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Donald J. Trump After the White House - Page 16
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WASHINGTON — Donald Trump knew his “big lie” that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him was, in fact, a big lie, according to testimony the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol laid out at the public hearing Monday morning. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the California Democrat handling much of Monday’s questioning of witnesses, said the testimony of Trump’s own aides was clear. “On election night, he claimed even before the votes were counted that his loss was because of fraud,” she said. “Mr. Trump’s election fraud claims were false. Mr. Trump’s closest advisers knew it. Mr. Trump knew it.” Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, who had been scheduled to testify in person Monday, withdrew at the last minute when his wife went into labor and Stepien went to join her. In a video clip of Stepien’s taped deposition, Stepien said he and other top campaign aides recommended that Trump say that “votes were still being counted, that it was too early to tell, it was too early to call the race.”
Katherine Fung

Alegal expert is predicting that potential felony charges against former President Donald Trump are likely to have standing in Georgia, and indictments may continue past the Peach State. "It wouldn't surprise me for Georgia to become the first jurisdiction to indict a former president on felony charges. I doubt it'll be the last. And I think the charges will stick," Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University, tweeted on Friday. Tribe's remarks came as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis ramps up her investigation into Trump's alleged efforts to overturn Georgia's vote in the 2020 presidential election. Trump lost the state by a narrow margin of 0.23 points. As part of her probe, Willis, a Democrat, has reportedly subpoenaed a number of state officials, including Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who recently won a GOP primary in a rebuke of Trump's election fraud claims. A phone recording obtained by The Washington Post revealed that Trump had asked Raffensperger to help him "find 11,780 votes" to overturn President Joe Biden's win in Georgia and threatened Raffensperger with "a criminal offense" for refusing to assist his efforts.
BY JASON LEMON

Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that he believes former President Donald Trump's actions on January 6, 2021 and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election probably merit an indictment "given what we have learned." Hundreds of Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in an apparent effort to disrupt the formal certification of President Joe Biden's election win. That attack came after the then-president told his followers to walk to the Capitol and "fight like hell" to save their country. The assault on the federal legislative branch of government came after months of Trump lying and spreading misinformation about the 2020 election's outcome. Trump also pressured various officials, in particular Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to help overturn Biden's election victory. He asked Raffensperger, a Republican, to "find" enough votes to help flip Georgia in his favor.
BY JASON LEMON

As Donald Trump continues to hold large rallies and tease the possibility of another White House run in 2024, critics continue to urge the Justice Department to investigate and potentially indict the former president for his actions connected to the January 6, 2021 attack targeting the U.S. Capitol and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Although it's unclear that Trump and his allies will ever face indictments, the House select committee investigating January 6 and the events surrounding that day have floated the possibility of several potential charges against the former president. Additionally, some legal experts have contended that an ongoing probe in Georgia's Fulton County could result in Trump's indictment as well. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, but has received criticism from many on the left for not pursuing charges against Trump and his allies more aggressively, gave critics of the former president hope in a recent interview with NPR. The nation's top law enforcement official said that "everyone" who committed crimes related to January 6 would be held accountable.
Alex Griffing

Former President Donald Trump defended his headlining speech at Friday’s National Rifle Association conference in Houston, Texas, which is taking place just days after a shooter murdered 21 people in a Texas elementary school. Trump joined his former counter-terrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka on his Salem Radio show and doubled down on his Friday speech saying, “It will be very interesting, interesting time to be making such a speech, frankly.” “Then on Saturday night, I am going to Wyoming to campaign against Liz Cheney, who is absolutely atrocious, the job she has done,” Trump continued, connecting the NRA speech with his political advocacy. “ Friday night, I will be in Houston, and I will be making a speech and discussing a lot of the things you would agree to,” he added. “You have to give that Second Amendment great protection because, without it, we would be a very dangerous country,” Trump concluded.
Jon Jackson

Former Army prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Thursday said he believes Donald Trump "committed the crime of treason" if a report is true that he said former Vice President Mike Pence should be hanged. Kirschner made the comments on his YouTube show, Justice Matters. In the video, he discussed a recently released account provided to the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. According to The New York Times' reporting of the account, Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, told colleagues on January 6 that Trump said "something to the effect of: Maybe Mr. Pence should be hanged." "The evidence is mounting that Donald Trump didn't just incite the insurrection. He committed the crime of treason," Kirschner said. Kirschner, who is also an NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst, noted that the Times wrote it wasn't clear what tone Trump used with his reported comments. "What tone the president of the United States used when he was saying the vice president should be hanged? Does his tone matter?" Kirschner asked incredulously. He continued, "So, friends, based on this new reporting, let me state this as plainly and directly as I can: Donald Trump committed the crime of treason." He then cited the definition of treason from the United States Code, a compilation of general and permanent federal statutes. He read, "'Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them, is guilty of treason.'"
Asawin Suebsaeng

Donald Trump posted about the need for “real solutions and real leadership” on Wednesday in response to the school mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and he’ll likely make a similar call on Friday, when he travels to Houston to address the National Rifle Association. But when there was another mass shooting at a school during his presidency, he offered no new solutions and, according to a person present, was mentally absent at a critical moment for addressing the gun violence crisis. As Trump’s team was preparing him in late 2018 to meet with the families of murdered children from Parkland, Florida, the president, according to the individual present, was more concerned about his border wall, a desire to “stick it to the Mexicans,” and an unflattering headline on the conservative news site, Drudge Report.
Katherine Fung

Republicans hoping to take back the House this midterm cycle are trying to move past 2020, but former President Donald Trump is refusing to back down from his claims that the election was "rigged" and is warning his inner circle about breaking from him. On Thursday, Trump issued a stark warning to his allies, threatening to shun them if they admitted he was defeated by President Joe Biden in the last presidential election. Speaking about former presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, Trump said that he would have told her to "go back to her crazy husband," prominent Trump critic George Conway, had he known that Conway, who also served as Trump's 2016 campaign manager, believed he lost the election. "Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election. If she had, I wouldn't have dealt with her any longer—she would have been wrong—could go back to her crazy husband," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. His remarks came days after Conway published her new memoir, "Here's the Deal," in which she sides with Trump over her own husband, writing that the former president defended her more times than her spouse did.
New York Times reports witnesses told Capitol attack committee about ex-president’s comment, made on day of January 6 riot
Martin Pengelly

