Trump indictment ends decades of perceived invincibility - CNA

NEW YORK: When Donald Trump steps before a judge next week to be arraigned in a New York courtroom, it will not only mark the first time a former US president has faced criminal charges. It will also represent a reckoning for a man long nicknamed “Teflon Don”, who until now has managed to skirt serious legal jeopardy despite 40 years of legal scrutiny.

Trump, who is the early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, is expected to turn himself in Tuesday (Apr 4). He faces charges including at least one felony offence related to hush money payments to women during his 2016 campaign. Like any other person facing trial, he will be booked, fingerprinted and photographed before being given the chance to enter a plea.

The spectacle that is sure to unfold will mark an unprecedented moment in American history that will demonstrate once again how dramatically Trump - who already held the distinction of being the first president to be impeached twice - has upended democratic norms. But on a personal level, the indictment pierces the cloak of invincibility that seemed to follow Trump through his decades in business and in politics, as he faced allegations of fraud, collusion and sexual misconduct.

“Boy, after all this time it’s a bit of a shock,” Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio said of the indictment. “You know I always thought of him as the Gingerbread Man, shouting, ‘You can’t catch me!’ as he ran away.”

“Given his track record,” he said, “I had trouble imagining he would ever be held accountable.”

“These are not things that Donald Trump ever thought in his entire life, nor I, for that matter, that he would ever be confronted with,” Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime fixer and a key witness in the case who served jail time for the payments, told CNN.

Of course, some of the celebration by Trump's detractors may be premature. The former president could seek to have a judge quickly dismiss the case. And even if it moves forward, there's no guarantee of conviction. Intensifying investigations in Atlanta and Washington are seen as potentially more serious legal threats.

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2023-04-01 04:32:59Z
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Trump 'shocked' by indictment but 'ready to fight' - CNA

WASHINGTON: Following his historic indictment on criminal charges, Donald Trump was preparing on Friday (Mar 31) to go where no former US president has gone before - a prosecutor's office to be booked, fingerprinted and have his mugshot taken.

Trump's pending arrest, expected on Tuesday, throws a political grenade into the 2024 presidential race, in which the 76-year-old real estate tycoon is hoping to return to the White House.

A New York grand jury indicted Trump on Thursday over a US$130,000 hush-money payment made to a porn star to buy her silence during his 2016 campaign.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accused the Manhattan district attorney who brought the charges, Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, of waging a "political witch-hunt" to derail his new White House bid.

Trump's lawyers said the former president, who is currently at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, would surrender to New York authorities on Tuesday to face the charges, which remain under seal.

Extra security has been deployed for days around the downtown Manhattan courthouse where Trump is expected to be booked and arraigned before a judge.

"The president will not be put in handcuffs," said Joe Tacopina, one of Trump's attorneys.

"I'm sure they'll try to make sure they get some joy out of this by parading him."

Trump would plead not guilty and there was "zero" chance he would accept a plea deal, Tacopina told NBC's Today show.

"It's not going to happen. There's no crime," he said.

Trump was initially "shocked" at the indictment, his attorney said, but "he's now in the posture that he's ready to fight this".

In predicting his indictment, Trump called for protests and warned that it could lead to "potential death and destruction" for the country.

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2023-03-31 16:24:00Z
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No big power should dictate Malaysia's future: PM Anwar - CNA

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Friday (Mar 31) that the Southeast Asian nation will not allow any big power to dictate its decisions and future direction. 

“Nobody should dictate us. As a free and independent nation, we will decide what is best for us,” Mr Anwar was quoted as saying by Bernama on the third day of his official visit to China.

“And we decide based on core values and principles, which are to make sure that we have good governance and policies that will benefit the country and the people.”

He added: “We should also maintain this position in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) because ASEAN was set up as a free and neutral zone.” 

Mr Anwar was responding to a question on the rivalry between China and the United States during a public lecture at the renowned Tsinghua University in Beijing, following his attendance at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in Hainan. 

Inaugurated in 2001, BFA aims to promote common development through regional economic integration.

On Malaysia’s relationship with China, Mr Anwar reportedly said that Malaysia does not see China as a competitor nor a threat, even if some disagreements exist between the two countries. 

“Since there is no outright threat from China, we are happy to be a good neighbour, a friend and to benefit from their success,” he said. 

He added that Malaysia wants to build excellent relationships with all countries, including China and the US. 

Malaysia - along with several ASEAN member states like Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam - is a claimant state in the South China Sea together with China. Other countries like the US and its allies have also challenged China’s territorial claims. 

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2023-03-31 09:18:53Z
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Five key takeaways from the Boao Forum in China - CNA

SAFEGUARDING REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

Officials and experts called for efforts to safeguard and advance regional economic integration. This, they said, is crucial for regional and global peace, Global Times reported.

At a panel discussion, Mr Zeng Peiyan, the vice-chairman of the BFA’s Council of Advisors reportedly said that there were “certain countries” that were stirring tension and pushing for an economic “decoupling”.

"We should replace self-importance and dominance with communication and openness. We should especially oppose taking sides and forming small groups and cliques," Mr Zeng was quoted as saying by the Global Times.

"We, Asians, remember vividly the wounds of both cold and hot wars. We know how precious peace and stability is and how important development is."

Separately, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Kao Kim Hourn warned against rising major power rivalry that may escalate into war.

"Competition and escalating tensions are major security challenges," Mr Kao reportedly said, stressing that ASEAN must ensure that it does not become "a proxy" of any party or parties in a major power rivalry.

PM Lee also noted that any clash between the US and China will have grievous consequences for themselves and the world.

