WASHINGTON: At first, Republicans were highly critical of the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, but as new details emerge about the more than 100 classified documents the former president haphazardly stashed at his private club Republicans have grown notably silent.
The deepening investigation into Trump’s handling of sensitive government information has disclosed damaging and unsettling new details. With every court filing there is new information about the cache of documents the former president took with him from the White House and the potential national security concerns. While the unprecedented search has galvanized many Republicans to Trump’s defense, others in the party are unwilling to speak up, often wary of crossing him.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell declined to respond Wednesday when asked about the latest developments in the Justice Department’s probe.
“I don’t have any observations about that,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky.
The silence speaks volumes for a party whose president won the White House after rousing voters in rally chants of “Lock Her Up!” Trump pilloried Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for using a personal email account and server during her time as Secretary of State. She quickly complied with investigators and was not charged.
The investigation also is posing a new test of Republican loyalty to Trump from lawmakers who are relying on him for their political livelihoods, particularly ahead of the midterm elections.
Battle lines among Republicans infighting over Trump quickly emerged Wednesday after the latest court filing, in which Justice Department said that the FBI’s Aug. 8 search had produced more than 100 documents with “classified markings” at Mar-a-Lago — twice as many as Trump’s team had turned over earlier this summer.
In Tuesday’s late filing, the Justice Department laid out in stark detail how it had developed evidence “that government records were likely concealed and removed” from a storage room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
The filing described the lengthy process of trying to retrieve government documents taken when Trump left the White House in early 2021. The Justice Department explained how Trump’s legal team had said documents were only been kept in the storage room, but the search also found documents in the former president’s office. It said some of the newly found documents were so sensitive that even Justice Department attorneys and FBI counterintelligence personnel required additional clearances before they could review the material.
The Justice Department said “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.” It produced a photograph of some of the classified documents found, as evidence. The filing said flatly that the government believes “obstructive conduct” has occurred.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney — one of the former president’s fiercest critics, who recently lost her own primary for reelection — tweeted the photo: “Yet more indefensible conduct by Donald Trump revealed this morning.”
But Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, once a rival to Trump for the White House, has saved his criticizing for federal law enforcement as he defended the former president.
“The FBI’s raid was a horrific ‘abuse of power,’” Cruz tweeted just before the Tuesday filing. He said “there needs to be ‘a complete housecleaning’ at FBI.”
He was among several Republican lawmakers and congressional candidates who were fundraising this week off their complaints about the Justice Department. Cruz’s office did not respond to a request for fresh comments Wednesday.
The Texas senator is not alone in turning his criticism away from Trump and onto the federal authorities conducting the investigation and search. The Republican Party that once stood for law and order has been cleaved by Trump’s actions, some in the starkest, most alarming tones.
In the immediate aftermath of the search, Republicans largely rallied around Trump and demanded more information from the Justice Department. House and Senate Republicans, and some Democrats, sought hearings and briefings.
But as new information emerges, including the court’s release last week of the federal affidavit supporting the search and Tuesday’s Justice Department filing, it may make it more difficult for Trump’s allies to defend the former president and his team’s actions.
Some Republican supporters of Trump focused on the photograph of classified documents included as evidence in the Justice Department filing. Though the documents were shielded, the critics suggested if the information was so secret it should not have been publicly released. “You people are so bad at this,” tweeted Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., directing her criticism as much at Democrats and those sharing the image.
The risks of the heated rhetoric against the nation’s law enforcement have been been clear. A police shooting of a man who tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati field office showed the danger. FBI Director Christopher Wray criticized those attacking the agency and urged agents to be cautious in public.
Ahead of the midterm elections, Trump’s ability to dominate the political stage is welcomed by House Republicans who are relying on his presence to bolster voter enthusiasm and turnout as they try to win back majority control. Some have encouraged him to swiftly announce his own campaign to run again for the White House.
Senate Republicans, however, are growing concerned that Trump is stealing the focus away from what they would prefer to be an election referendum on President Joe Biden’s performance in the White House.
As Biden steps up his own efforts to help his party retain control of Congress, he is focusing on Trump-styled candidates in the Republican ranks, with a more aggressive tone and an emphasis on the risks to democracy that have become a motivating issue for Democrats.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a former federal prosecutor, said the latest court filing was “devastating” for Trump.
“What is most striking are the facts outlining how the former president and his team knowingly put our national security at risk,” Schiff wrote on Twitter.
The congressman, who led Trump’s first impeachment, urged the Justice Department to continue its probe and “follow the facts.”
Republicans notably silent, split as Trump probe deepens
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Republicans notably silent, split as Trump probe deepens
- The deepening investigation into Trump’s handling of sensitive government information has disclosed damaging and unsettling new details
Guinea suspends ‘unauthorized’ political movements
- Government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo said earlier that the West African nation could hold elections by the end of 2025 after a constitutional referendum “probably in May”
CONAKRY: Guinea’s government has demanded the suspension of all political movements it deemed “without authorization,” as the country’s military leaders hinted at possible elections this year.
