Trump’s justice department in ‘full cover-up mode’ amid Comey indictment, House Democrat says – live

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Top House Democrat slams Trump for attending Ryder cup with looming government shutdown just days away

In a quick press conference today on Capitol Hill, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries scolded the president for his trip to New York today. “Donald Trump, get back to Washington DC. Why are you at a golf event right now and the government is four days away from closing?,” the congressman said. “That’s outrageous. And it speaks to the fact that these extremists could care less about the health, safety, and economic wellbeing of the American people. They’re on vacation right now.”

Here's a recap of the day so far

Less than 24 hours after the indictment of James Comey, the president said that he hopes “more” political adversaries will be prosecuted. Speaking to reporters before he left DC to attend the Ryder Cup in New York, Trump maintained that the former FBI director’s prosecution was “about justice … not about revenge”. The president kicked off the day with Truth Social posts that called Comey “a dirty cop” and “destroyer of lives”.

Meanwhile, Democrats and legal experts say indictment is latest sign Trump is turning justice system into weapon to silence critics, as my colleague Chris Stein reports.

Trump also continued to blame Democrats for a looming government shutdown. A reminder that lawmakers have yet to pass a resolution to keep the government funded beyond 30 September. Today, the president held up his side of the blame game, telling reporters: “These people are crazy, the Democrats. So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down, but they’re the ones that are shutting down.” For their part, House Democrats will meet virtually today for a caucus meeting, as they refuse to back any funding bill without several health care provisions.

Democrats on the House judiciary committee are asking its Republican leader to allow victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates to testify about “the institutional failures that enabled these horrific crimes”. The letter, signed by 17 Democrats and led by ranking member Jamie Raskin and congresswoman Deborah Ross, a leader in the Democratic Women’s caucus and longtime champion of sexual violence survivors, comes amid continued pressure for the Trump administration to authorize the release of more files related to the disgraced financier.

Congressman Raskin said that the indictment of James Comey is because the justice department is in “full cover-up mode” over the Epstein files. In an interview with CNN, the Democrat from Maryland called the prosecution an example of the “complete politicization of the Department of Justice”. He added: “We’re in the midst of trying to get this information with apparently real crimes. And we’ve got a strong, bipartisan majority saying, ‘Stop the cover-up of the Epstein files. Just go ahead and release them.’”

An federal immigration officer has been “relieved of his duties” after a video showing him pushing a woman to the floor at an immigration court in New York City spread quickly on social media. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, said that the agent’s actions were “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of Ice”. McLaughlin added that the officer is “being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation”.

An Arizona Republican state representative who has expressed support for January 6 insurrectionists on Wednesday called for a Democratic congresswoman to be executed, as a response to a video clip.

The comment on X by state representative John Gillette of Kingman, Arizona, first reported by the Arizona Mirror, was a reaction to a short clip drawn from a YouTube video in March by US representative Pramila Jayapal, a longtime Democratic congresswoman representing Washington state, titled The Resistance Lab. In the video, Jayapal discusses preparations for street protests against the Trump administration.

“Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried, convicted and hanged … it will continue,” he posted.

Nothing in either the clip or the longer video actually suggests Jayapal is advocating for the overthrow of the US government. The video carries explicit calls for non-violent protest and discussed with alarm a rise in political violence in the US.

Gillette’s comment is a continuation of a string of inflammatory far-right online invective by the Mohave county Republican and retired army reserve command sergeant major. Gillette has defended January 6 protesters, who were intent on violently overturning Trump’s defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, as “political prisoners” and described Muslims as “terrorists”.

It also reflects a widening call among Republicans to criminalize protest and speech critical of the Trump administration.

Gillette has not yet responded to a request from the Guardian for comment.

Ice agent 'relieved of duties' after widely circulated video shows him pushing a woman to the floor

An federal immigration officer has been “relieved of his duties” after a video showing him pushing a woman to the floor at an immigration court in New York City spread quickly on social media.

Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, said that the agent’s actions were “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of Ice”.

“This officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation,” McLaughlin added.

The video shows a woman, and a young girl who appears to be her daughter, pleading to officers to not take away her husband at 26 Federal Plaza. In the video, they are crying as officers take him into custody. ProPublica identified the woman as Monica Moreta-Galarza, from Ecuador.

The video captures Moreta-Galarza pleading with the now-suspended officer. He tries to dismiss her by saying “adios”. When Moreta-Galarza touches his shoulder, he grabs her, pushes her across the hallway, against the wall, and on to the floor.

After the incident, Democratic congressman Dan Goldman, of New York, said that Moreta-Galarza “fled” to his office with her two young children. ProPublica also reported that Moreta-Galarza was later taken to hospital after being pushed to the ground.

Ahead of House Democrats’ meeting today, as a government shutdown looms, Donald Trump continued to blame lawmakers across the aisle for any lapse in government funding earlier today.

“These people are crazy, the Democrats. So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down, but they’re the ones that are shutting down,” the president said.

A reminder that Congress is in recess this week, and only the Senate is set to return on Monday – before funding expires at midnight on 30 September. A continuing resolution to keep the government open stalled in the upper chamber last week.

