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Judge Reimposes Gag Order In Federal Election Interference Case

By
Madeleine Jackson
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4
Gage Skidmore Flickr

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has reimposed former President Donald Trump’s suspended gag order in his federal election interference case.

Special Counsel Jack Smith requested the reinstatement of the partial gag order on Trump to protect “certain trial participants from intimidation, harassment, and threats.”

Smith’s request came after Trump fired off a verbal attack on his former Chief Staff Mark Meadows, on Tuesday, after ABC News reported Meadows agreed to testify against Trump in exchange for immunity.

Judge Chutkan initially imposed a “narrow” gag order barring the former president from targeting witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and their families.

During the ruling, Chutkan said Trump’s status as a candidate for president did not give him authority to level a “smear campaign” against those involved in the case, saying that “First Amendment protections yield to the administration of justice and to the protection of witnesses.”

In the initial gag order, Chutkan declined to grant an order with the breadth requested by the Justice Department, declining to limit any speech attacking her or the District of Columbia, saying the court would use the jury selection process to ensure it does not pick jurors swayed by Trump’s repeated criticisms of the city’s current state.

On Sunday, Trump vowed to appeal the controversial order in a series of posts to his Truth Social account.

“This order, according to many legal scholars, is unthinkable! It illegally and unconstitutionally takes away my First Amendment Right of Free Speech, in the middle of my campaign for President, where I am leading against BOTH Parties in the Polls,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Few can believe this is happening, but I will appeal. How can they tell the leading candidate that he, and only he, is seriously restricted from campaigning in a free and open manner? It will not stand!” he added.

In a separate post late Sunday on Truth Social, the former president questioned the timing of the cases brought against him by the Justice Department, claiming that the decision to file them during the presidential campaign season was to hurt his election bid.

“Why didn’t Crooked Joe Biden tell his Injustice Department to file the lawsuits and Indictments against me 3 years ago, instead of right in the middle of my campaign for President? You’re setting a BAD precedent for yourself, Joe. The same can happen to you,” he wrote.

“These Third World Biden Indictments, which should never have been filed, would have been tried and over with  years ago. My SleazeBag Opponent shouldn’t be able to do this during my campaign, OR BEFORE THE ELECTION!” Trump added.

Longtime Trump Supporter Ditches Ex-President, Endorses GOP Rival

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    9
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    A longtime Trump supporter is cutting ties with the former President, instead choosing to endorse Nikki Haley to become the Republican nominee.

    Andrew Stein, the son of the late publishing giant Jerry Finkelstein, served as the president of the New York City Council as a Democrat before crossing party lines to support Trump in the past two elections.

    However, in a scathing Wall Street Journal op-ed on Friday, Stein made it absolutely clear that he was moving on from Trump and holds serious concerns about the former president’s ability to be reelected.

    Mediaite has more:

    “Mr. Trump’s poll numbers show him with a clear path to the Republican nomination and rising ahead of Joe Biden. Given his mounting legal troubles, however, today’s polling may prove irrelevant. If Mr. Trump is found guilty of some of the charges against him, voters would have to choose between an old felon and an old fool,” Stein wrote in the Journal.

    While making the case that Trump is an electoral liability, Stein also argued that Haley is best positioned to win over independents.

    “Ms. Haley is likely to have a broader appeal than Mr. Trump for independents and suburbanites, especially women,” Stein wrote, adding:

    The Democrats hope he wins the nomination and is convicted of felonies, leading him to lose the presidential election. Republicans need to consolidate around Ms. Haley so they have a credible nominee who can take on any Democrat.

    Judge Rules Ivanka Trump Must Testify In Fraud Trial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    6
    Ivanka Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    New York Judge Arthur Engoron ruled Friday that Donald Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka must testify in the ongoing civil fraud trial.

    Ivanka Trump was once a party in the lawsuit, but a New York appeals court in June dismissed her from the case, ruling that the claims against her were barred by the state’s statute of limitations.

