Cackle cackle cackle , you sound almost like your parties nominee all b.s. all the time . Don’t worry be happy , four more years of Dissing Trump . Won’t that be fun ?
Donald Trump Announces 2016 White House Bid
- Thread starter B00Mer
- Start date
Yup you really care about American service members . Last I heard you don’t even believe in God .
Controversial Trump film ’The Apprentice’ finds distributor, will open before election
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jake Coyle
Published Aug 30, 2024 • 2 minute read
NEW YORK — After struggling to drum up interest following its Cannes Film Festival premiere, the young Donald Trump drama “The Apprentice,” starring Sebastian Stan as the former president, has found a distributor that plans to release the film shortly before the election in November.
Briarcliff Entertainment will release “The Apprentice” on Oct. 11 in U.S. and Canadian theatres.
Director Ali Abbasi, the Danish Iranian filmmaker, had prioritized getting “The Apprentice” into theatres before voters head to the polls. After larger studios and film distributors opted not to bid on the film, Abbasi also complained in early June on X that “for some reason certain power people in your country don’t want you to see it!!!”
Part of what dampened interest in “The Apprentice” was the potential threat of legal action. After its Cannes premiere in May, Trump’s reelection campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, called the movie “pure fiction” and said the Trump team would file a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”
“The Apprentice” chronicles Trump’s rise to power in New York real estate under the tutelage of defense attorney Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong). Late in the movie, Trump is depicted raping his wife, Ivana Trump (played by Maria Bakalova ). In Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, she stated that Trump raped her. Trump denied the allegation and Ivana Trump later said she didn’t mean it literally, but rather that she had felt violated.
Abbasi has argued Trump might not dislike the movie.
“I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards, if that’s interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign,” Abbasi said in May.
Briarcliff Entertainment has released films including the 2022 documentary “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” and the Liam Neeson thriller “Memory.” The indie distributor is run by Tom Ortenberg, who at Lionsgate helped released Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” and as chief executive of Open Road backed the best-picture winner “Spotlight.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jake Coyle
Published Aug 30, 2024 • 2 minute read
NEW YORK — After struggling to drum up interest following its Cannes Film Festival premiere, the young Donald Trump drama “The Apprentice,” starring Sebastian Stan as the former president, has found a distributor that plans to release the film shortly before the election in November.
Briarcliff Entertainment will release “The Apprentice” on Oct. 11 in U.S. and Canadian theatres.
Director Ali Abbasi, the Danish Iranian filmmaker, had prioritized getting “The Apprentice” into theatres before voters head to the polls. After larger studios and film distributors opted not to bid on the film, Abbasi also complained in early June on X that “for some reason certain power people in your country don’t want you to see it!!!”
Part of what dampened interest in “The Apprentice” was the potential threat of legal action. After its Cannes premiere in May, Trump’s reelection campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, called the movie “pure fiction” and said the Trump team would file a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”
“The Apprentice” chronicles Trump’s rise to power in New York real estate under the tutelage of defense attorney Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong). Late in the movie, Trump is depicted raping his wife, Ivana Trump (played by Maria Bakalova ). In Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, she stated that Trump raped her. Trump denied the allegation and Ivana Trump later said she didn’t mean it literally, but rather that she had felt violated.
Abbasi has argued Trump might not dislike the movie.
“I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards, if that’s interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign,” Abbasi said in May.
Briarcliff Entertainment has released films including the 2022 documentary “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” and the Liam Neeson thriller “Memory.” The indie distributor is run by Tom Ortenberg, who at Lionsgate helped released Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” and as chief executive of Open Road backed the best-picture winner “Spotlight.”
Controversial Trump film ’The Apprentice’ finds distributor, will open before election
The Donald Trump drama "The Apprentice" has found a distributor that plans to release the film shortly before the election in November.
Vance tells Harris to 'go to hell' after Trump visited military cemetery
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Maegan Vazquez, The Washington Post
Published Aug 29, 2024 • 4 minute read
Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance said at a campaign event on Wednesday that he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris “can go to hell,” adding to the increasingly personal attacks former president Donald Trump’s campaign has lodged against the Democratic presidential nominee in recent days.
A reporter at the campaign event asked Vance about an altercation involving Trump campaign staff that took place at Arlington National Cemetery, which the former president visited Monday to mark the third anniversary of the Islamic State bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation from Afghanistan.
Federal law prohibits election-related activities at military cemeteries and as The Washington Post previously reported, a cemetery employee tried to enforce the rules as provided to her by blocking Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves of U.S. service members killed in recent years, according to a senior defence official and another person briefed on the incident. A larger male campaign aide insisted the camera was allowed and pushed past the cemetery employee.
Vance said at his campaign stop in Erie, Pa., on Wednesday that the press was “creating a story where I really don’t think that there is one.” He said the family members of fallen service members in attendance “invited [Trump] to be there and to support them.” But the Ohio senator, a military veteran, then used the question to tie the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal to the Democratic presidential candidate.
“Kamala Harris is disgraceful. We’re going to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives? It’s that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened,” he asserted, though there have been extensive federal investigations into the Abbey Gate bombing.
Vance accused Harris of criticizing Trump’s visit to the cemetery, saying: “And she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up? She can — she can go to hell.”
Harris, who began a two-day bus tour in Georgia on Wednesday, did not bring up the issue on the campaign trail. In an interview with CNN that aired earlier Wednesday — before Vance’s campaign events — Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said the cemetery incident was “pretty sad” but “not surprising coming from the Trump team.” The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment about Vance’s comments about the Democratic nominee.
Trump and his allies have been known to push past the boundaries of political norms during the former president’s nearly decade-long political career. But the type of crass language Vance used to condemn a political opponent Wednesday is particularly unusual in modern politics.
Defence officials said the confrontation occurred when an Arlington National Cemetery staff member warned people employed by the Trump campaign that while they were permitted to take photos and videos in the cemetery, they could not do so in Section 60, the final resting place for many U.S. service members killed in recent conflicts.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded to the first report of the altercation, from NPR on Tuesday, by baselessly accusing the employee of “suffering from a mental health episode.” Defence officials said the employee was trying to do her job and the claim of a mental health episode was false. On Wednesday, Cheung said the employee “initiated physical contact that was unwarranted and unnecessary.”
Cheung also said the campaign would release footage to support his claim, but it has not. The Trump campaign on Wednesday posted a video to TikTok that was recorded at the cemetery; in it, Trump is seen at the Tomb of the Unknowns and walking among marble headstones as soft guitar music plays and the former president’s words are heard criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal.
Vance’s harsh language Wednesday came hours after Trump went on a posting spree, sharing increasingly conspiratorial and sometimes vulgar posts on his Truth Social profile aimed at Harris and his political opponents.
Trump shared another user’s post with an image of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Harris, amplifying a vulgar joke about a sex act — an apparent reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Harris’s short-lived romantic relationship with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Another repost showed an AI image of his political opponents — including Harris — in prison. One image called for military tribunals aimed at former president Barack Obama. He also reshared other users’ three QAnon-related images and posts, including an image depicting Trump holding a “Q+” symbol.
QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory that imagines Trump in a battle with a cabal of deep-state saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex. Its devotees shared their claims in online conservative forums during much of Trump’s presidency, and the radical ideology has been credited for helping fan the flames of extremism that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s reshares on social media came on the heels of special counsel Jack Smith’s filing of an updated indictment against Trump. Trump faces the same four charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Many of the posts Trump shared were related to the case — including one that superimposed red eyes and horns over Smith’s face and another saying Smith should be prosecuted.
— Dan Lamothe, Hannah Knowles and Alex Horton contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Maegan Vazquez, The Washington Post
Published Aug 29, 2024 • 4 minute read
Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance said at a campaign event on Wednesday that he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris “can go to hell,” adding to the increasingly personal attacks former president Donald Trump’s campaign has lodged against the Democratic presidential nominee in recent days.
A reporter at the campaign event asked Vance about an altercation involving Trump campaign staff that took place at Arlington National Cemetery, which the former president visited Monday to mark the third anniversary of the Islamic State bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation from Afghanistan.
Federal law prohibits election-related activities at military cemeteries and as The Washington Post previously reported, a cemetery employee tried to enforce the rules as provided to her by blocking Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves of U.S. service members killed in recent years, according to a senior defence official and another person briefed on the incident. A larger male campaign aide insisted the camera was allowed and pushed past the cemetery employee.
Vance said at his campaign stop in Erie, Pa., on Wednesday that the press was “creating a story where I really don’t think that there is one.” He said the family members of fallen service members in attendance “invited [Trump] to be there and to support them.” But the Ohio senator, a military veteran, then used the question to tie the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal to the Democratic presidential candidate.
“Kamala Harris is disgraceful. We’re going to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives? It’s that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened,” he asserted, though there have been extensive federal investigations into the Abbey Gate bombing.
Vance accused Harris of criticizing Trump’s visit to the cemetery, saying: “And she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up? She can — she can go to hell.”
Harris, who began a two-day bus tour in Georgia on Wednesday, did not bring up the issue on the campaign trail. In an interview with CNN that aired earlier Wednesday — before Vance’s campaign events — Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said the cemetery incident was “pretty sad” but “not surprising coming from the Trump team.” The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment about Vance’s comments about the Democratic nominee.
Trump and his allies have been known to push past the boundaries of political norms during the former president’s nearly decade-long political career. But the type of crass language Vance used to condemn a political opponent Wednesday is particularly unusual in modern politics.
Defence officials said the confrontation occurred when an Arlington National Cemetery staff member warned people employed by the Trump campaign that while they were permitted to take photos and videos in the cemetery, they could not do so in Section 60, the final resting place for many U.S. service members killed in recent conflicts.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded to the first report of the altercation, from NPR on Tuesday, by baselessly accusing the employee of “suffering from a mental health episode.” Defence officials said the employee was trying to do her job and the claim of a mental health episode was false. On Wednesday, Cheung said the employee “initiated physical contact that was unwarranted and unnecessary.”
Cheung also said the campaign would release footage to support his claim, but it has not. The Trump campaign on Wednesday posted a video to TikTok that was recorded at the cemetery; in it, Trump is seen at the Tomb of the Unknowns and walking among marble headstones as soft guitar music plays and the former president’s words are heard criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal.
Vance’s harsh language Wednesday came hours after Trump went on a posting spree, sharing increasingly conspiratorial and sometimes vulgar posts on his Truth Social profile aimed at Harris and his political opponents.
Trump shared another user’s post with an image of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Harris, amplifying a vulgar joke about a sex act — an apparent reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Harris’s short-lived romantic relationship with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Another repost showed an AI image of his political opponents — including Harris — in prison. One image called for military tribunals aimed at former president Barack Obama. He also reshared other users’ three QAnon-related images and posts, including an image depicting Trump holding a “Q+” symbol.
QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory that imagines Trump in a battle with a cabal of deep-state saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex. Its devotees shared their claims in online conservative forums during much of Trump’s presidency, and the radical ideology has been credited for helping fan the flames of extremism that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s reshares on social media came on the heels of special counsel Jack Smith’s filing of an updated indictment against Trump. Trump faces the same four charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Many of the posts Trump shared were related to the case — including one that superimposed red eyes and horns over Smith’s face and another saying Smith should be prosecuted.
— Dan Lamothe, Hannah Knowles and Alex Horton contributed to this report.
Vance tells Harris to 'go to hell' after Trump visited military cemetery
Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance said at a campaign event that he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris "can go to hell."
Arlington cemetery official was ’pushed aside’ in Trump staff altercation but won’t press charges
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adriana Gomez Licon and Tara Copp
Published Aug 29, 2024 • Last updated 3 days ago • 5 minute read
WASHINGTON — An Arlington National Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” in an altercation with former President Donald Trump’s staff during a wreath-laying ceremony to honour service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal, but she declined to press charges, an Army spokesman said Thursday.
The Army spokesman said the cemetery employee was trying to make sure those participating in the wreath-laying ceremony earlier this week were following the rules, which “clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.”
“This employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” the statement said. “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”
The incident was reported to the police, but because the employee decided not to press charges, the Army said it considered the matter closed.
The Trump campaign has been facing blowback since an NPR report said that two Trump campaign staff members on Monday had “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Federal law prohibits campaign or election-related activities within Army national military cemeteries.
The Trump campaign has claimed the Republican presidential nominee’s team was granted access to have a photographer and has contested the allegation that a campaign staffer pushed a cemetery official.
Trump visited the venerable cemetery on Monday at the invitation of surviving family members to mark the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, which killed 13 American service members and more than 170 Afghans. Photos of the visit showed Trump standing by the graves with a thumbs-up next to relatives of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover and Sgt. Nicole Gee. He also laid wreaths for Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, whose family was not present.
A video shared by Trump on TikTok also shows several clips of his visit to the cemetery. As a guitar strums in the background, there is a voiceover of the Republican nominee saying, “We lost great, great people. What a horrible day it was. We didn’t lose one person in 18 months, and then they took over. That disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan.”
Trump spent the third anniversary of the Aug. 26, 2021, attack tying his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, to the chaos of the Afghanistan War withdrawal. He told an audience of National Guard members and their families in Detroit that the withdrawal was a “humiliation” and called the deadly attack “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country”
“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump told an audience of about 4,000 in Michigan.
