(NORTH DAKOTA) — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said Wednesday he will participate in the GOP primary debate despite being taken to the emergency room Tuesday night after injuring his left leg playing pickup basketball with his staff.
He wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “I’m in,” including a picture of his boot and crutches.
That post came shortly after he spoke to reporters as he checked out the debate stage in Milwaukee Wednesday afternoon, saying he was heading to a specialist to determine if he would be able to stand for the debate.
Burgum, using crutches and wearing an orthopedic boot, said he was told in the emergency room that he has “high-grade tear” of his Achilles tendon.
“We were just having the great game of pickup and going hard and going hard in the hoop and boom. Anybody that’s ever had this happen, they know what it feels like. It feels like you’re, you know, getting shot like a coyote in the back leg,” he said.
When asked by ABC News’ Arthur Jones about the pain he’s feeling, Burgum appeared to get emotional.
“Pain is relative, but I tell you, I’m fortunate. I didn’t have a complete — I have you know — the emergency room thinks I have a high-grade tear, as opposed to a total rupture,” he said.
“If I had a total rupture, it’d be a different story, but so far, so good, but um, you know, I’m someone who’s never taken prescription pain meds and I’m not doing that today. Even though people said that’d be a good idea. Because I’d rather –I’d rather — I mean so many Americans make so many sacrifices think law enforcement, think of military what they do for all of us,” he said.
“I mean, if you’re gonna lead this country, you got to be able to stand on one leg for two hours. You know, it’s not it’s not “Dancing with the Stars.” I mean, come on. So, I mean, I’d have to scratch if it was that but I mean, yeah, so pains, not pain is not a factor at this point,” he said.
Burgum posted about noon Wednesday, “I’ve played lots of pick-up games in my day! This isn’t the first time one has sent me to the ER. Appreciate all the well-wishes!”
Basketball is Burgum’s form of stress relief, his campaign spokesman Lance Trevor said.
“Obviously, everybody has a different way to relieve themselves stress. So, the governor is an all-conference basketball player in high school, a track runner. He’s a very active person. He’s on the ranch in North Dakota all the time. So, he went out to play some basketball, a pickup game with some of the staff members and some of his family. Last night, went up for a shot, came down and kind of injured his leg and had to go the hospital,” he said.
Burgum is one of eight GOP hopefuls set to take the stage in Milwaukee.
(ATLANTA) — The 19 defendants charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia are in the process of negotiating their bond terms and surrendering to be processed and released from the Fulton County Jail prior to the Friday deadline set by the district attorney.
Former President Donald Trump, whose bail was set by a judge at $200,000, is expected to surrender to authorities on Thursday.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 23, 4:38 PM EDT
Mug shots released of first 6 defendants processed
Authorities have released mug shots of the first six defendants to surrender in the election interference case.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office released mug shots taken of attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham, Georgia lawyer Ray Smith III and Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall.
All six have been processed at the Fulton County Jail and released on bail.
Aug 23, 4:12 PM EDT
Willis opposes Meadows’ motion to move case to federal court
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has responded to Mark Meadows’ emergency motion to prevent his arrest and remove his case to federal court, arguing that the former Trump chief of staff’s arguments are “baseless and in direct contravention with the requirements of the law.”
“In essence, the defendant’s emergency motion is a plea to this Court to prevent the defendant from being arrested on the charges lawfully brought by the State of Georgia,” the response said, highlighting that Meadows had previously requested additional time to surrender on two occasions.
Willis argued that Meadows’ removal motion only entitles him to an evidentiary hearing, which is already set for August 28; otherwise, criminal proceedings in the case, including his surrender, can continue as planned, the response said.
Meadows last week filed a motion to move his case on the basis of a federal law that he argued requires the removal of criminal proceedings brought in state court to the federal court system when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting “under color” of their office.
Among other allegations, the DA’s indictment says Meadows traveled to Cobb County Center and “attempted to observe the signature match audit being performed by law enforcement officers and officials from the Georgia Secretary of State despite the fact that the process was not open to the public” and that he sent a text message to a state investigator on Dec. 27, 2020, asking if there was a way to “speed up” results ahead of Jan. 6, “in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
Aug 23, 3:35 PM EDT
DA opposes Jeffrey Clark’s motion for emergency stay
District Attorney Fani Willis is contesting former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark’s request for an emergency stay of the Fulton County proceedings.
Clark had filed a motion in federal court Tuesday seeking an emergency stay of the proceedings, including his arrest warrant, until after Labor Day, so a judge could rule on his motion to remove his case to federal court.
In a filing today, Willis wrote that Clark “seeks to avoid the inconvenience and unpleasantness of being arrested … but provides this court with no legal basis to justify those ends.”