Donald Trump reportedly reacted to chants about hanging his vice-president, Mike Pence, during the US Capitol attack by saying maybe the mob was right. The New York Times reported the bombshell White House comment on Tuesday. Two witnesses, the paper said, have confirmed to the House committee investigating the events of 6 January 2021 that Mark Meadows, then Trump’s chief of staff, described Trump “saying something to the effect of, maybe Mr Pence should be hung”. The Times said it was not clear if Trump was serious. Pence was at the Capitol to preside over certification of Joe Biden’s victory, the process the mob tried to stop after being told to “fight like hell” by Trump.
By Ben Mathis-Lilley

On Jan. 6, 2021, after a pro-Trump mob overwhelmed police at the U.S. Capitol and broke into the building, Vice President Mike Pence was taken into hiding by the Secret Service. While this was happening, Donald Trump wrote a tweet attacking Pence (you may remember that Pence had upset Trump by upholding his responsibility to certify the results of the presidential election in a joint session of Congress): Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!
Colby Hall

Former President Donald Trump reportedly suggested that, after learning chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” during the January 6th attack on the Capitol, former Vice President Pence should be hung and complained about Pence’s safe exit from the Capitol building. This is according to a just-published New York Times report based on colleagues’ accounts of conversations with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, as was relayed to the House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6th. Shortly after hundreds of rioters at the Capitol started chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” on Jan. 6, 2021, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, left the dining room off the Oval Office, walked into his own office and told colleagues that President Donald J. Trump was complaining that the vice president was being whisked to safety.
Matt Reigle

In the wake of the decision to invade Ukraine, Russia and its citizens have been clobbered by international sanctions aimed at crippling the nation's economy. According to the BBC, some of the sanctions include the European Union's decision to start phasing out crude oil from Russia, barring Russia from using international banking systems, and even blocking state-owned media outlets from getting access to audiences in Europe. Not to be outdone, Russia announced its own set of sanctions in the form of permanently banning over 900 United States citizens from entering the Russian Federation. Headlining the list is current President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and even actor Morgan Freeman, as CNCB reports. However, a name that was missing from the laundry list of notable politicians, businesspeople, and other high-profile citizens was former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. This was the latest in a series of events that have led to speculation that Putin and Trump have a relatively warm relationship toward each other, an accusation that plagued Trump's entire presidency.
Ewan Palmer

Donald Trump has been widely criticized for sharing a Truth Social post that read "Civil war." The former president set up the social media site after he was banned from mainstream platforms in the wake of the January 6 attack over fears he would incite further violence. The civil war comment, written by user "MAGA King Thanos," was in response to a screenshot of a March 20 tweet by El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, which was shared by former CBS News correspondent turned right-wing conspiracy theorist Lara Logan. In the tweet, Bukele wrote: "The most powerful country in the world is falling so fast, that it makes you rethink what are the real reasons. Something so big and powerful can't be destroyed so quickly, unless the enemy comes from within." Bukele's tweet cited a Bloomberg op-ed headlined "Inflation Stings Most If You Earn Less Than $300K. Here's How to Deal." In response to Trump's repost, the anti-Trump political group MeidasTouch tweeted: "The disgraced, twice-impeached former president just shared a post from another user on his social media platform calling for Civil War. This is beyond dangerous." Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the most vocal critics of the former president in the GOP, also condemned Trump for appearing to advocate for civil war in the U.S. "Any of my fellow Republicans wanna speak out now? Or are we just wanting to get through 'just one more election first...? Kinzinger tweeted.
Jeremy Herb

While Donald Trump has maintained a laser focus this primary season on ousting those Republicans who crossed him over the 2020 election – especially in Georgia on Tuesday – the Republican effort to elevate proponents of dubious election fraud allegations in the government runs deeper than the former President. Emails obtained by CNN reveal how the push extended to a federal election advisory board and resulted in the 2021 appointment of one of Trump’s legal advisers who helped his failed efforts to pressure Georgia officials into overturning the state’s election results. The emails, obtained by CNN through a Freedom of Information Act request, show conservatives were working even before the 2020 election to gain a seat for an ally on the advisory board of the Election Assistance Commission, an independent government agency that provides voluntary election guidelines for states. The story of how Cleta Mitchell – the legal adviser who took part in Trump’s phone call where he asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes for him to win – was appointed to that board underscores how a core faction of Republicans has focused on pushing unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud even before Trump convinced much of the Republican Party to buy into his election lies that the 2020 election had been stolen.
John L. Dorman

Thomas Barrack, a billionaire private equity investor who chaired former president Donald Trump's 2017 inaugural committee, altered the official GOP platform for the 2016 Republican National Convention in an effort to minimize connections between the Saudi Royal Family and the 9/11 hijackers, according to The Daily Beast. The Department of Justice updated its indictment against Barrack — who in July 2021 was arrested and charged with illegal lobbying, obstruction of justice, and lying to the FBI — to reveal the extent of his role at the party's convention, which was held in Cleveland that year. Barrack was released shortly after his arrest last year on a $250 million bond. The revised indictment revealed that an individual listed as "Person-1" sent an email to Barrack to alter the Republican messaging at the convention. "We need to talk about language for me to put in [the national political party] platform at national convention. Can be much more expansive than what we did in speech," said the individual. "Platform language [should be] based on what you hear from your friends."
The Justice Department just dropped a bombshell allegation against billionaire developer and former Republican National Committee finance chair Steve Wynn.
By Casey Michel, author of "American Kleptocracy"

Earlier last week, the Justice Department dropped a bombshell allegation against one of the key figures in former President Donald Trump’s circle. According to the Justice Department, billionaire developer Steve Wynn — a man who has known Trump for years and who served as the finance chair of the Republican National Committee during Trump’s first year in office — also worked as a foreign agent on behalf of the Chinese government. As such, the Justice Department is seeking to have Wynn register as a foreign agent. According to a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, Wynn used his perch to liaise with other foreign agents working on behalf of China to try to convince Trump to target an unnamed Chinese dissident, including by revoking the dissident’s visa and placing him on the U.S.’s no-fly list. Wynn’s primary contact in the operation was Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty in 2020 to working as an unregistered agent on behalf of China — and who at one time served under Wynn as the RNC’s deputy finance chair. (Wynn stepped down as RNC finance chair in 2018 following sexual misconduct claims.) The lawsuit goes into granular detail, highlighting, for instance, multiple text messages between Broidy and Wynn’s wife it says were sent on her husband’s behalf. The fate of the unnamed dissident was a “matter of upmost importance” to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Broidy says in the texts. Wynn also spoke directly multiple times with then-vice minister Sun Lijun on the matter, with the now-former Chinese official asking directly for Wynn’s help. Broidy later texted that Sun was “extremely pleased and said that President Xi Jinping appreciates [Wynn’s] assistance.”
jzitser@businessinsider.com (Joshua Zitser)

