Donald Trump visits his sick brother in New York as ex-FBI lawyer will plead guilty to falsifying Russia probe document
US President Donald Trump has had a family emergency, as it was revealed an FBI lawyer will plead guilty to falsifying a record to obtain a wiretap as part of a probe into the 2016 election.
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US President Donald Trump has visited his younger brother Robert Trump who is ill in hospital in a New York hospital.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said that Mr Trump, who was travelling to his golf club in nearby Bedminster, New Jersey, stopped into New York City for the visit.
US media reports say that Mr Trump’s brother is seriously ill, although there were no additional details.
During an afternoon news conference at the White House, Mr Trump called Robert a “wonderful brother” and said they’d had a “great relationship from Day One.”
“Hopefully he’ll be all right, but he’s having a hard time,” Mr Trump added.
Trump told reporters only that “he’s having a hard time.”
While far less famous than his older brother, Robert Trump has long been an integral part of the family real estate empire and is fiercely loyal to the president.
Robert Trump unsuccessfully went to court to try and get an injunction preventing publication of a book by his niece Mary Trump, called Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. The book, which paints Donald Trump as the product of a “toxic” family was a “disgrace,” Robert Trump said.
Although a temporary restraining order was applied, a judge lifted this in July, allowing publication.
WIRETAP PROBE
A former anti-Trump FBI lawyer will plead guilty to falsifying a record to obtain a wiretap extension as part of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, officials said.
The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, will plead guilty to falsifying an e-mail that the CIA used to justify a 2017 wiretap on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, as part of the Mueller investigation, said Clinesmith’s lawyer.
Clinesmith will plead guilty as part of an investigation into the Russia probe by prosecutor John Durham, who is reviewing whether the Mueller investigation was politically motivated.
“The fact is, they spied on my campaign, and they got caught,” Mr Trump said of political foes allegedly involved in the Russia probe.
“What happened should never happen. It’s a terrible thing.”
Clinesmith — branded by Mr Trump as a “corrupt FBI lawyer” — is expected to plead guilty to one felony count of making a false statement.
A wiretap on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — a businessman who would sometimes pass information to the CIA — had been approved in 2016 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court because investigators suspected Russian spies might try to target him.
Page had previously passed information to the CIA about his contacts with Russia as part of his work as an energy executive, according to the report.
His relationship with the spy agency may have kept him off the FBI’s radar as a potential cooperator with Russia’s attempt to interfere in the 2016 election. FBI officials were told of his co-operation with the CIA in a 2016 e-mail.
But his relationship with the CIA was downplayed by FBI officials who prepared documents to request he be wiretapped.
When the agency was seeking a third renewal of the tap, an FBI official asked Clinesmith for a clear answer if Page had been a source for the spy agency, the New York Post reported.
Clinesmith responded that he was “never a source” and altered the CIA’s e-mail to falsely show that.
His doctoring of the e-mail was a crime, according to the prosecutor probing the Russia investigation.
Clinesmith was removed from the Russia investigation after lead prober Robert Mueller discovered he’d shared anti-Trump sentiments.
In text messages, Clinesmith slammed Mr Trump and his supporters, writing to another FBI official: “I honestly feel like there is going to be a lot more gun issues, too, the crazies won finally. This is the Tea Party on steroids. And the GOP is going to be lost.”
“Viva le resistance,” he wrote in another.
‘SEMI-OBLIGATION’: TRUMP’S UN VOW
US President Donald Trump has declared he wants to give his United Nations speech in person, even if many world leaders are expected to stay away due to coronavirus.
“I’m thinking about going directly to the UN to do the speech. A lot of people will not, because of COVID, will not be able to be there,” Mr Trump said today.
“I think it better represents the country. I feel a semi-obligation as the president of the United States to be at the United Nations to deliver what will be an important speech,” Trump told reporters.
He added that the General Assembly hall in New York will likely be partly empty.
“This will not be like in the past,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”
The main part of this year’s UN General Assembly session, when world leaders deliver their speechesm, starts on September 21 until September 29.
The high-profile event will come just over one month before the US election where Trump faces a tough fight against his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Harris ‘ready’ to fight Trump: Biden
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has introduced his newly anointed pick for vice president as “ready for the job on day one” and defended her against attacks from Donald Trump.
