James Comey faces deadline to file motion to dismiss charges against him – US politics live

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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.

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.

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.”

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

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”.

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.

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.