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Trump claims NYC courthouse staff were crying when he was arrested

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Donald Trump has sued his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for $500m over his testimony before the New York grand jury that landed him with criminal charges.

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Wednesday, alleges a breach of his attorney-client relationship and unjust enrichment, among other claims.

Cohen, who is at the centre of the hush money case against the former president, fired back at Mr Trump tweeting: Despite Trumps attempts to intimidate and harass me, I will NEVER stop fighting and holding him accountable for his dirty deeds.

Mr Trump has now returned to New York for the first time since his arrest and arraignment last week to face his latest legal battle.

He is scheduled to sit for a deposition before Attorney General Letitia James who has brought a $250m business fraud lawsuit against him and the Trump Organization over alleged wrongdoing, including misleading banks and others that inflated the value of golf courses and hotels that bear his name.

This comes one week after he was arraigned in a Manhattan court on a 34-count indictment in the hush money case.

A second audio recording in which former Trump lead attorney Rudy Giuliani admits that the Trump campaign had no evidence to back up their claims about Dominion Voting Systems has been released.

The latest revelation is thanks to the $1.6bn lawsuit the company has filed against Fox News, which is resulting in a cascade of humiliation for the right-leaning network as private communications between top personalities who publicly defended these claims on air have been publicised.

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John Bowden13 April 2023 18:43

An individual shareholder of Fox Corporation is suing Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, as well as other members of the companys board alleging they breached their fiduciary duty to the company.

In a lawsuit filed in Delaware Chancery Court on 11 April, investor Robert Schwarz brought forth a derivative suit claiming that board members chose to promote false stolen election claims which negatively impacted the companys reputation and led to two defamation cases.

This news comes as more and more Fox employees are fretting in comments to journalists about the future of their company thanks to the massive $1.6bn lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems that threatens the companys finances in an unprecedented way.

John Bowden13 April 2023 17:55

An Arizona congressman and fierce Trump ally has announced a bill aimed at stripping Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office of any federal funding in revenge for the prosecution of Donald Trump by Mr Bragg.

Mr Biggs introduced the bill on Thursday. It faces a steep road to passage in House, which is controlled by a thin GOP majority. It will not pass the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

John Bowden13 April 2023 17:26

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan will host a field hearing, likely to be attended by the committees Republican members, in New York next week as he continues his efforts to try and politically punish District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

Mr Jordan plans to highlight victims of crime in New York City as he tries to argue that the Manhattan DA is ignoring his responsibilities to prosecute street crime as his office pursues charges against Mr Trump. Mr Bragg has fiercely denied this, and decried Mr Jordans efforts as blatant political intimidation.

John Bowden13 April 2023 16:33

The probe is part of the federal investigation into Mr Trumps handling of classified documents following his presidency.

Investigators have questioned several witnesses about the map, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to The New York Times. The nature of the maps contents are unknown.

John Bowden13 April 2023 15:06

Bombshell audio recordings have revealed Rudy Giuliani and other Trump officials admitting to Fox News that there was no evidence of Dominion Voting Machines being rigging the 2020 election.

Rachel Sharp13 April 2023 14:00

The questionnaire for the pool of prospective jurors in E Jean Carrolls rape trial against Donald Trump has been revealed.

Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

Mr Trump has repeatedly and emphatically denied the allegation.

A jury will be asked to decide whether the rape occurred and if Mr Trump defamed Ms Carroll with his comments.

Some of the jury questions were published by The Daily Beast.

They include: Are you on Truth Social?

What cable news network do you watch?

Have you ever used the hashtag #BelieveAllWomen when discussing sexual assault?

Rachel Sharp13 April 2023 13:45

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has been sent a second package containing white powder after his office brought charges against Donald Trump.

Two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News that an envelope addressed to Mr Bragg arrived at his office on Wednesday.

The envelope contained white powder, a letter using an expletive to describe thr DAs weight and a photo of Mr Bragg and Mr Trump.

The powder was later determined to be nonhazardous.

This marks the second time a white powder was sent to Mr Braggs office as he has faced multiple threats for his prosecution of Mr Trump.

Rachel Sharp13 April 2023 13:34

Jury selection is set to begin today in Dominion Voting Systems $1.6bn defamation case against Fox News.

Dominion Voting Systems has accused Fox News of pushing pro-Trump conspiracy theories of voter fraud including claiming that its ballot counting technology rigged the 2020 presidential election against the one-term president.

The voting machine company said the network recklessly disregarded the truth.

Fox News has denied the allegations and claimed the lawsuit threatens the First Amendment right.

Jury selection is set to begin on Thursday in the case with opening statements scheduled for 17 April.

Rachel Sharp13 April 2023 13:30

Things took a turn for the worse for Fox Newss legal team this week as Dominion Voting Systemss $1.6bn lawsuit against the channel proceeds.

A judge reprimanded Foxs lawyers and said that he was no longer confident that attorneys for the company were being straightforward with the court.

Find out more in The Independent:

John Bowden13 April 2023 13:15

Original post:
Trump tries to block Mike Pence from testifying about Jan 6 riots live - The Independent

The category is: Republican drag queen realness.

As the centuries-old art form of drag has taken a surprisingly central role in the modern-day American culture war, one drag-loving couple decided to take a creative approach to their activism: A parody Instagram account dedicated to artificial intelligence-generated portraits of Republican leaders in drag.

Were huge fans of drag, and we were bearing witness to the GOPs anti-drag rhetoric and action, and we wanted to do something about it, so we said, Lets put the GOP in drag, said Craig, who created the RuPublicans Instagram account with his husband, Stephen. The men asked that their last names not be published due to concerns for their personal safety and security.

The name of the account, which launched March 30 and now has over 95,000 followers, is a nod to RuPauls Drag Race, the popular drag competition show. The RuPublicans account has posted portraits of 11 conservative heavy hitters so far, each given his own distinctive style and, of course, drag name. And while it might appear that these men each had their own glam team on hand, the images were purely created by Craig, Stephen and an AI text-to-image program called Midjourney.

Its all generated without a photo that we input, Craig said. I provide prompts on what I want to see in the photo whats in the background, what is the person wearing, how are they feeling, like it gets into that level of specificity and then it spits out images, and you dont always get what you want, and sometimes the AI generator gives you something that you could have never even imagined that blows you away, and you like run with it.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who made national headlines last year by signing his states so-called Dont Say Gay bill and engaging in a faceoff with the CEO of the Walt Disney Co. is among the Republicans given an AI drag makeover. His drag alter ego, Rhonda Santy, is shown in a trio of images, including one portraying her as an evil stepmother-type villain with Disneys Magic Kingdom in the background.

Rhonda Santy Category is: Book Banning Princess Eleganza. Shes on a mission to turn that Magic Kingdom into a Tragic Kingdom and isnt afraid to give Mickey the finger(s), the caption on the DeSantis parody images reads.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is portrayed as Cruzella Deville in five portraits, which all include the conservative lawmaker in a full face of makeup, a blond or pink wig and bedazzled gowns.

Cruzella Deville Serving homophobic realness, she struts her stuff in fur coats lined with family values and defends every fetus and every gun, the caption says of the reimagination of Cruz, who recently said the Supreme Court was clearly wrong in its 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage.

Neither DeSantis nor Cruz immediately responded to requests for comment.

Rudy Giuliani (Rudy Garland), Lindsey Graham (Lady Graham Cracker) and Mike Pence (Mother Pence) are among the other political figures who have been reimagined as drag queens by the RuPublicans account.

While Craig and Stephen called their RuPublicans project pure fantasy, they said they hope it can also serve as a platform for activism.

