Donald Trump suggests there was no foul play in Lindsey Graham’s death amid conspiracies – live
Trump suggests there was no foul play in Graham’s death
Donald Trump was also asked why the FBI was looking into the death of senator Lindsey Graham.
Trump suggested that there was no foul play suspected, telling reporters at the White House that he did not see a lot of “evil” in Graham’s death.
He added that he was aware of the conspiracy theories going around regarding Graham’s death, and said he thought the FBI were “wasting their time” if it was looking into them.
Graham, 71, died on Saturday evening, after what his office called a “brief and sudden illness”. The chief medical examiner then preliminarily ruled on Sunday that he died of aortic dissection due to cardiovascular disease, though it will be some time for a comprehensive report is completed.
On Sunday, FBI director Kash Patel said the bureau was “assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available”. It remains unclear why Patel said this and the FBI hasn’t commented further.
Around 20 agents from the FBI and other federal agencies attended Graham’s DC residence yesterday with US Capitol Police officers. Federal agents were continuing to investigate his death out of an abundance of caution, two law enforcement sources familiar with the scene told NBC News.
Trump also said he was briefed by doctors at the White House on Graham’s death.
This is something that is very almost undetectable … And if it happens, there’s not much you can do about it. Sounds unfortunate, but there’s not much you can do about it.
Key events
During a Senate appropriations committee hearing today, justice Elena Kagan apologized for any procedural issues in the way the court submitted their increased budget proposal. She attributed this to the court’s sudden loss of US marshal protection.
“We thought that we were going to have US marshal protection at our residences for another six months, and all of a sudden learned from the justice department that that was going to be impossible, and so we had to do some sort of quick footwork to try to get additional monies in order to cover that six month gap,” Kagan told senators today.
Lindsey Graham’s sister sworn in to replace him in Senate
Darline Graham, the sister of Republican senator Lindsey Graham, was just sworn in to replace the late lawmaker for the remainder of his term.
Graham was appointed by South Carolina’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster.
Supreme court justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett are now back before lawmakers on Capitol Hill, this time before senators on an appropriations subcommittee.
In her opening statement, top Republican Susan Collins appeared to issue a veiled condemnation of the Trump administration’s attacks on justices of the court.
“Other public officials have called the court corrupt, out of control, and serving an extremist agenda,” Collins said. “This overheated language, this completely inappropriate rhetoric against the supreme court, endangers the lives of the justices and erodes public trust in our system of government.”
Earlier this year, Donald Trump said the six justices, who ruled that the tariffs he imposed were illegal, “should be ashamed of themselves”.
Three of those justices were part of the court’s conservative bloc, including Barrett herself. The president called those who ruled against his tariffs “fools and lap dogs”, “very unpatriotic” and “disloyal to the constitution”, claiming without evidence that the court “has been swayed by foreign interests”.
Schumer: ‘Trump has no clue what he’s doing in Iran’
Following Donald Trump’s decision to drop his threat to levy a 20% toll on shipping for safe passage through the strait of Hormuz, the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, has blasted the president.
“Trump has no clue what he’s doing in Iran, and it’s a recipe for utter disaster,” Schumer wrot on X. “He had no plan and no exit strategy on day 1 of this reckless war. We’re on day 136, and nothing has changed.”
The Senate minority leader noted that both chambers of Congress passed a war powers resolution to stop military action in Iran shy of congressional approval, which he added, “Trump is ignoring”.
“Our service members are in harm’s way. Working families are forking over a fortune for gas and groceries. End this war once and for all,” Schumer wrote.
Following the fatal shooting of Joan Sebastian Guerrero by a federal immigration agent in Biddeford, Maine, the Guardian has learned that officials have been instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice.
My colleague, Jose Olivares, reports that a homeland security source confirmed the directive after the fatal shooting in Maine, and in Houston, Texas, where Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Houston, Texas, less than a week ago.
Earlier today, Maine’s Republican senator, Susan Collins said that while the investigation into the shooting in Biddeford is not yet complete, “it raises sufficient critical questions” and she spoke with Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary last night, and “urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops”.
Many of the case’s circumstances remained unclear. Immigrant rights activists said Guerrero, who was married with a young child, had a social security number and was authorized to work in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, did not respond to a question about his immigration status.
Collins has faced criticism for her decision to cast a deciding vote for a reconciliation package that included $70bn for federal immigration enforcement until the end of Donald Trump’s second term in office.
