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    Judge Responds To Trump Gag Order Request

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    On Thursday, Judge Juan Merchan rejected the former president’s request to narrow his gag order.

    The Hill reports:

    On Thursday afternoon, hours after Daniels was excused, Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued that the witness had changed her version of events, referencing the defense’s lines of attack during cross examination.

    “He needs an opportunity to respond to the American people, and the reason for the gag order are over. She is no longer a witness,” Blanche said.

    Merchan denied the motion from the bench, maintaining the restrictions that prevent Trump from criticizing the adult film star, one of prosecutors’ highest-profile witnesses.

    “That’s just not the track record,” Merchan said. “The reason why the gag order is in place to begin with is precisely because of the nature of these attacks – the vitriol.”


    The gag order bars Trump from hurling insults at witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff or the judge’s family. It doesn’t bar Trump from attacking the judge himself or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).

    Trump Media Investor Convicted Of Insider Trading

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Arrest image via Pixabay

    On Thursday, a Manhattan grand jury found financier Bruce Garelick guilty of insider trading charges in a scheme that involved the merger of former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company with a publicly traded shell company.

    Federal prosecutors had charged Garelick with five counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. 

    Authorities claimed Garelick shared confidential information with his boss and at least one other person that Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, was close to announcing a merger with Digital World Acquisition Group, the shell company.

    Mr. Garelick, 54, a former hedge fund manager, had been a board member of Digital World. 

    The New York Times has more:

    The information helped two brothers — Michael Shvartsman and Gerald Shvartsman — make nearly $23 million in illegal trading profits by buying Digital World securities in advance of the announcement, which sent the stock soaring. Mr. Garelick, who worked for Michael Shvartsman at a small Miami-based venture capital firm called Rocket One, made about $50,000 by trading off what authorities said was nonpublic information.

    Last month, the Shvartsman brothers decided to forgo a trial and pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges. In their plea agreements, prosecutors have recommended a sentence of roughly four to five years for Michael Shvartsman; and three to four years for his younger brother.

    Digital World raised about $300 million from investors in its initial public offering in September 2021. A little over a month later, the SPAC announced a deal to merge with Trump Media. After a long delay, the merger was completed in March and Trump Media became a publicly traded company. Mr. Trump’s nearly 70 percent stake in the firm is worth about $6 billion.

    In a closing argument, Daniel Nessim, a federal prosecutor, described Mr. Garelick as a “sophisticated professional” who “cheated” and used inside information to benefit himself and his boss, Michael Shvartsman.

    Garelick could face at least 25 years in prison.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Trump Announces Plan To Appeal ‘Unconstitutional’ Gag Order

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Donald Trump is fighting back.

    On Thursday, the presumptive Republican nominee announced that his legal team in the ongoing hush money trial has filed a motion to appeal Judge Juan Merchan’s “unconstitutional” gag order.

    “I just want to let you know that we’ve just filed a major motion in the appellate division concerning the absolutely unconstitutional gag order, where I’m essentially not allowed to talk to you about anything meaningful that’s going on in the case. And many good things are going on with the case. It shouldn’t have been filed,” he said. 

    The gag order which was imposed in March prohibits Trump from from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff, and the judge’s family. The gag order does not prevent Trump from attacking the judge or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D). 

     The judge in the case has ruled Trump has violated the order 10 times, resulting in a total of $10,000 in fines, and threatened jail time if Trump continues to violate the order. 

    Trump also read legal experts’ commentary on the case to members of the media on Thursday, when legal scholars such as Alan Dershowitz and Jonathan Turley slammed the trial. 

    “‘This is a Frankenstein case. They took a dead misdemeanor, they attached it to a dead, alleged federal felony and zapped it back into life. So many of us are just amazed to watch this actually walk into court because it’s not a recognizable crime that any of us have seen,” Trump said, quoting Fox News contributor Turley. 

    “‘I’ve been doing this for 60 years, and I don’t understand what crime he’s been charged with. Nobody understands this. I just don’t get the crime. There’s no evidence of any crime whatsoever. This is a sham,'” Trump continued, quoting Dershowitz. 

    Trump is being charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to make alleged hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

    On Tuesday, Trump’s team filed for a mistrial after Daniel’s shocking testimony. The move was denied.

