Trump awaits gag order ruling as hush money trial testimony set to resume: Live

The former president turned criminal defendant has suddenly begun to put pressure on his successor to debate him, despite refusing to appear on stage with his rivals for the Republican nomination last year.

Speaking outside of Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday, he proposed the White House as the ideal venue for such a contest, which Biden has said he is more than willing to be part of.

Here’s more on Trump’s challenge from Andrew Feinberg, Eric Garcia and Josh Marcus.

Here’s more from John Bowden on CNN’s latest poll suggesting RFK Jr is having a serious impact on the presidential race, no doubt a major factor behind Trump’s sustained attack on the Kennedy family’s black sheep over the weekend.

The last place Donald Trump wants to be is seated at a defence table, muted, in a courtroom in New York City, surrounded by reporters, for six to eight weeks.

A man who is used to spending his days golfing, surrounded by loyalists at his Florida resort, raging at network news, and traveling to makeshift arenas for rallies where his name is everywhere is instead entering the second week of witness testimony in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.

That rhetoric is amplified in his campaign’s messages to supporters in increasingly absurd and false characterisations of what’s happening in court, where he pits his word against the reporters in the room and the official court transcript.

Alex Woodward has the full story from the courthouse in Manhattan.

As Trump stews every night at Trump Tower, the Lincoln Project has released a new “audience-of-one” ad that’s bound to have him chucking his happy meal at the wall in despair. “Guilty” features a whispering voice speaking directly to Trump about all the ways he’s ruined his life and how the walls are closing in.

“Trump falls asleep in the courtroom because he stays up all night dejected, afraid and all alone. He’s rattled at the prospect of being thrown into a court holding cell,” said Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project. “So while he rots away while essentially confined to Trump Tower, we want to make him feel the claustrophobia of prison as much as possible.”

The ad will run digitally geofenced at Trump Tower this week.

Gustaf Kilander has the details:

Rightwing news outlet OAN has agreed to a legal settlement and to retract a false article about former Trump fixer Michael Cohen.

Cohen’s lawyer Danya Perry tweeted: “Today OAN has announced it is retracting a false story about my client @MichaelCohen212. This is a total vindication for Mr. Cohen — and a warning: Mr. Cohen is telling the truth, and there will be legal consequences for those who lie about him.”

Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are back together again after their bitter primary fight at the start of the year.

The former president posted on Truth Scoial that he is “very happy to have the full and enthusiastic support” of the Florida governor following their meeting on Sunday.

“Still true,” Ms Clinton wrote alongside the post.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys anticipate an “imminent” lawsuit against Fox News and its associated streaming service Fox Nation and have requested that top personalities at the network preserve documents.

Attorneys for the president’s son cited statements made by Fox personalities including Jessie Watters and Maria Bartiromo in a lengthy letter sent to Fox attorneys last week and shared with The Independent on Monday.