The family of a decorated Green Beret whose grave appeared in the photos of Trump’s visit issued a statement expressing support for the families who lost loved ones in the Kabul airport bombing, but asking for understanding for the concerns from relatives of service members whose graves were near them.
“We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honoured and respected accordingly,” said the statement, which was sent by the sister of Silver Star recipient Master Sgt. Andrew C. Marckesano on behalf of the family.
Master Sgt. Marckesano was deployed overseas six times.
A defence official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said that the Trump campaign was warned about not taking photographs in Section 60 before their arrival and the altercation.
Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said the team had gotten permission for a photographer and disparaged the cemetery official as having clearly been “suffering from a mental health episode.”
“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason, an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” he said.
The Trump campaign posted a message signed by relatives of two of the service members killed in the bombing that said “the president and his team conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members, especially our beloved children.”
Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, noted that Trump was there at the invitation of the families of the service members who were killed in the airport bombing.
“For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said in a written statement, misspelling the word hallowed. “Whoever this individual is, spreading these lies are dishonouring the men and women of our armed forces.”
Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Harris, said the reports of the altercation were “what we’ve come to expect from Donald Trump and his team.”
“Donald Trump is a person who wants to make everything all about Donald Trump,” Tyler said on CNN on Wednesday. “He’s also somebody who has a history of demeaning and degrading military service members, those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.”
Trump’s running mate JD Vance was asked about the incident Wednesday at a campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania, and said that “apparently somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member, had a little disagreement with somebody” and “the media has turned this into a national news story.”
He instead tried to focus on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling Harris “disgraceful” for not firing anyone for the deaths of service members in the terror attack. “She can go to hell,” Vance said.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
A Pentagon investigation into the deadly attack concluded that the suicide bomber acted alone and that the deaths of more than 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were not preventable. But critics have slammed the Biden administration for the catastrophic evacuation, saying it should have started earlier than it did.
— Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adriana Gomez Licon and Tara Copp
Published Aug 29, 2024 • Last updated 3 days ago • 5 minute read
WASHINGTON — An Arlington National Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” in an altercation with former President Donald Trump’s staff during a wreath-laying ceremony to honour service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal, but she declined to press charges, an Army spokesman said Thursday.
The Army spokesman said the cemetery employee was trying to make sure those participating in the wreath-laying ceremony earlier this week were following the rules, which “clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.”
“This employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” the statement said. “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”
The incident was reported to the police, but because the employee decided not to press charges, the Army said it considered the matter closed.
The Trump campaign has been facing blowback since an NPR report said that two Trump campaign staff members on Monday had “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Federal law prohibits campaign or election-related activities within Army national military cemeteries.
The Trump campaign has claimed the Republican presidential nominee’s team was granted access to have a photographer and has contested the allegation that a campaign staffer pushed a cemetery official.
Trump visited the venerable cemetery on Monday at the invitation of surviving family members to mark the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, which killed 13 American service members and more than 170 Afghans. Photos of the visit showed Trump standing by the graves with a thumbs-up next to relatives of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover and Sgt. Nicole Gee. He also laid wreaths for Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, whose family was not present.
A video shared by Trump on TikTok also shows several clips of his visit to the cemetery. As a guitar strums in the background, there is a voiceover of the Republican nominee saying, “We lost great, great people. What a horrible day it was. We didn’t lose one person in 18 months, and then they took over. That disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan.”
Trump spent the third anniversary of the Aug. 26, 2021, attack tying his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, to the chaos of the Afghanistan War withdrawal. He told an audience of National Guard members and their families in Detroit that the withdrawal was a “humiliation” and called the deadly attack “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country”
“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump told an audience of about 4,000 in Michigan.
The family of a decorated Green Beret whose grave appeared in the photos of Trump’s visit issued a statement expressing support for the families who lost loved ones in the Kabul airport bombing, but asking for understanding for the concerns from relatives of service members whose graves were near them.
“We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honoured and respected accordingly,” said the statement, which was sent by the sister of Silver Star recipient Master Sgt. Andrew C. Marckesano on behalf of the family.
Master Sgt. Marckesano was deployed overseas six times.
A defence official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said that the Trump campaign was warned about not taking photographs in Section 60 before their arrival and the altercation.
Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said the team had gotten permission for a photographer and disparaged the cemetery official as having clearly been “suffering from a mental health episode.”
“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason, an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” he said.
The Trump campaign posted a message signed by relatives of two of the service members killed in the bombing that said “the president and his team conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members, especially our beloved children.”
Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, noted that Trump was there at the invitation of the families of the service members who were killed in the airport bombing.
“For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said in a written statement, misspelling the word hallowed. “Whoever this individual is, spreading these lies are dishonouring the men and women of our armed forces.”
Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Harris, said the reports of the altercation were “what we’ve come to expect from Donald Trump and his team.”
“Donald Trump is a person who wants to make everything all about Donald Trump,” Tyler said on CNN on Wednesday. “He’s also somebody who has a history of demeaning and degrading military service members, those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.”
Trump’s running mate JD Vance was asked about the incident Wednesday at a campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania, and said that “apparently somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member, had a little disagreement with somebody” and “the media has turned this into a national news story.”
He instead tried to focus on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling Harris “disgraceful” for not firing anyone for the deaths of service members in the terror attack. “She can go to hell,” Vance said.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
A Pentagon investigation into the deadly attack concluded that the suicide bomber acted alone and that the deaths of more than 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were not preventable. But critics have slammed the Biden administration for the catastrophic evacuation, saying it should have started earlier than it did.
— Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Arlington cemetery official was ’pushed aside’ in Trump staff altercation but won’t press charges
"This employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption," the statement said.
Trump asks federal court to intervene in hush money case in bid to toss conviction, delay sentencing
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Aug 29, 2024 • 4 minute read
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump asked a federal court late Thursday to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, seeking a pathway to overturn his felony conviction and indefinitely delay his sentencing next month.
Lawyers for the current Republican nominee asked the federal court in Manhattan to seize the case from the state court where it was tried, arguing that the historic prosecution violated his constitutional rights and ran afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling.
Trump’s lawyers, who failed last year in a pretrial bid to get the case shifted to federal court, said moving it now will give him an “unbiased forum, free from local hostilities” to address those issues. In state court, they said, Trump has been the victim of “bias, conflicts of interest, and appearances of impropriety.”
If the case is moved to federal court, Trump’s lawyers said they will then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed on immunity grounds.
If the case remains in state court and Trump’s sentencing proceeds as scheduled on Sept. 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — it would be election interference, his lawyers said, raising the specter that Trump could be sent to jail just as early voting is getting under way.
“The ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump — the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential election — and voters located far beyond Manhattan,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in a 64-page U.S. District Court court filing.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s case and fought his previous effort to move the case out of state court, declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for New York’s state court system.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run.
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses. Trump maintains that the stories were false, that reimbursements were for legal work and logged correctly, and that the case against him was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” aimed at damaging his current presidential campaign.
Even if Trump’s case isn’t moved to federal court, ensuing legal wrangling could force his sentencing to be delayed, giving him a critical reprieve as he navigates the aftermath of his criminal conviction and the homestretch of his White House run.
Separately, the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, is weighing Trump’s requests to postpone sentencing until after Election Day, Nov. 5, and to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
The high court’s July 1 ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, and that the trial was “tainted” by evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how he reacted to news coverage of the hush money deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.
Trump’s lawyers had previously invoked presidential immunity in a failed bid last year to get the hush money case moved from state court to federal court. A federal judge rejected that request, clearing the way for Trump’s trial in state court.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected Trump’s claim that allegations in the hush money indictment involved official duties, writing in July 2023, “The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the president — a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”
“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the president’s official duties,” Hellerstein added.
Trump’s lawyers argued in Thursday’s filing that circumstances had changed since their initial attempt was rejected. Among other things, they said state prosecutors had misled the court by saying earlier that the trial wouldn’t involve Trump’s official duties or actions as president.
There was also testimony, they said, from Cohen about Trump’s potential use of pardon power and his response to various investigations into his conduct. All that testimony, they wrote, had to do with Trump’s actions as president.
“President Trump is entitled to a federal forum for his Presidential immunity defense based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States,” Blanche and Bove wrote. “After this case is properly removed, President Trump will establish that the charges must be dismissed.”
Blanche and Bove also reiterated their claims that Merchan has treated Trump unfairly because Merchan’s daughter is a Democratic political consultant, and they argued that the judge is wrongly muzzling Trump with a gag order he kept in place after the verdict.
Merchan this month rejected Trump’s latest request that he step aside from the case, saying Trump’s demand was a rehash “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims” about his ability to remain impartial. A state appeals court recent upheld the gag order.
Merchan “is poised to incarcerate President Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, and he has maintained an unwarranted and unconstitutional prior restraint on President Trump’s ability to respond to political attacks by criticizing the New York County proceedings,” Blanche and Bove said.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Aug 29, 2024 • 4 minute read
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump asked a federal court late Thursday to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, seeking a pathway to overturn his felony conviction and indefinitely delay his sentencing next month.
Lawyers for the current Republican nominee asked the federal court in Manhattan to seize the case from the state court where it was tried, arguing that the historic prosecution violated his constitutional rights and ran afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling.
Trump’s lawyers, who failed last year in a pretrial bid to get the case shifted to federal court, said moving it now will give him an “unbiased forum, free from local hostilities” to address those issues. In state court, they said, Trump has been the victim of “bias, conflicts of interest, and appearances of impropriety.”
If the case is moved to federal court, Trump’s lawyers said they will then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed on immunity grounds.
If the case remains in state court and Trump’s sentencing proceeds as scheduled on Sept. 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — it would be election interference, his lawyers said, raising the specter that Trump could be sent to jail just as early voting is getting under way.
“The ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump — the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential election — and voters located far beyond Manhattan,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in a 64-page U.S. District Court court filing.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s case and fought his previous effort to move the case out of state court, declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for New York’s state court system.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run.
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses. Trump maintains that the stories were false, that reimbursements were for legal work and logged correctly, and that the case against him was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” aimed at damaging his current presidential campaign.
Even if Trump’s case isn’t moved to federal court, ensuing legal wrangling could force his sentencing to be delayed, giving him a critical reprieve as he navigates the aftermath of his criminal conviction and the homestretch of his White House run.
Separately, the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, is weighing Trump’s requests to postpone sentencing until after Election Day, Nov. 5, and to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
The high court’s July 1 ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, and that the trial was “tainted” by evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how he reacted to news coverage of the hush money deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.
Trump’s lawyers had previously invoked presidential immunity in a failed bid last year to get the hush money case moved from state court to federal court. A federal judge rejected that request, clearing the way for Trump’s trial in state court.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected Trump’s claim that allegations in the hush money indictment involved official duties, writing in July 2023, “The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the president — a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”
“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the president’s official duties,” Hellerstein added.
Trump’s lawyers argued in Thursday’s filing that circumstances had changed since their initial attempt was rejected. Among other things, they said state prosecutors had misled the court by saying earlier that the trial wouldn’t involve Trump’s official duties or actions as president.
There was also testimony, they said, from Cohen about Trump’s potential use of pardon power and his response to various investigations into his conduct. All that testimony, they wrote, had to do with Trump’s actions as president.
“President Trump is entitled to a federal forum for his Presidential immunity defense based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States,” Blanche and Bove wrote. “After this case is properly removed, President Trump will establish that the charges must be dismissed.”
Blanche and Bove also reiterated their claims that Merchan has treated Trump unfairly because Merchan’s daughter is a Democratic political consultant, and they argued that the judge is wrongly muzzling Trump with a gag order he kept in place after the verdict.
Merchan this month rejected Trump’s latest request that he step aside from the case, saying Trump’s demand was a rehash “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims” about his ability to remain impartial. A state appeals court recent upheld the gag order.
Merchan “is poised to incarcerate President Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, and he has maintained an unwarranted and unconstitutional prior restraint on President Trump’s ability to respond to political attacks by criticizing the New York County proceedings,” Blanche and Bove said.
Trump asks federal court to intervene in hush money case in bid to toss conviction, delay sentencing
Former President Donald Trump asked a federal court late Thursday to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case
Trump insists Fidel Castro could be Justin Trudeau's father: 'Communist just like Castro'
'He swears that he isn’t, but how the hell would he know! Castro had good hair, the 'father' didn’t'
Author of the article:Mark Daniell
Published Aug 30, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 4 minute read
In his upcoming book, Save America, former U.S. president Donald Trump insists that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could be the son of Communist Leader Fidel Castro.
“Justin Trudeau and I got along very well, but there were natural differences in that he is very Liberal, and I, to put it mildly, am not,” Trump writes in an excerpt obtained by the Daily Mail.
“It will be very interesting to see how (their relationship progresses) in the future, but first, I have to get there (back to the White House),” Trump continues, adding, “His mother was beautiful and wild. In the 1970s, she would go ‘clubbing’ with the Rolling Stones, but she was also somehow associated with Fidel Castro. She said he was ‘the sexiest man I’ve ever met,’ and a lot of people say that Justin is his son.”
Trump concedes that Trudeau is aware of the longstanding rumour, but writes: “He swears that he isn’t, but how the hell would he know! Castro had good hair, the ‘father’ didn’t, Justin has good hair, and has become a Communist just like Castro.”