    Conservative Group FreedomWorks Shuts Down, Cites Trump Effect

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Wednesday, conservative group FreedomWorks announced it is shutting down, blaming Donald Trump for his “splintering effect” on the Republican Party.

    “We’re dissolved,” said the group’s president, Adam Brandon. “It’s effective immediately.”

    FreedomWorks’ board of directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to dissolve the organization, Brandon said. Wednesday was be the last workday for the group’s roughly 25 employees, though staffers will continue to receive paychecks and health care benefits for the next few months.

    He said the decision to dissolve the company was driven by the ideological changes driven by Trump’s time in office.

    “A lot of our base aged, and so the new activists that have come in [with] Trump, they tend to be much more populist,” Brandon said. “So, you look at the base and that just kind of shifted.”

    He said FreedomWorks staff became divided into MAGA Trump supporters and “Never Trump” Republicans. Brandon said the organization saw “an erosion of conservative donors” because they specifically wanted the group to work for Trump, when the organization would only support Trump if it was on topics they agree with.

    Brandon called it “an impossible situation” to navigate as some donors would say he wasn’t doing enough to support Trump and others would say he was doing too much. Brandon, who has been with FreedomWorks since 2005 and has acted as president for about 10 years, told the outlet he plans to create a new organization that is focused on politically independent millennials and Gen Z members.

    The group’s closure doesn’t come as a complete shock for employees as FreedomWorks laid off 40 percent of its staff in March 2023, and its total revenue dropped by roughly half since 2022, Brandon told Politico.

    Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.

    Barron Trump To Serve As GOP Convention Florida Delegate

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    It runs in the family…

    Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s youngest son Barron, 18, was named a Florida delegate for this year’s Republican National Convention.

    Barron will serve as one of the 41 at-large GOP delegates to represent Florida at the July convention, where the party is expected to officially nominate his father as its presidential candidate to run against President Biden in November, Republican Party of Florida chairman Evan Power confirmed to The Associated Press.

    Trump, who turned 18 earlier this year, joins three of the former president’s other children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Tiffany — who were also selected as delegates. NBC News first reported Barron’s selection as a delegate Wednesday.

    “We are fortunate to have a great group of grassroots leaders, elected officials, and members of the Trump family working together as part of the Florida delegation to the 2024 Republican National Convention,” Power said in an emailed statement to the AP.

    Barron, who was 10 when his father was elected to the White House in 2016, was mostly kept out of the public spotlight while the former president was in office.

    Appeals Court To Weigh Trump’s Bid To Disqualify Fulton County DA

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to review former President Donald Trump’s application to appeal Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling to keep embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on the case.

    The district attorney’s office had opposed the move. 

    “Upon consideration of the Application for Interlocutory Appeal, it is ordered that it be hereby GRANTED,” read the one-page ruling from the Georgia Court of Appeals. 

    Judge McAfee’s order in March said that special prosecutor Nathan Wade had to be removed in order to keep Willis from disqualification in the Trump election interference case in Georgia. Willis and Wade were alleged to have had an “improper” romantic affair.

    Trump and his co-defendants contended that McAfee’s factual findings made clear the romance amounted to more than just an apparent conflict of interest.  

    “If this law means anything, the trial court’s actual findings here establish an actual conflict,” their application for an appeal read. 

    Steve Sadow, who represents Trump in the case, welcomed the development.

    “President Trump looks forward to presenting interlocutory arguments to the Georgia Court of Appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement. 

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Trump Classified Docs Trial Postponed Indefinitely

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    This is exactly what Trump wanted…

    On Tuesday evening, Florida Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents case.

    The Tuesday order was issued less than two weeks before Trump’s trial was still on the books to kick off on May 20.

    The Hill has more:

    Cannon pinned the delay on the need to resolve numerous issues dealing with how classified information will be handled at trial, details governed by the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA). 

    “The Court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture — before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA issues remaining and forthcoming — would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court,” Cannon wrote. 

    In laying out the new schedule, Cannon noted that she still has “eight substantive pretrial motions” she must rule on. 

    Trump Moves For Hush Money Mistrial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Tuesday, Donald Trump’s attorneys moved for a mistrial in his first criminal case, citing the salacious testimony of ex-porn star Stormy Daniels.

