Federal Judge Aileen Cannon announced the preliminary court date for former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial.
The blockbuster trial is scheduled to begin on August 14. The former president is facing 37 charges including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and making false statements. Trump has pled not guilty to all charges.
Trump last appeared in a federal court in Miami earlier this month to be arraigned on his charges.
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President Joe Biden hugs his family during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has reportedly reached a plea agreement in the federal investigation into tax-related issues.
Hunter is expected to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes.
On Tuesday, two sources familiar with the agreement told NBC News that it includes a provision in which the U.S. attorney has agreed to recommend probation for Biden for his tax violations.
After four years, Hunter Biden is pleading guilty to three total tax & gun charges & will receive no jail time. We no longer have a justice system in this country. Democrats can do whatever they want and receive virtually no punishments, Republicans get draconian punishments.
Chris Clark, attorney for Hunter Biden, told NBC News in a statement: “With the announcement of two agreements between my client, Hunter Biden, and the Unites States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved.
“Hunter will take responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due pursuant to a plea agreement. A firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be the subject of the plea agreement, will also be filed by the Government. I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”
Biden is also facing a separate gun possession charge that will likely be dismissed if he meets certain conditions, according to court documents filed on Tuesday.
A federal judge has just served the Trump team a loss.
On Monday, a federal judge sided with the Justice Department’s (DOJ) request to block former President Trump from disclosing information relating to the Mar-a-Lago case after prosecutors said the investigation remains ongoing.
The order sides with the DOJ in allowing Trump to view evidence collected in the case, including classified documents, but only in the presence of his attorneys. The order also blocks him from disseminating any information from the case with reporters or on social media.
“Defendants shall only have access to Discovery Materials under the direct supervision of Defense Counsel or a member of Defense Counsel’s staff. Defendants shall not retain copies of Discovery Material,” Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the warrant to search Mar-a-Lago, wrote in the order.
The Justice Department in its Friday request said that restrictions were required, as its investigation could yield additional arrests.
“The materials also include information pertaining to ongoing investigations, the disclosure of which could compromise those investigations and identify uncharged individuals,” the department wrote.
ANALYSIS – Yes, it’s a big deal, that former President Donald Trump has been booked and charged in federal court with 37 counts of violating federal law. And we should be talking about it.
It’s definitely not Watergate, but some of the charges, such as obstruction, are similar to those Richard Nixon faced before he resigned in 1974.
Thirty-one of the counts are for violating the Espionage Act through “willful retention” of classified records. The other six counts include obstruction of justice and false statements stemming from his alleged efforts to impede the investigation.
Meanwhile, the media is conveniently ignoring all of Joe Biden’s brewing scandals, which are far worse; even surpassing Watergate.
We should be talking about Biden corruption, not Trump stubbornness.
Many Trump loyalists argue that the Trump indictment proves there is a double standard compared to how Biden is being treated. And I would agree.
The investigation into Hunter Biden should not have taken five years and still be unresolved.
That is an outrage.
And then there are the bribery and foreign influence peddling allegations against Joe Biden himself.
That should be the big story today. Not Trump’s rants on Truth Social about his latest legal woes.
Hillary Clinton was also treated with kid gloves by the Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI, even though she destroyed evidence from hard drives and deleted 30,000 emails, some of which may have contained classified information.
She got off. That was absolutely wrong.
If Republican ex-presidents and current presidential candidates are going to be indicted so should Democrat former Secretaries of State running for president. If not, then we have a partisan, two-tiered justice system.
And I have written about this a lot. But here is where I see things a bit differently.
We are today talking about Donald Trump and his drama, primarily because of Donald Trump. He did this one mostly to himself.
Trump could have avoided this criminal legal battle had he simply turned over all classified materials he had in his possession when asked for them over an 18-month period.
That’s what Joe Biden and former vice president Mike Pence both did when they were discovered to have ‘unknowingly’ kept classified documents after leaving office. They actually turned them over right away.
Did Biden do more than that, we don’t really know yet. But neither have been charged with any crimes.
And Trump was not charged over any materials or records that he returned. Only those he willfully kept.
Trump first made ludicrous claims about the documents, including that he had declassified them, which he hadn’t. And he fought back in court and delayed and delayed until he was forced to finally give 15 boxes of records to the National Archives and Records Administration.
