International

Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ to overturn 2020 election, prosecutors say

Published

2 months ago

October 3, 2024

Former U.S. President Donald Trump

Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ to overturn 2020 election, prosecutors say

Donald Trump “resorted to crimes” in an effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat, prosecutors allege in a new court filing that argues the former president is not immune from charges.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor appointed to lead the election interference case against Trump, submitted the filing, which was publicly released on Wednesday.

The filing challenges Trump’s claim that he is protected by a landmark Supreme Court ruling this summer that grants broad immunity from prosecution for official acts conducted while in office.

Since there will be no trial before Trump, a Republican, vies with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris for the White House in next month’s election, the 165-page court document may be the last chance for prosecutors to outline their case.

In Wednesday’s filing, prosecutors allege Trump was not always acting in an official capacity and instead engaged in a “private criminal effort” to overturn the 2020 results.

The document is an effort by prosecutors to advance the criminal case against Trump following the Supreme Court ruling in July.

It prompted prosecutors to narrow the scope of their indictment. That is because the ruling did not apply immunity to unofficial acts, leading prosecutors to argue that while Trump may still have been in office some of his alleged efforts to overturn the election were related to his campaign and his life as a private citizen.

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The court should “determine that the defendant must stand trial for his private crimes as he would any other citizen,” Mr Smith wrote in the new filing.

The case has been frequently delayed since charges were filed by the Department of Justice more than a year ago accusing Trump, who denies wrongdoing, of seeking to illegally block the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

The filing lays out several instances in which Trump’s Vice-President, Mike Pence, expressed doubt about his boss’s voter fraud claims and tried to persuade him to accept he lost the election.

In the court document, prosecutors say Trump was not upset when he learned his vice-president had been rushed to a secure location as rioters stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021. “So what?” he allegedly said, when informed of the scenes.

Pence would later go public about his falling out with Trump in the wake of the storming of Congress, when some rioters shouted “Hang Mike Pence” because the vice-president refused to obstruct the certification of election results.

Trump’s lawyers fought to keep the latest filing sealed, and campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called it “falsehood-ridden” and “unconstitutional”.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump called it a “hit job” and said it “should not have been released right before the election”.

He accused prosecutors of “egregious” misconduct.

The filing offers new evidence and presents the clearest view yet of how prosecutors would seek to present their case against Trump at trial.

It alleges that he always planned to declare victory no matter the result, and laid the groundwork for this long before election day. It also accuses him of knowingly spreading false claims about the vote that he himself deemed “crazy”.

Mr Smith also provides several new details about the Trump campaign’s alleged role in sowing chaos in battleground states, where a large number of mail-in ballots were being counted in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the Democratic stronghold of Detroit, Michigan, when a large batch of ballots seemed to be in favour of Biden, a Trump campaign operative allegedly told his colleague to “find a reason” that something was wrong with the ballots to give him “options to file litigation”.

The filing also claims that Trump and his allies, including lawyer Rudy Giuliani, sought to “exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol” on 6 January 2021 to delay the election certification. They allegedly did this by calling senators and leaving voicemails that asked them to object to the state electors.

Trump said on Wednesday that the case would end with his “complete victory”. A trial date has not been set.

Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ to overturn 2020 election, prosecutors say

International

Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs

Published

10 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Trends Admin

Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes pounded a densely-populated part of the Lebanese capital and its southern suburbs on Tuesday, hours ahead of an anticipated announcement of a ceasefire ending hostilities between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

A strike on Beirut hit the Noueiri district with no evacuation warning and killed at least one person, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a preliminary toll.

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Minutes later, at least 10 Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs. They began approximately 30 minutes after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for 20 locations in the area, the largest such warning yet.

As the strikes were under way, Israel’s military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the air force was conducting a “widespread attack” on Hezbollah targets across the city.

Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs

ARAB NEWS

International

Over $100m wasted, Trump mocks Democrats for targeting him

Published

11 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Trends Admin

President-elect Donald Trump

Over $100m wasted, Trump mocks Democrats for targeting him

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has fiercely criticised the legal cases brought against him, calling them “empty and lawless”.

He accused Democrats of weaponising the judicial system to target him as a political opponent.

In a strongly worded statement, Trump alleged that over $100 million in taxpayer money had been wasted in what he described as a politically driven effort to undermine his influence.

“Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before,” he said, pointing to high-profile prosecutors, including Georgia’s Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia James, as key figures in what he called a “political hijacking.”

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Trump also accused Willis of colluding with Nathan Wade, whom he described as “her lover” and lacking the experience to handle such cases.

He claimed Wade was paid “millions,” allegedly enabling lavish trips and cruises.

Letitia James, who is pursuing a civil fraud case against Trump, was also criticised.

Over $100m wasted, Trump mocks Democrats for targeting him

International

US-based Nigerians get 30-year sentence over $3.5m romance scam

Published

12 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Trends Admin

US-based Nigerians get 30-year sentence over $3.5m romance scam

A United States federal jury sentenced two Nigerians, Anthony Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, to 30 years in prison for scamming certain US citizens $3,500,000.

This was mentioned in a news statement made public on the US Department of Justice website on Monday.

According to the statement, the Nigerians, Ibekie and Aniukwu mislead their victims by informing them that they had received big inheritances that required payment to claim.

The couple would then ask their victims to transfer money, promising to refund them after the inheritances were claimed.

It also stated that the duo carried out romance scams by establishing romantic relationships with their victims and demanding them to send money after they had built trust in their victims.

It read, “An undercover law enforcement investigation has resulted in federal prison sentences for two Nigerian nationals residing in the Chicago suburbs who conducted online inheritance scams and other fraud schemes.

“Using aliases, Anthony Emeka Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu communicated with victims throughout the United States, convincing them they had received substantial inheritances and needed to send money to individuals associated with the defendants in order to claim it.

“In addition to the inheritance scam, the pair carried out an online romance scam that involved communicating with victims via social media and dating websites, building trust with the victims through a purported online romance, and convincing them to send money to a predetermined recipient. Aniukwu and Ibekie also orchestrated a ‘business email compromise’ scam that targeted corporate email accounts.

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“The fraud schemes were uncovered by a covert law enforcement investigation. The scams resulted in losses to victims of at least $3.5 million.”

According to the statement, after being arraigned on 14 charges, the duo pleaded guilty to their different alterations.

Following their guilty pleas, Ibekie was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday, and Aniukwu was sentenced to 10 years in prison on November 8.

The statement continued, “A federal jury earlier this year convicted Ibekie, 59, of Oswego, Illinois, on all 14 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, making false statements to a bank, and passport fraud. U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger on Thursday sentenced Ibekie to 20 years in federal prison.

“Aniukwu, 50, of Romeoville, Illinois, pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and money laundering charges. Judge Seeger on Nov. 8, 2024, sentenced Aniukwu to 10 years in prison.”

Meanwhile, Jennifer Gosha, an accomplice of the Nigerians and a US citizen, is expected to be sentenced on December 18 after pleading guilty.

“A third defendant, Jennifer Gosha, 52, a U.S. citizen from Oak Park, Ill., pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of wire fraud and making false statements to a federal agent. Gosha is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Seeger on December 18, 2024,” the statement concluded.