US Attorney General moves forward on Justice Department investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe
Bondi has directed a prosecutor to present evidence to a grand jury after referrals from the Trump administration's top intelligence official, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday, August 4. It was not clear which former officials might be the target of any grand jury activity, where the grand jury that might ultimately hear evidence will be located or which prosecutors − whether career employees or political appointees − might be involved in pursuing the investigation. It was also not clear what precise claims of misconduct Trump administration officials believe could form the basis of criminal charges, which a grand jury would have to sign off on for an indictment to be issued.
The development is likely to heighten concerns that the Justice Department is being used to achieve political ends given longstanding grievances over the Russia investigation voiced by President Donald Trump, who has called for the jailing of perceived political adversaries, and because any criminal investigation would revisit one of the most dissected chapters of modern American political history. It is also surfacing at a time when the Trump administration is being buffeted by criticism over its handling of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.
The initial, years-old investigation into Russian election interference resulted in the appointment of a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who secured multiple convictions against Trump aides and allies but did not establish proof of a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Multiple special counsels, congressional committees and the Justice Department's own inspector general have studied and documented a multi-pronged effort by Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election on Trump's behalf, including through a hack-and-leak dump of Democratic emails and a covert social media operation aimed at sowing discord and swaying public opinion.
But that conclusion has been aggressively challenged in recent weeks as Trump's director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and other allies have released previously classified records that they hope will cast doubt on the extent of Russian interference and establish an Obama administration effort to falsely link Trump to Russia.
In one batch of documents released last month, Gabbard disclosed emails showing that senior Obama administration officials were aware in 2016 that Russians had not hacked state election systems to manipulate the votes in Trump's favor. But President Barack Obama's administration never alleged that votes were tampered with and had instead detailed other forms of election interference and foreign influence.
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Fashion Network
an hour ago
- Fashion Network
Switzerland's US tariff blow threatens its go-it-alone approach
President Karin Keller-Sutter is traveling to Washington on Tuesday as she and her colleagues race to get Donald Trump to reconsider. They don't have much time, with the levies due to kick in on Thursday. Helene Budliger-Artieda, one of the chief negotiators for Switzerland, held a phone call with business representatives on Monday. She told them that Switzerland's main goal is to get the overall tariff number down, but didn't reveal any potential concessions it might make, according to people briefed on the call. Budliger also received a clear message from businesses: there's no substitute for the US market. While the Swiss try to figure out how to deal with Trump and the US, the episode has cast a new light on the country's relationship with the EU. That's long been a divisive issue, with arguments about trade and economic benefits clashing with concern about immigration and sovereignty. For the pro-EU voices, the chaotic back and forth with the US will give them fresh reason to push the benefits of ties with the bloc, particularly as it secured a far better 15% rate. 'This will undoubtedly strengthen the camp of those who argue that Switzerland needs to move closer to the EU,' said Rene Schwok, a professor of political science at the University of Geneva. 'Their argument is that the EU is a much more reliable partner than the US and China.' Keller-Sutter and her officials had expressed confidence right up until late last week that they'd secured a far better deal with the US. But it all fell apart at the end during a phone call with Trump. Critics say she didn't have anything to offer and came unprepared to the negotiation table. The US president sees his country's 39 billion dollar trade deficit with Switzerland as tantamount to theft, and didn't appreciate being told otherwise by Keller-Sutter. 'I don't believe that the US is a reliable partner under this presidency,' Andri Silberschmidt, a Liberal lawmaker and member of Keller-Sutter's party, told Bloomberg. 'As a small nation, we are dependent on reliable partners who abide by agreements.' Switzerland is in the midst of a separate debate on an agreement with the EU that it hammered out late last year and is due to go to a national vote. In a survey – conducted before Trump's self-declared Liberation Day announcement on tariffs — 47% of Swiss respondents were in favour, while 35% were against it. To be sure, Switzerland's low unemployment, low inflation economy is robust enough that it could withstand the 39% tariff hit. If pharmaceutical exports were included at the unchanged rate, this would translate to a hit of at least 0.7-percentage point hit to the economy, according to Hans Gersbach at KOF economic research institute in Zurich. If drug exports were excluded, the hit would be between 0.3 and 0.6 percentage points. That would be a harsh blow but not enough to tip the economy into recession. Still, that would jeopardise 'tens of thousands of jobs' in key manufacturing industries, said Stefan Brupbacher, director of trade group Swissmem. However Keller-Sutter's last-minute bid in Washington works out, the lesson for Switzerland is that it needs to realise it's not in the same league as the US, China or the EU but a small player. This may push the Swiss to reconsider the advantages of 'splendid isolation,' Kirkegaard said. 'When the elephants are dancing, the mice get trampled and that's a little bit of what's happened here.'
