From 2h ago
Putin claims Trump’s criminal cases show ‘rottenness’ of US politics
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Russian president Vladimir Putin waded into the debate over the criminal charges facing Donald Trump, saying that the cases against the former US president amount to political “persecution” that exposes the fundamental “rottenness” of the American political system.
Putin, speaking at an Eastern Economic Forum gathering in Russia’s Pacific coast city of Vladivostok on Tuesday, said the prosecution of Trump was good for Russia “because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy”.
The Russian leader added:
Everything that is happening with Trump is the persecution of a political rival for political reasons. That’s what it is. And this is being done in front of the public of the United States and the whole world.
Trump currently faces a total of 91 charges across four criminal cases in Georgia, Florida, New York and Washington DC. Opinion polls indicate that he holds a commanding lead over his rivals to become the Republican party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
Both during and after his four-year term in the White House, Trump repeatedly touted having a friendly relationship with Putin. Trump has also claimed he could end the war in Ukraine in a matter of days if re-elected president.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
-
10am Eastern time. The Senate will meet and hold a confirmation for Tanya Bradsher’s nomination as deputy veterans affairs secretary.
-
12pm. The House will meet to take up various bills, including resolutions calling for the release of Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich in Russia.
-
3pm. The House rules committee meets to prepare the annual defense spending bill for the floor.
-
3pm. The House freedom caucus will hold a news conference on government funding.
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Donald Trump’s legal team on Monday asked the federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference prosecution against him to remove herself from the case.
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Lawyers for the former president argued that previous public comments by the US district judge Tanya Chutkan about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying.
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The recusal motion, filed to and against Chutkan, faces major legal hurdles: to succeed, Trump must show a “reasonable person” would conclude from just her remarks – but not any of her actual rulings – that she was unable to preside impartially.
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Trump has long complained that the judge assigned to the case was biased against him because of her previous comments about Trump in other January 6 riot defendant cases and his legal team weighed filing the motion for weeks, two people familiar with deliberations told the Guardian.
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The nine-page motion identified two episodes where Chutkan remarked on her opinion about Trump’s responsibility in instigating the Capitol attack, which Trump’s lawyers argued gave rise to the appearance of potential bias or prejudice against the former president.
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The first instance came in October 2022 when she said, referring to January 6:
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And the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man … It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.
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Trump’s lawyers argued that those remarks, which came during sentencing of a rioter who stormed the Capitol, suggested Chutkan believed Trump should have been prosecuted and jailed in a pre-judgement of guilt that alone was disqualifying.
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The second instance was when the judge told another January 6 rioter in December 2021:
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The people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged.
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She added, “I have my opinions,” but that was out of her control.
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Trump’s lawyers argued that those remarks suggested Chutkan agreed with that rioter’s defense attorney, who had said Trump had falsely convinced his supporters that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that they needed to take steps to stop the peaceful transition of power.
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Here’s a clip of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin discussing the criminal cases against Donald Trump while at a forum in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok.
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Putin said the prosecution of the former US president was good from Russia’s point of view. He said:
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As for the prosecution of Trump, for us what is happening in today’s conditions, in my opinion, is good because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy.
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He continued:
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In this sense, if they are trying to fight us in some way, it’s good, because it shows who is fighting us. It shows, as they said back in Soviet times, ‘the bestial face of American imperialism, the bestial grin’.
\n
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Putin speaks out about the cases against Donald Trump:
“This shows the whole rottenness of the American political system, which cannot claim to teach others about democracy. What’s happening with Trump is a persecution of a political rival with political motives.” pic.twitter.com/oouu6rQwyQ
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) September 12, 2023
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Good morning, US politics blog readers. Russian president Vladimir Putin waded into the debate over the criminal charges facing Donald Trump, saying that the cases against the former US president amount to political “persecution” that exposes the fundamental “rottenness” of the American political system.
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Putin, speaking at an Eastern Economic Forum gathering in Russia’s Pacific coast city of Vladivostok on Tuesday, said the prosecution of Trump was good for Russia “because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy”.
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The Russian leader added:
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Everything that is happening with Trump is the persecution of a political rival for political reasons. That’s what it is. And this is being done in front of the public of the United States and the whole world.
\n
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Trump currently faces a total of 91 charges across four criminal cases in Georgia, Florida, New York and Washington DC. Opinion polls indicate that he holds a commanding lead over his rivals to become the Republican party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
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Both during and after his four-year term in the White House, Trump repeatedly touted having a friendly relationship with Putin. Trump has also claimed he could end the war in Ukraine in a matter of days if re-elected president.