Former President Donald Trump is telling his close allies that the potential overturning of Roe v Wade could cost him politically, hurting his chances of winning reelection should he run again in 2024, according to Rolling Stone. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Rolling Stone reported that Trump has been telling allies that the issue of abortion could turn "suburban women" against him. "Suburban women have been a recurring concern for [former] President Trump, including during the 2020 campaign, when his smarter advisers were sounding the alarm to him about how he was losing suburbs," a source said, per Rolling Stone. "He is … worried women in the suburbs could punish him for this one day, [too]," the source continued. Since a draft opinion to overturn Roe v Wade was leaked, Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet about it. He has not referenced it on Truth Social and has only once alluded to it once during a rally, Rolling Stone reported. Two sources told the media outlet that the silence is "intentional and calculated."
SHEfinds Editors

It looks like Donald Trump is planning to get a spot back at the White House in 2024. According to a report published by Yahoo! News, the former president delivered a "closed-door speech" on May 9, Monday to the National Republican Congressional Committee. During the event, he dropped hints about his political intentions in the coming 2024 United States presidential elections. New York Times Senior Political Reporter and CNN Analyst Maggie Haberman tweeted, "Trump said multiple times 'we' are coming back 'with vengeance' and 'with a vengeance.'"
Graham Kates

Donald Trump has paid the $110,000 fine levied after he was held in contempt by a New York judge, according to a spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James. He has not yet filed more than a dozen affidavits due today to purge the contempt finding, but a source with his legal team confirmed to CBS News that they intend to. Trump was held in contempt April 25 after failing to comply with a subpoena requiring he turn over documents to investigators conducting a sprawling civil financial fraud probe for New York Attorney General Letitia James. The subpoena sought documents related to Trump's personal finances, as well as information related to the financing of several properties. Trump was fined $10,000 per day through May 6, the date of his most recent attempt to satisfy Judge Arthur Engoron's demands. In response to the May 6 filing, Engoron halted the fine and suspended the contempt finding, but said he was still unsatisfied with Trump's explanation of how he and his attorneys managed to find zero documents that complied with the subpoena.
Aaron Parsley

Michigan's top election official, Sec. of State Jocelyn Benson, received numerous threats after she refused to overturn the election results in 2020 that showed Joe Biden won the state's 16 electoral votes. A particularly chilling one allegedly came from Donald Trump. "Even the president himself had called on me to be arrested and tried for treason, potentially executed," Benson, a Democrat who is running for reelection this year, tells NBC News in a new interview. Benson said she learned of then-President Trump's suggestion from a source familiar with conversations in a White House meeting when he made it. "It was surreal and I felt sad," she said of hearing about the meeting and what had been suggested. When asked for a comment on Benson's claims in the NBC News report, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich claimed Benson committed "a serious assault on free and fair elections." "Secretary Benson was observed destroying thousands of ballots on the night of the 2020 Election to swing the election for Joe Biden," Budowich said, adding that "NBC News did not ask Benson about this serious crime." Budowch also told NBC News, "I have it on good authority that Secretary Benson knowingly lied throughout her interview."
Rachel Olding

President Donald Trump was so deeply involved in the desperate, last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election results that he hand-wrote strategy notes, hired at least ten lawyers to work on just one court case, and spoke regularly with one of his lead lawyers both directly and through six conduits. John Eastman, the law professor tapped by Trump to craft a legal strategy to keep him in power, detailed those extensive communications in a new court filing late Thursday as he argued it should all be shielded from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection because of attorney-client privilege or attorney work product protections. Eastman has been battling the House Committee in California federal court in an effort to prevent it accessing tens of thousands of pages of emails from his email address with Chapman University, where he worked as a law professor until shortly after the Capitol riot. But U.S. District Court Judge David Carter has not been impressed with Eastman’s arguments thus far. In one blistering ruling from March in which he ordered Eastman to hand over 101 emails, Carter found that Eastman and Trump “more likely than not” committed a felony by trying to obstruct Congress and overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The court filing describes the direct role of Trump himself in developing strategy, detailing “two hand-written notes from former President Trump about information that he thought might be useful for the anticipated litigation.”
By Kyle Cheney

John Eastman, the attorney who architected Donald Trump’s last-ditch legal strategy to overturn the 2020 election, revealed Friday that he routinely communicated with Trump either directly or via “six conduits” during the chaotic weeks that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. In a late-night court filing urging a federal judge to maintain the confidentiality of his work for Trump, Eastman provided the clearest insight yet into the blizzard of communications between Trump, his top aides, his campaign lawyers and the army of outside attorneys who were working to help reverse the outcome in a handful of states won by Joe Biden. The filing also describes the direct role of Trump himself in developing strategy, detailing “two hand-written notes from former President Trump about information that he thought might be useful for the anticipated litigation.” Those notes are among the documents Eastman is seeking to shield via attorney-client privilege. Eastman said he would also speak directly with Trump by phone throughout his legal challenges to the election. Eastman described these contacts and records as part of an effort to prevent the Jan. 6 select committee from accessing 600 emails that describe his efforts to build Trump’s legal gambit to reverse the 2020 election outcome — and, when that failed, urge state legislatures to simply overturn the results themselves. He argues that the documents are protected by attorney-client and attorney work product privileges that Congress has no business probing, even as the panel investigates the circumstances that led a mob of Trump supporters to attack the Capitol.
By Bob Brigham | Raw Story

Russian leader Vladimir Putin grew frustrated with Donald Trump's inability to understand foreign policy issues, his former top National Security Council advisor on the country said. Fiona Hill explained the dynamics during a Tuesday Chicago Council on Global Affairs event. Business Insider reports, "One of the reasons Putin invaded Ukraine with President Joe Biden in the White House is because he expected the US to 'sue for peace' and thought it would be better to deal with Biden than trying to negotiate with someone like Trump, who the Russian leader had 'to explain everything to all the time," said Hill, who served as the top Russia advisor on the National Security Council under Trump." Hill currently serves as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Colin Kalmbacher

