(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.
(FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that state officials have criminally charged 20 people for voting while ineligible during the 2020 general election. The alleged fraudsters are now being arrested, DeSantis said, the highest-profile move yet by the newly minted Florida office tasked with policing voting.
Flaunting the Office of Election Crimes and Security, rolled out in early July, DeSantis said during a press conference that the individuals were convicted of murder or felony sex offenses, which by Florida law stripped them of their right to vote.
“Yet they went ahead and voted anyways. That is against the law, and now they’re going to pay the price for it,” DeSantis said at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.
The announcement comes just days before the state’s primary election on Aug. 23. Some voting rights groups have spoken out against the introduction of the new voting office, suggesting it might intimidate voters and slow turnout at the polls.
DeSantis said the “real protections for voter integrity” will be “live” on the ballot on Aug. 23, when voters hit the polls to cast their ballots in Florida’s primary election.
“Our new election crimes office has sprung into action to hold individuals accountable for voter fraud. Today’s actions send a clear signal to those who are thinking about ballot harvesting or fraudulently voting. If you commit an elections crime, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
Those charged now face third-degree felonies, up to a $5,000 fine and a maximum of 5 years in prison.
DeSantis said during the press conference that some local prosecutors might be slow to uptake and litigate election crimes. But now, with the election policing unit, Attorney General Ashley Moody and the state office, which was approved earlier this year by the GOP-controlled legislature, can bring the cases directly.
“As elected leaders, it is incumbent on us to ensure free and fair elections and instill confidence in the voting process,” Moody said at the press conference on Thursday.
“No voting system can stand without the backing and confidence of the people it serves, and thanks to Governor DeSantis, we are reinforcing that trust, and Florida’s elections system will serve as the standard-bearer for the rest of the nation.”
DeSantis’ announcement also comes on the heels of news that Andrew Warren, a Democratic Tampa Bay-area state attorney who was suspended by DeSantis earlier month, would be suing him.
Moody was also present at a press conference held by DeSantis earlier this month when the governor announced the suspension of Warren, who said he would not prosecute abortion crimes.
Warren announced on Wednesday that he’s suing the governor, claiming his removal from office violated his First Amendment rights. Warren called his suspension “political theater” on the part of DeSantis, who has long been seen as a potential contender for the White House in 2024.
On Sunday, DeSantis traveled to Arizona to speak at a Turning Point USA conference in support of Donald Trump-backed Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters and GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake. He visited Carlsbad, New Mexico earlier in the day– both appearances part of a larger tour of battleground states ahead of a hotly contested midterm cycle. DeSantis will resume a national rally tour on Friday in Pennsylvania.
DeSantis also said on Thursday that his Office of Elections Integrity and Security is looking into other classes of fraud and is slated to pursue people who cast multiple ballots in the state, as well as “illegal aliens.”
“There are investigations ongoing into people that have voted in two different jurisdictions. And I imagine you are going to see prosecutions on that,” DeSantis said.
“We also have folks who are voting who are illegal aliens who are not citizens of the united states. And as we know in Florida’s constitution, the only people eligible to vote are U.S. citizens and we think it’s really important that we do that.”
Democrat gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist called the press conference a “voter intimidation event.”
“This is about playing politics, intimidating Democratic voters, and his desire to run for president, not securing elections,” he said in a statement.
Crist’s primary opponent, Nikki Fried, also fired back at DeSantis following his announcement.
“Ron DeSantis went to Broward County today for one reason and one reason only — to intimidate voters and suppress turnout in the most Democratic counties in Florida,” she said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — The designated press area at a recent Doug Mastriano event in Indiana County was a small, roped-off square tucked into the back corner of an airport hangar where the Republican nominee to be Pennsylvania’s governor spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people in fold-up lawn chairs.
There were no audio jacks, as are typically provided at campaign events to route high-quality sound to TV cameras, and no risers to give reporters a clear view of the stage. The five journalists in the press area left enough room for only about five more.
The scene in moderately populated Indiana County, roughly 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, is emblematic of much of the campaign for Mastriano, a right-wing state senator who has shunned the news media, relying instead on small events, Facebook, conservative press and campaign volunteers to project his message.
“It’s like an underground network,” Patricia Poprik, the Republican chair in Bucks County, told ABC News.
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, Poprik said: “I can tell you: My county’s got a huge, huge amount of volunteers.”
Indeed, interviews this month with more than a dozen voters, Republican leaders and campaign workers depict an extensive grassroots movement that has energized conservatives around a candidate that had been seen by many — including some Republicans — as flawed and too extreme for the governor’s mansion, which he will reach only by defeating state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.