As Mr Biden and Senator Kamala Harris made their first campaign appearance together, Ms Harris talked up her work as a prosecutor who fought the big banks after the 2008 recession and revealed her family nickname: Momala.
Ms Harris, the first black woman and the first South Asian woman on a presidential ticket, said she was “incredibly honoured” and “ready to get to work”.
Launching a strident attack on the government of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, she said the case against them was “open and shut”.
“This is a moment of real consequence for America. Everything we care about; our economy, our health, our children, the kind of country we live in.
“It’s all on the line,” she said.
“We are reeling through the worst public health crisis in a century.”
“The president’s mismanagement of the pandemic has plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and we are experiencing a moral reckoning, with racism and systemic injustice that has brought a new coalition of conciseness on the streets of our country, demanding change.”
Ms Harris spoke about her family, husband Douglas Emhoff and stepchildren Cole and Emily, as well as her nephews and nieces.
“I have had a lot of titles in my time, but Momala will always be the one that means the most,” she said.
Mr Biden dismissed as “predictable” attacks from Mr Trump, who quickly labelled her “nasty” and “phony” after she was named yesterday.
“You could have set your watches to it,” he said.
“Donald Trump has already begun his attacks, calling Kamala nasty.
“It’s no surprise, whining is what Donald Trump does best …
“Is anyone surprised Donald Trump has a problem with a strong woman?”
The candidates addressed an empty school gym in Mr Biden’s home city of Wilmington, Delaware, saying they were “playing by the rules” and adhering to social distancing due to the coronavirus.
Mr Biden said the appointment of Ms Harris would be an inspiration.
“This morning, all across the nation, little girls woke up, especially little black and brown girls, who so often feel overlooked and undervalued in their communities,” Mr Biden said.
“But today, today, just maybe, they are seeing themselves for the first time in a new way.”
Mr Biden said the upcoming election was coming at “a life changing election for this nation”.
“This is a serious moment for our nation. We are at one of those inflection points,” he said.
Mr Biden said he believed Ms Harris would serve as a vice president in similar fashion to his eight years alongside Barack Obama, where Mr Obama asked him to be “the last voice in the room”.
“I asked Kamala to be the last voice in the room. To always tell me the truth … to challenge my assumptions,” he said.
“Because that’s the way we make the best decisions for the American people.”
Mr Biden said he had “no doubt” Ms Harris was “the right person” after vetting more than a dozen women for the role.
“Kamala knows how to govern, she knows how to make the hard calls. She’s ready to do this job on day one,” he said.
And her selection was apparently embraced by Democrat voters, who responded with a record day of grassroots fundraising, according to Mr Biden.
It came as US President Donald Trump said the Democrats should denounce far left agitators Antifa as a domestic terrorist organisation.
Speaking just an hour after candidate Mr Biden introduced his vice presidential pick Ms Harris, Mr Trump accused them of collaborating with the organised demonstrators who have spread mayhem across several US cities in the past three months.
Responding to a question about whether Mr Biden and Ms Harris should clearly condemn Antifa, Mr Trump said: “They should. I think they are afraid to”.
“In my book it’s virtually a part of their campaign.”
Mr Trump said the spiralling crime in Democrat-run cities such as Portland, Chicago and New York would spread across the country if he didn’t win in November.
“Take a look at Portland, take a look at any place.” he said.
“They’re all over the place.
“What happened in New York, it’s not even believable.
“What’s happening in Chicago where one week ago, 78 people shot and 18 die, in a weekend.
“If you let Democrats run this country you will have all of your cities be just like that.”
‘SUBURBAN HOUSEWIVES’
US President Donald Trump stepped up his criticism of Democrat rivals Joe Biden and Kamala Harris saying “suburban housewives” wanted “safety” and would cast their vote for him.
Senator Harris, 55, a former California lawyer general, yesterday became the first Black woman in history to join a presidential ticket, after Mr Biden named her as his running mate.
Ms Harris had been a favourite in the VP race and is the American-born daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father.
Ms Harris is more progressive than Mr Biden but not from the party’s far left wing and is considered a safe bet with extensive prosecutor experience as a former state lawyer general.