Adiscovery hearing in a long-running lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump and two of his adult children of promoting a multi-level marketing scheme resulted in a series of small victories for the plaintiffs on Wednesday–even as the Trumps’ attorneys repeatedly protested the sweeping nature of those requests. “The amended complaint uses a broad stroke,” attorney Clifford S. Robert said, arguing that the type of information the plaintiffs are trying to obtain from the Eric Trump Foundation is not line with the current and “narrow” nature of the case. First filed anonymously in 2018, the lawsuit alleged that the Trump Corporation promoted ACN Opportunity, LLC, which does business as the American Communications Network, through various events, publications, up to and including appearances on the 45th president’s former NBC game show, The Celebrity Apprentice. Moreover, the plaintiffs alleged, ACN was actually a fraudulent “get-rich-quick scheme” that violated various state consumer protection laws and ultimately “conned” several victims out of their money.
dlevinthal@insider.com (Dave Levinthal,C. Ryan Barber)

Federal regulators have deadlocked on a complaint that Donald Trump's 2020 White House campaign laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in spending through corporate entities closely tied to the ex-president and his family, according to a ruling document obtained by Insider. The ruling by the Federal Election Commission, which the agency has not yet made public, does not offer reasons for the bipartisan body's decision on an arrangement detailed in late 2020 by Insider. The six-member commission was "equally divided" on several legal questions it considered, according to a letter it sent Monday to the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which had filed a formal complaint. Had the FEC ruled against the Trump campaign, Trump's committee could have faced significant fines. The Campaign Legal Center alleged that the Trump campaign routed funds through two firms — American Made Media Consultants and Parscale Strategy — to conceal its spending in the 2020 presidential election. The Trump campaign, it further contended, had failed to keep an "arm's length relationship" with American Made Media Consultants, citing Insider's reporting in December 2020 that Jared Kushner, the then-president's son-in-law and advisor, helped create a shell company that secretly paid the president's family members and spent $617 million in reelection cash. In the complaint, the Campaign Legal Center said Trump's campaign funneled millions of dollars to American Made Media Consultants and Parscale Strategy, which then paid sub-vendors.
By Travis Gettys | Raw Story

A federal grand jury is investigating Donald Trump's handling of classified materials found in boxes at Mar-A-Lago, and a legal expert said the matter should be getting much more attention. The development shows the Department of Justice believes a crime may have been committed, and MSNBC's Frank Figliuzzi said publicly available reporting already shows the 15 boxes of top-secret materials are believed to have been kept in the White House residence before they were boxed up and sent to Trump's private residence. "Fifteen boxes of classified documents sitting in the residential wing of the White House doesn’t sound like a mistake to me," wrote Figliuzzi, a former FBI special agent. "That sounds deliberate and less like an error that could be attributed to staff. Virtually every day during my 25 years with the FBI, I handled classified information. It was my experience that staffers, whose job is to know and comply with the rules and regulations for handling such data, don’t deliberately break those rules unless someone at a high level makes them break those rules. That’s why I don’t believe this grand jury is targeting low-level staffers." Investigators will also want to know what materials were in those boxes, and why the former president may have taken them home with him.
By Tom Boggioni | Raw Story

In a scorching editorial at the conservative National Review, the editors expressed dismay and anger with Donald Trump -- and Republicans in general -- over the primary in Pennsylvania where control of a GOP seat in the U.S. Senate may flip to the Democrats due to Trump's meddling. Combining the former president's endorsement of controversial lawmaker and Jan 6th attendee Doug Mastriano for the governorship -- all but assuring he'll win in Tuesday's primary -- with the floundering campaign of Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz for the aforementioned Senate seat, the editors accused Trump of "Throwing away Pennsylvania ." According to the editors, the Republican leadership is complicit with Trump in allowing this to happen. "The conventional wisdom has been that Donald Trump might hurt Republican prospects in the midterms by endorsing and boosting flawed candidates. That’s a valid concern, but the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania is a showcase for a different dynamic — a flawed Trump-endorsed candidate potentially getting surpassed by a perhaps even more flawed non-endorsed MAGA Republican" they wrote of Oz and previously obscure challenger Kathy Barnette whose surge and candidacy has caught Republicans by surprise.
NEW YORK (AP) — A Colorado judge on Friday denied motions to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by an election systems worker against former President Donald Trump's campaign, two of its lawyers and a handful of conservative media figures and outlets. District Court Judge Marie Avery Moses, in a 136-page decision, rejected various arguments to throw out the lawsuit filed by Eric Coomer, who was security director at the Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems. Coomer said he faced death threats after he was baselessly accused of trying to rig the 2020 presidential election in favor of President Joe Biden. Moses wrote that “there is overwhelming evidence that an injunction would serve the public interest because the public is harmed by the spread of defamatory information.”
By Bob Brigham | Raw Story

The Department of Justice has revealed that it subpoenaed records of a journalist during a leak investigation following negative stories about Donald Trump's administration. "Leak investigators issued the subpoena to obtain the phone number of Stephanie Kirchgaessner, the Guardian’s investigations correspondent in Washington. The move was carried out without notifying the newspaper or its reporter, as part of an attempt to ferret out the source of media articles about a review into family separation conducted by the Department of Justice’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz," the British newspaper reported. "It is highly unusual for US government officials to obtain a journalist’s phone details in this way, especially when no national security or classified information is involved. The move was all the more surprising in that it came from the DoJ’s inspector general’s office – the watchdog responsible for ethical oversight and whistleblower protections." That wasn't the only irregularity. "The leak inquiry was conducted on behalf of the DoJ by the inspector general’s office of an outside government department, housing and urban development (Hud). Its investigation focused on allegations that an employee within the DoJ’s inspector general’s office had leaked sensitive information to three news outlets – the Guardian, the New York Times and NBC News. The Guardian was the only one of the three outlets to have a subpoena issued relating to its reporter’s phone account," it noted.
Ryan Bort

Federal prosecutors have launched a grand jury investigation into whether the trove of classified White House documents that wound up in Mar-a-Lago were tampered with, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The National Archives discovered in January that former President Donald Trump took boxes of official documents to Palm Beach upon leaving the White House. Some of those boxes were clearly labeled as classified, raising questions about whether Trump may have violated the Presidential Records Act. The discovery was made as the Archives were retrieving the material after it was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee.
lovemoney staff

The Donald's bad decisions
From lending his name to all sorts of flop products to unsuccessful companies, read on as we look at some of Donald Trump and his organization's worst past business moves over the years.
insider@insider.com (John L. Dorman,John Haltiwanger)

ormer Defense Secretary Mark Esper says in his newly released memoir that allies of President Donald Trump complained that he was "not loyal" after he did not back the president's 2020 allegations that the slain Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani had sought to attack four US Embassies. In his new book, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times," Esper — who served under Trump as the Army's secretary from 2017 to 2019 and in his role as the Pentagon chief from 2019 until his November 2020 termination by the then-president — writes his intelligence briefings did not indicate that Soleimani was specifically eyeing four embassies.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal prosecutors have opened a grand jury probe into whether former U.S. President Donald Trump mishandled classified records that ended up at his Florida residence, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing two people briefed on the issue. Prosecutors have issued a subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to obtain the documents, the report said. Authorities have also made interview requests to people who worked in the White House in Trump's final days in office, it said. A grand jury probe suggests the Justice Department has advanced in its inquiry, which began after NARA said it had recovered 15 boxes of documents, including classified records, that Trump took to his Mar-a-Lago estate when he left the White House in January 2021.
Yahoo News

