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A Florida district judge assigned to oversee Donald Trump’s classified documents case is attracting criticism ahead of his court appearance in Miami – given that it was Mr Trump himself who elevated her to the bench three years ago. Unless she chooses to recuse herself, Aileen Cannon, a federal judge with the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, will be placed in charge of the timing and progression of the criminal case as well as rulings on motions brought by the defence and prosecution. If the former president is then convicted, she would also be tasked with handing down a sentence to the very man who nominated her to that position. Mr Trump is charged with 37 felony counts related to the mishandling of presidential records, including highly-sensitive national defence information, since his departure from the White House in January 2021. He has so far insisted that he he is “an innocent man” in angry statements and postings to Truth Social, alleging that he is the victim of “rabid wolves” and the “weaponisation” of the justice system by the “corrupt” Joe Biden administration, even as the indictment revealed photos of boxes of files stacked high in the glitzy ballrooms and bathrooms of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Angela Noble, the court’s chief clerk, has insisted that “normal procedures were followed” in assigning Judge Cannon and magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart to the case after their names appeared on Thursday’s summons. However, Judge Cannon has already come under fire for delivering rulings widely considered favourable to Mr Trump over the course of the investigation into the classified documents. After the FBI executed a search warrant in August 2022 to enter Mar-a-Lago and search for classified documents, lawyers for Mr Trump filed a complaint arguing that the search had been illegitimate and unconstitutional. Judge Cannon subsequently issued an order prohibiting the US government from “further review and use of any of the materials” seized from Mar-a-Lago “for criminal investigative purposes”. The ruling attracted concern in legal circles as an unprecedented instance of a federal judge assuming the authority to halt a pre-indictment criminal investigation into a suspect. Her ruling was later reversed by the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Judge Cannon also last year sided with Mr Trump’s request that an independent special master be appointed to review the documents before they could be examined by the Justice Department, a decision that was branded “deeply flawed” by Mr Trump’s own former attorney general Bill Barr. After appointing special master Raymond Dearie, Judge Cannon then overruled a number of his procedural proposals and sided with Mr Trump’s attorneys on several key points. The appeals court ruled that Judge Cannon had “improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction” and directed her to stand down from the case. Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern called that decision “one of the most humiliating appellate smackdowns in recent history, a total demolition of literally every action that Cannon had taken from the outset of the case”, also labelling the judge “a venal mediocrity”. He also suggested that the “total lack of principle” and “evident incapacity to experience shame” was likely to prove beneficial to Mr Trump once again this summer. Judge Cannon is of American-Cuban descent and was born in Cali, Colombia, in 1981. She was raised in Miami where she attended the Ransom Everglades School, then Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and then the University of Michigan Law School. She clerked for an appellate judge in Iowa for one year after graduating, then worked for the corporate law firm Gibson Dunn in Washington DC, from 2009 to 2012 and then as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida, based out of Fort Pierce, from 2013 to 2020. Following her nomination by Mr Trump, she was confirmed as a federal judge by the US Senate in November 2020 in the dying days of his one-term administration. Her appointment to the bench came just 12 years after she first qualified to practice law, the minimum experience the American Bar Association requires nominees to have. Judge Cannon is a registered Republican, has been a member of the conservative Federalist Society since 2005 and reportedly donated $100 to Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s gubernatorial election campaign in 2018. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump heads to Miami ahead of arraignment as Bill Barr says ex-president is ‘toast’ Trump’s favourability rises in poll despite indictment Jonathan Turley tells Fox News the Trump indictment is ‘extremely damning’ and a ‘hit below the waterline’ Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

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Former Trump administration attorney general Bill Barr gave a devastating analysis of the indictment against Donald Trump, his former boss, in an appearance on Fox News Sunday. Mr Barr said that if even half of what is alleged in the 49-page, 37-count document is true, then the former president is “toast”. Host Shannon Bream asked the former attorney general about the argument from Trump loyalists that the case should have been handled under the Presidential Records Act and not under the Espionage Act. Mr Barr explained that this all began under the Presidential Records Act with the National Archives trying to retrieve the documents that Mr Trump had no right to have. However, it quickly became apparent that the government was particularly worried about how sensitive the classified documents were. He continued by saying that their sensitivity and how many there were shocked him, and that because Mr Trump had wilfully retained those materials that made the counts under the Espionage Act “solid”. “If even half of it is true, he is toast,” the former attorney general told Bream. “I mean, it’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning.” Mr Barr also demolished claims that Mr Trump is some kind of victim being politically persecuted in a Democrat-led witch hunt. “This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here or a victim of