**James Comey Must File Motion to Dismiss Charges by Imposed Deadline in U.S. Political Landscape**

Comey faces deadline to file legal motions to dismiss indictment against him

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next hour or so.

We start with the news that former FBI director James Comey today faces a deadline to file legal motions to dismiss an indictment accusing him of making false statements to Congress. Expected challenges that are scheduled to be filed today include claims that the prosecution was vindictive and that the US attorney supervising it was unlawfully appointed by president Donald Trump.

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

While the details of the charge remain unclear, they appear to be related to his claim that he never authorized anyone in the FBI to be an anonymous source in news stories.

“I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial. And keep the faith,” Comey said in a video statement the night the charges were filed.

In other developments:

• Donald Trump has escalated tensions between Washington and one of its closest Latin American allies, declaring the US will slash assistance to Colombia and enact tariffs on its exports because its president, Gustavo Petro, “does nothing to stop” drug production. Trump referred to Petro as “an illegal drug leader” in a post on the Truth Social platform and warned that Petro “better close up” drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”.

• Disgraced former US congressman George Santos said on Sunday that his prison sentence had been “disproportionate” but that he had been served “a very large slice of humble pie”, while lashing out at his critics in his first interview since Donald Trump commuted his sentence. Speaking to CNN, Santos said he was “all politicked out” and called for his former campaign staffer, Sam Miele, to also receive a commutation.

• Trump said yesterday that he would send the national guard into San Francisco to make it “great again”. The comment came during an interview with Fox News, with Trump saying: “We’re going to go to San Francisco, and we’re going to make it great.”

• Major US soft-drink and snack-food corporations are waging a coordinated campaign that aims to pit Donald Trump’s Maga faithful against Robert F Kennedy Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a Guardian investigation in partnership with the environmental watchdog Fieldnotes has found. Their goal is to stymie the Maha-led effort to curb Americans’ consumption of soda and ultra-processed foods.

• The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has arrived in the US for a meeting with president Donald Trump, where they are expected to discuss the Aukus pact – an agreement a respected Republican has called a “crucial deterrent” in the Indo-Pacific that “keeps [the Chinese president, Xi Jinping] up at night”.

• A city council member in Florida is facing a backlash from national Indian American organizations, members of Congress and residents after posting a series of social media messages that insulted Indian people living in the US and called for them to be deported en masse.

Share

Updated at 12.27 CEST

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Vance to travel to Israel as top Trump envoys return to preserve ceasefire deal

A reminder, that my colleagues are bringing you the latest developments out of the Middle East, as the US brokered ceasefire deal faced one of its first major tests over the weekend.

Israeli forces launched a wave of airstrikes on Gaza and an Israeli security official said the transfer of aid into the territory was halted “until further notice”. The strikes across the territory killed at least 45 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency and hospitals said.

The Israeli military claimed it struck after Hamas were said to have attacked Israeli troops operating “to dismantle terrorist infrastructure” in the southern city of Rafah.

My colleague, Tom Ambrose, reports that Vice-President JD Vance is to visit Israel on Tuesday, the country’s airport authority said in a statement on Monday announcing preparations for his arrival at Tel Aviv’s airport. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner have returned to Israel, a US embassy spokesperson has said. They are overseeing, and helped broker, the ceasefire agreement, and are expected to meet members of prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Read more below.

Share

Updated at 15.02 CEST

Senate attempts 11th vote to reopen federal government, as shutdown enters day 20

The Senate will vote, for the 11th time, on a House-passed funding bill that would reopen the government at 5.30pm today.

As the government shutdown enters its 20th day, there is little end in sight. The lower chamber is still out of session, as both parties continue to trade barbs over the lapse in funding.

“I refuse to allow us to come back and engage in anything until the government’s reopened, when the Democrats do the right thing for the people,” House speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday. “They’re playing politics, and we have to use every ounce of leverage we have to make sure they do the right thing.”

For Democrats’ part, they blame Republicans for being unwilling to negotiate and include several health care provisions in an alternative stopgap bill. This would roll back several of the cuts made to Medicaid enacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that are set to expire this year.

