Research, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News on U.S.
News (1) to (3) / Reporter : Dave Ruo / https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/6/9/n14013450.htm, https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/6/11/n14014203.htm
News (1)
Trump continues campaign, lawyer says plea deal will never be accepted
Editor : Gao Jing / Image : On 10 June 2023, Trump delivered a speech at the North Carolina Republican Party's annual state convention in Greensboro (Greensboro). The day before, he became the first former U.S. president to be indicted on federal charges. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Former U.S. President Trump continued to campaign for the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election after facing indictment. Meanwhile, his lawyer, Alina Habba, told Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream on Sunday (11 June 2023) that Trump will not accept plea deal with Federal prosecution on the classified documents.
Habba said on the show that she "can't imagine" the former president accepting a plea deal. She said people would only consider taking a plea deal if the defense did not have any chance or if he made a mistake, and she insists Trump has done nothing wrong.
"I'm sure I would never recommend that he plead guilty, especially when he did nothing wrong," Habba said. "Accepting a plea deal will just make things go away. It's tantamount to pleading guilty."
She added: "The only thing that went wrong was the raid on his residence, and the two completely different sets of justice that we're witnessing, the Biden family being treated completely differently than the Trump family."
Last Thursday (8 June 2023), the Justice Department accused Trump of handling classified material after leaving the White House in a 37-count indictment. The former president possesses documents containing nuclear and military secrets, according to evidence gathered by the Justice Department.
Trump insisted he had the right to take the documents and claimed the investigation was politically motivated against him. Habba reiterated that she believes the former president "has done nothing wrong."
Image : On 10 June 2023, Trump delivered a speech at the North Carolina Republican Party's annual state convention in Greensboro. The day before, he became the first former U.S. president to be indicted on federal charges. (Allison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump said Saturday that he would continue to run for president even if he faced indictment.
"I will never give up (the presidential race)," Trump said in an interview on the plane. "Look, if I was going to quit, I would have quit before my first campaign in 2016. It was a tough one. The election is theoretically impossible."
Speaking at the Republican convention in Greensboro, North Carolina, Trump addressed the indictment and the various investigations that have opened up against him since he was elected president in 2016.
"They've done a witch hunt over and over again and they're just trying to stop our progress," Trump said. "They want to do everything possible to defeat the will of the American people. That's called election interference. That's what they're doing now. We've never seen anything on this scale. The other party (Democrats) is absolutely deceitful."
Trump has sharply criticized the Justice Department special counsel who prosecuted him, Jack Smith, and has argued the case against him is politically motivated and baseless. "These are the thugs and degenerates who came after me," he said.
Trump said he would not be convicted and insisted he would not accept any plea deal.
He avoided answering the question of whether he would pardon himself if he wins the presidency in 2024. "I don't believe I'll ever have to do this," Trump said. "I didn't make any mistakes."
While Trump has said campaign funding has increased significantly since the indictment was released, he admits it is not a happy situation.
Image : On 10 June 2023, Trump (Trump) delivered a speech at the North Carolina Republican Party's annual state convention in Greensboro (Greensboro). The day before, he became the first former U.S. president to be indicted on federal charges. (Allison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images)
"No one wants to be prosecuted," Trump said. "I don't care if my poll numbers go up a lot. I don't want to be prosecuted. I've never been prosecuted before. I've lived so many years, (results) now every two was prosecuted once a month. These prosecutions were all politically motivated."
Trump cited the Presidential Records Act several times in his speech, believing he had made no mistakes.
Trump addressed Republicans in Georgia and North Carolina two days after Smith filed the 37-count indictment. Smith accused Trump of violating the Espionage Act, withholding classified documents and obstructing justice. Trump is expected to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday (13 June 2023).
Trump's personal aide Waltine Nauta was also charged. Nauta was seen traveling with Trump on Saturday.
In addition, Trump faces prosecution in New York. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has filed 34 felony charges in the case of Trump's hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He is also under investigation in Georgia over allegations he pressured officials to overturn the state's 2020 vote count. Smith is also investigating Trump's role in the Jan. 6 Capitol incident.
After the indictment in New York, Republican voters rallied more closely around Trump, with his poll numbers and fundraising approval ratings surging.
Throughout the day Saturday, it appeared that Trump's most loyal supporters were unmoved by his latest indictment. They lined up on the highway next to the Columbus Airport in Georgia, waving flags and standing on top of trucks to witness the landing of Trump's special plane emblazoned with "Trump". Trump was greeted on the tarmac by a crowd of supporters, some of whom held signs reading "Witch Hunt."
At the party convention in Georgia, the crowd was filled with people wearing "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) hats, with some spectators chanting "We love you" as the former president spoke.
Image : Supporters listen to former U.S. President Donald Trump speaking at the Republican Party's annual state convention in Columbus, Georgia, on June 10, 2023. The day before, he became the first former U.S. president to be indicted on federal charges. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Shortly afterwards, Trump stopped at a Waffle House restaurant and was mobbed by a crowd of die-hard fans, one of whom offered to give the meatloaf-loving former president a copy of her mother's recipe. Trump then headed to the airport, where he posed for a photo with the police.