But a lot more remained.
Then he began obstructing and moving the remaining boxes of records, including classified materials at his home in Florida. Despite repeated efforts by the FBI and DOJ to try to get them back, Trump refused.
And like Watergate, the cover-up is what gets you in trouble.
That is why the FBI finally raided Mar-a-Lago in August of last year. It was an unprecedented action, which I condemned at the time.
We have also since learned that the FBI had preferred to continue trying to get Trump’s lawyers to turn over the remaining classified materials and surveil Trump home in case anyone tried to remove materials, but DOJ insisted on the raid.
Maybe the raid could have been (should have been) avoided, but it was legal. And what the raid uncovered was that Trump had hidden a lot of classified materials in numerous unsecure places in his home.
Further investigation showed that Trump also had admitted on tape that he didn’t have the authority to declassify documents after leaving office, and that he hadn’t done so prior to leaving. He also reportedly flashed highly classified plans to attack Iran in front of the faces of uncleared persons visiting him.
None of this is good for Trump or the nation. The classified documents included “defense and weapons capabilities” of the United States and foreign countries.
But none of this would have been a legal issue if Trump simply turned over these extremely sensitive national security materials when requested, or at some point over the 18 months in question.
So, now instead of talking about all of the incredible Biden corruption, we are here again talking about Trump-created drama.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
Donald Trump has just secured a substantial legal victory.
A New York prosecutor has dropped a two-year tax investigation into a golf course owned by former President Donald Trump.
Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced that no charges would be filed against the former president or the Trump Organization following an investigation into allegations that Trump’s business had provided dishonest property evaluations to save on taxes.
“AFTER GOING THROUGH A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION FOR TWO YEARS BY THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK, IT WAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE CASE HAS BEEN DROPPED, AND NO CHARGES WILL BE FILED,” the former president said in a statement on Truth Social. “THIS WAS THE HONORABLE THING TO DO IN THAT I DID NOTHING WRONG, BUT WHERE AND WHEN DO I GET MY REPUTATION BACK? WHEN WILL THE OTHER FAKE CASES AGAINST ME BE DROPPED? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
The probe focused on taxes related to the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, located in Westchester County.
“The Westchester County District Attorney’s Office conducted an investigation regarding certain properties owned by Donald J. Trump and/or the Trump Organization located in Westchester County, New York,” Rocah’s office said in a statement.”Our investigation is now closed. We approached this investigation as we do all of our investigations, objectively, and independent of politics, party affiliation and personal or political beliefs.”
“It’s really important, more important than ever in our country, to make sure that people understand that we have independent prosecutors, we have a justice system that operates independent of politics,” she said to CBS News.
The legal victory for Trump comes as he faces 37 federal charges related to his handling of classified documents and charges in Manhattan over alleged payments to Stormy Daniels.
New reports indicate the former president rejected his attorney’s idea to approach the Justice Department (DOJ) with a settlement offer in the contentious classified documents case to avoid potential charges.
Three unidentified sources briefed on the matter told the Post that Christopher Kise proposed quietly approaching the DOJ to reach an agreement that would include the promised return of all remaining documents in Trump’s possession and no indictment. Kise reportedly wanted to try to “take the temperature down” and hoped that the DOJ would agree to avoid indicting a former president.
The Post reported that the offer was one of several times in which the former president’s attorneys tried to get him to cooperate with the investigation into the classified and sensitive documents kept at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla., after his presidency ended.
Seven unidentified Trump advisers with knowledge of the investigation told the Post that the former president told his advisers that the boxes of documents only contained newspaper clippings and clothes and ignored warnings from them about pending legal issues.
However, other attorneys reportedly pushed Trump to take a harsh stance against the investigation and Kisa ultimately never approached the DOJ with the proposal.
Months later Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as the special counsel to oversee the investigation. Last week, a 37-count indictment was filed against Trump, making him the first former president to face federal charges. The indictment includes 31 counts of the willful retention of documents in violation of the Espionage Act.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Post that Trump told the DOJ, “you need anything from us, just let us know.”
“Sadly, the weaponized DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted an unnecessary and unconstitutional raid on the President’s home in order to inflict maximum political damage on the leading presidential candidate,” Cheung said.