    “The guardrails for this witness, answering questions from the government, were just thrown to the side,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said.

    Prosecutors called Daniels, a porn star, to the stand on Tuesday.

    “I do think some things were better unsaid,” Judge Juan Merchan said. “I don’t believe we are at the point where a mistrial is warranted.” 

    The Hill reports:

    Blanche asked for a mistrial after the court reconvened following the lunch break. Daniels had taken the stand in the morning, testifying in sordid detail about the alleged sexual encounter.

    Blanche suggested that Daniels’ story has changed since 2016 from a consensual affair to be more dubious and that some of the details the jury was allowed to hear, including that he didn’t use a condom, were inappropriate.

    “How can you just let them ring the bell?” Blanche said.

    Susan Hoffinger, a prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, pushed back against Blanche’s accusations.

    “In your motions, your honor did not put any guardrails on the testimony,” she said, claiming that Daniels’s story has been public for several years and the defense should not be surprised by her testimony.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    House Democrat Accuses ‘Right-Wing Organizations’ Of Training In The Hills For Future Attacks

    By
    admin
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    3
    Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. [Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

    A prominent House Democrat floated a conspiracy theory on MSNBC yesterday without providing a shred of evidence.

    Warning of violence if Donald Trump loses the 2024 presidential election, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told host Jonathan Capehart that she intends to ask the Justice Department and the White House what, exactly, President Joe Biden will do if his Republican challenger refuses to accept the election results.

    Waters then accused unnamed “right-wing organizations” of “training up in the hills somewhere,” implying that extremist violence against the government is likely, if not inevitable.

    JUST IN: Rep. Maxine Waters launches new conspiracy theory that Trump supporters are “training up in the hills” for a coordinated attack.

    Waters also called on the DOJ to investigate this made up threat in her head.

    “I tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask the Justice… pic.twitter.com/x4WFCGsSzZ— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 6, 2024

    “Trump says in that, in that Time interview, interview that he would not seek to overturn or ignore the Constitution’s prohibition on a third term,” Capehart said, according to the transcript. “Should the American people believe that? Do you believe that?” he continued.

    “No! Absolutely not,” an indignant Waters declared. “As I said, you can’t believe anything that Donald Trump has to say. Donald Trump will do any and everything that he can possibly get away with. He does not at all support the Constitution of the United States of America. This is a man who we better be careful about.”

    Then came her uncorroborated claims about Trump “connected” groups preparing to attack:

    And I tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask the Justice Department and I’m going to ask the president to tell us what they are going to do to protect this country against violence if he loses. I want to know about all of those right-wing organizations that he’s connected with who are training up in the hills somewhere and targeting, you know, what communities they’re going to attack. We need to know now, given that he’s telling us that there’s going to be violence if he loses. We need to know what his plan is and how we’re going to be protected.

    Mediaite’s Isaac Schorr has more:

    During his interview with Time, Trump said he “wouldn’t be in favor” of an effort to challenge the 22nd Amendment and seek a third term.

    “I wouldn’t be in favor of it. I wouldn’t be in favor of a challenge. Not for me,” mused Trump. “I wouldn’t be in favor of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job. And I want to bring our country back. I want to put it back on the right track.”

    You can read the Trump Time Magazine interview in its entirety here.

    Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.

    Report: Stormy Daniels Preparing To Testify In Hush Money Trial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Stormy Daniels, the pornographic actress who allegedly had an affair with then-candidate Donald Trump, will testify regarding the hush money payment made by Michael Cohen to cover it up, according to two sources.

    Her attorney Clark Brewster confirmed to The Hill that his client was “likely” to testify during the trial’s third week of witness testimony.

    The former president reacted to the news angrily on Truth Social before reportedly deleting the messages.

    In his statement posted at 7:30 a.m. on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has “just recently been told who the witness is today.”

    “This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare,” the former president wrote in the now-deleted post. “No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way.”

    He also proceeded to attack the judge in the case.

    “He is CROOKED & HIGHLY CONFLICTED, even taking away my First Amendment Rights. Now he’s threatening me with JAIL & THEY HAVE NO CASE -This according to virtually all Legal Scholars & Experts! Why isn’t the Fake News Media reporting his Conflict?” Trump said.

    Trump is being charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to make alleged hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

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