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Here’s what else we’re watching today:
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- \n
-
10am Eastern time. The Senate will meet and hold a confirmation for Tanya Bradsher’s nomination as deputy veterans affairs secretary.
-
12pm. The House will meet to take up various bills, including resolutions calling for the release of Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich in Russia.
-
3pm. The House rules committee meets to prepare the annual defense spending bill for the floor.
-
3pm. The House freedom caucus will hold a news conference on government funding.
\n
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Key events
Andrew Yang, the former Democratic presidential candidate, confirmed he has had “conversations” with the centrist group No Labels about its third-party presidential bid.
Yang, in a Politico interview published yesterday evening, said:
I’ve had conversations with various folks who are associated with No Labels.
He avoided directly answering if the group had specifically approached him about running as a possible presidential candidate, but said he and the group “have a lot of friends and people in common”.
Yang, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, said he is an “anyone-but-Trump guy”, adding:
I would not run for president, if I thought that my running would be counterproductive, or if it would increase the chances of someone like Donald Trump becoming president again.
Hugo Lowell
Should the US district judge Tanya Chutkan decline to remove herself from the case, legal experts said Donald Trump could seek to have the decision reviewed and petition the US court of appeals for the DC circuit for a writ of mandamus, a judicial order to a lower-court judge compelling an action such as recusal.
The appeal could be accompanied with a motion to stay Chutkan’s rulings pending appeal, which could delay the pre-trial process and push back the current trial date set for March 2024 while that litigation continues.
That kind of postponement would be beneficial to Trump, who has made clear that his overarching legal strategy for each of his criminal cases is to seek delay – preferably until after the 2024 presidential election as part of an effort to insulate himself from the charges.
The consequences of an extended delay could be far-reaching. If the case is not adjudicated until after the 2024 election and Trump is re-elected, he could try to pardon himself or direct the attorney general to have the justice department drop the case in its entirety.
Hugo Lowell
It was uncertain whether US district judge Tanya Chutkan’s two public statements would satisfy the high bar for removal from the 2020 election interference prosecution case.
Notably, the motion by Donald Trump’s legal team did not complain about any of Chutkan’s pre-trial rulings to date, perhaps because in a handful of instances, she has ruled against prosecutors.
The judge, an Obama appointee, came into the case with a reputation of being particularly tough in January 6-related prosecutions after she handed down sentences in some cases that were longer than had been requested by the justice department.
Still, Chutkan is far from the only federal judge in DC – or elsewhere in the country, for that matter – who has suggested Trump might have culpability for the Capitol attack during sentencing hearings.
Filing a recusal motion is not necessarily uncommon and federal judges tend not to take offense, former prosecutors and defense attorneys have said, even if Trump files them almost as a matter of routine. Recently, Trump sought to recuse the state court judge in his Manhattan criminal case, which was denied.
Trump asks judge to recuse herself in federal 2020 election subversion case
Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump’s legal team on Monday asked the federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference prosecution against him to remove herself from the case.
Lawyers for the former president argued that previous public comments by the US district judge Tanya Chutkan about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying.
The recusal motion, filed to and against Chutkan, faces major legal hurdles: to succeed, Trump must show a “reasonable person” would conclude from just her remarks – but not any of her actual rulings – that she was unable to preside impartially.
Trump has long complained that the judge assigned to the case was biased against him because of her previous comments about Trump in other January 6 riot defendant cases and his legal team weighed filing the motion for weeks, two people familiar with deliberations told the Guardian.
The nine-page motion identified two episodes where Chutkan remarked on her opinion about Trump’s responsibility in instigating the Capitol attack, which Trump’s lawyers argued gave rise to the appearance of potential bias or prejudice against the former president.
The first instance came in October 2022 when she said, referring to January 6:
And the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man … It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.
Trump’s lawyers argued that those remarks, which came during sentencing of a rioter who stormed the Capitol, suggested Chutkan believed Trump should have been prosecuted and jailed in a pre-judgement of guilt that alone was disqualifying.
The second instance was when the judge told another January 6 rioter in December 2021:
The people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged.
She added, “I have my opinions,” but that was out of her control.
Trump’s lawyers argued that those remarks suggested Chutkan agreed with that rioter’s defense attorney, who had said Trump had falsely convinced his supporters that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that they needed to take steps to stop the peaceful transition of power.
Andrew Roth
US intelligence officials have accused Vladimir Putin of personally authorizing influence operations against Democratic candidates in support of Donald Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Putin ally who also managed online influence operations, admitted in November that he had interfered in the US elections. He said in the run-up to the US midterms:
Gentlemen, we interfered, we are interfering and we will interfere.
