these are your top stories -- the u.s. justice department says it has charged a man, accusing him of involvement in the accusations are baseless and politically motivated. we have more from washington. reporter: the justice department has outlined an elaborate and lengthy murder for hire plot, which began some 18 months ago, when he u.s. and

persuaded him to act as essentially a murder for hire, promising some $300,000, should he call john bolton. unknown to him was the fact that this individual was an fbi informant, so he informed the authorities, the authorities will address the plot as it develops. >> ukraine is warning russia is preparing to connect power from the nuclear plant into crimea, which moscow annexed in 2014. the plant has come under attack several times over the past week. european countries are setting power consumption caps, as they reduce their use of russian energy. e.u. countries have stopped importing coal from russia since wednesday. some countries have warned they may face blackouts. north korea's leader suffered a high fever during the country's

covid-19 outbreak according to his sister. she has also blamed the epidemic on propaganda leaflets drop by south korea. kim declared victory in the country's battle with the illness. sierra leone has imposed a nationwide curfew in response to violent antigovernment protests. the government says several people have been killed, including members of the security forces. thousands have been protesting across the country over the rising cost of living. they are calling on the president to step down. inflation in the u.s. could be cooling. consumer price index, climbing 8.5% in the year through july compared with 9.1% in june. wall street is optimistic, with the welcome reprieve for consumers. gas prices and airfares have also come down. those are your headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera with "inside story."

♪ mohammed: have fbi agents found what they were looking for in donald trump's home? the former u.s. president says the search of his florida residence is part of a plan to destroy him, but what does this mean for his potential second run for the white house? this is "inside story.” ♪ hello, and welcome to the program. i'm mohammed jamjoom. fbi agents in the u.s. state of florida have conducted a criminal search of former president donald trump's home. it's seen as a significant escalation of the federal investigation into whether trump illegally removed classified documents from the white house,

as he was leaving office in january of last year. trump criticized the fbi search, calling it a weaponization of the justice system. we'll bring in our guests shortly, but first, this report from jillian wolfe. reporter: the fbi's search of donald trump's mar-a-lago estate on monday marked a dramatic escalation. the former u.s. president is facing a number of allegations into his conduct in the waning days of his administration. for much of the year, there had been small cracks in trump's political support. but a day after the fbi's unprecedented search, republicans rallied behind the former leader when all this went down in mar-a-lago, my phone blew up. -- >> when all this went down in mar-a-lago, my phone blew up. friends and family members asked me, "what in the world is going on? why is the law not being applied equally?" you know, friends texted me things like, "is the fbi turned into the gestapo?" reporter: the search was part of the u.s. justice department's investigation into allegations trump removed classified documents from the white house. the u.s. agency in charge of collecting and storing

presidential documents had notified the justice department about the discovery of at least 15 boxes of white house documents at trump's mar-a-lago home. it said some of those records were classified. -- it's said some of those records were classified. the house committee investigating the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol had also heard evidence about the removal of classified documents, when trump left office. along with allegations trump had repeatedly shredded or disposed of classified material after reading it, as president. republicans in congress are calling the search a political witch hunt, initiating an investigation into the allegations of the fbi. >> we now find that justice in america is not equal, it's determined upon whether you want to go after a political person or not. and you go after your political foes, i think that's wrong. reporter: democrats say the fbi action shows no one is above the law. and the white house says president joe biden was not given advance notice about the search. >> the president and the white house learned about this fbi

search from public reports. we learned just like the american public did, and we did not have advance notice of this activity. president biden has been very clear, from before he was elected president and throughout his time in office, that the justice department conducts its investigations independently. he believes in the rule of law. reporter: donald trump remains the republican party's most influential voice and has been considering the idea running again. -- idea of running again. his ability to tap into the frustrations of conservative voters has helped him overcome two impeachments and the fallout from the january 6 attack. his allies say the fbi search of his florida home could strengthen his standing once again. for "inside story," jillian wolfe. ♪ mohammed: all right, let's go ahead and bring in our guests. in virginia, rina shah, founder and principal of rilax strategies. she's also a conservative political advisor.

