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Federal Crimes List - Clarifacts
The federal crimes listed here were compiled from Title 18 and Title 26 of the United States Code, among others. While this federal crimes list is...
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Donald Trump Announces 2016 White House Bid
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Thats an assasination and is a Federal Crime.
Hes the guy to ask if getting all the toppings from a two for one pizza on one pizza is legal.
Trump’s criticism of Israel’s Netanyahu draws strong condemnation from GOP rivals
Former U.S. president also questioning Israel's intelligence prowess as it responds to Hamas' deadly attack
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jill Colvin and Adriana Gomez Licon
Published Oct 12, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 7 minute read
NEW YORK — Several of former President Donald Trump ’s Republican rivals denounced him on Thursday for lashing out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days after Hamas’ deadly attack, a rare moment in which multiple competitors directly criticized the GOP front-runner.
Trump at a rally Wednesday night said Netanyahu “let us down” just before the U.S. killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020. He also said Israeli leaders needed to “step up their game” and referred to Hezbollah, the group Israel fears may launch a large-scale attack from the country’s north, as “very smart.” In an interview that aired Thursday, he added to his criticism, saying Netanyahu “was not prepared” for the deadly weekend incursion from Gaza.
“Now is not the time to be attacking our ally,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s 2024 rivals, echoing denunciations from the White House and elsewhere. More than 2,700 people are dead on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, and Hamas is believed to have taken around 150 hostages.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, another GOP presidential contender, compared Trump’s comments to a foreign ally criticizing the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11 or the attack on Pearl Harbor. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said, “We cannot accept a single message to any of the enemies of Israel” that U.S. and Israeli leaders are at odds.
Trump is generally treated with a hands-off approach by his leading Republican opponents, who are fearful of alienating his loyal base. But his criticism of Israel, so soon after the unprecedented attack, underscores the extent to which the man most likely to take on President Joe Biden next year is driven by personal enmity and resentments toward those who rejected his lies about winning the 2020 election.
While Trump and Netanyahu were close allies for years, the former president turned on the embattled Israel leader after Netanyahu congratulated then-President-elect Biden for winning the 2020 election while Trump was still trying to overturn the results. In interviews for a book about his Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to its author, used an expletive to describe Netanyahu and said he believed the Israeli leader never really wanted to make peace.
Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary who serves on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said he wished Trump would “let his personal grievances with Bibi, whatever they are, slide for now.”
“I think it’s just a reflection that for Donald Trump, everything is personal,” Fleischer said. “But despite it, I’ll never forget and no one should forget Trump has been good for Israel.” Trump has long said that he did more to support Israel than any previous president, pointing to his decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
Others were less forgiving.
“I think it is another sign that Trump’s impulsiveness plays into the hands of those who are not his friends,” said Erick Erickson, a conservative radio host and Trump critic. “He’s given a propaganda win to a terrorist group. That’s unfortunate.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates called Trump’s statements “dangerous and unhinged,” while the Israeli communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, told Israel’s Channel 13 that it was “shameful that a man like that, a former U.S. president, abets propaganda and disseminates things that wound the spirit of Israel’s fighters and its citizens.”
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The prime minister and Israel’s intelligence services are under immense pressure to explain how they missed the planning of a multi-pronged attack unlike any in the country’s history. Before this week, his far-right government was facing mass protests over a proposed judicial overhaul and criticism from former senior officers of Mossad, Shin Bet, and other Israeli security services who said his proposed policies weakened Israel’s internal security.
In Washington, President Joe Biden and senior Democratic and Republican leaders have lined up behind Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack. Biden spoke to Jewish leaders on Wednesday and called the attack the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Trump has long tried to paint himself as one of Israel’s staunchest defenders and has continued to pledge support in the wake of the attack. In the immediate aftermath, he, like some other GOP contenders, tried to place the blame on Biden, and said he would support the country’s efforts to “crush” Hamas.
But on Wednesday night, after saying his prayers were with Israel and again vowing support, Trump told a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, that he was frustrated with Netanyahu over the 2020 mission that killed Soleimani, then the head of Iran’s Quds Force.
In Trump’s telling, “Israel was going to do this with us, and it was being planned and working on it for months.”
“We had everything all set to go, and the night before it happened, I got a call that Israel will not be participating in this attack,” Trump alleged, adding that he would “never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down.”
His account of Israel’s role in the raid could not immediately be verified.
Trump also seized on intelligence failures surrounding the past weekend’s onslaught, saying the Iraelis had to “strengthen themselves up.”
“They’ve got to straighten it out because they’re fighting, potentially, a very big force,” he said. “They’re going to have to step up their game.” He further criticized Israel’s defence minister, calling him “this jerk” for warning Hezbollah not to attack Israel from the north.
In an interview that aired Thursday morning on Fox News Radio, he told host Brian Kilmeade that Netanyahu “was not prepared and Israel was not prepared.”
“Who would have thought their intelligence wouldn’t have been able to pick this up?” he asked. “Thousands of people were involved. Thousands of people knew about it and they let this slip by.”
Speaking to reporters after filing for the New Hampshire primary on Thursday afternoon, DeSantis said Netanyahu was “managing one of the most difficult situations Israel’s ever had to face.”
“We don’t have to bother with him and the nonsense he spouts,” Karhi said. Asked if Trump’s comments make it clear that he can’t be relied on, Karhi replied, “Obviously.”
While Trump and Netanyahu were close allies during Trump’s time in office, the former president turned on the embattled Israel leader after he congratulated then-President-elect Joe Biden for winning the 2020 election while Trump was still trying to overturn the results. In interviews for a book about Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to its author, used an expletive to describe Netanyahu and said he believed the Israeli leader never really wanted to make peace.
Trump’s rivals quickly seized on his new comments. Speaking to reporters after filing for the New Hampshire primary on Thursday afternoon, DeSantis said, “Now is not the time to be attacking our ally.”
Netanyahu, he said, is “managing one of the most difficult situations Israel’s ever had to face. You may have a personal vendetta or beef with him, but is that really the time to be out there doing that and to be attacking the Israeli defence minister? I don’t think so.” He also criticized Trump for calling Hezbollah “very smart.”
Doug Burgum, another GOP contender, compared the comments to a foreign ally criticizing the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11 or the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“You may have a personal vendetta or beef with him, but is that really the time to be out there doing that and to be attacking the Israeli defence minister? I don’t think so,” he said. He also criticized Trump for calling Hezbollah “very smart.”
Trump campaign aides defended the former president’s comments, saying that there was nothing new about his criticism of Netanyahu over the 2020 strike and defending his use of the word “smart” to describe bad foreign actors.
“President Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack,” said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. “Smart does not equal good. It just proves Biden is stupid.”
It remains unclear how the new war in the Middle East might impact both the GOP primary, which will begin in three months in Iowa, or the general election.
While the war in Israel was not top of mind for many of the Republican primary voters who gathered at the New Hampshire statehouse on Thursday to see DeSantis, several were aware of Trump’s comments. One of them, 34-year-old Republican Melissa Blasek, of Merrimack, said it was another example of why she had lost faith in the former president.
“One of the things I always liked about Trump was his strong support for Israel,” said Blasek. “I don’t really know what he meant. It was very rambling. What’s clear is that this is not the Trump of 2016. He is not the same candidate … And so things sound less coherent. And I am tired of incoherency. I like an articulate and coherent president.”
— Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, Holly Ramer, Steve Peoples in Concord, New Hampshire, and Thomas Beaumont in Newton, Iowa, contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Former U.S. president also questioning Israel's intelligence prowess as it responds to Hamas' deadly attack
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jill Colvin and Adriana Gomez Licon
Published Oct 12, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 7 minute read
NEW YORK — Several of former President Donald Trump ’s Republican rivals denounced him on Thursday for lashing out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days after Hamas’ deadly attack, a rare moment in which multiple competitors directly criticized the GOP front-runner.
Trump at a rally Wednesday night said Netanyahu “let us down” just before the U.S. killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020. He also said Israeli leaders needed to “step up their game” and referred to Hezbollah, the group Israel fears may launch a large-scale attack from the country’s north, as “very smart.” In an interview that aired Thursday, he added to his criticism, saying Netanyahu “was not prepared” for the deadly weekend incursion from Gaza.
“Now is not the time to be attacking our ally,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s 2024 rivals, echoing denunciations from the White House and elsewhere. More than 2,700 people are dead on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, and Hamas is believed to have taken around 150 hostages.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, another GOP presidential contender, compared Trump’s comments to a foreign ally criticizing the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11 or the attack on Pearl Harbor. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said, “We cannot accept a single message to any of the enemies of Israel” that U.S. and Israeli leaders are at odds.
Trump is generally treated with a hands-off approach by his leading Republican opponents, who are fearful of alienating his loyal base. But his criticism of Israel, so soon after the unprecedented attack, underscores the extent to which the man most likely to take on President Joe Biden next year is driven by personal enmity and resentments toward those who rejected his lies about winning the 2020 election.
While Trump and Netanyahu were close allies for years, the former president turned on the embattled Israel leader after Netanyahu congratulated then-President-elect Biden for winning the 2020 election while Trump was still trying to overturn the results. In interviews for a book about his Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to its author, used an expletive to describe Netanyahu and said he believed the Israeli leader never really wanted to make peace.
Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary who serves on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said he wished Trump would “let his personal grievances with Bibi, whatever they are, slide for now.”
“I think it’s just a reflection that for Donald Trump, everything is personal,” Fleischer said. “But despite it, I’ll never forget and no one should forget Trump has been good for Israel.” Trump has long said that he did more to support Israel than any previous president, pointing to his decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
Others were less forgiving.
“I think it is another sign that Trump’s impulsiveness plays into the hands of those who are not his friends,” said Erick Erickson, a conservative radio host and Trump critic. “He’s given a propaganda win to a terrorist group. That’s unfortunate.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates called Trump’s statements “dangerous and unhinged,” while the Israeli communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, told Israel’s Channel 13 that it was “shameful that a man like that, a former U.S. president, abets propaganda and disseminates things that wound the spirit of Israel’s fighters and its citizens.”
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The prime minister and Israel’s intelligence services are under immense pressure to explain how they missed the planning of a multi-pronged attack unlike any in the country’s history. Before this week, his far-right government was facing mass protests over a proposed judicial overhaul and criticism from former senior officers of Mossad, Shin Bet, and other Israeli security services who said his proposed policies weakened Israel’s internal security.