Sen. Lindsey Graham was recorded criticizing President Trump on tape, days after the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Audio of Graham’s remarks was broadcast on CNN’s ‘Anderson Cooper 360’ on Tuesday night during an interview with NYT authors Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin, the latter of whom captured the conversation. Graham’s remarks, in which he criticizes Trump for his rhetoric at the D.C. ‘Stop the Steal’ rally immediately prior to the Capitol riot, are similar in nature to leaked recordings of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that were taken around the same time. In both cases, these prominent Republicans felt comfortable strongly criticizing Trump for his role in January 6’s events in private—only to maintain support for the former president publicly.
Josephine Harvey

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) poked a sore spot of Donald Trump’s on Wednesday after the former president attacked him and two sitting GOP governors as “RINOs” for supporting Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R). “Insightful commentary about three Republican Governors who were overwhelmingly re-elected by their people from a former president who lost to Joe Biden,” Christie tweeted. “Maybe the “R” in RINO really stands for re-elected.”  
Yahoo News

For the first time in history, the House Natural Resources Committee made a criminal referral with the Justice Department. That’s after a three-year investigation by Democrats revealing evidence of possible donations to the Trump campaign in exchange for federal government approval of Arizona real estate deals. Calling this “egregious,” Rep. Katie Porter tells MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, this shows the importance of Congress “reestablishing the rule of law and the expectation that administration officials are going to follow it.”
What is Trump hiding?

Greg Heilman

Since leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump has seen the number of court cases against him multiply. Some of his legal headaches stem from his scandal-plagued single four-year term in office, that ended with him trying to illegally over turn the election and inciting a mob to storm Capitol Hill. Others come from his time before his stent in the White House associated with shady business dealings where his company ran roughshod with the valuations of its assets to lower tax liability or get better deals with banks and insurance companies. His foot-dragging with turning over evidence in one led the judge overseeing the case to impose a $10,000-a-day fine until the requested material was handed over.
Kevin Breuninger

Former President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate is projected to lose Nebraska’s GOP gubernatorial primary, signaling that Trump’s influence in the party has its limits — even in Republican stronghold states. University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen, who was endorsed by current Gov. Pete Ricketts, prevailed in the tight primary race, NBC News projected Tuesday. Pillen is poised to advance to the general election on Nov. 8, where he is expected to defeat his Democratic rival, Carol Blood, in the reliably red state. Nebraska has had a Republican in the governor’s mansion since 1999. Ricketts is term-limited from running again. Pillen was one of three front-runners in the competitive primary fight, along with Charles Herbster, the Trump-backed business executive whose campaign was rocked after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct.
The Jan. 6 committee may release videotapes of witness testimony during public hearings slated to start in June, according to reporting by Politico. At least eight public hearings are set to take place. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani is in the hot seat for refusing to testify before the panel.
By Bob Brigham | Raw Story

Donald Trump was not joking when he asked aides whether China had a "hurricane gun" it was using America, according to a new report by Rolling Stone magazine. "Near the beginning of Donald Trump’s time in office, the then-president had a pressing question for his national-security aides and administration officials: Does China have the secret technology — a weapon, even — to create large, man-made hurricanes and then launch them at the United States? And if so, would this constitute an act of war by a foreign power, and could the U.S. retaliate militarily? Then-President Trump repeatedly asked about this, according to two former senior administration officials and a third person briefed on the matter," the magazine reported. One former Trump official, described as "intimately familiar with the then-sitting president’s inquiry," has harsh words for their former boss. “It was almost too stupid for words,” they said. “I did not get the sense he was joking at all.”
By Tom Boggioni | Raw Story

In contrast to the aftermath of most presidencies, where high-profile political appointees hit the cable circuit and publish books touting their successes during their government service, former notable Donald Trump advisors are instead spilling the beans about what really went on behind the scenes in the Oval Office. The latest to jump on the bandwagon is former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who has a new book coming out titled, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times," that documents outrageous and "shocking" requests and demands made by Trump during Esper's one year as a department head. As Benen explains, no one who has watched administrations come and go has ever seen so many administration officials dish dirt on the person who elevated them to a cabinet position.
By Sarah K. Burris | Raw Story

Former President Donald Trump has made it clear that after his time in the White House, he hates Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). But in the final months of the Trump term, it was McConnell who still had enough sway to stop the White House from a damaging purge of Defense Department officials they'd deemed disloyal. Paranoia or power had run amok, particularly in 2020, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in his new book, A Sacred Oath. After Trump lost the election "Getting rid of good, honest, competent people seemed to be the modus operandi for the Trump administration, especially in 2020. In the final year, a disagreement with some staffer at the White House, or with someone who had connections to the hard-core loyalists working there, and you were quickly branded as a disloyal 'never Trumper'—the ultimate scarlet letter," Esper wrote. Trump's power to hire and fire anyone he wanted seemed to be the top rationale. Esper said that the decisions were made in a vacuum by sub-par people. "Those decisions were made by personalities who really didn’t have the background, understanding or judgment to make good choices," Esper wrote. "It was both ironic and a shame, but their blind loyalty to Trump resulted in the removal of individuals who were actually making Trump successful by ensuring the government functioned well and implemented the positive parts of his agenda."
Dan Mangan

A judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by former President Donald Trump seeking to lift his ban from Twitter. But San Francisco federal district court Judge James Donato left the door open for Trump and other plaintiffs to file an amended complaint against Twitter that is consistent with his written decision Friday to toss the lawsuit in its entirety. The social media giant had banned Trump on Jan. 8, 2021, citing the risk of the incitement of further violence on the heels of the Capitol riot by a mob of supporters of the then-president two days earlier. Trump, the American Conservative Union, and five individuals had sued Twitter and its co-founder Jack Dorsey last year on behalf of themselves and a class of other Twitter users who had been booted from the app.
litaliano@insider.com (Laura Italiano)