in washington, d.c., henry olsen, a senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center and columnist for the washington post. he's also the author of "the working-class republican: ronald reagan and the return of the blue-collar conservatism.” and in london, julie norman, associate professor at university college london and co-director of the ucl centre on u.s. politics. a warm welcome to you all, and thanks so much for joining us today on "inside story.” julie, let me start with you today, and let's talk for a moment about the significance of all of this. first of all, is this unprecedented? has a search warrant ever been executed at the home of a former u.s. president before? and, you know, what kind of evidence would have been needed, in order to convince a judge to sign off on a search warrant like this? >> sure, so as is widely known by now, this is unprecedented. justice has investigated presidents before, but i never -- before, but never to the extent of a search warrant for a former president.

so, as you noted, this would have had to have gotten approval from a federal magistrate judge, as it did. in order to get a warrant, though, it's just probable cause that a crime was committed. so it doesn't necessarily mean there's firm evidence, it doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be a criminal proceeding, it just means that it's warrant for a search. it should be noted, a search warrant is rare in this kind of investigation. this is an investigation around classified documents. usually, these are resolved through negotiations, maybe a subpoena, but a search really is unusual. so the question, of course, is still unknown, at least to the public, of what the fbi was looking for, if they found it, and what the implications will be. and we certainly don't know that just yet. mohammed: rina, there has been polling done recently showing that a majority of republicans did not want mr. trump to be the party's nominee in 2024, before the news of this search at mar-a-lago. was there a sense that republican lawmakers may have been ready to move on from mr.

trump, and has the fact that this search has happened, has that upended all of that now? >> well, in the past few months, i've definitely heard a greater sense than in a very long time that the country may, you know, really be looking for something fresh, something new. but again, it's almost as if we don't know where the pendulum has swung entirely. for republicans that i speak to, there are a great many who are still very committed to the make america great again movement who feel that trump maybe should be given a second look. but there's also a fair r amoun, whether you're talking about the mid-atlantic region of republicans, or western republicans or even southern republicans, there are a fair amount that want to try something new, perhaps in the form of florida governor ron desantis. it's hard to tell what will happen now, as of course, we know in this era, the court of public opinion feels to be the only court that matters. so the political ramifications, particularly in this republican party i think will be quite severe. will they rally behind trump and stay there?

what will the midterms do? is there going to be a new energy behind trump endorsed candidates, who were losing for many weeks, and then now we see sort of a resurgence of some? these are all open-ended questions right now, because this is such an obviously unprecedented move. because no former president has done anything that has warranted such a search. that's what i like to remind republicans, is that this has never been warranted. so, let's be sort of cautious in the moment about what this really means about the future of the gop. mohammed: henry, based on first impressions, from your vantage point, does this help or hurt trump? >> it marginally helps trump within the republican party, because there's a large number of people who like him, maybe considering moving on, but now he seems to be in the targets of the "real enemy," the democrats in the left. so in the short term, this is something that's going to slightly increase trump's standing within the republican party.

but it's still a long way to go, and we don't know what's going to come out. i don't think this will have lasting impulse, but certainly it gives trump a brief bit of momentum that he lacked prior to the raid. mohammed: julie, if the fbi doesn't find anything, if nothing from this search sticks to trump, what's the blowback going to be? and how much would that benefit trump? >> if nothing comes out of this, i think it will benefit trump massively. you know, trump has really embraced a narrative throughout his time in office and afterwards of persecution, of grievance, of, you know, being under a witch hunt, with the federal government in general, but especially with justice. and so, this incident plays very much into that narrative, gives him a specific instant and specific optics to point to, and it's one that we've already seen resonating very strongly with many of his supporters. you know, people coming out in