Earlier this month in an interview with video game streamer Adin Ross, Trump floated the theory that Trudeau was the son of the late Cuban revolutionary leader.
“He’s turned very liberal, actually they say he’s the son of Fidel Castro, and could be,” Trump told Ross in a video that has been viewed more than 2.5 million times. “Anything’s possible in this world, you know?”
Trump said that he and Trudeau got along “very well,” but hinted that he is well aware that the Liberal Leader is headed for political annihilation amid his sagging popularity amongst Canadians.
“He seems to be going very progressive and the people of Canada are not liking it,” the Republican presidential candidate added in his interview with Ross. “If they had a good conservative person – which maybe they do, maybe they don’t, I don’t know – but somebody that’s a strong conservative would win in Canada. Canada is very unhappy about the way they’ve been treated as people, but I got along with him well.”
Back in 2022, Joe Rogan suggested Trudeau should take a 23andMe DNA test to confirm that he’s not the child of Castro.
During a segment on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Rogan told comedian Sam Tripoli that the similarities between Trudeau and Castro were “wild.”
The rumour was first circulated when Castro’s son, Fidelito, committed suicide in 2018. Several sites, the Associated Press noted, reported that Fidelito left a goodbye note that referenced Trudeau as his half-brother.
A theory that Castro was Trudeau’s dad was also shared after the communist leader’s death in 2016.
The Canadian government denied the reports and AP’s fact-check revealed that it was more than four years after Justin’s birth that his mother Margaret made her much-publicized first trip to Cuba and met Fidel in 1976.
But during a segment of his podcast two summers ago, Rogan revisited the rumour in his chat with Tripoli “just for funsies.”
“Let’s Google, look at the two of them together,” Rogan began. “There’s multiple photos. That’s wild. That’s f***ing wild,” he continued as he looked through the images. “Oh my God, look at the top one … that is wild.”
Rogan then jokingly suggested Trudeau take a DNA test to confirm the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau was really his dad.
“Hey bro, you need a 23andMe right away, sir. It’s wild how close he looks … If I was the father, I’d be f***ing suspicious as s***.”
Trudeau had a rocky relationship with Trump during his tenure as president. Back in 2019, following a NATO meeting in London, Trump hit out at Trudeau after the prime minister was caught on a hot mic with then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron making fun of the president’s tardiness at a Buckingham Palace reception.
“He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,” Trudeau said. “I watched his team’s jaws drop on the floor.”
Afterwards, Trump called Trudeau “two-faced.”
“Honestly with Trudeau he’s a nice guy, but the truth is I called him out on the fact he’s not paying 2% (in defence spending) and I guess he’s not happy about it,” Trump said.
A year prior, following a G7 summit in Quebec, Trump called Trudeau “very dishonest & weak” after the Canadian leader threatened to escalate a trade war between the two countries.
Elsewhere, Trump referred to Trudeau as a “far-left lunatic” following Ottawa’s harsh response to the “Freedom Convoy” protests that crippled the nation’s capital back in 2022.
“The Freedom Convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates,” said Trump in a statement.
Trump added that his social media site Truth Social would welcome Freedom Convoy supporters.
“Facebook is cancelling the accounts of Freedom Convoy USA, and GoFundMe is denying access to funds that belong to the Freedom Convoy. This is unacceptable and extremely dangerous in any country that values free expression,” he said.
mdaniell@postmedia.com
dailymail.co.uk
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'He swears that he isn’t, but how the hell would he know! Castro had good hair, the 'father' didn’t'
Author of the article:Mark Daniell
Published Aug 30, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 4 minute read
In his upcoming book, Save America, former U.S. president Donald Trump insists that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could be the son of Communist Leader Fidel Castro.
“Justin Trudeau and I got along very well, but there were natural differences in that he is very Liberal, and I, to put it mildly, am not,” Trump writes in an excerpt obtained by the Daily Mail.
“It will be very interesting to see how (their relationship progresses) in the future, but first, I have to get there (back to the White House),” Trump continues, adding, “His mother was beautiful and wild. In the 1970s, she would go ‘clubbing’ with the Rolling Stones, but she was also somehow associated with Fidel Castro. She said he was ‘the sexiest man I’ve ever met,’ and a lot of people say that Justin is his son.”
Trump concedes that Trudeau is aware of the longstanding rumour, but writes: “He swears that he isn’t, but how the hell would he know! Castro had good hair, the ‘father’ didn’t, Justin has good hair, and has become a Communist just like Castro.”
Earlier this month in an interview with video game streamer Adin Ross, Trump floated the theory that Trudeau was the son of the late Cuban revolutionary leader.
“He’s turned very liberal, actually they say he’s the son of Fidel Castro, and could be,” Trump told Ross in a video that has been viewed more than 2.5 million times. “Anything’s possible in this world, you know?”
Trump said that he and Trudeau got along “very well,” but hinted that he is well aware that the Liberal Leader is headed for political annihilation amid his sagging popularity amongst Canadians.
“He seems to be going very progressive and the people of Canada are not liking it,” the Republican presidential candidate added in his interview with Ross. “If they had a good conservative person – which maybe they do, maybe they don’t, I don’t know – but somebody that’s a strong conservative would win in Canada. Canada is very unhappy about the way they’ve been treated as people, but I got along with him well.”
Back in 2022, Joe Rogan suggested Trudeau should take a 23andMe DNA test to confirm that he’s not the child of Castro.
During a segment on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Rogan told comedian Sam Tripoli that the similarities between Trudeau and Castro were “wild.”
The rumour was first circulated when Castro’s son, Fidelito, committed suicide in 2018. Several sites, the Associated Press noted, reported that Fidelito left a goodbye note that referenced Trudeau as his half-brother.
A theory that Castro was Trudeau’s dad was also shared after the communist leader’s death in 2016.
The Canadian government denied the reports and AP’s fact-check revealed that it was more than four years after Justin’s birth that his mother Margaret made her much-publicized first trip to Cuba and met Fidel in 1976.
But during a segment of his podcast two summers ago, Rogan revisited the rumour in his chat with Tripoli “just for funsies.”
“Let’s Google, look at the two of them together,” Rogan began. “There’s multiple photos. That’s wild. That’s f***ing wild,” he continued as he looked through the images. “Oh my God, look at the top one … that is wild.”
Rogan then jokingly suggested Trudeau take a DNA test to confirm the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau was really his dad.
“Hey bro, you need a 23andMe right away, sir. It’s wild how close he looks … If I was the father, I’d be f***ing suspicious as s***.”
Trudeau had a rocky relationship with Trump during his tenure as president. Back in 2019, following a NATO meeting in London, Trump hit out at Trudeau after the prime minister was caught on a hot mic with then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron making fun of the president’s tardiness at a Buckingham Palace reception.
“He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,” Trudeau said. “I watched his team’s jaws drop on the floor.”
Afterwards, Trump called Trudeau “two-faced.”
“Honestly with Trudeau he’s a nice guy, but the truth is I called him out on the fact he’s not paying 2% (in defence spending) and I guess he’s not happy about it,” Trump said.
A year prior, following a G7 summit in Quebec, Trump called Trudeau “very dishonest & weak” after the Canadian leader threatened to escalate a trade war between the two countries.
Elsewhere, Trump referred to Trudeau as a “far-left lunatic” following Ottawa’s harsh response to the “Freedom Convoy” protests that crippled the nation’s capital back in 2022.
“The Freedom Convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates,” said Trump in a statement.
Trump added that his social media site Truth Social would welcome Freedom Convoy supporters.
“Facebook is cancelling the accounts of Freedom Convoy USA, and GoFundMe is denying access to funds that belong to the Freedom Convoy. This is unacceptable and extremely dangerous in any country that values free expression,” he said.
mdaniell@postmedia.com
Trump says there are signs Fidel Castro is Justin Trudeau's dad
Donald Trump repeats two rumours in a caption to his new 'Save America' picture book - one asserting that Canadian PM Justin PM could be the child of Fidel Castro and another about the Rolling Stones.
SAVE AMERICA
In "SAVE AMERICA”, President Donald J. Trump offers an unparalleled look into his four years as the 45th President of the United States, and a vision for his next term! “SAVE AMERICA” is filled with iconic moments from the first Trump Administration. From Historic Summits with World Leaders to...
45books.com
Trump insists Fidel Castro could be Justin Trudeau's father: 'Communist just like Castro'
In his upcoming book, former U.S. president Donald Trump insists that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could be the son of Fidel Castro.
Donald Trump moves to halt hush money proceedings, sentencing after asking federal court to step in
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Aug 30, 2024 • 2 minute read
NEW YORK — Former president Donald Trump’s lawyers moved Friday to halt proceedings in his New York hush money criminal case and postpone next month’s sentencing indefinitely while he fights to have a federal court intervene and potentially overturn his felony conviction.
In a letter to the judge presiding over the case in state court, Trump’s lawyers asked that he hold off on a decision, slated for Sept. 16, on Trump’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the indictment in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling.
Trump’s lawyers also urged the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, to postpone Trump’s Sept. 18 sentencing indefinitely while the U.S. District Court in Manhattan weighs their request late Thursday that it seize the case from the state court where it was tried.
Trump’s lawyers said delaying the proceedings is the “only appropriate course” as they seek to have the federal court rectify a verdict they say was tainted by violations of the Republican presidential nominee’s constitutional rights and the Supreme Court’s ruling that gives ex-presidents broad protections from prosecution.
If the case is moved to federal court, Trump’s lawyers said they will then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed on immunity grounds. They previously asked Merchan to delay Trump’s sentencing until after the November election. He hadn’t ruled on that request as of Friday.
“There is no good reason to sentence President Trump prior to November 5, 2024, if there is to be a sentencing at all, or to drive the post-trial proceedings forward on a needlessly accelerated timeline,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
The letter, dated Thursday, was not added to the docket in Trump’s state court case until Friday.
Merchan did not immediately respond. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s case, declined to comment. The office objected to Trump’s previous effort to move the case out of state court last year and has fought his attempt to get the case dismissed on immunity grounds.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run. Trump has denied her claim and said he did nothing wrong.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation or a fine.
The Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, and that prosecutors erred by showing jurors evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how he reacted to news coverage of the hush money deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.
Trump’s lawyers had previously invoked presidential immunity in a failed bid last year to get the hush money case moved from state court to federal court.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Aug 30, 2024 • 2 minute read
NEW YORK — Former president Donald Trump’s lawyers moved Friday to halt proceedings in his New York hush money criminal case and postpone next month’s sentencing indefinitely while he fights to have a federal court intervene and potentially overturn his felony conviction.
In a letter to the judge presiding over the case in state court, Trump’s lawyers asked that he hold off on a decision, slated for Sept. 16, on Trump’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the indictment in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling.
Trump’s lawyers also urged the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, to postpone Trump’s Sept. 18 sentencing indefinitely while the U.S. District Court in Manhattan weighs their request late Thursday that it seize the case from the state court where it was tried.
Trump’s lawyers said delaying the proceedings is the “only appropriate course” as they seek to have the federal court rectify a verdict they say was tainted by violations of the Republican presidential nominee’s constitutional rights and the Supreme Court’s ruling that gives ex-presidents broad protections from prosecution.
If the case is moved to federal court, Trump’s lawyers said they will then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed on immunity grounds. They previously asked Merchan to delay Trump’s sentencing until after the November election. He hadn’t ruled on that request as of Friday.
“There is no good reason to sentence President Trump prior to November 5, 2024, if there is to be a sentencing at all, or to drive the post-trial proceedings forward on a needlessly accelerated timeline,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
The letter, dated Thursday, was not added to the docket in Trump’s state court case until Friday.
Merchan did not immediately respond. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s case, declined to comment. The office objected to Trump’s previous effort to move the case out of state court last year and has fought his attempt to get the case dismissed on immunity grounds.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run. Trump has denied her claim and said he did nothing wrong.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation or a fine.
The Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, and that prosecutors erred by showing jurors evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how he reacted to news coverage of the hush money deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.
Trump’s lawyers had previously invoked presidential immunity in a failed bid last year to get the hush money case moved from state court to federal court.
Donald Trump moves to halt hush money proceedings, sentencing after asking federal court to step in
Donald Trump's lawyers moved Friday to halt proceedings in his New York hush money case and postpone next month's sentencing indefinitely.
MAGA supporter booted from flight for offensive Trump shirt
Author of the article
enette Wilford
Published Sep 02, 2024 • Last updated 15 hours ago • 2 minute read
Screenshot of man being escorted from Delta plane for obscene shirt.
Screenshot of man being escorted from Delta plane for obscene shirt. Photo by SkBeachGirl /Reddit
A passenger on a Delta Airlines flight was escorted off a plane for allegedly wearing a T-shirt that featured Donald Trump giving the middle finger.
A video shared on Reddit’s Delta page shows the moment the angry MAGA supporter was led off the flight at Florida’s Sarasota Bradenton International Airport on Sunday morning.
“I’m getting kicked off because of my shirt,’ the man said to the other passengers as he walked down the aisle with his suitcase.
“And this is her reporting,” he noted, gesturing towards one of the flight attendants and reading the name tag on her uniform.
“Stupid a** Wendy,” he groused.
He then sarcastically thanked her as he disembarked from the plane.