In Washington, President Joe Biden and senior Democratic and Republican leaders have lined up behind Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack. Biden spoke to Jewish leaders on Wednesday and called the attack the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Trump has long tried to paint himself as one of Israel’s staunchest defenders and has continued to pledge support in the wake of the attack. In the immediate aftermath, he, like some other GOP contenders, tried to place the blame on Biden, and said he would support the country’s efforts to “crush” Hamas.
But on Wednesday night, after saying his prayers were with Israel and again vowing support, Trump told a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, that he was frustrated with Netanyahu over the 2020 mission that killed Soleimani, then the head of Iran’s Quds Force.
In Trump’s telling, “Israel was going to do this with us, and it was being planned and working on it for months.”
“We had everything all set to go, and the night before it happened, I got a call that Israel will not be participating in this attack,” Trump alleged, adding that he would “never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down.”
His account of Israel’s role in the raid could not immediately be verified.
Trump also seized on intelligence failures surrounding the past weekend’s onslaught, saying the Iraelis had to “strengthen themselves up.”
“They’ve got to straighten it out because they’re fighting, potentially, a very big force,” he said. “They’re going to have to step up their game.” He further criticized Israel’s defence minister, calling him “this jerk” for warning Hezbollah not to attack Israel from the north.
In an interview that aired Thursday morning on Fox News Radio, he told host Brian Kilmeade that Netanyahu “was not prepared and Israel was not prepared.”
“Who would have thought their intelligence wouldn’t have been able to pick this up?” he asked. “Thousands of people were involved. Thousands of people knew about it and they let this slip by.”
Speaking to reporters after filing for the New Hampshire primary on Thursday afternoon, DeSantis said Netanyahu was “managing one of the most difficult situations Israel’s ever had to face.”
“We don’t have to bother with him and the nonsense he spouts,” Karhi said. Asked if Trump’s comments make it clear that he can’t be relied on, Karhi replied, “Obviously.”
While Trump and Netanyahu were close allies during Trump’s time in office, the former president turned on the embattled Israel leader after he congratulated then-President-elect Joe Biden for winning the 2020 election while Trump was still trying to overturn the results. In interviews for a book about Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to its author, used an expletive to describe Netanyahu and said he believed the Israeli leader never really wanted to make peace.
Trump’s rivals quickly seized on his new comments. Speaking to reporters after filing for the New Hampshire primary on Thursday afternoon, DeSantis said, “Now is not the time to be attacking our ally.”
Netanyahu, he said, is “managing one of the most difficult situations Israel’s ever had to face. You may have a personal vendetta or beef with him, but is that really the time to be out there doing that and to be attacking the Israeli defence minister? I don’t think so.” He also criticized Trump for calling Hezbollah “very smart.”
Doug Burgum, another GOP contender, compared the comments to a foreign ally criticizing the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11 or the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“You may have a personal vendetta or beef with him, but is that really the time to be out there doing that and to be attacking the Israeli defence minister? I don’t think so,” he said. He also criticized Trump for calling Hezbollah “very smart.”
Trump campaign aides defended the former president’s comments, saying that there was nothing new about his criticism of Netanyahu over the 2020 strike and defending his use of the word “smart” to describe bad foreign actors.
“President Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack,” said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. “Smart does not equal good. It just proves Biden is stupid.”
It remains unclear how the new war in the Middle East might impact both the GOP primary, which will begin in three months in Iowa, or the general election.
While the war in Israel was not top of mind for many of the Republican primary voters who gathered at the New Hampshire statehouse on Thursday to see DeSantis, several were aware of Trump’s comments. One of them, 34-year-old Republican Melissa Blasek, of Merrimack, said it was another example of why she had lost faith in the former president.
“One of the things I always liked about Trump was his strong support for Israel,” said Blasek. “I don’t really know what he meant. It was very rambling. What’s clear is that this is not the Trump of 2016. He is not the same candidate … And so things sound less coherent. And I am tired of incoherency. I like an articulate and coherent president.”
— Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, Holly Ramer, Steve Peoples in Concord, New Hampshire, and Thomas Beaumont in Newton, Iowa, contributed to this report.
Trump’s criticism of Israel’s Netanyahu draws strong condemnation from GOP rivals
Donald Trump has accused Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu of betraying him just before the U.S. killed a top Iranian general in 2020.
Ex-IRS contractor pleads guilty in leak of tax return information of Trump, wealthy people
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lindsay Whitehurst
Published Oct 12, 2023 • 2 minute read
A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service has been charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about a government official and thousands of the country's wealthiest people. The Justice Department said in a statement Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, that 38-year-old Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. is accused of stealing tax return information and giving it to two different news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service has been charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about a government official and thousands of the country's wealthiest people. The Justice Department said in a statement Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, that 38-year-old Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. is accused of stealing tax return information and giving it to two different news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people pleaded guilty to a federal charge Thursday in an agreement with prosecutors.
The Justice Department charged Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., with stealing tax return information and giving it to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she was deeply troubled by his actions that affected Trump and thousands of other people. “When we have people, for whatever reason, take the law into their own hands society doesn’t function,” she said. “Make no mistake, this was not acceptable. If anyone tells you the ends justify the means, they’re wrong.”
Littlejohn pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. The count carries up to five years in prison, but the ultimate sentence will be decided by the judge. Trump attorney Alina Habba pushed back against the plea deal and called for a long sentence. Littlejohn is set to be sentenced Jan. 29.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that Littlejohn “broke federal law and betrayed the public’s trust.”
Defense attorney Lisa Manning declined to comment.
The outlets were not named in the charges, but the description and time frame align with stories about Trump’s tax returns in The New York Times and reporting about wealthy Americans’ taxes in the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.
The 2020 New York Times report found Trump paid $750 in federal income tax the year he entered the White House and no income tax at all some years thanks to colossal losses. Six years of his returns were later released by the then-Democratically controlled House Ways and Means Committee.
ProPublica, meanwhile, reported in 2021 on a trove of tax-return data about the wealthiest Americans. It found the 25 richest people legally pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than many ordinary workers do.
Both publications have declined to comment on the charges, and ProPublica reporters previously said they didn’t know the identity of the source. The stories sparked calls for reform on taxes for the wealthy — and calls for investigations into the leaking of tax information, which has specific legal protections.
The IRS has said any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable and the agency has since tightened security.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lindsay Whitehurst
Published Oct 12, 2023 • 2 minute read
A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service has been charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about a government official and thousands of the country's wealthiest people. The Justice Department said in a statement Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, that 38-year-old Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. is accused of stealing tax return information and giving it to two different news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service has been charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about a government official and thousands of the country's wealthiest people. The Justice Department said in a statement Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, that 38-year-old Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. is accused of stealing tax return information and giving it to two different news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people pleaded guilty to a federal charge Thursday in an agreement with prosecutors.
The Justice Department charged Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., with stealing tax return information and giving it to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she was deeply troubled by his actions that affected Trump and thousands of other people. “When we have people, for whatever reason, take the law into their own hands society doesn’t function,” she said. “Make no mistake, this was not acceptable. If anyone tells you the ends justify the means, they’re wrong.”
Littlejohn pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. The count carries up to five years in prison, but the ultimate sentence will be decided by the judge. Trump attorney Alina Habba pushed back against the plea deal and called for a long sentence. Littlejohn is set to be sentenced Jan. 29.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that Littlejohn “broke federal law and betrayed the public’s trust.”
Defense attorney Lisa Manning declined to comment.
The outlets were not named in the charges, but the description and time frame align with stories about Trump’s tax returns in The New York Times and reporting about wealthy Americans’ taxes in the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.
The 2020 New York Times report found Trump paid $750 in federal income tax the year he entered the White House and no income tax at all some years thanks to colossal losses. Six years of his returns were later released by the then-Democratically controlled House Ways and Means Committee.
ProPublica, meanwhile, reported in 2021 on a trove of tax-return data about the wealthiest Americans. It found the 25 richest people legally pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than many ordinary workers do.
Both publications have declined to comment on the charges, and ProPublica reporters previously said they didn’t know the identity of the source. The stories sparked calls for reform on taxes for the wealthy — and calls for investigations into the leaking of tax information, which has specific legal protections.
The IRS has said any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable and the agency has since tightened security.
Ex-IRS contractor pleads guilty in leak of tax return information of Trump, wealthy people
Charles Edward Littlejohn was charged with stealing tax return information and giving it to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
Trump sues ex-British spy over dossier containing ‘shocking and scandalous claims’
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Brian Melley
Published Oct 16, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 3 minute read
LONDON — A lawyer for Donald Trump told a London judge Monday that the ex-president plans to prove that a discredited report by a former British spy that contained “shocking and scandalous claims” that he was compromised by Russians in his first bid for the presidency was wrong and harmed his reputation.
Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier in 2016 that contained rumours and uncorroborated allegations about Trump that erupted in a political storm just before he was inaugurated.
Trump is seeking damages from Orbis Business Intelligence for allegedly violating British data protection laws. Steele’s company is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed during two days of hearings at London’s High Court.
The lawsuit comes as Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination while facing legal problems on the other side of the Atlantic.
Trump’s lawyers are currently fighting a civil fraud trial in New York alleging he and company executives deceived banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth to secure loans and make deals. He also faces four separate criminal cases for allegations including mishandling classified documents, trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and paying hush money to a porn actress to cover up an affair.
His lawyer noted in court Monday that Trump is a “controversial figure” who “expresses himself in strong language” and has faced criticism from judges in the U.S. However, he said none of that is relevant in the current case.
Trump “suffered personal and reputational damage and distress” because his data protection rights were violated, attorney Hugh Tomlinson said.
Steele, who once ran the Russia desk for the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, was paid by Democrats to compile research that included salacious allegations that Russians could potentially blackmail Trump for sexual activity. Trump said the dossier was fake news and a political witch hunt.
Tomlinson said it “contained shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump” and included allegations he paid bribes to Russian officials to further his business interests. Trump’s case “is that this personal data is egregiously inaccurate,” he said.
Tomlinson said Trump plans to vindicate himself in court by providing evidence that the report’s claims were false.
In a written witness statement, Trump said that despite Steele’s assertions the allegations have not been disproven, they were “wholly untrue.”