    Ivanka Trump’s lawyers in court documents argued that the New York attorney general’s office does not have the jurisdiction to force the former president’s daughter to testify, suggesting the office is attempting to “force her back into this case” despite her dismissal from it.

    The Hill reports:

    “Ms. Trump is not a party in this action. Nor is Ms. Trump a New York resident,” they wrote. “It is black-letter law that, given those two facts, Ms. Trump is beyond the jurisdiction of this Court.”

    Trump’s legal team also claimed in court filings that the attorney general is seeking to “continue to harass and burden President Trump’s daughter long after the First Department mandated she be dismissed from the case.”

    Engoron rebuffed those arguments in court Friday, suggesting that her ties to New York have hardly been severed.

    “Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York,” Engoron said Friday, according to the Associated Press.

    New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization, and top executives of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms.

    James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from running another business in New York.

    GOP Presidential Candidate Drops Out, Makes Key Endorsement

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Larry Elder ,Sgt. Jacob Harrer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    Conservative talk show host Larry Elder has suspended his presidential campaign and is throwing his support behind former President Donald Trump.

    In a statement Thursday evening, Elder expressed gratitude for his supporters and said he was honored by their enthusiasm and grassroots support. He further explained that after assessing his campaign and the state of the race, he had made the “difficult decision” to suspend his campaign.

    “Throughout my campaign, I have been steadfast in my belief that the biggest issues facing our nation are the crisis of fatherlessness, the dangerous lie that America is systemically racist, the need for an amendment to the constitution to set federal spending to a fixed percentage of the GDP — otherwise government gets bigger whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge, and the need to remove the Soros-backed DAs across the country who refuse to enforce the law,” he said in a statement.

    “The breakdown of the family structure and the absence of positive father figures in the lives of many children have far-reaching consequences for our society, including the crime wave we are currently seeing in America today,” he continued. “I hope that my campaign has helped shine a light on these critical issues and sparked important conversations about how we can solve them.”

    In August, Elder made waves after he threatened to sue the Republican National Committee (RNC) for not including him in the first GOP debate. While the RNC determined Elder had failed to meet the required threshold for number of individual donors and polling, he accused them of purposely silencing him.

    “I said from the beginning that it appeared the rules of the game were rigged, little did we know just how rigged it is. For some reason, the establishment leaders at the RNC are afraid of having my voice on the debate stage,” he said in an X post at the time.

    In his Thursday statement, Elder encourages Republicans to support Trump for president.

    “Now that I am exiting the race, I am proud to announce my endorsement of Donald Trump for President of the United States. His leadership has been instrumental in advancing conservative, America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation,” Elder said. “We must unite behind Donald Trump to beat Joe Biden and fight back against Biden’s unprecedented election interference and the left’s destruction of America.

    “I want to thank my supporters, volunteers, and donors who invested their time, energy, and resources in this campaign. From Iowa to New Hampshire to Nevada and beyond, I am grateful for the opportunity to have met so many incredible Americans who share our values.”

    Report: Fulton County DA has Discussed Plea Deals More Trump Co-defendants

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    New reports indicate Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has discussed potential plea deals with at least six other co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case.

    The new reports from CNN show Willis’ office is clearly trying to have as many defendants flip on Trump as possible.

    CNN reports:

    Pro-Trump lawyer Robert Cheeley is among those who have been offered a plea deal in the Georgia case but, according to his lawyer, turned it down.

    “To say that we are currently in discussions with the DA’s office would be an inaccurate representation of what is going on. They made us an offer some time ago and we declined it,” Cheeley’s attorney Richard Rice said.

    Former Coffee County, Georgia, elections supervisor Misty Hampton and former Trump campaign official Mike Roman have also been in contact with the DA’s office about a possible deal, multiple sources said.

