(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — Former President Donald Trump filed a motion in federal court in Florida on Monday seeking the appointment of a special master to review materials seized by the Justice Department from his Mar-a-Lago estate in a raid earlier this month.
The motion from Trump seeks an injunction that would bar the government from any further review of the seized materials until the appointment of a special master, and also requests a “more detailed” receipt from the government of items that were seized.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Anthony Fauci will step down from his roles of director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden this December, he announced Monday.
“While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring,” Fauci said in a statement. “After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field.”
Fauci, who turns 82 in December, has said for months that he plans to step away from his public role as a national leader on the pandemic once COVID-19 reaches a “steady state.”
Biden, commending Fauci’s work not just on the current pandemic, but for the six presidents before him, said in a statement Monday that Fauci’s “commitment to the work is unwavering, and he does it with an unparalleled spirit, energy, and scientific integrity.”
“As he leaves his position in the U.S. Government, I know the American people and the entire world will continue to benefit from Dr. Fauci’s expertise in whatever he does next,” Biden said. “The United States of America is stronger, more resilient, and healthier because of him.”
Fauci has been director of the NIAID for 38 years, beginning his tenure under President Ronald Reagan.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci was famous for his work on HIV and AIDS, as well as Ebola and Zika, among other threats like West Nile Virus and the anthrax attacks in 2001.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges. I am very proud of our many accomplishments,” Fauci said in a statement.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who oversees Fauci’s department, said Fauci’s decision is one “we all knew would eventually come but hoped never would.”
“When I arrived at HHS, the world was one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. I quickly came to rely on Dr. Fauci’s wisdom and counsel in our response, and along with his scientific acumen, I treasure his ability to break down complex science in simple terms to the American people to save lives,” Becerra said.
Back in July, Fauci explained that he didn’t intend to leave the public health field for a while, but that he wanted to conserve his remaining years to work on personal projects, teaching and writing.
“Obviously, you can’t go on forever. I do want to do other things in my career. Even though I’m at a rather advanced age, I have the energy and the passion to continue to want to pursue other aspects of my professional career. And I’m going to do that sometime. I’m not exactly sure when, but I don’t see myself being in this job to the point where I can’t do anything else after that,” Fauci said on CNN at the time.
“So that’s the reason. It has nothing to do with pressures, nothing to do with all the other nonsense that you hear about, that has no influence on me,” Fauci said in the same interview.
In a Washington Post interview published on Monday, shortly after Fauci announced his imminent role change, Fauci said he was interested in teaching higher education and lecturing about the lessons he’s learned throughout his career. In the past, he’s also mentioned an interest in writing a memoir about growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s and ’50s.
“I love everything about this place. … But even with that, I said I’m going to have to leave some time,” Fauci told The Washington Post. “I don’t want to be here so long that I get to the point where I lose a step.”
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(ATLANTA) — A federal appeals court on Sunday temporarily halted a lower court’s ruling mandating that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., testify before a grand jury in Georgia that is investigating pro-Trump efforts to sway the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
In a brief order, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the ruling back down to the district court, instructing the judge there to weigh any potential changes to Fulton County’s grand jury subpoena to Graham in alignment with the Constitution’s speech and debate clause.
The clause, which offers lawmakers certain legal protections when they are acting in their official capacities, is at the heart of Graham’s challenge to the subpoena for his testimony.
Graham had been scheduled to testify Tuesday.
The appellate circuit ruled that the district court should “determine whether [Graham] is entitled to a partial quashal [rejection] or modification of the subpoena to appear before the special purpose grand jury based on any protections afforded by the Speech or Debate Clause of the United States Constitution.”
“Following resolution of the partial-quashal issue on limited remand, the matter will be returned to this Court for further consideration,” the appellate judges wrote.
The ruling is the latest development in Fulton County’s investigation of efforts to overturn the 2020 race — a probe that turned into a pitched legal battle with Graham after Georgia prosecutors sought his testimony earlier this year.
District Court Judge Leigh Martin May had ruled on Friday that “further delay of … Graham’s testimony would greatly compound the overall delay in carrying out the grand jury’s investigation” and “thus poses a significant risk of overall hindrance to the grand jury’s investigation.”
“The Court therefore finds that granting a stay would almost certainly result in material injury to the grand jury and its investigation,” May wrote.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat leading the investigation, first sought Graham’s testimony in July.
The South Carolina legislator, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, became embroiled in the case over two calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger shortly after the last presidential race.
Graham has since insisted that he was inquiring over how signatures on Georgia mail-in ballots were verified and was not pushing for any votes to be tossed in support of Trump. Graham’s legal team says his calls should be protected under the speech and debate clause, arguing they were related to legislative work under his role as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.