Reddit user SKBeachGirl, who posted the video, wrote that they were “sitting next to a young man before boarding that had on a Trump shirt with middle fingers.”
Soon after, an airline employee approached the man about his shirt, telling him that someone had complained and that he must change his shirt or he would not be allowed to board, the Reddit user explained.
“He turned his shirt inside out, and we all boarded,” the Redditor wrote.
“Next thing I know, right before takeoff, a Delta employee comes on the plane and escorts him off the flight,” they continued, revealing that he had “flipped his shirt back to the decal side.”
The traveller’s black T-shirt showed a graphic of Trump wearing American flag sunglasses, flipping two birds, and above the image of the former president are the words “HAWK TUAH” in bold, white letters.
Below the image of Trump was “Spit on that thang,” a disgusting reference to the viral video in which Hailey Welch, a.k.a. the “Hawk Tuah Girl,” described the sound of oral sex.
Commenters defended the Delta crew member’s actions, with most agreeing that it wasn’t who was on the shirt or the words on it but the middle fingers that were the problem.
“Probably got kicked off because of the middle fingers being displayed in the T-shirt. I see lots of maga shirts when I fly,” one person noted.
A second person mused that it was for disobeying the flight attendant.
“He was allowed to stay on when his shirt was inside out but by turning it back before takeoff, he thought he was being slick,” they guessed. “Naturally the staff assumed that if he’s going to disregard them, he’ll do it again, and thus poses a minor flight risk.”
Another agreed: “When you purchase a ticket, you agree to abide by certain rules, including behaviour and dress, and you agree to abide by requests made by the ground and cabin crew.”
Delta reserves the right to refuse transportation to an individual when their attire “creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers,” according to the airline’s contract of carriage.
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Author of the article
enette WilfordPublished Sep 02, 2024 • Last updated 15 hours ago • 2 minute read
Screenshot of man being escorted from Delta plane for obscene shirt.
Screenshot of man being escorted from Delta plane for obscene shirt. Photo by SkBeachGirl /Reddit
A passenger on a Delta Airlines flight was escorted off a plane for allegedly wearing a T-shirt that featured Donald Trump giving the middle finger.
A video shared on Reddit’s Delta page shows the moment the angry MAGA supporter was led off the flight at Florida’s Sarasota Bradenton International Airport on Sunday morning.
“I’m getting kicked off because of my shirt,’ the man said to the other passengers as he walked down the aisle with his suitcase.
“And this is her reporting,” he noted, gesturing towards one of the flight attendants and reading the name tag on her uniform.
“Stupid a** Wendy,” he groused.
He then sarcastically thanked her as he disembarked from the plane.
Reddit user SKBeachGirl, who posted the video, wrote that they were “sitting next to a young man before boarding that had on a Trump shirt with middle fingers.”
Soon after, an airline employee approached the man about his shirt, telling him that someone had complained and that he must change his shirt or he would not be allowed to board, the Reddit user explained.
“He turned his shirt inside out, and we all boarded,” the Redditor wrote.
“Next thing I know, right before takeoff, a Delta employee comes on the plane and escorts him off the flight,” they continued, revealing that he had “flipped his shirt back to the decal side.”
The traveller’s black T-shirt showed a graphic of Trump wearing American flag sunglasses, flipping two birds, and above the image of the former president are the words “HAWK TUAH” in bold, white letters.
Below the image of Trump was “Spit on that thang,” a disgusting reference to the viral video in which Hailey Welch, a.k.a. the “Hawk Tuah Girl,” described the sound of oral sex.
Commenters defended the Delta crew member’s actions, with most agreeing that it wasn’t who was on the shirt or the words on it but the middle fingers that were the problem.
“Probably got kicked off because of the middle fingers being displayed in the T-shirt. I see lots of maga shirts when I fly,” one person noted.
A second person mused that it was for disobeying the flight attendant.
“He was allowed to stay on when his shirt was inside out but by turning it back before takeoff, he thought he was being slick,” they guessed. “Naturally the staff assumed that if he’s going to disregard them, he’ll do it again, and thus poses a minor flight risk.”
Another agreed: “When you purchase a ticket, you agree to abide by certain rules, including behaviour and dress, and you agree to abide by requests made by the ground and cabin crew.”
Delta reserves the right to refuse transportation to an individual when their attire “creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers,” according to the airline’s contract of carriage.
Contract of Carriage: U.S. | Delta Air Lines
When you buy a ticket for travel on Delta, you enter into a contract of carriage with us. Learn more about the terms of your contract.
MAGA supporter booted from flight for offensive Trump shirt
A passenger on a Delta Airlines flight was escorted off a plane for wearing a shirt with Donald Trump giving the middle finger.
Trumpy Trout™ – The Talking Fish with Hilarious Animations & High Fidelity Speeches
Discover Trumpy Trout, the ultimate talking fish that brings fun to your home or office. Enjoy high fidelity speeches and hilarious animations with this unique decor piece.
trumpytrout.com
Former Miss Teen beauty queen slams JD Vance for mocking her
'The U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future'
Author of the article:Mark Daniell
Published Sep 03, 2024 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 3 minute read
Former Miss Teen USA contestant Caitlin Upton says JD Vance’s attempt to troll Kamala Harris’ CNN interview by using an embarrassing clip is “a shame.”
Last week, Vance revived an infamous clip of Upton flubbing an answer at the beauty contest back in 2007 and captioned it, “I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”
During a segment at the pageant, Upton made headlines after stumbling over her words as she tried to answer the question: “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?”
“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future,” a flummoxed Upton responded.
Vance posted the old clip on X and wrote: “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”
After the post went viral with over 15 million views and 118,000 likes on X, Upton fired back in a message accusing Vance of being a bully.
“It’s a shame that 17 years later this is still being brought up,” Upton wrote in a now-deleted message, according to Deadline. “There’s not too much else to say about it at this point. Regardless of political beliefs, one thing I do know is that social media and online bullying needs to stop.”
With social media in its infancy back in 2007, Upton, who went on to appear on a season of The Amazing Race, has previously said that she dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts following her headline-making flub. In 2015, she told New York magazine that she “went through a period where I was very, very depressed.”
“I definitely went through a period where I was very, very depressed. But I never let anybody see that stuff, except for people I could trust. I had some very dark moments where I thought about committing suicide,” she told the publication. “It was awful, and it was every single day for a good two years.”
When Vance appeared on CNN in the aftermath, morning anchor John Berman asked the Republican vice-presidential candidate if he knew about Upton’s private struggles after her very public bungle.
“No certainly not, and my heart goes out to her and I hope she’s doing well,” Vance replied.
But Vance said his meme wasn’t a big deal and encouraged Upton to just shake it off.
“Look, I’ve said a lot of things on camera; I’ve said a lot of stupid things on camera,” the Ohio senator said. “Sometimes when you’re in the public eye, you make mistakes. And again, I think the best way to deal with it is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at this stuff and try to have some fun in politics.”
Vance also said he wouldn’t apologize for his joke, telling Berman: “I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin … What I’d say is, one bad moment shouldn’t define anybody, and the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.”
He added that “politics has gotten way too lame” and “way too boring,” adding, “You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you’re going to improve their lives.”
mdaniell@postmedia.com
![US-MTV-VIDEO-MUSIC-AWARDS1-scaled[1].jpg](https://forums.canadiancontent.net/data/attachments/22/22726-390ed55c3ef272dfa9dd0d8f131d2973.jpg "US-MTV-VIDEO-MUSIC-AWARDS1-scaled[1].jpg")
![US-MTV-VIDEO-MUSIC-AWARDS[1].jpg](https://forums.canadiancontent.net/data/attachments/22/22727-da8573b2826deaaf1f92c602a21c2368.jpg "US-MTV-VIDEO-MUSIC-AWARDS[1].jpg")
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torontosun.com
'The U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future'
Author of the article:Mark Daniell
Published Sep 03, 2024 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 3 minute read
Former Miss Teen USA contestant Caitlin Upton says JD Vance’s attempt to troll Kamala Harris’ CNN interview by using an embarrassing clip is “a shame.”
Last week, Vance revived an infamous clip of Upton flubbing an answer at the beauty contest back in 2007 and captioned it, “I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”
During a segment at the pageant, Upton made headlines after stumbling over her words as she tried to answer the question: “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?”
“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future,” a flummoxed Upton responded.
Vance posted the old clip on X and wrote: “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”
After the post went viral with over 15 million views and 118,000 likes on X, Upton fired back in a message accusing Vance of being a bully.
“It’s a shame that 17 years later this is still being brought up,” Upton wrote in a now-deleted message, according to Deadline. “There’s not too much else to say about it at this point. Regardless of political beliefs, one thing I do know is that social media and online bullying needs to stop.”
With social media in its infancy back in 2007, Upton, who went on to appear on a season of The Amazing Race, has previously said that she dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts following her headline-making flub. In 2015, she told New York magazine that she “went through a period where I was very, very depressed.”
“I definitely went through a period where I was very, very depressed. But I never let anybody see that stuff, except for people I could trust. I had some very dark moments where I thought about committing suicide,” she told the publication. “It was awful, and it was every single day for a good two years.”
When Vance appeared on CNN in the aftermath, morning anchor John Berman asked the Republican vice-presidential candidate if he knew about Upton’s private struggles after her very public bungle.
“No certainly not, and my heart goes out to her and I hope she’s doing well,” Vance replied.
But Vance said his meme wasn’t a big deal and encouraged Upton to just shake it off.
“Look, I’ve said a lot of things on camera; I’ve said a lot of stupid things on camera,” the Ohio senator said. “Sometimes when you’re in the public eye, you make mistakes. And again, I think the best way to deal with it is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at this stuff and try to have some fun in politics.”
Vance also said he wouldn’t apologize for his joke, telling Berman: “I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin … What I’d say is, one bad moment shouldn’t define anybody, and the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.”
He added that “politics has gotten way too lame” and “way too boring,” adding, “You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you’re going to improve their lives.”
mdaniell@postmedia.com
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Former Miss Teen beauty queen slams JD Vance for mocking her
Former Miss Teen USA contestant Caitlin Upton says JD Vance's attempt to troll Kamala Harris by using an embarrassing clip is "a shame."
Federal judge rejects Donald Trump’s request to intervene in wake of hush money conviction
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Sep 03, 2024 • Last updated 14 hours ago • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday swiftly rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, thwarting the former president’s latest bid to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump’s lawyers permission to file paperwork asking the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to take control of the case. He said they had failed to satisfy the burden of proof required for a federal court to seize the case from the state court where Trump was convicted in May.
The ruling leaves Trump’s case in state court, where he is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18.
Trump’s lawyers had sought to move the case to federal court so they could then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling granting ex-presidents immunity from prosecution for official acts.
Hellerstein, who denied Trump’s request last year to move the case to federal court, said nothing about the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling affected his “previous conclusion that the hush money payments” at issue in Trump’s case “were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”
Hellerstein sidestepped a defense argument that Trump had been the victim of “bias, conflicts of interest, and appearances of impropriety” at the hands of the judge who presided over the trial in state court, Juan M. Merchan.
“This Court does not have jurisdiction to hear Mr. Trump’s arguments concerning the propriety of the New York trial,” Hellerstein wrote in a four-page decision.
Instead, Hellerstein noted, Trump can pursue a state appeal or, after exhausting that path, seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court
“It would be highly improper for this Court to evaluate the issues of bias, unfairness or error in the state trial,” Hellerstein wrote. “Those are issues for the state appellate courts.”
Hellerstein’s ruling came hours after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking his permission to pursue federal court intervention. Trump’s lawyers had initially asked the federal court to step in last week, but their papers were rejected because they hadn’t first obtained Hellerstein’s permission to file them, as required.
Messages seeking comment were left with Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors raised objections to Trump ’s effort to delay post-trial decisions in the case while he sought to have the federal court step in.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office argued in a letter to the judge presiding over the case in state court that he had no legal obligation to hold off on post-trial decisions and wait for Hellerstein to rule.
Prosecutors urged the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, not to delay his rulings on two key defense requests: Trump’s call to delay sentencing until after the November election, and his bid to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
Merchan has said he will rule Sept. 16 on Trump’s motion to overturn the verdict. His decision on delaying sentencing has been expected in the coming days.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run. Trump has denied her claim and said he did nothing wrong.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation or a fine.
In a letter Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo reiterated that prosecutors have not staked a position on whether to delay sentencing, deferring to Merchan on an “appropriate post-trial schedule.”
Trump’s lawyers have argued that sentencing Trump as scheduled, just two days after Merchan’s expected immunity decision, would not give him enough time to weigh the next steps — including a possible appeal — if Merchan rules to uphold the verdict.
They also argued that sentencing Trump on Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day would be election interference, raising the specter that Trump could be sent to jail as early voting is getting underway.
Colangelo said Tuesday that prosecutors were open to a schedule that allows “adequate time” to adjudicate Trump’s motion to set aside the verdict while also sentencing him “without unreasonable delay.”
In a letter to Merchan last week, Trump’s lawyers said delaying the proceedings is the “only appropriate course” as they seek to have the federal court rectify a verdict they say was tainted by violations of the Republican presidential nominee’s constitutional rights and the Supreme Court’s ruling that gives ex-presidents broad protections from prosecution.
The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, and that prosecutors erred by showing jurors evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how Trump reacted to news coverage of the hush money deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.
