Donald Trump news and discussions

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Trump says he got money from China and Saudi Arabia because he was "doing services" for them

Source: Salon

Published January 11, 2024 11:12AM (EST)

Former President Donald Trump defended his businesses accepting payments from foreign governments during a Fox News town hall on Wednesday.

The comments came in response to a Jan. 4 report from House Oversight Committee Democrats finding that the former president had received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments, including China and Saudi Arabia, and their controlled entities while in office.

"That's a small amount of money. You know, it sounds like a lot of money. That's small," Trump said during the event. He went on to explain that the governments paid for accommodations at his hotels and clubs. "I was doing services for them. People were staying in these massive hotels, these beautiful hotels," Trump said, adding, "I don't get $8 million for doing nothing."

Oversight Committee Democrats reported that Trump's businesses had raked in money from at least 20 countries, ranging "from the People's Republic of China to Saudi Arabia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Malaysia to Albania to Kosovo," which spent "often lavishly" for stays at his hotels in Washington, Las Vegas and New York or his apartments.

Read more: https://www.salon.com/2024/01/11/says-h ... brief=true

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Donald Trump defies judge, gives courtroom speech on tense final day of New York civil fraud trial

Source: Associated Press

U.S. NEWS

Donald Trump defies judge, gives courtroom speech on tense final day of New York civil fraud trial

BY MICHAEL R. SISAK AND JENNIFER PELTZ
Updated 2:54 PM EST, January 11, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) -- Barred from giving a formal closing argument, Donald Trump still seized an opportunity to speak in court at the conclusion of his New York civil fraud trial Thursday, unleashing a barrage of attacks in a six-minute diatribe before being cut off by the judge.

Trump spoke as the judge was trying to find out if the former president would follow rules requiring him to keep his remarks focused on matters related to the trial. Asked whether he would comply with the guidelines, Trump defied the judge and simply launched into his speech. ... "We have a situation where I am an innocent man," Trump protested. "I'm being persecuted by someone running for office and I think you have to go outside the bounds."

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Judge Arthur Engoron -- who earlier denied Trump's extraordinary request to give his own closing statement -- let him continue almost uninterrupted for what amounted to a brief personal summation, then cut him off for a scheduled lunch break. ... Trump's in-court remarks ensured a tumultuous final day for a trial over allegations that he habitually exaggerated his wealth on financial statements he provided to banks, insurance companies and others.

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On Wednesday, Engoron had nixed an unusual plan by Trump to deliver his own closing remarks in the courtroom, in addition to summations from his legal team. The sticking point was that Trump's lawyers would not agree to the judge's demand that he stick to "relevant" matters" and not try to introduce new evidence or make a campaign speech. ... After two of Trump's lawyers had delivered traditional closing arguments Thursday, one of them, Christopher Kise, asked the judge again whether Trump could speak. Engoron asked Trump whether he would abide by the guidelines. ... Trump then launched into his remarks.



Former U.S. President Donald Trump, with lawyers Christopher Kise and Alina Habba, attends the closing arguments in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. (Shannon Stapleton/Pool Photo via AP)

"This is a fraud on me. What's happened here, Sir, is a fraud on me," Trump said. He later accused the judge of not listening to him. "I know this is boring to you." ... "Control your client," Engoron warned Kise. ... Engoron then told Trump he had a minute left, let him speak a little more, and then adjourned.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-fraud- ... ef9c5ee7f3

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Stormy Daniels says she's "set to testify" in Trump's New York criminal trial in March


January 15, 2024 / 12:54 PM EST

The adult film star Stormy Daniels said on an episode of her podcast released Sunday that she expects to testify in former President Donald Trump's upcoming trial on state criminal charges in New York. The trial, scheduled for March 25, stems from allegations that Trump agreed to a scheme in 2016 to falsify documents while reimbursing his former lawyer for a "hush money" payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

"Obviously, things have been next-level crazy, since I am set to testify in, at this point in time, March — obviously, that can change any moment — in the hush money case," Daniels said. A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is overseeing the prosecution, declined to comment.

Trump became the first former president ever charged with crimes when he was indicted on 34 felony falsification of business records counts by a Manhattan grand jury on March 30, 2023. It was the first of four criminal cases that would be filed against him in the ensuing months, on allegations ranging from retention of national security secrets to attempting to thwart the results of the 2020 election after his loss.

