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Trump Discussed ‘Highly Confidential’ Document in Audio Recording

An audio recording obtained by news organizations reveals U.S. President Donald Trump discussing secret documents about a plan to attack Iran as he spoke to a writer after leaving office in 2021. 

Federal prosecutors cited parts of the conversation in an indictment last month on charges that he illegally retained classified government documents and then conspired to obstruct a federal investigation. 

CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times released the audio clip Monday in which Trump references reports that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley feared Trump would manufacture a conflict with Iran after losing the 2020 presidential election. 

“With Milley, let me see that, I”ll show you an example,” Trump says in the recording, which includes the sound of shuffling papers. “He said that I wanted to attack Iran.  Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers; this thing just came up.  Look, this was him, they presented me this. This is off the record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.” 

“This totally wins my case, you know?” Trump says. “Except it is, like, highly confidential, secret. This is secret information.” 

Trump later says, “See, as president I could have declassified it, now I can’t.”  

The former president has said he had a “standing order” to declassify all documents taken from the Oval Office to the White House residence.  He pleaded not guilty in a June court appearance. 
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Supreme Court Unfreezes Louisiana Redistricting Case that Could Boost Power of Black Voters

The Supreme Court on Monday lifted its hold on a Louisiana case that could force the state to redraw congressional districts to boost Black voting power. 

The order follows the court’s rejection earlier in June of a congressional redistricting map in Alabama and unfreezes the Louisiana case, which had been on hold pending the decision in Alabama. 

In both states, Black voters are a majority in just one congressional district. Lower courts had ruled that the maps raised concerns that Black voting power had been diluted, in violation of the landmark federal Voting Rights Act. 

About a third of Louisiana’s residents are Black. More than one in four Alabamians are Black. 

The justices put the Louisiana case on hold and allowed the state’s challenged map to be used in last year’s elections after they agreed to hear the Alabama case. 

The case had separately been appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The justices said that appeal now could go forward in advance of next year’s congressional elections. 
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US Supreme Court to Rule On Gay Rights, Religious Freedom, Other Heated Issues

The Supreme Court is getting ready to decide some of its biggest cases of the term. The high court has 10 opinions left to release over the next week before the justices begin their summer break. As is typical, the last opinions to be released cover some of the most contentious issues the court has wrestled with this term including affirmative action, student loans and gay rights. 

Here’s a look at some of the cases the court has left to decide from the term that began back in October: 

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION  

The survival of affirmative action in higher education is the subject of two related cases, one involving Harvard and the other the University of North Carolina. The Supreme Court has previously approved of the use of affirmative action in higher education in decisions reaching back to 1978. But the justices’ decision to take the cases suggested a willingness to revisit those rulings. And when the high court heard arguments in the cases in late October, all six conservative justices on the court expressed doubts about the practice. 

The Biden administration has said that getting rid of race-conscious college admissions would have a “destabilizing” effect that would cause the ranks of Black and Latino students to plummet at the nation’s most selective schools. 

STUDENT LOANS  

The justices will also decide the fate of President Joe Biden’s plan to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions of Americans. When the court heard arguments in the case in February, the plan didn’t seem likely to survive, though it’s possible the justices could decide the challengers lacked the right to sue and the plan can still go forward. 

Biden had proposed erasing $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those with incomes below $125,000 a year, or households that earn less than $250,000. He also wanted to cancel an additional $10,000 for those who received federal Pell Grants to attend college. The administration has said millions of borrowers would benefit from the program. 

Regardless of what happens at the high court, loan payments that have been on hold since the start of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago will resume this summer. 

Information in this article is confirmed with other sources and may be used without attribution to The Associated Press in broadcasts — websites still must use the attribution. The News Center has no plans currently to match it. 

GAY RIGHTS  

A clash of gay rights and religious rights is also yet to be decided by the court. The case involves a Christian graphic artist from Colorado who wants to begin designing wedding websites but objects to making wedding websites for same-sex couples. 

State law requires businesses that are open to the public to provide services to all customers, but the designer, Lorie Smith, says the law violates her free speech rights. 

She says ruling against her would force artists — from painters and photographers to writers and musicians — to do work that is against their beliefs. Her opponents, meanwhile, say that if she wins, a range of businesses will be able to discriminate, refusing to serve Black, Jewish or Muslim customers, interracial or interfaith couples or immigrants. 

During arguments in the case in December, the court’s conservative majority sounded sympathetic to Smith’s arguments, and religious plaintiffs have in recent years won a series of victories at the high court. 

RELIGIOUS RIGHTS  

Another case that could end as a victory for religious rights is the case of a Christian mail carrier who refused to work on Sundays when he was required to deliver Amazon packages. 

The question for the high court has to do with when businesses have to accommodate religious employees. The case is somewhat unusual in that both sides agree on several things, and when the court heard arguments in April both liberal and conservative justices seemed in broad agreement that businesses like the Postal Service can’t cite minor costs or hardships to reject requests to accommodate religious practices. That could mean a ruling joined by both liberals and conservatives. 

Less clear, however, was how the justices might decide the particular worker’s case. 

VOTING  

As election season accelerates, the Supreme Court has still not said what it will do in a case about the power of state legislatures to make rules for congressional and presidential elections without being checked by state courts. 

In a case out of North Carolina the justices were asked to essentially eliminate the power of state courts to strike down congressional districts drawn by legislatures on the grounds that they violate state constitutions. 

But there’s a wrinkle. Since the justices heard arguments in the case in December, North Carolina’s state Supreme Court threw out the ruling the Supreme Court was reviewing after Republicans claimed control of that court. That could give the justices an out and let them dismiss the case without reaching a decision. 

The high court could still take up a similar case from Ohio and reach a decision there, but it wouldn’t be until after the 2024 elections. 
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US Not Backing Down on Biden Calling China’s Leader a ‘Dictator’

The US is not backing down on comments made by President Joe Biden likening Chinese President Xi Jinping to a dictator. The remarks, which came a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China to repair bilateral relations, drew sharp criticism from Beijing. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Biden to Host Modi for Talks, State Dinner

U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks Thursday at the White House.

“The visit will strengthen our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and shared resolve to elevate the technology partnership, including in defense, clean energy, and space,” the White House said ahead of the meeting.

In a rare move for the Indian leader, Modi and Biden are scheduled to appear at a joint news conference Thursday.

Modi is also due to give an address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

Thursday’s events close with a state dinner at the White House.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Hunter Biden Plea Deal Renews Debate Over Political Investigations

US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two minor criminal charges this week. While Republicans said the plea deal would not stop their inquiry into the president and his family, Democrats said those concerns did not compare to the charges faced by former president Donald Trump. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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Biden Says Risks Posed by AI to Security, Economy Must be Addressed

The risks of artificial intelligence to national security and the economy need to be addressed, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding he would seek expert advice.

“My administration is committed to safeguarding Americans’ rights and safety while protecting privacy, to addressing bias and misinformation, to making sure AI systems are safe before they are released,” Biden said at an event in San Francisco.

Biden met a group of civil society leaders and advocates who have previously criticized the influence of major tech companies, to discuss artificial intelligence.

“I wanted to hear directly from the experts,” he said.

Several governments are considering how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity in recent months after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Biden’s meeting on Tuesday included Tristan Harris, executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Buolamwini, and Stanford University Professor Rob Reich.

Regulators globally have been working to draw up rules governing the use of generative AI, which can create text and images, and whose impact has been compared to that of the internet.