The Georgia grand jury probe was launched after Raffensperger, a Republican and the state’s top elections overseer, was lobbied by Trump to “find 11,780 votes” — the number the then-president needed to win the state over Joe Biden, who won Georgia (which was later re-confirmed by a full manual recount).
In seeking a grand jury earlier this year, Willis wrote to the court that she had reason to believe there was “a reasonable probability that the State of Georgia’s administration of elections in 2020 … was subject to possible criminal disruptions.”
The Fulton County grand jury can make recommendations but does not have the power to indict, which would be up to another grand jury to weigh after the investigation.
Trump has insisted his pressure campaign in Georgia was appropriate and he did nothing wrong, claiming Willis is politically persecuting him.
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden will end her COVID-19 isolation on Sunday after receiving two consecutive negative tests and quarantining for five days, the White House announced.
Her spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement that she will leave South Carolina and join President Joe Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he is vacationing.
Jill Biden had previously tested positive for the coronavirus last week while vacationing in South Carolina with her husband. After becoming infected, she remained at a private residence after the president left the Palmetto State.
It does not appear that the first lady’s case was serious. She experienced cold-like symptoms Monday and was prescribed the antiviral treatment Paxlovid, her spokeswoman said. She was also able to join meetings via Zoom Thursday.
“She’s feeling well,” the president told ABC News last week.
He was considered a close contact of the first lady and, as such, started masking while indoors around others for 10 days starting from Jill Biden’s positive test. President Biden has since tested negative for COVID-19.
He recently recovered from COVID himself: He first tested positive on July 21 and experienced mild symptoms like a sore throat and cough. He too received Paxlovid and ultimately tested negative before experiencing a mild rebound infection and testing positive for a second time, sending him back into quarantine.
The president’s physician announced on Aug. 6 that he had again tested negative.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, once a rising star in the Republican Party and considered a potential speaker of the House, told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl she has no regrets about her political career, including her landslide primary election loss in Wyoming on Tuesday, saying she is now laser-focused on keeping Donald Trump out of the White House.
In an exclusive wide-ranging interview for ABC’s “This Week,” Cheney also discussed the FBI search at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate – calling the investigation a very serious development and saying she is “ashamed” at some of her Republican colleagues who have attacked the Justice Department and the FBI.
Cheney, who serves as vice chair of the Jan. 6 Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack — and speaking with Karl in the committee hearing room — also said she still hopes former Vice President Mike Pence testifies before the panel in the near future, adding that conversations with his legal team are ongoing.
Cheney ‘ashamed’ at Republican colleagues’ reaction to Mar-a-Lago search
During her sit-down interview with ABC’s Karl, Cheney weighed in on the FBI’s search executed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this month and said she was ashamed that congressional Republicans had leapt to Trump’s defense and had accused the Justice Department of political malice.
“That’s a very serious thing. I think that when you think about the fact that we were in a position where the FBI, the Department of Justice, felt the need to execute a search warrant at the home of a former president — that’s a really serious thing for the nation,” she said.
The redacted copy of the search warrant released sent shockwaves through Washington, as it revealed the Justice Department was investigating the potential violation of at least three separate criminal statutes in its search of Mar a Lago, including obstruction of justice and one crime under the Espionage Act.
A property receipt accompanying the warrant shows agents seized multiple boxes of documents of various classifications, including one set referring to “classified/TS/SCI documents” (the acronym stands for top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information that not everyone with even top-secret clearance can view) and four other sets of top-secret documents.
Trump’s team has yet to take court action despite publicly trying to pressure the Justice Department to release the full affidavit underlying the warrant.
Trump in recent days has called for the “immediate release” of the affidavit while leveling various attacks at the FBI and Justice Department, while also demanding over his social media website that the documents be returned to him.
Following the raid, a growing list of Republicans tweeted, with some attacking the Justice Department and the FBI, including House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
He tweeted a statement that read, in part, “The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization.”
“I was ashamed to hear Republicans immediately and reflexively attack the FBI agents who executed the search warrant,” Cheney said.
Cheney also accused Trump of releasing the unredacted search warrant to media organizations who then posted its contents without removing the names of the agents involved. Law enforcement agencies around the country are actively monitoring growing strains of angry online rhetoric and threats that have emerged in the wake of the raid.
“I was disgusted when I learned that President Trump had released the names of those agents, when he released the unredacted search warrant, and that has now caused violence,” Cheney said.
ABC News has not confirmed Cheney’s claim.
