The legal troubles of Donald Trump and friends news and discussions

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https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ju ... r-BB1l588x

Judge rejects Trump's First Amendment challenge to indictment in Georgia election case

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Cannon shoots down Trump's presidential records act claim

Source: Washington Post

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday rejected Donald Trump’s bid to have his charges of mishandling classified documents dismissed on the grounds that a federal records law protected him from prosecution. The judge also defended her handling of the issue, which had frustrated prosecutors.

Trump’s defense team argued the Presidential Records Act took priority over the Espionage Act when it came to highly classified documents that he took to his private residence in Florida after his presidency. On Thursday, Cannon shot down that argument, saying the PRA “does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss” either the mishandling charges or the related obstruction charges against Trump.

The decision comes two days after special counsel Jack Smith made a court filing saying the judge was pursuing a legal premise about the PRA that was “wrong,” and urged her to rule, adding that if she decided otherwise, he wanted to appeal any such decision quickly.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... cords-act/

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Trump says going to jail for gag order violation would be a 'great honor,' compares himself to Mandela [View all]

Source: CNBC

Published Sat, Apr 6 20246:14 PM EDT

Donald Trump on Saturday said he welcomed the prospect of going to jail for violating a gag order in his upcoming New York hush money trial.

“I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela — It will be my GREAT HONOR,” the former president wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post attacking New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over Trump’s case.

It was not the first time Trump has likened himself to a martyr as he faces a flurry of criminal charges. In an October rant against his various lawsuits, the Republican presidential frontrunner also compared himself to Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa who spent 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid activism.

And last week, Trump took to Truth Social to share a message that likened his legal troubles to the persecution of Jesus Christ. Saturday’s tirade occurred just over a week before the trial is scheduled to begin on April 15.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/06/trump-b ... honor.html

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Appeals court rejects Donald Trump's latest attempt to delay April 15 hush money criminal trial

Source: AP

Updated 12:43 PM EDT, April 9, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s latest bid to delay his hush money criminal trial while he fights a gag order. Barring further court action, the ruling clears the way for jury selection to begin next week. Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling is yet another loss for Trump, who has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed.

Trump’s lawyers had wanted the trial delayed until a full panel of appellate court judges could hear arguments on lifting or modifying a gag order that bans him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush-money case.

The presumptive Republican nominee’s lawyers argue the gag order is an unconstitutional prior restraint on Trump’s free speech rights while he’s campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges. “The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing Tuesday in the state’s mid-level appeals court.

Bove argued that Trump shouldn’t be muzzled while critics, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, routinely assail him. Both are key prosecution witnesses.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump ... 5cafb163ef

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Why a Porn Star-Payoff Is Exactly the Right First Criminal Trial for Donald Trump
by David Corn
April 12, 2024

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Out of the four criminal cases that Donald Trump faces, the one scheduled to begin on Monday in a New York City courtroom is not the prosecution that most addresses the threat he posed (and still poses) to American democracy. But it carries powerful symbolism, for of all Trump’s cases, this one reminds the nation that he emerged from a sleazy sewer that blended trashy celebrity culture and misogyny.

Prosecuting Trump for falsifying business records related to the hush-money pay-off made to stop porn star Stormy Daniels from blabbing about her alleged tryst with him (while Melania was home with four-month-old Barron) may not seem as consequential and serious as placing the former president in the dock for allegedly swiping top-secret documents or for attempting to overturn American democracy so he could remain in power. Yet it seems appropriate that this history-making trial—the first time a former commander in chief will be prosecuted on criminal charges—arises from a tawdry and tabloidesque episode. How Trumpian.

Trump began climbing the ladder of fame in New York City in the 1980s as a brash nepo-baby real estate developer and flashy womanizer. He boasted of his ways with the ladies, and, not surprisingly, his macho strutting was juiced by old-school objectification and brutal misogyny.

This was an image Trump assiduously created and nurtured. Often pretending to be a publicist and using an alias—John Miller or John Barron—he planted items in gossip columns about his love life. In one instance, he called a People magazine reporter, identified himself as Miller and said of Trump, “Actresses just call to see if they can go out with him and things.” As Miller, he noted Madonna “wanted to go out with” Trump and that Trump, in addition to living with gal-pal Marla Maples, had “three other girlfriends.” As himself, he leaned on the editor of the New York Post to run a front-page story reporting that Maples had declared her romps with Trump were “the best sex I’ve ever had.” (The quote came from Trump, not Maples.)

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... ld-trump/

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It's only a prosecutor request; he hasn't actually been fined yet.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... gag-order/