Biden has also recently discussed the issue of AI with other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whose government will later this year hold a first global summit on artificial intelligence safety. Biden is expected to discuss the topic with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his ongoing U.S. visit.

European Union lawmakers agreed last week to changes in draft rules on artificial intelligence proposed by the European Commission in a bid to set a global standard for a technology used on everything from automated factories to self-driving cars to chatbots.
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Blinken Highlights Need for Direct Engagement in US, China Talks

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday the United States and China have an obligation to manage their relationship responsibly, and that he told Chinese leaders during meetings in Beijing that direct engagement is the best way to ensure disagreements do not turn into conflict.     

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Blinken said he had candid and substantive discussions Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi.     

“I would expect additional visits by senior U.S. officials to China over the coming weeks,” Blinken said during a news conference. He added that Washington welcomes further visits by Chinese officials to the United States.       

Xi called on the U.S. side to adopt a rational and pragmatic attitude, and work with China in the same direction, according to a statement issued by the Chinese government. 

While both sides agreed on the need to stabilize communication, Blinken will not return to Washington with an agreement from the Chinese side to set up military-to-military communication channels.     

“At this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that,” Blinken said.   

Washington says military communication lines should remain open in the event of a crisis.     

Ali Wyne, a senior analyst with Eurasia Group’s Global Macro-Geopolitics practice, said in an email to VOA that while it is concerning that China did not accept Blinken’s proposal to establish military communication channels,   Xi’s decision to meet with Blinken “suggests that China, not just the United States, appreciates the importance of slowing the deterioration of U.S.-China ties.”  

“The trip will not — and was not — expected to change the fundamentally and intensely competitive nature of U.S.-China relations, but it will give the two countries an opportunity to increase the frequency and broaden the scope of high-level dialogues,” he said.  

Blinken said he raised U.S. concerns about provocative Chinese actions in the Taiwan Strait. He said he reiterated that the United States does not support Taiwan independence and that it continues to expect the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences.     

US ready to cooperate, says Blinken

For decades, the U.S. has been clear that its decision to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1979 rested on the expectation that “the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means,” as stipulated in the Taiwan Relations Act.    

Moritz Rudolf, a research scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, told VOA’s Mandarin Service in a phone interview that Blinken’s comments on Taiwan were “key for the Chinese side” to hear.   

He said that while expectations were low for Blinken’s visit and there were no major breakthroughs, the talks did not go “as bad as some people might have anticipated.”  

“I think it went fairly well because … this visit laid the foundation for more visits and more exchanges in the future,” he said.    

Blinken told reporters he also raised human rights issues, including international concerns about the treatment of people in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as the wrongful detention of U.S. citizens in China.     

Blinken also said the United States is ready to cooperate with China on issues of mutual interest. He said those include climate change, macroeconomic stability, public health, food security and counter-narcotics efforts.     

The United States and China have also agreed to set up “a working group” of joint efforts to address the illicit flow of fentanyl, according to Blinken.           

Blinken, who arrived in Beijing Sunday, is the highest-level U.S. official to visit China since 2018. His trip was rescheduled from February after a Chinese surveillance balloon flew through U.S. airspace and was shot down.                        

Americans wrongfully detained in China                              

Children of Americans who the U.S. considers wrongfully detained by Chinese authorities had asked Blinken to raise their fathers’ cases with his Chinese counterparts.                              

“Behind every hostage is a family suffering every day,” the Bring Our Families Home Campaign said in a tweet on Sunday.       

“This Sunday will be the 7th time I’ve missed Father’s Day with my dad,” said Harrison Li.  “Releasing my dad is one of the easiest things that the Chinese government can do to show they are serious about normalizing relations.”                 

Harrison Li’s father, Kai Li, is an American citizen who has been detained in China since September 2016. He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage, a charge his family rejects.               

Alice Lin is the daughter of American pastor David Lin, who was detained under unclear circumstances in 2006 and later sentenced to life in prison on charges of contract fraud. Lin’s family staunchly maintains his innocence. Lin’s sentence was later reduced, and he is expected to be released in 2029.               

“Secretary Blinken, we miss my dad. Please do everything possible to bring him home,” Lin told VOA.                             

Taiwan               

Washington has said China’s military escalation in the Taiwan Strait was “a global concern.”                   

A senior State Department official told VOA it is an “abiding interest” of the U.S. to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China is seen as ramping up economic coercion targeting Taiwan ahead of its presidential election.    

In May, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told senators that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could halt the world’s largest advanced semiconductor production, wiping out up to $1 trillion per year.               

“I will say this number is way too small,” because it only costs about 6% of China’s gross domestic product, said Chen-Yu Li, chief economist of Taishin Financial Holdings in Taiwan.               

Li said a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait will affect other Asian economies such as Japan and South Korea, whose GDP totals at least $5 trillion. He also cited the market value of tech giants such as Apple, Nvidia and AMD, which Li estimates is at least $3 trillion.               

“If Taiwan is under attack, the stock market in the U.S. may vanish $3 trillion,” Li said during a May 12 event hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.                                  

“If I am Xi Jinping, I’ll be very happy to attack Taiwan. It’s just 6%,”   Li said.                            

Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb and Si Yang of VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this report.  
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US Judge Orders Trump Lawyers Not to Release Evidence in Documents Probe

A U.S. judge in Florida on Monday ordered defense lawyers for former President Donald Trump not to release evidence in the classified documents case to the media or public, according to a court filing.

The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart also put strict conditions on Trump’s access to the materials.

“The Discovery materials, along with any information derived therefrom, shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform, without prior notice to and consent of the United States or approval of the Court,” the order filed on Monday said.

It also specified that Trump “shall not retain copies” and that he may only review case materials “under the direct supervision of Defense Counsel or a member of Defense Counsel’s staff.”

The order granted a motion filed last week by prosecutors who had asked the court to put conditions on how the defense stores and uses the documents.

Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was indicted on federal charges this month. He was accused of illegally retaining classified government documents after leaving the White House and then conspiring to obstruct a federal probe of the matter.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in court to all 37 counts.

He defended his handling of the boxes in an interview with Fox News on Monday, saying that he needed to go through the boxes to remove personal items including golf shirts, pants and shoes.

“Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out. These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things,” Trump said. “I was very busy, as you’ve sort of seen.”

Trump repeated his claim that the boxes contained magazine articles, personal items and art. The Justice Department told a court that the boxes contained highly classified documents, including a plan to attack Iran.

The former president faces other legal hurdles, having been indicted by New York City prosecutors in connection with an alleged hush-money payment to a porn star.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is also probing Trump’s alleged role in actions surrounding his loss in the 2020 presidential election that culminated in Trump supporters’ deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump is also being investigated in connection with efforts to change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in Georgia.
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More Than 1 Million in US Lose Medicaid Health Care Coverage in Post-Pandemic Purge

More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.

Though the eligibility review is required by the federal government, President Joe Biden’s administration isn’t pleased at how efficiently some states are accomplishing the task.

“Pushing through things and rushing it will lead to eligible people — kids and families — losing coverage for some period of time,” Daniel Tsai, a top federal Medicaid official recently told reporters.

Already, about 1.5 million people have been removed from Medicaid in more than two dozen states that started the process in April or May, according to publicly available reports and data obtained by The Associated Press.

Florida has dropped several hundred thousand people, by far the most among states.