Trump said he had not engaged in “perverted sexual behavior including the hiring of prostitutes … in the presidential suite of a hotel in Moscow,” taken part in “sex parties” in St. Petersburg, bribed Russian officials, or provided them with “sufficient material to blackmail me.” He also said he had not bribed, coerced or silenced witnesses.
Orbis wants the lawsuit thrown out because it said the report was never meant to be made public and was published by BuzzFeed without the permission of Steele or Orbis. It also said the claim was filed too late.
Orbis attorney Antony White said Trump has a “deep and intense animus against” Steele and the firm and a “a long history of repeatedly bringing frivolous, meritless and vexatious claims for the purpose of vexing and harassing perceived enemies and others against whom he bears a grudge.”
Trump had called for Steele to be “extradited, tried, and thrown into jail” and has called him a “lowlife” and “sleazebag” involved in the “Russian collusion hoax” who produced “a total phony con job” dossier, White said in a court filing.
Trump said in his witness statement that he was not trying to harass or seek revenge or drive Orbis into financial ruin but wants to establish that the information in the dossier was false.
“Until there is such a judgment, I continue to suffer damage and distress as a result of people wrongfully believing that the data in the dossier is accurate,” he said.
In two previous High Court cases, a judge ruled Orbis and Steele were not legally liable for the consequences of the dossier’s publication.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Brian Melley
Published Oct 16, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 3 minute read
LONDON — A lawyer for Donald Trump told a London judge Monday that the ex-president plans to prove that a discredited report by a former British spy that contained “shocking and scandalous claims” that he was compromised by Russians in his first bid for the presidency was wrong and harmed his reputation.
Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier in 2016 that contained rumours and uncorroborated allegations about Trump that erupted in a political storm just before he was inaugurated.
Trump is seeking damages from Orbis Business Intelligence for allegedly violating British data protection laws. Steele’s company is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed during two days of hearings at London’s High Court.
The lawsuit comes as Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination while facing legal problems on the other side of the Atlantic.
Trump’s lawyers are currently fighting a civil fraud trial in New York alleging he and company executives deceived banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth to secure loans and make deals. He also faces four separate criminal cases for allegations including mishandling classified documents, trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and paying hush money to a porn actress to cover up an affair.
His lawyer noted in court Monday that Trump is a “controversial figure” who “expresses himself in strong language” and has faced criticism from judges in the U.S. However, he said none of that is relevant in the current case.
Trump “suffered personal and reputational damage and distress” because his data protection rights were violated, attorney Hugh Tomlinson said.
Steele, who once ran the Russia desk for the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, was paid by Democrats to compile research that included salacious allegations that Russians could potentially blackmail Trump for sexual activity. Trump said the dossier was fake news and a political witch hunt.
Tomlinson said it “contained shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump” and included allegations he paid bribes to Russian officials to further his business interests. Trump’s case “is that this personal data is egregiously inaccurate,” he said.
Tomlinson said Trump plans to vindicate himself in court by providing evidence that the report’s claims were false.
In a written witness statement, Trump said that despite Steele’s assertions the allegations have not been disproven, they were “wholly untrue.”
Trump said he had not engaged in “perverted sexual behavior including the hiring of prostitutes … in the presidential suite of a hotel in Moscow,” taken part in “sex parties” in St. Petersburg, bribed Russian officials, or provided them with “sufficient material to blackmail me.” He also said he had not bribed, coerced or silenced witnesses.
Orbis wants the lawsuit thrown out because it said the report was never meant to be made public and was published by BuzzFeed without the permission of Steele or Orbis. It also said the claim was filed too late.
Orbis attorney Antony White said Trump has a “deep and intense animus against” Steele and the firm and a “a long history of repeatedly bringing frivolous, meritless and vexatious claims for the purpose of vexing and harassing perceived enemies and others against whom he bears a grudge.”
Trump had called for Steele to be “extradited, tried, and thrown into jail” and has called him a “lowlife” and “sleazebag” involved in the “Russian collusion hoax” who produced “a total phony con job” dossier, White said in a court filing.
Trump said in his witness statement that he was not trying to harass or seek revenge or drive Orbis into financial ruin but wants to establish that the information in the dossier was false.
“Until there is such a judgment, I continue to suffer damage and distress as a result of people wrongfully believing that the data in the dossier is accurate,” he said.
In two previous High Court cases, a judge ruled Orbis and Steele were not legally liable for the consequences of the dossier’s publication.
Trump sues ex-British spy over dossier containing ‘shocking and scandalous claims’
Donald Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier that the former president says contained rumours.
Sidney Powell pleads guilty in case over efforts to overturn Trump's Georgia loss and gets probation
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kate Brumback
Published Oct 19, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyer Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia, becoming the second defendant in the sprawling case to reach a deal with prosecutors.
Powell, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, entered the plea just a day before jury selection was set to start in her trial. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties.
As part of the deal, she will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and will have to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. She also recorded a statement for prosecutors and agreed to testify truthfully against her co-defendants at future trials.
Powell was initially charged with racketeering and six other counts as part of a wide-ranging scheme to keep the Republican president in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say she also participated in an unauthorized breach of elections equipment in a rural Georgia county elections office.
The plea deal makes Powell the most prominent known person to be working with prosecutors investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Her cooperation in the case and participation in strategy talks threaten to expose the former president and offer insight on what he was saying and doing in the critical period after the election.
Above all, the guilty plea is a remarkable about-face for a lawyer who, perhaps more than anyone else, strenuously pushed baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election in the face of extensive evidence to the contrary. She also has important knowledge about high-profile events, including a news conference she participated in on behalf of Trump and his campaign shortly after the election and on a White House meeting she attended in mid-December of 2020 in which prosecutors say ways to influence the outcome of the election were discussed.
Powell’s only comments in court came in response to routine questions from prosecutor Daysha Young and the judge.
There was a moment of levity when Young asked, “How old are you, ma’am?”
“Oh gosh,” Powell said with a chuckle. “Sixty-eight, despite my astonishingly youthful countenance.”
But Powell was solemn and succinct when Young asked, “How do you plead to the six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties?”
“Guilty,” Powell said, her hands folded in front of her on the defense table.
John Fishwick, a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, called Powell’s plea a “significant win” for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“This is somebody who was at ground zero of these allegations and a lawyer who is pleading guilty,” he said. “This is very significant.”
Fishwick also said Powell’s plea is helpful to Jack Smith, the Justice Department’s special counsel.
Powell is referenced, though not by name, as one of six unindicted co-conspirators in Smith’s federal case charging Trump with plotting to overturn the election. That indictment notes how Trump had privately acknowledged to others that Powell’s unfounded claims of election fraud were “crazy,” yet nonetheless he promoted and embraced a lawsuit that Powell filed against the state of Georgia that included what prosecutors said were “far-fetched” and baseless assertions.
Barry Coburn, a Washington-based lawyer for Powell, declined to comment Thursday.
Powell gained notoriety for threatening in a Fox Business interview in November 2020 to “release the Kraken,” invoking a mythical sea monster when talking about a lawsuit she planned to file to challenge the results of the presidential election. Similar suits she filed in several states were promptly dismissed.
She was about to go on trial with lawyer Kenneth Chesebro after each filed a demand for a speedy trial. Jury selection was still set to begin Friday for Chesebro to go on trial by himself, though prosecutors said earlier that they also planned to look into the possibility of offering him a plea deal.
Jury selection was set to start Friday. Chesebro’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday on whether he would also accept a plea deal.
A lower-profile defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, last month pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
Steve Sadow, the lead attorney for Trump in the Georgia case, expressed confidence that Powell’s plea wouldn’t hurt his own client’s case.
“Assuming truthful testimony in the Fulton County case, it will be favorable to my overall defense strategy,” he said.
Prosecutors allege that Powell conspired with Hall and others to access election equipment without authorization and hired computer forensics firm SullivanStrickler to send a team to Coffee County, in south Georgia, to copy software and data from voting machines and computers there. The indictment says a person who is not named sent an email to a top SullivanStrickler executive and instructed him to send all data copied from Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Coffee County to an unidentified lawyer associated with Powell and the Trump campaign.
Trial dates have not been set for the 16 remaining defendants, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was a Trump lawyer, and Mark Meadows, who was the Trump White House’s chief of staff.
Willis has faced some criticism over her wide-ranging indictment and use of the state’s anti-racketeering law to charge so many defendants. Some people had speculated that, if her case did not go well, it could undermine Smith’s case, Fishwick said.
“This certainly shows that at least, as of today, it’s not undermining it. In fact, it’s strengthening his case,” Fishwick said.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kate Brumback
Published Oct 19, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyer Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia, becoming the second defendant in the sprawling case to reach a deal with prosecutors.
Powell, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, entered the plea just a day before jury selection was set to start in her trial. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties.
As part of the deal, she will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and will have to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. She also recorded a statement for prosecutors and agreed to testify truthfully against her co-defendants at future trials.
Powell was initially charged with racketeering and six other counts as part of a wide-ranging scheme to keep the Republican president in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say she also participated in an unauthorized breach of elections equipment in a rural Georgia county elections office.
The plea deal makes Powell the most prominent known person to be working with prosecutors investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Her cooperation in the case and participation in strategy talks threaten to expose the former president and offer insight on what he was saying and doing in the critical period after the election.
Above all, the guilty plea is a remarkable about-face for a lawyer who, perhaps more than anyone else, strenuously pushed baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election in the face of extensive evidence to the contrary. She also has important knowledge about high-profile events, including a news conference she participated in on behalf of Trump and his campaign shortly after the election and on a White House meeting she attended in mid-December of 2020 in which prosecutors say ways to influence the outcome of the election were discussed.
Powell’s only comments in court came in response to routine questions from prosecutor Daysha Young and the judge.
There was a moment of levity when Young asked, “How old are you, ma’am?”
“Oh gosh,” Powell said with a chuckle. “Sixty-eight, despite my astonishingly youthful countenance.”
But Powell was solemn and succinct when Young asked, “How do you plead to the six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties?”
“Guilty,” Powell said, her hands folded in front of her on the defense table.
John Fishwick, a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, called Powell’s plea a “significant win” for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“This is somebody who was at ground zero of these allegations and a lawyer who is pleading guilty,” he said. “This is very significant.”
Fishwick also said Powell’s plea is helpful to Jack Smith, the Justice Department’s special counsel.