With about three months to go before Election Day, Shapiro holds a nine-point lead in the race, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average. His campaign touts its own bottom-up prowess, citing an app the campaign says has pulled in hundreds of volunteers and thousands of accounts that have joined the official pro-Shapiro group on Facebook.
“While Josh is campaigning across the Commonwealth, bringing people together around his positive vision for Pennsylvania’s future, Doug Mastriano continues to be defined by his dangerous extremism,” Manuel Bonder, a spokesman, said in a statement.
Some Republican experts consider Mastriano’s chances in November slim, but certainly not zero.
Nationally — and particularly before the overturning of Roe v. Wade brought the issue of abortion access back on the ballot — there had been many indicators this year that voters soured on the Democratic majority in Washington, including concerns about President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.
“I think Mastriano is a terrible candidate,” said Josh Novotney, a Philadelphia-based Republican consultant, “but I think he actually has a shot of keeping it very close, and in a crazy situation actually winning.”
Mastriano, an Army veteran who won his state Senate seat in a 2019 special election, is staunchly anti-abortion, introducing a bill soon after taking office that would ban the procedure after six weeks. (The bill has not yet been brought to the floor for a vote.)
Tom Wolf, the incumbent Democratic governor, has vowed to veto any legislation that restricts the right to an abortion. Mastriano, meanwhile, has suggested he would sign his bill into law as well as similar ones that arrive at his desk.
“January 22, 1973 was one of the darkest days in American history. On that day, seven justices of the Supreme Court ruled that the right to life could merely be reduced to a decision of convenience,” he said in a statement this spring, referring to Roe, the decision that granted a constitutional right to abortion which was overturned by the Supreme Court this summer.
Mastriano has also called climate change “fake science,” said gay marriage should “absolutely not” be legal and argued that LGBTQ couples should not be allowed to adopt. His campaign did not respond to questions asking whether he still holds these positions.
Perhaps most notoriously, at least to his critics, Mastriano also attended then-President Donald Trump’s rally outside the White House preceding the Jan. 6 insurrection and was reportedly among a group of people who appeared in a video from that day walking through police lines at the Capitol — although he denied that he breached the security barriers, saying he and his wife left when the violence began.
“I join with all patriotic Americans in condemning what occurred in the Capitol,” he said in a statement at the time.
He was also a “point person” in the scheme to send alternate Pennsylvania electors to Washington, according to The New York Times, although Poprik — one of the “fake” electors — told ABC News that she “never saw Doug at anything for the electors.” Separately, sources told ABC News last week that he was set to be interviewed by the House Jan. 6 committee.
GOP voters overwhelmingly favored Mastriano in the crowded field and he won the May primary by more than 20 points.
Despite the qualms of other Republicans, he has also impressed party officials with his grassroots approach, which he carried into the general election against Shapiro.
“It is one of the best ground campaigns I’ve ever seen,” Randy Degenkolb, the chair of the Indiana County Republican Committee, told ABC News. “I’ve been in politics a long time and on a county level, this is a really energized grassroots group.”
“He’s not trying to do a top-down campaign where it’s all marketing and politics and commercials,” added Degenkolb. “He’s really doing community events, person to person, keeping it real and keeping it fairly low-budget, which is really driving the grassroots campaign to do as much as they can to support him.”
Glenn Geissinger, the Republican chair in Northampton County, a swing county, recently told ABC News that there were “easily” at least 100 Mastriano volunteers in the county, an effort he called “exceptional.”
“We have a constant request for his stuff,” he said.
Don Clark, a 72-year-old who makes and distributes Mastriano lawn signs in Indiana County, told ABC News that he believes Mastriano is “fighting for the people.”
“The other [candidates] are fighting to pad their pockets,” he said.
Along the way, Mastriano’s campaign has kept the media at arm’s length. A video posted to Twitter in May shows a man appearing to prevent a Washington Post reporter from entering a venue hosting a campaign event. The man does not identify himself in the video or answer when asked if he works for the campaign.
ABC News was not restricted from accessing the event in Indiana County or speaking to voters there — but has not received a response to multiple messages it has sent the campaign this month.
When reached by phone, Dennis Zappone, a coordinator for the campaign in Montgomery County, told ABC News, “I don’t really know if we’re permitted to even be talking to the news media.”
“You have a lot of media folks who have basically been hostile in the past to either the senator or conservatives,” Sam DeMarco, the Republican Party chair in Allegheny County, suggested when asked why he thinks Mastriano rejects many traditional news outlets.
“He’s going to focus on taking his campaign and his message to the voters,” DeMarco said — and Mastriano wouldn’t be the first to try.