Trump’s lawyers had previously invoked presidential immunity in a failed bid last year to get the hush money case moved from state court to federal court.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak
Published Sep 03, 2024 • Last updated 14 hours ago • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday swiftly rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, thwarting the former president’s latest bid to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump’s lawyers permission to file paperwork asking the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to take control of the case. He said they had failed to satisfy the burden of proof required for a federal court to seize the case from the state court where Trump was convicted in May.
The ruling leaves Trump’s case in state court, where he is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18.
Trump’s lawyers had sought to move the case to federal court so they could then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling granting ex-presidents immunity from prosecution for official acts.
Hellerstein, who denied Trump’s request last year to move the case to federal court, said nothing about the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling affected his “previous conclusion that the hush money payments” at issue in Trump’s case “were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”
Hellerstein sidestepped a defense argument that Trump had been the victim of “bias, conflicts of interest, and appearances of impropriety” at the hands of the judge who presided over the trial in state court, Juan M. Merchan.
“This Court does not have jurisdiction to hear Mr. Trump’s arguments concerning the propriety of the New York trial,” Hellerstein wrote in a four-page decision.
Instead, Hellerstein noted, Trump can pursue a state appeal or, after exhausting that path, seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court
“It would be highly improper for this Court to evaluate the issues of bias, unfairness or error in the state trial,” Hellerstein wrote. “Those are issues for the state appellate courts.”
Hellerstein’s ruling came hours after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking his permission to pursue federal court intervention. Trump’s lawyers had initially asked the federal court to step in last week, but their papers were rejected because they hadn’t first obtained Hellerstein’s permission to file them, as required.
Messages seeking comment were left with Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors raised objections to Trump ’s effort to delay post-trial decisions in the case while he sought to have the federal court step in.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office argued in a letter to the judge presiding over the case in state court that he had no legal obligation to hold off on post-trial decisions and wait for Hellerstein to rule.
Prosecutors urged the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, not to delay his rulings on two key defense requests: Trump’s call to delay sentencing until after the November election, and his bid to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
Merchan has said he will rule Sept. 16 on Trump’s motion to overturn the verdict. His decision on delaying sentencing has been expected in the coming days.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run. Trump has denied her claim and said he did nothing wrong.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation or a fine.
In a letter Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo reiterated that prosecutors have not staked a position on whether to delay sentencing, deferring to Merchan on an “appropriate post-trial schedule.”
Trump’s lawyers have argued that sentencing Trump as scheduled, just two days after Merchan’s expected immunity decision, would not give him enough time to weigh the next steps — including a possible appeal — if Merchan rules to uphold the verdict.
They also argued that sentencing Trump on Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day would be election interference, raising the specter that Trump could be sent to jail as early voting is getting underway.
Colangelo said Tuesday that prosecutors were open to a schedule that allows “adequate time” to adjudicate Trump’s motion to set aside the verdict while also sentencing him “without unreasonable delay.”
In a letter to Merchan last week, Trump’s lawyers said delaying the proceedings is the “only appropriate course” as they seek to have the federal court rectify a verdict they say was tainted by violations of the Republican presidential nominee’s constitutional rights and the Supreme Court’s ruling that gives ex-presidents broad protections from prosecution.
The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, and that prosecutors erred by showing jurors evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how Trump reacted to news coverage of the hush money deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.
Trump’s lawyers had previously invoked presidential immunity in a failed bid last year to get the hush money case moved from state court to federal court.
Federal judge rejects Donald Trump’s request to intervene in wake of hush money conviction
Manhattan prosecutors balked Tuesday at Donald Trump 's effort to delay post-trial decisions in his New York hush money criminal case.
Donald Trump open to releasing Jeffrey Epstein’s client list
Author of the articleenette Wilford
Published Sep 04, 2024 • Last updated 19 hours ago • 2 minute read
Former U.S. president Donald Trump spoke with popular podcaster Lex Fridman in a wide-ranging conversation that covered everything from the 2020 election, Joe Rogan, medical marijuana and Jeffrey Epstein’s client list.
Here are five takeaways from the Trump and Fridman sit-down:
— Trump suggests he’ll release Epstein’s client list if elected
The Republican presidential candidate expressed that he would disclose information about billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s client list, after Fridman noted that many find it odd that the list hasn’t surfaced since his death.
“A lot of big people went to that island, but fortunately I was not one of them,” Trump said.
— Trump reveals what he really thinks of Joe Rogan
Trump clarified that despite not appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, there was no bad blood between the two men.
“I don’t think that there was any tension and I’ve always liked him. But I don’t know him,” Trump told Fridman. “I think he’s good at what he does, but I don’t know about doing his podcast.”
— Trump warns that electing Kamala Harris would push U.S. towards communism
The former commander-in-chief warned that voting for Harris would change everything about America as we know it.
“The election coming up on Nov. 5 is the most important election this country has ever had,” Trump said.
“Because if we don’t win it, I don’t know that there’ll be another election, and it’s going to be a communist country or close,” he predicted.
— Trump slams Joe Biden
Trump called Joe Biden the “worst president” in U.S. history.
“He sort of checked out,” Trump said of Biden. “Hey look, you can’t blame him. That was a coup. They took it over. They took over the presidential deal. The whole presidential thing was taken over in a coup. He had 14 million votes. (Kamala Harris) had no votes. Not one. And no one thought it’d be her. Nobody wanted it to be her.”
— Trump reflects on the 2020 election as he prepares for 2024
Trump and Harris will face off in their first presidential debate on Sept. 10, and Trump believes he’s going to do just fine.
“I’ve done well with debates. I became president,” he said.
“Then, the second time, I got millions more votes than I got the first time. So I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got the first time, you would win. You can’t not win,” he added.
“And I got millions more votes than that and lost by a whisker,” Trump said of the 2020 outcome.
torontosun.com
Author of the article
enette WilfordPublished Sep 04, 2024 • Last updated 19 hours ago • 2 minute read
Former U.S. president Donald Trump spoke with popular podcaster Lex Fridman in a wide-ranging conversation that covered everything from the 2020 election, Joe Rogan, medical marijuana and Jeffrey Epstein’s client list.
Here are five takeaways from the Trump and Fridman sit-down:
— Trump suggests he’ll release Epstein’s client list if elected
The Republican presidential candidate expressed that he would disclose information about billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s client list, after Fridman noted that many find it odd that the list hasn’t surfaced since his death.
“A lot of big people went to that island, but fortunately I was not one of them,” Trump said.
— Trump reveals what he really thinks of Joe Rogan
Trump clarified that despite not appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, there was no bad blood between the two men.
“I don’t think that there was any tension and I’ve always liked him. But I don’t know him,” Trump told Fridman. “I think he’s good at what he does, but I don’t know about doing his podcast.”
— Trump warns that electing Kamala Harris would push U.S. towards communism
The former commander-in-chief warned that voting for Harris would change everything about America as we know it.
“The election coming up on Nov. 5 is the most important election this country has ever had,” Trump said.
“Because if we don’t win it, I don’t know that there’ll be another election, and it’s going to be a communist country or close,” he predicted.
— Trump slams Joe Biden
Trump called Joe Biden the “worst president” in U.S. history.
“He sort of checked out,” Trump said of Biden. “Hey look, you can’t blame him. That was a coup. They took it over. They took over the presidential deal. The whole presidential thing was taken over in a coup. He had 14 million votes. (Kamala Harris) had no votes. Not one. And no one thought it’d be her. Nobody wanted it to be her.”
— Trump reflects on the 2020 election as he prepares for 2024
Trump and Harris will face off in their first presidential debate on Sept. 10, and Trump believes he’s going to do just fine.
“I’ve done well with debates. I became president,” he said.
“Then, the second time, I got millions more votes than I got the first time. So I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got the first time, you would win. You can’t not win,” he added.
“And I got millions more votes than that and lost by a whisker,” Trump said of the 2020 outcome.
Donald Trump open to releasing Jeffrey Epstein’s client list
Here are five takeaways from Trump's sit-down with podcaster Lex Fridman.
Tim Walz family members back Donald Trump in leaked photo
Author of the articleostmedia News
Published Sep 04, 2024 • Last updated 19 hours ago • 2 minute read
Family member of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's in Nebraska posing for an image showing their support for Republican rival Donald Trump.
Family member of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's in Nebraska posing for an image showing their support for Republican rival Donald Trump. Photo by SCREEN GRAB /TORONTO SUN
They waltzed right past him.
Despite being Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris’ running mate, the family of vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz seemingly has other voting plans.
A new leaked image shows members of Walz’s family supporting his Republican rival, Donald Trump.
The photo was shared by former Nebraska GOP gubernational candidate Charles W. Herbster. It shows eight people wearing “Nebraska Walz’s (sic) for Trump” t-shirts.
A U.K. Daily Mail report citing a representative for Herbster said those posing in the photo are related to Walz through his grandfather’s brother.
“Tim Walz’s family back in Nebraska wants you to know something,” Herbster captioned the image.
Trump was quick to jump on the opportunity, saying Wednesday he plans to “meet” with another member of Walz’s family, the governor’s older brother, Jeff (not in the photo), who the former president said endorses his White House bid.
The photo instantly went viral and Trump supporters cited the family’s opposition to Walz’s candidacy as proof that people should be wary of voting for the Democrats.
The Democratic campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail.
The image of some of Walz’s family members wearing the grammatically incorrect t-shirts came after the vice-presidential nominee’s brother warned against allowing him into the White House.
Jeff Walz, a 67-year-old who lives in Florida, posted about his brother on Facebook last week, saying, “I’m 100% opposed to all his ideology.”
However, Jeff followed up by saying he didn’t mean to influence voters.
“It wasn’t my intent, it wasn’t our intent as a family, to put something out there to influence the general public,” Jeff Walz told NewsNation, per the Daily Mail.
“I was getting a lot of feedback from my friends, old acquaintances, thinking that I was feeling the same way that my brother did on the issues, and I was trying to clarify that just to friends,” he continued.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday: “Thank you very much, Jeff.”
The former president wrote. “It is a great honour to have your endorsement.”
Walz is a former school teacher who was first elected to public office in 2006.
torontosun.com
Author of the article
ostmedia NewsPublished Sep 04, 2024 • Last updated 19 hours ago • 2 minute read
Family member of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's in Nebraska posing for an image showing their support for Republican rival Donald Trump.
Family member of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's in Nebraska posing for an image showing their support for Republican rival Donald Trump. Photo by SCREEN GRAB /TORONTO SUN
They waltzed right past him.
Despite being Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris’ running mate, the family of vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz seemingly has other voting plans.
A new leaked image shows members of Walz’s family supporting his Republican rival, Donald Trump.
The photo was shared by former Nebraska GOP gubernational candidate Charles W. Herbster. It shows eight people wearing “Nebraska Walz’s (sic) for Trump” t-shirts.
A U.K. Daily Mail report citing a representative for Herbster said those posing in the photo are related to Walz through his grandfather’s brother.
“Tim Walz’s family back in Nebraska wants you to know something,” Herbster captioned the image.
Trump was quick to jump on the opportunity, saying Wednesday he plans to “meet” with another member of Walz’s family, the governor’s older brother, Jeff (not in the photo), who the former president said endorses his White House bid.
The photo instantly went viral and Trump supporters cited the family’s opposition to Walz’s candidacy as proof that people should be wary of voting for the Democrats.
The Democratic campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail.
The image of some of Walz’s family members wearing the grammatically incorrect t-shirts came after the vice-presidential nominee’s brother warned against allowing him into the White House.
Jeff Walz, a 67-year-old who lives in Florida, posted about his brother on Facebook last week, saying, “I’m 100% opposed to all his ideology.”
However, Jeff followed up by saying he didn’t mean to influence voters.
“It wasn’t my intent, it wasn’t our intent as a family, to put something out there to influence the general public,” Jeff Walz told NewsNation, per the Daily Mail.
“I was getting a lot of feedback from my friends, old acquaintances, thinking that I was feeling the same way that my brother did on the issues, and I was trying to clarify that just to friends,” he continued.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday: “Thank you very much, Jeff.”
The former president wrote. “It is a great honour to have your endorsement.”
Walz is a former school teacher who was first elected to public office in 2006.
Tim Walz family members back Donald Trump in leaked photo
The family of vice-president candidate Gov. Tim Walz seemingly has other voting plans.
Courtroom clash in Trump’s election interference case as the judge ponders the path ahead
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer And Michael Kunzelman
Published Sep 05, 2024 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON — In the first court hearing in nearly a year, a lawyer for Donald Trump clashed on Thursday with the judge in the federal election interference prosecution of the former president after suggesting the government was rushing forward with an “illegitimate” indictment at the height of the White House campaign.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers are bitterly at odds over the next steps in the case after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the prosecution by ruling that former presidents are entitled to broad immunity from criminal charges. The dueling proposals and testy courtroom exchanges reflected the extent to which the justices’ July opinion had upended the path of the case that charges Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
“We may be dealing with an illegitimate indictment from the get-go,” Trump attorney John Lauro said. He added: “We want an orderly process that does justice to the Supreme Court opinion.”
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team filed a revised indictment last week to strip out certain allegations against Trump for which the Supreme Court said Trump, the Republican nominee for president, enjoyed immunity. Defence lawyers, however, believe that that indictment did not fully comply with the justices’ ruling.
