Judge orders Trump lawyers not to disclose evidence in documents case

Motion was filed by prosecutors to restrict storage and use of discovery material turned over to defense in classified papers case

A Florida judge handed prosecutors in Donald Trump’s classified documents lawsuit a significant victory on Monday by ruling the former president cannot publicly disclose any of the evidence against him.

Trump, who was arraigned in Miami last week on a 37-count indictment over his improper storage and handling of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort, can also only view, but not retain, any of the evidence under the direct supervision of his lawyers, the order from the magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, stated.

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Donald Trump indictment: Merrick Garland defends special prosecutor Jack Smith in first comments on charges – live

US attorney general praises Smith’s independence and accountability; Republican senators step up threats over Trump charges

Joe Biden has refused to publicly comment on the federal charges leveled against his predecessor Donald Trump over allegedly hoarding government documents from his time in the White House, and Politico reports the president has also instructed Democratic party offices to do the same.

While many top Democratic lawmakers have condemned the allegations against Trump, neither Biden nor top officials at the White House or his re-election campaign have spoken out about the indictment and his arraignment in Miami yesterday. Politico reports that some Democrats – none of whom would allow their names to be used – believe the strategy is a missed opportunity to cast Trump as reckless and boost Biden’s re-election chances.

Biden has privately told aides that he is disgusted by Trump’s behavior but is adhering to his promise that the Department of Justice would have independence from the White House. The DNC, meanwhile, has advised members of Congress seeking guidance on what to say that they should not comment on the Trump probes if they are speaking publicly in their role as Biden campaign surrogates.

While Biden has framed his stance as in line with longstanding tradition, it is not uncommon for presidents to occasionally weigh in on ongoing criminal investigations. Biden has at times done so himself – including weighing in before the verdict was announced in the 2021 trial of the white Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd.

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Trump to speak to supporters at golf club after pleading not guilty to criminal charges – live

Former US president arrives in New Jersey after indictment hearing in Miami over classified documents

Meanwhile in Washington, Donald Trump’s allies in Congress are vowing to do all they can to help him fight Jack Smith’s prosecution.

Here’s the judiciary committee’s Republican chair Jim Jordan hinting to CNN that he may demand testimony from Smith, the special counsel appointed by attorney general Merrick Garland specifically to handle the investigations into Trump:

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Keeping cameras out of court denied the public the sight of Trump at bay

Ex-president enjoyed the upsides of ruling the news cycle, but none of the downsides of public humiliation before a judge he must obey

With a presidential-style plane and motorcade, a bunch of flag-waving fans and a lawyer shouting alternative facts, the latest season of The Trump Show – let’s call this one The Defendant – again filled every TV screen on Tuesday.

But the most important scene of all was missing. And no one was happier about that than Donald Trump himself.

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Trump pleads not guilty to 37 federal criminal counts in Mar-a-Lago case

Ex-president arraigned and charged in Miami court over allegations he mishandled classified documents

Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents as he was formally arraigned on Tuesday, becoming the first former US president to face federal criminal charges.

Federal prosecutors accused Trump of willfully withholding classified documents obtained during his presidency and obstructing justice in his efforts to conceal those materials from authorities, as detailed in a 49-page indictment unsealed on Friday. The former president was charged with 37 federal counts, including 31 violations of the Espionage Act.

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Donald Trump arrives in Florida on eve of arraignment; Miami police say they can handle crowds of up to 50,000 – live

Former US president lands in Miami ahead of court appearance on Tuesday; Miami officials detailed security measures in press briefing

The White House said Joe Biden will not be under anesthesia during his root canal today, meaning the 25th amendment won’t be invoked.

Ratified in 1967, the amendment is one of the most recent additions to the constitution, and outlines the procedure for the vice-president to temporarily assume the president’s duties at the chief executive’s request. In November 2021, Biden used its authority to hand power to Kamala Harris while he underwent a colonoscopy.

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Fears that Republicans’ rhetoric after Trump indictment could spark violence

‘An eye for an eye’, said Arizona congressman, while another representative from Louisiana gave militaristic instructions

Belligerent and conspiracy-laden rhetoric from high-profile Republican backers of Donald Trump has heightened fears that the former US president’s campaign against his legal troubles could trigger political violence.

Fewer than 24 hours after Donald Trump was indicted, Arizona congressman Andy Biggs went on Twitter and used violent language to call for retribution. “We have now reached a war phase,” he said. “An eye for an eye.”

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Trump left with few defenses for hoarding top secret documents

The sprawling indictment targeting the former president is set out like chapters in a novel easily digested by a trial jury

By laying out Donald Trump’s own admissions and incriminating eyewitness accounts from his employees, the indictment unsealed on Friday provided compelling evidence that could be exceedingly difficult for the former president to overcome and avoid a conviction.

The sprawling, 38-count indictment (in which Trump’s valet was also charged) revealed the previously unknown extent of Trump’s blatant efforts to retain the country’s most sensitive secrets and obstruct the government’s attempts to get them back.

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Donald Trump kept boxes with US nuclear program documents and foreign weapons details, indictment says – as it happened

Indictment accuses former president of risking national security, foreign relations, safety of US military and intelligence gathering

The US senate judiciary committee chairman, Dick Durbin, has said the investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith should be allowed to continue “without interference”.

In a statement on Friday, Durbin added that Donald Trump “should be afforded the due process protections that he is guaranteed by our constitution, just like any other American”.

I think before the sun sets today, the attorney general of the United States should be standing in front of the American people, should unseal this indictment, should provide the American people with all the facts and information here.

And the American people be able to judge for themselves whether this is just the latest incident of weaponization and politicization at the justice department or it’s something different.