Yet, some supporters and party leaders who spoke to ABC News said they hope Mastriano will open up to the press this fall.
“I think he has to,” said Tom Eddy, the Erie County Republican chair. “You’ve got to be able to work with those people. Because if he doesn’t, I have to believe he’s not going to get any good press.”
“It might be helpful,” acknowledged Pat Jonner, a supporter in her late 60s, as she left the Indiana event. “But he’s done quite well just working closely with local people who are involved in campaigns throughout the state.”
(WASHINGTON) — After federal prosecutors unsealed charges Wednesday against a Missouri man who allegedly sent a voicemail threat to an Arizona election official last year, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer confirmed the death threat and expressed confidence in the Justice Department task force on elections, despite the group’s indictments remaining in the single digits more than a year after it was formed.
“The reality is that all prosecution agencies receive gazillions more referrals than they have the capacity to investigate. So it is, perhaps, a result of shifting priorities within the department,” Richer told ABC News in a phone interview Wednesday. “It is an allocation of resources gain, and that’s not to say that they didn’t care about it previously, but this could signal a shift in priorities.”
Launched last year to address the rise in threats against election workers and officials, the task force, as of Aug. 1, has charged just four federal cases and joined one other case that was charged prior to its establishment. Richer’s case brings the total to six, with one conviction.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. said at the beginning of August that agents have reviewed over 1,000 so-called hostile contacts, and only a fraction of those, approximately 11%, met the threshold for a federal criminal investigation, amounting to roughly 100 probes. Though the task force has faced criticism for not more aggressively prosecuting threats against election officials, Richer advised patience.
“I have great respect and patience, and even admiration for law enforcement that treads carefully and doesn’t bring something unless it is in the interest of justice in doing so,” Richer said. “Here, we’re complaining about people not operating within the confines of the law. They have to operate within the confines of the law.”
In the case involving Richer, Walter Hoornstra, 50, of Missouri, faces one charge of communicating an interstate threat and another count of making a threatening phone call, with the charges coupled carrying out a maximum of seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
“You call things unhinged and insane lies when there’s a forensic audit going on. You need to check yourself,” Hoornstra allegedly said on May 19, 2021, in a voicemail targeting Richer. “You need to do your [expletive] job right because other people from other states are watching your ass. You [expletive] reneg on this deal or give them any more troubles, your ass will never make it to your next little board meeting.”
A lawyer for Hoornstra did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Richer, a Republican who was elected as Maricopa County Recorder in 2020, said threats multiplied when he started pushing back on election fraud claims amplified by former President Donald Trump and Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann. Fann, notably, hired the Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based cybersecurity firm, which had no experience auditing elections, to oversee a widely-criticized review of results in Maricopa County as Trump’s false claims gained popularity with Arizona supporters.
“This was one of the first fever pitch moments,” he told ABC News, recalling receiving the voicemail. “And it was because the county started pushing back against some of the allegations.”
Last May, days before Hoornstra’s alleged threat, a “war room” account Richer alleges was run by the Cyber Ninjas Firm publicly and falsely claimed, without evidence, that Maricopa County had deleted election files unlawfully. When Trump amplified the false claim of deleted files to his base in a written statement, Richer rebuked him on Twitter — calling the former president’s comments targeting the state’s election “unhinged.”
“We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country,” Richer said in a tweet.
“We decided it was time to start pushing back against this because this was spilling over outside of what we had seen as the usual course of crazy politics,” Richer recalled to ABC News. “We had people quite literally calling for the heads of some of our IT members, for doing nothing.”
Richer is far from the only Arizona election official to be targeted.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democratic nominee for governor, was the target of an alleged bomb threat from Massachusetts man James W. Clark, 38. Prosecutors on the DOJ task force charged Clark in July with one count of making a bomb threat, one count of perpetrating a bomb hoax and one count of communicating an interstate threat. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
“Election officials across the country are being threatened regularly for doing their jobs,” Hobbs said in a statement last month confirming she was the target of the threat. “It’s unconscionable and undermines our democracy. This harassment won’t be tolerated and can’t be normalized. We thank the FBI for their persistence on further investigating this incident.”
Richer continues to criticize the so-called audit and its supporters for dredging up “very real-world consequences for me, for the board, for our collective offices,” over an allegation that was “facially ludicrous.”
“The whole endeavor was supposed to be towards improving confidence, but I think it has damaged it, in fact,” he said.
He said he still gets thousands of negative messages a day.
Still, he called his job “worthwhile.”
“Most people don’t get to work, wake up and say, ‘I’m going to be part of one of the most meaningful conversations in the world right now.’ And I’m going to do it with people I like,” he said. “So yeah, that’s pretty lucky.”
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
