Palm Beach town council gave short shrift to a request from neighbors to ban the former president from residing at his resort
His impeachment trial was happening a thousand miles away but the “mayor of Mar-a-Lago” was also facing another inquisition.
Is Donald Trump allowed to reside at his private resort in Florida, where he flew off to from the White House on 20 January, on Air Force One without even attending Joe Biden’s inauguration?
Continue reading...Former president spent past three weeks at Mar-a-Lago resort and shunned golf course on Tuesday for trial coverage
As the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump got under way on Tuesday afternoon, the subject at the center of the case was more than a thousand miles away, muzzled by a social media ban and reduced to watching events unfold on TV.
Trump, who is charged with “incitement of insurrection” after his supporters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January, has spent the past three weeks holed up at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with his schedule seemingly restricted to playing multiple rounds of golf. The one-term president has been at his resort, close to the golf club, since he left Washington DC at 8am on the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Continue reading...This is the full edited video montage from the Capitol insurrection that Democrats presented during Donald Trump's second impeachment trial on 9 February 2021, as part of their evidence alleging the former president incited the mob
Continue reading...Donald Trump's second impeachment trial opened in the Senate with graphic video of the attack on the Capitol on 6 January and his comments that spurred a rally crowd to become a mob.
The lead House prosecutor told senators the case would present 'cold, hard facts' against Trump, who is charged with inciting the siege of the Capitol to overturn the election he lost to Joe Biden
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The election arm of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has brought out its final report on the US presidential election, concluding that it was well organised under the circumstances and there was no significant fraud.
The report also found that Donald Trump’s rhetoric and refusal to accept defeat undermined public faith in democratic institutions, and warned the US has long-term problems with providing equal voting rights for all.
Related: 'Jim Crow relic': Senate filibuster stands in way of Democratic voting rights push
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Continue reading...Democrats hope harrowing audio and video from Capitol attack will make plain what no legal argument might deny
The lethal Capitol invasion by Donald Trump supporters that is at the heart of the former president’s second impeachment trial happened more than a month ago. But Democrats leading the prosecution of Trump are counting on an element of surprise.
Surprise, the impeachment prosecutors are calculating, because while most Americans understand the broad outlines of what happened during the 6 January attack on the Capitol, relatively few have come to grips with the shocking audio and video footage from that day – portraying a cauldron of violence, vandalism, bloodlust and fear.
Continue reading...On the eve of Donald Trump's impeachment trial on a charge of inciting the deadly US Capitol attack, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority and minority leaders, have laid out the framework for the trial. ’All parties have agreed to a structure that will ensure a fair and honest Senate impeachment trial of the former president,’ Schumer said. Each side will have 16 hours to present their arguments and the trial will break on Friday afternoon and resume on Sunday afternoon
Continue reading...Impeachment managers will present scene in harrowing detail using video and audio recordings
House impeachment managers will open their prosecution of Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection” by recounting the deadly assault on the US Capitol in harrowing and cinematic detail, rekindling for senators the chaos and trauma they experienced on 6 January.
Related: Donald Trump impeachment trial: what you need to know
Continue reading...Anti-Trumpists are growing but very slowly – convicting Trump in his impeachment trial would help speed things along, says Flake
By now, Jeff Flake thought this would all be over.
Flake, the former Arizona Republican senator and outspoken critic of Donald Trump, concedes that he expected the ripple effects in the Republican party Trump’s loss of the White House to have been bigger by now.
Continue reading...Republican pointed to former president’s tweet attacking vice-president Mike Pence after Capitol insurrection began
Liz Cheney, the third most senior Republican in the House of Representatives, has raised the possibility of Donald Trump being criminally investigated for provoking violence during the 6 January US Capitol insurrection, pointing to a tweet attacking his own vice-president, Mike Pence, that was posted after the assault had begun.
Related: Liz Cheney censured by Wyoming Republican party for voting to impeach Trump
Continue reading...David Schoen’s request to postpone trial Friday sundown until Sunday presents managers with a scheduling dilemma
Donald Trump’s impeachment trial that opens on Tuesday could take longer than expected after a leading member of his defense team requested that the proceedings are suspended during the Sabbath so that he can meet his obligations as an observant Jew.