a witch hunt is ridiculous,” he said. “Yes, he’s been a victim in the past. His adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims. And I’ve been at his side defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He’s not a victim here.” Mr Barr continued: “He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has. They have to be in the custody of the archivist. He had no right to maintain them and retain them.” The former attorney general then reminded viewers of his history of sticking up for Mr Trump despite the current hostility the former president now has for him. “He’s been angry with me for a while,” Mr Barr told Bream. “But you know, I defended the president on Russiagate. I stood up and called out Alvin Bragg’s politicised hit job. And I have spoken out for 30 years about the abuse of the criminal justice process to influence politics.” He continued: “But this is simply not true. In this particular episode of trying to retrieve those documents, the government acted responsibly. And it was Donald Trump who acted irresponsibly.” In further remarks, he said that the entire classified documents case came about because of the reckless conduct of the former president, something he has said before. Mr Barr also noted: “There are two big lies that are out there right now. One is that: ‘oh, these other presidents took all these documents’ ... and the second thing is this idea that the president has complete authority to declare any document personal is facially ridiculous.” The former attorney general’s remarks did not go unnoticed by his former boss, who took to Truth Social calling him a “gutless pig” and telling his followers to turn off Fox News whenever Mr Barr is on as a guest. Virtually everyone is saying that the Indictment is about Election Interference & should not have been brought, except Bill Barr, a “disgruntled former employee” & lazy Attorney General who was weak & totally ineffective. He doesn’t mean what he’s saying, it’s just MISINFORMATION. Barr’s doing it because he hates “TRUMP” for firing him. He was deathly afraid of the Radical Left when they said they would Impeach him. He knows the Indictment is Bull…. Turn off FoxNews when that “Gutless Pig” is on! @realDonaldTrump Mr Barr had previously drawn the former president’s ire by predicting he would face charges over the classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. He also described it as a crisis of his own making. Mr Trump lashed out at him for those comments calling him “sloppy” and “weak”. The former attorney general has also warned that Mr Trump getting a second term as president would “deliver chaos” to the country. “If you believe in his policies, what he’s advertising as his policies, he’s the last person that could actually execute them and achieve them,” Mr Barr said at a City Club of Cleveland luncheon in Ohio in early May. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump heads to Miami ahead of arraignment as Bill Barr says ex-president is ‘toast’ Trump savages Bill Barr three times in sprawling interview with Roger Stone Trump’s favourability rises in poll despite indictment Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

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The popularity of Donald Trump rose among Americans despite him becoming the first president to be indicted twice, while Joe Biden’s favourability marked a decline, according to a latest poll The poll suggested that the ex-president was consolidating more and more support from the people who believe his federal indictment was politically motivated at a time when he is running for the White House and is considered as the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Mr Trump emerged as the favourable choice of 31 per cent of people, marking a six per cent rise from April, a poll by ABC News and Ipsos conducted after his second indictment suggested. Mr Biden’s popularity was tied with Mr Trump, with 31 per cent of people finding him a favourable choice. His ratings marked a decline of three per cent, hitting an all time low since 2020, in what was the worst indication for the president who launched his re-election bid for 2024 elections. The survey was conducted on 9-10 June with 910 people interviewed on a range of questions, including their view on criminal charges brought against the former president. Mr Trump was continuing to consolidate support even after his first indictment in New York in alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and his latest in the classified documents case. A federal grand jury indicted the former president on 8 June on charges stemming from his alleged unlawful retention of national defence information. The 49-page indictment was unsealed on Friday (9 June), revealing 37 counts against the ex-president. His favourability correlated with how people felt about charges bought against him. Around 47 per cent of people said the charges against Mr Trump were politically motivated, compared to 37 per cent who did not see politics behind the indictments. At the same time, more people wanted Mr Trump to be charged and held accountable for federal felonies than those who believe he should not be. Nearly half – 48 per cent of Americans – said Mr Trump should have been charged in the cases while 35 per cent voted against it. In his first public address since the Department of Justice unsealed its indictment, Mr Trump called the charges “ridiculous and baseless” returning to the campaign trail. “This is a political hit job. Republicans are treated far different at the Justice Department than Democrats,” Mr Trump claimed at a state GOP convention in Columbus. “They’re cheating, they’re crooked, they’re corrupt – these criminals cannot be rewarded, they must be defeated.” Read More Trump, allies escalate attacks on criminal case as history-making court appearance approaches Is Donald Trump going to prison? Watch as hundreds of Trump supporters gather in Florida after indictment of ex-president Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