Share

Updated at 14.49 CEST

As we reported earlier, Donald Trump will welcome Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to the White House today.

He’s due to arrive at 11am ET for a bilateral meeting. We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way.

Trump will stay in Washington for the rest of the day as he hosts the Louisiana State University (LSU) baseball champions at the White House for a visit at 4pm ET.

Share

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Monday it has opened a preliminary investigation into about 2,000 Waymo self-driving vehicles after reports that the company’s robotaxis may have failed to follow traffic safety laws around stopped school buses.

The investigation is the latest federal review of self-driving systems as regulators scrutinize how driverless technologies interact with pedestrians, cyclists and other road users, reports AP.

NHTSA said the Office of Defects Investigation opened the review after flagging a media report describing an incident in which a Waymo autonomous vehicle did not remain stationary when approaching a school bus with its red lights flashing, stop arm deployed and crossing control arm extended.

The report said the Waymo vehicle initially stopped beside the bus then maneuvered around its front, passing the extended stop arm and crossing control arm while students were disembarking.

A Waymo spokesperson said the company has “already developed and implemented improvements related to stopping for school buses and will land additional software updates in our next software release”.

NHTSA said the vehicle involved was equipped with Waymo’s fifth-generation Automated Driving System (ADS) and was operating without a human safety driver at the time of the incident.

Waymo has said its robotaxi fleet numbers more than 1,500 vehicles operating across major US cities, including Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin. The Alphabet-owned company also plans to expand internationally, with launches in cities including Tokyo and London in coming years.

Share

Marina Dunbar

A city council member in Florida is facing backlash from national Indian American organizations, members of Congress, and local residents after posting a series of social media messages that insulted Indian people living in the US and called for them to be deported en masse.

Chandler Langevin, a Palm Bay council member elected last year, made derogatory comments about Indian people across several posts on the social media platform X over roughly three weeks this fall. He claimed that Indians come to America to “drain our pockets” before returning to India, “or worse … to stay”.

His remarks have sparked widespread anger. Since 29 September, residents along with regional and national Indian American groups have crowded Palm Bay city council meetings and demanded that he step down.

On Thursday night, the council voted 3-2 to formally censure Langevin. During the meeting, Rob Medina, the mayor who also serves on the council, said: “We’re all overwhelmed by everything. This nation was founded on immigrants … We are all part of the very fabric of the flag, our banner, the United States of America.”

Hindus for Human Rights, a national advocacy organization, released a letter calling the remarks “overtly bigoted, dehumanizing, and dangerous” and urged Republican governor Ron DeSantis to suspend Langevin from his role.

Share

Donald Trump due to meet Anthony Albanese, prime minister of Australia, at White House

Donald Trump is due to meet Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, today for a working lunch at the White House, says the White House schedule.

Share

Updated at 13.32 CEST

Olivia Empson

Disgraced former US congressman George Santos said on Sunday that his prison sentence had been “disproportionate”, but that he had been served “a very large slice of humble pie”, while lashing out at his critics in his first interview since Donald Trump commuted his sentence.

Speaking to Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union, Santos said he was “all politicked out”, and called for his former campaign staffer, Sam Miele, to also receive a commutation.

“This isn’t about … glitter, stars and glam or going back to Congress,” he said. “This is a very personal journey and road for me ahead.”

Trump announced on Friday that he had commuted the sentence for Santos, who was meant to serve more than seven years in federal prison in New Jersey after a whirlwind political career tainted by serial fabrications and fraudulent scheming.

“I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said in a lengthy Truth Social post. “Good luck George, have a great life!”

Santos, who pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, was less than three months into serving time before he was released. He said Trump’s decision to commute his sentence came as a surprise.

Share

Olivia Empson

Donald Trump on Sunday accused Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, of being an “illegal drug dealer” and threatened to immediately cut US funding to the country, as a Republican senator said the US would soon announce “major tariffs” on the country.

It comes after the US defense secretary confirmed in a social media post an attack on a vessel associated with a Colombian leftist rebel group. Pete Hegseth said “three terrorists were killed” in the operation, which was “conducted in international waters”.