mar-a-lago, on monday night, already rallying around trump. and it just puts him back in the center of the narrative in exactly the place he wants to be, and i could see him leveraging this definitely in the short term and really well into a campaign, if he so wished. mohammed: henry, how strong is trump's grip on the republican party still? and what is his record thus far when it comes to the candidates that he's been supporting during the primaries? >> he's actually turned around his endorsement record. he was looking like he was losing a fair number of them earlier in the primary, but he's had a very good winning streak recently, winning most of his contested endorsements. you know, i think the fair statement right now is that trump has the upper hand in the republican party, but that there is a substantial number of republicans who may want to go along with many of trump-like policies, but do not want to endorse full-throated trump-ism or bet behind trump's candidates. we saw in the wisconsin primary just last night that the

incumbent lieutenant governor lost to a trump backed candidate but got 42%. same thing in arizona, where an opponent to trump's endorsed candidate got close to 45%. so let's say the party is divided, with trump's supporters having the upper hand, and that means that there's still an opening for someone to come through and challenge him. but it's still clear that trump has that slight upper edge within gop. mohammed: and henry, you talked about the the party being divided, but but let me ask you, i mean, just how fractured is the republican party right now? against the democrats, it's not -- >> against the democrats, it's not very fractured. the republican factions may disagree with one another on how far or how fast to move, but against the democrats, i think you'll see a lot of unity. but there's going to be a real question, whether trump is somebody who can and should lead the ticket, and that's one that's going to come to a head after the midterm elections. mohammed: rina, you know, top congressional republicans have been rushing to defend mr. trump

after the news broke that that search warrant was executed. is this in any way surprising to you? i want to talk for a moment about the fact that, you know, you have former u.s. vice president mike pence, he's called on u.s. attorney general merrick garland to give a full accounting to the public of why the search warrant was carried out at mar-a-lago. you know, of course, mike pence, it's known that that he is somebody who was in hiding, when that invasion of the capital happened on january 6, that you had trump supporters who wanted to harm him. so the fact that, you know, he has come out and put out this statement, at a time when there was a lot of speculation that that pence might run in 2024, and the fact that there are these republican leaders who privately may be saying they don't support trump are now publicly defending him, does that surprise you? >> it is a bit surprising, even after many years of trump in office, to watch establishment republicans, those sitting in congress right now who are elected members of congress, elected to a branch that is supposed to check the other

branch, be a check on their power, completely surround the former president with continued adoration and love and defense of what is sort of his way of going about things, his unique style of continuing to engage in hypocritical action and and -- in hypocritical action and talk, but the what aboutism as well. it almost feels as if we've entered this new era of politics that we cannot walk back from. we had many weeks of the january 6th select committee within the house tell us that there was well-documented evidence of trump and really his egregious actions to try to remain in power, to grab power that was not constitutionally his. but still, even despite, that -- but still, even despite that, this republican party does not have to embrace him and they continue to. so it shows sort of the level of pettiness of some of these elected members of congress, they may be defending themselves, they may be protecting themselves, they know that money is still tied to the

make america great again base, so it almost leaves anyone who's even a political insider scratching their heads about, at what point does the divorce happen between establishment republicans and the trump sort of empire that continues to pervade the republican party? that again is another open-ended question. this is just a time where it's just too quick, it's too early to tell. we have to get past these midterms to know more about what the american electorate really thinks of trump, and will he be the standard bearer in 2024? mohammed: well, rina, speaking of the midterms, you know, it had been reported that up until the news broke that this search warrant was executed, that many republicans had been privately urging donald trump not to announce that he was going to run in 2024, because they thought that might be damaging in the midterm elections for other candidates. now it seems that there are republicans that are calling on trump to actually announce before the midterms, because they believe that will help the party. do you think that this means

that donald trump will officially enter the presidential race soon? >> well, if by "help the party" you mean that a former president who again was sort of the the standard bearer, not just sort of he was the elected former president, you know, if by helping him that means he doesn't go to jail, which would just be, my goodness, absolutely a shock to this system, to the entire country, but no one can be above the law in these united states. i think the actions that we've seen in the past 36 hours particularly tell us that democracy is an action here in the united states, it's in motion, and it's working, and we're not a banana republic. because even if you are now a private citizen who held the highest office in the land, you are subject to the law. and so, we have one side of the story right now, that is trump's version. we have yet to hear why this legal search was conducted on his private property in florida. we will learn more in the coming days that will tell us exactly what this means for a former president.

