Trump fraud trial updates: Former accountant breaks down in tears on stand at NY court

Last night, after posting a slew of 19 (!) campaign-style videos on his Truth Social platform account in which he stiffly barks at the camera about his current list of grievances, conspiracies, and twisted facts, Donald Trump posted another attack on Justice Arthur Engoron and the chief clerk in his New York civil fraud trial.

The former president wrote: “Regardless of what we say to show our TOTAL INNOCENCE, and it has been proven in many ways, and many times over, this political, Trump Hating Judge, together with his horrendous, seething with ANGER Law Clerk, with her illegal campaign contributions, will find me guilty as hell.”

Mr Trump has already been found liable for fraud and there is no “guilty” because it’s not a criminal case. While the former president was not restricted from attacking the judge, the gag order was specific in its intention to protect court staff. This is now the third time since it was lifted that he has attacked the court clerk.

Here’s the full post in its bizarrely-capitalised glory:

A Rigged Trial going on against me by a corrupt N.Y. State Attorney General and an out of control Judge. They brought Values down to a FRACTION of what they are really worth, like Mar-a-Lago, and then called me a Fraud. They are the FRAUDSTERS, and the whole system is CORRUPT. I didn’t even include one of my most valuable assets, BRAND VALUE, in my Financial Statements. Also, this Psycho Judge refuses to acknowledge the fact that I have a 100% Disclaimer Clause on the First Page of my Statements – “DO YOUR OWN DUE DILIGENCE.” But it all doesn’t matter, because regardless of what we say to show our TOTAL INNOCENCE, and it has been proven in many ways, and many times over, this political, Trump Hating Judge, together with his horrendous, seething with ANGER Law Clerk, with her illegal campaign contributions, will find me guilty as hell. NO JURY ALLOWED, A STATUTE NEVER USED FOR THIS BEFORE, A RIGGED TRIAL, A RACIST & CORRUPT ATTORNEY GENERAL, A TRUMP HATING JUDGE, ELECTION INTERFERENCE!

Alex Woodward reports on the background of the New York gag order:

Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen has asked a Manhattan judge to quash an “wildly overbroad” subpoena issued as part of the former president’s criminal hush money trial, The Messenger reports.

Mr Cohen’s request is also backed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has also asked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to reject the subpoena on similar grounds.

“The subpoena issued to Mr Cohen is an obvious and blatant act of witness intimidation, and merely the latest incident in a years-long pattern of harassment and retaliation by defendant Trump,” the 33-page motion from Mr Cohen’s lawyers states.

Both Mr Cohen and the DA’s office note that the former president sued Mr Cohen for $500m before backing down and withdrawing the lawsuit.

The DA says the Trump camp’s aim is to gather evidence for if he ever were to refile the suit.

“Ever since Mr Cohen accepted criminal responsibility for his actions including actions taken on behalf of, at the direction of, and in coordination with Defendant Trump — and began providing information to authorities in numerous investigations of Defendant Trump and his various business entities, Defendant Trump has repeatedly abused the judicial system in an effort to silence Mr Cohen,” attorney Danya Perry wrote on behalf of her client, Mr Cohen.

Here’s the latest on the hush-money case regarding the creation of falsified business records for reimbursing Mr Cohen for payments to silence porn star Stormy Daniels concerning her alleged affair with Mr Trump.

Here’s our reporting on the former president dropping the suit against Mr Cohen.

There are a significant number of former Trump administration officials, staffers, and aides who have become vocal critics of former president Donald Trump, his 2024 campaign, and the prospect of him returning to the White House.

They are running against him (Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence), are testifying against him (Cassidy Hutchinson, Bill Barr), or are more than willing to eviscerate him on cable news (John Bolton, Chris Christie, Bill Bar, Cassidy Hutchinson, Olivia Troya, Stephanie Grisham, etc…).