Powell is referenced, though not by name, as one of six unindicted co-conspirators in Smith’s federal case charging Trump with plotting to overturn the election. That indictment notes how Trump had privately acknowledged to others that Powell’s unfounded claims of election fraud were “crazy,” yet nonetheless he promoted and embraced a lawsuit that Powell filed against the state of Georgia that included what prosecutors said were “far-fetched” and baseless assertions.
Barry Coburn, a Washington-based lawyer for Powell, declined to comment Thursday.
Powell gained notoriety for threatening in a Fox Business interview in November 2020 to “release the Kraken,” invoking a mythical sea monster when talking about a lawsuit she planned to file to challenge the results of the presidential election. Similar suits she filed in several states were promptly dismissed.
She was about to go on trial with lawyer Kenneth Chesebro after each filed a demand for a speedy trial. Jury selection was still set to begin Friday for Chesebro to go on trial by himself, though prosecutors said earlier that they also planned to look into the possibility of offering him a plea deal.
Jury selection was set to start Friday. Chesebro’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday on whether he would also accept a plea deal.
A lower-profile defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, last month pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
Steve Sadow, the lead attorney for Trump in the Georgia case, expressed confidence that Powell’s plea wouldn’t hurt his own client’s case.
“Assuming truthful testimony in the Fulton County case, it will be favorable to my overall defense strategy,” he said.
Prosecutors allege that Powell conspired with Hall and others to access election equipment without authorization and hired computer forensics firm SullivanStrickler to send a team to Coffee County, in south Georgia, to copy software and data from voting machines and computers there. The indictment says a person who is not named sent an email to a top SullivanStrickler executive and instructed him to send all data copied from Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Coffee County to an unidentified lawyer associated with Powell and the Trump campaign.
Trial dates have not been set for the 16 remaining defendants, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was a Trump lawyer, and Mark Meadows, who was the Trump White House’s chief of staff.
Willis has faced some criticism over her wide-ranging indictment and use of the state’s anti-racketeering law to charge so many defendants. Some people had speculated that, if her case did not go well, it could undermine Smith’s case, Fishwick said.
“This certainly shows that at least, as of today, it’s not undermining it. In fact, it’s strengthening his case,” Fishwick said.
Sidney Powell pleads guilty in case over efforts to overturn Trump's Georgia loss and gets probation
She will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and will have to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents.
At Donald Trump's civil trial, appraiser recalls Eric Trump's 'lofty' views on property value
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jennifer Peltz
Published Oct 19, 2023 • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — The spotlight at former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial turned Thursday to his son Eric, with testimony and documents suggesting the scion envisioned a “lofty” value for a suburban golf course and was actively involved in appraisals he has said he doesn’t remember.
The trial stems from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ claims that Donald Trump, his company and executives, including Eric Trump, fraudulently inflated asset values on financial statements given to lenders, insurers and others. The defendants deny the allegations, and the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner says the values actually were underestimated.
About a decade ago, Trump’s companies sought appraisals of two of their properties in New York’s suburban Westchester County — the Trump National Golf Club and an estate known as Seven Springs, according to documents and testimony Thursday.
At the time, the companies were considering what are known as conservation easements on the properties, according to David McArdle, an appraiser with the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. A conservation easement is essentially an agreement to forgo development in exchange for a tax break.
McArdle said he was asked in 2013 to figure out what the golf course would be worth if 71 high-end townhomes were built there, and he got substantial input from Eric Trump, who’s an executive vice president at the Trump Organization.
“Of course Eric Trump has lofty ideas on value,” assuming the townhouses would easily sell for $1,000 per square foot, McArdle wrote in an email to a fellow appraiser at the time.
Eric Trump subsequently sent McArdle suggestions of properties to use for comparison, while arguing that none had “close to the amount, quality or kind of amenities” of the Trump course in Briarcliff Manor, New York.
As McArdle settled on a value around $45 million, he and lawyers for the Trump company strategized in email about how to present it to their client.
McArdle said Thursday that Eric Trump may have had a “more lofty value” in mind, but a higher number wouldn’t have been credible. The email discussion was a leadup “to finally tell Eric he should accept this value from the professionals,” McArdle testified.
McArdle then got a message from Eric Trump, saying that he’d spoke to one of the lawyers and telling McArdle to hold off sending the appraisal until further notice.
Trump’s financial statements went on to list the golf course at values sometimes topping $100 million, according to James’ lawsuit. The villas weren’t built.
Donald Trump floated various plans over the years for Seven Springs, a historic mansion and 213-acre property that spans three Westchester County towns. After his development proposals met opposition, he pursued an easement.
McArdle was hired in 2014, through a lawyer for Trump’s companies, to evaluate Seven Springs’ value. The appraiser said the exercise assumed the estate could be divided into about two dozen building lots for luxury homes.
Once again, McArdle said, Eric Trump touted the property’s attributes to him and suggested a supposedly comparable spread — a Connecticut development where lots sold for as much as $3 million apiece.
“He had a very high opinion of his property,” said McArdle, who said he eventually advised in a phone call that Seven Springs was worth up to $50 million. Eric Trump was included in and responded to emails arranging for McArdle to present his view.
A few months later, Donald Trump’s financial statements valued Seven Springs at over $160 million, according to James’ lawsuit.
When asked about McArdle in pretrial testimony this year, Eric Trump said he only “vaguely” recognized the man’s name and didn’t recall much, if anything, about the appraisals of Seven Springs or the golf course.
“I pour concrete. I operate properties,” Eric Trump said. “I don’t focus on appraisals between a law firm and Cushman.”
Defense lawyer Lazaro Fields, in questioning McArdle, sought to establish that it’s not uncommon for owners to talk up their properties’ value to appraisers and for their opinions to differ.
“Absolutely,” McArdle said, “but ultimately, we’re the ones calling the value.”
Both Eric and Donald Trump have attended some of the trial but weren’t there Thursday, when the court also heard about a $160 million refinancing loan on a Trump-owned Wall Street office building in 2015.
An internal document prepared by lender Ladder Capital said the “deal strengths” included Trump’s stated net worth of nearly $5.8 billion, over $300 million of it in cash and other liquid assets — figures that reflected Trump’s 2014 financial statement.
“The net worth statement is one of many things that we look at in the underwriting process. I wouldn’t say it was a key factor … it was a factor,” Ladder Capital executive Jack Weisselberg testified, explaining that “liquidity was what we were really paying attention to.”
Weisselberg is the son of former Trump company finance chief Allen Weisselberg.
The state attorney general is seeking $250 million and a ban on Trump and other defendants doing business in New York.
In a pretrial ruling, Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump and his company engaged in fraud, and the judge ordered that a court-appointed receiver take control of some Trump companies. An appeals court has since at least temporarily blocked enforcement of that aspect of the ruling. If upheld, it could strip the ex-president of control over Trump Tower and other marquee properties.
Both Engoron and James are Democrats.
——
Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jennifer Peltz
Published Oct 19, 2023 • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — The spotlight at former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial turned Thursday to his son Eric, with testimony and documents suggesting the scion envisioned a “lofty” value for a suburban golf course and was actively involved in appraisals he has said he doesn’t remember.
The trial stems from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ claims that Donald Trump, his company and executives, including Eric Trump, fraudulently inflated asset values on financial statements given to lenders, insurers and others. The defendants deny the allegations, and the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner says the values actually were underestimated.
About a decade ago, Trump’s companies sought appraisals of two of their properties in New York’s suburban Westchester County — the Trump National Golf Club and an estate known as Seven Springs, according to documents and testimony Thursday.
At the time, the companies were considering what are known as conservation easements on the properties, according to David McArdle, an appraiser with the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. A conservation easement is essentially an agreement to forgo development in exchange for a tax break.
McArdle said he was asked in 2013 to figure out what the golf course would be worth if 71 high-end townhomes were built there, and he got substantial input from Eric Trump, who’s an executive vice president at the Trump Organization.
“Of course Eric Trump has lofty ideas on value,” assuming the townhouses would easily sell for $1,000 per square foot, McArdle wrote in an email to a fellow appraiser at the time.
Eric Trump subsequently sent McArdle suggestions of properties to use for comparison, while arguing that none had “close to the amount, quality or kind of amenities” of the Trump course in Briarcliff Manor, New York.
As McArdle settled on a value around $45 million, he and lawyers for the Trump company strategized in email about how to present it to their client.
McArdle said Thursday that Eric Trump may have had a “more lofty value” in mind, but a higher number wouldn’t have been credible. The email discussion was a leadup “to finally tell Eric he should accept this value from the professionals,” McArdle testified.
McArdle then got a message from Eric Trump, saying that he’d spoke to one of the lawyers and telling McArdle to hold off sending the appraisal until further notice.
Trump’s financial statements went on to list the golf course at values sometimes topping $100 million, according to James’ lawsuit. The villas weren’t built.
Donald Trump floated various plans over the years for Seven Springs, a historic mansion and 213-acre property that spans three Westchester County towns. After his development proposals met opposition, he pursued an easement.
McArdle was hired in 2014, through a lawyer for Trump’s companies, to evaluate Seven Springs’ value. The appraiser said the exercise assumed the estate could be divided into about two dozen building lots for luxury homes.
Once again, McArdle said, Eric Trump touted the property’s attributes to him and suggested a supposedly comparable spread — a Connecticut development where lots sold for as much as $3 million apiece.
“He had a very high opinion of his property,” said McArdle, who said he eventually advised in a phone call that Seven Springs was worth up to $50 million. Eric Trump was included in and responded to emails arranging for McArdle to present his view.
A few months later, Donald Trump’s financial statements valued Seven Springs at over $160 million, according to James’ lawsuit.
When asked about McArdle in pretrial testimony this year, Eric Trump said he only “vaguely” recognized the man’s name and didn’t recall much, if anything, about the appraisals of Seven Springs or the golf course.
“I pour concrete. I operate properties,” Eric Trump said. “I don’t focus on appraisals between a law firm and Cushman.”
Defense lawyer Lazaro Fields, in questioning McArdle, sought to establish that it’s not uncommon for owners to talk up their properties’ value to appraisers and for their opinions to differ.
“Absolutely,” McArdle said, “but ultimately, we’re the ones calling the value.”
Both Eric and Donald Trump have attended some of the trial but weren’t there Thursday, when the court also heard about a $160 million refinancing loan on a Trump-owned Wall Street office building in 2015.