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Indictment charging Trump with mishandling classified documents unsealed

Trump took steps to retain classified documents subpoenaed by the justice department, according to a sprawling 38-count indictment

Donald Trump twice disclosed national security information in separate incidents in 2021 and took steps to retain classified documents that he knew he could not keep because they had been subpoenaed by the justice department, according to a sprawling 38-count indictment unsealed Thursday.

The charging papers also revealed Trump hoarded materials of the highest sensitivity after he left the White House, including documents on US nuclear programs, potential military vulnerabilities of the US and allies, and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack.

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Could Trump go to prison? Federal charges over classified docs show momentum is building

Donald Trump is the first former president in US history to face federal criminal charges – is this a gamechanger or just another chapter in the drama?

He really might be going to prison.

Donald Trump just became the first former president in American history to face federal criminal charges.

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Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie announces 2024 presidential run – as it happened

House Republicans say they plan to vote on holding FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for declining to turn over a document outlining an unverified allegation of corruption against Joe Biden.

As the Associated Press reports, Republican House oversight committee chair James Comer along with GOP senator Chuck Grassley last month said they had heard the FBI possesses a document detailing “an alleged criminal scheme” “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” between a foreign national and Biden when he was vice-president. While Comer and other Republicans have played up the allegation, they haven’t offered any proof to substantiate it.

Three months before saboteurs bombed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the undersea network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Details about the plan, which have not been previously reported, were collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022. They provide some of the most specific evidence to date linking the government of Ukraine to the eventual attack in the Baltic Sea, which U.S. and Western officials have called a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

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Prosecutors have evidence Trump showed classified papers to people – report

Development could raise stakes as investigation into former presidents handling of national security materials nears end

Federal prosecutors have evidence Donald Trump showed classified documents to people, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources, as the investigation into his handling of national security materials and obstruction of justice approaches its conclusion.

The development could raise the stakes for the former president as it exposes him to serious action under the Espionage Act, of wilfully communicating national security materials rather than simply retaining them, which is rarely charged.

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Trump lawyers say Mar-a-Lago boxes contained foreign leader briefings

New letter sent to Congress attempts to paint Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents at Florida home as inadvertent

Donald Trump’s lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation found the 15 boxes the former president returned to the National Archives a year after the end of his presidency mostly contained briefings for calls with foreign leaders, according to a new letter they sent to Congress.

The majority of the letter – seen by the Guardian and earlier reported by CNN – served to characterize Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents as inadvertent, and due to White House staffers sweeping all documents into boxes during a chaotic departure at the end of the administration.

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Trump vents grievances against criminal charges from the safety of Mar-a-Lago

The former president appeared subdued in New York, only to return to his campaigning, inflammatory ways hours later in Florida

Simmering with anger and defiance, Donald Trump returned to the safe space of Mar-a-Lago and his loyal supporters on Tuesday night, seeking to turn his status as an accused criminal into a political war cry.

The former president ignored a plea from the judge in the case to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric, even launching a broadside at the judge’s daughter over her political connections.

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Mar-a-Lago events suspended as Trump huddles with ‘shaken’ advisers

Former president prepares for New York court appearance at Florida resort after news of indictment caught him by surprise

Weekend events at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, were suspended on Friday as the former president was “huddling” with his attorneys after being blindsided by the grand jury indictment handed up against him after payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump, the New York Post reported, is meeting with advisers who were said to be “shaken” by the news of dozens of criminal charges related to a $130,000 payment given to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford.

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Trump lawyer ordered to hand over notes in Mar-a-Lago documents inquiry

Major blow to ex-president as Evan Corcoran loses legal bid to avoid giving notes and audio transcripts to investigators

Donald Trump’s main lawyer – who was involved in turning over classified-marked documents at the Mar-a-Lago resort to the justice department last year – must provide his notes and audio transcripts to the criminal investigation after a federal appeals court rejected twin efforts to block the order.

The US appeals court for the DC circuit on Wednesday rejected two separate appeals from the former president and his lawyer Evan Corcoran to stop a sealed order, piercing attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine protections issued in a court decision last week.

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Trump lawyer ordered to give additional testimony in documents case

Evan Corcoran cannot invoke attorney-client privilege, judge rules, because advice could have been in furtherance of a crime

Donald Trump’s main lawyer involved in turning over classified-marked documents at the Mar-a-Lago resort to the justice department last year must provide additional testimony in the criminal investigation, a federal judge ruled on Friday, overriding his objections of attorney-client privilege.

The ruling marks a major moment in the investigation into Trump’s unauthorized retention of national security materials and obstruction of justice that could open up new avenues of information to the special counsel overseeing the matter.

In a sealed ruling, the chief US judge for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, found that the justice department had shown sufficient prima facie evidence that the legal advice Trump’s lawyer Evan Corcoran gave to the former president could have been used in furtherance of a crime.

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Police reportedly preparing for possible Trump indictment in New York– live

Manhattan grand jury has been investigating former president’s alleged hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels

A more serious concern for Congress and the White House is TikTok, the wildly popular video-sharing app that many in Washington fear is in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party. Here’s what we know about the growing feud between the US and China over the app:

TikTok is once again fending off claims that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, would share user data from its popular video-sharing app with the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

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Prosecutors seek to question Trump lawyer before grand jury in classified papers case

Investigators are looking at invoking an exception that can bypass attorney-client privilege if legal advice is used for furthering crime

Federal prosecutors involved in the criminal investigation of Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents argued to a US judge on Thursday that one of the former US president’s lawyers should answer more questions before a grand jury over objections of attorney-client privilege.

US prosecutors have been seeking to invoke the so-called crime-fraud exception that allows them to compel testimony about communications between an attorney and a client when they have evidence to suggest legal advice was used in furtherance of a crime.

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