Trial set to begin on 25 March, one of four federal criminal cases the presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces
Donald Trump on Monday asked the New York judge overseeing his criminal case on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star to delay the trial until the US supreme court finishes reviewing his claim of presidential immunity in a separate case.
The hush money trial is set to begin on 25 March in a New York state court in Manhattan.
Continue reading...Judge in Manhattan to rule on several issues including Trump’s motion to throw out case involving payment to adult film star
Donald Trump is expected to appear in Manhattan state court on Thursday morning for a hearing in his hush-money criminal case involving the adult film star Stormy Daniels and the playboy model Karen McDougal.
The judge, Juan Merchan, is expected to announce his decision on several issues, including the former US president’s motion to throw out the case.
Continue reading...Video hearing follows news that E Jean Carroll seeks new damages over ex-president’s comments in CNN town hall
Donald Trump’s trial in New York on criminal charges over hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels will begin on 25 March 2024, amid the Republican presidential primary and less than than eight months before the general election the former president hopes to contest.
The trial date was announced in a hearing in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, Trump attending by video link from his Florida home.
Continue reading...Jim Trusty, on ABC’s This Week, said the ex-president’s team will file ‘robust motions’ before the case even reaches its trial stage
While Donald Trump launches verbal attacks against the prosecutor and judge overseeing his criminal charges in connection with hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, an attorney for the former US president has said his main focus is on legal maneuvers aiming to get the case dismissed long before a trial jury is ever seated.
Jim Trusty appeared on Sunday on ABC’s This Week and argued that “there’s a lot to play with” when examining whether New York state prosecutors waited too long to secure an indictment against Trump and if the ex-president intended to commit any crimes with the payments at the center of the case.
Continue reading...The adult film star sat down with Piers Morgan for 1.5 hours, saying the former president should be ‘held accountable’
In her first major interview since Donald Trump’s indictment, Stormy Daniels has said that while she wants the former president to be “held accountable” she doesn’t believe he should go to prison.
“I don’t think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration. I feel like the other things that he has done, if he is found guilty, absolutely,” Daniels, 44, said in an interview with Fox Nation’s Piers Morgan released on Thursday.
Continue reading...Meanwhile, Stormy Daniels sells ‘#TeamStormy’ gear and sellers flood eBay and Etsy with novelty merch
On a day of non-stop news alerts offering minute-by-minute updates on Donald Trump’s arraignment, subscribers to Trump’s mailing list received one more breaking alert: “NEW ITEM, MUGSHOT.”
An email sent to Trump supporters showed merchandise in the former president’s official store: a plain white T-shirt featuring a clearly doctored photo of the former president getting booked. A fake chart behind him gave his height as 6ft 5in. Underneath his photo were the words “NOT GUILTY”, printed in big block letters.
Continue reading...Joe Tacopina says former president plans to plead not guilty to charges stemming from hush money payments to Stormy Daniels
An attorney for Donald Trump has said he hopes the proceedings can stay “painless and classy” at the court hearing scheduled for Tuesday where the former president plans to plead not guilty to charges filed against him after an investigation into hush money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
Joe Tacopina told CNN’s State of the Union show on Sunday that many of the particulars of the arraignment set for Tuesday were still “very much up in the air” besides the fact that the ex-president would “very loud and proudly say not guilty”.
Continue reading...Ex-president is expected to appear for his arraignment on Tuesday where he will be fingerprinted, photographed and processed for arrest
A grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump in New York over a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.
No former US president has ever been criminally indicted. The news is set to shake the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, in which Trump leads most polls.
Continue reading...The move to indict Trump is historic as no former president has ever been criminally charged. This blog is now closed
The indictment of Donald Trump, the former president and current presidential candidate, on criminal charges related to his hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, is historic.
No former president has ever been criminally indicted. We are waiting for details to emerge and for reactions from Trump or his legal team.
Continue reading...A grand jury has voted to criminally indict Donald Trump, the first time in US history that this has happened to a former president
A grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump in New York over a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.
This is the first time in US history a former president has faced a criminal indictment.
The charges remained under seal but the investigation centred on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.
The former president will appear in court for his arraignment on Tuesday, several outlets have reported.
The former president has responded with an attack on Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, saying, the indictment amounted to “political persecution”. “I can’t get a fair trial in New York”, he wrote on Truth Social.
Democrats said if Trump broke the law, he should face charges like any American. Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer added: “There should be no outside political influence, intimidation or interference in the case. I encourage both Mr Trump’s critics and supporters to let the process proceed peacefully and according to the law.” California Democrat Adam Schiff said: “The indictment of a former president is unprecedented. But so too is the unlawful conduct in which Trump has been engaged.”
Republicans across the country, including Trump’s potential rivals, criticised the indictment. House speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed that the House of Representatives “would hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account”. Mike Pence, a potential Trump rival for the presidential nomination, said the indictment sends a “terrible message” about the US justice system to the world. Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump ally, called it a “shocking and dangerous day for the rule of law in America”.
Stormy Daniels celebrated the news, saying: “I have so many messages coming in that I can’t respond ... also don’t want to spill my champagne.”
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who was expected to run against Trump for the Republican nomination, said his state would not assist in any extradition request for the former president.
Reports suggest Trump’s team was surprised by the timing of the announcement and was not expecting it on Thursday evening. Trump was in Mar-a-Lago when it was announced.
Trump will be will be fingerprinted, photographed and processed for a felony arrest. It is unclear whether he will be handcuffed when he surrenders. Multiple sources close to the former president have said he wanted to be handcuffed when he appears in court.