    CNN has confirmed that three other defendants have also discussed a potential plea deal with Fulton County prosecutors but agreed not to name them after sources expressed concerns about speaking about the case at this phase.

    So far, four defendants in the case have accepted plea deals.

    Earlier this week, Mark Meadows became the latest co-defendant to agree to testify against Trump in exchange for immunity.

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

    This Man Stole Trump’s Tax Returns And Illegally Leaked Them. So Why Is DOJ Letting Him Off Easy?

    By
    Donny Ferguson
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    8
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    A former IRS consultant who stole the tax returns of President Donald Trump and thousands of wealthy individuals, then leaked them to liberal media outlets to campaign for tax hikes, has pleaded guilty to a single count of “unauthorized disclosure of tax return and return information,” despite confessing in court to committing the crime thousands of times.

    The decision to charge Charles Littlejohn with a single minor crime, while seeking decades in prison for Trump and many of his supporters, has many claiming it is yet another example of a politicized Justice Department.

    Littlejohn faces a maximum of five years in prison, but will almost certainly serve far less than that, if any, time.

    Littlejohn used his access to confidential information to steal the tax returns of Trump and wealthy individuals, often saving the electronic files to personal devices like an iPad, then leaking the documents to the New York Times and the liberal activist outlet ProPublica.

    The illegal leaks set off a feeding frenzy in the media, who used the illicit disclosures to attack Trump and falsely campaign for tax hikes.

    The DOJ’s decision to give Littlejohn a sweetheart plea deal, while targeting Trump supporters with harsh charges, has some in Congress calling out what they see as a biased and two-tier justice system.

    “The defendant admitted to making two separate disclosures to two separate news outlets impacting over a thousand taxpayers, and further admitted to impeding or obstructing the investigation — yet the Department of Justice inexplicably only pursued one count of unauthorized disclosure,” the House Committee on Ways and Means Committee fumed in a statement.

    “Ways and Means Committee Republicans have pushed federal investigators for years to get to the bottom of who stole and leaked the taxpayer information of thousands of Americans – including those of former President Donald Trump. Finally, the thief has been identified, charged, and now has pled guilty to this unprecedented crime,” said Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.).

    “Unfortunately, the Department of Justice elected to charge only one count despite the more than a thousand disclosures he admitted to in open court. To restore trust in the justice system and the IRS – and to deter future thefts – there need to be significant consequences for this type of illegal, politically motivated activity,” Smith added.

    Judge Rules On Trump’s Requests for Immediate Verdict in Fraud Trial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Wednesday, former President Trump’s legal team asked for an immediate and direct verdict in the Trump Organization civil trial following testimony from ex-attorney Michael Cohen. 

    The request came after Cohen admitted during testimony that the former president did not ask him to inflate his finances on a personal financial statement.

    During a second day on the stand, Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer,” was asked directly whether Trump asked him to inflate his finances on personal financial statements.

    “Trump didn’t ask you to inflate the numbers on his personal statement, correct?” Trump attorney Clifford Roberts asked.

    “Correct,” Cohen replied.

    After Cohen’s response, Roberts spoke with the former president and fellow defense attorneys and told Judge Arthur Engoron he had no further questions.

    Roberts then asked for an immediate, direct verdict in the trial in light of Cohen’s testimony.

    Judge Engoron immediately said: “denied.”

    New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization, and top executives of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms.

    James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from running another business in New York.

    Trump responded to the Judge’s ruling in a series of Truth Social posts Wednesday evening.

    “The New York State Attorney Generals case against me is DEAD, but the Radical Left Judge REFUSES to end it. He just can’t let it go,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, repeating his frequent attack on the judge in the case.

    “Letitia James should focus on Violent Crime, which is out of control. So unfair. I don’t even get a Jury Trial. A blight on the New York State Judicial System,” he continued. “Businesses are watching all over the world, and never coming in, only moving out. The Governor should get involved.”

    He added, “Election Interference by my Political Opponent!”