We want it to serve as a platform for a message and show that drag really isnt that scary, Stephen said. It makes you laugh, and it makes you think, and this isnt just for us and gay people. I hope that a lot of Republicans see this and can have a laugh at themselves, too.

So far this year, Republican lawmakers in more than a dozen states have proposed bills to restrict drag performances, according to an NBC News analysis. Tennessee is the only state to sign such a bill into law.

While the photos have sparked thousands of responses since the account first launched, one in particular made a big impact on Craig and Stephen, they said. The message was from a woman whose child attends The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, where just a few weeks ago a mass shooting left three children and three adults dead. The mother said she had her first laugh in weeks upon seeing the RuPublicans account.

She had this beautiful message about how important it is, what were doing, and how much it helped her, Craig said. So those are the types of things that are like fueling this, and keeping it going.

You know, theres a lot of dark times that were living through right now, and we just want to spread brightness and laughter and levity, but also be really smart and poignant with it, Stephen said.

Jay Valle, an NBCU Academy embed, writes and produces digital content for NBC Out.

More:
Meet the 'RuPublicans': GOP lawmakers are reimagined as AI-generated drag queens - NBC News

A group of congressional leaders has been granted access to classified documents found at the residences of former President Trump, President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Why it matters: Lawmakers with oversight over the intelligence community have spent months fighting for access to the documents, railing against the administration's briefings on the matter as insufficient.

Driving the news: The "Gang of Eight" the party leaders in each chamber and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees have begun accessing the documents, three sources familiar with the matter told Axios.

The backdrop: The FBI's search last summer to recover classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort kicked off a series of document discoveries.

What they're saying: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NBC News, "It should have never taken six months for us to start being able to do our duty."

What we're watching: Some lawmakers have introduced legislation to crack down on the mishandling of classified documents amid calls for reform.

Continue reading here:
Congressional leaders given access to Trump, Biden and Pence classified docs - Axios

If youre a superstitious person, then maybe youre familiar with the notion that bad things happen in threes.For example, you might get a flat tire, then spill coffee all over yourself, and then sprain your ankle all on the same day.

Or, if youre former President Donald Trump, you might get arrested on state-level charges, then grapple with amajor setback in a federal investigation, and then be forced to face the specter of an ongoing fraud investigation, all in the same week.

We learned Wednesday afternoon that former Vice President Mike Pence will, in fact, testify before the special counsels grand jury.

Trumps Bad Thing No. 1 is federal.We learned Wednesday afternoon that former Vice President Mike Pence will, in fact, testify before the special counsels grand jury investigating Jan. 6.(Trump and Pence himself had tried and failed to block that testimony.But in a statement, an aide said Pence will comply with a subpoena.)We already know a lot about what Pence was doing in the Senate that day: evacuating the building, fielding urgent phone calls from a loading dock and presumably trying to ignore the chants outside of Hang Mike Pence.But the fact that his conversations with Trump are now fair game, legally speaking, is a huge deal here.

Trumps Bad Thing No. 2 involves the Mar-a-Lago documents case.Its already clear that Trump considers Jack Smiths special counsel probe a pretty bad thing. A week ago, at his post-arraignment rally, Trump was fixated on that investigation.He called Smith a radical-left lunatic and a bomb thrower.And he made a public spectacle of wrestling with his potential guilt. We were negotiating in very good faith, he proclaimed, to return some or all of the documents that I openly, and in very plain sight, brought with me to Mar-a-Lago from our beautiful White House just as virtually every other president has done in the past.

Subtle!

Compounding this,we now know from reporting last week that theJustice Department is focusing in on Trumps alleged obstructiondown at Mar-a-Lago, and that unnamed Secret Service agents connected to Trump mayhave to testify. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman claimedTrump is particularly spookedthat his attorney, Evan Corcoran, was also recently ordered to testify.Corcoran is someone who, like Pence, was in the room where it happened. Multiple times. And hehas now said what he knows, under oath.