Fashion Network
an hour ago
- Fashion Network
Switzerland's US tariff blow threatens its go-it-alone approach
The two-minute video isn't subtle. Wielding a medieval halberd, the president of the conservative Swiss People's Party lays out the choice Switzerland faces: a simpler life that the country's founders spelled out in a one-page declaration more than 700 years ago or a 2,000 page treaty with the European Union. It's a choice between 'freedom and serfdom,' Marcel Dettling says before tossing the treaty documents onto a bonfire. The trouble for Dettling and Switzerland's other EU naysayers is that the alternative vision of a nimble nation trading freely with the rest of the world isn't looking so good anymore. On the day the video was released — Aug. 1, Switzerland's national day — the White House delivered a bombshell by announcing the country would face tariffs of 39% on all exports to the US, among the highest anywhere in the world. President Karin Keller-Sutter is traveling to Washington on Tuesday as she and her colleagues race to get Donald Trump to reconsider. They don't have much time, with the levies due to kick in on Thursday. Helene Budliger-Artieda, one of the chief negotiators for Switzerland, held a phone call with business representatives on Monday. She told them that Switzerland's main goal is to get the overall tariff number down, but didn't reveal any potential concessions it might make, according to people briefed on the call. Budliger also received a clear message from businesses: there's no substitute for the US market. While the Swiss try to figure out how to deal with Trump and the US, the episode has cast a new light on the country's relationship with the EU. That's long been a divisive issue, with arguments about trade and economic benefits clashing with concern about immigration and sovereignty. For the pro-EU voices, the chaotic back and forth with the US will give them fresh reason to push the benefits of ties with the bloc, particularly as it secured a far better 15% rate. 'This will undoubtedly strengthen the camp of those who argue that Switzerland needs to move closer to the EU,' said Rene Schwok, a professor of political science at the University of Geneva. 'Their argument is that the EU is a much more reliable partner than the US and China.' Keller-Sutter and her officials had expressed confidence right up until late last week that they'd secured a far better deal with the US. But it all fell apart at the end during a phone call with Trump. Critics say she didn't have anything to offer and came unprepared to the negotiation table. The US president sees his country's 39 billion dollar trade deficit with Switzerland as tantamount to theft, and didn't appreciate being told otherwise by Keller-Sutter. 'I don't believe that the US is a reliable partner under this presidency,' Andri Silberschmidt, a Liberal lawmaker and member of Keller-Sutter's party, told Bloomberg. 'As a small nation, we are dependent on reliable partners who abide by agreements.' Switzerland is in the midst of a separate debate on an agreement with the EU that it hammered out late last year and is due to go to a national vote. In a survey – conducted before Trump's self-declared Liberation Day announcement on tariffs — 47% of Swiss respondents were in favour, while 35% were against it. To be sure, Switzerland's low unemployment, low inflation economy is robust enough that it could withstand the 39% tariff hit. If pharmaceutical exports were included at the unchanged rate, this would translate to a hit of at least 0.7-percentage point hit to the economy, according to Hans Gersbach at KOF economic research institute in Zurich. If drug exports were excluded, the hit would be between 0.3 and 0.6 percentage points. That would be a harsh blow but not enough to tip the economy into recession. Still, that would jeopardise 'tens of thousands of jobs' in key manufacturing industries, said Stefan Brupbacher, director of trade group Swissmem. However Keller-Sutter's last-minute bid in Washington works out, the lesson for Switzerland is that it needs to realise it's not in the same league as the US, China or the EU but a small player. This may push the Swiss to reconsider the advantages of 'splendid isolation,' Kirkegaard said. 'When the elephants are dancing, the mice get trampled and that's a little bit of what's happened here.'
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Trump targets tariff evasion, with eye on China
Goods deemed to be "transshipped," or sent through a third country with lower export levies, will face an additional 40-percent duty under an incoming wave of Trump tariffs Thursday. The latest tranche of "reciprocal" tariff hikes, taking aim at what Washington deems unfair trade practices, impacts dozens of economies from Taiwan to India. The transshipment rule does not name countries, but is expected to impact China significantly given its position as a manufacturing powerhouse. Washington likely wants to develop supply chains that are less reliant on China, analysts say, as tensions simmer between the world's two biggest economies and the US sounds the alarm on Beijing's excess industrial capacity. But "it's a little more about the short-term effect of strengthening the tariff regime than it is about a decoupling strategy," said Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council. "The point is to make countries worried about it and then have them err on the side of not doing it, because they know that Trump could then jack up the tariff rates higher again," he added, referring to tariff evasion. The possibility of a sharply higher duty is a "perpetual stick in the negotiations" with countries, said Richard Stern, a tax and budget expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He told AFP that expanding penalties across the globe takes the focus away from Beijing alone. Alternative supplies Experts have noted that Vietnam was the biggest winner from supply chain diversions from China since the first Trump tariffs around 2018, when Washington and Beijing engaged in a trade war. And Brookings Institution senior fellow Robin Brooks pointed to signs this year of significant transshipments of Chinese goods. He noted in a June report that Chinese exports to certain Southeast Asian countries started surging "anomalously" in early 2025 as Trump threatened widespread levies. While it is unclear if all these products end up in the United States, Brooks cast doubt on the likelihood that domestic demand in countries like Thailand and Vietnam rocketed right when Trump imposed duties. "One purpose of the transshipment provisions is to force the development of supply chains that exclude Chinese inputs," said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The other purpose is to push back on Chinese overcapacity and force them to eat their own surpluses," he added. But Washington's success in the latter goal depends on its ability to get other countries on board. "The transshipment penalties are designed to encourage that," Reinsch said. Lipsky added: "The strategy that worked in the first Trump term, to try to offshore some Chinese manufacturing to other countries like Vietnam and Mexico, is going to be a much more difficult strategy to execute now." China response? Lipsky noted that Beijing could see the transshipment clause as one targeting China on trade, "because it is." "The question is, how China takes that in the broader context of what had been a thawing relationship between the US and China over the past two months," he added. While both countries temporarily lowered triple-digit tariffs on each other's exports, that truce expires August 12. The countries are in talks to potentially extend the de-escalation, although the final decision lies with Trump. It will be tough to draw a line defining product origins, analysts say. Customs fraud has been illegal for some time, but it remains unclear how Washington will view materials from China or elsewhere that have been significantly transformed. The burden lies with customs authorities to identify transshipment and assess the increased duties.
