Trump news – live: Judge rules Mike Pence must testify in Jan 6 case as NY indictment not expected this week

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that ex-Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury empaneled by the Department of Justice as part of the agency’s investigation into January 6.

But the ruling is still under seal — and multiple news outlets have reported that Mr Pence is only required to testify about his conversations with Donald Trump leading up to the attack on Congress. All of Mr Pence’s actions taken as part of his duties as president of the Senate remain privileged.

Meanwhile, the New York grand jury investigating Mr Trump’s hush money payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election is not expected to vote on an indictment this week.

The former president has offered a rambling response as he defended himself for posting an image of him holding a baseball bat next to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was posted to his Truth Social account.

Key Points

• In Trump probe, key witness returns, no indictment vote yet

• Trump grand jury back at work this week in Manhattan

• Inside the Stormy Daniels hush money payment that could lead to first Trump charges

• FBI fully prepared after Trump’s ‘death and destruction’ post, lawmaker says

• Majority of Americans think Trump investigations are fair

One-time ally Netanyahu criticises Trump over Nick Fuentes meeting

05:45 , John Bowden

Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu, once considered to be a political ally of Donald Trump’s, has come out swinging against the former US president in a new interview that touched on Mr Trump’s meeting with disgraced rapper Kanye West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

The comments were made during an interview with journalist Piers Morgan, due to air in the coming days on the streaming service Fox Nation. Excerpts were released on Monday by Fox News.

Speaking with Morgan, Mr Netanyahu said that Mr Trump “should be rebuked and condemned” for his meeting with Fuentes, who regularly rants about the Jewish people and is known for his denial of the Holocaust.

Read more:

One-time ally Netanyahu criticises Trump over Nick Fuentes meeting

Judge orders Pence to give evidence in January 6 probe

04:45 , John Bowden

The top federal judge in Washington, DC has ordered former vice president Mike Pence to testify before a grand jury regarding his interactions with former president Donald Trump in the days leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

In a sealed opinion first reported by CNN, Chief Judge James Boasberg reportedly ordered Mr Pence to give evidence in response to any questions from Special Counsel Jack Smith that could elicit answers about illegal acts committed by the ex-president.

Judge Boasberg’s order also reportedly allowed Mr Pence to decline to answer any question that touched on his actions during the certification, but did not preclude him from discussing his interactions with Mr Trump in the lead-up to it.

Andrew Feinberg has more:

Judge orders Pence to give evidence

No indictment vote for Trump expected this week in Manhattan grand jury probe

03:45 , John Bowden

The grand jury looking at evidence related to Donald Trump’s hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels is no longer expected to vote on whether or not to indict the former president this week.

That news was first reported by local NBC affiliate WNBC, which cited three sources who indicated that the grand jury would not meet on Wednesday and was not expected to hear matters related to this investigation on Thursday. That makes the prospect of a decision one way or the other regarding the former president’s fate highly unlikely before the members return next week.

No indictment vote for Trump expected this week in Manhattan grand jury probe

DeSantis team welcomes contrast with Trump ‘chaos’ candidacy

02:45 , AP

Jim McKee is standing at the end of a line that snakes through five aisles of fiction inside the Books-A-Million store in Florida’s capital city.

He is smiling because in a matter of minutes, the book he’s holding will be signed by its author, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor who McKee believes should be the nation’s next president. But as a former Donald Trump loyalist, the 44-year-old Tallahassee attorney almost whispers when he first says it out loud.

“Personally, I’d rather see DeSantis win the Republican primary than Trump,” McKee says softly, having to repeat himself to be heard. His voice soon grows louder.

“Trump has upset so many people,” McKee says. “DeSantis is more palatable. He has a good story to tell.”

Indeed, conversations throughout Tallahassee’s book stores, conference rooms, state house offices and sports bars reveal that DeSantis’ allies are gaining confidence as Trump’s legal woes mount. The former president faces a possible indictment in New York over his role in a hush money scheme during the 2016 campaign to prevent porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public about an extramarital sexual encounter, which he denies.

The optimism around DeSantis comes even as an unlikely collection of establishment-minded Republican officials and Make America Great Again influencers raise concerns about the Florida governor’s readiness for the national stage. DeSantis has stumbled at times under the weight of intensifying national scrutiny as he builds out his political organization and introduces himself to voters in key primary states.