The drop rate also has been particularly high in other states. For people whose cases were decided in May, around half or more got dropped in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

By its own count, Arkansas has dropped more than 140,000 people from Medicaid.

The eligibility redeterminations have created headaches for Jennifer Mojica, 28, who was told in April that she no longer qualified for Medicaid because Arkansas had incorrectly determined her income was above the limit.

She got that resolved, but was then told her 5-year-old son was being dropped from Medicaid because she had requested his cancellation — something that never happened, she said. Her son’s coverage has been restored, but now Mojica says she’s been told her husband no longer qualifies. The uncertainty has been frustrating, she said.

“It was like fixing one thing and then another problem came up, and they fixed it and then something else came up,” Mojica said.

‘Swiftly disenroll’

Arkansas officials said they have tried to renew coverage automatically for as many people as possible and placed a special emphasis on reaching families with children.

But a 2021 state law requires the post-pandemic eligibility redeterminations to be completed in six months, and the state will continue “to swiftly disenroll individuals who are no longer eligible,” the Department of Human Services said in statement.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has dismissed criticism of the state’s process.

“Those who do not qualify for Medicaid are taking resources from those who need them,” Sanders said on Twitter last month. “But the pandemic is over — and we are leading the way back to normalcy.”

More than 93 million people nationwide were enrolled in Medicaid as of the most recent available data in February — up nearly one-third from the pre-pandemic total in January 2020. The rolls swelled because federal law prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the health emergency in exchange for providing states with increased funding.

Now that eligibility reviews have resumed, states have begun plowing through a backlog of cases to determine whether people’s income or life circumstances have changed.

States have a year to complete the process. But tracking down responses from everyone has proved difficult because some people have moved, changed contact information, or disregarded mailings about the renewal process.

Outreach via text, email, phone

Before dropping people from Medicaid, the Florida Department of Children and Families said it makes between five and 13 contact attempts, including texts, emails and phone calls. Yet the department said 152,600 people have been non-responsive.

Their coverage could be restored retroactively if people submit information showing their eligibility up to 90 days after their deadline.

Unlike some states, Idaho continued to evaluate people’s Medicaid eligibility during the pandemic even though it didn’t remove anyone. When the enrollment freeze ended in April, Idaho started processing those cases — dropping nearly 67,000 of the 92,000 people whose cases have been decided so far.

Advocates fear that many households losing coverage may include children who are actually still eligible, because Medicaid covers children at higher income levels than their parents or guardians. A report last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services forecast that children would be disproportionately impacted, with more than half of those disenrolled still actually eligible.

That’s difficult to confirm, however, because the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn’t require states to report a demographic breakdown of those dropped. In fact, CMS has yet to release any state-by-state data. The AP obtained data directly from states and from other groups that have been collecting it.

Some states haven’t been able to complete all the eligibility determinations that are due each month. Pennsylvania reported more than 100,000 incomplete cases in both April and May. Tens of thousands of cases also remained incomplete in April or May in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio.

“If states are already behind in processing renewals, that’s going to snowball over time,” said Tricia Brooks, a research professor at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. “Once they get piles of stuff that haven’t been processed, I don’t see how they catch up easily.”
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US Lawmakers Discuss Expectations for Blinken Trip to China

Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Washington on Friday night for China. The trip, which was postponed after an incident in February over a suspected Chinese spy balloon, is being closely watched on Capitol Hill.

Blinken is expected to focus on the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the two countries and discussing regional security issues, climate change and the global economy. State Department officials also said the issue of illegal fentanyl trafficking to the United States would also be a prominent part of the talks.

Ahead of the trip, VOA Mandarin Service spoke with several U.S. lawmakers about their expectations for the talks, including what issues should be the top priorities for the bilateral dialogue.

The interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Is this a good time for Secretary Blinken to go to Beijing?

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee: I guess there’s never really a good time. I know [the Biden administration is] trying to use more of a charm offensive approach. We have to be a little careful, because when we go over there, that’s a big concession on the part of the United States to China. So, I think it’s good to have an open line of communication, have a hotline.

Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific: Obviously, the relationship is not at a great place right now. But I think  it’s important for both sides to continue to talk and communicate.

Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA), member, Foreign Affairs Committee:  I think it’s important to go. We have great differences. We have great competitions. But ultimately, we have to work in this globe together on issues where that’s possible. And we won’t have the possibility of improving that situation without having discussions.

VOA: What would you like Secretary Blinken to discuss with his counterparts in Beijing?

Young Kim (R-CA), chairwoman, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific: Our foreign policy towards China should be very, very clear in terms their surveillance of operations targeting in the United States, or their increased aggression towards Taiwan or other Indo-Pacific partners and human rights abuses. Those are not acceptable. China’s treatment of its people, especially with respect to human rights violations, especially in the Xinjiang province and other areas, we’re not going to be tolerating it.

McCaul: De-escalation of the tension in the Taiwan Strait is number one. Human rights issues, obviously. I’m working on export controls. I don’t want to sell them technology, that they’re going to turn around and use in their advanced weapon systems that then can be pointed against us in a future conflict.

Bera: Climate change, certainly global health security are two areas that are important to both of us. And certainly, maybe there’s some areas around trade.

Keating: In terms of some of the military issues, trying to de-escalate there would be a smart move.

VOA: Are you optimistic China will work with the U.S. on issues such as climate change?

Bera: Not 100% optimistic, but I think it’s important that we make the effort. I think it’s important for both sides to continue to talk and communicate.

Kim: We hope that they will be able to cooperate with us, but you know, historically speaking, they have shown that they are not a reliable, trusting partner. At this point, Secretary Blinken should be able to make it very clear that we want China to abide by the same rules we expect other partners and allies in the Indo Pacific to.

Keating: I hope so. We all share the same planet. Climate change is real. 
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The Trump Documents Case: What You Need to Know

With former President Donald Trump currently the leading candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in 2024, his indictment last week on charges of mishandling classified documents stands to dominate the American political conversation for months to come.

As Democrats and Republicans stake out their competing positions on what Trump did, what other politicians did, and what the law requires, the facts of the case will likely become increasingly muddled.

Here is a step-by-step account of what is known about the case as drawn from court filings and other official statements.

National Archives

The June 9 indictment arose from an investigation into Trump’s removal of scores of classified government documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida when he left office in January 2021.

Trump did this despite an obligation under the Presidential Records Act, which requires departing presidents to release all records of their presidencies to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) once they leave office.

Beginning in May 2021, NARA officials repeatedly asked Trump to return the documents he had taken to Mar-a-Lago, warning that they would refer the matter to the Justice Department if he failed to comply, according to the indictment.

After months of stonewalling by the former president, Trump’s representatives finally turned over 15 boxes of records in January 2022, nearly a year after he had left the White House.

To their alarm, NARA officials discovered that the boxes contained 197 documents with classified markings, including 92 marked as secret, and 25 marked as top secret.

In February 2022, NARA referred the discovery to the Justice Department, expressing concern that classified documents were “unfoldered, intermixed with other records, and otherwise (improperly) identified.”

On March 30, 2022, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the matter. The following month, a federal grand jury was impaneled to receive testimony and other evidence.

FBI search

What followed was a monthslong inquiry and effort by the Justice Department to retrieve the documents still in Trump’s possession.

In May 2022, the grand jury subpoenaed Trump to turn over all classified documents that he had kept to the Justice Department.