“We’ve seen threats of violence, the judge himself, his synagogue had to cancel services because of threats of violence. This is a really dangerous moment and to see the former president of the United States, my colleagues stoking the flames of that instead of saying, ‘We need to learn the facts. We need to learn the evidence we need to learn the information about what happened … I think that the American people see what hypocrisy that is and it’s dangerous hypocrisy,” Cheney said.
“I’ve seen no evidence that there was any political motivation,” Cheney added, in response to some of her Republican colleagues who have accused the DOJ of that.
A magistrate judge in Florida on Thursday said, despite Justice Department objections, he may seek to unseal portions of the affidavit.
After hearing in-person arguments on a request from a coalition of media outlets to make the affidavit public, the judge said he might decide that at least a portion of the affidavit could be unsealed with government redactions.
The Justice Department had urged the judge, Bruce Reinhart, to keep the affidavit fully under seal, arguing that if it were to be made public it could “cause significant and irreparable damage” to an ongoing criminal investigation involving highly classified materials related to national security.
“I think that will provide us additional information,” Cheney said. “It sounds to me from watching. The news reports that they’re acting responsibly in terms of determining what has to be redacted and, and what can be released. But it also seems to be the case that there were clearly ongoing efforts to get back wherever this information was, and that it was not presented, you know, that the former president was unwilling to give back these materials. Now, we will see, we’ll learn more,” Cheney said.
“It’s a really serious thing and I just think that for us as a party to be in a position where we’re reflexively attacking career law enforcement professionals in order to defend a former president who conducted himself the way this one did, is it’s really sad day for the party,” Cheney said.
“Could it be that his handling of government records, classified information — that that could be what brings Donald Trump down after all of this?” Karl asked.
“I mean, look, well, we’ll see. Everyone has an obligation and a responsibility. And, you know, clearly, the handling of classified information is something that’s really serious, so, I don’t know all of the aspects of why the search warrant was executed, certainly. But, you know, we’ll see as additional information comes out.”
Cheney hopes Pence will testify to Jan. 6 committee, possible Trump could be asked
Cheney told Karl that she hopes that former Vice President Mike Pence will testify before the Jan. 6 Select Committee in the near future.
Pence had indicated this week that he would consider testifying before the committee if he were invited to do so.
“We’ve been in discussions with his counsel,” Cheney said.
“Look, he played a critical role on January 6, if he had succumbed to the pressure that Donald Trump was putting on him, we would have had a much worse constitutional crisis. And I think that he has clearly, as he’s expressed, concerns about executive privilege, which, you know, I have tremendous respect. I think it’s, it’s, you know, hugely important constitutional issue in terms of separation of powers,” she said.
“I believe in executive privilege. I think it matters. But I also think that when the country has been through something, as grave as this was, everyone who has information has an obligation to step forward. So, I would hope that that he will do that,” Cheney said.
“So, you think we’ll see him here in September in this room before the committee?” Karl asked.
“I would hope that he will understand how important it is for the American people to know every aspect of the truth about what happened that day,” Cheney said.
Cheney was asked if Trump would be asked to testify and she indicated that it remains a possibility.
“I don’t want to make any announcements about that this morning. So, let me just leave it there,” she said.
“But it’s possible you would ask him, before wrapping up, to testify?” Karl pressed.
“Yes. I mean, I don’t — again, I don’t want to get in front of committee deliberations about that. I do think it’s very important, as I said in the first hearing or the second hearing, you know, his interactions with our committee will be under oath,” Cheney replied.
Cheney not concerned with Republican retribution
Cheney told Karl that she expects transcripts, records and other materials gathered by the committee over the course of its investigation will be made public.
“Yeah, it’s all public record. It will be it will be available publicly as our investigation wraps up and concludes,” Cheney said.
She said she will willingly appear if she is ever subpoenaed in the future should a Republican-led House choose to investigate members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, which some Republicans have called for.
“If Kevin McCarthy or Jim Jordan, or any of the other individuals who are trying to investigate the committee, carry through on that threat, and issue a subpoena for me to appear, I will abide by that subpoena and I will welcome the opportunity to come and explain to them exactly what we found and the threat that Donald Trump poses to the country,” Cheney said.
“And I would say, you know, they ought to do the same. They are all completely shirking their obligations and their responsibilities to come and testify about what they know. And I think, again, that’s an abdication of their responsibility under the Constitution,” Cheney said.
Cheney: ‘No regrets’ about political career, primary loss
“I think that it was clear, really, from the beginning — the moment that I voted to impeach — that there were going to be potential political consequences,” Cheney told Karl of her vote to impeach Trump.
