James Comey faces deadline to file movement to dismiss prices in opposition to him – US politics stay | US politics

Hey and welcome to the US politics stay weblog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I shall be bringing you the newest information traces over the subsequent hour or so.

We begin with the information that former FBI director James Comey at this time faces a deadline to file authorized motions to dismiss an indictment accusing him of creating false statements to Congress. Anticipated challenges which might be scheduled to be filed at this time embrace claims that the prosecution was vindictive and that the US legal professional supervising it was unlawfully appointed by president Donald Trump.

The transient indictment handed down by a federal grand jury on 25 September accused Comey of creating a false assertion and obstructing a congressional investigation in connection along with his September 2020 testimony to Congress.

Whereas the small print of the cost stay unclear, they look like associated to his declare that he by no means approved anybody within the FBI to be an nameless supply in information tales.

“I’ve nice confidence within the federal judicial system and I’m harmless. So let’s have a trial. And hold the religion,” Comey mentioned in a video assertion the night time the fees had been filed.

In different developments:

• Donald Trump has escalated tensions between Washington and one among its closest Latin American allies, declaring the US will slash help to Colombia and enact tariffs on its exports as a result of its president, Gustavo Petro, “does nothing to cease” drug manufacturing. Trump referred to Petro as “an unlawful drug chief” in a submit on the Fact Social platform and warned that Petro “higher shut up” drug operations “or the US will shut them up for him, and it received’t be finished properly”.

• Disgraced former US congressman George Santos mentioned on Sunday that his jail sentence had been “disproportionate” however that he had been served “a really giant slice of humble pie”, whereas lashing out at his critics in his first interview since Donald Trump commuted his sentence. Chatting with CNN, Santos mentioned he was “all politicked out” and referred to as for his former marketing campaign staffer, Sam Miele, to additionally obtain a commutation.

• Trump mentioned yesterday that he would ship the nationwide guard into San Francisco to make it “nice once more”. The remark got here throughout an interview with Fox Information, with Trump saying: “We’re going to go to San Francisco, and we’re going to make it nice.”

• Main US soft-drink and snack-food firms are waging a coordinated marketing campaign that goals to pit Donald Trump’s Maga devoted in opposition to Robert F Kennedy Jr’s “Make America Wholesome Once more” motion, a Guardian investigation in partnership with the environmental watchdog Fieldnotes has discovered. Their purpose is to stymie the Maha-led effort to curb Individuals’ consumption of soda and ultra-processed meals.

• The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has arrived within the US for a gathering with president Donald Trump, the place they’re anticipated to debate the Aukus pact – an settlement a revered Republican has referred to as a “essential deterrent” within the Indo-Pacific that “retains [the Chinese president, Xi Jinping] up at night time”.

• A metropolis council member in Florida is dealing with a backlash from nationwide Indian American organizations, members of Congress and residents after posting a sequence of social media messages that insulted Indian individuals dwelling within the US and referred to as for them to be deported en masse.