An internal document prepared by lender Ladder Capital said the “deal strengths” included Trump’s stated net worth of nearly $5.8 billion, over $300 million of it in cash and other liquid assets — figures that reflected Trump’s 2014 financial statement.
“The net worth statement is one of many things that we look at in the underwriting process. I wouldn’t say it was a key factor … it was a factor,” Ladder Capital executive Jack Weisselberg testified, explaining that “liquidity was what we were really paying attention to.”
Weisselberg is the son of former Trump company finance chief Allen Weisselberg.
The state attorney general is seeking $250 million and a ban on Trump and other defendants doing business in New York.
In a pretrial ruling, Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump and his company engaged in fraud, and the judge ordered that a court-appointed receiver take control of some Trump companies. An appeals court has since at least temporarily blocked enforcement of that aspect of the ruling. If upheld, it could strip the ex-president of control over Trump Tower and other marquee properties.
Both Engoron and James are Democrats.
——
Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.
At Donald Trump's civil trial, appraiser recalls Eric Trump's 'lofty' views on property value
About a decade ago, Trump's companies sought appraisals of two of their properties in New York's suburban Westchester County.
Jury selection will begin in the first trial in the Georgia election case against Trump and others
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kate Brumback
Published Oct 20, 2023 • 4 minute read
Jury selection is set to begin for Chesebro, the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
Jury selection is set to begin for Chesebro, the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
ATLANTA (AP) — Jury selection is set to begin Friday for the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro was indicted just over two months ago along with Trump and 17 others. Two of those others — including Sidney Powell, who was supposed to go on trial with Chesebro — have already pleaded guilty to reduced charges, and no trial date has been set yet for the rest.
If Chesebro doesn’t take a plea deal before the trial starts, the proceedings will provide a first extensive look at the evidence that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team have amassed against him and the rest of the defendants.
Here’s what to expect:
TRUMP WILL LOOM LARGE OVER THE TRIAL
There’s little doubt that the Republican former president will be a central figure in the proceedings, even though he’s not expected to be there.
After all, the indictment alleges Chesebro and the rest of the defendants “refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
As the defense and prosecution weigh potential jurors, it’s likely they will try to figure out as much as they can about their feelings about Trump, their political leanings and their opinions about baseless claims that the 2020 election was marred by fraud and stolen from Trump.
CHESEBRO WILL BE TRIED BY HIMSELF
Until Thursday morning, Chesebro was set to go on trial alongside Powell after each filed a demand for a speedy trial. Under Georgia law, a defendant who files a demand for a speedy trial has a right to have a trial begin within the court term when the demand is filed or in the next court term. That meant the trial had to start by Nov. 5.
Powell agreed to a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to six misdemeanor counts. As part of the deal, she must testify truthfully if she is called as a witness at any future trials related to the case. She was also sentenced to probation and ordered to pay a fine.
THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CHESEBRO
All the defendants are accused of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, by participating in a wide-ranging scheme to keep Trump in power despite his election loss.
Chesebro is also accused of working on the coordination and execution of a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate declaring falsely that Trump won and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
The indictment says Chesebro wrote memos outlining that plan, including one that “provides detailed, state-specific instructions” for how Trump elector nominees in swing states where Trump had lost could meet to cast votes for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020.
In an email sent a few days before those meetings were to happen, Chesebro wrote that “the purpose of having the electoral votes sent in to Congress is to provide the opportunity to debate the election irregularities in Congress and to keep alive the possibility that votes could be flipped to Trump.”
In an email to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump lawyer, he outlined strategies to disrupt and delay the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, during which electoral votes were to be certified for Democrat Joe Biden, prosecutors said. He wrote that those strategies were “preferable to allowing the Electoral Count Act to operate by its terms.”
Besides the racketeering charge, he faces six felony conspiracy counts related to the elector plan.
CHESEBRO’S DEFENSE
Chesebro’s attorneys do not dispute that he drafted the legal memos and emails at issue, but they have said every action he took was justified under Georgia and federal law. He is a constitutional law expert who was working as a lawyer to research and find precedents to support a legal opinion that he provided to the Trump campaign, they argued in court filings.
“Nothing about Mr. Chesebro’s conduct falls outside the bounds of what lawyers do on a daily basis; researching the law in order to find solutions that address their clients particularized needs,” they wrote in one filing.
His lawyers tried to get the judge to bar prosecutors from using Chesebro’s memos and emails at trial, arguing that they were protected by attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine. But the judge rejected those arguments.
THE JURY SELECTION PROCESS
The 450 prospective jurors summoned to appear at the courthouse in downtown Atlanta on Friday will spend several hours filling out an extensive questionnaire formulated by prosecutors, defense attorneys and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. Those will then be scanned into a shared drive accessible to the lawyers.
On Monday, prospective jurors will be called in groups of 14 for individual questioning. For each group, the judge will ask questions to determine whether anyone has qualifying hardships that would keep them from being able to serve as a juror. Then the prosecution and the defense attorneys will have one hour per group of 14 prospective jurors to ask questions.
To ensure there are enough potential jurors, McAfee has requested that another 450 people be brought in on Oct. 27 to fill out questionnaires.
In an order in September, McAfee wrote that he will try to have the jury seated and sworn in by Nov. 3, “to eliminate any doubts that the statutory speedy trial deadline has been met.”
THE TRIAL LENGTH
Prosecutors have said that since the case was brought under the RICO law, they intend to prove the entire alleged conspiracy, using all the same witnesses and evidence in any trial in the case. They said at a hearing last month that they estimate a trial would take four months and that they would call more than 150 witnesses.
McAfee recently said he would tell prospective jurors during jury selection that it’s likely to take up to five months.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kate Brumback
Published Oct 20, 2023 • 4 minute read
Jury selection is set to begin for Chesebro, the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
Jury selection is set to begin for Chesebro, the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
ATLANTA (AP) — Jury selection is set to begin Friday for the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro was indicted just over two months ago along with Trump and 17 others. Two of those others — including Sidney Powell, who was supposed to go on trial with Chesebro — have already pleaded guilty to reduced charges, and no trial date has been set yet for the rest.
If Chesebro doesn’t take a plea deal before the trial starts, the proceedings will provide a first extensive look at the evidence that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team have amassed against him and the rest of the defendants.
Here’s what to expect:
TRUMP WILL LOOM LARGE OVER THE TRIAL
There’s little doubt that the Republican former president will be a central figure in the proceedings, even though he’s not expected to be there.
After all, the indictment alleges Chesebro and the rest of the defendants “refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
As the defense and prosecution weigh potential jurors, it’s likely they will try to figure out as much as they can about their feelings about Trump, their political leanings and their opinions about baseless claims that the 2020 election was marred by fraud and stolen from Trump.
CHESEBRO WILL BE TRIED BY HIMSELF
Until Thursday morning, Chesebro was set to go on trial alongside Powell after each filed a demand for a speedy trial. Under Georgia law, a defendant who files a demand for a speedy trial has a right to have a trial begin within the court term when the demand is filed or in the next court term. That meant the trial had to start by Nov. 5.
Powell agreed to a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to six misdemeanor counts. As part of the deal, she must testify truthfully if she is called as a witness at any future trials related to the case. She was also sentenced to probation and ordered to pay a fine.
THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CHESEBRO
All the defendants are accused of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, by participating in a wide-ranging scheme to keep Trump in power despite his election loss.
Chesebro is also accused of working on the coordination and execution of a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate declaring falsely that Trump won and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
The indictment says Chesebro wrote memos outlining that plan, including one that “provides detailed, state-specific instructions” for how Trump elector nominees in swing states where Trump had lost could meet to cast votes for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020.
In an email sent a few days before those meetings were to happen, Chesebro wrote that “the purpose of having the electoral votes sent in to Congress is to provide the opportunity to debate the election irregularities in Congress and to keep alive the possibility that votes could be flipped to Trump.”
In an email to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump lawyer, he outlined strategies to disrupt and delay the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, during which electoral votes were to be certified for Democrat Joe Biden, prosecutors said. He wrote that those strategies were “preferable to allowing the Electoral Count Act to operate by its terms.”
Besides the racketeering charge, he faces six felony conspiracy counts related to the elector plan.
CHESEBRO’S DEFENSE
Chesebro’s attorneys do not dispute that he drafted the legal memos and emails at issue, but they have said every action he took was justified under Georgia and federal law. He is a constitutional law expert who was working as a lawyer to research and find precedents to support a legal opinion that he provided to the Trump campaign, they argued in court filings.
“Nothing about Mr. Chesebro’s conduct falls outside the bounds of what lawyers do on a daily basis; researching the law in order to find solutions that address their clients particularized needs,” they wrote in one filing.
His lawyers tried to get the judge to bar prosecutors from using Chesebro’s memos and emails at trial, arguing that they were protected by attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine. But the judge rejected those arguments.
THE JURY SELECTION PROCESS
The 450 prospective jurors summoned to appear at the courthouse in downtown Atlanta on Friday will spend several hours filling out an extensive questionnaire formulated by prosecutors, defense attorneys and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. Those will then be scanned into a shared drive accessible to the lawyers.
On Monday, prospective jurors will be called in groups of 14 for individual questioning. For each group, the judge will ask questions to determine whether anyone has qualifying hardships that would keep them from being able to serve as a juror. Then the prosecution and the defense attorneys will have one hour per group of 14 prospective jurors to ask questions.
To ensure there are enough potential jurors, McAfee has requested that another 450 people be brought in on Oct. 27 to fill out questionnaires.
In an order in September, McAfee wrote that he will try to have the jury seated and sworn in by Nov. 3, “to eliminate any doubts that the statutory speedy trial deadline has been met.”
THE TRIAL LENGTH
Prosecutors have said that since the case was brought under the RICO law, they intend to prove the entire alleged conspiracy, using all the same witnesses and evidence in any trial in the case. They said at a hearing last month that they estimate a trial would take four months and that they would call more than 150 witnesses.
McAfee recently said he would tell prospective jurors during jury selection that it’s likely to take up to five months.
Jury selection will begin in the first trial in the Georgia election case against Trump and others
Jury selection is set to begin Friday for the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case.
Judge threatens to hold Donald Trump in contempt after deleted post is found on campaign website
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Oct 20, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial judge threatened Friday to hold him in contempt, raising the possibility of fining or even jailing the former president because his disparaging social media post about a key court staffer remained visible for weeks on his campaign website after the judge ordered it deleted.
