Donald Trump and USA Issues

Ken Paxton: Texas House votes to impeach Donald Trump ally..

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Texas' Republican-run House of Representatives has voted to impeach state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, who is accused of bribery and abuse of public trust.

Mr Paxton, an ally of former President Donald Trump, is now suspended from office pending a trial in the Senate.

A two-thirds vote in the upper chamber - where Republicans also dominate - is required to permanently expel him.

Mr Paxton, aged 60, denies all the accusations against him.

Responding to a 121-23 vote in the House on Saturday, Mr Paxton said in a statement: "The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just.

"It was a politically motivated sham from the beginning."

The impeachment vote was on 20 articles, which also include accusations of improperly aiding a wealthy political donor and conducting a sham investigations against whistleblowers.

The result demonstrates a very public split between Texas Republicans.

"Attorney General Paxton continuously and blatantly violated laws, rules, policies and procedures," House Republican David Spiller said.

"Today is a very grim and difficult day for this House and for the state of Texas," he added.

But John Smithee, another Texas House Republican, opposed the impeachment, arguing that the attorney general had not been given the chance to properly respond to the allegations against him.

"It's what I call the hang him now and judge him later policy," Mr Smithee said.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump - who hopes to win a Republican nomination for the 2024 election - backed Mr Paxton.

Shortly before the vote, he wrote "free Ken Paxton" in a post on social media.

The House vote makes Mr Paxton the first state official in Texas to be impeached in almost 50 years.

Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott has the powers to appoint an interim state attorney general even before the Senate trial is concluded.

Mr Paxton is well-known in America for his high-profile litigation campaigns.

In 2020, he unsuccessfully pressed the US Supreme Court to overturn Mr Trump's defeat to Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the presidential election.

Five years earlier, Mr Paxton called the Supreme Court's decision legalising gay marriage in all 50 states a "lawless ruling", vowing to support state workers who refuse to marry couples on religious grounds.

But he is perhaps best known for spearheading the ongoing fight in the courts to challenge the Biden administration's changes to the immigration system.

Mr Paxton has said the measures he is fighting would encourage illegal crossings and burden Texas and other states with additional expenses for law enforcement, health care and education, the New York Times reports.

Your questions answered..

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Okay, let's start with the big question that multiple people submitted: Could Donald Trump go to prison?

The simple answer is yes. If Trump is found guilty, he could end up in prison. Here’s a breakdown of the maximum sentences for each charge in the former president’s 37-count indictment:

The charges include 31 counts of wilful retention of national defence information under the Espionage Act. These carry a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years, according to the indictment.

Four other counts, related to conspiracy and withholding or concealing documents, each carry maximum sentences of 20 years

The final two counts - scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations - carry sentences of five years each

"These charges are extremely serious," Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, told the BBC.

"There's an unbelievable amount of detail there, and much of it is very damning."

However, a conviction must come first.



Todd from the US asks: If any form of publicity is good publicity… do you think charging Donald Trump and playing into what he says about a “witch hunt” is just giving him free publicity?

It’s certainly possible that Trump’s second indictment could help him politically by prompting Republicans to rally around their embattled leader.

Public polling certainly suggests that this happened after Trump’s first indictment, as he expanded his lead over his Republican presidential rivals in the weeks that followed.

But even Trump said this weekend that despite a poll bump, he’d rather not have been indicted.

And who can blame him? The federal charges he’s facing are serious, with significant fines and the possibility of years in jail.

There’s no amount of free publicity that’s worth that risk.

Trump and his legal team will have an opportunity to present their side and to poke holes in the prosecution’s case, but it will be no easy task.



Robert from France says: Trump's protestations of "witch hunt" and "political malice" are strongly echoed in former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s self-defence. Are they using the same script?

Boris Johnson hates comparisons with Donald Trump.

But he did use similar vocabulary when he resigned from the House of Commons on the same day that Trump was indicted last Friday.

Trump and his supporters do use more incendiary language than Johnson when talking about a violent response to the charges against the former president.

And Johnson does not have such a devoted following among voters.

People have promised to protest the proceedings against Trump, some of whom claim they will take up arms to defend him.



Sara asks: Why is Trump going back to New Jersey tonight if he lives in Florida?

Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago beach resort is just north of Miami, so why will he be flying back to New Jersey after appearing in court today?

The answer is a simple one. As humidity and hurricane season hits Florida, Mar-a-Lago closes for the summer. Today, the former president will fly back to his golf resort, Bedminster, in New Jersey.

He will deliver remarks from Bedminster around 08:15 EST (14:15 BST) - he is using this indictment to fund raise for his presidential campaign.

It is worth pointing out that in the 49-page indictment the word “Bedminster” is found six times.

Trump is alleged to have taken boxes of documents from his main home in Mar-a-Lago to Bedminster in May 2021. It’s practically his second home.

Also, Trump turns 77 tomorrow. He may have birthday plans in Bedminster.



Karthikeyan from India asks: Donald Trump's public support is the major source of his strength right now. If convicted, will people still support him?

Based on aggregates of national opinion polls for the 2024 Republican primary election, Trump currently commands more than 50% support among Republican primary voters, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a very distant second place with just over 20% and everybody else in single digits.

Incidentally, after his first indictment in April on state charges in New York related to the Stormy Daniels affair, his polling lead nearly doubled as voters rallied behind him.

Some Republicans have urged him to drop out of the presidential race, arguing that his mounting legal troubles are both a disqualifier and a distraction, but Trump has vowed to "never leave" the race.

His strength in the polls suggests that Republicans are looking for a brawler in the White House and they don't believe anybody brawls like Trump can.

General election polls, however, are a lot closer, suggesting that Trump is neck-and-neck with President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee who beat him in 2020.

