Headline

Trump Says He Expects To Be Indicted In Capitol Riot Probe

Published

2 years ago

July 18, 2023

Editor

Former US president Donald Trump said Tuesday he expected to be charged over the January 6 attack on the US Capitol — an indictment that would ramp up his legal woes as he makes another White House run.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is already facing criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith for mishandling top secret government documents after leaving office.

Trump said he received a letter from Smith on Sunday stating that he’s a target of the probe into January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed Congress in a bid to prevent certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

“Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter… stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6 Grand Jury investigation,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The 77-year-old Trump said he was given four days to report to a grand jury, “which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.”

“This witch hunt is all about election interference and a complete and total political weaponization of law enforcement,” he said. “It is a very sad and dark period for our Nation!”

It was not immediately clear what charges Trump may face, and a target letter does not always result in an indictment.

Before the Capitol attack, Trump delivered a fiery speech nearby urging the crowd to “fight like hell,” and Smith has spent months looking into January 6 and Trump’s other efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

An unnamed advisor to Trump told the Post the former president would decline to appear before the January 6 grand jury, which has already heard testimony from a number of close Trump associates.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested for taking part in what prosecutors have called an insurrection intended to keep Trump in the White House.

Most of them face charges of illegally entering the Capitol or causing property damage, but some 350 have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers or resisting arrest.

Others, including members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have been convicted of the more serious charge of seditious conspiracy.

– ‘Distraction’ –

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is also vying for the 2024 Republican nomination, told Fox News another Trump indictment would be a “distraction.”

“We can’t keep dealing with this drama,” Haley said. “And that’s why I’m running. We need a new generational leader.”

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, accused Biden, who is running for reelection, of using the justice system to “go after their number one opponent.”

Democratic Representative Adam Schiff denounced McCarthy’s remarks as a “shameful” attempt to “provide cover for a corrupt former president.”

Trump was indicted by Smith in June for allegedly stashing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida — the first former US president to face criminal charges.

Trump is charged with “willful retention of national defense information,” conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements and other offenses.

Prosecutors have asked US District Judge Aileen Cannon for a December trial date, while Trump’s defense attorneys have asked for it to begin after the November 2024 White House vote.

At a hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Tuesday, Cannon was skeptical about delaying the trial until after the 2024 election but also appeared doubtful it could be held in December, The Washington Post reported.

She said she would issue a decision on a trial date “promptly.”

– Georgia probe –

Georgia prosecutors are also investigating whether Trump illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome in the southern state.

In his Truth Social post, Trump said he has “the right to protest an Election that I am fully convinced was Rigged and Stolen” and he was being targeted because of the upcoming vote.

The Justice Department has “effectively issued a third indictment and Arrest of Joe Biden’s NUMBER ONE POLITICAL OPPONENT, who is largely dominating him in the race for the Presidency,” Trump said.

“Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before.”

Asked about Trump’s potential indictment, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said, “the president respects the Department of Justice, their independence.”

Trump pleaded not guilty in New York earlier this year in a case involving election-eve hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who said she had an affair with him.

Trump was impeached by the Democratic-majority House of Representatives in 2019 for seeking political dirt on Biden from Ukraine, and again after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but was acquitted by the Senate both times.

Headline

Judge In Maradona Negligence Case Resigns Amid Scandal

Published

15 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

The Argentine judge who caused the collapse of a trial over the 2020 death of football legend Diego Maradona has resigned, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Julieta Makintach’s involvement in a clandestine documentary about the trial of Maradona’s medical team led to the proceedings being scrapped in May after two months of hearings.

No date has yet been set for a new trial.

“I have the honor of addressing you in my capacity as judge (…)in order to submit my resignation from my position,” Makintach wrote in a letter to the governor of Buenos Aires that was shared by her lawyer.

Makintach was facing impeachment proceedings over her participation in the documentary about the case against seven medical staff accused of manslaughter over Maradona’s death.

Maradona — considered one of the world’s greatest ever players — died in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery.

He died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema — a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs — two weeks after going under the knife.

Prosecutor say the conditions of his home convalescence were grossly negligent.

Makintach was one of three judges hearing the case.

Headline

Netanyahu Vows To Thwart ‘Any Attempt’ By Iran To Rebuild Nuclear Programme

Published

15 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to crush any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme in a national address to the country after 12 days of war.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu said after a ceasefire put a halt to airstrikes by the two countries against each other.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

Headline

Netanyahu Hails ‘Historic Victory’ In Iran War

Published

15 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a “historic victory” in his country’s 12-day war against Iran and vowed to prevent Tehran rebuilding its nuclear facilities.

“We have achieved a historic victory,” Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation after the start of a ceasefire agreed to by both countries.

“Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he told viewers in the near-10-minute speech.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

The head of Israel’s military Eyal Zamir said earlier on Tuesday that its strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear programme “by years” and the campaign against the country was now “entering a new phase”.

Iran said on Tuesday that it was ready to return to nuclear negotiations with the United States as the ceasefire took hold.

But Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic power.

Israel’s government said in a statement earlier Tuesday that it had removed the “dual existential threat” of Iran’s nuclear programme and missiles during its strikes.

Netanyahu claimed that Israel’s attack on Iran, named “Operation Rising Lion”, would be “recorded in the annals of Israel’s wars, and will be studied by armies all over the world.”

It included repeated strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile sites, assassinations of military and domestic security service leaders, as well as the bombing of state media and Evin prison in Tehran.

After the United States joined in the conflict with strikes on Sunday, President Donald Trump said his forces had “totally obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites.

Analysts said, however, that it remained unclear whether the strikes had put the nuclear threat out of reach, with the possibility that Iran had moved its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium away from the targeted sites.

Tehran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon.