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Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.Win McNamee/Getty Images

To recover his political popularity, Donald Trump has "played the victim," Asa Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson told NBC News that Trump's followers "believe he's been picked on" amid the investigations he faces.

Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, is also a GOP candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said former President Donald Trump has "played the victim" to win favor in the polls.

Hutchinson, also a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that despite Trump's resurgence in the polls after his flop in the 2022 midterms, it is still early in the campaign season.

"He was responsible for a lot of the failure and growth that we expected and wins in a number of different states. And so his numbers were down," Hutchinson said on Sunday. "Since then, his numbers have gone up because he's played the victim. People believe he's been picked on because of some prosecutions."

In April, Trump pled not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the investigation into his businesses by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Since then, Trump has launched a social media campaign against Bragg.

Hutchinson said Trump has been successful at rallying his base around his victimhood, giving the former president the leading spot among GOP candidates in the polls by double-digit percentage points for now.

"I joke, in some ways, that his campaign manager is Alvin Bragg of New York City," Hutchinson said of Trump on Sunday. "That indictment caused those numbers to go up because they don't believe they're fair. This will settle out over time."

Trump faces several other investigations, including two by the federal government for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 Capitol riots, as well as his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

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On Sunday, Hutchinson said Trump has a "moral responsibility" for the January 6 attack, though the Justice Department will have to decide if he has a criminal responsibility.

Hutchinson said he's focused on the 2024 elections and "persuading Americans that we need to go a different direction."

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Asa Hutchinson says Donald Trump has 'played the victim' so much that his campaign manager could be Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg - Yahoo News

Donald Trump

Donald Trump is flush with cash. After leaving the White House, he refinanced a San Francisco office tower and sold his D.C. hotel, leaving him with an estimated $425 million war chest. Where has he invested all that money? A new financial disclosure report, filed last month, provides answers.

Most of it is held in safe investments, which makes sense for a guy who is 76 years old, maintains a portfolio of riskier real estate assets, and might need a few hundred million to handle legal issues. His disclosure lists the value of each asset in broad ranges, making it difficult to know exactly how his investments break down, but it looks like the bulk is sitting in bonds, Treasuries, and money-market funds. Stocks make up a good portion of the rest. Trump holds blue-chip names like Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. Theres also a small sliver composed of mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and gold.

The former presidents largest equity position is in a nonbank lender named Owl Rock Capital Corporation, founded by a trio of veteran financiers from Blackstone, KKR and Goldman Sachs. Trump holds $5 million to $25 million of stock in the company, according to his financial disclosure report. The companys chairman, Edward DAlelio, leant money to the Trumps Castle casino and hotel in Atlantic City during the late 1980s, and later joined the board of Trump Entertainment Resorts.

His investment in Owl Rock makes a lot of sense to wealth manager Lori Van Dusen of LVW Advisors. We have emerged into a great opportunity for credit strategies like this, she says. With tighter credit and lending conditions and a slowing economy, there is more of a need for providers of liquidity and restructuring. My sense is that is why he would own this.

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Here's How Donald Trump Invests His Cash - Forbes

Earlier this week, we learned that special counsel Jack Smithwho is investigating Donald Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the insurrection that followedhad reportedly taken an extra special interest in Mike Pences grand jury testimony on the matter. Thats a turn of events that is unlikely to go over great with the ex-president, but what of Smiths other criminal investigation into Trump, the one involving his handling of highly classified documents (and possible obstruction)? It appears theres equally not-great news for the former guy on that front too.

CNN reports that prosecutors working for Smith have been asking questions in recent weeks about the handling of surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago, after the Trump Organization received a federal subpoena for the information last summer. That handlingor likely mishandlingof the footage in question has prompted a new round of grand jury subpoenas to top Trump employees in the last few weeks, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to CNN. Those employees are said to include Matthew Calamari Sr., the chief operating officer of the Trumps family business, and his son, Matthew Calamari Jr., the director of security for the company. (If Calamari Senior sounds familiar, its because he has worked for the Trump Organization for decades, after being hired by Trump in the 1980s because the real estate developer was impressed by how Calamari tackled a heckler at the US Open.) Both Calamaris are expected to testify before a grand jury on Thursday, where they will likely be asked about the handling of the surveillance footage and Trump employees conversations following the subpoena, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

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An attorney for Calamari Sr. did not respond to CNNs request for comment; an attorney for Calamari Jr. declined to comment.

Last year, prosecutors obtained footage showing Walt Nauta, a longtime valet of Trumps, moving boxes at Mar-a-Lago after the government had issued a May subpoena demanding the return of all classified documents. (All the documents were not returned, hence the raid on Mar-a-Lago in August.) When initially questions by the FBI, Nauta denied having any knowledge of any classified documents at the Palm Beach resort; later he told investigators, per The Washington Post, that he had moved boxes at Trumps direction after prosecutors sent a subpoena seeking the return of all documents marked classified and kept at Mar-a-Lago.)

Last month, shortly before he was charged with 34 class E felonies by the Manhattan district attorneys office, the Post reported that the Justice Department and FBI had amassed fresh evidence pointing to possible obstruction by former president Donald Trump in the investigation into top secret documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home. According to the outlet, investigators had gathered new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, Trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession. In addition, people working on the probe were said to have found evidence suggesting that Trump told people to mislead government officials in early 2022, when the National Archives was working with the DOJ to recover the documents Trump had taken with him when he left the White House, whichand were no lawyersseems like a big no-no. Also, prosecutors reportedly learned that the former guy ignored requests from multiple advisers to return the documents to the archivesthat he asked advisers and lawyers to release false statements claiming he had returned all documents, and that he grew angry after being subpoenaed for the documents.

And somehow, that was not all! According to the Post, investigators also found evidence that Trump sought advice from other lawyers and advisers on how he could keep documents after being told by some on his team that he could not, and that multiple advisers warned Trump that trying to keep the documents could be legally perilous. Again, doesnt seem great!

Earlier this year, a judgeorderedTrump attorneyEvan Corcoranto appear before the grand jury investigating the documents case, which Corcoran had previously tried to get out of by invoking attorney-client privilege. AsThe New York Timesreportedin October, it was Corcoran who asked fellow Trump lawyerChristina Bobbafter Trump received the subpoena for the documentsto sign a statement saying that the Trump legal team had conducted a diligent search of Mar-a-Lago and found only a few files that had not been returned to the government. That statement, as the August raid showed, obviously turned out not to be true. (Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the documents case.)

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Report: Donald Trumps Legal Outlook Does Not Appear to Be Improving - Vanity Fair

Donald Trump

Lawsuit alleged newspaper sought out niece Mary Trump and persuaded her to join insidious plot to obtain Trumps tax records

Guardian staff

A judge in New York has thrown out Donald Trumps 2021 lawsuit accusing New York Times reporters of an insidious plot to obtain his tax records.

The former president has also been ordered to pay all attorneys fees and legal expenses the Times and its reporters had incurred. The lawsuit alleged that the newspaper sought out Trumps niece Mary Trump and persuaded her to smuggle the records out of her attorneys office.

The Daily Beast first reported the news. Donald Trump had also made claims against his niece, which have yet to be ruled on.

The Timess 2018 Pulitzer-winning stories relied on information from Mary Trump to cast doubt on the ex-presidents claims that he was a self-made millionaire, showing that he inherited hundreds of millions through dubious tax schemes. The series also revealed a history of tax avoidance.

Robert Reed, a New York supreme court justice, said that Trumps claims fail as a matter of constitutional law, which allows for reporters to engage in legal, ordinary newsgathering. These actions are at the very core of protected first amendment activity, Reed wrote.

Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, told the Guardian: The New York Times is pleased with the judges decision today. It is an important precedent reaffirming that the press is protected when it engages in routine newsgathering to obtain information of vital importance to the public.