David Schoen, 62, has written to senior figures of both main parties in the US Senate asking for an agreement that the trial is postponed from 5.24pm on Friday until Sunday so that he can observe the Sabbath. In the letter, reported by the New York Times, the lawyer apologises for any inconvenience, adding that “the practices and prohibitions are mandatory for me … so I have no choice.”
Continue reading...In some ways the trial will be a replay of last year’s – but Trump is the first to be tried by the Senate after leaving office, and it will likely be ‘dramatic’
It might be tempting to call it the trial of the century but it is just as likely to invoke a sense of deja vu. This week Donald Trump faces an impeachment trial in the US Senate. Yes, another one.
Trump stands accused of inciting an insurrection when he urged supporters to “fight” his election defeat before they stormed the US Capitol in Washington on 6 January, clashed with police and left five people dead.
Continue reading...The attempt to pry the party away from Trump’s influence fizzled but support in Congress is greater than it may appear
The Republican rebellion failed: Donald Trump won.
“I was disappointed over the last few weeks to see what seemed like the Republican party waking up,” the Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger observed on NBC’s Meet the Press last week, “and then kind of falling asleep again”.
Continue reading...Biden says predecessor shouldn’t have access to briefings, which are traditionally offered to presidents even after leaving office
Joe Biden has said that he doesn’t believe his predecessor, Donald Trump, should have access to any intelligence briefings due to his “erratic behavior”.
Continue reading...Democrats had challenged Trump to explain in next week’s proceedings why he disputed factual allegations
Donald Trump’s legal team has said the former president will not voluntarily testify under oath at his impeachment trial in the Senate next week, where he faces the charge from House Democrats that he incited the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.
The lead House impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, wrote to Trump asking him to testify under oath before or during the trial, challenging the former president to explain why he and his lawyers have disputed key factual allegations at the center of their charge that he incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol.
Continue reading...Instead of discreetly returning to private life the ex-president is focused on punishing Republicans he feels betrayed him
Every former American president picks up hobbies after leaving office (books, painting, skinny dipping, boxing). For the early days of Donald Trump’s post-presidency he has picked something a little different: revenge.
It’s early and presidents usually intentionally recede from public view dramatically after leaving office. But Trump appears uninterested in following that practice.
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been denounced as a “rogue agency” after new allegations of assaults on asylum seekers emerged, and deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the Biden administration’s orders.
Joe Biden unveiled his immigration agenda on Tuesday, and his homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate, but the continued deportations suggested the Biden White House still does not have full control of Ice, which faces multiple allegations of human rights abuses and allegations that it has disproportionately targeted black migrants.
Related: New claims of migrant abuse as Ice defies Biden to continue deportations
A hastily executed transfer of nearly 200 people in California’s prison system set off a public health disaster that endangered the lives of thousands of prisoners and staff and led to dozens of deaths, according to a new report from the state’s office of the inspector general (OIG).
The report published on Monday, the third in a series examining the Covid-19 catastrophe in California state prisons, details the circumstances of a May 2020 transfer of 189 people from the California Institute for Men (CIM) in Chino, California, to San Quentin state prison in the Bay Area and Corcoran state prison in the Central Valley.
Related: California prison transfer led to dozens of deaths and endangered thousands – state watchdog
Continue reading...Trump-appointed judge ruled against president’s 100-day suspension, raising questions over whether Ice will resist reform
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is preparing to resume deportations of asylum seekers after a Trump-appointed Texas judge ruled against a 100-day suspension ordered by Joe Biden.
The ruling, in response to a challenge from a leading figure in the Republican effort to overturn the election result, marks the first shot in a legal rearguard action by Trump loyalists intended to stymie the Biden administration’s agenda.
Continue reading...A path forward for the GOP is unclear when the former president still holds power over many of its lawmakers
Donald Trump may have left the White House, but his shadow still looms large in Washington and the Republican party as the Senate prepares for his second impeachment trial.
Continue reading...Racked by war, cholera and now coronavirus, the country faces the world’s worst famine in decades
Ten years after the rage and hope of the Arab spring filled the public spaces of Sana’a, Yemen’s capital has become a curiously quiet place.
Traders and customers alike shuffle through the streets of the old city, ground down by the repression of the Houthi rebel occupation and the economic hardship caused by the Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition blockade.
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