Vivek Ramaswamy speaking with attendees at the 2022 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Republicans, even his direct opponents, are still loyal to Donald Trump – despite the building legal woes.
During a Tuesday press conference at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Florida Vivek Ramaswamy said if he is elected president, he will pardon Trump for his federal charges.
While speaking to a crowd the Ohio businessman and tech mogul challenged his Republican counterparts to make the same pledge to pardon the former President if elected.
“The use of police force by a sitting U.S. President against his chief political rival in the midst of a presidential election sets a dangerous precedent in our country,” Ramaswamy said in a press release.
“No one is above the law: the U.S. President shouldn’t be able to use the federal police to arrest his opponents,” he continued.
“No one should be below the law either, yet there are now two standards of justice depending on your political viewpoints,” Ramaswamy added. “That’s the single greatest threat to our constitutional republic today.”
JUST IN: @VivekGRamaswamy is about to have a press conference in front of the Miami courthouse. His team just passed out a copy of the FOIA request he filed yesterday with the DOJ asking for all records concerning the DOJ’s indictment of President Trump. #TrumpArraignmentpic.twitter.com/MWjKhho74K
“If President Trump is prosecuted in a manner that effectively prevents him from running, this will permanently damage public trust in our electoral process and our justice system,” the letter reads.
“Whoever among us is elected, our job of reuniting the nation will become daunting – if not impossible,” Ramaswamy wrote.
Trump is set to be arraigned Tuesday after a federal grand jury indicted him last week on 37 charges related to his retention of sensitive documents.
In addition to pledging to pardon Trump, Ramaswamy also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request this week seeking communication between the White House and the Justice Department concerning the second indictment of Trump.
Ramaswamy said he filed the request “to demand *exactly* what the White House Communicated to [Attorney General] Merrick Garland & [Special Counsel] Jack Smith about the unprecedented indictment of a former U.S. President & Biden’s disfavored opponent in this election.”
Other Republican candidates have yet to respond to Ramaswamy’s challenge but former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley signaled she’s “inclined” to sign on.”
“I think we all need to let this trial play out. We need to see exactly what happens, when you look at a pardon, the issue is less about guilt and more about what’s good for the country. And I think it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison for years because of a documents case,” Haley said on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” when asked if she’d commit to pardoning Trump if elected.
“That’s something you’d see in a Third World country. I saw that at the United Nations, so I would be inclined in favor of a pardon. But I think it’s really pretty mature at this point when he’s not even been convicted of anything,” she added.
Top Trump campaign challenger Ron DeSantis is gaining steam as the former President’s legal troubles overshadow his active campaign.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) is choosing to endorse DeSantis for president and Trump could not be less thrilled by the choice.
“Governor DeSantis is a strong conservative and principled leader, and I am proud to endorse him for president,” Stitt said in a statement.
“As fellow Governors during COVID, DeSantis did not surrender states’ rights and individual liberties over to groupthink,” the governor continued. “In this election cycle, Oklahomans will remember that DeSantis was one of the few who never backed down in the face of adversity because DeSantis operated with dogged conviction and shared our values for a limited government and free country.”
The Oklahoma governor campaigned with DeSantis over the weekend in the Sooner State.
“Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, who I didn’t know very well, called me before his last election to say he was in BIG trouble and very much needed my Endorsement. I LOVE Oklahoma & won 77 out of 77 Counties, something that never happened before,” the former president said on his social media platform Truth Social.
Former presidential contender Mitt Romney (R-Utah) also won all 77 counties during the 2012 election.
“Ronald Reagan was next with 56. Anyway, I gave him my endorsement, he immediately went way up, and won. Now, despite the fact that DeSanctimonious is losing to Biden, & me, Stitt just endorsed him. Wow! He disliked ‘the Indians’ & my great Senate pick!” the former president continued, appearing to reference Stitt’s working relationship with Indigenous tribes within the state.
DeSantis also received an endorsement from former Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), Trump’s former NASA administrator, and 20 state lawmakers last week.
The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
ANALYSIS – We are rightfully covering all aspects of the ongoing legal proceedings against former president Donald Trump, especially the most recent federal indictment.