Lauro told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that the Supreme Court’s opinion required the outright dismissal of the case, a position the judge made clear she did not accept. He complained that prosecutors were showing a “rush to judgment” with their plans to soon file court papers explaining why the remaining allegations should remain intact.
Chutkan was unmoved on that point as well.
“This case has been pending for over a year,” Chutkan said, referencing the fact that the matter has been frozen since last December while Trump pursued his immunity appeal. “We’re hardly sprinting to the finish here.” She said it was clear that whatever her ruling, it would be subject to a further appeal.
She also bristled at Lauro’s reference to the November election, such as when he said: “This process is inherently unfair, particularly during this sensitive time.”
“I understand that there is an election,” the judge replied. “I’ve said before … that the electoral process and the timing of the election … is not relevant here. The court is not concerned with the electoral schedule.”
Lauro told Chutkan that the case concerned momentous issues. “We are talking about the presidency of the United States,” he said. Chutkan shot back: “I’m not talking about the presidency of the United States. I’m talking about a four count indictment.”
She told Lauro that it appeared the defence was trying to delay the case because of the election. “That’s not going to be a factor I consider at all,” Chutkan said.
Pushing back on the defence’s claims that the special counsel wants to move too quickly, a member of Smith’s prosecution team noted that Trump’s lawyers filed a lengthy brief seeking to overturn his New York hush money conviction and dismiss the case less than two weeks after the Supreme Court’s ruling in July.
“The defence can move comprehensively, quickly and well. So can we,” Thomas Windom said.
The tense exchanges between Lauro and Chutkan defined the early hearings in the case. But there was a lighter start to Thursday’s session.
At the opening, Chutkan noted that it has been almost a year since she saw the lawyers in her courtroom. Lauro joked to the judge that “life was almost meaningless without seeing you.”
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Chutkan said.
The hearing ended without the judge issuing an order about future dates in the case.
Trump was not in the courtroom and gave an economic speech in New York. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf for the revised indictment.
Defence lawyers said they intend to file multiple motions to dismiss the case, including one that piggybacks off a Florida judge’s ruling that said Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Neither side envisions a trial happening before Election Day, especially given the amount of work ahead. Chutkan is tasked with determining which of the acts alleged in the indictment can remain part of the case in light of the Supreme Court opinion.
The justices in July ruled that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for the exercise of their core constitutional duties and are presumptively immune from prosecution for all other official acts.
Smith’s team responded to the ruling with a revised indictment last week that removed references to Trump’s efforts to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to remain in power, an area of conduct to which the Supreme Court said Trump is immune.
The case is one of two federal prosecutions against Trump. The other, charging him with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, was dismissed in July by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. She said Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unlawful.
Smith’s team has appealed that ruling. Trump’s lawyers say they intend to ask Chutkan to dismiss the election case on the same grounds.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer And Michael Kunzelman
Published Sep 05, 2024 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON — In the first court hearing in nearly a year, a lawyer for Donald Trump clashed on Thursday with the judge in the federal election interference prosecution of the former president after suggesting the government was rushing forward with an “illegitimate” indictment at the height of the White House campaign.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers are bitterly at odds over the next steps in the case after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the prosecution by ruling that former presidents are entitled to broad immunity from criminal charges. The dueling proposals and testy courtroom exchanges reflected the extent to which the justices’ July opinion had upended the path of the case that charges Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
“We may be dealing with an illegitimate indictment from the get-go,” Trump attorney John Lauro said. He added: “We want an orderly process that does justice to the Supreme Court opinion.”
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team filed a revised indictment last week to strip out certain allegations against Trump for which the Supreme Court said Trump, the Republican nominee for president, enjoyed immunity. Defence lawyers, however, believe that that indictment did not fully comply with the justices’ ruling.
Lauro told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that the Supreme Court’s opinion required the outright dismissal of the case, a position the judge made clear she did not accept. He complained that prosecutors were showing a “rush to judgment” with their plans to soon file court papers explaining why the remaining allegations should remain intact.
Chutkan was unmoved on that point as well.
“This case has been pending for over a year,” Chutkan said, referencing the fact that the matter has been frozen since last December while Trump pursued his immunity appeal. “We’re hardly sprinting to the finish here.” She said it was clear that whatever her ruling, it would be subject to a further appeal.
She also bristled at Lauro’s reference to the November election, such as when he said: “This process is inherently unfair, particularly during this sensitive time.”
“I understand that there is an election,” the judge replied. “I’ve said before … that the electoral process and the timing of the election … is not relevant here. The court is not concerned with the electoral schedule.”
Lauro told Chutkan that the case concerned momentous issues. “We are talking about the presidency of the United States,” he said. Chutkan shot back: “I’m not talking about the presidency of the United States. I’m talking about a four count indictment.”
She told Lauro that it appeared the defence was trying to delay the case because of the election. “That’s not going to be a factor I consider at all,” Chutkan said.
Pushing back on the defence’s claims that the special counsel wants to move too quickly, a member of Smith’s prosecution team noted that Trump’s lawyers filed a lengthy brief seeking to overturn his New York hush money conviction and dismiss the case less than two weeks after the Supreme Court’s ruling in July.
“The defence can move comprehensively, quickly and well. So can we,” Thomas Windom said.
The tense exchanges between Lauro and Chutkan defined the early hearings in the case. But there was a lighter start to Thursday’s session.
At the opening, Chutkan noted that it has been almost a year since she saw the lawyers in her courtroom. Lauro joked to the judge that “life was almost meaningless without seeing you.”
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Chutkan said.
The hearing ended without the judge issuing an order about future dates in the case.
Trump was not in the courtroom and gave an economic speech in New York. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf for the revised indictment.
Defence lawyers said they intend to file multiple motions to dismiss the case, including one that piggybacks off a Florida judge’s ruling that said Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Neither side envisions a trial happening before Election Day, especially given the amount of work ahead. Chutkan is tasked with determining which of the acts alleged in the indictment can remain part of the case in light of the Supreme Court opinion.
The justices in July ruled that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for the exercise of their core constitutional duties and are presumptively immune from prosecution for all other official acts.
Smith’s team responded to the ruling with a revised indictment last week that removed references to Trump’s efforts to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to remain in power, an area of conduct to which the Supreme Court said Trump is immune.
The case is one of two federal prosecutions against Trump. The other, charging him with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, was dismissed in July by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. She said Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unlawful.
Smith’s team has appealed that ruling. Trump’s lawyers say they intend to ask Chutkan to dismiss the election case on the same grounds.
Courtroom clash in Trump’s election interference case as the judge ponders the path ahead
Prosecutors and defence lawyers clashed in court over the next steps in the federal election interference prosecution of Donald Trump.
Trump says he’d create a government efficiency commission led by Elon Musk
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Sep 05, 2024 • 1 minute read
WASHINGTON — Former president Donald Trump said Thursday he would create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government, an idea suggested by billionaire Elon Musk, who would lead it.
The commission is the latest attention-grabbing alliance between Trump and Musk, who leads companies including Tesla and SpaceX and has become an increasingly vocal supporter of Trump’s bid to return to the White House.
The Republican presidential nominee, speaking to the Economic Club of New York, claimed that in 2022, “fraud and improper payments alone cost taxpayers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars.” He said the commission would recommend “drastic reforms” and develop a plan to eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months, which he said would save trillions of dollars.
“We need to do it,” Trump said. “Can’t go on the way we are now.”
Trump also promised to cut 10 government regulations for every new regulation implemented if he’s elected in November.
“I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises,” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. “No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Sep 05, 2024 • 1 minute read
WASHINGTON — Former president Donald Trump said Thursday he would create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government, an idea suggested by billionaire Elon Musk, who would lead it.
The commission is the latest attention-grabbing alliance between Trump and Musk, who leads companies including Tesla and SpaceX and has become an increasingly vocal supporter of Trump’s bid to return to the White House.
The Republican presidential nominee, speaking to the Economic Club of New York, claimed that in 2022, “fraud and improper payments alone cost taxpayers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars.” He said the commission would recommend “drastic reforms” and develop a plan to eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months, which he said would save trillions of dollars.
“We need to do it,” Trump said. “Can’t go on the way we are now.”
Trump also promised to cut 10 government regulations for every new regulation implemented if he’s elected in November.
“I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises,” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. “No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.”
Trump says he’d create a government efficiency commission led by Elon Musk
Former president Donald Trump said Thursday he would create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government.
Physician sentenced to 9 months for punching police officer during Capitol riot
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael Kunzelman
Published Sep 05, 2024 • 3 minute read
WASHINGTON — A Massachusetts medical doctor who punched a police officer during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Thursday to nine months of imprisonment followed by nine months of home confinement.
Jacquelyn Starer was in a crowd of rioters inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when she struck the officer with a closed fist and shouted a profane insult.
Starer told U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly that she isn’t proud of her actions that day, including her “regrettable encounter” with the officer.
“I accept full responsibility for my actions that day, and I truly wish reason had prevailed over my emotions,” she said.
Starer also turned to apologize to the officer whom she assaulted. The officer, identified only by her initials in court filings, told the judge she feared for her life as she and other officers fought for hours to defend the Capitol from the mob of Donald Trump supporters.
“Do you really take responsibility for your actions or are you just going to say: ‘It wasn’t my fault. Fight or flight’?” the officer asked Starer before she addressed the court.
Starer, 70, of Ashland, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in April to eight counts, including a felony assault charge, without reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of two years and three months for Starer, a physician who primarily practiced addiction medicine before her arrest. Starer’s attorneys asked the judge to sentence her to home confinement instead of incarceration.
Online licensing records indicate that Starer agreed in January 2023 not to practice medicine in Massachusetts. The state issued her a medical license in 1983.
Starer attended then-President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before joining the mob outside the Capitol. She entered the building through the Rotunda doors roughly 15 minutes after they were breached.
In the Rotunda, Starer joined other rioters in trying to push past police officers guarding a passageway to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Starer pushed through other rioters to reach the front of the police line, where she yelled at officers.
When another rioter tried to hold her back, Starer grabbed that person’s arm, pushed it down and then shoved against the police line. When one of those officers pushed Starer backward, she turned around and punched the officer. The assault was captured on video from a police body camera.
“Rioters reacted to the assault by becoming more aggressive, and they then charged the police line,” a Justice Department prosecutor wrote.
Starer’s attorneys said she became upset with the rioter who tried to hold her back. She instinctively punched the officer’s arm in response to being pushed, her lawyers said. They argued that Starer was reacting to the push and wasn’t motivated by the officer’s occupational status.
“Dr. Starer deeply regrets this entire interaction, and fully recognizes it constitutes criminal conduct on her part,” her attorneys wrote.
The judge said Starer rushed toward the police line “like a heat-seeking missile.”
“That’s a pretty ominous thing given the threat to the physical safety of our members of Congress,” Kelly said.
The judge asked Starer where she was trying to go.
“The short answer is, ‘I don’t know,”‘ she replied.
Starer appeared to be struggling with the effects of pepper spray when she left the Capitol, approximately 15 minutes after entering the building.
“She received aid from other rioters, including a rioter clad in camouflage wearing a helmet with a military-style patch with the word ‘MILITIA,”‘ the prosecutor wrote.
Starer’s attorneys said she recognizes that she likely has treated her last patient.
“Her inability to do the work she loves so much has left a very large hole in her life which she struggles to fill,” they wrote.
Nearly 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 900 of them have been convicted and sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael Kunzelman
Published Sep 05, 2024 • 3 minute read
WASHINGTON — A Massachusetts medical doctor who punched a police officer during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Thursday to nine months of imprisonment followed by nine months of home confinement.
Jacquelyn Starer was in a crowd of rioters inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when she struck the officer with a closed fist and shouted a profane insult.
Starer told U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly that she isn’t proud of her actions that day, including her “regrettable encounter” with the officer.
“I accept full responsibility for my actions that day, and I truly wish reason had prevailed over my emotions,” she said.
Starer also turned to apologize to the officer whom she assaulted. The officer, identified only by her initials in court filings, told the judge she feared for her life as she and other officers fought for hours to defend the Capitol from the mob of Donald Trump supporters.
“Do you really take responsibility for your actions or are you just going to say: ‘It wasn’t my fault. Fight or flight’?” the officer asked Starer before she addressed the court.
Starer, 70, of Ashland, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in April to eight counts, including a felony assault charge, without reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of two years and three months for Starer, a physician who primarily practiced addiction medicine before her arrest. Starer’s attorneys asked the judge to sentence her to home confinement instead of incarceration.
Online licensing records indicate that Starer agreed in January 2023 not to practice medicine in Massachusetts. The state issued her a medical license in 1983.
Starer attended then-President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before joining the mob outside the Capitol. She entered the building through the Rotunda doors roughly 15 minutes after they were breached.
In the Rotunda, Starer joined other rioters in trying to push past police officers guarding a passageway to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Starer pushed through other rioters to reach the front of the police line, where she yelled at officers.
When another rioter tried to hold her back, Starer grabbed that person’s arm, pushed it down and then shoved against the police line. When one of those officers pushed Starer backward, she turned around and punched the officer. The assault was captured on video from a police body camera.
“Rioters reacted to the assault by becoming more aggressive, and they then charged the police line,” a Justice Department prosecutor wrote.
