Thread: Legal Charges Against Trump

Trump loses bid for new trial in E. Jean Carroll case

A federal judge on Wednesday denied Donald Trump’s bid for a new trial two months after a jury found that he sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll.

In his motion for a new trial, Trump argued that because the jury found him liable for sexual abuse but not rape, which is what Carroll originally alleged, the jury award of $2 million in compensatory damages for the sexual abuse claim was excessive.

In a 59-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that “the proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm.”

He said that the former president’s argument “therefore ignores the bulk of the evidence at trial, misinterprets the jury’s verdict, and mistakenly focuses on the New York Penal Law definition of ‘rape’ to the exclusion of the meaning of that word as it often is used in everyday life and of the evidence of what actually occurred between Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump.”

“The jury in this case did not reach ‘a seriously erroneous result,’” he wrote. “Its verdict is not ‘a miscarriage of justice.’”

• Trump classified documents trial date set for May 2024

Judge Aileen Cannon has set a May trial date for former President Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

Although Cannon rejected Trump’s legal team’s request to indefinitely delay the matter, she largely agreed with his arguments that the complexities of the case required setting a trial well after prosecutors requested trial date of December of this year.

“The Court rejects Defendants’ request to withhold setting of a schedule now,” Cannon writes. “Nevertheless, the Government’s proposed schedule is atypically accelerated and inconsistent with ensuring a fair trial.”

Trump’s trial is set for May 20, but the matter is likely to get delayed further as Trump’s team has made clear they expect to file various motions in the case.

Those motions are likely to bump back the trial date, a move that could push the trial closer to the presidential election — a factor that could prompt additional requests to delay the trial.

Cannon alluded to that in her order, noting that practice “will require considerable time for Court review, independent of the ultimate merits of any such motions.”

In the order, Cannon gives considerable weight to arguments from Trump’s team that they will need significant time to review all the discovery in the case — something the Justice Department dismissed while noting several attorneys on the case delayed applying for the security clearances necessary to review such evidence.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

He will be convicted well before the election.

How will they manage to pick a jury that will convict him based on the evidence?
They only need 1 magat juror to not accept that he's guilty for it to have been a great waste of time and money.

Aren't other grand juries being convened in Georgia and New Jersey?

• Trump-tied SPAC agrees to pay $18M penalty in federal settlement

The investment company that planned to merge with the parent company of former President Trump’s Truth Social app has been fined $18 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency announced Thursday.

Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) raised roughly $300 million in 2021 and later promised it would merge with Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), but the SEC claims its disclosures to investors were misleading.

The merger has not yet occurred, but with the SEC matter settled, it may be able to go ahead. If it does not finish by a Sept. 8 deadline, the roughly $300 million will be returned.

DWAC is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a blank-check firm that can buy and help bring a company public. The SEC alleges DWAC planned on buying the Trump company before it raised its $300 million in IPO funds, but it did not reveal that plan to investors as required.

“DWAC failed to disclose its discussions with TMTG and failed to disclose a material conflict of interest of its CEO and Chairman,” SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal said in a statement.

“In the context of a SPAC — a ‘blank-check’ entity without business operations — these disclosure failures are particularly problematic because investors focus on factors such as the SPAC’s management team and potential merger targets when making financial decisions,” Grewel continued.

The company will have to pay the fine if the merger goes through. The SEC began the investigation shortly after DWAC announced its intent to merge with the Trump media company in 2021.

In June, three DWAC investors were charged with insider trading related to the merger deal, making a total of $22 million off the company’s stock using privileged information.

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• Trump grand jury hears testimony from aide who was with him on Jan. 6

A federal grand jury deciding whether to indict former President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election met Thursday and heard testimony from an aide who was with Trump for much of the day on Jan. 6, 2021.

William Russell, a former White House aide who now works for Trump's presidential campaign, was scheduled to testify before the grand jury convened by special counsel Jack Smith. Russell has previously testified before the grand jury, which is investigating the Jan. 6 riot and efforts to "interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election."

Trump — who said this week that he received a target letter giving him until Thursday to testify before the grand jury — is not expected to appear at the federal courthouse in Washington.

Trump’s target letter mentioned three specific federal statutes related to deprivation of rights, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and tampering with a witness, said two attorneys with direct knowledge of the document.

See a list of Trump associates who’ve testified here.

DC Prettyman Courthouse – indictment watch

Indictment watch

Andrew Weissmann - Seems like a distinct possibility that we will learn today that the Trump defense team has presented appeal to DOJ re the 1/6 charges; and then upon the rejection of that appeal, Jack Smith will seek the indictment tomorrow or Thursday at the latest in DC. https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/stat...55692500725761

indictment watch

Grand Jury didn’t meet yesterday but are scheduled to meet Thursday.

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August

• Georgia prosecutors eye criminal solicitation charges in Trump inquiry

The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia in recent weeks has weighed several potential statutes under which to charge, including solicitation to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit election fraud, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The move by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, to identify a list of potential charges marks a major juncture in the criminal investigation and suggests prosecutors are on course to ask a grand jury to return indictments next month.

Among the state election law charges that prosecutors were examining: criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit election fraud, as well as solicitation of a public or political officer to fail to perform their duties and solicitation to destroy, deface or remove ballots, the people said.

The district attorney is also seeking to charge at least some of the Trump operatives who were involved in accessing voting machines and copying sensitive election data in Coffee county, Georgia, in January 2021 with computer trespass crimes, the two people said.

The outcome of deliberations, as well as the manner in which the statutes might be enforced, remains unknown. For instance, prosecutors could charge under certain statutes individually, fold them into a wider racketeering case of the kind that the Guardian has previously reported, or do a combination.

Prosecutors are expected to bring charges stemming from the Trump investigation at the start of August, a timeline inferred from the district attorney’s instructions to her staff in May to work remotely during that period because of potential security concerns.

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• Fulton DA: Keep Trump grand jury report under wraps — for now

Fulton County prosecutors are asking the public to wait a little longer to review the final report issued by a special grand jury that investigated interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.

With just weeks until Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to seek indictments against former President Donald Trump and others, her office asked the Georgia Court of Appeals on Monday to block release of the report “at least until final charging decisions have been made.” In their report, the grand jurors recommended multiple people be criminally charged, several members previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Donald Wakeford, one of Willis’s deputies, wrote, “if a special purpose grand jury’s report, requested by and intended for a district attorney’s evaluation, became a presumptively public court record with immediate effect, a prosecutor’s use of a special purpose grand jury would risk revealing information which would otherwise remain protected until the termination of the case in any other criminal investigatory context.”

The filing came in response to an appeal filed by a coalition of media organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which argued that the report was a court record subject to disclosure and that the public interest demanded that the full document be released. The outlets asked the court to overturn a February decision from Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney in which he ruled that the rights of future defendants needed to be protected, even though grand jurors had requested that their recommendations be made public.

“There was very limited due process in this process for those who might now be named as indictment-worthy in the final report,” McBurney wrote.

The special grand jury met for nearly eight months between May 2022 and January 2023, hearing testimony from about 75 witnesses and collecting evidence for Willis. The investigative body did not have the power to issue indictments.

In February, McBurney released a redacted portion of the final report, which excluded the special grand jury’s list for who should be charged with various state crimes.

The redacted version of the report did include a few notable disclosures, including that jurors were in unanimous agreement that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in Georgia’s 2020 elections. It also stated that a majority of jurors had recommended that prosecutors pursue perjury charges against at least one witness they believe lied under oath in their testimony.

Willis has heavily implied she will indict Trump and others next month and urged law enforcement to prepare because her decision could “provoke a significant public reaction.” Two regular grand juries were seated earlier this month that are expected to consider any would-be charges.

Joining the AJC in the media coalition are: The Associated Press; Bloomberg; CMG Media Group and its station WSB-TV; CNN; Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal; The E.W. Scripps Co. on behalf of Scripps News; Gray Media Group and its station WANF; The New York Times; and Tegna and its station WXIA-TV.

Indictment watch

Jan 6 Grand Gury should be meeting today

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Judge rejects Trump’s bid to move hush money case to federal court

The Manhattan district attorney’s criminal case against former President Donald Trump will remain in state court instead of being moved to federal court, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The ruling is a loss for Trump, who wanted the case moved to federal court.

The felony charges from the Manhattan D.A.’s office accuse Trump of falsifying business records in connection with a scheme to pay hush money to silence affair allegations made by porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34 charges.

Trump argued that the case should be tried in federal court because it in part involves actions that Trump took while serving as president. Specifically, a series of reimbursement payments to Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-attorney who paid the hush money, came in 2017, after Trump had won the White House.

In his written decision Wednesday, however, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein found that “[t]he evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President — a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”

He added: “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.”

• Trump hit with new charges in Mar-a-Lago documents case

Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith's office have added new charges against former President Donald Trump in the case involving documents with classified markings discovered at this Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago, according to court papers filed in federal court Thursday evening.

A superseding indictment unsealed by the Justice Department lists multiple new counts against Trump, including: altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; and corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a document, record or other object; and an additional charge of willful retention of national defense information.

Trump was previously charged with 37 felony counts, including 31 counts of willful retention of classified documents and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. He has pleaded not guilty and claimed the prosecution is a politically motivated "witch hunt" against him. Walt Nauta, the former president's aide, was also charged in the case and pleaded not guilty.

Attorneys for Trump and Nauta did not immediately return requests for comment.

The new document also names a third defendant in the case: Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager and former valet. He faces one count of altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; one count of corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a document, record or other object; and one count of making false statements and representations during a voluntary interview with federal investigators.

He has been ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Monday morning. An attorney for De Oliveira declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Nauta.

Steve Cheung, spokesman for the Trump campaign, claimed the new counts are part of an effort to damage Trump as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination and "nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him."

The judge in the case, Judge Aileen Cannon, has set a trial date of May 2024.

The new charges come as the former president and his attorneys are waiting for the possibility of a separate indictment stemming from Smith's investigation into attempts to alter the 2020 presidential election and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. Trump's attorneys met with federal prosecutors at the special counsel's office Thursday in Washington, D.C. He has also denied wrongdoing in this case.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...tag=YHF4eb9d17

More trial dates will be added

• Trump's courtroom calendar clashes with 2024 campaign

Former President Trump and his legal team are staring down the prospect of three civil and two criminal trials before Election Day 2024.

Why it matters: If the two current criminal trial dates hold, Trump could largely clinch the GOP presidential nomination before voters learn whether he has been convicted on any of the charges.

• Trump has already made his legal peril a centerpiece of his campaign, a strategy that would likely intensify if he is the Republican nominee.
• Winning the presidency would give him a chance to install sympathetic Justice Department officials or even try to pardon himself if he's convicted, Axios reported in June.

Driving the news: Trump will also learn in the coming weeks whether more trials will be added to his calendar.

• He indicated last week that an indictment in special prosecutor Jack Smith's Jan. 6 and 2020 election probe could be imminent.
• Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in April that she'll announce a decision by the end of August on whether to bring charges in the investigation into Trump's efforts to interfere in Georgia's election.

State of play: Trump's first criminal trial — relating to allegations that he falsified business records in connection with a hush money payment — is scheduled to start on March 24, 2024, less than three weeks after Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states will vote.

• A judge last week set the trial date for Trump's second criminal trial — the classified documents case — for May 20, 2024, when most primary contests will be done, but largely before the general election season heats up.

Trump also faces three civil trials, with the first one scheduled for October 2, 2023, relating to the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James on allegations of business fraud against Trump, the Trump Organization and his elder children.

• On Jan. 15, 2024, the same day as the Iowa caucuses, Trump is set to be on trial in writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against him.
• Two weeks later, the former president faces a trial on a federal class-action lawsuit accusing Trump and his business of promoting a pyramid scheme.

Charles Bethea: Barricades erected outside the Fulton County courthouse now. Looks like preparation for some big legal news…

https://twitter.com/charlesbethea/st...15571537580032

• Trump-appointed judge torches former president's lawsuit against CNN

Late Friday night a judge appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Donald Trump tossed out a lawsuit filed by the former president against CNN in which he claimed he was defamed when hosts on the network used the expression "The Big Lie" which he felt equated him with Adolf Hitler.

According to reporting from Poltico's Kyle Cheney, Judge Ragg Singhal dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice which puts an end to yet another Trump legal gambit.

In his ruling Singhal wrote that the comments were purely opinions and not statements of fact "and therefore not actionable."

The judge also wrote that a host claiming Trump was "being ‘Hitler-like’" is "not a verifiable statement of fact that would support a defamation claim.”

As CBS reported in 2022, Trump's lawyers argued, "that he's entitled to hundreds of millions of dollars in punitive damages because of CNN's use of the term the 'Big Lie' to describe Trump's 'stated concerns about the integrity of the election process for the 2020 presidential election.' Trump's lawyers say that the 'Big Lie' 'is a direct reference to a tactic employed by Adolf Hitler and appearing in Hitler's 'Mein Kampf.'"

The tossed lawsuit had asked for damages in excess of $75,000 and additional punitive damages of $475 million.

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/stat...31092247244800 - https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...21239.31.0.pdf

“Can’t overstate the brazenness of former President’s request to discuss classified info w/ his [attorneys] at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, which are the scenes of the crime.

• Trump attorneys fight requirement to review Mar-a-Lago evidence in a secure setting

Former President Trump is fighting to be allowed to view classified evidence in the Mar-a-Lago trial outside of a secure setting, challenging standard protocol in a case where he is accused of mishandling such records.

A late Thursday filing from prosecutors detailed delays in securing an order setting out boundaries for how classified evidence will be handled in the case by both the defendants and their attorneys.

Prosecutors said a sticking point has been Trump’s desire to review the classified evidence in the case outside of a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) — the setting in which the highly classified documents in question in the case would typically be reviewed.

“Defendant Trump’s counsel objects to the provisions in the proposed protective order that require them to discuss classified information with their client only within a SCIF,” the government writes. “They expressed concerns regarding the inconvenience posed by this limitation and requested that Defendant Trump be permitted to discuss classified information with his counsel in his office at Mar-a-Lago, and possibly Bedminster.

“Defendant Trump’s personal residences and offices are not lawful locations for the discussion of classified information, any more than they would be for any private citizen. … It is particularly striking that he seeks permission to do so in the very location at which he is charged with willfully retaining the documents charged in this case.”

The Trump team’s case for a more lax setting for reviewing the evidence was also highlighted by legal experts.

“Can’t overstate the brazenness of former President’s request to discuss classified info w/ his [attorneys] at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, which are the scenes of the crime. It’s like a request to re-victimize the U.S. govt/intelligence community,” Brandon Van Grack, a former top national security lawyer with the Department of Justice (DOJ) who is now in private practice, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Others noted Trump is asking to waive requirements every other security clearance holder would be expected to follow, a point also noted by prosecutors.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

He will be convicted well before the election.

Indictment watch

• Fulton Co. DA updates ahead of potential Trump indictment

DA Fani Willis gives more insight into decision over Trump Georgia election investigation

"Some people may not be happy with the decisions that I'm making," Willis said. "And sometimes, when people are unhappy, they act in a way that could create harm."

She didn't give many details, but Willis said another way she's preparing is by upping security. She explained she wrote a letter to the Fulton County Sheriff Patrick "Pat" Labat.

"I think that the sheriff is doing something smart in making sure that the courthouse stays safe," Willis said.

That includes the grand jury.

"I'm not willing to put any of the employees or the constituents that come to the courthouse in harm's way," Willis said.

Willis said she's holding true to her commitment to giving the American people an answer by Sep. 1. This could be Trump's third indictment case of the year.

Yuscil Taveras: Mar-a-Lago employee overseeing surveillance cameras, previously received target letter in Trump classified documents probe:

Yuscil Taveras, a Mar-a-Lago employee who oversees the property’s surveillance cameras, received a target letter from federal prosecutors after former President Donald Trump was first indicted in June on charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office, sources told CNN.

Taveras also met with investigators following the initial indictment in the classified documents case overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, sources said.

While it is unclear whether Taveras is cooperating with prosecutors, some of the new allegations against Trump that were included in a superseding indictment filed last week were based, at least in part, on information he provided during that interview, CNN has learned.

A lawyer for Taveras previously declined to comment to CNN.

The updated indictment, which adds major accusations against Trump and a new co-defendant to the case, refers to Taveras as “Trump Employee 4,” CNN previously reported.

Unlike Trump’s longtime valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager and new co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira, Taveras is not currently facing charges in the classified documents case despite having been informed he is a target in the probe.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

He will be convicted well before the election.

Indictment watch

Foreperson back in the courtroom

4 counts

Donald Trump has been indicted in special counsel’s 2020 election interference probe

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to a court document.

6 co-conspirators are also charged

Trump has been charged with four federal counts, including 'conspiracy to defraud' the U.S.

Trump has been charged by the Department of Justice with the following four counts:

• A conspiracy to defraud the United States "by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election," according to the special counsel's office.
• A conspiracy to impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified.
• A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted.
• Obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct and impede, the certification of the electoral vote.

Trump might be going to be in jail