And the Trump fatigue is real - less than 40% of American voters have a favourable opinion of the former president.

If he's convicted and goes to jail, however, that could be a different story. But we're a long way from that.


Peter from Switzerland queries whether there is any truth at all in Donald Trump's claims of election interference.

Donald Trump claims the charges against him is “election interference at the highest level” whilst denouncing the Biden administration as “the most corrupt in history”.

The implication is that charges have been brought against him specifically to derail his chance of winning the 2024 presidential election.

Anticipating these kind of accusations, the administration had already taken steps to try to make sure the process of investigating and prosecuting Trump was as non-political as possible.

Appointing an independent special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the case was the first step. This took the case away from being handled by the attorney general Merrick Garland, who was appointed by Joe Biden.

Trump and his supporters argue that there is evidence of how he is being targeted because Hillary Clinton was not indicted for keeping classified documents on a private email server. They also point out that neither Joe Biden or Mike Pence are facing charges after sensitive documents were found to be in their private possession.

One key difference in these cases is that Biden and Pence immediately returned the documents, while Trump is charged with attempting to hold onto his and obstruct efforts to have them returned.

Evidence?

Agreed on individuals not being blamed for what their ancestors got up to Trymer.
After all the name calling Trump has had to put up with,it just seems nice that his ancestors were not involved in slavery.

Donald Trump pleads not guilty to election charges in latest arraignment..By Bernd Debusmann Jr & Sam Cabral in court & George Bowden, BBC News, Washington DC.

Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty in a Washington DC court to conspiring to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

During a short arraignment, he spoke softly to confirm his not-guilty plea, name, age and that he was not under the influence of any substances.

He later told reporters the case was "persecution of a political opponent".

It marks the former president's third appearance in four months as a criminal defendant.

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Mr Trump entered through a backdoor of the courthouse on Thursday afternoon in the centre of the nation's capital, just yards from the scene of the US Capitol riot that is central to the prosecution's case.

About 1,000 defendants charged with participating in the storming of Congress on 6 January 2021 have appeared in the same court building.

The former president seemed to exchange glances across the court with Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the investigation.

Mr Trump was seen twiddling his thumbs as he sat waiting for the hearing to begin, and he shook his head as the clerk read out the case number.

The former president had taken a short flight on his private plane from his New Jersey residence to attend the hearing.

His not-guilty plea covered the four charges in this latest indictment:

1..Conspiracy to defraud the US

2..Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding

3..Obstruction of an official proceeding

4..Conspiracy against the rights of citizens

Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya told the former president not to communicate about the facts of the case.

She warned him that failure to comply could result in an arrest warrant, revoked release conditions and contempt of court charges.

Prosecutors told the hearing the case would benefit from a speedy trial.

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But Trump defence attorney John Lauro said they would need more time to prepare. He said the prosecution's timeline was "somewhat absurd" given that the investigation itself had taken three years.

The allegations laid out on Tuesday in an indictment, or charge sheet, include a count of "conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud and deceit".

Mr Trump lost the 2020 election to his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, but he refused to concede and mounted weeks of challenges across several US states.

He is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination and may face a rematch with Mr Biden.

Speaking to reporters before flying home to New Jersey, Mr Trump said his arraignment was a "very sad day for America".

He told reporters he was sad to see "the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti" in Washington DC.

Outside court, one of his lawyers previewed a possible defence strategy.

Alina Habba argued that the former president had been given bad guidance by his team in the aftermath of the election.

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"I think that everybody was made aware that he lost the election, but that doesn't mean that that was the only advice he was given," said Ms Habba.

She added: "He may not agree with Mike Pence. He may not agree with one of his lawyers.

"But that doesn't mean there weren't other people advising him exactly the opposite. And the president has a right, as every one of us do, to listen to several opinions and make a decision."

The indictment lists six unnamed co-conspirators who allegedly helped Mr Trump plot to quash his election loss.

Three police officers who testified to Congress about their battle with Trump supporters during the US Capitol riot attended Thursday's court hearing. Several off-duty judges were also in the room.

A group of supporters waving Trump campaign flags assembled outside. Anti-Trump demonstrators were also present.

The next hearing will take place on 28 August and is expected to be procedural. However, the judge may set a trial date.

The Republican has already been charged in two other cases: with mishandling classified files and falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Mr Trump now faces five upcoming trials - three in New York, over the hush-money payment, and civil trials over business practices and alleged defamation of a woman who accused him of rape.

The fourth trial will take place in Florida relating to the alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Ummmm....its the DoJ, not the Democratic Party...

Has this anything to do with the Democratic Party??

"In October 2022, investigators gathered sufficient evidence to charge Biden with tax and gun purchase crimes By April 2023, prosecutors were considering four charges: two misdemeanor counts for failure to file taxes, a single felony count of tax evasion, and a charge related to a gun purchase."

Go on.
😂😂😂

Don't forget Nobby that Boris Johnson talked of having political appointments in the UK judiciary as he did with the BBC.
Control the media [mostly there with the newspaper media], change the voting boundaries [happening in the US and trying to control the Electoral Commission] and control the judiciary and democracy disappears.
It's not as hard as people think. Johnson's fall saved us from a lot worse than the financial shenanigans of Rish!

She was not just imprisoned for having an abortion.
It was for procuring at home pills from the HNS after the 10 week limit [for such issue] and causing an abortion after the statutory legal limit [she was estimated at 32 to 34 weeks] at such time that babies have been viable. The legal limit is 24 weeks, although where life is endangered can be after that.

However you are right that some Tory MPs have been making noises similar to the Republicans about abortion rights.
And people like Lee Anderson, have been making similar noises about welfare and the NHS.

Agree on Biden Jr. Although the judiciary in the US is not politically independent. It will be interesting to see who gets appointed to over see Biden Jr's case.