“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the western hemisphere,” Hegseth said. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are – they will be hunted, and killed.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform just hours earlier, Trump had blamed Petro for encouraging the mass production of illegal drugs, saying the leftwing leader “does nothing to stop it, despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the US”.

“Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately,” Trump wrote, “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”.

The remarks come after Petro said the US committed “murder” following a strike on an alleged drug boat in Colombian territorial waters in September, adding “we await explanations from the US government.”

Share

Zelenskyy calls for more US Patriot air defences after Trump again sides with Putin

Peter Beaumont

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for the delivery of an additional 25 US Patriot anti-missile batteries amid the rapidly escalating air war with Russia, as it became clear that Donald Trump had once again tacked sharply towards Moscow.

The Ukrainian president added that he would be ready to join Vladimir Putin and Trump at their summit in Hungary if he was invited.

Reports over the weekend said Trump had privately urged Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending the war in Ukraine during a fractious White House meeting on Friday, warning that Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree.

According to the Financial Times, the meeting descended at times into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”.

Share

President Donald Trump reiterated on Sunday that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi told him India will stop buying Russian oil, while warning that New Delhi would continue paying “massive” tariffs if it did not do so.

“I spoke with prime minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Asked about India’s assertion that it was not aware of any conversation between Modi and Trump, Trump replied: “But if they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”

Russian oil has been one of the main irritants for Trump in prolonged trade talks with India – half of his 50% tariffs on Indian goods are in retaliation for those purchases. The US government has said petroleum revenue funds Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Share

Comey faces deadline to file legal motions to dismiss indictment against him

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next hour or so.

We start with the news that former FBI director James Comey today faces a deadline to file legal motions to dismiss an indictment accusing him of making false statements to Congress. Expected challenges that are scheduled to be filed today include claims that the prosecution was vindictive and that the US attorney supervising it was unlawfully appointed by president Donald Trump.

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

While the details of the charge remain unclear, they appear to be related to his claim that he never authorized anyone in the FBI to be an anonymous source in news stories.

“I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial. And keep the faith,” Comey said in a video statement the night the charges were filed.

In other developments:

• Donald Trump has escalated tensions between Washington and one of its closest Latin American allies, declaring the US will slash assistance to Colombia and enact tariffs on its exports because its president, Gustavo Petro, “does nothing to stop” drug production. Trump referred to Petro as “an illegal drug leader” in a post on the Truth Social platform and warned that Petro “better close up” drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”.

• Disgraced former US congressman George Santos said on Sunday that his prison sentence had been “disproportionate” but that he had been served “a very large slice of humble pie”, while lashing out at his critics in his first interview since Donald Trump commuted his sentence. Speaking to CNN, Santos said he was “all politicked out” and called for his former campaign staffer, Sam Miele, to also receive a commutation.

• Trump said yesterday that he would send the national guard into San Francisco to make it “great again”. The comment came during an interview with Fox News, with Trump saying: “We’re going to go to San Francisco, and we’re going to make it great.”

• Major US soft-drink and snack-food corporations are waging a coordinated campaign that aims to pit Donald Trump’s Maga faithful against Robert F Kennedy Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a Guardian investigation in partnership with the environmental watchdog Fieldnotes has found. Their goal is to stymie the Maha-led effort to curb Americans’ consumption of soda and ultra-processed foods.

• The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has arrived in the US for a meeting with president Donald Trump, where they are expected to discuss the Aukus pact – an agreement a respected Republican has called a “crucial deterrent” in the Indo-Pacific that “keeps [the Chinese president, Xi Jinping] up at night”.

• A city council member in Florida is facing a backlash from national Indian American organizations, members of Congress and residents after posting a series of social media messages that insulted Indian people living in the US and called for them to be deported en masse.

Share

Updated at 12.27 CEST

What legal arguments could James Comey’s team utilize in a motion to dismiss, considering potential First Amendment concerns and the public interest defense?