In a statement read by a presenter on state television, the minister for territorial administration and decentralization, Ibrahima Kalil Conde, “noted with regret the proliferation of political movements without prior administrative authorization.”
“Consequently, all these political movements are asked to cease their activities immediately and to submit an application for administrative authorization to our ministry for their legal existence,” the statement added.
The junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup, has, in recent days, hinted at the possibility of elections by the end of the year.
Under international pressure, the military leaders had initially pledged to hold a constitutional referendum and hand power to elected civilians by the end of 2024 — but neither has happened.
Junta chief Gen. Mamady Doumbouya said in a New Year’s speech that 2025 will be “a crucial electoral year to complete the return to constitutional order.”
Government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo said earlier that the West African nation could hold elections by the end of 2025 after a constitutional referendum “probably in May.”
Since taking power, the junta has cracked down on dissent, with many opposition leaders detained, brought before the courts, or forced into exile.
In October, the junta placed the three main political parties under observation and dissolved 53 others in what it termed a major political “cleanup.”
It suspended another 54 for three months.
In Thursday’s statement, Conde said that national and international institutions and partners should “cease all collaboration with the 54 suspended political parties until 31 January 2025.”
S. Africa police rescue 26 Ethiopians from captivity
- According to preliminary information from the rescued men, the group was held in the Sandringham suburb in northern Johannesburg without clothes or documents, Col. Philani Nkwalase said
JOHANNESBURG: South African police said on Friday that they had rescued 26 undocumented Ethiopian nationals who were being held captive in a suburban house in Johannesburg by suspected human traffickers.
Up to 30 other men may have already escaped through a smashed window before police swooped in on the house late on Thursday and could be hiding in the area, the police priority crimes unit said.
According to preliminary information from the rescued men, the group was held in the Sandringham suburb in northern Johannesburg without clothes or documents, Col. Philani Nkwalase said.
Eleven men were taken to hospital with injuries apparently caused when they tried to escape, including deep cuts.
Three other Ethiopian nationals were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.
Algeria ‘seeking to humiliate France,’ interior minister says
- Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a ferocious seven-year war that is still the subject of trauma for both sides
NANTES, France: Algeria is trying to humiliate France, France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Friday, after several Algerian influencers were arrested for inciting violence in a growing crisis between Paris and its former colony.
Four Algerian influencers supportive of Algerian authorities have been arrested in recent days over videos that are suspected of calling for violent acts in France.
Meanwhile, Algeria has also been holding on national security charges French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, a major figure in modern francophone literature, who was arrested at Algiers airport in November.
“Algeria is seeking to humiliate France,” Retailleau said on a visit to the western city of Nantes.
“Algeria is currently holding a great writer — Boualem Sansal — who is not only Algerian but also French. Can a great country, a great people, allow itself to keep in detention for the wrong reasons, someone who is old and sick?“
Turning to the influencers, he said it was “out of the question to give a free pass to these individuals who spread hatred and anti-Semitism.”
“I think we have reached an extremely worrying threshold with Algeria,” he said, adding France “cannot tolerate” an “unacceptable situation.”
“While keeping our cool ... we must now consider all the means we have at our disposal regarding Algeria,” he added.
One of those arrested is “Doualemn,” a 59-year-old influencer detained in the southern city of Montpellier after a video posted on TikTok.
He was deported on a plane to Algeria on Thursday afternoon, according to his lawyer, but was sent back to France the same evening as Algeria had banned him from its territory.
On Thursday, Lyon prosecutors said Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian woman in her 50s, was also arrested.
Followed by more than 300,000 people, she is accused of spreading hate messages and threats against Internet users and opponents of the Algerian authorities, as well as insulting statements about France.
Arrested in Brest on Jan. 3, Youcef A., 25, known as “Zazou Youssef” on TikTok, will be tried on Feb. 24 on charges of justifying terrorism.
Placed in pretrial detention, he faces seven years in prison if convicted.
And “Imad Tintin,” 31, was taken into police custody on Saturday in Grenoble for a video, since removed, in which he called for “burning alive, killing and raping on French soil.”
He will be tried on March 5 for incitement to acts of terrorism.
Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a ferocious seven-year war that is still the subject of trauma for both sides.
US hits Russian oil with toughest sanctions yet in bid to give Ukraine, Trump leverage
- US sanctions seen costing Russia billions of dollars a month
- US official sees no danger of global crude oil shortage
WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI/LONDON: US President Joe Biden’s administration imposed its broadest package of sanctions so far targeting Russia’s oil and gas revenues on Friday, in an effort to give Kyiv and Donald Trump’s incoming team leverage to reach a deal for peace in Ukraine.
The move is meant to cut Russia’s revenues for continuing the war in Ukraine that has killed more than 12,300 civilians and reduced cities to rubble since Moscow invaded in February, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X that the measures announced on Friday will “deliver a significant blow” to Moscow. “The less revenue Russia earns from oil ... the sooner peace will be restored,” Zelensky added.
Daleep Singh, a top White House economic and national security adviser, said in a statement that the measures were the “most significant sanctions yet on Russia’s energy sector, by far the largest source of revenue for (President Vladimir) Putin’s war.”