But we also need to ask – what about the federal investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden? They are potentially far more serious.
Bill Barr, Attorney General under Trump, said the protracted investigation into Hunter Biden, which is being led by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, is damaging the nation.
“I think it’s time to fish or cut bait and find out what actually happened in that investigation,” Barr said, according to The Blaze.
The Hunter investigation has the strong potential to also implicate Joe Biden criminally, including credible whistleblower allegations that the senior Biden took a $5 million bribe from the Chinese.
That would be a far worse crime than anything Trump has been accused of.
But Democrats are quick to dismiss these serious accusations, and in some cases even lie about them.
Case in point, a confidential human source (CHS) allegations that Biden had been involved in a criminal bribery scheme.
After meeting with the FBI, where they showed Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin and House Oversight Committee Chairman, Republican James Comer, a document detailing the allegations, Raskin dismissed the whole thing, and apparently lied about it.
As The Blaze reported: “Raskin, the committee’s top Democrat, claimed the Justice Department had investigated the allegations in 2020 but decided not to move further because then-U.S. Attorney Scott Brady ‘found no evidence to corroborate’ them.
He also claimed information against Biden was given to the FBI by Rudy Giuliani, a high-profile, if slightly discredited, Trump loyalist.
In an interview on Fox News, Barr, who led the Department of Justice (DOJ) when the whistleblower allegations were made, disputed Raskin’s comments, saying the Democrat was “confused,” and essentially called him a liar.
Barr said he assigned Brady the task of vetting the document to determine its credibility. He established this “intake process,” he explained, because there were a number of ongoing investigations related to the Biden family and he wanted to avoid “proliferating investigations around the country going in to the election year, all related to the Bidens.”
“We also wanted to protect the integrity of the investigations that were going on,” Barr said. “So this was a screening, a clearinghouse function to check evidence out before sending it to the ongoing investigations.”
Regarding Raskin’s claim that the document contained information provided by Rudy Giuliani. That is just flatly untrue, he said.
Barr added, “It was stuff that was developed within the department and the FBI from [a] confidential human source. And that information was checked out and it was determined that it was not likely to have been disinformation.”
Meanwhile, Biden decided to joke about the serious allegations about Chinese bribery.
When confronted by a reporter at the White House who asked about them, saying “Congresswoman Nancy Mace says there’s damning evidence in the FBI file that you sold out the country,” Biden replied: “Where’s the money?” adding, “I’m joking. It’s a bunch of malarkey.”
A reporter asks Joe Biden about allegations that he was involved in a criminal bribery scheme:
"I'm supposed to walk off the stage now…Where's the money? I'm joking. It's a bunch of malarkey." pic.twitter.com/3nsquVd5ka
The GOP Congresswoman quickly responded: “[W]e don’t find selling out your country funny. Prove us wrong by releasing your and your family’s unredacted bank records. The FBI can’t protect you forever.”
She went on to list the names of businesses the Biden family allegedly used as “shell companies” to conceal funds received from foreign nationals.
.@POTUS we don’t find selling out your country funny. Prove us wrong by releasing your and your family’s unredacted bank records. The FBI can’t protect you forever. https://t.co/yMzuJ7PayZ
Comer earlier had explained: “Most of these companies were limited liability companies formed during Joe Biden’s vice presidency.”
“The bank records show the Biden family, their associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals and their companies.”
According to Fox News, an executive with Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian natural gas firm where Hunter Biden served as a board member, told the FBI’s source the payoff was to be divided: “$5 million for one Biden, $5 million for the other Biden.”
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
The relationship between Tucker Carlson and Fox News continues to sour…
The network has issued a cease and desist letter to Tucker Carlson after the conservative pundit published the first two episodes of his new Twitter show.
In a Twitter thread posted Monday, Harmeet Dhillon, one of Carlson’s attorneys who regularly appeared on his show while he was still on Fox, accused the network of attempting to muzzle its former prime-time star.
“What you are seeing on Fox today is a censored version of the news,” Dhillon said. “Keep that in mind as you make your viewing and your commenting choices.”
Since leaving Fox News, Carlson has launched a new web series on Twitter Spaces. However, the network’s latest move may jeopardize the future of Carlson’s venture.
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