On the renewed military action in Iran, it’s worth noting that crude oil prices have hit their highest levels in four weeks. Brent crude, the international benchmark, has jumped $3.79 a barrel to $87.08 a barrel, a 4.55% increase, the highest price since 12 June.
My colleagues are covering the latest at our dedicated Middle East blog.
Victoria Bekiempis
A Manhattan federal court has released more than $5.6m that Donald Trump owes E Jean Carroll in her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him, records reveal.
The disbursement, made public in a 14 July entry on Carroll’s case docket, indicates that the funds were released by a court-held account on 9 July – one day after judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the release of this money.
Trump, who has been fighting against the release of this money since June after the supreme court on 29 June denied his request to hear his appeal, has denied wrongdoing.
“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E Jean Carroll. Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict,” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lead lawyer, said in a statement.
Carroll’s legal team promptly requested the judge to order the release of these funds following the supreme court’s decision. Trump’s legal team asked for more time to provide a response to Roberta Kaplan’s request, which the judge denied.
Hundreds protest in Maine over fatal ICE shooting
Hundreds of people have been protesting in Maine today over the killing of a Colombian man by an ICE officer, after federal officials appeared to shift their narrative about the deadly encounter.
The Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer, “fearing for public safety”, shot and killed the man yesterday in Biddeford while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the US illegally and had a final order of removal from the country.
The department said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone coming from the home, the vehicle attempted to flee and the officer fired his weapon.
That was a shift from how Maine senator Angus King described the encounter hours earlier when he said DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the man who was shot.
The driver was Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, the Colombian Embassy told the Associated Press in a statement.
Protesters gathered today outside of an ICE detention center in Scarborough, just up the coast from Biddeford.
“These people are killers and they must leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the gathering, including some who held signs reading “Stop the murder” and “End this terror”.
A small group of counter-protestors briefly disrupted the rally. Protesters drowned out their voices with whistles.
Durán Guerrero’s shooting marked the second time in a week that ICE used deadly force and the tenth death since Donald Trump launched his immigration crackdown.
Trump suggests there was no foul play in Graham’s death
Donald Trump was also asked why the FBI was looking into the death of senator Lindsey Graham.
Trump suggested that there was no foul play suspected, telling reporters at the White House that he did not see a lot of “evil” in Graham’s death.
He added that he was aware of the conspiracy theories going around regarding Graham’s death, and said he thought the FBI were “wasting their time” if it was looking into them.
Graham, 71, died on Saturday evening, after what his office called a “brief and sudden illness”. The chief medical examiner then preliminarily ruled on Sunday that he died of aortic dissection due to cardiovascular disease, though it will be some time for a comprehensive report is completed.
On Sunday, FBI director Kash Patel said the bureau was “assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available”. It remains unclear why Patel said this and the FBI hasn’t commented further.
Around 20 agents from the FBI and other federal agencies attended Graham’s DC residence yesterday with US Capitol Police officers. Federal agents were continuing to investigate his death out of an abundance of caution, two law enforcement sources familiar with the scene told NBC News.
Trump also said he was briefed by doctors at the White House on Graham’s death.
This is something that is very almost undetectable … And if it happens, there’s not much you can do about it. Sounds unfortunate, but there’s not much you can do about it.
Trump says no one should be able to charge a fee for the strait of Hormuz – despite proposing this yesterday
Trump was asked to explain his change in thinking over his proposal for the US to charge a 20% fee for ships to pass through the strait of Hormuz, which he announced yesterday.
Trump said that following that announcement, he’d received calls from Gulf leaders offering trade and investment opportunities for the US instead. “That was very satisfactory to me,” he said. “In fact, it was even better.”
The president added that he didn’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for ships transiting the strait – despite floating this idea several times over the last few months, including yesterday.
“I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the strait,” he said. “I don’t like the concept of a fee, but at the same time, it’s not fair that we’re protecting this strait for the entire world.”
Trump says US will be doing a lot of deals with Iraq and taking a lot of oil out
Trump has told reporters the United States would be there for Iraq if it needed protection, but added that he did not think that would be necessary now that Iran – which he said had been “a big burden” for Iraq – has been “de-stabilized” and left with “a fraction” of their previous military power.
He added that the US would be “doing a lot of deals” with Iraq and “taking a lot of oil out”.
Iraq has tremendous potential because of their oil … and we’re going to be doing a lot of deals. We’re going to create a lot of jobs for both countries, and we’re going to be taking out a lot of oil.
A lot of oil is coming out, and the American companies are doing it – mostly American companies now.
