Trump trial recap: ‘Conspiracy theorist’ dies in self-immolation as hush money case witnesses set to testify

Trial proceedings will wrap up early on Monday and Tuesday for the Passover holiday.

Court will run from 9.30am until 2pm with no break for lunch on both days. The defence has requested both days off.

A Texas appeals court has ruled that Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton can face discipline from the state bar association over his failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

A disciplinary committee of the State Bar of Texas accused Paxton in 2022 of making false claims of fraud in a lawsuit that questioned President Joe Biden‘s victory. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeals said Paxton can be sanctioned by the committee because the lawsuit seeks to punish him in his personal capacity as an attorney and not as a public official.

“The focus of the Commission’s allegations is squarely on Paxton’s alleged misconduct — not that of the State,” Judge Erin Nowell, an elected Democrat, wrote in the 2-1 opinion.

The lone Republican on the panel, Judge Emily Miskel, was in dissent.

In a historic week for America, Donald Trump appeared in a Manhattan courtroom as a criminal defendant for the very first time.

Jury selection began in the so-called hush money trial on 15 April, lasting around four days before the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates were sworn in to hear the first ever criminal trial of a sitting or former president.

The former president has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to payments given to cover up alleged affairs ahead of the 2016 election. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Here’s how the week unfolded:

From a porn star and a Playboy model to a supermarket tabloid publisher – by way of a lawyer-turned-felon – the cast of characters in the first-ever criminal trial of a former president could hardly be more colourful.

Ahead of Monday’s opening arguments in Donald Trump’s hush money case, here are all the people to know.

Disgraced former congressman George Santos surprised reporters and bystanders on Thursday when he showed up outside the court where Donald Trump is on criminal trial.

Mr Santos was passing by on his way to a different event: a hearing in his own court case – a lawsuit against late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

“Today’s a big day,” Mr Santos said in a selfie video posted to X on Thursday. “I’m actually in federal court against Jimmy Kimmel for my fraud case against him.”

The hearing was in Manhattan federal court, just blocks away from Mr Trump’s courtroom.

The former congressman alleges Mr Kimmel deceived him into making more than a dozen videos on Cameo — a mobile app that allows users to pay for personalised videos from celebrities — that Mr Kimmel then played on his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Mr Santos sued him in February for copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

A teacher, two lawyers and people working in finance are among the 12 jurors tasked with hearing the first-ever criminal trial against a US president.

The Trump campaign has announced that they will have 100,000 poll watchers and attorneys ready to take action on election day as former president Donald Trump’s obsession with election security continues.

Mr Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election citing baseless allegations of fraud by Democrats, and he has made similarly evidence-free claims regarding what Democrats may do this November. Even in 2016, Mr Trump asserted that he only lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because of fraud.

The Trump Campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) said in a Friday statement that they would launch “the most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history”.

Max Azzarello, 37, who died after setting himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse, had recently started posting anti-establishment “conspiracy theories” online, including a lengthy article on Substack which blasted corrupt politicians, and billionaires and even made reference to The Simpsons.

The manifesto-style document warned of an impending “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”