Cheney admitted that had she wanted to save her political career and her seat in the House — a seat she has held for nearly six years — it would have required something of her that she was unwilling to do: “[It] would have required embracing the lie about the election, would have required enabling that and I just simply wasn’t willing to do that. So, you know, at each moment, I knew that I had to do what was right,” Cheney said.
“And this wasn’t just losing a House seat. I mean, you were considered, you were in leadership, you were considered a future Speaker of the House, maybe even the next Speaker of the House. It’s a lot to give up. Any regrets?” Karl asked Cheney.
“No regrets,” Cheney replied.
“I feel I feel sad about where my party is. I feel sad about the way that too many of my colleagues have responded to what I think is a great moral test and challenge of our time — a great moment to determine whether or not people are going to stand up on behalf of the democracy, on behalf of our republic,” Cheney said.
“And so, it does make me sad that so many people have failed the test, but certainly no regrets. I mean, to me, there’s just never been any question about what was the right way to operate here and the right thing to do,” she added.
Following her election loss Tuesday, Cheney said she received a phone call from none other than the current president: Joe Biden.
“I did hear from President Biden. We had a very, very good talk — a talk about the importance of putting the country ahead of partisanship,” she said, adding that she had also heard from some of her Republican colleagues in Congress but she did not name them.
“I think that there are a number of my colleagues who have done the right thing. I would you know, put certainly those of us who voted to impeach in that category, a number of others who expressed the view that, you know, they’re supportive, they wish they would have done the right thing. And many others who, you know, have simply chosen another path,” Cheney said.
Of the nine other House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump in 2021 for his role in inciting an insurrection, Cheney said they will forever be bonded by that vote.
“I think that it is a bond. It’s a bond and we’ve talked about it, you know, we have a difference of opinion, differences of opinion among the 10 of us about a whole range of issues of other issues, but, the fact that we all made the decision we did and have faced consequences for that decision, will be a bond I would imagine forever,” she said.
Calls large portions of Republican Party who still support Trump ‘very sick’
“I think that clearly his hold is very strong among some portions of the Republican Party,” Cheney said, reflecting on her primary election loss.
“I think, one, it says that people continue to believe the lie, they continue to believe what he’s saying, which is very dangerous. I think it also tells you that large portions of our party, including the leadership of our party, both at the state level in Wyoming, as well as on a national level with the RNC, is very sick,” Cheney said.
“We really have got to decide whether or not we’re going to be a party based on substance and policy or whether we’re going to remain as so many of our party are today, in the grips of a dangerous former president,” she said.
Cheney doubled down on what she believes her principles are in the face of a Republican Party still in the grips of the former president and what she will continue to fight for as she considers her political future.
“What I’m fighting for is the Constitution. What I’m fighting for is the perpetuation of the Republic. What I’m fighting for is the rule of law — the fact that everybody’s got to abide by the rule of law. What I’m fighting for is the fact that elections have to matter and that when the election is over, and the courts have ruled and the electoral college is met, that the president of the United States has to respect the results of the election. What I’m fighting for is the principle that we have a peaceful transition of power, and that we don’t determine who rules based upon violence,” she said.
Highlights new effort to take down Trump
Cheney is hoping to turn her landslide loss in the primary into a nationwide crusade to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. She plans to launch a political organization in the coming weeks to educate the American people about ongoing threats to the country, and to mobilize a unified effort to oppose any Donald Trump campaign for president.
“First of all, obviously, we have tremendous work left to do on the select committee, tremendous work left to do as Wyoming’s representative in Congress. Also, I’m going to be very focused on working to ensure that we do everything we can not to elect election deniers,” Cheney said.
“I think that we’ve got election deniers that have been nominated for really important positions all across the country. And I’m going to work against those people. I’m going to work to support their opponents. I think it matters that much,” she said.
“And I’m also going to spend a lot of time doing everything I can to help educate the American people about what happened. And I think our hearings have been a tremendous contribution to that. And I think it’s really important for people you know, really across the political spectrum of all ages to understand and recognize why what happened after the last election can never happen again,” Cheney said.
Cheney still considering a 2024 presidential run and will likely decide after her tenure in the House is over
Cheney refused to provide further clarity on her own possible presidential run, simply saying that she is still weighing her options.
“I’m focused on this from the perspective of substance, and I really think the country faces grave threats and as I sort of go through finishing my work here in Congress over the next several months, and making a decision about how I can best help to ensure that we right our political ship, you know, I’ll make decisions about what comes next,” Cheney told Karl.
“You run for president because you believe you would be the best, the best candidate because you believe you’d be the best president United States. And so, any decision that I make about doing something that significant and that serious would be with the intention of winning and because I think I would be the best candidate,” she said.