Trump instead sought to “obstruct” the investigation and “conceal” his possession of classified documents, according to the indictment.

Trying to evade the investigators, Trump initially proposed that his lawyer simply tell them that “there are no documents,” the indictment says.

Trump eventually agreed to let one of his lawyers search for the documents. But before the lawyer could begin his review, Trump had his aide Walt Nauta move dozens of boxes from a storage room to his residence, concealing the documents from his own attorneys.

Finally on June 3, 2022, Trump’s lawyers turned over 38 additional classified documents, but the alleged concealment led the lawyers to tell the Justice Department that a “diligent search” of Mar-a-Lago had been conducted and no additional documents remained on the premises.

This certification was false, prosecutors say. According to the indictment, Trump knew that not all of the documents had been returned to the Justice Department.

Things came to a head that August when the FBI executed a search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, seizing an additional 102 classified documents from Trump’s office and a storage room.

The unprecedented search of a former president’s home prompted Trump and his allies to accuse the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department and the FBI to go after its enemies. Administration officials denied the accusation.

Classified documents

In all, prosecutors have retrieved more than 300 classified government documents from Trump. The documents bear various classification markings, from confidential and secret to top secret/sensitive compartmented information — the highest level of classification.

The government has not disclosed the content of the documents, but prosecutors have highlighted their subject matter. According to the indictment, the documents “included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; the potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.”

The indictment lists 37 documents that Trump “willfully retained” and failed to return to the government. They were produced by various U.S. intelligence and security agencies, including the CIA, the National Security Agency and the FBI.

Classification dispute

As president, Trump had access to all classified government documents. But after his term ended, he was not authorized to possess or retain them, prosecutors say.

To view national security documents, former presidents can seek a waiver of the “need to know” requirement. Trump “did not obtain any such waiver after his presidency,” the indictment says.

Trump has claimed he had a “standing order” to declassify all documents taken from the Oval Office to the White House residence, suggesting that the government records found in his possession were declassified.

While Trump had the authority to declassify any government document as president, some legal experts have questioned his assertion about a blanket order.

What is more, prosecutors say the former president knew the documents he had taken to Mar-a-Lago remained classified.

The indictment cites two occasions during which Trump showed secret documents to unauthorized individuals while acknowledging they were classified.

In July 2021, during an audio-recorded meeting at his New Jersey golf club with former chief of staff Mark Meadows and the publisher of Meadow’s upcoming memoir, Trump allegedly showed a “plan of attack” that he claimed had been prepared for him by the Pentagon and senior military officials. Describing the plan as “highly confidential” and “secret,” Trump said, “As president I could have declassified it,” adding that “Now, I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

Then in August or September 2021, Trump allegedly showed a representative of his political action committee a classified map related to a military operation, telling the representative that Trump “should not be showing it to (him) and that (he) should not get too close,” according to the indictment. The representative did not have a security clearance.

Federal indictment

The indictment accuses Trump of violating seven separate laws, including 31 counts of “willful retention” of national defense information under the Espionage Act.

Each violation of the Espionage Act provision is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The six other charges are for conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, and concealing his possession of classified documents from the FBI and the grand jury.

The charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and corruptly concealing a document or record, and concealing a document in a federal investigation carry up to 20 years in prison.

The final count of “scheme to conceal” carries a maximum term of five years.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Other cases

To undercut the legitimacy of the indictment, Trump and his allies have criticized the Justice Department, saying it has allowed other officials, such as President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence, to get away with mishandling classified documents.

But legal experts say the Trump case is different from theirs. Biden’s lawyers have said they gave back 16 classified documents as soon as they found them at Biden’s former office in Washington and his home in Delaware.

About a dozen classified documents were found at Pence’s home in Indiana and were turned over to NARA.

Neither Biden nor Pence is accused of “willfully retaining” the documents and refusing to give them back.

A special counsel, Robert Hur, is examining Biden’s handling of the documents.

But even if Biden is found to have mishandled classified documents, he would probably not face any charges because the Justice Department has long taken the position that a sitting president cannot be indicted, says Jordan Strauss, a former Justice Department official who is now a managing director at Kroll, a risk consult firm.

“I think the most likely outcome of the special counsel’s investigation of President Biden is a report that says something like, ‘We would or would not have recommended an indictment were this not the president,’” Strauss said.

The Justice Department told Pence this month it had closed its investigation and would not charge him.

Presidential campaign

John Malcolm, a former federal prosecutor who is a vice president at the Heritage Foundation, said no laws bar Trump from running for president, even if he is found guilty.

“There have been people who have run for office from prison cells,” Malcolm said.

In 2002, former Representative Jim Traficant ran for his old congressional seat while serving a prison sentence for corruption.
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How Trump’s Handling of Classified Materials Compares to Biden, Pence, Clinton

Following the indictment of former President Donald Trump in connection with his alleged mishandling of classified documents, the former president and his supporters contend that he is the target of a politically weaponized justice system. They claim that the Department of Justice has ignored similar alleged crimes committed by his rivals, including President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In a speech after his arraignment Tuesday, Trump alleged that Biden and Clinton and other former presidents have committed far graver crimes than he has, yet he was the only one charged with felonies. That, he says, is proof that he is the victim of a political witch hunt.

Among other claims, many of which are contrary to evidence, Trump said Biden had “troves of classified documents” from his time as vice president and senator and sent away “1,850 boxes,” and “refuses to give them up.” He added that Clinton “stored vast quantities of classified and sensitive information on an illicit server.”

Biden, Clinton and Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, all have faced questions about holding on to government materials from their time in office. And like Trump, Biden is the subject of a Department of Justice investigation led by a special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Here are summaries of the three cases and how they compare to Trump’s.

Joe Biden

Following media reports in January, the White House disclosed that in November the president’s personal attorneys found classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president stored at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank in Washington.

The White House said it notified the National Archives, which retrieved the documents and informed the Department of Justice. It instructed the FBI to search the think tank, which was done with White House consent. It’s unclear whether they found additional classified records.

Additional classified documents were found by Biden’s personal lawyers at the president’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware, which they reported to DOJ. The documents were secured by FBI agents, who found several more classified records while searching Biden’s home with White House consent. The FBI also searched Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth, Delaware, but did not find any classified materials.

In January, Garland appointed Robert Hur, former U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, to oversee the investigation. Hur’s probe is ongoing, and it is unclear when it will conclude. The White House has pledged full cooperation.

Mike Pence

In January, Pence’s lawyers discovered about a dozen documents marked classified at his Indiana home and turned them over to the FBI. The documents were found after Pence asked attorneys to search his home “out of an abundance of caution” after the Biden classified document revelation.

A month later, the FBI discovered an additional document with classified markings at his home during their search. That search was done with Pence’s consent.

In June, the DOJ notified Pence that the investigation into his handling of these materials had been concluded and that he would not be charged.

Hillary Clinton

In 2015, Clinton was found to have used a personal email account and a private server at her residence in New York for both personal and official correspondence during her tenure as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, triggering concerns about security and potential mishandling of classified information.

An FBI investigation revealed that Clinton and her aides had deleted thousands of emails, claiming that they were personal in nature, raising suspicions of attempts to conceal potentially incriminating information.

In July 2016, during Clinton’s presidential campaign, then-FBI Director James Comey criticized her for being “extremely careless” in handling classified information but did not recommend criminal charges against her.

Willful retention

A key difference between the three cases and Trump’s, according to legal experts, is that the former president continued to willfully retain those documents despite repeated government efforts to have them returned, including through a subpoena.