Starer’s attorneys said she became upset with the rioter who tried to hold her back. She instinctively punched the officer’s arm in response to being pushed, her lawyers said. They argued that Starer was reacting to the push and wasn’t motivated by the officer’s occupational status.
“Dr. Starer deeply regrets this entire interaction, and fully recognizes it constitutes criminal conduct on her part,” her attorneys wrote.
The judge said Starer rushed toward the police line “like a heat-seeking missile.”
“That’s a pretty ominous thing given the threat to the physical safety of our members of Congress,” Kelly said.
The judge asked Starer where she was trying to go.
“The short answer is, ‘I don’t know,”‘ she replied.
Starer appeared to be struggling with the effects of pepper spray when she left the Capitol, approximately 15 minutes after entering the building.
“She received aid from other rioters, including a rioter clad in camouflage wearing a helmet with a military-style patch with the word ‘MILITIA,”‘ the prosecutor wrote.
Starer’s attorneys said she recognizes that she likely has treated her last patient.
“Her inability to do the work she loves so much has left a very large hole in her life which she struggles to fill,” they wrote.
Nearly 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 900 of them have been convicted and sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
Physician sentenced to 9 months for punching police officer during Capitol riot
A Massachusetts medical doctor who punched a police officer during a mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Thursday to nine months
Trump in court as lawyers fight to overturn verdict in E. Jean Carroll sex abuse suit
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Larry Neumeister And Michelle L. Price
Published Sep 06, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
NEW YORK — Veering from the campaign trail to a courtroom, Donald Trump quietly observed Friday as one of his lawyers fought to overturn a verdict finding the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
The Republican nominee and his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, a writer, sat at tables about 15 feet (4.5 meters) apart, in a federal appeals court. Trump didn’t acknowledge or look at Carroll as he passed directly in front of her on the way in and out, but he shook his head at points, such as when Carroll’s attorney said he sexually attacked her.
Trump attorney D. John Sauer told 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges that the civil trial in Carroll’s lawsuit was muddied by improper evidence.
“This case is a textbook example of implausible allegations being propped up by highly inflammatory, inadmissible” evidence, Sauer said, noting that the jury was allowed to consider such items as the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted years ago about grabbing women’s genitals.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told the judges the evidence in question was proper, and that there was plenty of proof in the nearly two-week-long trial of Carroll’s claim that Trump attacked her in a luxury department store dressing room decades ago.
“E. Jean Carroll brought this case because Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in 1996, in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, and then defamed her in 2022 by claiming that she was crazy and made the whole thing up,” Kaplan said.
Carroll, standing with Kaplan outside the courthouse afterward, declined to comment.
Trump left court in a motorcade, then delivered a lengthy diatribe against the case at Trump Tower, where he said again that Carroll — and other women who had accused him of sexual assault _ were making everything up.
“It’s so false. It’s a made up, fabricated story by somebody, I think, initially, just looking to promote a book,” Trump said.
In his remarks to reporters Friday, Trump repeated many of the same claims about Carroll that a jury has already found to be defamatory, and added some new ones, like suggesting that a photograph of him and Carroll together in 1987 was actually produced by artificial intelligence. It was unclear whether his comments might open the door to a new defamation lawsuit by Carroll.
“I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: all options are on the table,” Kaplan said in a statement after Trump’s news conference.
The three-judge panel, if it follows the pattern of other appeals, would be unlikely to rule for weeks, if not months.
A jury found in May 2023 that Trump sexually abused Carroll. He denies it. That jury awarded Carroll $5 million.
Trump did not attend the trial and has expressed regret that he was not there.
The civil case has both political and financial implications for Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has jabbed at Trump over the jury’s verdict, noting repeatedly that he had been found liable for sexual abuse.
And last January, a second jury awarded Carroll another $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump had made about her while he was president, finding that they were defamatory. That jury had been instructed by the judge that it had to accept the first jury’s finding that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll.
Trump, 78, testified less than three minutes at the second trial and was not permitted to refute conclusions reached by the May 2023 jury. Still, he was animated in the courtroom throughout the two-week trial, and jurors could hear him grumbling about the case.
The appeal of that trial’s outcome will be heard by the appeals court at a later date.
Carroll, 80, testified during both trials that her life as an Elle magazine columnist was spoiled by Trump’s public comments, which she said ignited such hate against her that she received death threats and feared going outside the upstate New York cabin where she lives.
During Friday’s arguments, Trump’s attorney said testimony from witnesses who said Carroll told them about the 1996 encounter with Trump immediately afterward was improper because the witnesses had “egregious bias” against Trump.
Sauer also attacked the trial judge’s decision to let two other women testify about similar acts of sex abuse they say Trump committed against them in the 1970s and in 2005. He denies those allegations.
Trump’s lawyers have also argued that Kaplan wrongly disallowed evidence that Carroll lied during her deposition, and other evidence they say would reveal bias and motives to lie for Carroll and other witnesses against Trump. The verdict, they wrote, was “unjust and erroneous,” resulting from “flawed and prejudicial evidentiary rulings.”
The judge is no relation to Carroll’s attorney.
Trump has insisted that Carroll made up the story about being attacked to sell a new book. He has denied knowing her.
Trump’s lawyers also challenged the repeated airing at trial of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” videotape, in which Trump is heard saying that he sometimes just starts kissing beautiful women and “when you’re a star they let you do it.” He also said that a star can grab women’s genitals because “you can do anything.”
In their written arguments, Carroll’s lawyers said Trump was wrongly demanding “a do-over” based on unfounded “sweeping complaints of unfairness” and other “distortions of the record, misstatements or misapplications of the law, and a steadfast disregard of the district court’s reasoning.”
“There was no error here, let alone a violation of Trump’s substantial rights. This Court should affirm,” Carroll’s lawyers said.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
— Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Larry Neumeister And Michelle L. Price
Published Sep 06, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
NEW YORK — Veering from the campaign trail to a courtroom, Donald Trump quietly observed Friday as one of his lawyers fought to overturn a verdict finding the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
The Republican nominee and his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, a writer, sat at tables about 15 feet (4.5 meters) apart, in a federal appeals court. Trump didn’t acknowledge or look at Carroll as he passed directly in front of her on the way in and out, but he shook his head at points, such as when Carroll’s attorney said he sexually attacked her.
Trump attorney D. John Sauer told 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges that the civil trial in Carroll’s lawsuit was muddied by improper evidence.
“This case is a textbook example of implausible allegations being propped up by highly inflammatory, inadmissible” evidence, Sauer said, noting that the jury was allowed to consider such items as the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted years ago about grabbing women’s genitals.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told the judges the evidence in question was proper, and that there was plenty of proof in the nearly two-week-long trial of Carroll’s claim that Trump attacked her in a luxury department store dressing room decades ago.
“E. Jean Carroll brought this case because Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in 1996, in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, and then defamed her in 2022 by claiming that she was crazy and made the whole thing up,” Kaplan said.
Carroll, standing with Kaplan outside the courthouse afterward, declined to comment.
Trump left court in a motorcade, then delivered a lengthy diatribe against the case at Trump Tower, where he said again that Carroll — and other women who had accused him of sexual assault _ were making everything up.
“It’s so false. It’s a made up, fabricated story by somebody, I think, initially, just looking to promote a book,” Trump said.
In his remarks to reporters Friday, Trump repeated many of the same claims about Carroll that a jury has already found to be defamatory, and added some new ones, like suggesting that a photograph of him and Carroll together in 1987 was actually produced by artificial intelligence. It was unclear whether his comments might open the door to a new defamation lawsuit by Carroll.
“I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: all options are on the table,” Kaplan said in a statement after Trump’s news conference.
The three-judge panel, if it follows the pattern of other appeals, would be unlikely to rule for weeks, if not months.
A jury found in May 2023 that Trump sexually abused Carroll. He denies it. That jury awarded Carroll $5 million.
Trump did not attend the trial and has expressed regret that he was not there.
The civil case has both political and financial implications for Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has jabbed at Trump over the jury’s verdict, noting repeatedly that he had been found liable for sexual abuse.
And last January, a second jury awarded Carroll another $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump had made about her while he was president, finding that they were defamatory. That jury had been instructed by the judge that it had to accept the first jury’s finding that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll.
Trump, 78, testified less than three minutes at the second trial and was not permitted to refute conclusions reached by the May 2023 jury. Still, he was animated in the courtroom throughout the two-week trial, and jurors could hear him grumbling about the case.
The appeal of that trial’s outcome will be heard by the appeals court at a later date.
Carroll, 80, testified during both trials that her life as an Elle magazine columnist was spoiled by Trump’s public comments, which she said ignited such hate against her that she received death threats and feared going outside the upstate New York cabin where she lives.
During Friday’s arguments, Trump’s attorney said testimony from witnesses who said Carroll told them about the 1996 encounter with Trump immediately afterward was improper because the witnesses had “egregious bias” against Trump.
Sauer also attacked the trial judge’s decision to let two other women testify about similar acts of sex abuse they say Trump committed against them in the 1970s and in 2005. He denies those allegations.
Trump’s lawyers have also argued that Kaplan wrongly disallowed evidence that Carroll lied during her deposition, and other evidence they say would reveal bias and motives to lie for Carroll and other witnesses against Trump. The verdict, they wrote, was “unjust and erroneous,” resulting from “flawed and prejudicial evidentiary rulings.”
The judge is no relation to Carroll’s attorney.
Trump has insisted that Carroll made up the story about being attacked to sell a new book. He has denied knowing her.
Trump’s lawyers also challenged the repeated airing at trial of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” videotape, in which Trump is heard saying that he sometimes just starts kissing beautiful women and “when you’re a star they let you do it.” He also said that a star can grab women’s genitals because “you can do anything.”
In their written arguments, Carroll’s lawyers said Trump was wrongly demanding “a do-over” based on unfounded “sweeping complaints of unfairness” and other “distortions of the record, misstatements or misapplications of the law, and a steadfast disregard of the district court’s reasoning.”
“There was no error here, let alone a violation of Trump’s substantial rights. This Court should affirm,” Carroll’s lawyers said.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
— Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
Trump in court as lawyers fight to overturn verdict in E. Jean Carroll sex abuse suit
A lawyer for former President Donald Trump fought Friday to overturn a verdict finding him liable for sexual abuse and slander.
Trump assails women who accused him of misconduct, days before his debate with Harris
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jill Colvin, Michelle Price And Will Weissert
Published Sep 06, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
WASHINGTON — Shortly after appearing in court for an appeal of a decision that found him liable for sexual abuse, Donald Trump stepped in front of television cameras Friday and brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct, potentially reminding voters of incidents that were little-known or forgotten.
The former president has made hitting back at opponents and accusers a centrepiece of his political identity, but his performance at his namesake Manhattan office tower was startling even by Trump’s combative standards.
At times, he seemed to relish using graphic language and characterizations of the case brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, which could expose the former president to further legal challenges from Carroll’s attorneys. His remarks were especially striking given that they came four days before Trump will debate Vice President Kamala Harris, with early voting about to begin in some parts of the country and Election Day just two months away.
Trump is doing his best to stay in the public eye while Harris prepares for the debate in private, meeting with her advisers in Pittsburgh. That’s a reflection of their divergent campaign styles, with Trump frequently engaging with reporters — albeit often in friendly settings — while Harris has done just one interview and no news conferences since taking President Joe Biden’s place atop the Democratic ticket.
His team had billed Friday’s appearance as a press conference and Trump repeatedly brought up Harris’ lack of news conferences. But Trump took no questions and instead talked about the cases against him for an hour while hardly mentioning any campaign issues.
“I’m running for president, and I have all these cases all of a sudden come,” he said. “And they’re fake cases.”
Trump’s campaign raised tens of millions of dollars off his previous indictments, convictions and appearances in court. But it’s unclear how focusing on his legal woes will help him now as he works to win over undecided voters — including independents and those on the fence in critical swing states, ahead of a critical debate on Tuesday that will likely draw tens of millions of viewers.
Trump has disregarded his aides’ advice to focus on policy
Trump’s trying to seize the political offensive by bringing up allegations against him recalled 2016 when, in the weeks before Election Day, he attempted to dismiss as simple “locker room talk” a recording of him bragging about grabbing, forcibly kissing and sexually assaulting women, which triggered subsequent allegations of misconduct by a string of women.
But on Friday, standing inside Trump Tower, where he lived for decades before moving to Florida, Trump had many moments that evoked a more distant past.
He suggested women have accused him of wrongdoing because he is famous. He made a trio of references to how he was already famous in some circles in the 1970s, and talked about his work in the real estate and construction worlds in the 1980s — before millions of today’s voters were born. At one point, he referenced the New York Post’s famous “Page Six” gossip section, whose writers have spent decades covering him, as being the internet of its day.
Trump called Carroll’s case against him “Monica Lewinsky Part II,” referencing the then-White House intern who had a sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton, and recalled an infamous dress that played a pivotal role in the late-1990s impeachment proceedings against Clinton.
The former president also repeatedly implied he would not have assaulted two of his accusers due to their looks. He said of a woman who has accused him of sexual misconduct on a plane in the 1970s “she would not have been the chosen one,” and of Carroll, “I never touched her. I would have had no interest in meeting her in any way, shape or form.”
Harris, a former California attorney general, says frequently of her opponent’s criminal record, “I know Donald Trump’s type.” She had no public schedule as she continued debate preparation on Friday, but has built her campaign partly around the idea of prosecuting the case against him — and the accusations Trump brought up Friday could give her more lines of political attack.
