legislative process,” said Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and the chair of the Senate judiciary committee.He added in a statement: Let’s be clear: Justice Alito is not the 101st member of the United States Senate. His intervention … is unwise and unwelcome. Last week, Alito spoke to the Wall Street Journal, often an outlet for his views and complaints. Discussing Washington scandals about rightwing justices taking gifts from donors with business before the court – most notably over Clarence Thomas’s links to Harlan Crow and Alito’s own fishing trip with Paul Singer – Alito said: “I marvel at all the nonsense that has been written about me in the last year.”Saying he was defending himself because “nobody else is going to do this”, the George W Bush-appointed conservative, 73, said: “Congress did not create the supreme court. I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the constitution gives them the authority to regulate the supreme court – period. Durbin, who with Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has sought to pilot ethics reform in response to the Thomas and Alito scandals, rejected Alito’s position.“The ethical conduct of supreme court justices is a serious matter within this committee’s jurisdiction,” he said. Ensuring ethical conduct by the justices is critical to the court’s legitimacy. A lawyer for John Eastman, one of the co-conspirators named in Tuesday’s indictment of Donald Trump, said he would decline a plea deal if offered one by federal prosecutors.In a statement, Harvey Silverglate said Eastman has not and will not be engaged in plea bargaining in the case with state or federal prosecutors. With respect to questions as to whether Dr. Eastman is involved in plea bargaining, the answer is no. But if he were invited to plea bargain with either state or federal prosecutors, he would decline. The fact is, if Dr. Eastman is indicted, he will go to trial. If convicted, he will appeal. The Eastman legal team is confident of its legal position in this matter. The statement claimed the indictment relies on a “misleading presentation of the record to contrive criminal charges against Presidential candidate Trump and to cast ominous aspersions on his close advisors.”Here’s our video report of how Democrats and Republicans reacted to Donald Trump’s latest federal indictment on charges relating to his alleged attempted election subversion.How Washington DC reacted to Trump’s latest indictment – video reportObama warned Biden of Trump’s continued strength – reportBarack Obama warned Joe Biden that Donald Trump would be a formidable election opponent, even with his legal troubles, the Washington Post reports.The warning came over lunch at the White House between the current president and Obama, whom Biden served under as vice-president from 2009 to 2017. Among the factors Obama cited as helping Trump were “an intensely loyal following, a Trump-friendly conservative media ecosystem and a polarized country”, the Post reports.Here’s more from the Post’s report: At the lunch, held in late June in the White House residence, Obama promised to do all he could to help the president get reelected, according to two people familiar with the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversation. That commitment was a welcome gesture for the White House at a time when Biden is eager to lock down promises of help from top Democrats, among whom Obama is easily the biggest star, for what is likely to be a hard-fought reelection race. The contents of the private conversation have not been previously reported. Obama was visiting the White House for what Biden aides described as a regular catch-up between the two men who served in the White House together for eight years. During their lunch, Obama made it clear his concerns were not about Biden’s political abilities, but rather a recognition of Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party, according to the people. Recent polling suggests Trump has a significant lead over his GOP rivals and that he and Biden are essentially tied in a hypothetical rematch. The White House said there was no specific agenda for the June 27 meeting, and people briefed on the conversation said the two presidents discussed a range of political, policy and personal matters, including updates about their families. The day so farDonald Trump is expected to appear in court at 4pm eastern time tomorrow in Washington DC to answer the indictment brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith over attempting to overturn the 2020 election. So far today, we’ve gotten hints of the former president’s potential defense strategy from his lawyer, heard various Republicans reaffirm their allegiance to him and suspicion of the justice department, and learned Smith has concerns about an attorney hired to represent one of Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago case.That’s not all that’s been happening: Why did Fitch downgrade the US’s debt from its highest rating? The January 6 insurrection was among the reasons. Robert F Kennedy Jr is running as Democrat for president, but is being bankrolled by a Republican. Reporters managed to track down Merrick Garland somewhere that wasn’t the justice department headquarters, but he still had little to say about the new charges against Trump. Senator and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott highlighted his presence on the “weaponization” bandwagon in response to Donald Trump’s latest indictment: I remain concerned about the weaponization of Biden’s DOJ and its immense power used against political opponents. What we see today are two different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and another for the son of the current president.— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 2, 2023 We’re watching Biden’s DOJ continue to hunt Republicans, while protecting Democrats.— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 2, 2023 Special counsel concerned lawyer for Trump co-defendant has conflict…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2023/aug/02/donald-trump-indictment-criminal-charges-2020-us-election-republicans-latest-updates Trump lawyer hints defense will focus on free speech as Republicans try to discredit case – live | Donald Trump

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