“Acting criminally is to know that you have documents that contain sensitive military information and to intentionally continue to hold them,” said David Sklansky, professor of Constitutional Criminal Procedure at Stanford University to VOA.

Unlike Trump, Biden and Pence handled the discovery appropriately, which ended the matter, said Mark Zaid, an attorney who focuses on national security law.

“The same would have happened with Trump had he cooperated,” Zaid told VOA.

The evidence in the indictment released by special counsel Jack Smith lays out “very, very persuasively” that Trump knew he had classified material, said Alison LaCroix, professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago.

Setting aside the question of whether Biden and Pence knew they had classified documents in their possession, LaCroix added, “they haven’t attempted to conceal them.”

With respect to Clinton, Zaid added, authorities determined there was no intent to violate the law and that the parties involved avoided discussing classified information.

Hunter Biden

In his Tuesday remarks, Trump alleged that the Biden administration is targeting him to distract from “the real espionage and the real crime.”

“Let’s indict President Trump so they don’t talk about the $5 million bribe,” he said.

Starting in 2019, as he campaigned for the 2020 presidential election against Biden, Trump has alleged that an executive of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma funneled millions of dollars to Biden and his son around 2015, so that Biden, then vice president, would pressure Ukraine to fire the government prosecutor investigating the company for corruption.

In June 2020, the head of Ukraine’s national anti-corruption bureau said that neither Biden nor Hunter Biden, who joined Burisma as a board member in 2014, had anything to do with the company’s corruption case.

A congressional investigation, which later led to Trump’s first impeachment in December 2019, concluded that Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to announce an investigation into Biden, including by withholding military aid to Kyiv.

In January, House Republicans launched an investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings. In May, they released financial documents detailing how some of the president’s relatives were paid more than $10 million from foreign sources between 2015 and 2017 but conceded they have not uncovered evidence of criminal conduct and corruption by President Biden.
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Trump Pleads Not Guilty to Classified Documents Charges

Former President Donald Trump remained defiant following his not guilty plea in a Florida courtroom Tuesday. The Republican presidential front-runner is facing 37 federal felony counts, including illegally retaining classified information and obstructing justice. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. Camera – Celia Mendoza
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NYC Writer Can Pursue $10 Million Lawsuit Against Trump

A federal judge on Tuesday said E. Jean Carroll, the New York writer who last month won a $5 million jury verdict against Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation, can pursue a related $10 million defamation case against the former U.S. president.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ruled in favor of the former Elle magazine columnist after Trump had argued that the defamation case must be dismissed because the jury had concluded he never raped her.

Kaplan said he may explain his reasoning later.

Through a spokeswoman, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba maintained that Carroll should not be allowed to change her legal theory supporting the defamation case “at the eleventh hour” to conform to the jury verdict.

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to Judge Kaplan, said, “We look forward to moving ahead expeditiously on E. Jean Carroll’s remaining claims.”

Trump calls Carroll ‘whack job’

Both of Carroll’s civil lawsuits arose from Trump’s denials that he had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

On May 9, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $2 million for battery and $3 million for defamation over Trump’s October 2022 denial.

The battery claim came under a New York law, the Adult Survivors Act, giving adults a one-year window to sue over sexual abuse that occurred long ago, even if statutes of limitations have expired.

Jurors found that Carroll had sufficiently proved that Trump sexually assaulted her, though not that he raped her.

Carroll then sought to amend the defamation lawsuit she filed in 2019, after Trump told a White House reporter that the rape never happened and that Carroll was not his “type.”

The revision sought to incorporate the jury verdict, as well as insults Trump lobbed a day later in a CNN town hall, where he called Carroll’s account “fake” and labeled her a “whack job.”

‘Extreme prejudice’

Trump, the Republican front-runner for the 2024 presidential election, did not attend the trial, and is appealing the jury verdict.

In a June 5 filing, Trump said he would suffer “extreme prejudice” if Carroll were allowed to “retrofit” her original lawsuit by substituting “sexual assault” for “rape” 71 times.

The Adult Survivors Act did not exist when Carroll filed her first lawsuit. But she can argue that Trump’s original comments caused her greater reputational and financial harm, including the loss of her job at Elle, justifying greater damages.

In Tuesday’s order, Judge Kaplan also gave the U.S. Department of Justice until July 13 to assess whether it could be substituted for Trump as the defendant.

A substitution would essentially end Carroll’s $10 million lawsuit because the government cannot be sued for defamation.

The Justice Department had said it should be substituted, a position Trump favored, but on June 9 said its view had been “overtaken by events” and sought permission to reassess it.
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Trump Set to Be Arraigned on Federal Indictment

Former President Donald Trump arrived at his golf club outside Miami on Monday ahead of his arraignment on charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified national security documents after he left the White House in 2021.

The arraignment, set for 3 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, will take place under heavy security in a federal courtroom in downtown Miami.

Federal authorities have beefed up security around the court building, and Miami officials say they’re prepared to prevent violence from Trump supporters and counterprotesters.

“In our city, we obviously believe in the Constitution and believe that people should have the right to express themselves,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said at a news conference. “But we also believe in law and order. And we know that, and we hope that tomorrow will be peaceful.”

Trump’s arraignment comes five days after a federal grand jury in Miami indicted him on 37 criminal counts, including 31 counts accusing him of “willfully retaining” classified national defense documents in violation of the Espionage Act.

A Trump aide, Walt Nauta, was also indicted in connection with obstructing government efforts to retrieve the documents.

Trump is the first former president to face a federal indictment. This is the second time in two months that he has been indicted.

The former president faces separate state criminal charges in New York in connection with a hush money payment to an adult film star during his 2016 presidential campaign.

At Tuesday’s hearing, a judge will inform Trump of his rights and read the charges against him. He’s expected to enter a plea of not guilty.

Usually, arraignments happen within a day of an arrest. But given the unprecedented nature of Trump’s case, his initial court appearance was delayed for five days.

The case has been assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who drew fire for favoring the former president in her rulings in the case last year.

Cannon briefly blocked federal investigators from examining the documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last August and appointed a special master to review them. But an appeals court later overturned her ruling, saying she did not have the authority to rule as she did.

The charges against Trump stem from an investigation that began after Trump allegedly spurned repeated efforts by the National Archives to take possession of the documents that he had taken from the White House and kept at Mar-a-Lago.

The federal indictment accuses Trump of 31 counts of “willful retention” of classified national defense information, each for a different document that he took from the White House.

Twenty-one of those documents were among the more than 100 that the FBI recovered during a search of Mar-a-Lago last August.

The indictment says the documents contained information about U.S. nuclear programs, the potential vulnerability of the U.S. and its allies to an attack and plans for a possible response. Their disclosure, the indictment says, could endanger U.S. national security.

The six other charges against Trump — which include counts of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements — are related to efforts by Trump to obstruct the investigation and conceal his retention of classified documents.

Trump has claimed that he had an order to declassify all documents taken from the Oval Office to his residence in the White House.

But the indictment says Trump was well aware of laws governing classified national security information and willfully flouted them.

In one case, in July 2021, Trump allegedly showed a document about a “plan of attack” to a group of four unauthorized people — a writer, publisher and two staff members — at his New Jersey golf club, telling them it was “highly confidential” and “secret” and that he could no longer declassify it.