Attorneys for Trump did not reply to a request for comment, nor did a representative for Daniels. Trump has entered not guilty pleas and denied the allegations against him in all four cases, a combined 91 counts. He has accused prosecutors of charging him for political benefit.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stormy-dan ... nal-trial/

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[firestar464]

More on this by The Hill: https://www.wwlp.com/hill-politics/new- ... order/amp/

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Trump Defamation Trial Is Delayed

Source: New York Times

Jan. 22, 2024 Updated 10:15 a.m. ET

The trial of E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against Donald J. Trump was suspended Monday because of illness among jurors — and one of his lawyers’ parents.

One juror was on his way to court when he began to feel flulike symptoms and called the courthouse to report he was feeling ill, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told lawyers for Mr. Trump and Ms. Carroll.

Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, who was exposed to Covid during a visit to her parents, said she had tested negative but was still feeling symptoms. She asked Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to postpone court for the day. “I’d like to have the full panel,” Ms. Habba told Judge Kaplan.

She then asked if the trial could be postponed until Wednesday, noting Mr. Trump had reminded her of the primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday. “I would need his testimony to be Wednesday,” Ms. Habba said. Roberta Kaplan, Ms. Carroll’s lawyer, said she would prefer to continue on Tuesday. “I’d like to get this trial over with,” she said. Judge Kaplan said he would consider Ms. Habba’s request.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/nyre ... rroll.html

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Attorney Says He Quit Trump's Legal Team Because 'I Had To Follow My Compass'

Source: HuffPost

Jan 22, 2024, 08:40 AM EST

In his first interview since leaving Donald Trump’s legal team, attorney Joe Tacopina cited “personal reasons” and his “compass” as reasons behind his departure.

“I left the team because it was just my time,” he told the Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC Saturday in what he said would be his only interview on the matter. “I had to follow my compass and my compass told me my time there was done. There are a lot of personal reasons that went into that, things that I can’t and won’t discuss.”

Tacopina represented the former president in his first trial last year against E. Jean Carroll, a writer whom Trump was found liable of defaming and sexually abusing.

Last week, a day before the start of a second defamation trial involving Carroll, Tacopina said he had stopped representing Trump “on all matters.” He filed notices seeking withdrawal of his law firm from Trump’s New York criminal trial and the appeal of the verdict in the first Carroll trial.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-taco ... abd7ab53f7

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Trump-Carroll Defamation TrialJury Orders Trump to Pay Carroll $83.3 Million for Years of Defamation

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/26 ... 175be38b67
The jury found Donald J. Trump had acted maliciously in persistently attacking E. Jean Carroll. He was found liable last year of sexually abusing her.


A Manhattan jury on Friday ordered former President Donald J. Trump to pay $83.3 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in social media posts, news conferences and even on the campaign trail ever since she first accused him in 2019 of raping her in a department store dressing room decades earlier.

The award included $65 million in punitive damages, which the nine-member jury assessed after finding Mr. Trump, 77, had acted maliciously after Ms. Carroll’s lawyers pointed to Mr. Trump’s persisting attacks on her, both from the White House and after leaving office.

[caltrek]

^^^Trump supporters will undoubtedly point to this as an example of Trump being victim of an unfair legal system. What will be conveniently ignored is that a competent court of jurisdiction, utilizing a jury, found as a matter of fact that Trump essentially raped E. Jean Carrol. Of course, laws against rape are not supposed to apply to rich white males, only to losers. I guess E. Jean Carrol has taken an important step to overturn that convention.

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[caltrek]

Trump Fraud Case Finding Suggests 'Major Tax Evasion'
by Julia Conley
January 28, 2024

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) A finding by the court-appointed special monitor overseeing former U.S. President Donald Trump's fraud case in New York placed questions about a loan acquisition—and potential tax evasion—back into the spotlight over the weekend, with a tax attorney saying the Republican appeared to have fabricated the loan.

Former federal judge Barbara Jones wrote to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron Friday about her review of Trump's business dealings through the Trump Organization, the company at the center of New York Attorney General Letitia James' business fraud case against the former president, who is now running for the GOP's presidential nomination in the 2024 election.

Ahead of Engoron's verdict, which is expected this week, Jones included in a footnote her finding that a $48 million loan that Trump has for years claimed he owed to one of his companies never actually existed.

"When I inquired about this loan, I was informed that there are no loan agreements that memorialize the loan, but that it was a loan that was believed to be between Donald J. Trump, individually, and Chicago Unit Acquisition for $48 million," Jones wrote. "However, in recent discussions with the Trump Organization, it indicated that it has determined that this loan never existed."

The loan would therefore be removed from corporate financial statements and forms submitted to the Office of Government Ethics, said Jones.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-tax-evasion

caltrek’s comment: Tax evasion. That is what finally brought down Al Capone.