Clark has filed a separate motion seeking to remove his case to federal court on the basis that he was serving as a high-ranking DOJ official during the timeframe alleged in the DA’s indictment. Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer have also filed similar motions.
Clark is accused in the indictment of making false statements to senior DOJ officials “urging the officials to let him convey the false information to Georgia State Officials” that the DOJ had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia.”
Aug 23, 3:13 PM EDT
Giuliani surrenders for processing
Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has surrendered at the Fulton County Jail for processing, according to online records.
Bail for the former New York City mayor was set at $150,000 earlier Wednesday.
He faces 13 counts related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Aug 23, 3:01 PM EDT
Trump attorney Sidney Powell surrenders to authorities
Trump attorney Sidney Powell has surrendered to authorities at the Fulton County Jail for processing, according to the jail’s official website.
Powell faces 16 counts in the DA’s indictment, including two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit computer theft.
She is accused of conspiring with other co-defendants to commit election fraud by allegedly encouraging and helping people tamper with ballot markers and machines inside an elections office in Coffee County.
Powell’s bail was set at $100,000 Wednesday morning.
Aug 23, 2:54 PM EDT
Judge sets bond for Giuliani at $150,000
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has set bond for former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani at $150,000.
As with all defendants in the case, Giuliani’s bail conditions include not communicating with witnesses and co-defendants, reporting to pre-trial services by phone every month, and not obstructing justice by intimidating witnesses.
Giuliani’s bond agreement also includes a line to ensure he surrenders at Fulton County Jail by the Friday deadline DA Fani Willis set for all 19 defendants.
“The Defendant shall turn himself into the Fulton County Jail by 12:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, August 25, 2023. If the Defendant does not turn himself into the Fulton County Jail by this date and time, this consent bond order shall be null and void,” the consent order said.
Giuliani is expected to surrender at the jail later today, sources have told ABC News.
According to prosecutors, Giuliani aided Trump in perpetrating a sweeping effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, including by making false statements to state election officials.
Aug 23, 1:56 PM EDT
Giuliani’s attorneys to negotiate his bail, say sources
Two of Rudy Giuliani’s attorneys are at the Fulton County Courthouse, where sources say they’re expected to meet with the district attorney’s staff to negotiate the bond agreement for the former New York City mayor.
Both attorneys declined to comment to ABC News.
After his bond is set, Giuliani is expected to surrender later today for processing at the Fulton County Jail.
Giuliani, Trump’s one-time personal attorney, faces 13 counts in the DA’s indictment, including three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer and three counts of false statements and writing.
Aug 23, 12:10 PM EDT
Former elections director Misty Hampton gets $10K bond
Judge Scott McAfee signed off on a $10,000 bond for Misty Hampton, the former elections director in Coffee County, who was one of the 19 defendants charged in the Fulton County RICO indictment.
Hampton was present in the county elections office on Jan. 7, 2021, when forensic experts from an Atlanta company were allowed to copy software and data from the county’s election equipment, according to prosecutors.
Hampton’s bail conditions include not communicating with witnesses and co-defendants, reporting to pretrial services by phone every month and not obstructing justice by intimidating witnesses.
Aug 23, 10:37 AM EDT
Trump attorney Sidney Powell gets $100,000 bond
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set bond for Trump attorney Sidney Powell at $100,000.
Powell’s bail conditions include not communicating with witnesses and co-defendants, reporting to pretrial services by phone every month and not obstructing justice by intimidating witnesses.
Powell’s consent order marks the 13th bond package for a defendant so far.
According to prosecutors, Powell allegedly coordinated with an Atlanta company to obtain breached election data from Coffee County. She worked on Trump’s campaign after the 2020 election.
Aug 23, 9:05 AM EDT
Giuliani: ‘Your rights are in jeopardy’
Rudy Giuliani, who is facing 13 charges in connection with the effort to overturn election results in Georgia, spoke outside his apartment in New York City early Wednesday before heading to Fulton County to surrender.
“I’m going to Georgia and I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I’m defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” Giuliani said.
“The system of justice is politicized and criminalized for politics,” he added. “Your rights are in jeopardy and your children’s. Donald Trump told you this. They weren’t just coming for him. Well, me. Now they’ve indicted people.”
One-time Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani aided Trump in perpetrating a sweeping effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state, according to prosecutors in Fulton County, including by making false statements to state election officials and contributing to the harassment of two election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Aug 23, 9:05 AM EDT
Latham, Shafer also turn themselves in
Two more of former President Trump’s co-defendants have surrendered to Fulton County authorities early Wednesday, according to online jail records: Cathy Latham and David Shafer.
Latham, the former GOP chair in Coffee County, is one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state.
Shafer, former Georgia Republican Party chair, is another of the fake Trump electors. He is also among the early defendants to seek to move the case into federal court.
(NORTH DAKOTA) — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum was taken to the emergency room Tuesday night after injuring his leg playing pickup basketball with his staff, and his campaign said his status for Wednesday night’s GOP debate was unclear.
Burgum’s spokesperson, Lance Trover, speaking on ABC News Live late Wednesday morning, said whether Burgum takes the stage for the primary showdown “still remains to be seen.”
He said Burgum intends to participate in the candidate walk-through to review the stage setup Wednesday afternoon and make an assessment shortly after.
“We’re hopefully going to make the walk-through this afternoon and then make an assessment and decide than whether he is going to make the debate tonight,” Trover said.
When pressed by ABC News anchor Diane Macedo if Burgum could still participate even if he can’t physically stand, Trover said that’s a question Burgum needs to decide after the walkthrough.
“Obviously, standing two hours when your leg has been injured could be quite problematic,” Trover said.
Burgum tweeted about noon Wednesday, “I’ve played lots of pick-up games in my day! This isn’t the first time one has sent me to the ER. Appreciate all the well-wishes!”
According to the campaign, Burgum has a high-grade tear of the Achilles tendon and will make a trip to an orthopedist Wednesday afternoon. The appointment will help determine if he is able to stand on his left leg for two hours during the debate, his campaign said.
Basketball is Burgum’s form of stress relief, he said, adding Burgum was hurt while making a shot.
“Obviously, everybody has a different way to relieve themselves stress. So, the governor is an all-conference basketball player in high school, a track runner. He’s a very active person. He’s on the ranch in North Dakota all the time. So, he went out to play some basketball, a pickup game with some of the staff members and some of his family. Last night, went up for a shot, came down and kind of injured his leg and had to go the hospital,” he said.
Burgum is one of eight GOP hopefuls set to take the stage in Milwaukee.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is snubbing the Republican National Committee and Fox News by counterprogramming the first GOP primary debate with an interview with Tucker Carlson — but in a primary characterized by his consistent polling dominance, it’s unclear if his absence will hurt him in any way.
Trump has cited his indisputable frontrunner status — despite facing 91 criminal charges — to suggest that he doesn’t need to give his rivals a platform to attack him. On stage will be Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Yet, without the de facto GOP leader on stage, strategists are wondering how much the debate can shake up the race.
“For the trajectory of the entire primary, I don’t think it matters that he’s not there. I mean, probably no one remembers this debate after the next debate,” said GOP strategist Rob Stutzman, a presidential campaign veteran.
“But I also don’t subscribe to this theory that the way to move up in the field right now is to demonstrate you can take on Trump. I think this is all about who’s going to be the alternative. It’s kind of the primary within the primary, and that’s what will be on stage [Wednesday] night.”
Trump teased for months whether or not he’d join his rivals on stage in Milwaukee, only to reveal last week on his social media platform that he would “NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”
Rivals pounced on the announcement, suggesting Trump was shortchanging voters by not appearing at one of the few events where all the major candidates could be heard at once.
“If you’re not willing to do that, then I think people are not going to look kindly on that,” DeSantis said Friday.
“Surprise, surprise … the guy who is out on bail from four jurisdictions and can’t defend his reprehensible conduct, is running scared and hiding from the debate stage,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie added on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Trump – certified loser, verified coward.”
In a twist, Fox News anchor Brett Baier, who’s co-moderating the debate, told Politico Trump will be a presence regardless — maybe on video.
“If he’s not there, he’ll still be there. In other words, he’ll be a part of questioning. There may be sound bites, there may be elements where ‘this is what the leader of the primary says about this issue.’ He’ll be there, even if he’s not there,” Baier said.
It’s unclear precisely how many debates Trump plans on sitting out, but strategists predicted he also won’t attend the second debate hosted next month at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library by Fox Business, two entities that have found themselves in the former president’s crosshairs.
But a prolonged absence from the debate stage would be out of character for Trump, who has long been known for his hunger for the spotlight.
“I’m confident he won’t do the second debate because he hates the Reagan Library people and he’s been on a war with them for years,” said GOP strategist Bob Heckman. “My feeling is that at some point, Trump says, ‘Okay, I’ve got to be the guy in the middle, the guy with the middle podium. I’ve let these guys have enough airtime. I’ve got to be the guy on there.'”
Still, Trump’s absence doesn’t change the fact that he’s polling lightyears ahead of his rivals and maintains and ironclad grip on a swath of the GOP grassroots — likely forcing candidates on stage to respond to him in absentia and explain why they think they have a path to the nomination.
“I think the focal point of Wednesday night’s debate is going to be Donald Trump. And I don’t think he loses anything by not being there because it’s going to be all anybody talks about anyway. And the analysis afterwards is going to be who was willing to take on Trump and who defended Trump and what did Trump say on Truth Social,” Heckman, himself a veteran of the campaign trail, said.
“In terms of Trump’s desire to be at the center of the storm, which he always wants to be, I think he’ll accomplish that Wednesday by not being there,” Heckman added. “I also think that it’s going to be harder for anyone to gain traction until Trump is actually in a debate.”
That doesn’t mean the debate will be without fireworks.
DeSantis, the top polling Republican on stage Wednesday night, was long viewed as Trump’s most formidable primary rival. However, he’s been hit with months of negative headlines over his financing, a campaign reset and, most recently, a publicized memo from a supportive super PAC laying out specific talking points for the debate.
Since then, the race to be the alternative candidate to Trump has morphed into more of a free-for-all, setting up attacks Wednesday — especially on DeSantis.
“Either knock each other down or outshine each other,” Stutzman said when asked how the Republicans would attack each other. “It’s a little complicated, I think, for any of them that start going after each other negatively, but they really got to start demonstrating that they have what it takes to frankly win Iowa. That’s going to be how this winnows itself.”
“I think if anyone becomes the focus of direct criticism, it’s likely to be DeSantis. It’s blood in the water. If he’s driven out of the race before Iowa, it shuffles the cards in all the early states, and it puts a bunch of donors into the free agent market. So, if he’s in a tailspin, there’s a lot of incentive to kind of make sure that he doesn’t pull out of that tailspin and this thing crashes.”
Many of the attacks are expected to come from Christie, who strategists predicted would both hammer Trump and seek to tie other candidates to him for what he views as insufficient criticism of the former president.
DeSantis has spent the runup to the debate projecting confidence regardless of Trump’s attendance, saying last week that “we’re prepared either way,” and strategists suggested a strong performance by the Florida governor could halt negative headlines and help consolidate the race into a two-man contest.
But short of a standout moment from DeSantis, it’s still unclear if Wednesday’s brawl will move the needle.
“Good lord, you get indicted four times and your numbers go up each time. You’re 40 points ahead of the next challenger, and the next challenger appears to be tanking, appears to be dropping rather than rising,” Heckman said of Trump.
“I wonder how much the real fight gets delayed because Trump is not in, and I think the only way we’re going to know is what the reaction is after Wednesday,” he said. “Do you have real poll movement for any candidate who does well, or does it continue to be frozen simply because Trump was not there?”
(NEW YORK) — In a sit-down interview with ABC News, Miami mayor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Francis Suarez took repeated aim at one of his party’s most prominent White House hopefuls — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — while suggesting he saw some problems with the prosecution of front-runner Donald Trump, who denies wrongdoing.
Among Suarez’s differences with DeSantis, the mayor told ABC News Correspondent MaryAlice Parks, was the governor’s handling of Florida’s controversial new educational standards on teaching Black history and a law that DeSantis signed last year that restricts instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in some K-12 classrooms.
The Black history curriculum, which was approved unanimously by the state’s board of education last month, directs Florida educators to teach middle school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“I’ve been very vocal, very clear about the fact that there’s no virtues to slavery that should be taught in our school system,” Suarez said in the interview, at the Iowa State Fair. “And by the way, that’s not a just Vice President Kamala Harris position,” he added, referencing Harris’ trip to Florida last month to rebuke the educational standards.
DeSantis has both defended the curriculum and distanced himself from the process of creating it.
“I wasn’t involved in it,” he said in July. “But I think what they’re doing is, I think that they’re probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life. But the reality is, all of that is rooted in whatever is factual.”
“These were scholars that put that together. It was not anything that was done politically,” DeSantis said then.
Dr. William Allen, one of the architects of the educational standard, has also defended it as teaching about enslaved people’s resilience and resourcefulness.
Speaking with ABC News, Suarez contended that DeSantis had mishandled the issue.
“Most candidates feel that what the governor should have done is said, ‘Look, we made a mistake. We should not be sending this signal where we’re extolling the virtues of slavery under any circumstance,'” he said. “It was a leadership opportunity. Unfortunately, he didn’t take it.”
Suarez also took issue with part of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which DeSantis signed last year and later approved expanding. Critics have denounced it as “Don’t Say Gay” legislation because of its restriction on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity until ninth grade and only if it is “appropriate” for students.
Suarez told ABC News that while he supports such limits for students up to the third grade, he does not believe the legislation should extend to high school students. Supporters of the law argue it prevents children from being exposed to topics they find unacceptable.
Suarez drew another contrast with DeSantis, contending that DeSantis’ fight with Disney after the company’s criticism of the Parental Rights in Education bill had led DeSantis to pursue anti-business policies that were harming the state economy.
DeSantis has denied politics is influencing the conflict and said he wants Disney not to have special treatment relative to other businesses. (Disney is ABC News’ parent company.)