In another instance, in September 2021, Trump showed a classified map to a representative of his political action committee, telling him that he “should not be showing it to (him) and that (he) should not get too close,” according to the indictment.

After his arraignment, Trump will be released on his own recognizance. The start date of his trial remains uncertain. Some experts speculate that it could take months to begin and might even be postponed until after the 2024 election.

Despite his growing legal troubles, however, Trump is free to pursue his presidential bid and has vowed to continue campaigning even if he is found guilty.

“I’ll never leave,” Trump told Politico in an interview Saturday.

Trump is reportedly planning to fly to New Jersey following his arraignment where he’ll host the first fundraiser for his campaign at his golf club.
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White House Warns Private Entities: Products Could Be Used in Iran Drones 

The White House has warned private entities, especially technology companies, about the risks of their products ending up in Iranian hands. Russia has been using drones in its war against Ukraine, attacking cities and destroying infrastructure, and — according to the White House — is working with Iran to produce them from inside Russia.

VOA Persian’s White House correspondent Farhad Pouladi on Friday spoke with John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, about this and other issues the administration is tackling regarding the Islamic Republic.

VOA: On Iran and Russia cooperation on drones, what advice does the administration have by issuing this new advisory?

NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS JOHN KIRBY: Well, we want to make sure that private entities, certainly technology companies, understand the risks of their products potentially ending up in Iranian hands to be used for the manufacture of Iranian drones in this case that can be used to kill innocent Ukrainian people. So, the purpose of the advisory was really to make sure that the business community understands our concerns and is taking a look at its own procedures and procedures.

VOA: In the past two weeks, Iran unveiled a hypersonic missile called Fattah and a 2 kilometer-range missile called Kheibar. With the arms embargo under UNSC Resolution 2231 coming to an end in October, and considering Russia’s veto power, what is the U.S. hoping to do?

KIRBY: Well, I can’t get ahead of the U.N. process here. But you’re right. This activity by Iran, particularly with ballistic missiles, is a violation of 2231. Again, I won’t get ahead of the process here and where it’s going. Clear violations, we’re going to continue to work with our allies and partners at the U.N. and outside the U.N. to make sure that we’re putting enough pressure on Iran so that they stop this destabilizing activity. Their ballistic missile program continues to improve. It presents a clear threat to the region, certainly to our friends in the region. And now some of these capabilities, not ballistic missiles necessarily but in terms of UAVs, [unmanned aerial vehicles] now, this capability, this technology is being used inside Ukraine to kill innocent Ukrainians. And now we know that Iran is working with Russia on the potential construction of a manufacturing facility, or the conversion of one, to be used inside Russia to actually produce, organically, there inside Russia, Iranian-designed UAVs, so all the more reason to continue to put pressure on the regime.

VOA: So, Europeans swap their prisoners with Iran. What is the holdup for the Americans in Iran? You mentioned it behind the podium that a blue passport is a blue passport. So what is the holdup for them?

KIRBY: I would tell you that we never lose sight of our obligations, our sacred obligation to get home wrongfully detained Americans overseas, including in Iran. I don’t have anything with specific cases to talk to you today. I can just tell you that we never stopped working on this. We’re always going to try to find a way to bring these Americans home in a way that comports with our obligation to them but also with our national security. And we’re doing that right now.

VOA: The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] Board of Governors and the U.S. “urged Iran to fully cooperate with the agency.” And if it fails, the board should be prepared to hold Iran to account at the appropriate time. Isn’t that just a slap on the wrist from the U.S.?

KIRBY: We have done an awful lot inside the United States, just unilaterally let alone multilaterally with other countries, to hold the regime accountable for their destabilizing activities, for their constant pursuit of nuclear weapons capabilities, for their support to Russia inside Ukraine, for their attacks on maritime shipping. I could go on, and on, and on. And we’re not going to take any tools off the table to continue to hold them accountable going forward. So I think in Tehran, again, I won’t speak for the regime, but I’d be hard pressed to look at the pressure they’re under and for them to believe that the United States is simply slapping them on the wrist. Now, yes, we want them to comply with the requirements of the IAEA as they should, as they must, but we’re not going to take any options off the table in terms of our ability to continue to put pressure on them so that they do comply, so that … we can get to a place where they don’t have a nuclear weapons capability.

VOA: Going to the sanctions issue as part of Iran’s nuclear deal, specifically on Iranian blocked assets, that can be used only for humanitarian relief and humanitarian commodities. Any changes to that, especially when it comes to news reports that Iran’s Central Bank chief was here?

KIRBY: I mean, I don’t have — I don’t have anything on those press reports. Look, we have sanctions in place that are going to stay in place to hold the regime accountable for their activities in the region, for the way they’re treating their own people, and certainly for the manner in which they’re supporting Ukraine — I’m sorry, Russia — in their fight inside Ukraine and killing innocent Ukrainian people.
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Reporting on Serbian Leader’s Links to Criminal Groups Raises Questions for US

In early May, The New York Times Magazine published an in-depth story about Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic with details about his alleged connections with a criminal group that is being prosecuted for a range of crimes including drug trafficking and murder.

The story drew broad attention internationally, not just in the Balkans where local investigative outlets have reported many of the same allegations, which Vucic denies.

The State Department declined to comment on the merit of the allegations in the story, however at least one high-ranking State Department official shared the story on social media. And the allegations were raised last month during a congressional hearing about the Western Balkans.

Outside analysts though have been vocal.

“It’s a shocking and horrific story that the highest levels of government are so intertwined with criminal enterprises. I think we have seen this in enough other nations that it is a growing concern, the conflation between authoritarian governments and criminal networks,” Gary Kalman, executive director of Transparency International USA, told VOA’s Serbian Service.

“It’s terrible. It’s too bad,” said Susan Rose-Ackerman, professor of law and political science at Yale University, who co-authored the book “Corruption and Government.” She told VOA that connections between people in political power and organized crime create an extreme version of political corruption.

The Times story reported that the connections between police and the criminal group, led by a soccer hooligan Veljko Belivuk, nicknamed Trouble, were well documented. The story also claimed “there is little doubt that Belivuk and his gang are in prison because Europol cracked the code” of the phone-messaging app through which they communicated.

Author Robert Worth reported that Belivuk testified in court that “his gang had been organized ‘for the need and by the order of Aleksandar Vucic.'” He added that the group, among others, used to intimidate political rivals and prevent fans at soccer games from chanting against Vucic.

Worth also wrote that he is skeptical that Vucic was unaware of all the groups did since Vucic “now exercises near-total control over almost every aspect of public life” in Serbia.

International context

Vucic has been in politics since the 1990s. He served as information minister to Slobodan Milosevic, where he led a crackdown on the press, and he publicly voiced support for Serbian war criminals.

His Serbian Progressive Party has now been in power for more than 10 years, during which he was also a prime minister.

Vucic’s spokespeople declined Worth’s requests for comments, but in an interview for pro-government Happy TV in Serbia, Vucic said that the “preposterous New York Times story was ordered” and that he understands it as a message during the dialogue about normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Serbia has never recognized.

“I know how they do it,” said Vucic for Happy TV. “You know, CIA sets you up, CIA watches you, if you don’t behave well and don’t listen, this is only the beginning.”

It has become common practice in past years that Serbian authorities denote any criticism as treason, conspiracy against the country or a plot to overthrow the government.

Both Worth and The New York Times denied such allegations.

VOA interviewees noted that the most significant aspect of the story was the fact that it was published in English, in a reputable outlet with a great number of readers.