DeSantis team welcomes contrast with Trump 'chaos' candidacy

Alex Jones peddles Trump assassination conspiracy as MAGA ramps up violent indictment rhetoric

01:45 , John Bowden

Alex Jones, the InfoWars broadcaster and conspiracy theorist, said he believes that former President Donald Trump may be assassinated by the so-called deep state.

Mr Jones, who lost a defamation lawsuit after spreading disinformation about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, has said that if it appears as if Mr Trump may win the 2024 election, deep state operatives may take him out by blowing up his plane or shooting him.

The host was speaking on Sunday after Mr Trump had held his first 2024 rally on Saturday in Waco, Texas on the 30th anniversary of the deadly standoff by federal authorities and a religious cult leading to the deaths of 86 people, and spawning conspiracy theorists among Americans with anti-government sentiments.

It was one of the most lethal battles against law enforcement in US history, and Mr Trump spent a significant part of his speech railing against those investigating him for various alleged offences.

Read more:

Alex Jones peddles Trump assassination conspiracy as MAGA ramps up violent rhetoric

Trump says mail in ballots used to ‘cheat’ – days after urging supporters to ‘change our thinking’ on voting method

00:45 , John Bowden

Former president Donald Trump has returned to his old position that mail-in ballots are used to “cheat” after he had previously told his supporters that they needed to “change our thinking” about the voting practice.

The former president criticised the use of mail-in ballots on his networking platform Truth Social.

“The Democrats used Covid inspired Mail In Ballots to CHEAT,” he said. “Even Jimmy Carter’s Commission said that Mail In Ballots will lead to massive cheating, which they they have. France, and others, gave up on them — MASSIVE FRAUD. Now they are using PROSECUTORS to CHEAT — No shame. They are the lowest of the low!”

The former president repeatedly criticised mail-in votig throughout the 2020 presidential election, despite the fact he voted by mail himself. Republicans have historically preferred using mail-in ballots, but Mr Trump’s critiques have led to many more Republicans opposing the practice.

Read more:

Trump gives contradictory statements on mail-in ballots days apart

Trump goes all in against trans rights

23:45 , John Bowden

Former US president Donald Trump smeared rights for transgender Americans as “insanity” and pledged to “revoke every Biden policy promoting the disfigurement of our youth” over the weekend.

At the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign on Saturday in Waco, Texas, Trump doubled down on a vow he made last month to revoke his successor’s policies on gender-affirming care for transgender children.

Trump said that he would “keep men out of women’s sports” if re-elected president, after he last year misgendered transgender athlete Lia Thomas.

Read more:

Trump attacks transgender rights and says he will ban ‘disfigurement of our youth’

Inside the Stormy Daniels hush money payment that could lead to first Trump charges

23:15 , John Bowden

Former President Donald Trump has been out of office for two years, and is already itching to go back.

But one figure from his first run for president has refused to go away, and may end up being a major headache for him as he pursues a third White House bid.

We’re talking, of course, about adult film star Stormy Daniels, also known by her real name, Stephanie Clifford. Ms Daniels made headlines in 2018 when she came forward with an allegation that she had been in a romantic extramarital relationship with the president in 2006, and had been threatened and later bribed to keep her mouth shut.

At the time, the basis of her claim took on an interesting angle thanks to a lawsuit she filed against then-President Donald Trump. Alleging that the hush agreement was invalid because Mr Trump had not signed it, she sued him and triggered what would become a years-long investigation into whether the scheme was legal at all points.

Read more:

Inside the Stormy Daniels hush money payment that could lead to first Trump charges

‘Completely inappropriate’: AOC calls out Oversight chairman’s attempt to interfere with Trump probe

22:45 , John Bowden

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not having Republican House Oversight & Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer’s attempts to interfere with the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former president Donald Trump.

“I think what the chairman is attempting to do is completely inappropriate,” she told The Independent. “It breaks total precedent and then, frankly, isn’t really grounded in much logical or historical precedent and I think hammering that home is going to be ... a matter of continued importance.”