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Donald Trump and his allies are escalating efforts to undermine the criminal case against him and drum up protests as the former president braces for a history-making federal court appearance this week on dozens of felony charges accusing him of illegally hoarding classified information. Trump's Tuesday afternoon appearance in Miami will mark his second time in as many months facing a judge on criminal charges. But unlike a New York case some legal analysts derided as relatively trivial, the Justice Department's first prosecution of a former president concerns conduct that prosecutors say jeopardized national security and that involves Espionage Act charges carrying the threat of a significant prison sentence in the event of conviction. Ahead of his arraignment, Trump ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Justice Department special counsel who filed the case, calling Jack Smith “deranged" and his team of prosecutors “thugs" as he repeated without any evidence his claims that he was the target of a political persecution. He called on his supporters to join a planned protest at the Miami courthouse Tuesday, where he will be arraigned on the charges. “We need strength in our country now,” Trump said, speaking to his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone in an interview on WABC Radio. “And they have to go out and they have to protest peacefully. They have to go out.” “Look, our country has to protest. We have plenty of protest to protest. We’ve lost everything,” he went on. He also said there were no circumstances “whatsoever” under which he would leave the 2024 race, where he's so far been dominating the Republican primary. Other Trump supporters have rallied to his defense with similar language, including Kari Lake, the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona who pointedly said over the weekend that if prosecutors “want to get to President Trump,” they're ”going to have to go through me, and 75 million Americans just like me. And most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA." Trump's calls for protest echoed exhortations he made ahead of a New York court appearance last April, where he faces charges arising from hush money payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign, though he complained that those who showed up to protest then were “so far away that nobody knew about ’em,” And just like in that case, he plans to address supporters in a Tuesday evening speech hours after his court date. Trump is expected to depart for Miami on Monday and will spend the rest of the day in Florida, huddled with advisers. After his court appearance, he will return to New Jersey, where he’s scheduled a press event to publicly respond to the charges. Trump supporters were also planning to load buses to head to Miami from other parts of Florida, raising concerns for law enforcement officials who are preparing for the potential of unrest around the courthouse. Mayor Francis Suarez was expected to announce additional details Monday about the preparations though there was little police presence near the courthouse as late as Sunday afternoon and barricades hadn’t yet been erected nearby, a stark contrast to New York City where police planned for protests for weeks even though no violence ultimately happened. The Justice Department unsealed Friday an indictment charging Trump with 37 felony counts, 31 relating to the willful retention of national defense information. Other charges include conspiracy to commit obstruction and false statements. The indictment alleges Trump intentionally retained hundreds of classified documents that he took with him from the White House to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after leaving the White House in January 2021. The material he stored, including in a bathroom, ballroom, bedroom and shower, included material on nuclear programs, defense and weapons capabilities of the U.S. and foreign governments and a Pentagon “attack plan,” the indictment says. The information, if exposed, could have put at risk members of the military, confidential human sources and intelligence collection methods, prosecutors said. Beyond that, prosecutors say, he sought to obstruct government efforts to recover the documents, including by directing personal aide Walt Nauta — who was charged alongside Trump — to move boxes to conceal them and also suggesting to his own lawyer that he hide or destroy documents sought by a Justice Department subpoena. Some fellow Republicans have sought to press the case that Trump is being treated unfairly, citing the Justice Department's decision in 2016 to not charge Democrat Hillary Clinton for her handling of classified information through a private email server she relied on as secretary of state. But those arguments overlook that FBI investigators did not find any evidence that Clinton or her aides had willfully broken laws regarding classified information or had obstructed the investigation. New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, speaking Sunday on CBS News, said there was a “huge difference” between the two investigations but that it “has to be explained to the American people.” The Justice Department earlier this month informed former Vice President Mike Pence that it would not bring charges over the presence of classified documents in his Indiana home. A separate Justice Department special counsel investigation into the discovery of classified records at a home and office of President Joe Biden continues, though as in the Clinton case, no evidence of obstruction or intentional law-breaking has surfaced. Trump's own former attorney general, William Barr, offered a grim prediction of Trump's fate, saying on Fox News that Trump had no right to hold onto such sensitive records. “If even half of it is true,” Barr said of the allegations in the indictment, “then he’s toast. I mean, it’s a pretty — it’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning. And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here — a victim of a witch hunt is ridiculous.” ___ Colvin reported from New York. Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP ___ More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement The Great Grift: How billions in COVID-19 relief aid was stolen or wasted Report: Billionaire investor, philanthropist George Soros cedes control of empire to a younger son US aims to rejoin UN scientific and educational organization to push back on China

The 125-year-old institution is teaching a new generation of Belgians a different history.