The Miami mayor failed to qualify for a spot on Wednesday’s debate stage in Milwaukee.
He said in a subsequent statement, in part, “I respect the rules and process set forth by the [Republican National Committee], and I look forward to working with my party to ensure we win back the White House and restore the path to a brighter future for our country.”
On Trump’s 4 indictments
Suarez announced his long shot presidential campaign just days after former President Trump appeared in a Miami federal court to be arraigned on charges that he allegedly mishandled government secrets while out of office. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Suarez told ABC News that while the presence of classified documents in Trump’s private residence after Trump left the White House “bothers” him, he believes the former president never should have been able to handle physical copies of the documents in the first place, saying he supports the use of digital versions of classified materials.
Suarez also noted that other officials have been found to have kept classified documents after leaving office, like former Vice President Mike Pence and President Joe Biden. (Neither Pence nor Biden is accused of refusing to return those materials to the government, as Trump is.)
With respect to the charges Trump separately faces in federal court in Washington, regarding efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, Suarez appeared to cast doubt on the idea that Trump was aware he lost the race, asking, “Have you ever heard him say that he knew he lost the election?”
Additionally, Suarez suggested that he and his fellow Republicans view the four federal indictments facing Trump — which also include a New York case over hush money Trump paid an adult film actress and a Georgia case over the push to change the 2020 election results there — as a detriment to the nation.
Trump maintains he did nothing wrong and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has not yet been arraigned in Georgia.
“I personally believe that there wasn’t enough evidence that I saw that the election should be overturned,” Suarez said. “Having said that, I don’t think that these kinds of prosecutions are viewed by people in my party as something that is positive for the country.”
“The fact that every time he’s prosecuted, he surges in the polls, that should say something,” he added.
From mayor to president?
The role of Miami’s mayor is part-time. While Suarez can appoint the city manager and veto legislation, he lacks a vote on the city’s commission. (By contrast, the mayor of the combined Miami-Dade County government, which surrounds the city, is more influential.)
Just one year into office, Suarez sought to expand his powers, including by giving himself authority over the city’s contracts, budget and public workers, but the “strong mayor” referendum ultimately failed before voters.
Asked whether his position as mayor has prepared him for the presidency — a leap that no other candidate has ever accomplished — Suarez likened his experience to that of other executive positions.
“I’m the CEO of a billion-and-a-half-dollar company with 4,500 employees and four labor unions in a highly international city where I meet world leaders from this hemisphere and from across the world,” he said.
If elected, Suarez would also be the first Hispanic president. His policy platform includes supporting a federal 15-week abortion ban (with some exceptions) and increasing security resources along the U.S.-Mexico border, he told ABC News.
“What we’ve seen in American politics in my lifetime is America often will choose an underdog,” he said. “And so I think it’s an opportunity for Republicans in particular to elect not just a mayor, which is a problem solver, a unifier, but also a Hispanic who could deliver not just a win in ’24 but wins going forward.”
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A Mar-a-Lago Information Technology worker’s decision to cooperate with special counsel Jack Smith and change his previous testimony paved the way for prosecutors to seek new obstruction charges against former President Donald Trump and two other aides in a superseding indictment in Smith’s classified documents case last month, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The IT director, whose identity was confirmed by sources as Yuscil Taveras, is set to be a central witness for Smith in his allegations that Trump, his aide Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira essentially attempted a cover-up as the government investigated Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
Trump, Nauta and De Oliveiras have all pleaded not guilty to all charges in the case.
It’s not clear what was the substance of the negotiations between Taveras’ attorney and the special counsel that resulted in the parameters outlined in their specific agreement, which did not require Taveras to plead guilty to any charge, according to sources.
Taveras entered into the agreement after receiving a target letter from Smith in June warning him he was likely to be charged with perjury for allegedly making false statements to investigators in grand jury testimony last March, sources familiar with the matter said.
ABC News was first to report news of the target letter, which came after Smith returned his first indictment against Trump and Nauta in early June.
Reached by ABC News last month, Taveras declined to answer questions about the target letter and his discussions with investigators, saying only, “It’s none of your business.” Taveras could not be reached for comment for this story. His current attorney declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
Identified in Smith’s superseding indictment as “Trump Employee 4,” Taveras recently switched attorneys after receiving the target letter. He was previously being represented by Nauta’s lawyer Stanley Woodward, according to recent court filings in the case.
Under the agreement, detailed by sources, Smith agreed to not prosecute Taveras for allegedly perjuring himself in exchange for his truthful testimony that detailed the conduct underpinning the new obstruction allegations in the superseding indictment.
Taveras is the first individual known to have entered into such an agreement with Smith in either of Smith’s investigations of Trump.