    Trump Fined In Civil Fraud Trial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    Former President Trump was fined $10,000 for violating the gag order in his $250 million New York business fraud trial.

    Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to the witness stand and questioned him about comments he made outside of the courtroom.

    The surprise calling of Trump to the witness stand came amid the second day of testimony from Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, who faced a barrage of attacks about his credibility as a witness.

    CNBC has more:

    Trump doubled down Wednesday during a mid-morning break, saying Cohen “went to jail for lying” and branding him “a totally discredited witness.”

    Trump, who stared down Cohen in court on Tuesday, repeatedly attacked his former lawyer in between the proceedings. He called Cohen a “proven liar,” a “felon” and a “disgrace” outside the courtroom.

    He launched more attacks on social media, writing Tuesday evening that Cohen “was a complete and total disaster” in the trial.

    “Lie after lie, and getting caught each time,” claimed Trump.

    New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and top executives of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms.

    James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from running another business in New Yo

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

    House Elects New House Speaker

      By
      Madeleine Jackson
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      1

      On Tuesday the House officially elected a new Speaker of the House, ending the nearly monthlong stalemate.

      Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was in his second term as vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, won the Speaker’s gavel in a 220-209 vote over Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), officially cementing himself as successor to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

      “It is the honor of a lifetime to have been elected the 56th Speaker of the House,” Johnson said in a post to X, adding later, “As Speaker, I will ensure the House delivers results and inspires change for the American people. We will restore trust in this body. We will advance a comprehensive conservative policy agenda, combat the harmful policies of the Biden Administration, and support our allies abroad. And we will restore sanity to a government desperately in need of it. Let’s get back to work.”

      “A man of deep faith, Mike epitomizes what it means to be a servant leader. A deeply respected constitutional lawyer, Mike has dedicated his life to preserving America’s great principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said in her speech nominating Johnson on Wednesday.

      Trump Targets Former Chief Of Staff After Report Undermines 2020 Election Claims

        By
        Madeleine Jackson
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        1
        Office of Congressman Mark Meadows, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

        The walls are closing in on Donald Trump…

        The former President who is facing a litany of federal charges stemming from his alleged interference in the 2020 election pushed back on Tuesday’s ABC News report that former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows took an immunity deal to testify to a grand jury.

        Jonathan Karl reported that Meadows spoke with special counsel Jack Smith’s team at least three times this year:

        The sources said Meadows informed Smith’s team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump’s prolific rhetoric regarding the election.

        According to the sources, Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being “dishonest” with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.

        “Obviously, we didn’t win,” a source quoted Meadows as telling Smith’s team in hindsight per Karl’s report, which strikes at the heart of both the federal and Fulton County case against Trump for criminally conspiring to defraud the American people that a free and fair election was “rigged.”

        Trump took to Truth Social and suggested that while he didn’t think Meadows was the sort to lie to prosecutors to get “IMMUNITY.”  He then passively aggressively suggested Meadows was among  “weaklings and cowards” that make a deal and are “so bad for the future our Failing Nation.”

        “I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows? ” Trump wrote:

        I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith. BUT, when you really think about it, after being hounded like a dog for three years, told you’ll be going to jail for the rest of your life, your money and your family will be forever gone, and we’re not at all interested in exposing those that did the RIGGING — If you say BAD THINGS about that terrible “MONSTER,” DONALD J. TRUMP, we won’t put you in prison, you can keep your family and your wealth, and, perhaps, if you can make up some really horrible “STUFF” a out him, we may very well erect a statue of you in the middle of our decaying and now very violent Capital, Washington, D.C. Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation. I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

        Trump then added:

        Mark Meadows NEVER told me that allegations of significant fraud (about the RIGGED Election!) were baseless. He certainly didn’t say that in his book!

        Politico’s Kyle Cheney also noted that in Trump’s attack, the former President may have also violated the gag order imposed in the case.

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