Read more:

AOC calls out Oversight chairman’s attempt to interfere with Trump probe

Trump rails against ‘demonic forces’ and pitches 2024 race as ‘the final battle’ at Waco rally

22:15 , John Bowden

Donald Trump railed against “demonic forces” and pitched the 2024 presidential race as “the final battle” at the first rally of his third campaign for the White House in Waco, Texas, on Saturday.

Mr Trump opened the rally by playing a song recorded by a choir of men imprisoned for their involvement in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He then launched into a speech that echoed the same incendiary language he used in the run-up to that day.

“If we don’t win this election in 2024, I truly believe our country is doomed,” he said, hitting out at “demonic forces” who are “destroying the country.”

“Either the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep State,” the former president warned his followers.

Read more:

Trump rails against ‘demonic forces’ and calls 2024 ‘the final battle’ at Waco rally

Stormy Daniels destroys critic with three word response after being attacked for sex with married Trump

21:48 , John Bowden

Porn actor Stormy Daniels hit back at critics on Twitter amid the ongoing investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office into the hush money payment she received from former President Donald Trump’s then-fixer Michael Cohen in 2016.

Ms Daniels alleges that she had an affair with Mr Trump in 2006. She was paid off to keep quiet about the supposed extramarital activity.

Mr Trump insulted Ms Daniels during his Saturday rally in Waco, Texas, rejecting all allegations of an affair.

“Sex with Stormy Daniels is traumatic enough. Hasn’t President Trump been punished enough?” one Twitter user said.

“I think he needs another spanking,” Ms Daniels responded.

Read more:

Stormy Daniels destroys critic after she’s attacked for sex with married Trump

No indictment vote for Trump expected this week in Manhattan grand jury probe

20:29 , John Bowden

The grand jury looking at evidence related to Donald Trump’s hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels is no longer expected to vote on whether or not to indict the former president this week.

That news was first reported by local NBC affiliate WNBC, which cited three sources who indicated that the grand jury would not meet on Wednesday and was not expected to hear matters related to this investigation on Thursday. That makes the prospect of a decision one way or the other regarding the former president’s fate highly unlikely before the members return next week.

No indictment vote for Trump expected this week in Manhattan grand jury probe

FBI fully prepared after Trump’s ‘death and destruction’ post, lawmaker says

20:15 , John Bowden

US senator Mark Warner said on Sunday he was briefed by the FBI on Donald Trump‘s rhetoric after the former president verbally lashed out at a New York prosecutor overseeing a grand jury investigation into alleged hush-money payments.

“I have been briefed by the FBI. They say they are fully prepared,” Warner, a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Sunday. “They have seen no specific threats but the level of rhetoric on some of these right-wing sites has increased.”

Mr Trump has ramped up his rhetoric against New York prosecutors who are leading investigations into the alleged payment of hush-money to porn star Stormy Daniels.

On Friday Mr Trump warned in a Truth Social post of “potential death and destruction” if he is charged in the case.

He also shared a composite picture showing him wielding a baseball bat next to the head of Mr Bragg, a post widely seen as a dangerous call to violence against a prosecutor. The post was later deleted.

Trump warns of ‘potential death and destruction’ if indicted in hush money probe

Trump claims Manhattan DA ‘already dropped’ case after falsely predicting his imminent arrest

19:45 , John Bowden

Following his campaign rally in Waco, Texas, Donald Trump said he believes prosecutors in New York City have “already dropped” a case against him, one week after his false prediction of his imminent arrest generated a media firestorm, a rush of Republican support and a surge in donations to his campaign.

Speaking to reporters on 25 March, the former president said he thinks the office of New York County district attorney Alvin Bragg is no longer investigating Mr Trump’s alleged hush money payment to an adult film star in the runup to the 2016 presidential election.

“I think they’ve already dropped the case,” he said, according to Axios. “It’s a fake case. Some fake cases, they have absolutely nothing.”

A New York grand jury continues to hear witnesses and evidence in that case. Mr Trump and his aides have blamed “leaks” and “rumours” for his claims, though the former president appeared to be the only source for publicly announcing them, and his team has clarified that he did not receive any indications from prosecutors that would be imminently charged.

