Trump news today: Trump steps up attacks on Fani Willis as Georgia probe links legal team to voting system breach

The federal Washington, DC judge in the 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump rejected the notion put forward by lead defence lawyer John Lauro that a protective order barring Mr Trump from speaking about the evidence in the case would be an “enormous advantage” to President Joe Biden.

Judge Tanya Chutkan told Mr Lauro during the protective order hearing on Friday that Mr Trump’s campaigning “has to yield to the orderly administration of justice”.

“That’s how it’s going to have to be,” she added.

Judge Amit Mehta has ordered the Contempt of Congress case against former Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro to proceed on 5 September, denying a continuance motion filed by Mr Navarro.

There will be an evidentiary hearing on 28 August.

Mr Navarro is charged with ignoring a subpoena from the House January 6 select committee.

Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC, after Friday’s first hearing in the federal 2020 election case against Donald Trump.

A group of women tailed Ron DeSantis to several campaign events this past week, causing disruptions and distractions as the second-place Republican candidate seeks to pick up traction in the early caucus state.

The Florida governor also helped out at an egg-on-a-stick stall. An unscientific poll shows that the concept of an egg on a stick is confusing to people outside of the world of the Iowa State Fair.

But the Republican senator from Texas is now calling the appointment of the same person he was urgently recommending a “wildly inappropriate” pick to lead the investigation.

“This appointment is camouflage and it’s a cover-up. I think it’s disgraceful,” he told Fox News on 13 August.

Alex Woodward reports on this not entirely unpredictable about-face by the GOP.

A group of women tailed Ron DeSantis to several campaign events this past week, causing disruptions and distractions as the second-place Republican candidate seeks to pick up traction in the early caucus state.

The group, B****es Get Stuff Done, showed up to at least two of the Florida governor’s events where they deployed various tactics aimed at preventing him from speaking to Republican primary voters. A website for the group states that its members are progressive Democratic women who, apparently in addition to trolling Republicans, provide resources to Democratic candidates.

Among the activists from the group who participated in the demonstrations this week was the group’s founder and CEO, Heather Ryan.

Chants of “pudding fingers” erupted at one DeSantis campaign event where Ms Ryan and another member of the group arrived with megaphones.

John Bowden reports on the scene at the Iowa State Fair.

This week’s confrontation that ended with FBI agents fatally shooting a 74-year-old Utah man who threatened to assassinate President Joe Biden was just the latest example of how violent rhetoric has created a more perilous political environment across the U.S.

Six days earlier, a 52-year-old Texas man was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for threatening to kill Arizona election workers. Four days before that, prosecutors charged a 56-year-old Michigan woman for lying to buy guns for her mentally ill adult son, who threatened to use them against Biden and that state’s Democratic governor.

Threats against public officials have been steadily climbing in recent years, creating new challenges for law enforcement, civil rights and the health of American democracy.

The family of Craig Robertson, the man killed by the FBI as they were attempting to serve him a warrant at his home in Utah after he threatened the life of President Joe Biden, said he had been “distraught” by what “he, and many others in this nation, observed to be a corrupt and overreaching government”.

Former President Donald Trump posted an uncharacteristically upbeat message on Truth Social this lunchtime about one of his favourite topics — golf!

Look forward to seeing you at Trump Bedminster, watching the Greatest Players in the World—Cam Smith is leading, with Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, and Charles Howell III following closely behind. Tee off is 1 PM. Just got back from a great and successful trip to Iowa. I will be with you at Bedminster all day!

This was in marked contrast to his earlier screeds about the Fulton County grand jury probe into election interference that looks set to come to a head this week…

Here’s our coverage from earlier:

This morning he has Georgia on his mind, with the hugely anticipated fourth indictment expected to drop this coming week as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis prepares to present the findings of her investigation into 2020 electoral interference to the grand jury.

Here’s what the former president posted on Truth Social this morning:

Why is “Phoney” (Like in PERFECT “PHONE” CALL, get it?) Fani Willis, the severely underperforming D.A. of Fulton County who is being accused of having an “affair” with a Gang Member of a group that she is prosecuting, leaking my name in regard to a Grand Jury pertaining to Election Fraud & Irregularities that I say took place in Georgia. I made a PERFECT PHONE CALL OF PROTEST. What does Phoney Fani have to do with me? She should instead focus on the record number of murders in Atlanta!

He wasn’t done yet and continued:

The only Election Interference that took place in Fulton County, Georgia, was done by those that Rigged and Stole the Election, not by me, who simply complained that the Election was Rigged and Stolen. We have Massive and Conclusive Proof, if the Grand Jury would like to see it. Unfortunately, the publicity seeking D.A. isn’t interested in Justice, or this evidence. Also, as in Manhattan, the corrupt DOJ is pushing hard trying to keep Biden in Office. The whole system is dishonest and broken!

For context, here’s our coverage of yesterday’s rant: