https://www.scmp.com/rss/318725/feed The race to succeed US President Barack Obama pits Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton against Republican Party nominee Donald Trump. Election day is November 8, 2016. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com A Florida judge sanctioned former US president Donald Trump and one of his lawyers on Thursday, ordering them to pay nearly US$1 million for filing what he said was a bogus lawsuit against Trump’s 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and others. In a blistering filing, US District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks accused Trump of a “pattern of abuse of the courts” for filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes, which he said “undermines the rule of law” and “amounts to obstruction of justice”. “Here, we... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3207639/donald-trump-and-lawyer-fined-nearly-us1-million-frivolous-hillary-clinton-lawsuit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3207639/donald-trump-and-lawyer-fined-nearly-us1-million-frivolous-hillary-clinton-lawsuit?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Jan 2023 17:17:42 +0000 Hillary Clinton personally signed off on a plan in 2016 to quietly pitch to the media the now-discredited theory that computer servers at former President Donald Trump’s company had a secret communications link with a Russian bank, her former campaign manager told a jury. Robby Mook, a witness in the trial of a former Clinton campaign lawyer charged with lying to the FBI, on Friday testified that he and others at the campaign “weren’t totally confident” in the veracity of the server data, but... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3178629/hillary-clinton-approved-leaking-trump-russia-link?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3178629/hillary-clinton-approved-leaking-trump-russia-link?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 May 2022 07:07:10 +0000 French President Emmanuel Macron compared France’s choice in Sunday’s presidential run-off to that of US voters before they elected Donald Trump into the White House, while warning that his current polling lead was not a guarantee of victory. “The next day they woke up with a hangover,” Macron told BFM TV on Friday, saying that the situation in France is very similar as it involves a very fundamental choice about the direction of the country. The candidates made final appeals on Friday to... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3175265/frances-emmanuel-macron-warns-trump-hangover-he-faces-marine-le?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3175265/frances-emmanuel-macron-warns-trump-hangover-he-faces-marine-le?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Apr 2022 20:22:17 +0000 Donald Trump on Thursday sued his rival in the 2016 US presidential election, Hillary Clinton, and several other Democrats, alleging that they tried to rig that election by tying his campaign to Russia. The lawsuit covers a long list of grievances the Republican former president repeatedly aired during his four years in the White House after beating Clinton, and comes as he continues to falsely claim that his 2020 election defeat by Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3171771/donald-trump-sues-hillary-clinton-over-russian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3171771/donald-trump-sues-hillary-clinton-over-russian?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Mar 2022 18:37:13 +0000 He’s running again – and democracy is on the line, according to Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state says she thinks former US president Donald Trump is planning for a presidential bid in 2024 and warned that a second term would make his tumultuous first four years in the White House seem like child’s play. “If I were a betting person, I’d say Trump is going to run again,” Clinton told MSNBC in a new interview that aired Thursday. “If he’s not held accountable and he gets to do it... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3161630/donald-trump-win-2024-could-spell-end-us-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3161630/donald-trump-win-2024-could-spell-end-us-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Dec 2021 21:00:54 +0000 The United States and its allies have accused China of hacking a Microsoft email server as part of a state-backed campaign, adding to growing claims of Chinese involvement in high-profile cyberattacks. Already an issue between China and the US before their relations deteriorated, cyber espionage has become another of the fronts on which Beijing and Washington are set to confront each other in the coming years. A coalition of accusers The US, Britain, the European Union and Nato on Monday accused... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3141865/what-are-hacking-accusations-against-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3141865/what-are-hacking-accusations-against-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Jul 2021 14:30:15 +0000 Former US president Donald Trump on Saturday sharply attacked infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, demanded reparations from China and denounced an investigation into his finances in a speech in North Carolina. It was Trump’s first speech in months, and he took the opportunity to frame next year’s midterm elections as a battle for the “survival of America” while keeping followers guessing on his own plans for 2024. Speaking in Greenville, North... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3136220/trump-demands-china-pay-us10-trillion-reparations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3136220/trump-demands-china-pay-us10-trillion-reparations?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jun 2021 03:17:25 +0000 Donald Trump repeatedly discussed with advisers the idea of naming his daughter Ivanka as his running mate in 2016 before settling for Mike Pence, according to a former Trump campaign aide who became a star witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Rick Gates, who in the summer of 2016 was Trump’s deputy campaign chairman, describes in a new book how Trump – wary of the “Never Trump” sentiment in the Republican Party and still stinging from his competitors’ attacks during the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3103416/donald-trump-considered-daughter-ivanka-2016?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3103416/donald-trump-considered-daughter-ivanka-2016?