has he broken a part of our u.s. code that prohibits him from holding office again? this is all very consequential in so many ways. it all hangs on the balance for the future of the republican party. do people want to defend trump at all costs, or are they willing to say, let him go, like the rnc committee chairwoman herself just alluded to, i believe it was just last week, and if not it was a few days prior to that, where she said that they would not even pay trump's legal bills anymore, if he were to continue on this path of a potential candidacy. so we are again hanging in the balance, as myself, a former republican strategist and and a long-time registered republican, but somebody who wishes to see a healthy republican party exist. mohammed: julie, democrats are fresh off of some big legislative wins right now. the fact that the focus has now shifted to trump, does that hurt the democrats going into the midterms? >> well, as you said, this week

was probably not the week that biden and the white house wanted a story like this necessarily, you know, coming off the climate bill win, chips, some other very long weighted legislation finally coming through. and of course, trump has just completely flipped the news cycle, with the with what's -- with what's happening this week. so from the democratic point of view, they would like more emphasis on those pieces. but at the same time, you know, many democrats uh have been keen to see some legal movement from any of the number of investigations that trump is currently under. he's expected also to testify today in a separate investigation in new york. so many democrats have been looking for justice to come down a bit stronger on trump. as we have said, though, you know, i think if there is not anything to show from this, that will blow back on democrats at the end of the day, and many who are maybe celebrating right now are maybe not thinking about some of the repercussions of this, in terms of the campaign

and the electorate and how this might galvanize trump. mohammed: and julie, if we're talking about galvanizing trump supporters, you know, it's being reported that there is some violent rhetoric that's been appearing on pro-trump online forums. is there a lot of concern out there that this could all lead to violence at some point? >> well, there certainly is concern, and ever since obviously january 6, i think people are taking this kind of rhetoric more seriously than they may have in the past. a lot of terms and phrases that were being, you know, put on social media, on twitter since the news of the search came out certainly have very aggressive, you know, very, very violence leaning connotations to them. with that said, i think we should always kind of be cautious about not jumping to kind of alarmist conclusions with this. you know, people are going to react to this. there are going to be protests, but right now we have not seen, you know, any kind of extreme expression of violence and reaction to this.

again, trump himself, i think, will have a lot of sway in how much that side of the rhetoric builds or not. he's obviously encouraged it in the past. and we can only hope that this de-escalates, rather than escalates, in terms of the violent rhetoric around it. mohammed: henry, do you think that as a result of any of these investigations, that it might be possible that mr. trump could be barred from running again for president? >> you know, i don't think that there is a legal way to bar him from running for president, short of jailing him, that there's a lot of belief that you cannot add to the constitutional requirements for running for office, and there are no constitutional requirements saying that somebody under indictment or somebody under suspicion or somebody who's been convicted even cannot run for the presidency. so, i think, short of securing conviction that's upheld on appeal that has him behind bars, i don't think there's any way

that this is going to prevent him from running for office. convicting him in the impeachment trial would have been the way to do that. mohammed: rina, we've heard from house minority leader kevin mccarthy, he told attorney general merrick garland to preserve your documents and clear your calendar, and he warned that there would be a probe into all of this, when republicans take back the house in the midterm elections. now, if republicans do regain control of the house of representatives come november, are we going to see republicans launch a lot of retaliatory investigations? and what's that going to do? the country is already so polarized. the political parties are already so polarized. what kind of effect would that have? >> well, republicans have been calling, you know, making calls about this january 6th select committee in the house that that did these public hearings for these past many weeks. they've been saying that that is a sort of one-sided sort of investigation, that is purely political and a witch hunt, and it is happening through the u.s.