“Most worrying is the state of relations between the US and China. Big powers have a heavy responsibility to maintain stable and workable relations with one another, because any clash between them will have grievous consequences, for themselves and the world," the Singapore leader said.

"And yet the US and China are at odds over many intractable issues, including trade and investments, supply chains, cybersecurity, emerging and critical technologies, as well as freedom of navigation.

"We hope that China and the United States will succeed in stabilising their relationship, and establish sufficient mutual trust and respect to cooperate in areas where their interests are aligned."

In a bid to foster closer integration, an initiative that called for more partnership between free trade zones (FTZ) across the world was also launched in Boao, China Global Television Network (CGTN) reported.

Proposed by more than 20 FTZs in China, the UAE and South Korea among others, the initiative is aimed at strengthening cooperation in aviation and shipping networks, logistics and cross-border e-commerce.

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2023-03-31 09:13:00Z
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Donald Trump indicted: What it means and what next for the former US president? - CNA

CAN TRUMP STILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2024?

Trump has said he plans to run for president in 2024.

There is nothing in the US Constitution to prevent Trump from running for the presidency, even if he is being charged, on trial or sentenced.

The US Constitution only lists three qualifications for presidency – he or she must be at least 35 years old, be a natural-born citizen and have lived in the US for at least 14 years.

Trump told reporters previously that he would “absolutely” stay in the race for the presidency even if he was indicted.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE REACTION?

As to how it will affect his third bid for the White House, it remains to be seen. The Republicans are united in denouncing Trump’s indictment as a politically motivated attempt to derail his campaign, AFP reported.

Even Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – seen by some as Trump’s potential rival for the Republican nominated – called the indictment “un-American” and a “weaponisation of the legal system”.

Nicholas Creel, a political analyst at Georgia College and State University, said Trump's base in the "Grand Old Party" (GOP) was "simply too bought-in" to abandon him.

"Even now, we see Trump's Republican competitors, such as former vice president Pence, actively defending him in this scandal instead of using it to attack him for his own gain," he told AFP.

"This indicates that Trump's GOP rivals fully understand how his base has an unshakable cult-like devotion to him, one that isn't letting up any time soon."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also criticised Bragg, the Democrat who pushed the criminal inquiry against Trump.

Detractors are worried that if Trump was cleared, it could make it easier to cast any future indictment as a “witch hunt”, as some have called it.

On the left, figures like former White House strategist David Axelrod have characterised the hush money scandal as the least significant of four criminal probes of Trump.

There are also potential racketeering and conspiracy charges in a much more consequential probe of Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results.

And a quasi-independent federal prosecutor is overseeing historic investigations into Trump's mishandling of classified documents and involvement in the 2021 insurrection by his supporters at the US Capitol.

"Trump getting indicted should absolutely ruin his presidential aspirations. It should. But based on the undying support from his base, I do not believe it will," Amani Wells-Onyioha, a Democratic election strategist, told AFP.

"In fact, I think it will give him a surge in the polls and cause his base to rally around him even more."

Democrats in the House also weighed in.

Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic House Speaker, said: "No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence. Hopefully, the former president will peacefully respect the system, which grants him that right.”

Ted Lieu, another House Democrat, called the indictment a "horrible precedent" but necessary if Trump committed crimes.

Jamaal Bowman, a fellow House Democrat, said: "It's time we ensure Trump is banned from running for any public office again."

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2023-03-31 07:00:00Z
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Trump faces criminal charges in New York, a first for a former US president - CNA

Bragg's office last year won the criminal conviction of the businessman-turned-politician's real estate company for tax fraud.

Trump also faces two criminal investigations by a special counsel appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland and one by a local prosecutor in Georgia.

Trump served as president from 2017 to 2021, governing as a right-wing populist. He was impeached twice by the House of Representatives, once in 2019 over his conduct regarding Ukraine and again in 2021 over the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. He was acquitted by the Senate both times.

Trump falsely claims that his 2020 re-election loss to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread voting fraud.

He leads his early rivals for his party's nomination, holding the support of 44 per cent of Republicans in a March Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared with 30 per cent support for his nearest rival, Florida Governer Ron DeSantis, who has yet to announce his candidacy. Biden is expected to seek re-election.

Trump in 2018 initially disputed knowing anything about the payment to Daniels. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment, which he called a "simple private transaction."

Cohen testified before the Manhattan grand jury, as did David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer. The tabloid publication bought the rights to McDougal's story about her alleged relationship with Trump for US$150,000 but never published it, a method known as "catch and kill" used to bury damaging information about a third party.

In the case that led to the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges, Bragg declined to charge Trump himself with financial crimes related to his business practices, prompting two prosecutors who worked on the probe to resign.

Among Trump's ongoing legal woes are a criminal investigation led by Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney in Georgia's Fulton County, into whether he unlawfully tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat in that state.

Special counsel Jack Smith is separately investigating Trump's handling of classified government documents after leaving office and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

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2023-03-30 22:03:00Z
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US-China ties ‘most worrying’: Singapore leader Lee Hsien Loong tells Boao Forum - South China Morning Post

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1. US-China ties ‘most worrying’: Singapore leader Lee Hsien Loong tells Boao Forum  South China Morning Post
2. Regional groupings will help strengthen Asia in a troubled world: PM Lee  The Straits Times
3. Boao Forum: Chinese Premier Steps Up Charm Offensive At Key Business  Bloomberg
4. China’s premier warns against ‘chaos and conflicts’ in Asia  Al Jazeera English
5. Boao forum sends strong signal that China is back in business  The Straits Times
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2023-03-30 09:21:51Z
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