Georgia grand jury may weigh conspiracy charge as Jan 6 probe gets ex-NYPD boss docs

Her first day as the chief prosecutor for Fulton County came with news that then-President Donald Trump attempted to pressure Georgia’s top election officials to reverse his loss in the state during the 2020 presidential election.

A phone call between Mr Trump and Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was published by The Washington Post late at night on 3 January 2021.

Hours later, Fani Willis would walk into her first day on the job as Fulton County’s district attorney, an office that is now spearheading a criminal investigation into Mr Trump, with the phone call serving as a central damning piece of evidence against him.

Alex Woodward reports on how a sprawling Justice Department probe into Donald Trump and his allies could result in several criminal charges against the former president.

The former New York City Police Department commissioner who collected spurious evidence of alleged voter fraud and manipulation for Donald Trump’s campaign has agreed to turn over hundreds of documents, according to court filings.

US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith had sought those documents as part of a sweeping investigation into the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Alex Woodward has the story.

A Pennsylvania city mayor has demanded that Donald Trump reimburse a $35,000 bill from 2018 ahead of his planned return for a campaign rally on Saturday.

Joe Schember, the mayor of the western Pennsylvania city of Erie, told Erie Times-News that their pleas to seek a bill for Mr Trump’s campaign for the rally in October 2018, which attracted a crowd of 12,000 people, have gone unheard nearly for five years.

He said they will try to get an advance payment this time as it is taxpayers’ money being used to fund his rallies.

The lead prosecutor in the case against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter says he is willing to testify publicly this fall, setting up a clash with House Republicans who have demanded he come in soon for a closed-door interview.

In a two-page letter to Rep. Jim Jordan on Monday, the Justice Department offered to make US Attorney David Weiss of Delaware available before the House Judiciary Committee for a public hearing after the August break as Republicans continue to escalate their ongoing investigation into his handling of the probe into Hunter Biden.

“The Department believes it is strongly in the public interest for the American people and for Congress to hear directly from US Attorney Weiss on these assertions and questions about his authority at a public hearing,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote to Jordan.

The details of eight different search warrants and affidavits were filed in connection with the federal case against former president Donald Trump regarding his handling of classified documents, according to court documents unsealed today.

The revelation came as NBC News and other news organisations petitioned to know the contents of the warrant used to search Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last year.

Officials did not disclose the content of the warrants and affidavits.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a memo saying that Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Sen Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) release of an unclassified document related to their probe of Hunter Biden jeopardises national security.

Mr Grassley released what is called an FD-1023 form, which includes claims that a confidential informant made about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

The informant claimed that they were told by officials at Burisma about their relationships with then-vice president Biden and his son Hunter. But top Republicans admit they cannot verify the claims in the form.

But a memo from the Democratic members of the committee characterised the claims, which were memorialised “second-hand” from Ukrainian Oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, to the FBI by a confidential source, as coming “years after the fact.”

Republican presidential candidate and North Dakota Gov Doug Burgum is offering $20 gift cards to donors who give $1 to his campaign — but some supporters of Joe Biden say they have been funneling the gift card money to the president’s re-election campaign.

Kelly Rissman has the story.

Eric Garcia has the details.

Donald Trump is angered by a plan to introduce a paid visa system in Europe in 2024. The European Travel Information and Authorisation System would cost travellers from outside Europe $8 and last for three years.

The former president posted on Truth Social:

Wow! “U.S. CITIZENS WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR A VISA TO TRAVEL TO EUROPE STARTING IN 2024.” Think of this. We give them everything, including military protection and trade, and now we have to pay them to go there. NO RESPECT FOR THE UNITED STATES. I WILL, AS PRESIDENT, NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. IT WILL END VERY QUICKLY!!!

Visitors from outside the US have for many years had to apply for a similar travel authorisation document to enter the country, an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which lasts for two years and costs $21.