Prigozhin was killed last month when his private jet crashed en route from Moscow to St Petersburg.
Putin made the remarks during an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, where he is also due to hold meetings with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, this week.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, speaking earlier today, said significant changes in the US-Russia relationship were unlikely regardless of who wins next year’s presidential election.
What to expect from the future, no matter who the president is, it’s hard for us to say, but it’s unlikely that anything will change radically.
He claimed the Biden administration was “hammering into people’s heads” that Russia was an existential adversary and ”it will be very difficult for them to somehow turn this whole ship” in the other direction.
Speaking at an economic forum in Russia’s far-eastern city of Vladivostok, Putin also discussed Moscow’s “amazing” relations with Beijing and whether he would run for re-election in 2024. Please do follow our Russia-Ukraine war live blog for more.
Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox Business last month, boasted about his relationship with Vladimir Putin and claimed the Russian leader would have never gone into Ukraine if he was US president because he was “the apple of his eye”.
Trump said:
Putin would have never gone into Ukraine, but that was just on my relationship with him. My personality over his. [He] would have never gone in. I used to speak to him. I was the apple of his eye, but I said ‘Don’t ever do it.’ It was tough stuff there, but he would have never done it.
Trump says Putin "would have never gone into Ukraine" if he was still president, citing "my relationship with him" and because "I was the apple of his eye." pic.twitter.com/W8rPR8iPVp
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 18, 2023
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Trump says Putin “would have never gone into Ukraine” if he was still president, citing “my relationship with him” and because “I was the apple of his eye.” pic.twitter.com/W8rPR8iPVp
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 18, 2023
In a previous interview with Fox News, Trump claimed he had a plan to stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking back the White House.
Trump said he had a good relationship with both Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and Putin. He said:
I would tell Zelenskiy, no more. You got to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give him a lot. We’re going to [give Ukraine] more than they ever got if we have to. I will have the deal done in one day. One day.
Speaking earlier today in Vladivostok, the Russian leader said:
We hear that Mr Trump says that he will solve pressing problems in a few days, including the Ukrainian crisis. Well, this cannot but bring happiness. This is good.
Putin: Trump’s prosecution ‘good for Russia’
Here’s a clip of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin discussing the criminal cases against Donald Trump while at a forum in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok.
Putin said the prosecution of the former US president was good from Russia’s point of view. He said:
As for the prosecution of Trump, for us what is happening in today’s conditions, in my opinion, is good because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy.
He continued:
In this sense, if they are trying to fight us in some way, it’s good, because it shows who is fighting us. It shows, as they said back in Soviet times, ‘the bestial face of American imperialism, the bestial grin’.
Putin speaks out about the cases against Donald Trump:
“This shows the whole rottenness of the American political system, which cannot claim to teach others about democracy. What’s happening with Trump is a persecution of a political rival with political motives.” pic.twitter.com/oouu6rQwyQ
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) September 12, 2023
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Putin speaks out about the cases against Donald Trump:
“This shows the whole rottenness of the American political system, which cannot claim to teach others about democracy. What’s happening with Trump is a persecution of a political rival with political motives.” pic.twitter.com/oouu6rQwyQ
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) September 12, 2023
Putin claims Trump’s criminal cases show ‘rottenness’ of US politics
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Russian president Vladimir Putin waded into the debate over the criminal charges facing Donald Trump, saying that the cases against the former US president amount to political “persecution” that exposes the fundamental “rottenness” of the American political system.
Putin, speaking at an Eastern Economic Forum gathering in Russia’s Pacific coast city of Vladivostok on Tuesday, said the prosecution of Trump was good for Russia “because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy”.
The Russian leader added:
Everything that is happening with Trump is the persecution of a political rival for political reasons. That’s what it is. And this is being done in front of the public of the United States and the whole world.
Trump currently faces a total of 91 charges across four criminal cases in Georgia, Florida, New York and Washington DC. Opinion polls indicate that he holds a commanding lead over his rivals to become the Republican party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
Both during and after his four-year term in the White House, Trump repeatedly touted having a friendly relationship with Putin. Trump has also claimed he could end the war in Ukraine in a matter of days if re-elected president.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
-
10am Eastern time. The Senate will meet and hold a confirmation for Tanya Bradsher’s nomination as deputy veterans affairs secretary.
-
12pm. The House will meet to take up various bills, including resolutions calling for the release of Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich in Russia.
-
3pm. The House rules committee meets to prepare the annual defense spending bill for the floor.
-
3pm. The House freedom caucus will hold a news conference on government funding.