“It is an exposé of Aleksandar Vucic and his government. And it put it in an international context, given that it’s The New York Times,” Tanya Domi, professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, told VOA. “Everybody is reading this.”

Is Serbia a reliable partner for the United States?

“Is this reporting credible?” Senator Bob Menendez asked the State Department’s counselor Derek Chollet during a May hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about U.S. policy toward the Western Balkans, referencing the Times story.

“We believe it is. I can’t speak to the specifics of the article, but there is absolutely a lot of corruption,” replied Chollet, with Gabriel Escobar, State Department deputy assistant secretary, sitting next to him.

“So what are the real prospects for a reliable partner in Serbia with that background?” Menendez asked.

“We’re doing this with eyes open, but we are holding Vucic to account and his colleagues to account for their corruption, for their behavior and activity,” said Chollet, noting that corruption is a major issue in the whole region.

But in an interview for VOA’s Bosnian Service, Kurt Bassuener, senior associate at the Democratization Policy Council, pointed out that the U.S. has not sanctioned any Vucic administration official for corruption as it has done in some neighboring countries.

“They essentially dodged it,” Bassuener said of State Department officials. “They didn’t deal with any of the substance. And I think that’s emblematic of the overarching policy, which is pacification toward the region.”

Domi believes the United States and the West are pursuing the idea that Serbia is “a stabilizing force in the region.” But if the goal of such foreign policy toward the Western Balkans is to draw Serbia closer to the West and further from Russia, Domi says there is no proof such a strategy works.

Serbia is one of the rare European countries that has not introduced sanctions against Russia, and there is a strong pro-Russian sentiment in the country.

Transparency International’s Kalman said Washington’s strategy with Serbia could shift in the future.

“I think there is a possibility that the U.S., given sort of Serbia’s role and where it sits in the world, that they might put some pressure on to try and improve things in Serbia,” he said.

“How far they push and whether or not they are concerned that the Serbian government will start an alliance with countries and interests that the U.S. counter to their national security, and so then they back up. I don’t know the answer to that question,” Kalman said.
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Trump Says He Has Been Indicted in Classified Documents Case

Former U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on social media Thursday night that he has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice, apparently for mishandling sensitive government documents.

“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Several media outlets said Trump has been indicted on seven counts related to his handling of classified documents and obstruction of justice.

Trump wrote that he had been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday.

Trump’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is handling the investigation, declined to comment.

Reuters could not immediately learn the exact charges Trump is facing.

In a sworn statement to a federal court last year, an FBI agent said there was probable cause to believe several crimes were committed, including obstruction and the illegal retention of sensitive defense records.

The U.S. Justice Department has been investigating whether Trump mishandled classified documents he retained after leaving the White House in 2021.

Investigators seized roughly 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, nearly a year ago. One hundred were marked as classified, even though one of Trump’s lawyers had previously said all records with classified markings had been returned to the government.

Trump has previously defended his retention of documents, suggesting he declassified them while president. However, Trump has not provided evidence of this, and his attorneys have declined to make that argument in court filings.
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Trump’s Lawyers Notified That Former President Is Target of Classified Documents Probe

Federal prosecutors have notified former U.S. President Donald Trump’s attorneys that he is the target of an investigation into his handling of classified materials, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, adding to his legal troubles as he campaigns for the White House in 2024. 

The Justice Department typically notifies people when they become targets of an investigation to give them an opportunity to present their own evidence before a grand jury. The notification does not necessarily mean Trump will be charged.  

News of the notification to Trump’s legal team surfaced just two days after his attorneys met with Justice Department officials to discuss the case.  

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump’s attorneys in the documents case could not be reached for comment. 

Trump’s legal team was notified on Monday, the person said. Although there are some signs that the documents investigation is coming to a close, the timing of when a person is told they are a target cannot necessarily be used as a predictor of when charges might be brought, said David Schoen, an attorney who represented Trump ally Steve Bannon during his criminal trial on contempt of Congress charges. 

“Sometimes they are issued at the beginning of a long investigation and sometimes at the conclusion of an investigation,” he said. 

Trump, the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has repeatedly described the multiple investigations as politically motivated.  

A federal grand jury has been investigating Trump’s retention of classified materials after leaving the White House in 2021. 

A second criminal investigation is looking into alleged efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

A spokesperson for Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the probes, declined to comment. 

Thousands of documents 

Investigators in August 2022 seized roughly 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. One hundred of these were marked as classified, even though one of Trump’s lawyers had previously said that all records with classified markings had been returned.  

Trump has defended his retention of documents, suggesting that he declassified them while he was president. However, Trump has not provided evidence of this, and his attorneys have not made that argument in court filings. 

Trump handed over 15 boxes of records in January 2022, a year after leaving office, but federal officials came to believe he had not returned all the documents.  

The Justice Department issued Trump a grand jury subpoena in May 2022 asking him to return any other records bearing classified markings, and top officials traveled to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the materials. 

Trump’s attorneys turned over 38 pages marked as classified to FBI and Justice Department officials and showed them a storage room at Mar-a-Lago but did not permit the agents to open any of the boxes. 

One of Trump’s lawyers also signed a document attesting that all records with classified markings had been returned to the government, a claim later proven false after the FBI searched his home.  

Trump’s legal woes are growing.  

A jury in federal court in Manhattan in May decided in a civil lawsuit that Trump must pay $5 million in damages for sexually abusing former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll and then defaming her by branding her a liar. 

Trump also faces a criminal investigation by a county prosecutor in Georgia relating to his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss in that state. 

Trump’s legal woes are growing.  
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Former VP Pence Takes Aim at Trump for Republican Nomination

Several challengers this week have jumped into the race to try to thwart former U.S. president Donald Trump from capturing the Republican Party’s presidential nomination for a third consecutive time. Most notable among the new entrants: Trump’s longtime vice president, Mike Pence. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman at the White House explains Pence wasted no time doing what he previously hesitated to — forcefully criticize his former boss’ conduct in office.
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Nigerian-Born Political Newcomer Becomes Colorado City Mayor

After a history-making victory, Nigerian immigrant Yemi Mobolade was sworn in on June 6 as mayor of Colorado Springs, the second-largest city in the western U.S. state of Colorado.

Colorado Governor Jered Polis said he is inspired by Mobolade’s story.

“Somebody who has dedicated his life to making Colorado Springs and America a better place, whose story we can all identify with, who came here, who started businesses,” Polis said at the inauguration ceremony.

Mobolade moved to the U.S. 27 years ago as a student and became a U.S. citizen in 2017. He started a family, opened two restaurants and a church, and then won election in this traditionally conservative city as its first elected Black leader.

“I wake up every morning and I think it’s a dream, and then I realize, no, this really happened,” Mobolade said.

But what earned him the trust of many residents, some said, is his stint as the small business development manager for Colorado Springs from 2019 to 2022.

Some residents told VOA that Mobolade’s electoral victory sends a message that their state is welcoming to people from all walks of life.

“Colorado Springs is lavishly hospitable,” Michael Lipede told VOA. “If the natives of Colorado have not received us with an open heart, there is no way we will accomplish all we have accomplished,” said Lipede, a lead pastor at Redeemed Christian Church of God Living Faith Sanctuary in Colorado Springs.

In a city of nearly 500,000 people that is more than 75% White, residents found hope in the fact that so many voters were willing to support someone from a different background.