DoJ is in 'full cover-up mode', says top House Democrat on judiciary committee following Comey indictment

Per my colleague Chris Stein’s reporting earlier, that Democrats on the House judiciary committee are calling Republican leadership to allow survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse to testify, congressman Jamie Raskin – the committee’s ranking member – said that the indictment of James Comey is because the justice department is in “full cover-up mode”.

“They’re doing the bidding of President Trump with respect to Mr Comey, they’re doing the bidding of President Trump with respect to covering up cases,” Raskin said in an interview with CNN News Central.

He added:

What we see is the complete politicization of the Department of Justice. But we’re in the midst of trying to get this information with apparently real crimes. And we’ve got a strong, bipartisan majority saying, ‘Stop the cover-up of the Epstein files. Just go ahead and release them.’”

‘Dangerous abuse of power’: lawmakers sound alarm over Comey indictment

For Donald Trump, the indictment of former FBI director and longtime foe James Comey was “justice in America”. Legal observers and lawmakers see something far more troubling.

A former Republican appointed to lead the bureau by Barack Obama and kept on by Trump until he was fired in 2017, Comey was indicted Thursday on charges related to allegedly lying to Congress five years ago during a hearing on the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.

The charges were filed in the eastern district of Virginia only after Erik Siebert was forced out as US attorney for reportedly finding no grounds to indict Comey. The justice department replaced him with Trump loyalist with little prosecutorial experience, Lindsey Halligan, and shortly after, a grand jury indicted Comey on one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

The indictment is the latest sign that the president is making good on his promise “to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics”, said Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee.

“This kind of interference is a dangerous abuse of power. Our system depends on prosecutors making decisions based on evidence and the law, not on the personal grudges of a politician determined to settle scores,” Warner said.

Democratic senator Adam Schiff, a former federal prosecutor who played a lead role in Trump’s first impeachment, said on X he had “never witnessed such a blatant abuse of the” justice department, calling it “little more than an arm of the president’s retribution campaign”.

Mike Zamore, national director of policy and government affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union, said Trump “has yet again proven his disdain for the principles that have actually made America great”.

Read the rest of Chris’s piece here:

Bryan Graham at Bethpage Black

Donald Trump’s arrival dominated the opening day of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, about 37 miles south-east of Manhattan, where fans had begun lining up outside the gates as early as 3am.

Officials had urged spectators to budget extra time, wary of the sort of disruption seen at the US Open tennis tournament earlier this month, when Trump’s visit delayed entry and thousands of spectators missed the start of the men’s final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

At Bethpage, Trump’s presence was no less inescapable. The early carnival atmosphere – fans chanting “U-S-A” as the American pair of Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas won the opening hole – quickly dulled as Europe seized control.

By midday, the sport itself had receded. What lingered was the sound of choppers, the roar of Air Force One overhead, and the heavy security presence behind the 18th green and near the first tee that turned golf’s biennial matchplay carnival into a backdrop for presidential theatre.

Responding to James Comey’s indictment last night, Matthew Miller, who was the director of public affairs at the justice department during the Obama administration, wrote on X:

The Justice Department we have long known is dead. As in many authoritarian states, it now exists as an arm of the government to punish the president’s enemies, regardless of the law. A tragedy for the country with lasting implications, even if this case is dismissed.

The chair of the House select committee on China has said he will conduct full oversight over a deal for Chinese-based ByteDance to sell the US assets of TikTok that was approved by Donald Trump under a 2024 law.

“The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm, as well as preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance,” said the Republican representative John Moolenaar.

He said he would host the leadership of the new TikTok entity at a hearing next year.

Immigrants with no criminal record now largest group in Ice detention

José Olivares

Immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in US immigration detention, according to data released by the government. The number of people with no criminal history arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and detained by the Trump administration has now surpassed the number of those charged with crimes.

Ice, the federal agency most heavily relied upon by Donald Trump to carry out his mass deportation campaign, released its latest numbers on Thursday.

According to the official data, 16,523 people in immigration detention with no criminal record were arrested by Ice, compared with 15,725 who do have a criminal record and 13,767 with pending criminal charges.

There are now a total of 59,762 people in Ice detention across the US. The remaining number of people in Ice custody were brought in by border officials.

The numbers released by Ice mark the first time under the second Trump administration that the total number of immigrants with no criminal history in detention has surpassed that of people convicted of a crime or with pending charges.

The agency’s data also contradicts Trump administration officials’ repeated narrative that the chief focus of the White House’s agenda and the Department of Homeland Security dragnet is dangerous criminals.

Read my full report with Will Craft below.

Comey's son-in-law resigns as federal prosecutor – reports

James Comey’s son-in-law, Troy Edwards, has resigned as a federal prosecutor for the eastern district of Virginia, following his father-in-law’s indictment.

According to his resignation letter, seen by multiple outlets, Edwards sent his resignation notice to Lindsey Halligan – the newly minted US attorney for the district – and wrote that he was quitting “to uphold my oath to the constitution and the country”.

A reminder that Halligan was appointed after Trump fired her predecessor, Erik Siebert, after Siebert said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey and other Trump adversaries.

Edwards was on the team of attorneys who charged participants in the January 6 attack on the US capitol.