Trump’s supporters and aides have urged him to focus on policy contrasts with Harris instead of personal attacks during the final stretch of a race that remains extremely close.
But, as Trump spoke, two of his top political advisers were on a call with Republican members of Congress, criticizing the media as being too soft on Harris while saying they felt confident about the race for the White House. Instead, the former president was flanked by his lawyers, some of whom also spoke in defence of their client.
Trump faces unprecedented criminal and civil jeopardy for a major candidate
His comments came after Trump was in court to hear his lawyers argue for overturning a jury’s $5 million verdict finding him liable of sexually abusing Carroll in 1996.
Juries now have twice now awarded Carroll huge sums for Trump’s claiming she made up a story about him attacking her in a department store dressing room to help her sell a memoir. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from continuing to make nearly identical statements to reporters. On Friday, he said again that Carroll was telling a “made up, fabricated story.”
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, warned in March after a jury awarded Carroll another $83 million that she would continue to monitor Trump’s comments and would consider suing again if he kept it up. In a speedy response to his Friday comments at Trump Tower, Kaplan said in a statement, “I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: All options are on the table.”
In the meantime, Trump faces unprecedented criminal and civil jeopardy for a major-party nominee.
He has separately been convicted on 34 felony counts in a New York state case related to hush money payments allegedly made to a porn actor. The judge in that case announced separately Friday that he would postpone sentencing until after Election Day on Nov. 5.
Trump has also been ordered to pay steep civil fines for lying about his wealth for years.
And he’s still contending with cases alleging his mishandling of classified documents, his actions after the 2020 election and his activities during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — though none are likely to go to trial prior to Election Day.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jill Colvin, Michelle Price And Will Weissert
Published Sep 06, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
WASHINGTON — Shortly after appearing in court for an appeal of a decision that found him liable for sexual abuse, Donald Trump stepped in front of television cameras Friday and brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct, potentially reminding voters of incidents that were little-known or forgotten.
The former president has made hitting back at opponents and accusers a centrepiece of his political identity, but his performance at his namesake Manhattan office tower was startling even by Trump’s combative standards.
At times, he seemed to relish using graphic language and characterizations of the case brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, which could expose the former president to further legal challenges from Carroll’s attorneys. His remarks were especially striking given that they came four days before Trump will debate Vice President Kamala Harris, with early voting about to begin in some parts of the country and Election Day just two months away.
Trump is doing his best to stay in the public eye while Harris prepares for the debate in private, meeting with her advisers in Pittsburgh. That’s a reflection of their divergent campaign styles, with Trump frequently engaging with reporters — albeit often in friendly settings — while Harris has done just one interview and no news conferences since taking President Joe Biden’s place atop the Democratic ticket.
His team had billed Friday’s appearance as a press conference and Trump repeatedly brought up Harris’ lack of news conferences. But Trump took no questions and instead talked about the cases against him for an hour while hardly mentioning any campaign issues.
“I’m running for president, and I have all these cases all of a sudden come,” he said. “And they’re fake cases.”
Trump’s campaign raised tens of millions of dollars off his previous indictments, convictions and appearances in court. But it’s unclear how focusing on his legal woes will help him now as he works to win over undecided voters — including independents and those on the fence in critical swing states, ahead of a critical debate on Tuesday that will likely draw tens of millions of viewers.
Trump has disregarded his aides’ advice to focus on policy
Trump’s trying to seize the political offensive by bringing up allegations against him recalled 2016 when, in the weeks before Election Day, he attempted to dismiss as simple “locker room talk” a recording of him bragging about grabbing, forcibly kissing and sexually assaulting women, which triggered subsequent allegations of misconduct by a string of women.
But on Friday, standing inside Trump Tower, where he lived for decades before moving to Florida, Trump had many moments that evoked a more distant past.
He suggested women have accused him of wrongdoing because he is famous. He made a trio of references to how he was already famous in some circles in the 1970s, and talked about his work in the real estate and construction worlds in the 1980s — before millions of today’s voters were born. At one point, he referenced the New York Post’s famous “Page Six” gossip section, whose writers have spent decades covering him, as being the internet of its day.
Trump called Carroll’s case against him “Monica Lewinsky Part II,” referencing the then-White House intern who had a sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton, and recalled an infamous dress that played a pivotal role in the late-1990s impeachment proceedings against Clinton.
The former president also repeatedly implied he would not have assaulted two of his accusers due to their looks. He said of a woman who has accused him of sexual misconduct on a plane in the 1970s “she would not have been the chosen one,” and of Carroll, “I never touched her. I would have had no interest in meeting her in any way, shape or form.”
Harris, a former California attorney general, says frequently of her opponent’s criminal record, “I know Donald Trump’s type.” She had no public schedule as she continued debate preparation on Friday, but has built her campaign partly around the idea of prosecuting the case against him — and the accusations Trump brought up Friday could give her more lines of political attack.
Trump’s supporters and aides have urged him to focus on policy contrasts with Harris instead of personal attacks during the final stretch of a race that remains extremely close.
But, as Trump spoke, two of his top political advisers were on a call with Republican members of Congress, criticizing the media as being too soft on Harris while saying they felt confident about the race for the White House. Instead, the former president was flanked by his lawyers, some of whom also spoke in defence of their client.
Trump faces unprecedented criminal and civil jeopardy for a major candidate
His comments came after Trump was in court to hear his lawyers argue for overturning a jury’s $5 million verdict finding him liable of sexually abusing Carroll in 1996.
Juries now have twice now awarded Carroll huge sums for Trump’s claiming she made up a story about him attacking her in a department store dressing room to help her sell a memoir. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from continuing to make nearly identical statements to reporters. On Friday, he said again that Carroll was telling a “made up, fabricated story.”
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, warned in March after a jury awarded Carroll another $83 million that she would continue to monitor Trump’s comments and would consider suing again if he kept it up. In a speedy response to his Friday comments at Trump Tower, Kaplan said in a statement, “I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: All options are on the table.”
In the meantime, Trump faces unprecedented criminal and civil jeopardy for a major-party nominee.
He has separately been convicted on 34 felony counts in a New York state case related to hush money payments allegedly made to a porn actor. The judge in that case announced separately Friday that he would postpone sentencing until after Election Day on Nov. 5.
Trump has also been ordered to pay steep civil fines for lying about his wealth for years.
And he’s still contending with cases alleging his mishandling of classified documents, his actions after the 2020 election and his activities during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — though none are likely to go to trial prior to Election Day.
Trump assails women who accused him of misconduct, days before his debate with Harris
Donald Trump stepped Friday in front of television cameras and brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct.
Judge delays Donald Trump’s sentencing in hush money case until after November election
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak And Jennifer Peltz
Published Sep 06, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case has been postponed until after the November election, granting the former president a hard-won reprieve as he navigates the homestretch of his current campaign and the aftermath of his criminal conviction.
In a decision Friday, Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan delayed Trump’s sentencing until Nov. 26, three weeks after the final votes are cast in the U.S. presidential election. The sentencing had been scheduled for Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day.
The delay is the latest bit of good fortune for Trump in an election season that has been laden with legal perils for him.
The new date means voters will choose their next president without knowing whether the Republican nominee is going to jail, nor whether he will even be sentenced at all. Merchan now plans to rule Nov. 12 on Trump’s request to overturn the verdict and toss out the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.
Merchan explained that he was postponing the sentencing “to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”
“The Court is a fair, impartial and apolitical institution,” he added, writing that his decision “should dispel any suggestion” otherwise.
Trump — fresh from watching appellate arguments in a sexual abuse lawsuit against him in a nearby federal court — heralded the hush money sentencing delay. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he called the case a “witch hunt” and a “political attack” and reiterated that he’d done nothing wrong.
“This case should be rightfully terminated, as we prepare for the Most Important Election in the History of our Country,” he wrote.
Prosecutors said they stood ready for sentencing on the new date.
“A jury of 12 New Yorkers swiftly and unanimously convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts,” said Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He is a Democrat.
Trump’s lawyers pushed for the delay on multiple fronts, petitioning the judge and asking a federal court to intervene. They argued that punishing the former president in the thick of his campaign to retake the White House would amount to election interference.
Prosecutors didn’t take a position on Trump’s delay request, deferring to Merchan.
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Trump’s request to have the U.S. District Court in Manhattan seize the case from Merchan’s state court. Trump is appealing the federal court decision and has asked appeals judges to halt postconviction proceedings.
Trump entered this election year facing the possibility of multiple criminal trials after he was indicted four times since March 2023. But a string of decisions in the last two months, culminating with Friday’s sentencing delay, has largely cleared his legal calendar. The hush money case is the only one to have gone to trial.
In July, a judge dismissed a federal case in Florida charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents. The Supreme Court’s immunity decision has ensured significant delays in a separate federal case in Washington, D.C., in which Trump’s accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss. A Georgia election case also remains idled.
The immunity ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Election Day is Nov. 5, but many states allow voters to cast ballots early, with some set to start the process just a few days before or after Sept. 18.
Trump is the first ex-president convicted of a crime. A jury in May found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels claims she and Trump had a sexual encounter a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first presidential campaign. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.
Trump maintains that the stories were false and that the reimbursements were for legal work and logged correctly. He has pledged to appeal the verdict, but that cannot happen until he is sentenced.
Democrats backing their party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have made his conviction a focus of their messaging.
In speeches at the party’s convention in Chicago last month, President Joe Biden called Trump a “convicted felon” running against a former prosecutor. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, labeled Trump a “career criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star to prove it.”
Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, inspired chants of “lock him up” from the convention crowd when she quipped that Trump “fell asleep at his own trial, and when he woke up, he made his own kind of history: the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.”
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation, a fine or a conditional discharge, which would require Trump to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment.
Trump’s case “stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation’s history,” Merchan wrote.
The public’s confidence “in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion,” he wrote.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael R. Sisak And Jennifer Peltz
Published Sep 06, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case has been postponed until after the November election, granting the former president a hard-won reprieve as he navigates the homestretch of his current campaign and the aftermath of his criminal conviction.
In a decision Friday, Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan delayed Trump’s sentencing until Nov. 26, three weeks after the final votes are cast in the U.S. presidential election. The sentencing had been scheduled for Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day.
The delay is the latest bit of good fortune for Trump in an election season that has been laden with legal perils for him.
The new date means voters will choose their next president without knowing whether the Republican nominee is going to jail, nor whether he will even be sentenced at all. Merchan now plans to rule Nov. 12 on Trump’s request to overturn the verdict and toss out the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.
Merchan explained that he was postponing the sentencing “to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”
“The Court is a fair, impartial and apolitical institution,” he added, writing that his decision “should dispel any suggestion” otherwise.
Trump — fresh from watching appellate arguments in a sexual abuse lawsuit against him in a nearby federal court — heralded the hush money sentencing delay. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he called the case a “witch hunt” and a “political attack” and reiterated that he’d done nothing wrong.
“This case should be rightfully terminated, as we prepare for the Most Important Election in the History of our Country,” he wrote.
Prosecutors said they stood ready for sentencing on the new date.
“A jury of 12 New Yorkers swiftly and unanimously convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts,” said Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He is a Democrat.
Trump’s lawyers pushed for the delay on multiple fronts, petitioning the judge and asking a federal court to intervene. They argued that punishing the former president in the thick of his campaign to retake the White House would amount to election interference.
Prosecutors didn’t take a position on Trump’s delay request, deferring to Merchan.
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Trump’s request to have the U.S. District Court in Manhattan seize the case from Merchan’s state court. Trump is appealing the federal court decision and has asked appeals judges to halt postconviction proceedings.
Trump entered this election year facing the possibility of multiple criminal trials after he was indicted four times since March 2023. But a string of decisions in the last two months, culminating with Friday’s sentencing delay, has largely cleared his legal calendar. The hush money case is the only one to have gone to trial.
In July, a judge dismissed a federal case in Florida charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents. The Supreme Court’s immunity decision has ensured significant delays in a separate federal case in Washington, D.C., in which Trump’s accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss. A Georgia election case also remains idled.
The immunity ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Election Day is Nov. 5, but many states allow voters to cast ballots early, with some set to start the process just a few days before or after Sept. 18.
Trump is the first ex-president convicted of a crime. A jury in May found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels claims she and Trump had a sexual encounter a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first presidential campaign. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.
Trump maintains that the stories were false and that the reimbursements were for legal work and logged correctly. He has pledged to appeal the verdict, but that cannot happen until he is sentenced.
Democrats backing their party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have made his conviction a focus of their messaging.
In speeches at the party’s convention in Chicago last month, President Joe Biden called Trump a “convicted felon” running against a former prosecutor. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, labeled Trump a “career criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star to prove it.”
Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, inspired chants of “lock him up” from the convention crowd when she quipped that Trump “fell asleep at his own trial, and when he woke up, he made his own kind of history: the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.”
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation, a fine or a conditional discharge, which would require Trump to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment.
Trump’s case “stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation’s history,” Merchan wrote.
The public’s confidence “in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion,” he wrote.
Judge delays Donald Trump’s sentencing in hush money case until after November election
A judge agreed Friday to postpone Donald Trump's sentencing in his hush money case until after the November election.