It was 3o years ago, and the ink was barely dry on his law degree, when Eugene M. Barta argued his first-ever appellate case under the coffered wood ceilings of a Manhattan courtroom. But Barta could never have imagined that his win in a minor personal injury case would set an important precedent — and today ensnare a former president. Donald Trump is being fined $10,000 a day for failing to turn over business documents demanded by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The fine reached $110,000 on Friday, and will keep accruing until Trump signs what's called a "Jackson affidavit," a sworn, detailed description of the search for his documents. That's Jackson, as in Barta's old personal injury case, Jackson vs. the City of New York.
By Eric W. Dolan | Raw Story

The Waukee School district in Iowa says that it is investigating a racist presentation that a student delivered during a class at Timberline School, according to news outlet KCCI. "Today we had an incident in one of our classes during a presentation that was very concerning,” said Timberline Principal Adam Shockey in a statement. “There were images and language that were inappropriate for school. To be clear, Timberline and Waukee Community School District will not tolerate hate speech or threatening messages in our buildings or classrooms." The presentation was titled: “Illegal immigrants: Get lost!!” It included a number of memes featuring former President Donald Trump and appears to have concluded with a slide stating "In the end mexicans are bad [sic]." Pictures of the presentation have been shared by outraged parents on Facebook.
Katherine Fung

Former President Donald Trump has long attacked his GOP opponents by calling them RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only, but now Republicans are using the same tactic to target Trump's Senate pick in Pennsylvania. A group of local Republican leaders in Pennsylvania has signed a letter urging voters not to cast their ballot for Dr. Mehmet Oz, who Trump endorsed in the primaries last month. Trump has frequently used the term to describe his critics within the Republican Party, including those who refused to challenge the results of the 2020 election and Congress members who voted to impeach him in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot. The term "RINO" has historically been used by conservative Republicans who believe a member of their party is not loyal enough to the party's ideology. It emerged shortly after Democrat Bill Clinton won the presidency after 12 years of Republican rule. But since beginning his political career, Trump has almost exclusively used the term to hit those disloyal to him.
Roger Sollenberger

Former President Donald Trump and his top election-fraud lawyer, Jesse Binnall, have a number of things in common—they both falsely believe the election was stolen, they hobnob with some of the right’s most unhinged conspiracy theorists, and they routinely complain that they’re the focus of a witch hunt. But another similarity has flown under the radar: Both men avoid paying taxes. According to IRS records, Binnall owes the U.S. government for unpaid taxes dating back to 2010. The IRS filed a $139,242 lien against Binnall almost four years ago—in August 2018— and it covers unpaid amounts every tax year from 2010 to 2015. Records on file with the City of Alexandria, VA, show that, as of May 5, Binnall has not paid off the lien. Leslie Levin, an expert in the legal profession at the University of Connecticut School of Law, told The Daily Beast that if Binnall willfully failed to file, he would be breaking the law and possibly violating legal ethics rules. “It depends on why the lien was levied and why he hasn’t paid. If he refused to file, that raises ethical issues. The deliberate failure to file constitutes a crime,” Levin said. “If he has a good faith basis for contesting whether he owes the money, however, there is no ethical violation there.” Binnall told The Daily Beast that his failure to pay the government was a matter of financial flexibility.
In his new book, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper says then-President Donald Trump proposed launching missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs in 2020. CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman has more.
Ed Mazza

Newly released audio shows House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) once again attacking former President Donald Trump behind his back in the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. “What the president did is atrocious and totally wrong,” McCarthy said in the audio released by New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin, authors of the new book, This Will Not Pass. McCarthy has since defended and praised Trump and ostracized those within his party who are critical of the former president. But the audio shows McCarthy was in a much different frame of mind after the assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters. He said in the Jan. 8, 2021 recording that removing Trump via the 25th Amendment would take too long, and that impeachment could further divide the nation. McCarthy also indicated he wanted to reach out to Joe Biden, who at the time was president-elect, to show there would be a smooth transition. CNN broadcast the audio from a GOP leadership call as well as a discussion with the authors:
Zeleb.es

Although Donald Trump is no longer president, many of his actions during his administration still carry consequences today. If Trump wants to throw his hat into the ring in 2024, here are some obstacles he might need to deal with first.
By Bob Brigham | Raw Story

The panel on MSNBC's Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace broke down the political and legal implications of a bombshell new audio recording showing how House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy worried that the 25th Amendment would take "too long" to remove Donald Trump from office following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The audio was released by Jonathan Marin and Alex Burns, The New York Times reporters who authored the new book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future. "What the President did is atrocious and totally wrong," McCarthy says in the audio recording. Wallaceplayed the full clip, before then discussing it with the panel. Wallace noted that the audiotapes reveal McCarthy knew Trump was responsible for efforts to overturn the election and needed to be held accountable, but switched his tune after a visit to Mar-a-Lago in the weeks following the attacks.
Jose Pagliery

As the dust settles from the legal fight between the District of Columbia’s attorney general and the Trump family, it’s becoming clear to government watchdogs and the case’s star witness that the former president has once again gotten off easy. On Tuesday, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine declared victory after the multibillion-dollar Trump Organization and the former president’s inauguration committee agreed to fork over $750,000 for their shady dealings in the run-up to Donald Trump’s 2017 celebrations in the nation’s capital. The deal ends his years-long investigation into the way Trump’s family and company misused nonprofit funds to honor the incoming president to instead enrich themselves. But that’s less than the $1 million the AG had accused the Trump family of misspending in nonprofit funds by booking events at the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C.’s vastly overpriced rooms. More importantly, the Trump Organization and the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee were allowed to maintain they did absolutely nothing wrong.
Former president Donald Trump proved he still remains a force in the GOP given how his endorsed candidate - J.D. Vance - overtook other Republican rivals to win the Ohio Senate race Tuesday.
David Jackson, Rick Rouan | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump proved again Tuesday he remains the strongest political force within the Republican Party as he fueled a primary victory by new U.S. Senate nominee J.D. Vance. The specific strength of his personal endorsement, however, remains open to question. Vance won a crowded primary with a little more than 32% of the vote as of late Tuesday, but four other candidates also received good chunks of Trump voters – including Matt Dolan, the businessman who shunned the former president's endorsement and had urged the party to move past his false claims of election fraud in 2020.
Rick Rouan, USA TODAY - 32m ago