In his prior testimony, sources said Taveras had denied speaking to De Oliveira about a request from Nauta to delete surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate that allegedly showed the movement of boxes containing classified materials after Trump had received a subpoena from the government demanding he return any such materials remaining in his possession.
Taveras, according to sources, allegedly denied speaking at all with De Oliveira, as well as another Trump Organization employee, about surveillance cameras — even as sources said a prosecutor repeatedly suggested to him they had evidence to the contrary and warned him against making false statements.
The superseding indictment, however, documents in detail how De Oliveira allegedly pressed Taveras to find a way to delete surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago allegedly at the request of “the boss,” referring to Trump. Prosecutors have not alleged that Trump, Nauta and De Oliveiras were ultimately successful in deleting any footage.
Taveras spoke to investigators again on July 20, just one week before Smith returned his superseding indictment in the documents case, sources familiar with the matter said. Taveras denied that he had been “coached” or pressured by anyone in Trump’s orbit into giving his previous false testimony, sources said.
Instead, sources said he told investigators he hadn’t wanted to get further involved in the situation out of a fear he could potentially lose his job. It is not immediately clear whether Taveras continues to work at Mar-a-Lago, after he was publicly identified by news organizations as “Trump Employee 4” in the wake of the superseding indictment.
Taveras additionally confirmed in his interview with investigators that when he said De Oliveira pressed him to delete the surveillance footage at the request of “the boss,” he understood that to mean Trump himself, according to sources.
A filing from the special counsel’s office on Tuesday further confirmed many of the details outlined by sources to ABC News.
“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the filing from the special counsel says.
“The Government anticipates calling Trump Employee 4 as a trial witness and expects that he will testify to conduct alleged in the superseding indictment regarding efforts to delete security footage,” it states.
Taveras’ former attorney, Stanley Woodward, declined to comment.
A spokesperson with the special counsel’s office also declined to comment to ABC News.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The Biden administration is launching an application for a new student loan repayment plan Tuesday as part of its latest attempt to offer relief to borrowers as payments resume despite significant political hurdles.
“This plan is a game changer for millions of Americans, many of whom are putting off having children, buying their first home, or even starting a business because they can’t get out from under their student loans. Student loans will be manageable,” Biden’s domestic policy adviser, Neera Tanden, said.
The new plan is part of the administration’s continued efforts to tackle student loans after its push to outright cancel up to $20,000 in debt for some borrowers was struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
What is the SAVE plan?
The SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan is an income-driven repayment program that calculates payment size based off income and family size. It allows borrowers who consistently make their monthly payments to see their debt forgiven after a certain number of years.
Starting in July of 2024, borrowers approved for a SAVE plan will see their monthly payments slashed in half for undergraduate loans, falling from 10% to 5% of disposable income — the money left over after paying for necessities like food and rent.
For those with both graduate and undergraduate loans, payments would be between 5-10% of their income, weighted based off their initial loan amounts.
The administration estimates that this will save the typical borrower about $1,000 a year on their payments.
Borrowers who had $12,000 or less in initial loan amounts will also see their required payment time dramatically reduced, from 20 years to 10 years for undergraduate loans. Those with higher original principle will be required to make an extra year of payments for every additional $1,000 in loans, up to 20 years.
Can SAVE lessen the burden on borrowers as payments resume?
There are elements of the program that will kick in sooner to offer relief to those preparing to resume student loan payments, which were paused for more than three years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Starting this summer, an individual approved for a SAVE plan and making less than $32,805 would see their monthly payment drop to $0 until their income increases. The same is true for a family of four making less than $67,500.
The Department of Education will also cap interest accrual for those approved for SAVE — essentially canceling any interest not covered by their monthly payments to prevent loans from growing.
The administration is urging anyone interested in applying for SAVE to do so in the coming days with the expectation that these benefits will kick in when payments resume in October, though no firm date was given.
Senior administration officials estimate that servicers will need about four weeks from when an application is received in order to process it.
Didn’t the Supreme Court strike down student debt relief?
In June, the Supreme Court rejected a Biden administration program that would have canceled between $10,00 and $20,000 in federal loans for people making below a certain income.
Since then, the White House has sought to tackle the debt in other ways, including by overhauling one of the most popular income-driven repayment programs, REPAYE, to become the new SAVE program.
Conservative detractors have called the relief an abuse of taxpayer money.
“The Biden administration’s blatantly political attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court is shameful. The Biden administration is trampling the rule of law, hurting borrowers, and abusing taxpayers to chase headlines,” Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, who is chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee said in a statement when the policy was announced last month.
Who is eligible?
Most borrowers are eligible loans for benefits provided by the SAVE plan, including direct subsidized loans, direct unsubsidized loans, and others, according to a Department of Education spokesperson.
Some borrowers with older loans will have to first consolidate them into a direct consolidation loan to be eligible for repayment under the SAVE plan, per the spokesperson, and the application will walk borrowers through any actions they need to take to make these loans eligible.
How do I sign up?
Anyone interested in signing up for a SAVE plan should visit StudentAid.gov/SAVE to fill out the application. Application status should be visible on the account’s dashboard once completed.
Borrowers who are currently enrolled in the income-driven repayment plan REPAYE will automatically have their monthly payments adjusted to the new SAVE plan before payments restart in October.
The administration estimates more than 20 million student borrowers could benefit from SAVE, which will particularly benefit low- and middle-income families struggling to dig out from debt.
(ATLANTA) — As the 2024 election draws near, voting rights advocates are taking lessons from the 2020 elections to safeguard the rights of voters in areas like Fulton County, Georgia, where former President Donald Trump was indicted for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the last presidential election.
Trump and others were indicted under Georgia’s racketeering law, or RICO, related to alleged efforts to overturn 2020 election results in the state. This includes, among other claims, allegedly conspiring to cast false Electoral College votes, and making false statements concerning voting fraud. Trump’s campaign responded to the charges by calling them “un-American” and “wrong.” He has denied all wrongdoing.
Advocates say the indictment signals progress in a state that has become central to the voting rights fight, but the battle continues in efforts to expand access to voting for residents.
“This moment is important because it means that there’s no place for this behavior in our democracy and that people will be held accountable for their actions,” said Cianti Stewart-Reid, the executive director of voting rights advocacy group Fair Fight.
“They have the right to have their voices heard in every election and that’s the work that we will continue to do at Fair Fight,” she continued.
Georgia used to be a Republican stronghold during elections — in 2016, Trump won the state by more than 200,000 votes. However, in recent years, Georgia has solidified itself as a swing state following the election of Democrats like President Joe Biden, and Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
“[Trump] really couldn’t believe that Georgia had flipped,” Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, told ABC News. “What I’ve been told by Republican consultants is that they were telling the Trump campaign, in the summer and fall of 2020, ‘don’t just assume Georgia is in the bank for Republicans’ and ‘this is a different state that has become much more competitive.’ And what they tell me is their message was not getting through.”
Simultaneously, Georgia has become the epicenter of the fight for voting rights due to a grassroots push what voting rights activists call against suppressive voting laws and a concerted effort to get residents of color registered and to the polls.
“Georgia has consistently been kind of a focal point in American politics where power is concerned,” said Kendra Davenport Cotton, the CEO of voting rights group New Georgia Project Action Fund.
A primary election in Georgia in June of 2020 was plagued with problems — long lines, worker shortages, delayed poll openings and voting machines issues — which highlighted longstanding difficulties in the state.
For the presidential election in 2020, “we left no stone unturned,” said Cotton.
“We knocked on over 2 million doors. We were able to mobilize our groups, get them out,” she added.
Several groups say they helped register hundreds of thousands of Georgians to vote in recent years to combat election practices they call suppressive.
Fair Fight founder Stacey Abrams is often credited with Democrats’ electoral successes in 2020, becoming a major voting rights figure. She unsuccessfully campaigned twice as the Democratic nominee for Georgia governor.
Georgia voted in favor of now-President Joe Biden. He won by nearly 12,000 votes.
“It is no coincidence that after a multiracial, multigenerational coalition of voters and advocates came together in 2020 to win the election, that there has been such incredible pushback and attack on those efforts to expand access to the ballot,” said Stewart-Reid.
Black, Latino and Asian American voters have been key to Georgia’s registered voter growth since 2016, according to the Pew Research Center.
Fulton County is 45% Black, 38% white, 8% Asian and 7% Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
Looking forward to 2024, Georgia is likely to be the center of contention once again, as politicians fight to win the votes of millions. With the passage and implementation of SB 202, a sweeping elections bill that overhauled local election laws, activists and experts say all eyes are on the next election.
“Georgia voted for several Democrats — Joe Biden, Jon Ossoff and they voted for Raphael Warnock twice. Does that make Georgia a blue state? Absolutely not,” Bullock said.
As these voting rights battles continue on the ground, advocates say the indictment gives a stronger sense of confidence in ensuring voters are heard in elections.
“Ultimately, this is not a story just about Donald Trump. It’s about the people whose vote he was trying to undermine, the millions of Georgians who waited in long lines and showed up to the polls to cast their ballot and have their voices heard,” Stewart-Reid said.
(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden will travel to India next month to attend this year’s Group of 20 leaders’ summit, potentially placing him in the same venue as Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House said Tuesday.