Asked by Karl if she would run as an independent candidate,”I’m not going to go down that path anymore in terms of speculating – today,” she said with a laugh.
“I mean, look, I’m really very focused. We have a huge amount of work to do. You and I are sitting here in the Cannon Caucus room. We have a huge amount of work left to do with respect to the Select Committee, and I have really important work left to do representing Wyoming for the next several months and that that is really my focus. And I will make decisions about what comes next after that,” she said.
Cheney won’t support Trump in 2024, or fellow ‘election deniers’
“You told me a little over a year ago, that you didn’t think Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination again. You said there are millions and millions of Republicans that wouldn’t let that happen. Do you still believe that? I mean, right now he looks like the overwhelming front runner,” Karl asked Cheney.
“I think we have to make sure that he is not our nominee,” Cheney said.
“I believe in Republican policies, I believe if you think about where the country needs to go, what’s best for our nation, I believe in a strong national defense, certainly today more than ever. We need that to confront the threats we face. I believe in low taxes. I believe in limited government. I believe the family should be the center of our lives and our communities – those are traditional Republican values. And I believe that’s what we need going into the future,” Cheney said.
“I think that we have no chance at winning elections if we are in a position where our party has abandoned principle and abandoned value and abandoned fundamental fidelity of the Constitution in order to embrace a cult of personality. And I think that’s really dangerous for a whole bunch of reasons,” she said.
Cheney said Trump has created a movement that Americans must look beyond if the Republican Party is to survive.
“Donald Trump is certainly the center of the threat. And I think that you know, what he’s done and what he’s created is a movement on some level that is post truth. And I think that you know, certainly social media has added to that. But election denial, denying the fundamental function and principle – what is at the center of our constitutional republic is dangerous, broadly speaking, and he is certainly leading that effort, leading that movement,” Cheney said.
“Because we know precisely what he will do, because he has done it, you know, sending an armed mob here to the Capitol to try to overturn the results of an election. There’s just simply no way that the nation can, in my view, sustain itself if we excuse that and put him in a position of power again,” Cheney said.
“I think that as a nation, whether we’re Republicans or Democrats or independents, we all have to reject that,” Cheney said. “And I believe that there is a coalition of people across the party spectrum, who understand we’ve certainly seen it on our committee. We’ve seen it around the country, people who understand we can agree that there are certain issues we’re never going to agree on politically, but we have to come together, you know, cross those party lines, in order to protect ourselves against that kind of threat,” she said.
Cheney said she would find it difficult to support a future Republican presidential candidate who has aligned his or herself with Trump, pointing to Republicans Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as examples.
“It would be very difficult,” Cheney said. “I think that a fundamental question for me in terms of whether or not someone is fit to be president, is whether they’ve abided by their constitutional obligations in the past.”
“I think certainly when you look at somebody like Josh Hawley, or somebody like Ted Cruz, both of whom know better, both of whom know exactly what the role of Congress is, in terms of our constitutional obligations with respect to presidential elections, and yet both of whom took steps that fundamentally threatened the constitutional order and structure in the aftermath of the last election. So, you know, in my view, they both have made themselves unfit for future office,” she said.
“DeSantis is somebody who is right now campaigning for election deniers. And I think that, you know, that is something that we’ve got to have real pause about. Either you fundamentally believe in and will support our constitutional structure, or you don’t,” she said.
Cheney slams McCarthy: ‘He’s been completely unfaithful to the Constitution’
Cheney said she will campaign against any Republican candidates who deny election results, including her colleagues in Congress like McCarthy.
Cheney and McCarthy have had a notably strained relationship since she was booted from House leadership in 2021 over her repeated criticisms of Trump. GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York was her eventual replacement in leadership.
Karl asked Cheney, “Is the country better or worse off if Kevin McCarthy is the next speaker of the House?”
“Well, my views about Kevin McCarthy are very clear,” Cheney said. “The speaker of the House is the second in line for the presidency. It requires somebody who understands and recognizes their duty, their oath, their obligation and he’s been completely unfaithful to the Constitution and demonstrated a total lack of understanding of the significance and importance of the role of speaker, so I don’t believe he should be speaker of the House and I think that’s been very clear.”
“So, it sounds like that’s a yes, the country would be worse off if he were speaker?” Karl asked.
“I don’t believe he should be speaker of the House,” Cheney said.
(WAVERLY, Iowa) — Former Vice President Mike Pence continued to make his way through Iowa on Saturday, further fueling speculation he could be considering a 2024 presidential run.
Pence spoke at the Bremer County GOP Annual Summer Chill and Grill to advocate for Republican candidates on the ballot in November.