A GOP senator used a bit of alternative history to paint the Justice Department’s decision to prosecute Donald Trump as improper and politically motivated on Sunday. Ron Johnson was speaking on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with host Maria Bartiromo when he made the claim that the twice-impeached former Republican president had, in fact, decided against directing the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton, the opponent he famously vowed to “lock up” countless times on the campaign trail. "[President Gerald] Ford decided it was best for America to not pursue prosecution against [President Richard] Nixon. President Trump pretty much made the same decision, decided not to pursue any kind of prosecution of Hillary Clinton,” said Mr Johnson. “Joe Biden could have made the same decision. He didn't,” added the senator. There were a couple of important issues with Mr Johnson’s assertion, however. Number one, Mr Ford did not direct the Justice Department to end a criminal investigation into his predecessor; instead, he pardoned Mr Nixon for any crimes he committed while in office, making a prosecution moot. Mr Trump hardly extended that same gesture to Ms Clinton. In fact, the Department of Justice closed the investigation into the Democratic secretary of State on two separate occasions, both before Mr Trump ever took office. The final end to that probe occurred two days before Mr Trump’s 2016 election victory, after the FBI had made the controversial decision to reopen the investigation with just days to go in the race. Mr Johnson’s apparent assertion that Mr Biden should consider pardoning Mr Trump for crimes he may have committed is the latest in an emerging line of half-hearted defences of the former president by Republicans aligned with the party’s establishment. Others, like Ohio’s new senator, JD Vance, have rejected the idea that any crimes could have been committed at all. Those more forceful arguments align more closely with the former president’s own; Mr Trump has loudly insisted that he is not guilty of the numerous allegations levied against him in the DoJ’s indictment, including witness tampering and violations of the Espionage Act. He also faces a separate set of criminal charges in New York stemming from a scheme to pay hush money to an adult film star, Stormy Daniels. Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case. Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement Lindsey Graham ties himself in knots trying to defend Trump over classified documents indictment ‘It’s making them angrier’: North Carolina Republicans rally around Trump after indictment Trump allies cite Clinton email probe to attack classified records case. There are big differences

After attacking his former attorney general on Truth Social earlier in the day for his assessment that he is “toast” following his federal indictment, Donald Trump lashed out at Bill Barr three times during a sprawling interview on Roger Stone’s first radio show. Having called him a “gutless pig” online and told his followers to switch off Fox News anytime Mr Barr is a guest, the former president kept the attacks going during his chat with Mr Stone on WABC. Mr Barr gave a devastating assessment of the indictment of the president in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case during an appearance on Fox News earlier on Sunday 11 June. Speaking about the indictment, the former president took his first shot at Mr Barr: “This thing is a disgrace and virtually everybody other than a lowlife like Bill Barr, who, as you know, I terminated because he was gutless. He wouldn’t do what you’re supposed to do. But everybody says this is a disgraceful indictment.” Mr Stone asked a little later in the interview: “Do you believe that former Attorney General Bill Barr is in fact part of the Deep State?” Mr Trump demurred from calling his former attorney general that, but said: “I think he’s a coward who didn’t do his job.” He added: “We had unbelievable people, as you know, in the administration. But we also had some that we got wrong. And Bill Barr was a mistake.” As usual, Mr Trump got personal with his criticism of one of his chief detractors who made a point of noting in his interview on Fox News Sunday that he had defended the former president on numerous occasions. Said Mr Trump: “And now he goes and he sits down — if they can find a chair for him, because it’s not that easy — and he sits down and he just bloviates and it’s disgraceful.” “It’s actually unpatriotic. It’s so bad for our country, just so bad. But, you know, he’s got a lot of hatred,” he added. Before the end of the 45-minute