Trump suffers blows in two criminal cases as New York attorney general questions fraud bond: Latest

The campaign for independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr backpedalled after his message to donors labelled January 6 defendants as “activists” who have been “stripped of their Constitutional liberties.”

A Thursday “Team Kennedy” campaign email, obtained by NBC News, read: “This is the reality that every American Citizen faces — from Ed Snowden, to Julian Assange to the J6 activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties.”

“Please help our campaign call out the illiberal actions of our very own government,” the email continued.

On Friday, his team sent out a statement to “clarify” his stance on the events of January 6, noting that he has “not examined the evidence in detail” and was “concerned about the possibility” that January defendants’ sentences were motivated by “political objectives.”

Donald Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet on what is likely to be one of the biggest foreign policy issues of his second term, should he win in November. But in the few interviews and statements he has given on Israel and the war in Gaza, the former president has shown signs that he may be cooling in his support for the longtime US ally.

Well, House Democrats also want to honour the former president by named a different piece of infrastructure after him — a federal prison in Florida.

Reps Gerry Connolly of Virginia and Jared Moskowitz of Florida will introduce legislation to rename Federal Correctional Institution, Miami — currently home to Mr Trump’s former trade adviser Peter Navarro for four months — as the Donald J Trump Federal Correctional Institution.

CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane had the scoop:

The legislation reportedly says: “Any reference in any law, regulation, map, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the institution referred to in subsection (a) shall be considered to be a reference to the ‘Donald J Trump Federal Correctional Institution’.

Rep Connolly criticised the proposal to rename Washington Dulles in remarks to Politico, suggesting that given his multiple criminal indictments: “If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison.”

Having only listed on the Nasdaq last week, Trump Media & Technology Group has fallen 39 per cent from its closing high of $66.22 on 27 March.

Today alone it fell 12 per cent, closing at $40.59.

Donald Trump owns a 60 per cent stake in the company, the value of which has head south since Monday. Ouch.

Former US first lady Melania Trump, who has largely been missing-in-action throughout her husband Donald Trump’s latest presidential run, is due to make her first campaign appearance of 2024 later this month – albeit without leaving the comfort of her own home.

According to Politico, Ms Trump will host a fundraiser for the Log Cabin Republicans (LCB) group on Saturday 20 April, an event being held at the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.

LCB describes itself as “the nation’s largest Republican organisation dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies”.

Joe Sommerlad has the story:

Donald Trump has made the outrageous claim that President Joe Biden was on drugs when he delivered his barn-storming State of the Union address last month, without providing any evidence to substantiate the allegation.

Asked by Mr Hewitt about his probable rival, Mr Trump said: “I think what happened is, you know, that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House, I don’t know, I think something’s going on there.

“I watched his State of the Union, and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast. There’s something going on there.”

What’s the Trump angle, you might ask?

Well… the epicentre of the earthquake was right by Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Another day, another denial from a Trump trial judge.

Judge Juan Merchan has denied a motion by Donald Trump in the hush money criminal trial to subpoena NBC for all materials related to the documentary Stormy, about the adult film star Stormy Daniels, whom the former president is alleged to have paid off to cover up a sex scandal ahead of the 2016 election.

Here’s the background to the ruling from the judge’s order:

On April 4,2023, Donald J Trump, the Defendant, was arraigned before this Court on an indictment charging hrm with 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, in violation of PenalLaw S 175.10. On March 11,2024, Defendant issued a subpoena duces tecum to NBC Universal (hereinafter “NBCU”) seeking all materials related to the documentary film titled “Stormy” hereinafter “Documentary”) that involves a witness in the instant matter, Stormy Daniels (hereinafter “Daniels”). On March 20, 2024, NBCU filed a motion to quash the subpoena. Defendant responded on March 27 , 2024 and NBCU filed a reply on Apnl 1, 2024.

Judge Merchan ruled in favour of NBC’s motion to quash to subpoena in its entirety.

The judge said Mr Trump has not met the “very heavy burden” to “rifle through the privileged documents of a news orgarization”.