Trump was joined by Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, a Trump supporter who oversees the House Republican campaign arm, showing that Trump still has an affinity for his party's congressional wing. Influence. Likewise, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia and a loyal Trump ally, also attended Trump's rally.
News (2)
Trump accused of violating espionage law: They just want to prevent me from running
Editor : Li Qiong / Image : On 11 June 2023, supporters of Trump (Trump) gathered near his Mar-A-Lago residence. He was previously indicted on a new set of charges related to the mishandling of classified documents. Trump is expected to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The U.S. Department of Justice announced last week that it filed a lawsuit against former President Trump, accusing him of misconduct in handling classified files and violating the Espionage Act "Provisions. Trump said his opponents were simply trying to prevent him from running in the election.
Trump faces a total of 37 criminal charges. Most of the charges relate to his continuing to keep classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after leaving the White House.
The indictment accuses him of knowingly withholding national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, passed by Congress in 1917. In addition, Trump also faces charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding documents or files, deliberately concealing documents or files, concealing a document in a federal investigation, planning to conceal and making a false statement.
Image : On 8 August 2022, the FBI raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. (Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)
The indictment also alleges that the former president possessed documents on the nation's nuclear program and military capabilities.
"The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could jeopardize U.S. national security, diplomatic relations, the safety of U.S. military and human resources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence-gathering methods," the indictment states.
Under the law, anyone who legally possesses information related to national security is prohibited from sharing that information with unauthorized others. These holders also cannot "knowingly" retain the documents, nor can they be made available upon request by the holders.
A conviction for this violation carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the indictment.
About the Espionage Act
The Espionage Act was an anti-espionage law passed by Congress shortly after the start of World War I.
The statute criminalizes a range of actions for the mishandling of sensitive government records related to "national defense," which generally refers to military records whose disclosure could compromise U.S. national security.
Image : File photo of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. (The Guardian/AFP)
The law has been used by the Justice Department over the years as a legal tool to prosecute everyone from alleged Soviet spies to prominent whistleblowers like Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, and a former intelligence adviser who leaked state secrets Edward Snowden.
During the Obama and Trump administrations, some of the Justice Department's most high-profile Espionage Act prosecutions targeted government employees who leaked classified information to the media or to WikiLeaks, such as former Army Private First Class intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. (Chelsea Manning) and former intelligence contractor Reality Winner.
Manning received a 35-year sentence, although President Obama later commuted it, while Wenner was sentenced to more than five years after pleading guilty to leaking a top-secret report on Russian interference in U.S. elections to The Intercept.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has also been charged under the Espionage Act and is fighting extradition to the United States.
Image : Profile picture of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
In August 2022, the FBI conducted a search of Trump at Mar-a-Lago and found approximately 13,000 government files. About 100 of those files were marked classified or top secret, the highest level of secrecy and limited to the government's most closely guarded secrets. Prosecutors say he improperly retained 337 classified documents.
Trump has denied breaking the law, arguing that he has declassified the records and that his broad powers as president give him the authority to disclose or declassify the material.
However, the Espionage Act itself does not explicitly require prosecutors to prove that the files are themselves classified.
Prosecutors accused Trump of violating a section of the Espionage Act that applies to people who have "unauthorized possession" of national defense information.
Title V of the statute, which Trump is accused of violating, requires potential violators to have reason to believe that information they share with unauthorized individuals, or refuse to provide at the request of U.S. officials, could be censored. Foreign countries used to harm or help the United States.
The indictment also includes conversations Trump allegedly had with one of his staff members, a writer and a publisher in July 2021, in which he appeared to admit not declassifying a document he cited.
News (3)
Trump: They just wanted to stop me
Image : On 10 June 2023, Trump greets supporters at the North Carolina Republican Party's annual state convention in Greensboro. The day before, he became the first former U.S. president to be indicted on federal charges. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Trump told the North Carolina Republican convention in Greensboro that he enjoyed "in a sick way" the legal charges and investigations against him that had "exposed" him motives of political opponents.
"They've done a witch hunt over and over again and they're just trying to stop our progress," Trump said. "They want to do everything possible to defeat the will of the American people. That's called election interference. That's what they're doing now thing. We've never seen anything on this scale. The other party (Democrats) is absolutely deceitful."
Trump claims "5,000 prosecutors" are after him.
Trump also mentioned the impeachment proceedings against him and the findings of Special Counsel John Durham's investigation. Durham recently released a final report into its initial investigation into whether Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
According to Durham's findings report, there was no information that justified the FBI's investigation, and the FBI and Justice Department "failed in their mission of strict compliance with the law" in the process.
On 11 June 2023, supporters of Trump gathered near his Mar-A-Lago residence. He was previously indicted on a new set of charges related to the mishandling of classified documents. Trump is expected to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Trump said, "We beat them all, didn't we? They made our country hell, and they always knew it was a lie."
Trump then mentioned that any Republican who becomes president would be the subject of similar investigations and be the subject of endless political attacks. He thought that anyone but him would crumble under the pressure.
He said, "That person won't be able to take this offensive fire. They actually admit it. They come to me: 'What do you think about this?' I usually look at them and say: 'I'm kind of enjoying this sick thing. Feeling, because it exposed them.' It exposed their true colors. It also raised the poll numbers to a higher level."
Trump said polls show him comfortably ahead in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
No comments:
Post a Comment