Biden will travel to New Delhi, the site of this year’s gathering, from Sept. 7 to 10, according to the White House.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is expected to continue to take center stage at the gathering, just as members of Congress return to Washington and consider approving Biden’s request for billions in additional military and economic aid for Kyiv.
The G20 meeting could also lead Biden to come into close proximity to Putin, who reportedly has not ruled out attending.
This week, Putin is skipping attending a summit in South Africa in person while a warrant for his arrest from the International Criminal Court remains outstanding. India, though, is not a party to the ICC.
Other potential attendees could include Chinese President Xi Jinping and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In New Delhi, Biden will also focus on climate change, clean energy, and reforming multilateral development banks, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, according to the White House.
His attendance will place him in a preferable position — leading on the world stage — as compared with that of his potential 2024 Republican presidential challenger, former President Donald Trump, who is facing a spate of criminal cases that will pull him from the campaign trail.
The week Biden is scheduled to depart for India is the same week the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, proposed arraigning Trump and other defendants charged with counts related to interfering with Georgia’s 2020 election. Trump is expected to enter a plea of not guilty.
The White House also announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will attend two summits in Jakarta, Indonesia, in the days before Biden departs for New Delhi.
Harris will travel to Indonesia’s capital from Sept. 4 to 7 to attend the East Asia Summit and the U.S.-ASEAN summit, according to the White House.
In Jakarta, Harris will turn her attention to the climate crisis, maritime security, infrastructure, economic growth, and upholding international rules and norms, the White House said.
(NEW YORK) — Despite entrepreneur and commentator Vivek Ramaswamy’s political inexperience, he has gotten some early traction with conservative voters: The 2024 Republican hopeful currently sits at third place in FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average — ahead of rivals like former Vice President Mike Pence though still far behind Donald Trump the front-runner.
Ramaswamy hasn’t slowed down on the trail as his standing has risen in the field, making stops in seven states in the week leading up to the first Republican primary debate, on Wednesday in Milwaukee.
In a sit-down interview on his campaign bus with ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, Ramaswamy described his approach to the trail this way: “to not be over-artificial or over-prepared, really, and instead continue to talk to voters across this country, which I think is probably the best form of debate prep.”
“The reality is that the other candidates have all been in both Republican primary and general election political debates before. I haven’t. So I’m fully prepared for taking a few iterations to find my stride as Trump did in 2015,” Ramaswamy said.
Since launching his campaign early this year, Ramaswamy has modeled much of his platform and pitch to voters along Trump’s initial, disruptive run. And like the former president, Ramaswamy’s policies sometimes break from the bipartisan consensus in Washington, such as when he suggested he would allow China to invade the self-governing island of Taiwan once the U.S. no longer needs Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing power.
He has also called for raising the voting age to 25, with some caveats — a proposal that would require amending the U.S. Constitution.
Ramaswamy calls himself a “free-speech absolutist,” running on a slogan of “TRUTH” and opposing all hate speech laws.
As his numbers have gone up, so has the scrutiny he’s faced, including criticism from other GOP candidates like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who went after his claim that Israel receives “preferential treatment” from the U.S. (His campaign shrugged off that attack.)
Asked by ABC News why he thinks voters should believe that he’s equipped to be president with no experience in public office, Ramaswamy, 38, said: “When it comes to the next president of the United States, I think we absolutely need an outsider …. one preferably from a different generation.”
“I’m the one person in this race, I think, who is not just leading us from something — I’m leading us to start running to something to an actual vision of what it means to be an American with an actual agenda, not just against the failed Biden agenda. That’s boring,” he said.
His goal, he said, is to “restore integrity and accountability to government to dismantle the bureaucracy in Washington.”
At the same time, he has made clear his disdain for “secular cults” like “transgenderism,” an example of his harsh rhetoric and criticism of transgender people and trans issues that has fueled outcry from advocates.
He has also maintained that his views are driven by concern for children and said, “I believe that we live in a country where free adults should be free to dress how they want, behave how they want and that’s fine.”
Speaking with ABC News, Ramaswamy said he’s taking Trump’s “America-first” agenda “further than Trump did.”
“I call it America First. 2.0,” he said when asked by Scott why Americans should vote for him when Trump is still in the race.
“I think there’s only two people who matter in this race. That’s Donald Trump and myself … I don’t think that there’s a relevant race from any two candidates other than Trump and myself,” he said, adding, “I guess we’ll call myself young, scrappy and hungry, and that’s exactly the way I’m running this campaign.”
Though some have speculated that Ramaswamy is vying for a spot in the next Republican presidential Cabinet, or even as a running mate pick, Ramaswamy said he’s in the race to win.
“I don’t think there’s another Republican in this race who can deliver a Reagan 1980-style landslide like I think I’m in a position to do,” he contended. “That’s why I’m in this race and I think we’re going to succeed to do it.”
