Donald Trump has seen paperwork related to the $175m bond he posted on Monday to appeal the $464m New York fraud judgement against him rejected and “returned for correction”, according to the New York County Supreme Court.
The documentation failed to include a current financial statement or list an attorney-in-fact and has been returned to the Republican presidential candidate for resubmission.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump suffered a further legal setback when his efforts to have his upcoming Manhattan hush money trial delayed on presidential immunity grounds were likewise rejected.
Judge Juan Merchan ruled that “the defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity” long before he ever did and that, because the justice was denying the motion on that basis, he need not address whether immunity “precludes the introduction of evidence of purported official presidential acts in a criminal proceeding”.
Meanwhile, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has urged Judge Aileen Cannon, overseeing the classified documents case in Florida, to reject the ex-president’s contention that he had any claim to personal ownership over the boxes of top secret files reclaimed by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, deriding the argument as “pure fiction”.
Ahead of market opening Trump amps up Truth Social after shaky week
Donald Trump began his day amping up Truth Social on… Truth Social.
He’s evidently still obsessed with crowd size…
All of the competitors to TRUTH SOCIAL, especially those in the Radical Left Democrats Party who are failing at every level, like to use their vaunted “disinformation machine” to try and convince people, and it is not easy to do, that TRUTH is not such a big deal and doesn’t “get the word out” as well as various others, which they know to be false. I THINK TRUTH IS AMAZING! First of all, it is very solid, having over $200,000,000 in CASH and ZERO DEBT. More importantly, it is the primary way I get the word out and, for better or worse, people want to hear what I have to say, perhaps, according to experts, more than anyone else in the World. My TV ratings are by far the highest, and my Rallies are not equaled, even close, anywhere or by anyone. Look, I had hundreds of millions of followers on various platforms, and could have them back again, but was cancelled for largely political reasons. Those platforms all want me back…They need me back! On Truth I have 7,000,000 followers……
[He has 87.3m followers on X… which he doesn’t use?]
Page 2: Very good for a startup, and growing fast. But when I put out a statement or message, it is SPREAD all over the place, fast and furious. EVERYBODY SEEMS TO GET WHATEVER I HAVE TO SAY, AND QUICKLY. At press conferences I will sometimes ask, “who is on TRUTH.” I have never had one reporter tell me they are not. They are all on TRUTH because the have to be. So don’t believe the FAKE NEWS. Until I came along and exposed them, they were respected and believed. Now they are the exact opposite. With the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. and all of the others, people get it. Look, using TRUTH, I became the Republican Nominee for President of the United States, and in record time! When I ENDORSE a politician on TRUTH, they almost ALWAYS WIN. If it didn’t work, or properly get the word out, I wouldn’t use it – But it does work, and work really well – And the fun is just getting started!!!
Anyway… back to the regularly scheduled programming of attacking Jack Smith:
Deranged “Special” Counsel Jack Smith, who has a long record of failure as a prosecutor, including a unanimous decision against him in the U.S. Supreme Court, should be sanctioned or censured for the way he is attacking a highly respected Judge, Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over his FAKE Documents Hoax case in Florida. He is a lowlife who is nasty, rude, and condescending, and obviously trying to “play the ref.” He shouldn’t even be allowed to participate in this sham case, where I, unlike Crooked Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and all the rest, come under the Presidential Records Act. I DID NOTHING WRONG, BUT BIDEN DID, AND THEY LET HIM OFF SCOT-FREE. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN, JACK? A TWO TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!
Here’s what got him riled up about Jack Smith:
Oliver O’Connell4 April 2024 14:45
Watch: Republican strategist says Trump’s claim US will ‘cease to exist’ if he isn’t re-elected is both ‘untrue’ and ‘crazy’
Joe Sommerlad4 April 2024 14:30
Biden moves to protect civil servants from Trump threats
The federal government issued a new rule today making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees, hoping to head off former President Donald Trump’s promises to radically remake the civil service along ideological lines if he wins November’s elections.
The Office of Personnel Management regulations will bar career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees or as other at-will workers, who are more easily dismissed from their jobs.