Ex-Defense Secretary Mark Esper's memoir, once the subject of a lawsuit against the Pentagon, will hit bookshelves next week with new revelations about his time in former President Donald Trump's administration. Esper claims in the book that Trump asked him if they could shoot protesters who had gathered around the White House after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, Axios first reported on Monday. "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something," Trump said, according to the Axios report on Esper's book. The book is to be released May 10. Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. The memoir, "A Sacred Oath," is the latest in a flurry of books about the Trump administration. Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway's memoir, "Here's the Deal," will be out May 24. Axios reported Monday that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will release his book Aug. 8.
Zeleb.es

The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said that the only thing to fear was fear itself. However, if you’re the 45th President of the United States, better known as Donald Trump, then you’re also afraid of an imminent attack of tomatoes!
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert

Despite promoting Donald Trump's platform issues on his prime time television show, Fox News host Tucker Carlson privately mocked the former president, according to reporting by The New York Times. Carlson, who has topped ratings charts with his inflammatory rhetoric surrounding immigration, white supremacy and replacement theory, has some connection to Trump, though the nature of their relationship is unknown. Carlson has, on occasion, criticized Trump and his policies, despite generally promoting his presidency on prime time.
Robbie Griffiths

President Joe Biden addressed the White House Correspondents' Association on Saturday night, the first time a president has spoken at the event in six years. The event was cancelled during the pandemic, and former president Donald Trump shunned the event while he was in office. The president joked about criticism he has faced in his first 15 months in power, and the press, the opposition, and Trump. "Just imagine if my predecessor came to this dinner this year" the president said. "Now that would really have been a real coup." Biden joked to the media: "I'm really excited to be here tonight with the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have". He also made light of the "Let's Go Brandon" slogan, which is used by opposition to swear at the president. "Republicans seem to support one fella, some guy named Brandon," Biden said. "He's having a really good year. I'm happy for him."
by Dennis Aftergut

On Thursday, President Biden went all in supporting Ukraine, asking Congress for $33 billion in military and economic aid to the embattled country, ten times more than previously sent. If you’ve wondered what would have happened to Ukraine had Donald Trump won reelection, wonder no more. Here’s a tipoff that slipped under most people’s radar — but you can bet Vladimir Putin picked it up. On April 22, in a talk to the conservative Heritage Foundation at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Fla., Mr. Trump bragged that during a NATO conference while he was in office, he threatened that he would not honor the NATO treaty’s Article V, the pledge that all signatories would defend any member attacked by Russia. Think about the timing of dropping that memory bomb. Was it an accident that Trump made the comments in a speech while Putin carries out his barbarous invasion of Ukraine? At such a moment, would any politician more concerned about Russia’s purposeful murder of civilians than his own future have boasted of a threat not to defend NATO countries? I think Trump was sending a message to Putin — the 2022 version of his 2016 campaign invitation to hack Hillary Clinton’s email accounts: “Russia, if you are listening …”
Ben Protess, Jonah E. Bromwich, William K. Rashbaum and Lananh Nguyen

When some two dozen New Yorkers filed into a Manhattan courthouse this week to finish out their grand jury service, the case against a man who would have been the world’s most prominent criminal defendant was no longer before them. That man, Donald J. Trump, was facing potential criminal charges from the grand jury this year over his business practices. But in the weeks since the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, stopped presenting evidence to the jurors about Mr. Trump, new signs have emerged that the former president will not be indicted in Manhattan in the foreseeable future — if at all. At least three of the witnesses once central to the case have either not heard from the district attorney’s office in months, or have not been asked to testify, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In recent weeks, a prosecutor at the Manhattan district attorney’s office who played a key role in the investigation has stopped focusing on a potential case against Mr. Trump, other people with knowledge of the inquiry said — a move that followed the resignation of two senior prosecutors earlier this year.
Haley Van Horn

It's been a rough year for former President Donald Trump. He's currently the subject of a civil probe conducted by New York Attorney General Letitia James over his business practices, which is a legal battle he recently got some bad news about. According to The Washington Post, Trump was held in contempt of court after he was ordered to turn over important legal documents by March 31. When those documents were withheld, the court decided to issue a fine of $10,000 for every day the former president failed to comply. Trump will be in court for a while, as there were 19 legal actions being taken against him as of early February (via the Guardian). These cases range from financial and election fraud to his role in the January 6 U.S. Capitol riots.
By News and Guts

Why is the GOP obsessed with a loser? Donald Trump’s undeniable grip on the Republican Party is particularly confounding given his electoral track record. This is a man, after all, who lost the popular vote in consecutive presidential elections and his insistence that the 2020 vote was rigged tanked the GOP’s chance of retaining the Senate. Writing in The Atlantic, Mark Leibovich argues that Never Trump Republicans ought to take off their kid gloves if they want to dismantle his kingmaker status: Trump’s bizarre and enduring hold over his party has made it verboten for many Republicans to even utter publicly the unpleasant fact of his defeat—something they will readily acknowledge in private. I caught up recently with several Trump-opposing Republican strategists and former associates of the president who argued this restraint should end. The best way for a Republican to depose Trump in 2024, they said, will be to call Trump a loser, as early and as brutally as possible—and keep pointing out the absurdity of treating a one-term, twice-impeached, 75-year-old former president like a kingmaker and heir apparent. In other words, don’t worry about hurting Special Boy’s feelings.
The Atlantic's Mark Leibovich writes about Trump-opposing GOP strategists and why they say the best way for a Republican to depose Trump in 2024 is to begin referring to Trump as a 'loser'. Leibovich joins Morning Joe to discuss.
Dareh Gregorian

Former President Donald Trump denied under oath knowing anything about a 2015 scuffle his security guards had with protesters outside Trump Tower, but his former lawyer Michael Cohen said Trump ordered the confrontation, according to newly filed court papers. In an October 2021 deposition, parts of which were made public for the first time in a court filing Tuesday night, Trump said he "didn't know about" the altercation between his bodyguard Keith Schiller and a group of protesters until the day after it happened. Trump defended Schiller's actions, according to the transcript. "He did nothing wrong. He went out — I didn't know about it. But he went out, he heard there was a disturbance, and he went out. And he took a 50 cent sign down that was racist. He sees people dressed as Ku Klux Klansmen or whatever. People were probably complaining," Trump said. After grabbing the protester’s sign, "he was attacked from behind, and they tried to get his gun," Trump said. "I don’t even know if he was carrying a gun. But if he was, they were obviously trying to get it."
Jose Pagliery

