Category Archives: Donald Trump

Cohen declines to bite at combative questions from Trump’s man Todd

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Todd Blanche seemed to be looking for a ‘gotcha’ – instead there was laughter in the viewing room and one irked judge

“Mr Trump, is Todd doing a good job?”

So shouted a pool reporter outside a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday afternoon shortly after Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, started cross examining former fixer turned prosecution witness, Michael Cohen, in his criminal hush-money trial.

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Michael Cohen admits he wants to see Trump convicted in hush-money cross-examination – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting from court here:

Donald Trump is entering the courtroom. He was carrying papers, which he dropped on to the defense table before sitting.

Trump is joined by Florida congressman Cory Mills, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as Eric Trump and Lara Trump.

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Michael Cohen to continue testimony at Trump hush-money trial

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Former fixer told Manhattan court on Monday that Trump had asked him to keep stories about his personal life out of the media

Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is set to continue crucial testimony on Tuesday in the former US president’s New York hush-money trial, where Trump faces charges of allegedly falsifying records of payments to a porn actor to cover an affair.

Cohen’s testimony is seen as crucial to the prosecution’s arguments that the money paid to Stormy Daniels represented an election expense, because Trump and his campaign believed news of their sexual encounter would hurt his 2016 bid for the White House.

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Michael Cohen: Stormy Daniels payment needed Trump sign off and he told me to ‘figure this whole thing out’ – live

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Former Trump lawyer tells trial that ex-president said, ‘Just do it. Go meet up with Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out’

More people here this morning in support of Donald Trump, per poolers:

JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is being floated as a potential Republican running mate to Trump

Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator of Alabama

Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide who was charged with conspiracy, fraud and forgery in Arizona

Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser

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Michael Cohen says Trump told him to bury Stormy Daniels story: ‘Just take care of it’

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Former fixer tells hush-money trial Trump was ‘really angry’ after account of alleged sexual liaison with adult film star emerged

Donald Trump told his one-time fixer Michael Cohen to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison weeks before the election, demanding that he “just take care of it”, according to trial testimony in Manhattan court on Monday.

“This was a disaster, a fucking disaster,” Cohen, after he took the stand, recalled Trump saying. “Women will hate me.”

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Trump praises fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter during rally speech

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Ex-president calls Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter ‘late, great’ while condemning ‘people who are being released into our country’

Donald Trump on Saturday praised fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter “as a wonderful man” before segueing into comments disparaging people who have immigrated into the US without permission.

The former president’s remarks to political rally-goers in Wildwood, New Jersey, as he challenges Joe Biden’s re-election in November were a not-so-subtle rhetorical bridge exalting Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter in Silence of the Lambs as “late [and] great” while simultaneously condemning “people who are being released into our country that we don’t want”.

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Rudy Giuliani suspended by New York radio station over 2020 election lies

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WABC owner says Trump ally received warnings not to discuss ‘election fallacies’ and that refusal to do so ‘left me no option’

The former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s troubles deepened on Friday when he was suspended by WABC radio, for trying to use his show to discuss the lie that the 2020 presidential election was lost by Donald Trump because of electoral fraud.

John Catsimatidis, a New York billionaire, Republican donor and owner of WABC, told the New York Times: “We’re not going to talk about fallacies of the November 2020 election. We warned him once. We warned him twice. And I get a text from him last night, and I get a text from him this morning that he refuses not to talk about it.

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Trump hush-money trial: Stormy Daniels to continue testifying – live

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Adult film star, whose brief alleged affair with Trump has been subject of much salacious questioning from prosecutors, faces further cross-examination

Trump’s New York criminal case is the first of four such cases to reach a jury, while the other three have been hit by serious delays that could prevent them from starting before November’s presidential election.

Also on Tuesday, the federal judge in the case alleging Trump retained classified documents at this Mar-a-Lago club in Florida indefinitely delayed setting a trial date after ruling the case was nowhere near ready to face a jury.

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Georgia will allow Trump to challenge order keeping Fani Willis on election interference case

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Appeals court said it would allow Trump to challenge decision not to disqualify Willis over relationship with her deputy

The Georgia state court of appeals on Wednesday said it would consider an appeal from Donald Trump of an order allowing Fani Willis, the district attorney, to continue prosecuting his election interference case in Fulton county.

In a one-page order, the appeals court said it would allow Trump to challenge the decision not to disqualify Willis over her relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to lead the Trump case. Scott McAfee, the trial judge overseeing the case, ruled in March that Willis could stay on the case as long as Wade resigned. Wade subsequently resigned the same day McAfee issued his decision.

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Stormy Daniels tells court she ‘hates’ Trump and wants him ‘held accountable’ – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest report and key takeaways below:

Trump attorney Susan Necheles reveals that Stormy Daniels is expected to be the prosecution’s second witness for the day.

She’s fighting to keep details about the alleged sex act between Daniels and Donald Trump under wraps.