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:12:50 +0000 Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, on Thursday promised to show how Trump cheated in the 2016 election with Russian help in an upcoming book titled Disloyal, A Memoir. “Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything – and I mean anything – to ‘win’ has always been his business model and way of life,” Cohen writes in the book’s foreword, which was published online on Thursday. The... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3097315/ex-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-says-book-will-show?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3097315/ex-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-says-book-will-show?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Aug 2020 00:00:53 +0000 The former British spy who wrote the so-called Steele dossier told a British court that US President Donald Trump may have posed a serious risk to UK national security. The information recorded in a pre-election memo into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election produced by his firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, “had important national security implications for the UK, as well as the US,” Christopher Steele said in a court filing for a London libel trial. The contents of... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3094316/donald-trump-posed-risk-britain-ex-spy-says-steele-dossier-trial?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3094316/donald-trump-posed-risk-britain-ex-spy-says-steele-dossier-trial?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Jul 2020 20:06:41 +0000 US President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of his long-time political confidant Roger Stone on Friday, just days before he was set to report to prison. Democrats denounced the move as just another in a series of unprecedented interventions by the president in the nation’s justice system. Stone had been sentenced in February to three years and four months in prison for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House of Representatives’ investigation into whether the Trump... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3092763/trump-commutes-prison-sentence-long-time-ally-roger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3092763/trump-commutes-prison-sentence-long-time-ally-roger?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Jul 2020 02:48:19 +0000 When Tang dynasty poet Liu Yuxi returned home after 23 long years, he wrote: “A thousand sails pass by a sunken ship. Spring wakes in full bloom in spite of a lone sick tree.” On June 30, China enacted the national security law for Hong Kong. On the eve of the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China, a new chapter began. For the West and the world of “liberal democracies,” this seems a pivotal event in the annals of history. Their reaction has been pessimistic and negative. The... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3091329/wests-criticism-national-security-law-exposes-its-own-flawed-system?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3091329/wests-criticism-national-security-law-exposes-its-own-flawed-system?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Jul 2020 17:00:05 +0000 A US appeal court ordered charges against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn to be dropped on Wednesday, handing the White House a victory in a case that was central to the Russia meddling investigation. The court endorsed Attorney General William Barr’s extraordinary decision to drop the criminal charges against Flynn even after he had twice pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators, overruling a lower court judge who was ready to sentence Flynn. Barr’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3090483/us-court-orders-ex-trump-aide-michael-flynns-case?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3090483/us-court-orders-ex-trump-aide-michael-flynns-case?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jun 2020 16:53:46 +0000 This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Marc Caputo on politico.com on April 28, 2020. Hillary Clinton endorsed Joe Biden for US president on Tuesday in another show of top Democratic leadership coalescing around the party’s de facto nominee. Clinton foreshadowed her support earlier in the day on Twitter with a message that featured a picture of her, Biden and former President Obama in the Oval Office. “A little hint about who the surprise... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3081984/hillary-clinton-endorses-joe-biden-us-president?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3081984/hillary-clinton-endorses-joe-biden-us-president?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Apr 2020 19:55:15 +0000 Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, has been removed from solitary confinement in a federal prison where he is serving time for violating campaign finance laws, his lawyer told Reuters on Saturday. Cohen was transferred on Wednesday to a Special Housing Unit at the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in New York state, a disciplinary section of the prison, Reuters reported this week. Cohen’s lawyer, Roger Adler, did not explain why Cohen had been moved out... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3079512/us-president-donald-trumps-former-lawyer-michael?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3079512/us-president-donald-trumps-former-lawyer-michael?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Apr 2020 19:51:17 +0000 US Attorney General William Barr believes the Russia investigation that shadowed President Donald Trump for the first two years of his administration was started without any basis and amounted to an effort to “sabotage the presidency,” he said in an interview with Fox News Channel. Barr offered no support for his assertion that the FBI lacked a basis for opening the investigation and made no mention of the fact that the bureau began its probe after a Trump campaign adviser purported to have... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3079465/us-attorney-general-william-barr-says-russia-probe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3079465/us-attorney-general-william-barr-says-russia-probe?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Apr 2020 20:58:07 +0000 President Donald Trump said Sunday he is considering a full pardon for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about dealings with Russia’s ambassador before Trump took office. Flynn attempted to withdraw the guilty plea in January, saying federal prosecutors had acted in “bad faith” and broke their end of the bargain when they sought prison time for him. So now it is reported that, after destroying his life & the life of his wonderful family... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3075304/trump-now-considering-full-pardon-ex-adviser?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3075304/trump-now-considering-full-pardon-ex-adviser?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Mar 2020 20:27:29 +0000 US President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign said on Wednesday it had filed a libel lawsuit against The New York Times, accusing the newspaper of intentionally publishing a false story last year related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election. In an escalation of the Republican president’s long-running battle with the news media, campaign officials said the lawsuit was being filed in the New York State Supreme Court, the state’s trial-level court. A statement... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3052568/trump-campaign-files-libel-suit-against-new-york?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3052568/trump-campaign-files-libel-suit-against-new-york?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Feb 2020 23:47:22 +0000 A federal judge on Thursday sentenced US President Donald Trump’s long-time adviser Roger Stone to three years and four months in prison and said his lies to lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election posed a threat to American democracy. After US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced the veteran Republican operative in Washington, Trump indicated he has no immediate plans to pardon Stone and would let the legal process play out, while adding that “at... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3051675/donald-trump-ally-roger-stone-sentenced-3-years-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3051675/donald-trump-ally-roger-stone-sentenced-3-years-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Feb 2020 18:06:52 +0000 US President Donald Trump promised to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange if he denied Russia leaked emails of his 2016 election rival’s campaign, a London court was told on Wednesday. Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson said in a document that Trump relayed the offer through former US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency reported. The revelation came at a case management hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court before Monday’s formal start of... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3051484/donald-trump-offered-pardon-wikileaks-founder?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3051484/donald-trump-offered-pardon-wikileaks-founder?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:45:16 +0000 US Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard filed a defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton on Wednesday over an interview in which Clinton appeared to call Gabbard “the favourite of the Russians”.  Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman, said in her lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan that Clinton’s comments in a podcast last year in which she suggested that Gabbard was being groomed by Russia to be a third-party candidate were based on either her own imagination or “extremely... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3047258/tulsi-gabbard-sues-hillary-clinton-over-russian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3047258/tulsi-gabbard-sues-hillary-clinton-over-russian?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Jan 2020 17:40:02 +0000 Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has launched a scathing attack on presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, her rival for the 2016 Democratic nomination, telling a documentary that “nobody likes him”. Clinton, 72, also refused to say whether she would endorse and campaign for Sanders if he becomes the Democrats’ choice to take on US President Donald Trump in November’s election. Her comments drew the ire of Sanders’ supporters, who called on Clinton to support whoever the party backs in... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3047091/hillary-clinton-says-nobody-likes-bernie-sanders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3047091/hillary-clinton-says-nobody-likes-bernie-sanders?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Jan 2020 21:41:12 +0000 America’s most famous celebrity lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, said on Friday he would be part of the legal team defending US President Donald Trump in his Senate impeachment trial. According to US media reports, another high-profile member of the team will be Ken Starr, the special prosecutor in the 1988 Bill Clinton impeachment. Starr is a hero to many on the right, even if Clinton ultimately was acquitted in the Senate. “Professor Dershowitz will present oral arguments at the Senate trial to... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3046639/celebrity-lawyer-alan-dershowitz-defend-donald?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3046639/celebrity-lawyer-alan-dershowitz-defend-donald?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jan 2020 16:08:14 +0000 The House Judiciary Committee held open the possibility on Monday of recommending additional articles of impeachment against US President Donald Trump as it pressed anew for the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn. The committee wants a federal appeal court to order McGahn to testify as it examines potential obstruction of justice by the president during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The committee says McGahn’s testimony could also be useful for any Senate... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3043334/impeach-trump-again-us-lawmakers-raise-possibility?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3043334/impeach-trump-again-us-lawmakers-raise-possibility?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Dec 2019 22:46:03 +0000 James Comey, the former FBI director, agreed on Sunday with the conclusions of an independent investigator that found flaws in the agency’s decision to probe individuals in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. “He’s right, I was wrong.” Comey, who was fired by Trump in May 2017, said on Fox News Sunday. “I was overconfident, as director, in the procedures that the FBI and Justice have built over 20 years.” It was the first television interview by Comey since Monday’s release of the Justice... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3042204/ousted-fbi-director-james-comey-admits-being?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3042204/ousted-fbi-director-james-comey-admits-being?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Dec 2019 19:12:27 +0000 The US Justice Department’s internal watchdog said he had found numerous errors but no evidence of political bias by the FBI when it opened an investigation into contacts between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia in 2016. The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz is likely to give ammunition to both Trump’s supporters and his Democratic critics in the debate about the legitimacy of an investigation that shadowed the first two years of his presidency. Horowitz found that the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3041179/us-justice-department-watchdog-expected-find-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3041179/us-justice-department-watchdog-expected-find-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Dec 2019 22:00:52 +0000 The lone tweet appeared Sunday night on a profile bearing the name of former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. “I’m done being quiet,” the tweet read. In the roughly two years since Page made national headlines after politically charged text messages between her and then senior FBI agent Peter Strzok were released, the lawyer has refrained from publicly addressing the events that catapulted her into the centre of a political firestorm and made her a repeated target of President Donald Trump’s ire. Now, in a... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3040299/ex-fbi-lawyer-lisa-page-hits-back-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3040299/ex-fbi-lawyer-lisa-page-hits-back-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Dec 2019 22:19:05 +0000 A confidential White House review of President Donald Trump’s decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal, according to three people familiar with the records. The research by the White House Counsel’s Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3039148/confidential-white-house-review-turns-emails?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3039148/confidential-white-house-review-turns-emails?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Nov 2019 21:02:06 +0000 An irate Donald Trump said on Friday that he welcomes the prospect of an impeachment trial, as the US leader lashed out at “crazy” and “corrupt” opponents probing potential abuse of presidential power. After a week of dramatic impeachment testimony from current and former administration officials, an embattled Trump took to a favourite broadcaster to air a long, occasionally incoherent list of grievances – against the FBI, his political adversaries, impeachment inquiry leaders, the “deep state,”... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3039024/donald-trump-says-he-wants-impeachment-trial-he?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3039024/donald-trump-says-he-wants-impeachment-trial-he?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Nov 2019 20:19:09 +0000 White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Tuesday that Obama administration aides left behind taunting notes for incoming Trump officials when they handed over their offices in 2017. Numerous Obama aides denounced the accusation as fiction. “We came into the White House. I’ll tell you something, every office was filled with Obama books and we had notes left behind that said ‘you will fail,’ ‘you aren’t going to make it,’” Grisham told conservative radio show host John Fredericks in an... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038490/you-will-fail-trump-spokeswoman-says-obama-aides?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038490/you-will-fail-trump-spokeswoman-says-obama-aides?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Nov 2019 21:27:55 +0000 The US House of Representatives is investigating whether President Donald Trump lied in his written testimony submitted to special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the now-completed federal inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, CNN said on Monday. A House lawyer told a federal appeal court in Washington on Monday that lawmakers were examining whether Trump’s written answers to federal investigators were untruthful, CNN reported. A spokeswoman for the House Judiciary Committee... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038313/house-investigating-whether-donald-trump-lied?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038313/house-investigating-whether-donald-trump-lied?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Nov 2019 17:37:56 +0000 US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is amplifying her unfavourable comparison of US President Donald Trump to fellow Republican Richard Nixon, saying that disgraced president at least cared enough about the country to leave office before his impeachment. The top Democrat in Congress told reporters last week that Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate one of his potential opponents in the 2020 election “makes what Nixon did look almost small”. In a CBS interview broadcast on Sunday, she alluded to... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038150/what-he-hiding-democrats-invite-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038150/what-he-hiding-democrats-invite-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Nov 2019 23:36:51 +0000 Impeachment investigators met on Saturday with a White House official directly connected to US President Donald Trump’s block on military aid to Ukraine, the first budget office witness to testify in the historic inquiry. In a rare weekend session, lawmakers drilled into Trump’s decision – against the advice of national security advisers, including John Bolton – to withhold funding from the ally, a young democracy bordering hostile Russia. It is a sign of a deepening of the constitutional... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038083/trump-impeachment-investigators-question-white?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038083/trump-impeachment-investigators-question-white?