ANew York judge has determined that Cushman & Wakefield, one of the world’s largest real estate firms, broke its own rules to appease the Trump Organization and the former American president’s chronic practice of inflating the value of his properties. Judge Arthur F. Engoron’s surprising assertions were included in his court order on Wednesday, in which he formally directed Cushman & Wakefield to turn over documents to the New York attorney general’s office. New York attorney general Letitia James is investigating the Trump Organization over what prosecutors have determined to be a long-running pattern of hyping the value of golf resorts and buildings in California and New York, as part of a scheme to commit bank and insurance fraud. In his order, the judge indicated he has personally reviewed sensitive documents in the privacy of his court chambers that indicate Cushman & Wakefield employees played along—a damning revelation that could open the global corporation to accusations of conspiring along with the Trump Organization.
By Gabby Orr, CNN

(CNN) Not since Anthony Scaramucci was fired a mere 10 days into his White House gig has someone fallen out of Donald Trump's favor as quickly as David McIntosh. At an April 9 rally in North Carolina, the former President appeared delighted with the Club for Growth chief. "He's a winner. He's a fighter. We are undefeated when we work together," Trump said as he welcomed the conservative power broker onstage. "You are a great man. ... I am so proud to partner with you," McIntosh replied. But the duo's partnership came to a screeching halt last week after the Club for Growth refused to end its negative ad campaign against Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance at the former President's behest and doubled down with new ads against the Trump-backed "Hillbilly Elegy" author. The group has backed former state treasurer Josh Mandel in the heated Republican primary for the seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman.
By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump has appealed a contempt ruling and a $10,000-per-day fine over his failure to comply with a subpoena by New York state's attorney general about his business practices, his lawyer said in a Wednesday court filing.
Ewan Palmer

Awhistleblower who worked with federal authorities investigating ties between Deutsche Bank and Donald Trump has been found dead in California. The body of Valentin Broeksmit, 45, was found on the Woodrow Wilson High School campus off on the 4500 block of Multnomah Street on Monday, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office. He was pronounced dead at 7 a.m., reported CBS. Broeksmit was reported missing last year, with the Los Angeles Police Department saying he was last seen on April 6, 2021 around 4 p.m., at Griffith Park on Riverside Drive driving a 2020 red Mini Cooper. Despite being reported missing, Broeksmit's Twitter's account remained active, with his last tweet uploading a photo of himself being sent on April 5. Journalist Scott Stedman, who works for the Forensic News website, also confirmed Broeksmit's death in a tweet. "He supplied me and other journalists with Deutsche Bank documents that highlighted the bank's deep Russia connections," Stedman wrote. "It is very sad. I don't suspect foul play. Val struggled with drugs on and off.
By Kara Scannell, CNN

Lawyers for the New York State Attorney General's Office said they are nearly finished with their civil investigation into the Trump Organization, after taking steps to unravel the real estate company's assets that they described as being as complex as a "Russian nesting doll." They still want to search two cell phones belonging to former President Donald Trump and the laptop and desktop of his longtime executive assistant Rhona Graff, but investigators told a judge this week they're moving quickly. "The process is near the end," Kevin Wallace, senior enforcement counsel at the New York State Attorney General's Office, said Monday. A third-party firm hired to search the Trump Organization's files had identified 151 custodians, or people or entities, that might have documents sought by the attorney general's office, but Wallace said they are focusing on the "most important outstanding pieces of information" because the clock is ticking for it to file a lawsuit. The statute of limitations for various laws under consideration goes back several years, but the tolling agreement with the Trump Organization that paused the clock expires on Saturday. Even as the agreement expires, it could still be several weeks before the attorney general's office decides its next step in the investigation.
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Donald Trump has long had a simple philosophy when it comes to legal matters: Sue, sue, sue. A USA Today review in 2016 showed that Trump had been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits over the prior 30 years, a stunning testament to his litigiousness. In the White House, Trump just kept suing (or threatening to sue). As I noted in October: "Trump sued John Bolton to stop the the publication of a book about the former national security adviser's time in the White House. (He lost.) He threatened to sue CNN because a poll showed him trailing Joe Biden by 14 points. He threatened to sue The New York Times after the newspaper published an article detailing allegations by two women that Trump had inappropriately touched them. He threatened to sue if members of his campaign were not allowed into satellite election offices in Philadelphia. He threatened to sue special counsel Robert Mueller."
Christiaan Hetzner

The reinstatement of Donald Trump’s Twitter privileges has been the proverbial elephant in the room ever since Elon Musk launched his hostile $44-billion bid to acquire the company. The former President became the highest profile casualty of its content moderation policies, after he was banned for "inciting violence" following the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. And while Musk has not explicitly said he would like Trump to return, the centibillionaire has made clear his opposition to heavy-handed suspensions that could be perceived as corporate censorship by Big Tech. Right-wing pundits and influencers have relished the idea of Trump's return to the platform, with one, Andy Ngô, noting (in a tweet) that Twitter employees had used internal chats to indicate that "their biggest fear is Donald Trump being unbanned." But in a blow to their hopes, Trump has now ruled out a return to his favorite microblogging platform in order to focus all efforts on building up his own platform he calls TRUTH Social. “I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” he told Fox News on Monday. Rather than potentially tweeting again if given the opportunity, he pledged to begin “TRUTHing” over the next week.
By Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb and Elizabeth Stuart, CNN

Washington (CNN) CNN has obtained 2,319 text messages that former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent and received between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden's January 20, 2021 inauguration. The vast trove of texts offers the most revealing picture to date of how Trump's inner circle, supporters and Republican lawmakers worked behind the scenes to try to overturn the election results and then reacted to the violence that effort unleashed at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The logs, which Meadows selectively provided to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, show how the former chief of staff was at the nexus of sprawling conspiracy theories baselessly claiming the election had been stolen. They also demonstrate how he played a key role in the attempts to stop Biden's certification on January 6.
Donald Trump has bragged that the Queen 'had never had such a good time' than when he was sitting next to him at a state banquet - but experts today suggested he was 'living in a fantasy world'.
By Sonia Moghe and Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) A New York judge is holding Donald Trump in civil contempt after the state's attorney general's office said he did not comply with a subpoena for documents as part of its investigation into the former President's company. Judge Arthur Engoron said Trump failed to abide by his order to comply with the subpoena, and that his attorneys failed to show how a search of materials held by Trump was conducted. Engoron said Trump would be fined $10,000 a day until he complies. "Mr. Trump, I know you take your business seriously and I take mine seriously. I hereby hold you in civil contempt and fine you $10,000 per day until you purge that contempt," Engoron said at a hearing Monday. New York Attorney General Letitia James' office has been investigating the Trump Organization for more than two years and previously said her office found multiple misleading or fraudulent misstatements and omissions in the Trump Organization's financial statements, which were provided to lenders and insurers, among others, as part of its investigation.
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