interview, which covered a wide range of topics from UFOs to Melania Trump to Ron DeSantis, in addition to the indictment, the former president got one more shot in. He said: “When I talk about a slob like Bill Barr, just a stupid person in a lot of ways, this is really not the standard. We’ve had tremendously successful people. But some we haven’t and you know, we cannot afford to have cowards. We need strong people, because our country is going to hell.” Mr Stone and Mr Trump both made a point of telling the former president’s supporters to protest peacefully if they come to the courthouse on Tuesday for his first hearing. Read More ‘If even half of it is true, he is toast’: Bill Barr gives devastating view of Trump indictment on Fox News Trump allies cite Clinton email probe to attack classified records case. There are big differences Jim Jordan rejects Trump’s statement suggesting Mar-a-Lago papers weren’t declassified Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again ally in the Senate issued a half-hearted defence of the former president on Sunday as Republicans across Washington issued varied responses to the federal indictment against the former president. Sen Lindsey Graham was on ABC’s This Week, where he received a grilling by host George Stephanopoulos about the allegations in the Justice Department’s 37-count indictment, unsealed last week. In one exchange, the South Carolina senator blew up and demanded that he be allowed to finish his remark after Stephanopoulos, attempting to get him back on track, interrupted his spiel about Hillary Clinton and a private email server she used to store data during her time as secretary of State, in violation of federal rules. “You didn't answer the question," Stephanopoulos shot back. "Well, yeah, I'm trying to answer the question from a Republican point of view. That may not be acceptable on this show,” Mr Graham complained in response. He would go on to argue that many Republicans, including apparently Mr Graham himself, see the Justice Department as applying two different standards to Donald Trump and his Democratic rivals like Joe Biden, who was found to have a small trove of classified documents dating back to his time as vice president at his home and office, as well as Ms Clinton, who was investigated by the FBI for her use of the private server. "Most Republicans believe we live in a country where Hillary Clinton did very similar things, and nothing happened to her,” he argued. "Whether you like Trump or not, he did not commit espionage," Mr Graham continued. "He is not a spy. He's overcharged. Did he do things wrong? Yes, he may have. He will be tried about that. But Hillary Clinton wasn't." There are a few facts that undermine the assertion that Mr Trump and his Democratic allies are (or should be) on the same playing field. For one, all indications point to the idea that Mr Trump and his team delayed and fought federal authorities for months after the trove of documents was discovered, only yielding the bulk of them during an FBI raid. Secondly, as secretary of state, Ms Clinton’s records would not fall under the authority of the Presidential Records Act. And thirdly, the FBI investigated Ms Clinton for months in a politically damaging probe that is widely thought to have contributed to her defeat to Donald Trump in 2016, even if it did not eventually end in criminal charges. There are also the other serious allegations that Mr Graham did not discuss, including witness tampering, which only tangentially relate to the ex-president’s choice to retain records and documents from his administration. Mr Graham went on in the interview to reassert that he was still supporting Mr Trump’s third bid for the presidency, even though he would not defend the specific behaviour alleged in the Justice Department’s indictment which he appeared to dismiss entirely as a hit job. His comments are just the latest in a long line of defences for Mr Trump, whose political future he has also vocally opposed on at least two separate occasions, including in the runup to the 2016 Republican nominating convention as well as the immediate aftermath of January 6. The South Carolina senator is considered a case study of the Republican Party’s evolution under Mr Trump, which continues to force many of the ex-president’s former detractors to return to his embrace in order to protect their political futures. Read More What is an indictment? Here’s what Donald Trump is facing ‘If even half of it is true, he is toast’: Bill Barr gives devastating view of Trump indictment on Fox News Trump allies cite Clinton email probe to attack classified records case. There are big differences