The Washington Post asked in an article earlier this week whether their declarations that he shouldn’t be president would make a difference, and tapped former White House counsel Ty Cobb, who defended Mr Trump during the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Once a loyal soldier for the former president, he gave this withering quote in the Post article saying it was imperative that people vote against him:

“He has never cared about America, its citizens, its future or anything but himself. In fact, as history well shows from his divisive lies, as well as from his unrestrained contempt for the rule of law and his related crimes, his conduct and mere existence have hastened the demise of democracy and of the nation,” Cobb wrote in an email. “Our adversaries and our allies both recognize that even his potential reelection diminishes America on the world stage and ensures continued acceleration of the domestic decline we are currently enduring. If that reelection actually happens, the consequences will extinguish what, if anything, remains of the American Dream.”

Here’s Cassidy Hutchinson speaking on MSNBC earlier this week:

On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that he would release more than 44,000 hours of raw footage of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

The timing of the release was peculiar since he announced it on a Friday, when the House had already left after a protracted 10-week session and late in the afternoon, when most reporters were getting ready to pack it up. Furthermore, Mr Johnson made the announcement the week before the Thanksgiving holiday, when few people would be paying attention to the news in general.

But Mr Johnson’s actions, as well as the timing of the announcement, can be better understood in light of the response from some of the loudest voices on the Maga right amplifying the footage over the weekend. Their words and desire to rehash the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, instigated by the de facto head of the Republican PartyDonald Trump, might be a political loser, but it is about exacting revenge against Democrats and those they perceive as slighting them.

A federal court ruling is teeing up another major Supreme Court case that could radically weaken the Voting Rights Act by blocking private citizens and civil rights groups from filing lawsuits to protect what has become America’s bedrock voting protections.

On Monday, a three-judge panel with the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that determined that citizens and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP cannot legally challenge discriminatory state and local election laws.

According to two of the judges on the panel, only the US Department of Justice can do so.

Harrison Floyd, the leader of Black Voices for Trump, has “engaged in a pattern of intimidation” against his co-defendants and witnesses since he was released on bond in August, according to the office of Fulton County District Attorney.

But following a three-hour hearing on Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee declined to send Mr Floyd back to jail and directed the parties to draft an order that reels in his public statements.

Alex Woodward has been following the case for The Independent.

When Donald Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, he became the oldest commander-in-chief sworn in at the age of 70 years and 220 days old.

That was surpassed by his successor Joe Biden, who was 78 years and 61 days when he became the country’s 46th president in January 2021.

Before Mr Trump, Ronald Reagan was the oldest person to assume the presidency at 69 years and 349 years old at his first inauguration in 1981.

Reagan was the oldest president when he left office at the age of 77 in 1989, just 22 days away from turning 78.

But depending on who wins the 2024 presidential election, a new record could be set as both Mr Biden and Mr Trump are running for reelection.

On Monday, an X user attempted to link the founder of Media Matters – the left-leaning non-profit group that last week accused X of promoting adverts from global companies alongside pro-Hitler content – to the owner of the so-called “Pizzagate restaurant”.

Mr Musk then boosted the post by replying to it, with the one-word phrase: “Weird.”

Now, the three-year-old conspiracy theory and baseless claims of its ties to Media Matters have been promoted to the tech mogul’s 160 million followers.

Martha McHardy has the story.

Univision’s former president has joined the growing criticism of the Hispanic network over an interview with Donald Trump that was panned by journalists for softball questions.

Reporters at the network, which has US offices and merged with a Mexican media giant in 2022, have found themselves at the middle of a discussion over their network’s ability to cover the 2024 presidential race fairly and accurately after Mr Trump sat down with Enrique Acevedo for an interview that aired just over a week ago. Mr Trump did not face any difficult questions about his criminal prosecutions or policy positions in the interview, and was also able to spout unfounded claims about his immigration policies without accurate pushback from Acevedo.

The controversy has grown over the past several days as prominent Latino Americans such as comedian John Leguizamo have called for boycotts of the network in response.