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Parsing Donald Trump's indictment | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Parsing Donald Trump's indictment

Preet Bharara, former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, stopped by GZERO World to discuss three big legal stories in the news: the charges facing former US President Donald Trump, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's gifts from a billionaire Republican donor, and the recent classified documents leak.

According to Bharara, the charges leveled against the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, could establish a precedent for justice and the rule of law, with significant consequences for American democracy in the future. Bharara ranked the severity of the three other potential charges that could be brought against former President Trump, with the conduct relating to the January 6th riot "being the most severe."

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David Himbert / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

Podcast: Trumped up charges? The law & politics of investigating a president's crimes

Listen: Where democracy is built upon the principles of rule of law, legal challenges faced by public officials are a sober matter. On the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with former US Attorney for the Southern District of NY and podcast host, Preet Bharara. Together, they explore the current state of the US legal system, the hurdles for keeping public officials to account, and the potential implications for democracy when a former president is criminally charged by federal courts. Bharara draws from his extensive experience as a prosecutor to offer insightful perspectives on pressing legal concerns, including the role of executive privilege in government accountability. The duo also takes a deep dive into news headlines, addressing the ethical dilemma surrounding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the ongoing Department of Justice investigation into the Ukraine leak.

Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

Liz Truss arrives for the announcement of Britain's next Prime Minister at The Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London.

REUTERS/Hannah McKay

What We're Watching: Liz beats Rishi, Chile rejects charter change, Trump wins DOJ probe delay

Meet the UK's new PM

As expected, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss won the Conservative Party leadership race on Monday and will become the next British PM, replacing the disgraced Boris Johnson. Truss — a political chameleon who's popular with the Tory base — beat former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, a moderate technocrat, by a comfortable margin of 57% of party member votes. She now faces tough challenges at home and abroad. First, a looming recession compounded by a cost-of-living crisis and an energy crunch. Truss, who fancies herself as a modern Margaret Thatcher, plans to announce big tax cuts and perhaps a temporary freeze on energy bills for the most vulnerable Brits — which her economic guru has warned would be fiscally irresponsible. Second, a likely collision course with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol. Brace for rocky times ahead as Truss tries to convince Brussels to renegotiate the post-Brexit trade deal, which scrapped a hard border between Northern Ireland, part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state. (No surprise then that Brussels is hardly looking forward to her moving into No. 10 Downing St.) On Tuesday, Truss will travel to Scotland to meet with Queen Elizabeth II, who as per tradition will ask her to form a government at the monarch's Balmoral summer residence.

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An FBI photograph of documents and classified cover sheets recovered from former US Pesident Donald Trump's Florida estate.

Reuters

What We're Watching: Trump obstruction evidence, IAEA team in Zaporizhzhia, IMF-Sri Lanka bailout deal

Did Trump conceal top-secret documents?

Donald Trump repeatedly blocked US law enforcement from accessing highly-classified documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence (and lied about how many files remained there), according to a scathing new document released Tuesday by the Department of Justice. The filing came in response to a recent request by the former president that the documents — seized from his Florida estate by the FBI on Aug. 8 — be reviewed by a third-party arbiter to decide if any are covered by executive privilege. (The DOJ opposes this on the legal grounds that the records don’t belong to Trump.) It’s the most detailed account to date of the months-long attempt by the National Archives – an independent agency that stores and preserves government records – to obtain classified files Trump took from the White House after the 2020 election. The filing includes a photograph of documents labeled “Top Secret” and claims that some material was so sensitive that some FBI and DOJ personnel required additional security clearances to review them. Crucially, it also states that “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation” after Trump’s legal team ignored in the spring a grand jury subpoena seeking all classified documents. A federal court decides Thursday whether the arbiter can be brought in.

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Will the DOJ Charge Trump? | US Politics In :60 | GZERO Media

Will the DOJ charge Trump after Mar-a-Lago raid?

Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, DC, shares his analysis on US politics.

How bad does the Mar-a-Lago document situation have to get before it becomes a problem for President Trump?

The answer is very bad and probably much worse than what we know of today. In the three weeks since the raid at Mar-a-Lago, we've learned very little about the contents of the documents that former President Trump is alleged to have improperly been storing in his Florida compound.

But we have learned, at a minimum, he kept classified documents outside of a secure facility. And the government is now alleging that Trump's legal team lied about the number and nature of the documents being stored there, which made it much more difficult for them to get the documents back and set up the premises for this sensational raid at Mar-a-Lago.

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FBI's Mar-a-Lago Search Could Help Trump Win 2024 GOP Nomination | Quick Take | GZERO Media

FBI Mar-a-Lago search could help Trump win 2024 GOP nomination

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Hi everybody. Ian Bremmer here. It's the middle of August. I’ll spend a couple minutes telling you what I think. In particular, we are talking about the dysfunction in the US political system and the ramifications of the FBI carrying out a search warrant on President Trump's residence, Mar-a-Lago. Plenty of things to unpack here. On the one hand, it's very clear, lots of classified documents, some at the very highest levels. The unsealed search warrant made that apparent. I feel quite confident that describes what they actually were looking for and found there. It's inconceivable to me that they would've carried out and a judge would've approved that search if there hadn't been a very strong case to get those documents. Trump clearly shouldn't have had possession of those documents. There were efforts in the past to gain access to them by subpoena and it appears for all intents and purposes that former President Trump did not fully comply with those subpoenas.

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DOJ Antitrust Case Against Google | Why Quibi Failed | Tech In :60 | GZERO Media

DOJ antitrust case against Google; why Quibi failed

Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief of WIRED, helps us make sense of today's stories in technology:

Why is the Department of Justice suing Google?

Well, they are suing Google because Google is a giant, massive company that has a dominant position in search. In fact, on your phone, you almost can't use any other search engine or at least your phone is preloaded with Google as a search engine and you probably don't know how to change it. The Department of Justice alleges that Google has used its power and its muscle to maintain its position, and that violates the antitrust laws.

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