Judge Arthur Engoron said the website’s retention of the post was a “blatant violation” of his Oct. 3 order requiring Trump to immediately delete the offending message. The limited gag order, hours after Trump posted the message on the trial’s second day, also barred him and others involved in the case from personal attacks on members of Engoron’s judicial staff.
Engoron did not immediately rule on sanctioning Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but noted that “in this current overheated climate” incendiary posts have led to harm.
Trump wasn’t in court on Friday. He’d been at the trial Tuesday and Wednesday after attending the first three days in early October. Outside court this week, he aimed his enmity at Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose fraud lawsuit is being decided at the civil trial. Neither are covered by Engoron’s gag order.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise blamed the “very large machine” of Trump’s presidential campaign for allowing a version of his deleted social media post to remain on his website, calling it an unintentional oversight.
Engoron, however, said the buck ultimately stops with Trump — even if it was someone on his campaign who failed to remove the offending post.
“I’ll take this under advisement,” Engoron said after Kise explained the mechanics of how Trump’s post was able to remain online. “But I want to be clear that Donald Trump is still responsible for the large machine even if it’s a large machine.”
Engoron issued a limited gag order on Oct. 3 barring all participants in the case not to smear court personnel after Trump publicly maligned the judge’s principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, in what Engoron deemed a ”disparaging, untrue and personally identifying” Truth Social post. The judge ordered Trump to delete the post, which he did, and warned of “serious sanctions” for violations.
The post included a photo of Greenfield, posing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a public event. Trump wrote that it was “disgraceful” that Greenfield was working with Engoron on the case.
Before Trump deleted the post from his Truth Social platform, as ordered, his campaign copied the message into an email blast. That email, with the subject line “ICYMI,” was automatically archived on Trump’s website, Kise said.
The email was sent to about 25,800 recipients on the campaign’s media list and opened by about 6,700 of them, Kise told Engoron after obtaining the statistics at the morning break. In all, only 3,700 people viewed the post on Trump’s campaign website, the lawyer said.
“What happened appears truly inadvertent,” Kise said. The lawyer pleaded ignorance to the technological complexities involved in amplifying Trump’s social media posts and public statements, calling the archiving “an unfortunate part of the campaign process.”
New York law allows judges to impose fines or imprisonment as punishment for contempt. Last year, Engoron held Trump in contempt and fined him $110,000 for being slow to respond to a subpoena in the investigation that led to the lawsuit.
James’ lawsuit accuses Trump and his company of duping banks and insurers by giving them heavily inflated statements of Trump’s net worth and asset values. Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his company committed fraud, but the trial involves remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.
Trump denies wrongdoing, arguing that a disclaimer on his financial statements absolves him of any culpability and that some of his assets are worth far more than what’s listed on the documents. He’s called the trial a “sham,” a “scam,” and “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.”
The contempt discussion brought unexpected drama to a sleepy Friday ahead of what’s shaping up to be a busy week at the Manhattan trial. Trump’s onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, now a key state witness, said he’ll likely be on the witness stand Tuesday after postponing this week because of a health issue.
On Friday, property appraiser David McArdle resumed his testimony about Trump’s son Eric Trump’s “lofty ideas” for valuing some of his father’s properties and development plans. A Trump Organization executive who worked on Trump’s 2016 financial statement also testified and will resume Monday.
Trump and his two eldest sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are expected to testify in a few weeks. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, is fighting a subpoena for her testimony. Engoron set a hearing on that dispute for next week.
Ivanka Trump was initially a defendant, but an appeals court dropped her from the case in June after finding that claims against her were outside the statute of limitations. Her lawyer argued in court papers Thursday that state lawyers failed to properly serve her subpoena and that she shouldn’t be forced to testify because she isn’t a party to the case and lives outside the court’s New York jurisdiction.
James’ office never questioned Ivanka Trump at a deposition and is now “effectively trying to force her back into this case,” her lawyer, Bennet Moskowitz, wrote.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Oct 20, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial judge threatened Friday to hold him in contempt, raising the possibility of fining or even jailing the former president because his disparaging social media post about a key court staffer remained visible for weeks on his campaign website after the judge ordered it deleted.
Judge Arthur Engoron said the website’s retention of the post was a “blatant violation” of his Oct. 3 order requiring Trump to immediately delete the offending message. The limited gag order, hours after Trump posted the message on the trial’s second day, also barred him and others involved in the case from personal attacks on members of Engoron’s judicial staff.
Engoron did not immediately rule on sanctioning Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but noted that “in this current overheated climate” incendiary posts have led to harm.
Trump wasn’t in court on Friday. He’d been at the trial Tuesday and Wednesday after attending the first three days in early October. Outside court this week, he aimed his enmity at Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose fraud lawsuit is being decided at the civil trial. Neither are covered by Engoron’s gag order.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise blamed the “very large machine” of Trump’s presidential campaign for allowing a version of his deleted social media post to remain on his website, calling it an unintentional oversight.
Engoron, however, said the buck ultimately stops with Trump — even if it was someone on his campaign who failed to remove the offending post.
“I’ll take this under advisement,” Engoron said after Kise explained the mechanics of how Trump’s post was able to remain online. “But I want to be clear that Donald Trump is still responsible for the large machine even if it’s a large machine.”
Engoron issued a limited gag order on Oct. 3 barring all participants in the case not to smear court personnel after Trump publicly maligned the judge’s principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, in what Engoron deemed a ”disparaging, untrue and personally identifying” Truth Social post. The judge ordered Trump to delete the post, which he did, and warned of “serious sanctions” for violations.
The post included a photo of Greenfield, posing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a public event. Trump wrote that it was “disgraceful” that Greenfield was working with Engoron on the case.
Before Trump deleted the post from his Truth Social platform, as ordered, his campaign copied the message into an email blast. That email, with the subject line “ICYMI,” was automatically archived on Trump’s website, Kise said.
The email was sent to about 25,800 recipients on the campaign’s media list and opened by about 6,700 of them, Kise told Engoron after obtaining the statistics at the morning break. In all, only 3,700 people viewed the post on Trump’s campaign website, the lawyer said.
“What happened appears truly inadvertent,” Kise said. The lawyer pleaded ignorance to the technological complexities involved in amplifying Trump’s social media posts and public statements, calling the archiving “an unfortunate part of the campaign process.”
New York law allows judges to impose fines or imprisonment as punishment for contempt. Last year, Engoron held Trump in contempt and fined him $110,000 for being slow to respond to a subpoena in the investigation that led to the lawsuit.
James’ lawsuit accuses Trump and his company of duping banks and insurers by giving them heavily inflated statements of Trump’s net worth and asset values. Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his company committed fraud, but the trial involves remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.
Trump denies wrongdoing, arguing that a disclaimer on his financial statements absolves him of any culpability and that some of his assets are worth far more than what’s listed on the documents. He’s called the trial a “sham,” a “scam,” and “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.”
The contempt discussion brought unexpected drama to a sleepy Friday ahead of what’s shaping up to be a busy week at the Manhattan trial. Trump’s onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, now a key state witness, said he’ll likely be on the witness stand Tuesday after postponing this week because of a health issue.
On Friday, property appraiser David McArdle resumed his testimony about Trump’s son Eric Trump’s “lofty ideas” for valuing some of his father’s properties and development plans. A Trump Organization executive who worked on Trump’s 2016 financial statement also testified and will resume Monday.
Trump and his two eldest sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are expected to testify in a few weeks. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, is fighting a subpoena for her testimony. Engoron set a hearing on that dispute for next week.
Ivanka Trump was initially a defendant, but an appeals court dropped her from the case in June after finding that claims against her were outside the statute of limitations. Her lawyer argued in court papers Thursday that state lawyers failed to properly serve her subpoena and that she shouldn’t be forced to testify because she isn’t a party to the case and lives outside the court’s New York jurisdiction.
James’ office never questioned Ivanka Trump at a deposition and is now “effectively trying to force her back into this case,” her lawyer, Bennet Moskowitz, wrote.
Judge threatens to hold Donald Trump in contempt after deleted post is found on campaign website
Engoron did not immediately rule on potentially sanctioning Trump.
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleads guilty over efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 loss in Georgia
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kate Brumback
Published Oct 20, 2023 • 3 minute read
Jury selection is set to begin for Chesebro, the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
Jury selection is set to begin for Chesebro, the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony on Friday just as jury selection was getting underway in his trial on charges accusing him of participating in efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia.
Chesebro, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in a last-minute deal. His plea came a day after fellow attorney Sidney Powell, who had been scheduled to go to trial alongside him, entered her own guilty plea to six misdemeanor counts.
In Chesebro’s case, he was sentenced to five years’ probation and 100 hours of community service and was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution, write an apology letter to Georgia’s residents and testify truthfully at any related future trial.
The two guilty pleas — along with a third for a bail bondsman last month — are major victories for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who obtained the indictment in August. They allow her to avoid a lengthy trial of just two defendants — which would have given those remaining a peek at her trial strategy — and to whittle down an unwieldy pool of defendants.
Chesebro, who lives in Puerto Rico, was initially charged with felony racketeering and six other counts as part of a wide-ranging scheme to keep the Republican president in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. The indictment alleges Chesebro coordinated and executed a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate declaring falsely that Trump won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
For prosecutors, the plea deal assures that Chesebro publicly accepts responsibility for his conduct in the case and removes the uncertainty of a trial by a jury of his peers. It also compels him to testify about communications he had with Trump’s campaign lawyers and close associates, including co-defendant Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a Trump attorney.
Jury selection had been set to start Friday for the trial of Powell and Chesebro after each filed a demand for a speedy trial. Once Powell pleaded guilty, Chesebro had been set to continue to trial on his own.
As part of Powell’s deal, she will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and will have to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. She also recorded a statement for prosecutors and agreed to testify truthfully against her co-defendants at future trials.
A lower-profile defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
All of the other defendants, including Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege that Chesebro unlawfully conspired with Trump and lawyers associated with his campaign to have the group of Georgia Republicans sign the false elector certificate and to submit it to various federal authorities. He also communicated with Trump campaign lawyers and Republican leaders in other swing states won by Biden to get those states to submit false slates of electors as well, prosecutors alleged.