And then there is Trumps Bad Thing No. 3. This oneinvolves Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs indictment.There is something laid out in the DAs statement of facts the document accompanying the indictment that has left me with more questions than answers.It concerns former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg who will very soon be released from Rikers Island after pleading guilty to a decadelong tax fraud scheme.

By way of a recap: In exchange for a lighter prison sentence in the tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization last year, Weisselberg testified, pleaded guiltyand helped Manhattan prosecutors secure a guilty verdict against the Trump Organization. Which is all to say, Weisselberg is a very important character in Trump World.He also worked for the Trump Organization for nearly 50 years.

The previous Manhattan DA, Cy Vance, was scrutinizing Weisselberg in connection withfraud claims levied at Trump and his organization by Michael Cohen.And that vast criminal probe appears to still be open.TheNew York Times reported in Februarythat prosecutors were dangling more charges against Weisselberg in an effort to get him to cooperate in Braggs hush money payments case.

This larger fraud investigation is arguably amuch broader and more consequential investigationthan the hush money payments case.It involves allegations that Trump and his business inflated and deflated assets in order to get more favorable insurance and mortgage rates. And Weisselbergs potential criminal exposure here remains a key concern.Asreported on Alex Wagner Tonightvia WNBC, Weisselberg has parted ways with the lawyers who represented him during the Trump Organization investigation.He reportedly has a new lawyer, someone who is probably not being paid for by the Trump Organization.

But if Weisselberg is getting out of prison in two weeks, why does he need a new lawyer?

That news stuck out to me because in thefederalprobe into the hush money payments, Weisselberg was granted immunity in exchange for his grand jury testimony. (This is the case that resulted in Michael Cohen going to prison, not the Manhattan case kicking off now.)

As part of Braggs case against Trump, we learned the deeper extent of Weisselbergs alleged role in that hush money scheme.

But as part of Braggs case against Trump, we learned thedeeperextent of Weisselbergs alleged role in that hush money scheme.The DA lays out in detail that Weisselberg was involved in discussions about how muchmoneyto pay Stormy Daniels andhowto pay her.Prosecutors allege that Cohen spoke to Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,and that Weisselberg played an integral role in figuring out how to reimburse Cohen. Remember, Weisselberg may have secured immunity on the federal case, but he has no immunity with Manhattan prosecutors.

So could Bragg use Weisselbergs alleged involvement in the hush money scheme as leverage to get him to cooperate in the other, broader and(we think) ongoingcriminal investigation into Trump World?Because that would be very problematic for Donald Trump.

Problematic on the level of his vice president and his lawyer testifying about him under oath.

As they say: Bad things happen in threes.

This is an adapted excerpt fromthe April 5 episode of Alex Wagner Tonight.

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For Trump, bad things come in threes - MSNBC

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump has appealed a judge's order requiring his former vice president, Mike Pence, to testify in the special counsel probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Trump's lawyers filed the appeal after a ruling related to the Justice Department investigation of efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election that Trump, a Republican, lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The case remains under seal. But on Monday, a new sealed case appeared on the federal appeals court docket in Washington, D.C., that referred to a grand jury matter before U.S. District Chief Judge James Boasberg.

Final briefs in the appeal are due by May 25, according to an initial schedule set by the court, which does not name the parties to the case.

Pence last week disclosed that he would not appeal a judge's ruling that requires him to testify to a federal grand jury about conversations he had with Trump leading up to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a March ruling, the judge also said Pence could still decline to answer questions related to Jan. 6.

Several of Trump's attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November to handle the two Trump investigations, is presenting evidence to grand juries in two separate investigations.

The first investigation is looking into attempts to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power following Trump's November 2020 loss to Biden. The second is looking at Trump's retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021, and whether he tried to obstruct the Justice Department's investigation.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Jacqueline Thomsen; additional reporting by Kat Jackson and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)

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Trump appeals order requiring Pence to testify in Jan. 6 probe -source - Yahoo News