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Trump hush-money trial: Stormy Daniels describes being ‘startled’ by sexual encounter

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Jury hears from adult film star on 13th day of ex-president’s criminal trial in New York

Donald Trump’s criminal trial entered a new stage on Tuesday with testimony from Stormy Daniels, an adult film star at the center of his hush-money scandal, who told jurors that they had a sexual liaison in 2006 that left her nervous and ashamed.

“My hands were shaking so hard that I was having a hard time getting dressed,” said Daniels, who told jurors that she had gone to Trump’s Lake Tahoe hotel room under the belief that they would be getting dinner after meeting there.

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Clyburn hits out at Trump over Gestapo comment: ‘Incredible but not surprising’

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Democrat says country is going off track after Trump compares Biden administration to Germany’s fascist secret police

Senior congressional Democrat James Clyburn has responded to remarks made by Donald Trump at a private event on Saturday in which he compared the Biden administration with the Gestapo secret police in fascist Germany, saying it was “incredible but it’s not surprising”.

The 83-year-old South Carolina Democrat added that Trump “is given to hyperbole on every subject that he ever approaches … The country got off track after that 1876 election and we are approaching the same kinds of elements today.”

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Star Wars’ Mark Hamill hails ‘Joe-B-Wan Kenobi’ after White House meeting

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Actor brings force of Hollywood to trumpet Biden’s legislative record in briefing that both delighted and bemused journalists

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” But enough about Washington. The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who once saw off gangsters at a fictional spaceport, came to the US capital on Friday for a meeting with Joe Biden.

Quite why he was in the Oval Office, and what was talked about, remained something of a mystery. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away Biden was riding high in the opinion polls but now, perhaps, he is in need of added star power.

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Hope Hicks: Trump was worried about WSJ article’s effect on Melania – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, read our coverage here.

Judge Juan Merchan was referring to a claim Donald Trump made while addressing the media yesterday outside of court.

Speaking to reporters after court adjourned for the day on Thursday, the former president said:

I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order. I guess, right?

I’m not allowed to testify, because this judge, who’s totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.

I want to stress Mr Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.

That is a constitutional right that will not be denied or abnegated in any way ... It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon ... the order prohibiting extra-judicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way.

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Hope Hicks tells hush-money jury of Trump’s control over 2016 campaign

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Ex-president’s former communications director says Access Hollywood tape ‘was a crisis’ for his campaign

Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-president’s New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.

Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffers’ panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. “This was a crisis” for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff.

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Trump trial to continue after vivid testimony from Stormy Daniels lawyer

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Court hears that Keith Davidson texted National Enquirer editor on night of Trump’s 2016 victory to say ‘What have we done?’

Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial enters its 11th day following raucous testimony about his increasingly unhinged underling and the tawdry business of celebrity sex scandals.

Keith Davidson, the attorney representing Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, returned to the witness stand on Thursday. Davidson was grilled on his communications with former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard around the 2016 election and Michael Cohen, Trump’s then fixer.

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Text shows Stormy Daniels lawyer’s shock at Trump win in 2016: ‘What have we done?’

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Keith Davidson gives colorful testimony at former president’s hush-money trial about how agreements came together in 2016

As Donald Trump’s presidential victory became clearer and clearer on election night in 2016, an attorney who brokered hush-money payments to bury the then candidate’s alleged sexual liaisons seemed shocked that his efforts had worked, texting his longtime confidant: “What have we done?”

So went the second day of testimony from Keith Davidson – who represented alleged Trump paramours Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal – in the ex-president’s criminal trial. The friend in question was Dylan Howard, then the editor of the National Enquirer. Prosecutors allege that the tabloid veteran kept Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, apprised of damaging information about his boss.

This article was amended on 2 May 2024 to correct the amount of money that Davidson said in testimony that Michael Cohen sent to Stormy Daniels.

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Trump in court as hush-money trial to hear further testimony from Stormy Daniels’ lawyer – live

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Keith Davidson is expected back on stand on Thursday; judge Juan Merchan will hold hearing on further claims Trump violated gag order

We’re still waiting for proceedings to kick off.

As defense lawyer Todd Blanche and Donald Trump are chatting at the defense table, the ex-president appears to be more animated, more engaged, than he has generally been.

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‘Enough with the gaslighting’: Harris responds to Trump’s insistence that he doesn’t back national abortion ban – live

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Vice-president calls abortion access a ‘fundamental freedom’ in Florida as state’s six-week ban takes effect

Greene wrapped up the press conference by demanding, essentially, that Mike Johnson resign or be fired:

What I’m calling on is, like my colleague here said, Mike Johnson … can pray about it, think about it all weekend, do the right thing and resign, giving our conference time to elect a new leader, a new speaker of the house. He should reject the endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries and the entire Democrat leadership team. That is not an endorsement that any Republican speaker should ever want or embrace. And this vote will be called next week, and I would just want to urge all our colleagues to prepare for it. It’s the right thing to do for America. It’s time to clean house and get our conference in order and get ready to support President Trump’s agenda. God willing, he wins in November and we take back full power here in Washington in January.

I fight for his agenda every single day, and that’s why I’m fighting here against my own Republican conference, to fight harder against the Democrats.

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