We will weigh our clients options and continue to vigorously fight on his behalf, Trumps lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement.

Last year, the former president also sued CNN, claiming defamation and seeking $475m in damages. In 2020, his re-election campaign also sued the New York Times and the Washington Post over opinion pieces linking him to Russian interference in the election. The cases against each newspaper were dismissed.

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US judge throws out Donald Trumps lawsuit against New York Times - The Guardian US

NEW YORK A Manhattan jury is slated to start deliberating E. Jean Carrolls civil rape and defamation case against Donald Trump this week more than five years after she accused him of a violent sexual assault in a Midtown dressing room.

The six men and three women who will determine whether Trump raped Carroll inside Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s and defamed her when she came forward decades later have much to consider when they get to the jury room.

They heard a detailed account accusing Trump of brutally assaulting women in random attacks over 26 years and denigrating their looks and sanity when they came forward.

Carrolls team presented 11 witnesses over two weeks and played footage of a riled-up Trump disparaging his accusers at campaign rallies, bragging about sexual assault on a hot mic in the Access Hollywood tape, and defending his notorious comments in previously-unseen deposition testimony.

Carroll spent almost three days on the stand, where she emotionally described Trump leading her to an unoccupied floor of the department store, pinning her against a wall, and molesting her with his hand before raping her.

The former president, who forcefully contests Carrolls allegations, saying she isnt his type, was seen confusing her for his ex-wife Marla Maples in a photo of them together presented at trial.

Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds accused Trump of assaulting them in accounts mirroring details of the encounter Carroll alleges.

Stoynoff said Trump led her to an empty room at Mar-a-Lago in December 2005 and forcibly kissed her when she was profiling his and a heavily pregnant Melanias one-year wedding anniversary for People magazine.

Leeds said Trump assaulted her on a flight in 1979 in first class. She said it felt like he had 40 zillion hands as he grabbed her breasts and put his hand up her skirt.

Carrolls friends, Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin, corroborated that she confided in them in the assaults aftermath. Birbach affirmed that she told Carroll to report it, while Martin said she believed Carroll should stay silent..

Jurors heard from an expert in trauma, Leslie Lebowitz, who said Carrolls symptoms resulting from the alleged attack were so severe that it demolished her self-esteem and ability to be intimate.

Lebowitz said that Carroll didnt scream or call the police details Trumps lawyer tried to nail her on was typical of many victims of sexual assault. She said the fact Carroll wasnt certain it happened in 1996 was also a classic result of trauma.

Robert Salerno, a longtime VP at Bergdorf, testified about seeing Trump in the womens section at the store a block from his namesake tower on Fifth Ave. A former employee, Cheryl Beall, supported details in Carrolls account, testifying that the lingerie department had little foot traffic and was frequently unstaffed.

The former editor-in-chief of Elle, Roberta Myers, shed light on what Carroll was famous for before she became known as the presidents rape accuser and lost her job. She described Carroll as a real truth teller, a journalist, who gave trusted advice on dating and living in the city, and said readers adored her.

An expert in reputation harm, Ashley Humphrees, did the math on how much Trump accusing Carroll of a hoax cost her. If Carroll wins, Trump could owe $2.7 million in damages.

His lawyers focused their defense on alleging Carroll and her friends concocted a scheme to destroy him politically and sell a book. Joe Tacopina subjected Carroll to an aggressive cross-examination and dissected her friends texts and emails when they reacted with grief to his election as president.

Trump didnt present a defense case. He put himself and a psychiatrist on his list of witnesses but informed the court this week that neither could make it.

When Judge Lewis Kaplan learned of Trumps comments in Ireland he said he was cutting his trip short to confront Carroll he gave him a chance to change his mind.

If Trump chooses not to make a cameo, the jury will next hear closing arguments and get the case. He has until 5 p.m. Sunday to decide.

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Highlights of Donald Trump's civil rape trial brought by E. Jean ... - Brunswick News