That included writing memos advocating for Republicans in those states to meet and cast electoral votes for Trump and providing detailed instructions for how the process should be carried out. In an email to Giuliani, he outlined strategies to disrupt and delay the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, during which electoral votes were to be certified. He wrote that those strategies were “preferable to allowing the Electoral Count Act to operate by its terms.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kate Brumback
Published Oct 20, 2023 • 3 minute read
Jury selection is set to begin for Chesebro, the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
Jury selection is set to begin for Chesebro, the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony on Friday just as jury selection was getting underway in his trial on charges accusing him of participating in efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia.
Chesebro, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in a last-minute deal. His plea came a day after fellow attorney Sidney Powell, who had been scheduled to go to trial alongside him, entered her own guilty plea to six misdemeanor counts.
In Chesebro’s case, he was sentenced to five years’ probation and 100 hours of community service and was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution, write an apology letter to Georgia’s residents and testify truthfully at any related future trial.
The two guilty pleas — along with a third for a bail bondsman last month — are major victories for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who obtained the indictment in August. They allow her to avoid a lengthy trial of just two defendants — which would have given those remaining a peek at her trial strategy — and to whittle down an unwieldy pool of defendants.
Chesebro, who lives in Puerto Rico, was initially charged with felony racketeering and six other counts as part of a wide-ranging scheme to keep the Republican president in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. The indictment alleges Chesebro coordinated and executed a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate declaring falsely that Trump won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
For prosecutors, the plea deal assures that Chesebro publicly accepts responsibility for his conduct in the case and removes the uncertainty of a trial by a jury of his peers. It also compels him to testify about communications he had with Trump’s campaign lawyers and close associates, including co-defendant Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a Trump attorney.
Jury selection had been set to start Friday for the trial of Powell and Chesebro after each filed a demand for a speedy trial. Once Powell pleaded guilty, Chesebro had been set to continue to trial on his own.
As part of Powell’s deal, she will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and will have to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. She also recorded a statement for prosecutors and agreed to testify truthfully against her co-defendants at future trials.
A lower-profile defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
All of the other defendants, including Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege that Chesebro unlawfully conspired with Trump and lawyers associated with his campaign to have the group of Georgia Republicans sign the false elector certificate and to submit it to various federal authorities. He also communicated with Trump campaign lawyers and Republican leaders in other swing states won by Biden to get those states to submit false slates of electors as well, prosecutors alleged.
That included writing memos advocating for Republicans in those states to meet and cast electoral votes for Trump and providing detailed instructions for how the process should be carried out. In an email to Giuliani, he outlined strategies to disrupt and delay the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, during which electoral votes were to be certified. He wrote that those strategies were “preferable to allowing the Electoral Count Act to operate by its terms.”
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleads guilty over efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 loss in Georgia
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony on Friday just as jury selection was getting underway in his trial.
Journalist Bari Weiss, a Jewish liberal who quit the New York Times over its anti-Semitism, writes:
”As a Democrat who has been left homeless, who is now definitely in the center but probably leaning increasingly right, I am left yet again with an appreciation, despite the messenger, of the message of the Trump administration because what those guys did was pretty incredible in hindsight.”
“So much of the work that happened in that [Trump] administration turns out to have been right. And that’s what is so frustrating for me. The work on the border wall? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. Turned out it was right. Issuing long-term debt to refinance when rates were at zero? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. A structural peace in the Middle East? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message.”
“When are we gonna stop shooting ourselves in the foot? And when are we going to actually see and take the time to look past who is saying things and actually listen to them word for word?”
“If it’s clear that the last two weeks have been a wake-up call, the next question is: Why?”
“Part of the answer is the sheer depravity of Hamas’s terrorism. That depravity has made the justification and celebration of their acts by those who police pronouns that much starker. The contradictions and moral bankruptcy of a worldview that spends years worrying about microaggressions and tone policing, but can’t decide what side it is on after the beheading of babies, aren’t exactly difficult to spot.”
“To put it another way: when Black Lives Matter organizations are lionizing Islamist terrorists by posting a paraglider logo, you’d be a fool not to reassess things.”
“The events of the last week have shattered the illusion that wokeness is about protecting victims and standing up for persecuted minorities. This ideology is and has always been about the one thing many of us have told you it is about for years: power.
“And after the last two weeks, there can be no doubt about how these people will use any power they seize: they will seek to destroy, in any way they can, those who disagree.”
Put 'em in camps, kill any who resist, starve the rest into submission, and take their kids away and send them to schools where they'll be beaten if they speak Arabic or display any Arabic or Islamic cultural features.
Worked in the Americas!
Worked in the Americas!
“Part of the answer is the sheer depravity of Hamas’s terrorism."
Don't see anyone disagreeing with this. Rather people are arguing that it's somehow equal to Israel's own terrorism of Palestinians.
"That depravity has made the justification and celebration of their acts by those who police pronouns that much starker."
Uh... I hope this guy has proof of people doing that cause sure as shit if that's true then they're being "cancelled" the instant it's known.
"The contradictions and moral bankruptcy of a worldview that spends years worrying about microaggressions and tone policing, but can’t decide what side it is on after the beheading of babies, aren’t exactly difficult to spot.”
Considering the "beheading of babies" can't be confirmed, even as of today's date, this person is lying their ass off. To make some sort of point of why they're a "Trump supporter".
Meanwhile Trump BACKED Hezbullah which now has me wonder if this person even knows that and they think Trump is super awesome still.
In other words, this person is an idiot.
You can be anti-Israeli Government and still support Israel.
You can be anti-Hamas terrorism and still support Palestinians.
People like this person are why the issue is a continued shitshow when it shouldn't be.
Don't see anyone disagreeing with this. Rather people are arguing that it's somehow equal to Israel's own terrorism of Palestinians.
"That depravity has made the justification and celebration of their acts by those who police pronouns that much starker."
Uh... I hope this guy has proof of people doing that cause sure as shit if that's true then they're being "cancelled" the instant it's known.
"The contradictions and moral bankruptcy of a worldview that spends years worrying about microaggressions and tone policing, but can’t decide what side it is on after the beheading of babies, aren’t exactly difficult to spot.”
Considering the "beheading of babies" can't be confirmed, even as of today's date, this person is lying their ass off. To make some sort of point of why they're a "Trump supporter".
Meanwhile Trump BACKED Hezbullah which now has me wonder if this person even knows that and they think Trump is super awesome still.
In other words, this person is an idiot.
You can be anti-Israeli Government and still support Israel.
You can be anti-Hamas terrorism and still support Palestinians.
People like this person are why the issue is a continued shitshow when it shouldn't be.
I'd laugh if it wasn't so fucking sadly true.
And I am trying to keep from using things that happened to the Native Americans as a comparison...
Oh, don't be silly. THAT was Europeans invading populated land and imposing their religion, laws, language, and way of life, practicing systemic discrimination against the people that were there.I'd laugh if it wasn't so fucking sadly true.
And I am trying to keep from using things that happened to the Native Americans as a comparison...
THIS is completely different!
Jenna Ellis becomes latest Trump lawyer to plead guilty over efforts to overturn Georgia's election
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Will Weissert And Kate Brumback
Published Oct 24, 2023 • 3 minute read
ATLANTA (AP) — Jenna Ellis, an attorney and prominent conservative media figure, reached a deal with prosecutors Tuesday and pleaded guilty to reduced charges over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Ellis, the fourth defendant in the case to enter into a plea deal, was a vocal part of Trump’s reelection campaign in the last presidential cycle and was charged alongside the Republican former president and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law.
Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty to a count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. She had been facing charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer.
The guilty plea from Ellis comes just days after two other defendants, fellow attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, entered guilty pleas. That means three high-profile people responsible for pushing baseless legal challenges to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory have agreed to accept responsibility for their roles rather than take their chances before a jury.
Prosecutors recommend five years of probation for Ellis along with $5,000 in restitution, 100 hours of community service, writing an apology letter to the people of Georgia and testifying truthfully in trials related to this case.
The early pleas and the favorable punishment — probation rather than jail — could foreshadow similar outcomes for additional defendants who may see an admission of guilt and cooperation as their best hope for leniency. Even so, their value as witnesses against Trump is unclear given that their direct participation in unfounded schemes will no doubt expose them to attacks on their credibility and bruising cross-examinations should they testify.
The indictment in the sweeping case details a number of accusations against Ellis, including that she helped author plans on how to disrupt and delay congressional certification of the 2020 election’s results on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a mob of Trump supporters eventually overran the U.S. Capitol.
Ellis is also accused of urging state legislators to unlawfully appoint a set of presidential electors loyal to Trump at a hearing in Pennsylvania, and she later appeared with some of those lawmakers and Trump at a meeting on the topic at the White House. The indictment further says she similarly pushed state lawmakers to back false, pro-Trump electors in Georgia as well as Arizona and Michigan.
Before her plea, Ellis was defiant, posting in August on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, “The Democrats and the Fulton County DA are criminalizing the practice of law. I am resolved to trust the Lord.”
But she has been more critical of Trump since then, saying on conservative radio in September that she wouldn’t vote for him again, citing his “malignant, narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.”
Along with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Ellis was a leading voice in the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, appearing frequently on television and conservative media to tell lies about widespread fraud that did not occur and spread misinformation and conspiracy theories.
She was censured in Colorado in March after admitting she made repeated false statements about the 2020 election.
That punishment was due in part to a Nov. 20, 2020, appearance on Newsmax, during which she said, “With all those states (Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia) combined we know that the election was stolen from President Trump, and we can prove that.”
Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties. Powell will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and has to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents.
A lower-profile defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Will Weissert And Kate Brumback
Published Oct 24, 2023 • 3 minute read
ATLANTA (AP) — Jenna Ellis, an attorney and prominent conservative media figure, reached a deal with prosecutors Tuesday and pleaded guilty to reduced charges over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Ellis, the fourth defendant in the case to enter into a plea deal, was a vocal part of Trump’s reelection campaign in the last presidential cycle and was charged alongside the Republican former president and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law.
Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty to a count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. She had been facing charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer.
The guilty plea from Ellis comes just days after two other defendants, fellow attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, entered guilty pleas. That means three high-profile people responsible for pushing baseless legal challenges to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory have agreed to accept responsibility for their roles rather than take their chances before a jury.
Prosecutors recommend five years of probation for Ellis along with $5,000 in restitution, 100 hours of community service, writing an apology letter to the people of Georgia and testifying truthfully in trials related to this case.