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Nov 2019 23:37:57 +0000 A jury convicted US President Donald Trump’s adviser Roger Stone on Friday, finding the long-time Republican operative and self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” guilty on seven criminal counts of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering. The verdict, in a trial arising from investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 US election, is not only a blow to Stone but renews scrutiny on then-candidate Trump’s activities at a time when he faces an impeachment inquiry that could derail his... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038009/donald-trump-adviser-roger-stone-found-guilty-lying?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038009/donald-trump-adviser-roger-stone-found-guilty-lying?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Nov 2019 17:27:37 +0000 US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that President Donald Trump already has admitted to bribery in the Ukraine scandal at the heart of a Democratic-led inquiry, accusing him of an impeachable offence under the US Constitution. “The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That’s bribery,” Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, told a news conference the day after the first public hearing in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3037823/nancy-pelosi-accuses-donald-trump-bribery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3037823/nancy-pelosi-accuses-donald-trump-bribery?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Nov 2019 18:49:40 +0000 This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Abbey Marshall on politico.com on November 12, 2019. Hillary Clinton on Tuesday declined to rule out launching a future presidential campaign after her two failed bids, saying “many, many, many people” were pressuring her to enter the race. “I, as I say, never, never, never say never,” the former secretary of State said on BBC Radio 5 Live. “I will certainly tell you, I’m under enormous pressure from... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3037467/hillary-clinton-says-she-being-urged-many-many-many?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3037467/hillary-clinton-says-she-being-urged-many-many-many?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Nov 2019 23:43:22 +0000 President Donald Trump said he is prepared to release the transcript sought by House Democrats of his first phone call with Ukraine’s president, in April, as soon as Tuesday. “We’ll probably give it to you on Tuesday, Monday being a holiday,” Trump told reporters Saturday as he prepared to board Air Force One. “We have another transcript coming out, which is very important. They asked for it. And I’d gladly give it.” Trump floated the idea of releasing a transcript of that call, which has not... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3037074/trump-set-release-very-important-transcript-first?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3037074/trump-set-release-very-important-transcript-first?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Nov 2019 22:51:46 +0000 US President Donald Trump was ordered by a New York judge on Thursday to pay US$2 million for misusing his namesake charitable foundation, resulting in funds being used to advance his 2016 presidential campaign. Justice Saliann Scarpulla, of the state Supreme Court in Manhattan, directed the payment to eight non-profit groups, in connection with a lawsuit by the state’s attorney general against the president and three of his adult children over the now-dissolved Donald J. Trump Foundation. The... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3036821/donald-trump-ordered-pay-us2-million-misusing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3036821/donald-trump-ordered-pay-us2-million-misusing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Nov 2019 21:39:07 +0000 US President Donald Trump’s long-time adviser Roger Stone, looking pale and sick, left a federal courthouse complaining of food poisoning on Tuesday as his trial began with jury selection in a case stemming from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe that detailed Russian interference in the 2016 US election. The 67-year-old veteran Republican political operative – a self-described “dirty trickster” and “agent provocateur” – has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing justice,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3036469/jury-selection-begins-long-time-trump-adviser-roger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3036469/jury-selection-begins-long-time-trump-adviser-roger?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Nov 2019 15:28:26 +0000 The top US diplomat in Ukraine poured fuel on Donald Trump’s impeachment probe on Tuesday with a detailed account of how the president pushed Kiev to discredit one of his main political rivals, withholding US military aid to exert pressure. Democrats said the congressional testimony by William Taylor was a stunning confirmation of their allegations that Trump abused his office by seeking foreign help to hurt Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. “It’s all there.... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3034124/us-envoy-william-taylor-tells-impeachment-inquiry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3034124/us-envoy-william-taylor-tells-impeachment-inquiry?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Oct 2019 21:14:06 +0000 House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that his panel has reached an agreement to secure testimony from the anonymous whistle-blower whose detailed complaint launched an impeachment investigation last week into President Donald Trump. Schiff, said he expected the Intelligence Committee to hear from the whistle-blower “very soon” pending a security clearance from acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire. “We’ll get the unfiltered testimony of that... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3030866/deal-reached-secure-testimony-whistle-blower-led?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3030866/deal-reached-secure-testimony-whistle-blower-led?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Sep 2019 18:04:36 +0000 This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Abbey Marshall on politico.com on September 26, 2019. Hillary Clinton is calling US President Donald Trump a “clear and present danger” to the US amid the latest scandal engulfing his administration, and says that her defeat in the 2016 presidential election was like “losing to a corrupt human tornado”. In an interview with Jane Pauley that will air this weekend on CBS Sunday Morning, Clinton gave her... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3030573/hillary-clinton-calls-donald-trump-clear-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3030573/hillary-clinton-calls-donald-trump-clear-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Sep 2019 23:07:47 +0000 New York prosecutors have subpoenaed US President Donald Trump’s tax returns, a person familiar with the matter told Associated Press on Monday. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr’s office recently sent a subpoena to Trump’s accounting firm seeking the last eight years of state and federal tax returns for Trump and his company, the Trump Organisation, the person said. The person was not authorised to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Asked about the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3027550/donald-trumps-tax-returns-subpoenaed-new-york?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3027550/donald-trumps-tax-returns-subpoenaed-new-york?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Sep 2019 23:47:51 +0000 The gunman who killed several people after a routine traffic stop in West Texas had just been fired from his job and called both police and the FBI before the shooting began, authorities said Monday. Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke said 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator had been fired over the weekend from Journey Oilfield Services. He said both Ator and the company called 911 after being fired on Saturday but that Ator was gone by the time police showed up. FBI special agent Christopher Combs says... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3025428/texas-gunman-seth-ator-was-fired-job-and-called?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3025428/texas-gunman-seth-ator-was-fired-job-and-called?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Sep 2019 21:11:37 +0000 The US Justice Department has decided not to prosecute former FBI director James Comey despite an internal investigation that found he improperly leaked information to the news media, the department’s Office of Inspector General said on Thursday. The inspector general’s office, which serves as the Justice Department’s internal watchdog, said Comey shared a handwritten memo with a friend who described it to The New York Times, in an effort by Comey to pressure the agency to launch an independent... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3024983/former-fbi-director-james-comey-will-not-face?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3024983/former-fbi-director-james-comey-will-not-face?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Aug 2019 17:13:43 +0000 The US House Judiciary Committee on Monday subpoenaed former White House aide Rob Porter to testify about alleged efforts by President Donald Trump to impede a federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Porter was the third former Trump adviser to draw a House Judiciary subpoena within the past two weeks. Porter and the other two advisers – Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn – are due to... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3024446/ex-trump-adviser-rob-porter-subpoenaed-part-russia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3024446/ex-trump-adviser-rob-porter-subpoenaed-part-russia?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Aug 2019 19:01:01 +0000 A veteran FBI agent who wrote derogatory text messages about Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Tuesday charging that the bureau caved to “unrelenting pressure” from the US president when it fired him. The suit from Peter Strzok also alleges he was unfairly punished for expressing his political opinions, and that the Justice Department violated his privacy when it shared hundreds of his text messages with reporters. “This campaign to publicly vilify Special Agent Strzok contributed to the FBI’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3021726/peter-strzok-sues-fbi-firing-him-over-anti-donald?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3021726/peter-strzok-sues-fbi-firing-him-over-anti-donald?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Aug 2019 23:59:52 +0000 Donald Trump and his White House communications director were directly involved in discussions that led to an illegal hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign, according to the FBI. A court filing unsealed on Thursday said Trump and Hope Hicks spoke repeatedly with Michael Cohen, Trump’s long-time legal fixer, in October 2016 as Daniels – whose real name is Stephanie Clifford – threatened to sell her story of an affair with Trump. “I believe that at least some of... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3019227/donald-trump-directly-involved-talks-led-stormy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3019227/donald-trump-directly-involved-talks-led-stormy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Jul 2019 17:54:35 +0000 Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who spent nearly two years leading the Russia investigation, has agreed to testify publicly before Congress on July 17, setting the stage for what will probably be the most anticipated day on Capitol Hill in recent memory. The announcement was made Tuesday evening by Representative Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Adam B. Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee. They said the agreement was reached after... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3016164/former-special-counsel-robert-mueller-testify?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3016164/former-special-counsel-robert-mueller-testify?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Jun 2019 09:01:02 +0000 US President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday that his chances of retaining the White House in 2020 would be strengthened if Democratic lawmakers start impeachment proceedings against him. Asked on NBC’s Meet the Press whether he thought impeachment was good politics for him, Trump replied: “I think I win the election easier.” The US president repeated his long-standing allegation that the FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation into his 2016 campaign was illegal. “I was spied... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3015745/donald-trump-says-white-house-2020-re-election?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3015745/donald-trump-says-white-house-2020-re-election?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Jun 2019 15:00:26 +0000