Trump news – live: Bill Barr scoffs at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago defence as ‘empty’ files from FBI haul revealed

Biden warns Trump and ‘MAGA forces’ want to strip Americans of their rights

A Florida court has released a full list of what was found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during the FBI search last month.

Included in the trove of documents found at the former president’s home were more than 100 classified documents, over 10,000 documents by law the property of the US government, and mysteriously 90 empty folders that once held extremely sensitive documents. These were intermingled with photos, press clippings, and magazines.

Meanwhile, a new filing from his legal team failed to clarify objections to the search. Mr Trump’s lawyers are also seeking the appointment of a special master to review the seized documents, which is still under consideration by a judge.

Last night, Mr Trump angrily accused Joe Biden of being insane or having late-stage dementia following the president’s fiery denunciation of MAGA Republicans in a landmark address in Philadelphia.

Themed as saving the “soul of the nation”, it called out the former president and his allies as an anti-democratic force against law and order. Underlining the point, Mr Trump earlier told a radio show he would consider granting full pardons to January 6 rioters if he runs and wins the 2024 presidential election.

1662156477Bill Barr tears apart Trump’s secret papers defence on Fox News saying Justice Department was being ‘jerked around’Donald Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr tore apart the one-term president’s defence of having secret papers at his home during an appearance on Fox News.

Mr Barr defended the FBI’s raid of Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and said that his former boss had been “jerking around” the Justice Department.

Graeme Massie2 September 2022 23:07

1662154812MAGA Republican candidate’s ex claims she threatened to crash car to kill him and their daughtersThe former husband of MAGA-Republican Michigan secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo claims she threatened to crash her car — with intent to kill him and their two children — after he asked for a divorce, court filings suggest.

Jezebel obtained copies of the court documents in which Ms Karamo’s ex-husband, Adom Karamo, said she threatened to kill him and their young daughters over a divorce dispute.

Graig Graziosi reports.

GOP candidate’s ex-husband claims she threatened to crash car to kill familyKristina Karamo’s husband claims she spent time being evaluated in a mental healthcare facility after she made the threats

Oliver O’Connell2 September 2022 22:40

1662153012Trump spokesperson says FBI search was “smash and grab”Taylor Budowich, director of communications for Save America and Donald Trump, claims that the detailed inventory of what the FBI uncovered during their court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago proves it was a “smash and grab” operation.

He tweeted: “The new “detailed” inventory list only further proves that this unprecedented and unnecessary raid of President Trump’s home was not some surgical, confined search and retrieval that the Biden administration claims, it was a SMASH AND GRAB.”

Mr Budowich added: “These document disputes should be resolved under the Presidential Records Act, which requires cooperation and negotiation by NARA, not an armed FBI raid.”

Pushing back on the notion that the operation was a “smash and grab”, Politico notes that the search warrant “specifically contemplated seizing items found alongside classified documents”.

Further: “The government indicated in filings earlier this week that the placement of classified materials among personal items were part of the potential evidence of a crime.”

Oliver O’Connell2 September 2022 22:10

1662151212Biden poll numbers above Trump, Reagan, Clinton at same point in presidencyBloomberg Opinion writer Conor Sen has taken a look at where Joe Biden’s current opinion ratings stand in comparison to other presidents at this point in their first (or only) term.

Using FiveThirtyEight’s data, Mr Biden is currently rated higher than presidents Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton, and level with Jimmy Carter.

Mr Sen points out that the Mr Biden’s numbers are pretty typical for a post-Watergate president.

Oliver O’Connell2 September 2022 21:40

1662149412Devin Nunes begs Google to approve Truth Social for Android devicesFormer US Representative and current Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes is pleading with Google to reverse its decision to block Donald Trump‘s personal social media platform back onto its app store.

Google made the decision to block the app from its store after it determined that content moderation on the Twitter-clone social media app was not meeting the necessary minimum standards to be included in the marketplace.

Graig Graziosi has the story.

Oliver O’Connell2 September 2022 21:10

1662147612Biden: Support for violence – not voting for Trump – is ‘threat to democracy’President Joe Biden on Friday shot down criticism from Republican pundits over his condemnation of the way many of former president Donald Trump’s allies have embraced violence as a means to their political ends.

The president was speaking in the White House’s South Court Auditorium regarding the success of the American Rescue Plan Covid relief package when a reporter questioned him about comments he’d made on Thursday during a primetime speech from Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park.

Andrew Feinberg reports for The Independent.

Biden says support for violence — not voting for Trump — is ‘threat to democracy’ Mr Biden says his remarks on Thursday were directed at supporters of violence and overturning elections, not at those who simply voted for his opponent

Oliver O’Connell2 September 2022 20:40

1662145812Maria Bartiromo to be deposed in Dominion defamation case over false 2020 election claimsFox News host Maria Bartiromo is the latest figure from the right-wing news network to provide an out-of-court testimony as part of the Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the cable news titan.

A filing in the Superior Court in Delaware noted that the Fox News star would take questions on 8 September in reference to the network’s airing of false claims about the company in the fallout from the 2020 presidential election, according to a report inThe Los Angeles Times.

Johanna Chisholm reports.

Maria Bartiromo to be deposed in Dominion defamation case over false election claimsThe media company maintains that the defamation lawsuit is an attack on its 1t Amendment rights

Oliver O’Connell2 September 2022 20:10

1662144012Trump bizarrely claims Biden threatened US with ‘military force’ in speechDonald Trump baselessly accused Joe Biden of threatening the US with “military force” and as having “late stage dementia” after the president called him and his “MAGA Republican” followers for threatening democracy in a speech from Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace.

Delivering a prime-time address on Thursday ahead of November’s midterm elections, Mr Biden painted a picture of dark forces and “extreme ideology” that was working to undermine the “foundations of our republic”.

Gino Spocchia reports.

Trump bizarrely claims Biden speech threatened US with ‘military force’Biden condemned ‘MAGA Republican’ threats to democracy in prime-time address to the nation

Oliver O’Connell2 September 2022 19:40

1662142817Trump docs seized from Mar-a-Lago, by the numbersThe unsealed inventory of what the FBI found in Mr Trump’s office and storage area at his Mar-a-Lago residence reveals a startling number of government documents were taken away from the White House at the end of his presidency.

According to the inventory from the 8 August search, there were:

– 31 documents marked CONFIDENTIAL

– 54 documents marked SECRET

– 18 documents marked TOP SECRET

The Independent’s Oliver O’Connell explains:

How many classified documents did the FBI seize from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago?A breakdown of the documents contained in boxes seized by the FBI during the search of Mar-a-Lago on 8 August

Megan Sheets2 September 2022 19:20

1662141638Bill Barr hits out at former boss TrumpTrump’s attorney general Bill Barr offered some harsh words against his former boss as new details were released about documents seized from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI.

“People say this was unprecedented. Well, it’s also unprecedented for a POTUS to take all this classified information & put ‘em in a country club, ok? And how long is the govt going to try to get that back?” Barr probed on Fox News.

Watch:

Oliver O’Connell2 September 2022 19:00

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