Donald Trump at a Fox News townhall on 5 December 2024
Donald Trump was back in court on Thursday at the Trump Organization’s New York fraud trial, in his ninth appearance at the courthouse. As the trial nears its conclusion, Mr Trump will testify again on Monday — still under a gag order after a judge denied an attempt to fast-track an appeal.
Before lunch, there was a testy exchange between defence expert witness Eli Bartov and a lawyer for the attorney general’s office in which accusations of paid testimony and fabricated fraud allegations were hurled. In a lighter moment, the former president stopped to speak with the courtroom sketch artists and, inspecting their work, noted he should lose some weight.
Meanwhile, in the federal election case against Mr Trump, his lawyers have filed an appeal against Judge Tanya Chutkan’s denial of a motion to dismiss under presidential immunity. They have also asked for a stay in proceedings that could potentially delay the trial from its March start date.
Elsewhere, as 10 pro-Trump fake electors in Wisconsin settled a civil case against them for their part in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, a grand jury in Nevada indicted six Republicans for a similar scheme.
Jan 6 rioter tries more traditional route to getting into Congress
Grillo was also found guilty of several misdemeanours such as entering restricted grounds and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, a DoJ press release stated. He was detained on 23 February 2021.
Oliver O’Connell8 December 2023 06:30
As he’s jailed for 11 years, ex-police chief charged over Jan 6 riot spouts conspiracies
Former California police chief Alan Hostetter went on a conspiratorial rant moments before a federal judge sentenced him to more than 11 years in prison for conspiring to bring weapons to the US Capitol during the January 6 riot.
The 58-year-old, who represented himself at trial, told the court on Thursday that the January 6 insurrection was an “obvious set up” that was faked by “crisis actors,” and claimed that Ashli Babbitt, a rioter killed by a police officer at the Capitol, was actually still alive.
Oliver O’Connell8 December 2023 04:30
Who won the fourth Republican debate?
A few weeks after the Iron Bowl, Republican presidential candidates descended on Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to tussle for the second-place spot in the race for the White House.
Ms Haley aggressively pushed back on broadsides while also continuing her feud with Mr Ramaswamy, whom she called “scum” in their last face-off. She emerged from the debate mostly unscathed, and her campaign has racked up key endorsements and donations recently. Still, Mr Trump’s position as the clear frontrunner remains unchanged, and the debate amounts to a campaign for runner-up.
With the Iowa caucuses a month away, the clock is running out for any of these candidates to prove they can at least put up a formidable fight against Mr Trump, let alone challenge President Joe Biden.
Oliver O’Connell8 December 2023 03:30
DeSantis says his favourite president is… Calvin Coolidge?
Mr Coolidge got his nickname “Silent Cal” for his reserved and quiet manner in social situations, with at least two people allegedly reacting to his death with questions like “How can they tell?” and “How do they know?”
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
Oliver O’Connell8 December 2023 02:30
Will Trump go to prison?
Love him or loathe him, America wants to know!
Oliver O’Connell8 December 2023 01:30
Jamaal Bowman censured for setting off US Capitol fire alarm
The House has voted to censure New York Rep Jamaal Bowman for setting off a fire alarm in a US Capitol office building without there being an emergency.
The vote fell almost exclusively on party lines, with 214 members voting to censure Mr Bowman and 191 members voting against it. Three Democrats voted to censure Mr Bowman, including Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez of Washington.
Mr Bowman defended himself in a speech on the House floor on Wednesday evening, saying that the resolution showed how unserious House Republicans are.
Oliver O’Connell8 December 2023 00:30
C is for Covfefe: The ABCs of Donald Trump
Donald Trump is well-known for a lot of things: his divisiveness, his career in real estate, The Apprentice, his lawsuits, for being the only president to be impeached twice. But perhaps nothing has infiltrated society more than Mr Trump’s unique linguistic style.
Whether he’s posting on Truth Social, speaking at a campaign rally, or testifying in court, Mr Trump never seems to be at a loss for words — and sometimes, he even makes up new ones.
From uttering gaffes to tweeting typos (like “covfefe”) to misreading words (like “Nambia”) to dismissing his opponent with a harsh nickname, his terminology quickly turns iconic.
Here, The Independent offers a dictionary guide to the Mr Trump’s most memorable phrases:
Kelly Rissman7 December 2023 23:30
Trump town hall trumped in ratings by Newsom-DeSantis and GOP debate
Donald Trump is not the candidate he was in 2016.
Don’t just take it from Ron DeSantis.
The former president appeared for a town hall with Fox’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday, a day before the fourth GOP primary debate attended by his lower-polling rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination. But while Mr Trump remains in clear control of the Republican primary electorate, according to all available polling, he is objectively not pulling the same kind of audiences and presenting the same kind of spectacle that he could during his first presidential run.
Read on to find out how the three broadcasts stacked up:
Oliver O’Connell7 December 2023 22:30
Coming up next week: Rudy Giuliani’s defamation trial
Justice Beryl Howell, the federal judge overseeing Rudy Giuliani’s trial to determine damages after defaming the mother-daughter election workers from Georgia, has posted the rules for next week’s trial.
Her filing also includes a summary of the case:
This is a civil case. Plaintiffs, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye (“Shaye”) Moss, claim that Defendant Rudolph W. Giuliani defamed them, intentionally inflicted emotional distress on them, and engaged in a conspiracy with others to do the same.
Plaintiffs served as election workers at the State Farm Arena in Fulton County, Georgia during the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Giuliani is the former mayor of New York City, an attorney who has practiced law for decades, and a current media personality with his own radio shows and podcasts. Mr. Giuliani headed the Trump Campaign legal team during former President Donald J. Trump’s unsuccessful bid for re-election in 2020, and was part of the campaign to undermine the legitimacy of that election in battleground states like Georgia.
Mr. Giuliani publicly and falsely accused plaintiffs of committing various acts of election fraud, including: illegally excluding poll watchers under false pretenses; sneaking in and hiding illegal ballots in suitcases under tables; illegally counting ballots multiple times; and passing a USB drive with the intent of changing the vote count in the voting tabulation devices. Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss allege that Mr. Giuliani’s actions have caused them to suffer and continue to suffer extensive emotional and reputational harm, including because Mr. Giuliani’s actions made them targets for profane and vile threats.
The Court has already determined that Mr. Giuliani is liable for defamation per se, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy, and that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are entitled to receive compensation, including in the form of punitive damages, for Mr. Giuliani’s willful conduct. The only issue remaining in this trial is for the jury to determine any amount of damages Mr. Giuliani owes to Plaintiffs for the damage caused by his conduct.
Here’s Alex Woodward’s most recent report outlining the case:
Oliver O’Connell7 December 2023 22:00
We just several minutes trying to figure out how to ask Mr Barkov what a “misstatement” is “from an accounting perspective,” with both the judge and attorney general’s counsel trying to come up with a better way to ask.
“It’s hard to find a synonym but that’s what it’s called, a misstatement,” Judge Engoron said.
Mr Bartov answered by saying essentially that a misstatement… is a misstatement. The answer is important because a misstatement could indicate fraud. Mr Bartov said he believes that “there was no evidence of intentional misstatements, i.e., fraud,” which again, the attorney general’s office is saying falls way outside the bounds of his testimony. He can’t speak to “intent”.
After more back-and-forth debate on intent, court concludes for the day.
The trial resumes at 10am on Friday.
Oliver O’Connell7 December 2023 21:55