The move comes in response to Schedule F, an executive order Mr Trump issued in 2020 with the aim of allowing for the reclassification of tens of thousands of the 2.2 million federal employees, thereby reducing their job security.
President Joe Biden got rid of Schedule F when he took office in 2021. Today the White House released the following statement:
Statement from President Joe Biden on Final Rule to Protect Nonpartisan Civil Servants
Today, my Administration is announcing protections for 2.2 million career civil servants from political interference, to guarantee that they can carry out their responsibilities in the best interest of the American people. Day in and day out, career civil servants provide the expertise and continuity necessary for our democracy to function. They provide Americans with life-saving and life-changing services and put opportunity within reach for millions. That’s why since taking office, I have worked to strengthen, empower, and rebuild our career workforce. This rule is a step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people.
Oliver O’Connell4 April 2024 14:15
Watch: Democrat strategist reminds Fox panel US murder rate jumped under Trump and fell under Biden
In an appearance on Fox News’s Outnumbered, Democratic strategist Kevin Walling provided a timely reminder to the panel that the largest increase in the murder rate in the US actually came during the final year of the Trump administration and has since fallen under President Biden.
Joe Sommerlad4 April 2024 14:00
Peter Navarro asks SCOTUS to get him out of jail after just 15 days
Trump’s jailed former trade adviser has called on US Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch to reconsider Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision to reject his plea to be allowed to remain out of prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.
Navarro, 74, surrendered to authorities on 19 March to begin a four-month sentence at the low-security FCI Miami prison in Florida after he was convicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to provide testimony or documentary evidence when requested by the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
But after just 15 days behind bars, his attorneys Stan Brand and Stanley Woodward submitted a long-shot filing with the DC Circuit trying to get him out, asking: “We respectfully request your reconsideration of the Chief Justice’s denial.”
Supreme Court rules allow for parties whose emergency applications have been rejected by one justice to appeal to another, although they are seldom granted.
Joe Sommerlad4 April 2024 13:30
Selling Bibles ‘kind of a regular guy thing to be doing’, says Fox pundit
Yep sure it is. Nothing unusual about it at all. Nothing to see here.
Joe Sommerlad4 April 2024 13:00
Watch: Bolton says ‘distraction’ key to stopping a future President Trump from withdrawing from Nato
Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton spoke with Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch about the threat the ex-commander-in-chief represents should he be re-elected — principally concerning the future of Nato and the problem of trusting him with nuclear weapons.
Bolton suggests one potential strategy for preventing a withdrawal from the North Atlantic military alliance would be to distract Trump because he has such a short attention span!
He also hit out at the former president over his revisionist narrative surrounding the Capitol riot.
Joe Sommerlad4 April 2024 12:30
Two investors in Trump Media insider trading scheme plead guilty
Speaking of Truth Social, two investors connected to an insider trading scheme regarding the merger of Digital World Acquisition Corporation with Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) pleaded guilty to securities fraud in connection to the scheme yesterday.
Brothers Michael and Gerald Shvartsman each plead guilty to one count of securities fraud in New York City.
Their pleas come approximately 10 months after they were arrested and charged with trading in securities of Digital World based on material, non-public information about its merger with TMTG.
Joe Sommerlad4 April 2024 12:00
Trump’s Truth Social ‘propped up by businessman under investigation’
Despite recovering some of Monday’s dramatic plunge in its share price on Tuesday, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) saw those gains slide again on Wednesday as it dropped 5.41 per cent during trading.
It closed the day at $48.81 per share.
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that the whole venture was close to going under in 2022 before it was propped up by emergency loans, at least two of which apear to have come from a Russian-American businessman under criminal investigation, according to a report.
Joe Sommerlad4 April 2024 11:30
Why have Trump’s bond documents been rejected – and what does this mean for his legal troubles?
As we reported earlier, documents for Trump’s $175m bond in his New York civil fraud case have been rejected and “returned for correction” to the former president due to missing financial information.
A docket appeared on the New York County Supreme Court website on Wednesday, detailing that a “Bond/Undertaking” had been “returned for correction”.
Here’s what that means.
Joe Sommerlad4 April 2024 11:15