But Mr Trump used Twitter to claim he would take the key demographic of suburban women because he had changed “low income” housing laws, and also attacked the former African American Democrat presidential candidate Corey Booker.
The “suburban housewife†will be voting for me. They want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighborhood. Biden would reinstall it, in a bigger form, with Corey Booker in charge! @foxandfriends @MariaBartiromo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2020
“The “suburban housewife” will be voting for me. They want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighbourhood. Biden would reinstall it, in a bigger form, with Corey Booker in charge!,” he said on Wednesday morning.
A day earlier, the Trump campaign came out swinging after the announcement, painting the California senator as a “phony” for having previously slammed Mr Biden on his race record, while Mr Trump described her as “nasty”.
“I was a little surprised that he picked her. I have been watching her for a long time,” Mr Trump said, describing her as “nasty”
“She was very disrespectful to Joe Biden and it’s hard to pick somebody that is that disrespectful.
“She’s just about the most liberal person in the US Senate.
“I would have thought he’d have gone a different way.”
Prior to his media briefing, the Trump campaign shared on social media an ad that described Ms Harris as a “phony”
“Voters rejected Harris. They smartly spotted a phony. But not Joe Biden. He’s not that smart. Biden calls himself a transition candidate. He is handing over the reins to Kamala while they jointly embrace the radical left. Slow Joe and Phony Kamala. Perfect together. Wrong for America,” the ad said.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2020
Mr Biden announced Mr Harris as his running mate after a hotly contested vetting process.
He ended months of speculation that the former California Attorney-General and one-time Democratic presidential candidate would join his ticket.
“I have the great honour to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden said in a tweet Tuesday announcing the news.
“Back when Kamala was Attorney-General, she worked closely with Beau,” he said, referring to his late son who served as lawyer general of Delaware while Harris held the same role in California.
I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 11, 2020
“I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign,” Biden wrote.
Ms Harris, 55, becomes the first black woman to win a place on the presidential ticket.
Born to an Indian mother and Jamaican father, Ms Harris, who identifies as black, served two terms as the district attorney for San Francisco before becoming lawyer general of California in 2011.
Ms Harris said she was honoured to receive the nomination.
.@JoeBiden can unify the American people because he's spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he'll build an America that lives up to our ideals.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 11, 2020
I'm honored to join him as our party's nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.
Mr Trump and the Republicans are certain to remind voters that Ms Harris savaged Mr Biden in an early Democratic debate when she accused him of racism.
Mr Biden said the crises facing America drove his decision to pick Ms Harris, because she was “ready to lead”
“If the people of this nation entrust me and Kamala with the office of President and Vice President for the next four years, we’re going to inherit a nation in crisis, a nation divided, and a world in disarray,” he said in a statement.
“We won’t have a minute to waste.
“That’s what led me to Kamala Harris.”
While Americans have historically been unlikely to base their vote for president on the down ticket, the record ages of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden give extra significance to the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
After his victory in 2016, Mr Trump was the oldest president to assume office, aged 70 in January 2017.
If Mr Biden were to win in November, he would be the oldest ever elected president, at 77, and the oldest to take office next January at 78.
Mr Biden is seen as unlikely to pursue a second term, making him potentially a one-term president and his VP a likely 2024 contender.
The succession order in US politics also mandates the vice president assumes the top job if the sitting president is unable to serve.
Mr Biden had talked up Kamala Harris’s chances last Thursday, telling a on online panel she was “very much in contention”.
This came after an aide was quoted complaining that Senator Harris showed “no remorse” for a bruising primary debate encounter with Biden last year.
A former lawyer general from California, then-candidate Harris tore into Biden for previously supporting federally mandated bussing of African American students to racially integrate schools, and also for speaking in support of segregationist senators during his long career in Washington.
Mr Biden said his aid “didn’t say that to the press, he was talking to somebody offline, and it was repeated”.
“Now, I don’t hold grudges. I’ve made it really clear that I don’t hold grudges,” he said.
“I think it was a debate, it was as simple as that. And she’s very much in contention.”
Mr Biden overlooked a number of highly rated contenders including his friend Elizabeth Warren, who was a progressive front runner to win the Democratic nomination before fading in the primaries.