“In these 80 days, we need to remind the American people that we can have a strong nation, we can have secure borders, we can have a prosperous economy, we can defend all the God given liberties enshrined in our Constitution, but it will take Republican leadership at every level to do it,” Pence said in his speech.
His stop in Waverly, Iowa, comes after he spent the day at the Iowa State Fair on Friday, where he downplayed that his visit, known for bringing out presidential hopefuls, had anything to do with his 2024 ambitions.
“I’m in Iowa for one reason and one reason only, and that is that Iowa and America needs six more years of Senator Chuck Grassley,” he said.
Pence joined Grassley and other GOP leaders at the fair, running through thunderstorms and making stops at booths for the Iowa GOP and Iowa Pork Producers.
“I’ve been traveling all across the country and 100% of our focus has been on doing our part to win back the House, win back the Senate, elect and reelect Republican governors all across the country,” Pence said.
Pence didn’t completely shut the door on a presidential run, saying he would consider throwing his hat in the ring in the new year.
“After the first of the year, my family and I’ll do as we’ve always done, and that is reflect and pray on where we might next serve, where we might next contribute,” he said.
Pence’s role on Jan. 6 once again took the spotlight after he indicated this week he would consider testifying if the committee were to present a formal invitation.
“If they present a formal invitation for the committee, I’ve said we’ll give it due consideration, but we’ll do so reflecting on the unique responsibilities that I have to defend the prerogatives of my office as Vice President,” he said.
Pence also called out the committee for being “partisan” and said testifying in front of the committee would be unprecedented.
“While I’m disappointed with the partisan nature of the committee, if a formal invitation were presented to us, our attorneys have been clear that we will first review my unique role as Vice President of the United States. Under the Constitution, we have a separation of powers,” he said. “No vice president in American history has ever been summoned to Capitol Hill to testify before the Congress.”
Pence also showed some support towards former President Donald Trump, condemning the raid at Mar-A-Lago.
“I’m deeply troubled that the FBI conducted a search warrant in the home of a former president of the United States of America,” Pence said.
But Pence also criticized people within his party for attacking law enforcement officials.
“The Republican Party is the party of law and order. Republicans stand with the men and women who serve in law enforcement at every level: local, state, and federal level. And as I said this week, I think the calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the Police,” Pence said.
Since the search, the FBI has issued numerous warnings about increased threats against law enforcement.
“We can hold the Attorney General and the Justice Department accountable, we can demand that they reveal why the search warrant was executed against the residence of a former president of the United States without demeaning the rank and file men and women of the FBI,” Pence cautioned.
Earlier Friday, Pence attended the Grassley Committee Fundraiser and after the fair he served as the special guest at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition.
(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was searched in August by FBI agents as part of what the Justice Department said is a criminal investigation into alleged classified documents taken with him when he left the White House.
The unprecedented operation represented a significant step in the investigation, according to outside law enforcement experts.
Court papers in the case show the search was related to possible violations of criminal statutes, including one under the Espionage Act. Trump has said he did nothing wrong.
It isn’t the only legal issue in which he is involved. He or his businesses are at the center of various lawsuits, civil and criminal cases across the country. They deny wrongdoing and argue in response that are victims of overzealous prosecutors or political persecution.
Trump, who is openly teasing another bid for the presidency, has contended Democrats want to keep him from regaining the White House.
The allegations are serious: In New York, for example, the state attorney general is probing suspected financial fraud by the Trump Organization while a district attorney in Georgia investigates the former president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Meanwhile, a House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has focused on what it says was Trump’s sophisticated, multi-step plan to illegally remain in power, including inciting his followers to riot that day as Congress gathered.
Here is a recap of the major ongoing investigations involving Trump.
Probe of Trump’s handling of White House records
As ABC News reported in May, the Justice Department opened a grand jury investigation related to Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents following the revelation that he had brought boxes of documents with him to his Mar-a-Lago estate when he left the White House in January 2021.
On Aug. 8, FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago and appeared to seize 27 boxes — including sets of documents of various classifications ranging from confidential to top secret and more — according to unsealed court documents.
A redacted copy of the search warrant and related papers indicates that among the potential crimes the DOJ is investigating one could be a violation of part of the Espionage Act involving the gathering, transmitting or loss of defense information.
The other two areas of DOJ concern are 18 USC 2071, which involves any federal government employee who willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies or destroys public records; and 18 USC 1519, obstruction of justice.