The US Treasury imposed sanctions on Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, which explore for, produce and sell oil as well as 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil, many of which are in the so-called shadow fleet of aging tankers operated by non-Western companies. The sanctions also include networks that trade the petroleum.
Many of those tankers have been used to ship oil to India and China as a price cap imposed by the Group of Seven countries in 2022 has shifted trade in Russian oil from Europe to Asia. Some tankers have shipped both Russian and Iranian oil.
The Treasury also rescinded a provision that had exempted the intermediation of energy payments from sanctions on Russian banks.
The sanctions should cost Russia billions of dollars per month if sufficiently enforced, another US official told reporters in a call.
“There is not a step in the production and distribution chain that’s untouched and that gives us greater confidence that evasion is going to be even more costly for Russia,” the official said.
Gazprom Neft said the sanctions were unjustified and illegitimate and it will continue to operate.
US ‘no longer constrained’ by tight oil supply
The measures allow a wind-down period until March 12 for sanctioned entities to finish energy transactions.
Still, sources in Russian oil trade and Indian refining said the sanctions will cause severe disruption of Russian oil exports to its major buyers India and China.
Global oil prices jumped more than 3 percent ahead of the Treasury announcement, with Brent crude nearing $80 a barrel, as a document mapping out the sanctions circulated among traders in Europe and Asia.
Geoffrey Pyatt, the US assistant secretary for energy resources at the State Department, said there were new volumes of oil expected to come online this year from the US, Guyana, Canada and Brazil and possibly out of the Middle East will fill in for any lost Russian supply.
“We see ourselves as no longer constrained by tight supply in global markets the way we were when the price cap mechanism was unveiled,” Pyatt told Reuters.
The sanctions are part of a broader effort, as the Biden administration has furnished Ukraine with $64 billion in military aid since the invasion, including $500 million this week for air defense missiles and support equipment for fighter jets.
Friday’s move followed US sanctions in November on banks including Gazprombank, Russia’s largest conduit to the global energy business, and earlier last year on dozens of tankers carrying Russian oil.
The Biden administration believes that November’s sanctions helped drive Russia’s rouble to its weakest level since the beginning of the invasion and pushed the Russian central bank to raise its policy rate to a record level of over 20 percent.
“We expect our direct targeting of the energy sector will aggravate these pressures on the Russian economy that have already pushed up inflation to almost 10 percent and reinforce a bleak economic outlook for 2025 and beyond,” one of the officials said.
Reversal would involve congress
One of the Biden officials said it was “entirely” up to the President-elect Trump, a Republican, who takes office on Jan. 20, when and on what terms he might lift sanctions imposed during the Biden era.
But to do so he would have to notify Congress and give it the ability to take a vote of disapproval, he said. Many Republican members of Congress had urged Biden to impose Friday’s sanctions.
“Trump’s people can’t just come in and quietly lift everything that Biden just did. Congress would have to be involved,” said Jeremy Paner, a partner at the law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed.
The return of Trump has sparked hope of a diplomatic resolution to end Moscow’s invasion but also fears in Kyiv that a quick peace could come at a high price for Ukraine.
Advisers to Trump have floated proposals that would effectively cede large parts of Ukraine to Russia for the foreseeable future.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the new sanctions.
The military aid and oil sanctions “provide the next administration a considerable boost to their and Ukraine’s leverage in brokering a just and durable peace,” one of the officials said.
Oil tanker in Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ adrift off German coast
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticized Russia’s use of “dilapidated oil tankers” and labelled it a threat to European security.
She spoke after the 274-meter-long Eventin, carrying almost 100,000 tons of oil, was reported adrift and “unable to manoeuver” in the Baltic Sea.
An emergency tug intercepted the Eventin in waters off the island of Ruegen to stabilize the ship, which was carrying around “99,000 tons of oil.”
No oil leaks were detected by several surveillance aircraft overflights, but two more tug boats were on their way to the ship, the command said in a later statement.
A four-person team of emergency towing specialists would soon be winched onto the deck from a federal police helicopter to coordinate the operation, it added.
The sea was rough with 2.5-meter-high (8 feet) waves and strengthening wind gusts, the command also said, adding that no decision had yet been taken on whether and when to tow the ship to a port.
Although the tanker was navigating under the Panamanian flag, the German foreign ministry linked it to Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet.”
Baerbock said said that “by ruthlessly deploying a fleet of rusty tankers, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is not only circumventing the sanctions, but is also willingly accepting that tourism on the Baltic Sea will come to a standstill” in the event of an accident.
Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have hit Russia’s oil industry with an embargo and banned the provision of services to ships carrying oil by sea.
In response, Russia has relied on tankers with opaque ownership or without proper insurance to continue lucrative oil exports.
The number of ships in the “shadow fleet” has exploded since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to US think tank the Atlantic Council.
In addition to direct action against Russia’s oil industry, Western countries have moved to sanction individual ships thought to be in the shadow fleet.
The European Union has so far sanctioned over 70 ships thought to be ferrying Russian oil.
The United States and Britain on Friday moved to impose restrictions on some further 180 ships in the shadow fleet.