All of New York’s police have been put on duty for Friday, with NBC quoting a police memo stating that the order applied to “all officers regardless of rank”. It reported that the memo instructed officers to be aware of “unusual disorder” duties.
Continue reading...Daniels has claimed she had sex with ex-president and that she received $130,000 payment in 2016 to hush up about it
Donald Trump for years has faced criminal investigations on multiple fronts, ranging from alleged presidential election interference to purported financial crimes and recent scrutiny over his storage of government secrets.
In the end, though, what got a grand jury to vote to indict him Thursday wasn’t election interference, spurious bookkeeping, unsecured federal documents, or even that his supporters staged the deadly January 6 Capitol attack after he was voted out of office and told them to “fight like hell”. It was the porn star and director known to fans as Stormy Daniels.
Continue reading...Trump has resorted to ‘incendiary rhetoric’ to deter investigations and to rile up his base, experts say, and shows no sign of letting up
Donald Trump’s demagogic attacks on prosecutors investigating criminal charges against him are aimed at riling up his base and could spark violence, but show no signs of letting up as a potential indictment in at least one case looms, say legal experts.
At campaign rallies, speeches and on social media Trump has lambasted state and federal prosecutors as “thugs” and claimed that two of them – who are Black – are “racist”, language designed to inflame racial tension.
Continue reading...Steven van Zandt, the musician and actor who starred as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos and plays guitar as Little Steven in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, called Jamie Raskin his “brother from another mother” today, in a message of support for the Maryland Democrat’s fight against cancer.
Raskin, 60, is undergoing chemotherapy for large B-cell lymphoma, a process which causes hair loss, and has taken to wearing bandannas. Van Zandt is known for wearing such headgear on stage.
Continue reading...Trump’s prediction last week was a bust, but Manhattan grand jury could reconvene on Monday with an arraignment by end of day
Donald Trump’s lawyer has admitted that the former president based his incendiary and unfounded remarks about his imminent arrest last week on mere speculation prompted by “rumours”.
Trump ignited a week of political, media and law enforcement frenzy when he announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday in the New York criminal investigation relating to hush money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. Security was stepped up at the Manhattan courthouse and around the district attorney leading the case, Alvin Bragg, amid fears of renewed protests by Trump supporters, some of whom staged the deadly attack at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Continue reading...Ex-president insisted he wasn’t afraid of the investigation into hush money payments even as he lashed out at the case
Donald Trump repeatedly insisted on Saturday night he was not upset by expected criminal charges that might arise from the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into his role in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels as he returned from a campaign rally in Waco, Texas.
But the manner of Trump’s responses to questions suggested worries about potential damage to his image, and he came across as someone angry that his good vibrations with his “Make American great again” base in Texas could be interrupted by the reality of a possible indictment as soon as this week.
Continue reading...In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, CNN supreme court analyst Joan Biskupic reveals a body where the conservative majority fortified by Donald Trump is driving forward with decisions to change America – even as some of its members try to appear conciliatory in public.
She also describes chief justice John Robert’s decision to quickly move Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s papers from her office after she died in 2020, which offended some of her aides used to more relaxed transitions between justices.
Within days of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s memorial service in late September 2020, boxes of her files and other office possessions were moved down to a dark, windowless theater on the Supreme Court’s ground floor, where – before the ongoing pandemic – tourists could watch a film about court operations.
Grieving aides to the justice who’d served 27 years and become a cultural icon known as the “Notorious RBG” sorted through the chambers’ contents there.
Continue reading...Robert J Costello, scheduled to appear before New York grand jury on Monday, likely to question Trump accuser’s credibility
• Trump calls on supporters to protest as potential indictment looms
Donald Trump has cheered the news that a former adviser to Michael Cohen will testify before a Manhattan grand jury investigating the ex-president’s alleged role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Robert J Costello, a one-time legal adviser to former Trump attorney Cohen, is scheduled to appear before the grand jury on Monday, where he is expected to give testimony “attacking the credibility of Cohen’s statements”, Associated Press reported.
Continue reading...Manhattan district attorney expected to file criminal charges against ex-president for payment to adult film star in 2016
Donald Trump is bracing for his most legally perilous week since he left the White House, with the Manhattan district attorney likely to bring criminal charges against him over his role in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, as he huddled this weekend to strategize his legal and political responses.
The former US president has posted in all-caps on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be “ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK” and called for his supporters to engage in protests – an ominous echo of his tweets urging protests in the lead-up to the January 6 US Capitol attack.
Continue reading...Alvin Bragg is expected to bring an indictment against Trump this week over hush payments to adult actor Stormy Daniels in 2016
The Manhattan district attorney widely expected to bring an indictment against Donald Trump this week has vowed that his staff will not be intimidated after the former US president called for his supporters to protest any action against him.
Trump triggered a flurry of frantic headlines and statements from his political allies on Saturday when he posted a message on social media claiming he was set to be arrested this Tuesday on charges of hush payments to adult actor Stormy Daniels.
Continue reading...Lawyer known for representing Stormy Daniels also ordered to pay $7m on top of time he is already serving
The incarcerated lawyer Michael Avenatti was sentenced in southern California on Monday to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $7m in restitution after admitting he cheated four of his clients out of millions of dollars.
The sentence should run consecutively to the five-year prison term he is already serving for separate convictions in New York, the US district judge James V Selna said during a hearing in Santa Ana, California.
Continue reading...