The Looming Deadline & Potential Legal Strategies

The legal clock is ticking for James Comey. Facing potential charges stemming from alleged mishandling of classified data during his tenure as FBI Director, Comey is under a court-imposed deadline to file a motion to dismiss. This deadline, set for [Insert Actual Deadline Date – Assume November 15, 2025 for example], is critical, and the implications extend far beyond Comey’s individual fate, impacting the broader U.S.political landscape. Understanding the charges, the potential defenses, and the political ramifications is crucial. The core of the case revolves around accusations of unauthorized disclosure of classified information,specifically related to memos detailing conversations with then-President Donald Trump.

This situation is attracting significant attention from legal experts, political analysts, and the public alike, making James Comey legal battle a key search term.

Breakdown of the Charges & Allegations

The specific charges against Comey remain a subject of debate and legal maneuvering. However, the core allegations center on violations of the Espionage Act and related statutes concerning the handling of classified materials.

* Unauthorized Disclosure: The prosecution alleges Comey improperly disclosed classified information to unauthorized individuals, potentially jeopardizing national security.

* Motive & Intent: A key element the prosecution must prove is Comey’s intent. Was the disclosure deliberate and malicious, or was it motivated by a legitimate concern for openness and accountability?

* Classification Status: The defense is likely to challenge the classification status of the memos themselves, arguing they were not properly classified or that Comey had the authority to declassify them.This is a common tactic in classified information leaks cases.

* Public Interest Defense: Comey’s legal team may attempt to invoke a “public interest” defense, arguing that the disclosure was necessary to inform the public about potential wrongdoing within the executive branch.

Potential Motions to Dismiss & Legal Arguments

Comey’s legal team has several avenues to explore in their motion to dismiss. The success of these arguments will heavily influence the trajectory of the case.

1. First Amendment Concerns: Arguing that the prosecution infringes on Comey’s First Amendment rights to free speech. this is a complex argument, as it must be balanced against the government’s legitimate interest in protecting classified information.
2. Lack of Criminal Intent: Demonstrating that Comey lacked the necessary mens rea (criminal intent) to commit the alleged offenses. This could involve presenting evidence of his good faith belief that the disclosures were lawful and justified.
3. Improper Classification: Challenging the validity of the classification markings on the memos,arguing they were overclassified or improperly applied. This often involves detailed scrutiny of the classification process.
4. Statute of Limitations: Asserting that the statute of limitations has expired for the alleged offenses. This is a technical argument that depends on the specific charges and the timing of the disclosures.
5. Political Motivation: While difficult to prove, the defense could attempt to demonstrate that the charges are politically motivated, stemming from the ongoing tensions between Comey and certain political factions.This falls under the umbrella of political prosecution concerns.

The Political Fallout & U.S. political Landscape

The prosecution of james Comey is deeply intertwined with the highly polarized U.S. political landscape. Regardless of the legal outcome, the case is likely to have significant political ramifications.

* Fueling Partisan Divisions: The case has already become a rallying cry for both sides of the political spectrum.Supporters of Comey view the prosecution as a politically motivated attack,while critics see it as a necessary step to hold him accountable for his actions.

* Impact on Future Investigations: The outcome of the case could set a precedent for future investigations involving the handling of classified information by government officials.

* Erosion of Trust: The ongoing legal battle further erodes public trust in government institutions, particularly the FBI and the Department of Justice.

* 2024 & 2028 Election Cycle: The case is likely to be a talking point in future election cycles, potentially influencing voter sentiment and campaign strategies. The term Comey indictment is already trending in political discussions.

* Department of Justice Scrutiny: The Department of Justice’s handling of the case is under intense scrutiny, with accusations of political interference from both sides.

Case Studies & Precedents

Several past cases offer relevant precedents for the Comey prosecution.

* Sandy Berger Case (2005): Former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was charged with unlawfully removing classified documents from the National Archives. He received a suspended sentence and a fine.

* John Deutch Case (2001): Former CIA Director John Deutch was accused of mishandling classified information by using an unsecured computer. He was pardoned by President Clinton before trial.

* Reality Winner Case (2018): Reality Winner, a former NSA contractor, was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking classified information to the media.This case highlights the severe penalties that can be imposed for unauthorized disclosures.

These cases demonstrate the varying outcomes in government leaks cases, depending on the specific facts, the severity of the disclosure, and the defendant’s intent.

Benefits of a Dismissal & Practical Implications

A triumphant motion to