The early pleas and the favorable punishment — probation rather than jail — could foreshadow similar outcomes for additional defendants who may see an admission of guilt and cooperation as their best hope for leniency. Even so, their value as witnesses against Trump is unclear given that their direct participation in unfounded schemes will no doubt expose them to attacks on their credibility and bruising cross-examinations should they testify.
The indictment in the sweeping case details a number of accusations against Ellis, including that she helped author plans on how to disrupt and delay congressional certification of the 2020 election’s results on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a mob of Trump supporters eventually overran the U.S. Capitol.
Ellis is also accused of urging state legislators to unlawfully appoint a set of presidential electors loyal to Trump at a hearing in Pennsylvania, and she later appeared with some of those lawmakers and Trump at a meeting on the topic at the White House. The indictment further says she similarly pushed state lawmakers to back false, pro-Trump electors in Georgia as well as Arizona and Michigan.
Before her plea, Ellis was defiant, posting in August on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, “The Democrats and the Fulton County DA are criminalizing the practice of law. I am resolved to trust the Lord.”
But she has been more critical of Trump since then, saying on conservative radio in September that she wouldn’t vote for him again, citing his “malignant, narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.”
Along with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Ellis was a leading voice in the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, appearing frequently on television and conservative media to tell lies about widespread fraud that did not occur and spread misinformation and conspiracy theories.
She was censured in Colorado in March after admitting she made repeated false statements about the 2020 election.
That punishment was due in part to a Nov. 20, 2020, appearance on Newsmax, during which she said, “With all those states (Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia) combined we know that the election was stolen from President Trump, and we can prove that.”
Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties. Powell will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and has to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents.
A lower-profile defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
Jenna Ellis becomes latest Trump lawyer to plead guilty over efforts to overturn Georgia's election
Ellis pleaded guilty to reduced charges over efforts to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia.
In courtroom faceoff, Michael Cohen says he was told to boost Trump's asset values 'arbitrarily'
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jake Offenhartz And Jennifer Peltz
Published Oct 24, 2023 • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen faced off with him at the former president’s civil fraud trial Tuesday, testifying that he worked to boost asset values to “whatever number Trump told us to.”
Five years after turning on a boss that he once pledged to “take a bullet” for, Cohen is a key witness in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit alleging that Trump and his company duped banks, insurers and others by giving them financial statements that inflated his wealth.
“I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets, based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected,” Cohen testified, saying that he and former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg labored “to reverse-engineer the various different asset classes, increase those assets, in order to achieve a number that Mr. Trump had tasked us.”
Asked what that number was, Cohen replied: “Whatever number Trump told us to.”
Trump, who denies James’ allegations, dismissed Cohen’s account outside court as the words of “a proven liar” who served prison time after pleading guilty to tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations.
“I’m not worried at all about his testimony,” Trump said. “You see what his record is. He’s not a credible witness.”
The former president and Republican 2024 front-runner voluntarily came to court for the highly anticipated testimony, attending the Manhattan trial for a sixth day this month. Cohen, whose appearance was delayed from last week by an unspecified health issue, has said it is his first time seeing Trump in five years.
“Heck of a reunion,” Cohen said during the court break. Earlier, he had insisted outside court that “this is not about Donald Trump vs. Michael Cohen or Michael Cohen vs. Donald Trump.
“This is about accountability, plain and simple,” he said.
After Cohen took the stand and began answering questions about his career and criminal convictions, Trump at times whispered to his lawyers. At other points, the former president hunched forward in his seat, watching intently, or leaned back with crossed arms.
Judge Arthur Engoron already has ruled that Trump and his company committed fraud, but the trial involves remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.
Trump says his assets were actually undervalued, and he maintains that disclaimers on his financial statements essentially told recipients to check the numbers out for themselves.
He has derided the case as a “sham,” a “scam” and “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.” The ex-president argues that the case is part of an effort by James and other Democrats to drag down his campaign.
Cohen spent a decade as Trump’s fiercely loyal personal lawyer before famously breaking with him in 2018 amid a federal investigation that sent Cohen to federal prison. He is also a major prosecution witness in Trump’s separate Manhattan hush-money criminal case, which is scheduled to go to trial next spring.
James has credited Cohen as the impetus for her civil investigation, which led to the fraud lawsuit being decided at the trial. She cited Cohen’s testimony to Congress in 2019 that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.
Cohen gave copies of three of Trump’s financial statements to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Cohen said Trump gave the statements to Deutsche Bank to inquire about a loan to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and to Forbes magazine to substantiate his claim to a spot on its list of the world’s wealthiest people.
Earlier this month, Trump dropped a $500 million lawsuit that accused Cohen of “spreading falsehoods,” causing “vast reputational harm” and breaking a confidentiality agreement for talking publicly about the hush-money payments. A Trump spokesperson said the former president was only pausing the lawsuit, while campaigning and fighting four criminal cases, and would refile later.
Cohen took the stand after William Kelly, the attorney for Trump’s longtime former accounting firm, Mazars USA. The firm cut ties with Trump last year after James’ office raised questions about the reliability of his financial statements.
Kelly said that the firm’s decision was based on the attorney general’s lawsuit and on Mazars’ own investigation, which suggested that the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, had provided “compromised” financial statements. Mazars said it hadn’t found any “material discrepancies” in the statements as a whole, however.
Defense lawyer Jesus M. Suarez suggested that the accounting firm abandoned its longtime clients to get in the attorney general’s good graces and head off potential legal problems for the firm. But Kelly insisted “there was no currying favor.”
“It was being a good corporate citizen and explaining what we do,” he said.
Trump’s attorneys had sought to delay the trial on Tuesday, arguing that a rash of coronavirus cases in James’ office had put the former president’s health at risk.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said it was “frankly irresponsible” not to postpone the proceeding. Another defense attorney, Alina Habba, objected to sharing a “contaminated” microphone with members of the attorney general’s office.
James’ office, in a statement, said it had taken all steps to notify the relevant parties and had followed health guidance, adding that defense lawyers could wear masks if concerned. Trump and the attorneys at the defense table with him didn’t don masks.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jake Offenhartz And Jennifer Peltz
Published Oct 24, 2023 • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen faced off with him at the former president’s civil fraud trial Tuesday, testifying that he worked to boost asset values to “whatever number Trump told us to.”
Five years after turning on a boss that he once pledged to “take a bullet” for, Cohen is a key witness in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit alleging that Trump and his company duped banks, insurers and others by giving them financial statements that inflated his wealth.
“I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets, based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected,” Cohen testified, saying that he and former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg labored “to reverse-engineer the various different asset classes, increase those assets, in order to achieve a number that Mr. Trump had tasked us.”
Asked what that number was, Cohen replied: “Whatever number Trump told us to.”
Trump, who denies James’ allegations, dismissed Cohen’s account outside court as the words of “a proven liar” who served prison time after pleading guilty to tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations.
“I’m not worried at all about his testimony,” Trump said. “You see what his record is. He’s not a credible witness.”
The former president and Republican 2024 front-runner voluntarily came to court for the highly anticipated testimony, attending the Manhattan trial for a sixth day this month. Cohen, whose appearance was delayed from last week by an unspecified health issue, has said it is his first time seeing Trump in five years.
“Heck of a reunion,” Cohen said during the court break. Earlier, he had insisted outside court that “this is not about Donald Trump vs. Michael Cohen or Michael Cohen vs. Donald Trump.
“This is about accountability, plain and simple,” he said.
After Cohen took the stand and began answering questions about his career and criminal convictions, Trump at times whispered to his lawyers. At other points, the former president hunched forward in his seat, watching intently, or leaned back with crossed arms.
Judge Arthur Engoron already has ruled that Trump and his company committed fraud, but the trial involves remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.
Trump says his assets were actually undervalued, and he maintains that disclaimers on his financial statements essentially told recipients to check the numbers out for themselves.
He has derided the case as a “sham,” a “scam” and “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.” The ex-president argues that the case is part of an effort by James and other Democrats to drag down his campaign.
Cohen spent a decade as Trump’s fiercely loyal personal lawyer before famously breaking with him in 2018 amid a federal investigation that sent Cohen to federal prison. He is also a major prosecution witness in Trump’s separate Manhattan hush-money criminal case, which is scheduled to go to trial next spring.
James has credited Cohen as the impetus for her civil investigation, which led to the fraud lawsuit being decided at the trial. She cited Cohen’s testimony to Congress in 2019 that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.
Cohen gave copies of three of Trump’s financial statements to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Cohen said Trump gave the statements to Deutsche Bank to inquire about a loan to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and to Forbes magazine to substantiate his claim to a spot on its list of the world’s wealthiest people.
Earlier this month, Trump dropped a $500 million lawsuit that accused Cohen of “spreading falsehoods,” causing “vast reputational harm” and breaking a confidentiality agreement for talking publicly about the hush-money payments. A Trump spokesperson said the former president was only pausing the lawsuit, while campaigning and fighting four criminal cases, and would refile later.
Cohen took the stand after William Kelly, the attorney for Trump’s longtime former accounting firm, Mazars USA. The firm cut ties with Trump last year after James’ office raised questions about the reliability of his financial statements.
Kelly said that the firm’s decision was based on the attorney general’s lawsuit and on Mazars’ own investigation, which suggested that the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, had provided “compromised” financial statements. Mazars said it hadn’t found any “material discrepancies” in the statements as a whole, however.
Defense lawyer Jesus M. Suarez suggested that the accounting firm abandoned its longtime clients to get in the attorney general’s good graces and head off potential legal problems for the firm. But Kelly insisted “there was no currying favor.”
“It was being a good corporate citizen and explaining what we do,” he said.
Trump’s attorneys had sought to delay the trial on Tuesday, arguing that a rash of coronavirus cases in James’ office had put the former president’s health at risk.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said it was “frankly irresponsible” not to postpone the proceeding. Another defense attorney, Alina Habba, objected to sharing a “contaminated” microphone with members of the attorney general’s office.
James’ office, in a statement, said it had taken all steps to notify the relevant parties and had followed health guidance, adding that defense lawyers could wear masks if concerned. Trump and the attorneys at the defense table with him didn’t don masks.
In courtroom faceoff, Michael Cohen says he was told to boost Trump's asset values 'arbitrarily'
"This is about accountability, plain and simple," he said.