Warnock’s Senate win over Walker in Georgia runoff another blow for Trump – live | US politics

His candidate lost in Georgia, and he had to hire people to search his own property for classified documents. It may only be Wednesday, but you can say that it’s already been a rough week for Donald Trump.

The former president is never shy about sharing his thoughts, and around midnight on the east coast last night – after it became clear Herschel Walker was going to lose in Georgia – he posted these words on his Truth social network: “OUR COUNTRY IS IN BIG TROUBLE. WHAT A MESS!”

Donald Trump hired an outside firm to search two of his properties for classified material and make sure that he had complied with a court order to turn over all such documents he possessed, the Washington Post reports.

Citing anonymous sources, the Post reports the searches took place at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course and at Trump Tower in New York, the most recent property the investigators visited. The former president is being investigated for allegedly unlawfully retaining classified documents he took with him after he left the White House, and the searches were conducted to ensure he complied with a May grand jury subpoena to turn over all documents bearings classification markings.

Here’s more from the Post:

The team also offered the FBI the opportunity to observe the search, but the offer was declined, the people said. It would be unusual for federal agents to monitor a search of someone’s property conducted by anyone other than another law enforcement agency. Federal authorities have already searched Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s primary residence, and he spends almost all of his time at those three properties, advisers say.

Trump’s lawyers have told the Justice Department that the outside team did not turn up any new classified information during their search, according to people familiar with the process, and have said they utilized a firm that had expertise in searching for documents.

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the FBI declined to comment.

“President Trump and his counsel continue to be cooperative and transparent,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said, accusing the Justice Department of committing an “unprecedented” and “unwarranted attack” against Trump and his family.

Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell told Trump’s legal team to continue to search for documents after the Justice Department expressed concerns that the team had not fully complied with a subpoena earlier this year. Howell, according to people familiar with the matter, did not give specific orders on how a search should be done.

The group first conducted a search of Bedminster, and Trump’s attorneys have now attested to the Justice Department that no further materials were found, two people familiar with the matter said.

Donald Trump was an extensive endorser in the 2022 midterm elections, typically of candidates who hewed at least partially to his baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

But with Democrat Raphael Warnock victorious in Georgia’s run-off election for Senate – the last major outstanding race – it’s now clear that voters even in traditionally Republican areas were not interested in what Trump’s people were selling.

Here are a few of the most high-profile of his failed candidates. Call it a hall of shame:

• Blake Masters, Senate candidate in Arizona, lost to sitting Democrat Mark Kelly. Democrat Katie Hobbs also won the governor’s race, ending a streak of Republican governors that dates back to 2009, but for her opponent Kari Lake, the race isn’t over: she’s refused to concede.

• Mehmet Oz lost to Democrat John Fetterman in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, flipping the seat from Republican to Democratic control.

• Adam Laxalt failed to unseat Democratic senator Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, though the race was a squeaker.

Trump’s pick loses again after Warnock triumphs in Georgia