Trump has been calling for the affidavit supporting the search warrant to be released unredacted but his attorneys have not taken any action asking the judge to release the affidavit. A group of media companies, including ABC News, have gone to court asking for the release of the affidavit, or a redacted version of the affidavit. They cite the high public interest in the search. The DOJ opposes making the document public, stating it would compromise the integrity of the ongoing investigation. A judge has signaled he may order portions unsealed with DOJ redactions.
In a statement, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich contended that the documents seized by FBI agents were declassified and played down the items that were taken as “the President’s picture books” and “a ‘hand written note.”
“This raid of President Trump’s home was not just unprecedented, but unnecessary … This is outrageous,” Budowich said.
Jan. 6 congressional investigation
The 11-member House panel, formed last year, held eight public hearings this summer on the findings of their year-long, continuing investigation into what led to the Capitol insurrection and what Trump knew about it and did and did not do before and during the rioting.
The special committee’s hearings placed Trump at the center of what they described as an “attempted coup.” Witness testimony ranged from former Trump White House staffers — including Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner — to election administrators who testified about Trump’s actions and state of mind.
Trump, the committee argued, was well aware of the fact that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden but still heavily pressured the DOJ, local officials and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results — and he understood the threat of violence on Jan. 6 when he encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol.
The committee, seven Democrats as well as two Republicans who will leave Congress in 2023, will reconvene in September as evidence collection continues after, they have said, a deluge of information was sent to them in the wake of their hearings in June and July.
Trump has continually worked to discredit their investigation as the “Unselect Committee” made up of “highly partisan” lawmakers
Manhattan district attorney investigation
The Manhattan district attorney has been investigating whether Trump or his family business, the Trump Organization, misrepresented the value of his assets to obtain loans or tax advantages.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg took over the long-running probe from former Manhattan DA Cy Vance in January. But since then, two high-profile prosecutors on the case resigned and a grand jury expired without issuing any indictments. Bragg said in April the investigation was continuing and that his office was “exploring evidence not previously explored.”
The investigation has led to charges of tax fraud against Allen Weisselberg, the longtime CFO of the Trump Organization. He initially pleaded not guilty, but subsequently pleaded guilty to 15 counts in total — including grand larceny and tax fraud — and agreed to testify against the Trump Organization when the company goes on trial in connection with an alleged compensation scheme beginning in October.
Weisselberg will serve five months in prison, be under supervision for five years and pay a $1.94 million penalty. His plea agreement does not require him to testify against Donald Trump or other members of the Trump family.
New York state attorney general investigation
New York State Attorney General Letitia James is investigating whether to bring a civil lawsuit against Trump and his business for potential financial fraud. James launched her probe after Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime former personal attorney (whom Trump has since dismissed as a “fraudster”), testified before Congress that Trump inflated and deflated his assets when it was financially beneficial for him.
Trump filed a lawsuit against James, a Democrat, claiming she was targeting him out of political animus. But a judge struck down his argument in May, allowing James’ investigation to continue.
Trump, his daughter Ivanka and his son Donald Jr. have all been deposed in the probe. During Trump’s questioning under oath earlier this month, he cited his Fifth Amendment protection against being made to testify against himself.
Trump has called James “racist” and said her work was part of a “Banana Republic.”
Georgia criminal investigation
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched a criminal investigation in 2021 after a phone call was released showing Trump tried to pressure Georgia election officials to find enough votes to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
Willis has convened a special grand jury to investigate Trump’s actions. The grand jury will meet for up to a year and has already issued subpoenas to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, though it does not have the ability to return an indictment and can only make recommendations.
Another grand jury would need to be convened in order to bring forward any charges.
Trump responded to the formation of the grand jury by criticizing Willis as a “radical left Democrat” and doubling down that his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find the votes was “perfect.”
Giuliani is one target of the probe. He appeared before the grand jury in August.
Westchester district attorney investigation
News broke in the fall of last year that the Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah opened a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization’s golf course in Briarcliff Manor, New York.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization said at the time the probe was a continuation of a “witch hunt” against Trump.
E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit
E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle columnist, sued Trump in 2019 for defamation after he denied her rape allegation. The former president asserts he has never met her and claimed Carroll made up her account to sell a book.
The trial is set to begin in February, Judge Lewis Kaplan recently wrote in a scheduling order. Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan has told ABC News the parties are “actively engaged in document discovery, with depositions to follow, and Judge Kaplan has ordered that discovery must be completed by the middle of November 2022.”
Trump attempted to countersue Carroll on the grounds that her defamation suit was baseless, but his effort was rejected by Kaplan in March.
Michael Cohen damages lawsuit
Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, is claiming Trump retaliated against him for writing a tell-all memoir. In his lawsuit, Cohen alleged he was sent back to federal prison and put in solitary confinement for 16 days as punishment.
His lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court in December, seeks damages for “extreme physical and emotional harm” and violations of his First Amendment rights. Trump filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in April, arguing he’s shielded by presidential immunity.
A judge in Manhattan heard arguments in the case earlier this month, Cohen’s attorney Jeffrey Levine wrote on Twitter.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in Georgia has denied Sen. Lindsey Graham’s effort to delay his testimony before the Fulton County grand jury in their investigation into former President Trump’s effort to overturn the election in the state.
“Under the circumstances, further delay of Senator Graham’s testimony would greatly compound the overall delay in carrying out the grand jury’s investigation. Further delay thus poses a significant risk of overall hindrance to the grand jury’s investigation, and the Court therefore finds that granting a stay would almost certainly result in material injury to the grand jury and its investigation. Accordingly, this factor weighs against Senator Graham and in favor of the grand jury,” Judge Leigh Martin May wrote on Friday.
Graham is currently scheduled to testify Tuesday but there is still another motion to stay. He had asked the judge to quash the subpoena demanding he appear.
Graham was subpoenaed last month as part of the Fulton County district attorney’s criminal probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis officially launched the investigation in February 2021, sparked in part by the phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he pleaded with him to “find 11,780 votes,” the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.
(WASHINGTON) — GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, once a rising star in the Republican Party and considered a potential speaker of the House, told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that she has no regrets about her political career, including her primary landslide election loss in Wyoming on Tuesday, saying she now is laser-focused on keeping Donald Trump out of the White House.
During an exclusive and wide-ranging interview set to air Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Cheney, who serves as vice chair of the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol attack, told Karl she still hopes former Vice President Mike Pence testifies before the committee in the near future and that conversations with his legal team are still ongoing.
Pence had indicated this week that he would consider testifying before the committee if he were invited to do so.
“We’ve been in discussions with his counsel,” Cheney said, speaking with Karl in the Jan. 6 committee hearing room where millions of Americans have watched her during this summer’s series of hearings.
“Look, he played a critical role on January 6. If he had succumbed to the pressure that Donald Trump was putting on him, we would have had a much worse constitutional crisis. And I think that he has clearly, as he’s expressed, concerns about executive privilege, which, you know, I have tremendous respect. I think it’s, you know, hugely important constitutional issue in terms of separation of powers,” Cheney said.
“I believe in executive privilege. I think it matters. But I also think that when the country has been through something, as grave as this was, everyone who has information has an obligation to step forward. So, I would hope that that he will do that,” Cheney said.
“So, you think we’ll see him here in September in this room before the committee?” Karl asked.
“I would hope that he will understand how important it is for the American people to know every aspect of the truth about what happened that day,” Cheney said.
Cheney was asked if Trump would be asked to testify but she demurred.
“I don’t want to make any announcements about that this morning. So, let me just leave it there,” she said, adding that Trump’s interactions with the committee would be under oath.
(WASHINGTON) — Just ahead of Labor Day weekend, the federal government is doubling down on U.S. airlines, calling disruptions seen over the past few months “unacceptable” and demanding change.Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote to carriers on Thursday, calling on them to improve their customer service and warns airlines that new rules may be coming to better empower travelers who face flight disruptions within the airlines control.
“Americans expect when they purchase an airline ticket they will arrive at their destination safely, reliably, and affordably,” the secretary wrote.
According to data from the department, roughly 24% of domestic flights of U.S. airlines have been delayed and 3.2% have been canceled during the first six months of this year.
DOT said it will launch a new website in the coming weeks where travelers can see exactly what they are owed and the differences in compensation among all major airlines.
“When passengers do experience cancelations and delays, they deserve clear and transparent information on the services that your airline will provide, to address the expenses and inconveniences resulting from these disruptions,” Buttigieg wrote.
Buttigieg said airlines need to “assess” their customer service plans, and asks that carriers, at minimum, provide meal vouchers for delays of three hours or more and hotels for passengers who must wait overnight at an airport due to disruptions within the airline’s control.
Airlines for America (A4A), the group that lobbies on behalf of all major U.S. airlines, responded to the letter saying its members are “committed” to working with stakeholders to overcome these challenges.
Carriers have pointed to increased demand and staffing issues for the disruptions. A4A also cited data that indicates 63% of the cancelations for the first five months of 2022 were caused by weather and the National Airspace System (NAS) collectively.
The DOT letter comes amid a push for consumer rights – earlier this month the department announced a new rule that would “strengthen” protections for customers seeking refunds.
The rule, if enacted, would define the terms of a “significant” change and cancellation for the first time and also require airlines to issue refunds for flights delayed by three hours.
