Donald Trump will be asked about previous allegations of misconduct and crimes – including instances of sexual abuse and fraud – if he takes the stand at his historic hush money trial, which resumes on Thursday.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg revealed a list that includes “all misconduct and criminal acts of the defendant not charged in the indictment” that his office “intend to use at trial to impeach the credibility of” the former president should he testify, according to a court filing.
Proceedings in the trial are gathering pace with seven jurors now confirmed.
Mr Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election to ensure her silence about an alleged affair in 2006. He denies the affair and has pleaded not guilty.
After Tuesday’s day in court, Mr Trump lashed out bitterly at Mr Bragg during a visit to a Harlem bodega to make a statement about crime in New York and subsequently spent his Wednesday day off from court attack his enemies on Truth Social before hosting Polish president Andrzej Duda at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Johnson dismisses prospect of losing Trump’s support as Ukraine aid votes claim met with scepticism
The embattled Republican House speaker was interview by CNN’s Jake Tapper yesterday and confronted with both Trump’s apparent slither away from his side on Tuesday and the idea that his delay on Ukraine aid had cost lives in Eastern Europe.
Here’s what he had to say.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 12:15
Donald Trump: Former president, criminal defendant – and style icon?
Trump is no stranger to toadying praise from his admirers but even he might have been surprised by his former White House adviser Stephen Miller washing up on Fox News on Tuesday evening to declare his former boss not only “the most stylish president” in recent US history, but also an icon who had “changed American fashion”.
Apparently triggered by a New York Times article praising President Joe Biden as “dapper”, Miller declared: “Can I just say, since we’re addressing the subject of style, the most stylish president and first lady in our lifetimes are Donald Trump and Melania Trump.
“Donald Trump is a style icon. He changed American fashion in The Apprentice. People spent the next 10 years trying to dress like Donald Trump.”
Few would dispute that the ex-first lady, a former model by profession, has an eye for (extremely expensive) clothes but her husband is a rather different proposition.
Here’s a look at Trump the fashion maven.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 11:45
Biden aides refer to Trump as ‘Hitler Pig’, report says
Some aides and allies of Joe Biden allegedly refer to Donald Trump in private with the incendiary nickname “Hitler Pig.”
Four people with ties to the Biden camp told Politico that the nickname is frequently used by non-senior staffers – and has been since 2022– when Trump met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago.
The alleged insult was used once again this week in response to reports that Donald Trump fell asleep in court during his New York hush money trial.
“Hitler Pig sleepy,” an individual associated with President Biden wrote on a message thread about the reports, according to Politico.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 11:30
Day three of Trump’s hush money trial dawns
Our very own Alex Woodward and Ariana Baio are outside Manhattan Criminal Court horribly early once again for the resumption of jury selection from 9.30am ET, braving a cold and rainy start to be in attendance.
They say it should be another relatively straightforward day of jury questions and that we’ll probably pick up several more jurors before the court adjourns later this afternoon.
Judge Merchan appears to remain optimistic that we will be ready to start for real on Monday.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 11:15
Truth Social: Trump quotes Fox pundit to sidestep judge’s warning about juror intimidation
Here’s a little more from the former president’s social network, where he quotes Jesse Watters seemingly doing his dirty work for him by calling out supposed “undercover Liberal Activists” among the Manhattan jury pool, ratcheting up the tension as jury selection continues today.
It will be interesting to see whether DA Bragg raises this one with Judge Merchan later.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 11:00
How do you find a jury in a city of highly opinionated people with no time for anything?
That challenge is playing out in court this week at Trump’s historic criminal trial.
New Yorkers’ busy lives are under the microscope as potential jurors have been bringing up their jobs, their political views, their frantic schedules and even their dogs during jury selection in the Manhattan courtroom.
Kelly Rissman and Alex Woodward report.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 10:45
Who are the New Yorkers chosen so far who hold Trump’s fate in their hands?
Jury selection resumes in the hush money trial today after Wednesday’s break.
This pivotal process will ultimately see the selection of a group of jurors to hear the case against Trump, as he faces charges of falsifying business records to conceal the alleged $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
A nurse, a teacher, two lawyers, a salesman and a grandfather are among the seven to be chosen so far with another 11 still needed to make up the initial dozen and then a substitutes’ bench of six potential replacements.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 10:15
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left ‘at her feet’
Trump’s legal team says it tried serving a subpoena on Stormy Daniels as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president’s criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
A process server working for the former president’s lawyers said he approached Daniels with papers demanding information and documents related to a documentary recently released about her life and involvement with Trump, but was forced to “leave them at her feet”, according to a court filing made public on Wednesday.
“I stated she was served as I identified her and explained to her what the documents were,” process server Dominic DellaPorte wrote.
“She did not acknowledge me and kept walking inside the venue, and she had no expression on her face.”
The encounter outside the 3 Dollar Bill nightclub has touched off a month-long battle between Trump’s lawyers and Daniels’ attorney that continued this week as the presumptive Republican nominee’s criminal trial began in Manhattan.
Trump’s lawyers are asking Judge Juan Merchan to force Daniels to comply with the subpoena.
In their filing, they included a photo they said DellaPorte took of Daniels as she strode away.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 09:45
Trump will be grilled about sexual abuse and fraud if he testifies, Manhattan prosecutors say
Trump will be asked about his previous misconduct and criminal acts — including instances of sexual abuse and fraud — if he takes the stand at his historic hush money trial.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg latest court filing features a list that includes “all misconduct and criminal acts of the defendant not charged in the indictment” that his office “intend to use at trial to impeach the credibility of” Trump, should he testify.
Kelly Rissman and Ariana Baio report.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 09:15
Truth Social: Trump trumpets Duda visit, promotes ‘Black Lives MAGA’, attacks Biden on China and claims immunity in Democrat’s interest
Trump used his day off from court on Wednesday to host Polish president Andrzej Duda at Trump Tower, the duo reportedly spending their time discussing the latter’s proposal to raise Nato members’ spending commitment from 2 per cent of GDP to 3 per cent (a subject dear to Trump’s icy heart) in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Elsewhere, Trump has been hoping to win the support of Black America, stacking those Fox clips high, accusing President Biden (baselessly, as ever) of helping to “build up China” to the US’s detriment and, desperately, arguing that his spurious “presidential immunity” defence would actually be in his successor’s interest too, despite the fact that Biden has not been accused of a crime since the bogus House impeachment inquiry has yielded precisely nothing so far.
Joe Sommerlad18 April 2024 08:45
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