house of representatives because of nancy pelosi, the speaker. so they've already sort of taken to that line of messaging and been rather successful with their base, plotting with that. they've fundraised off of it, massive amounts. they continue to beat that steady drum of the democrats are trying to ruin the way your your way of life, they're trying to, you know, do things that will affect your bottom line. lately, this entire week, the messaging point has been that the irs is expanding, they're coming for you, they're hiring close to 90,000 new agents and they're coming for you, the little guy, because you're a conservative. so do not be surprised if you hear this from congressional republicans. of course the leader, mccarthy, is giving away his entire playbook. he wants to exact revenge on democrats, and he's gonna start it from the top down. if house republicans take over this fall, that will be the first thing they do, is hold these kind of hearings, because they will say democrats already did the very same thing. mohammed: henry, you know, this certainly is not the first time

that former president trump has been accused of mishandling classified materials. we do know that in the u.s., the president has the authority to declassify any information. if it is determined ultimately that mr. trump took classified material that he shouldn't have, that he's held on to, couldn't mr. trump just claim to have declassified it? would that be enough to end all of this? >> i think that's a process through which you have to go through, to declassify it, and of course, one can only do that as the president. the question is whether he did that while he was serving in office. i don't think it's something that he can wave a wand after the fact and say, these documents are all okay, if he didn't go through the procedures that establishes declassification, prior to his departure from office. then i don't think he's going to be able to make that claim. mohammed: julie, i saw you nodding along to what henry was saying, did you want to jump in? >> well, just to to agree with

that, right, that, you know, while in office, the president can declassify, but afterwards, they cannot, and so it's unclear what the status of those documents would be. and, you know, it's important to know, back in the spring, with the first boxes that were taken from mar-a-lago, there were classified documents in there. so we already we know that trump has had some classified materials. but again, that can usually be assuaged through different kinds of negotiations. and the worry here is that there's something much more sensitive, or much more pertinent to some of the other legal challenges going on. but i would agree, it's complicated, because of that presidential power to declassify, if you will. mohammed: and julie, from your vantage point, you know, from what you're seeing and reading and hearing, does it look to you like trump may be in real serious legal peril here? >> you know, i really think it's too early to say. we just don't have enough information about what was found and what it's going to mean.

i would again emphasize that in order to bar trump from running from office again, that would still be a very long way off, i think a criminal proceeding just around having classified documents would be unlikely and would probably be seen as an overreach. if those documents actually related to something very serious, then i could see an actual proceeding moving forward potentially. but again, i think trump will continue to to leverage this as much as possible through an appeals process, etc., and really, it will be very difficult legally to keep him from running again. mohammed: rina, we only have about a minute left. i'm going to ask you the same question. from your vantage point, do you think the trump is in real legal trouble here? >> well, it depends, you know, really, how this whole thing plays out, because there is a presidential records act, and if this legal search was fully about classified documents and how they were handled by trump, and really what the fbi knows at this point, then it becomes a

question of who's going to enforce a presidential records act for the first time? there was a former chief of staff, there were other top advisers who warned president trump, while he was in the white house, about that act and his handling of information. but it still, to this day, nobody has really been punished for violating that act. are we going to be a country that holds accountable our former elected leaders? that is the question that i'm willing, i'm ready, and waiting for an answer for. mohammed: all right. well, we have run out of time, so we're going to have to leave the conversation there today. thanks so much to all of our guests, rina shah, henry olsen, and julie norman. and thank you, too, for watching. you can see the program again anytime by visiting our website aljazeera.com, and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook.com/ajinsidestory. you can also join the conversation on twitter @ajinsidestory. from me mohammed jamjoom, and the whole team here, bye for now. ♪

ú/ú/ú/ú/ú/ú/ñcñcñcñc

[music] nouncer fundingor this program s been pvided by d preser the culre, whe mit story, a heritag ofanzania, d advae investnts in the ar and natal resoues inhis econic and soal hub oafrica. [drums] [music