“Coloradans … don’t believe in ethnicity, they believe in competence and capacity and capability, and they found out that Mr. Yemi has it all.” Olawale Akinremi, a Colorado Springs resident told VOA.

“I feel hopeful about today. I love our new mayor, Yemi Mobolade. He is a man of strength, faith, character, and courage. And we are so fortunate to have him leading our city,” Cindy Aubrey, Colorado Springs resident said.

Another resident, Nkechi Onyejekwe said “I think it is something that is very amazing to celebrate and I think it is something very timely as well,” she told VOA, adding that “Colorado Springs has a very diverse population and I think that their legislative bodies should also reflect that.”

Ami Bajah-Onyejekwe, a Pueblo Colorado resident said it is important for people to see someone they can look up to in positions of leadership. “Just by seeing someone who looks like you, who has similar background to yours and see where that person has reached, and the goals they have achieved,” she said, “gives hope and says, ‘I can do it as well.’”

Mobolade has pledged to be a leader for all of Colorado City’s increasingly diverse population.

“I think today matters for a lot of young black kids because it tells them that the sky’s the limit, that they too can step into the arena and lead,” he said.

This story originated in VOA’s Hausa Service.
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Reuters/Ipsos: Biden’s Approval Rating at 41%, Americans Concerned About Economy

U.S. President Joe Biden’s public approval was at 41% in recent days, close to the lowest level of his presidency but little changed following a tense negotiation with congressional Republicans over the federal government’s debt, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

The four-day poll, which ended on Monday, showed a marginal increase in Biden’s popularity from last month, when 40% of respondents said they approved of his performance since taking office in January 2021. The poll has a margin of error of three percentage points. 

The economy remained the top concern, amid high rates of inflation and a push by central bankers to tame prices by raising interest rates, which has made mortgages and car loans costlier.

Democrat Biden reached a deal last week with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the top elected Republican official, to suspend a limit on federal borrowing following weeks of talks. The deal averted the financial disaster that would have unfolded if the government were forced to stop paying all its bills.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed only 27% of Americans approve of how McCarthy is handling his job.

Some 56% of the poll’s respondents supported sending more U.S. weapons and financial aid to Ukraine in its war against invading Russian forces, about the same share as in a February poll.

But that backing is not evenly distributed across the two political parties. Some 73% of Democrats said they backed more aid, compared to 44% of Republicans.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll gathered responses from 1,056 adults, using a nationally representative sample. 
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Biden Delivers Oval Office Remarks on US Avoiding Default

President Joe Biden delivered remarks Friday evening on the Fiscal Responsibility Act, bipartisan legislation achieved following weeks of tough negotiations that suspends the government’s debt limit and avoids a potentially disastrous default. For the first time Biden spoke from the Oval Office, signifying the occasion’s importance. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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US Senate Approves Debt Ceiling Deal 

The U.S. Senate voted Thursday night 63-36 in support of a measure that will allow the United States to continue to pay its bills. The U.S. had been on track to run out of cash in four days. The bipartisan legislation now goes to President Joe Biden for his signature.

“Tonight, senators from both parties voted to protect the hard-earned economic progress we have made and prevent a first –ever default by the United States,” Biden said in a statement.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted Wednesday night, with wide support from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, to allow the government to continue to borrow more money over the next year-and-a-half to meet its financial obligations, exceeding the current $31.4 trillion debt limit.

The legislation does not set a new monetary cap, but the borrowing authority would extend to Jan. 2, 2025, two months past next year’s presidential election.

In addition, the legislation calls for maintaining most federal spending at the current level in the fiscal year starting in October, with a 1% increase in the following 12 months.

“The responsible thing for America is to pass it,” one Senate leader, Democrat Dick Durbin, had told reporters.

Both Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, supported suspension of the debt limit and called for swift passage of the legislation.

Schumer told the Senate, “Time is a luxury the Senate does not have if we want to prevent default. There is no good reason — none — to bring this process down to the wire. … I hope we see nothing even approaching brinksmanship. The country cannot afford that now.”

The House approved the legislation on a 314-117 vote despite objections by far-right Republican lawmakers who said it did not go far enough to cut spending and from Democratic progressives who said it trimmed too much.

Seventy-one lawmakers from the majority Republican party in the House voted against the bill, as did 46 Democrats.

In a statement following Wednesday’s vote, Biden celebrated the agreement as a “bipartisan compromise.”

“It protects key priorities and accomplishments from the past two years, including historic investments that are creating good jobs across the country,” Biden said. “And, it honors my commitment to safeguard Americans’ health care and protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid [pensions and health care insurance for older Americans and welfare payments for impoverished people]. It protects critical programs that millions of hardworking families, students, and veterans count on.”

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who negotiated the deal with Biden, told reporters that getting the bill passed “wasn’t an easy fight.” He emphasized the budget savings and criticized Democrats who wanted to separate the debate about future government spending from the need to suspend the debt limit so current financial obligations could be met.

“We put the citizens of America first and we didn’t do it by taking the easy way,” McCarthy said. “We didn’t do it by the ways that people did in the past by just lifting [the debt ceiling]. We decided you had to spend less and we achieved that goal.”

McCarthy said he intends to follow Wednesday’s action with more efforts to cut federal spending.

The measure does not raise taxes, nor will it stop the national debt total from continuing to increase, perhaps by another $3 trillion or more over the next year-and-a-half until the next expiration of the debt limit.

Other pieces of the legislation include a reduction in the number of new agents hired by the country’s tax collection agency, a requirement that states return $30 billion in unspent coronavirus pandemic assistance to the federal government and extending from 50 to 54 the upper age bracket for those required to work in order to receive food aid.
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Former New Jersey Governor Christie Expected to Join Republican Presidential Race

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is expected to launch a Republican presidential campaign next week in New Hampshire.

Christie, who also ran in 2016, is planning to make the announcement at a town hall Tuesday evening at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm Christie’s plans.

The timing, which was first reported by Axios, comes after several longtime Christie advisers started a super political action committee to support his expected candidacy.

The Associated Press had previously reported that Christie was expected to enter the race “imminently.”

Christie critical of Trump

Christie has cast himself as the only potential candidate willing to aggressively take on former President Donald Trump, the current front-runner for the nomination. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, was a longtime friend and adviser to Trump, but broke with Trump over his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election. Christie has since emerged as a leading and vocal critic of the former president.

Christie, who is currently polling at the bottom of the pack, dropped out of the 2016 presidential race a day after finishing sixth in New Hampshire’s primary.

In addition to Trump, Christie would be joining a GOP field that includes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, and biotech entrepreneur and “anti-woke” activist Vivek Ramaswamy.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is expected to announce his candidacy on June 7, according to two GOP operatives. And former Vice President Mike Pence is also expected to launch a campaign soon.

‘I’m not a paid assassin’

Allies believe that Christie, who has been working as an ABC News analyst, has a unique ability to communicate. They say his candidacy could help prevent a repeat of 2016, when Trump’s rivals largely refrained from directly attacking the New York businessman, wrongly assuming he would implode on his own.

Christie has also said repeatedly that he will not run if he does not see a path to victory. “I’m not a paid assassin,” he recently told Politico.

While Christie is expected to spend much of his time in early-voting New Hampshire, as he did in 2016, advisers believe the path to the nomination runs through Trump, and they envision an unconventional, national campaign for Christie with a focus on garnering media attention and directly engaging with Trump.
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