Read more:

Trump claims Manhattan DA ‘already dropped’ case after falsely predicting arrest

Judge orders Pence to give evidence in January 6 probe

19:09 , John Bowden

The top federal judge in Washington, DC has ordered former vice president Mike Pence to testify before a grand jury regarding his interactions with former president Donald Trump in the days leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

In a sealed opinion first reported by CNN, Chief Judge James Boasberg reportedly ordered Mr Pence to give evidence in response to any questions from Special Counsel Jack Smith that could elicit answers about illegal acts committed by the ex-president.

Judge Boasberg’s order also reportedly allowed Mr Pence to decline to answer any question that touched on his actions during the certification, but did not preclude him from discussing his interactions with Mr Trump in the lead-up to it.

Andrew Feinberg has more:

Judge orders Pence to give evidence

Trump’s own lawyer says violent Truth Social post attacking Alvin Bragg ‘ill advised'

17:46 , John Bowden

Trump’s own lawyer calls violent Truth Social post attacking Alvin Bragg ‘ill advised’

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer refused to defend his client’s social media post attacking New York County district attorney Alvin Bragg who is overseeing proceedings on the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

Joe Tacopina condemned Mr Trump’s Truth Social post in which the former president was seen wielding a baseball bat next to a photo of Mr Bragg’s head.

Mr Tacopina was asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on Sunday if he would “advise a client to personally attack a prosecutor like this”.

Read more:

Trump’s own lawyer calls Truth Social post attacking Alvin Bragg ‘ill advised’

Majority of Americans think Trump investigations are fair

17:03 , John Bowden

Most Americans think the investigations into former President Donald Trump are fair, according to a new poll.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll includes responses from 1,300 adults and shows that around 60 per cent of Americans don’t want him to be president again.

A majority of Americans disagree with Mr Trump as 56 per cent say that the investigations are fair and not a “witch hunt” – 41 per cent take the opposing view, according to NPR.

There’s a massive partisan divide – about 90 per cent of Democrats think the probs are fair, while 80 per cent of Republicans think they’re a witch hunt.

Among independents, 51 per cent think they’re fair, while 47 per cent do not.

‘Of all the things that Donald Trump has done and accomplished in his life, it’s just constant chaos'

16:30 , AP

DeSantis’ allies privately scoffed at recent reports of anonymous concerns over the direction of his campaign, noting there is no campaign. The 44-year-old governor isn’t expected to launch his White House bid for at least two more months. And the first presidential primary contest is roughly 10 months away.

For now, DeSantis’ team, headquartered here on the front edge of Florida’s Panhandle, believes he holds a position of strength among Republican voters. And as Trump fights to undermine DeSantis, his strongest Republican rival, the Florida governor’s growing coalition is eager to highlight the contrast between the two men.

On one side stands Trump, a twice-impeached former president carrying a new level of turmoil into the 2024 presidential contest. On the other is DeSantis, a big-state governor coming off a commanding reelection, who is a far more disciplined messenger and hyperfocused on enacting conservative policies.

“Of all the things that Donald Trump has done and accomplished in his life, it’s just constant chaos. And I think the American people are just tired of it,” said Florida state Rep. Spencer Roach, a former Trump supporter who thinks DeSantis would be “a very formidable presidential candidate.”

DeSantis team welcomes contrast with Trump ‘chaos’ candidacy

16:00 , AP

Jim McKee is standing at the end of a line that snakes through five aisles of fiction inside the Books-A-Million store in Florida’s capital city.

He is smiling because in a matter of minutes, the book he’s holding will be signed by its author, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor who McKee believes should be the nation’s next president. But as a former Donald Trump loyalist, the 44-year-old Tallahassee attorney almost whispers when he first says it out loud.

“Personally, I’d rather see DeSantis win the Republican primary than Trump,” McKee says softly, having to repeat himself to be heard. His voice soon grows louder.

“Trump has upset so many people,” McKee says. “DeSantis is more palatable. He has a good story to tell.”

Indeed, conversations throughout Tallahassee’s book stores, conference rooms, state house offices and sports bars reveal that DeSantis’ allies are gaining confidence as Trump’s legal woes mount. The former president faces a possible indictment in New York over his role in a hush money scheme during the 2016 campaign to prevent porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public about an extramarital sexual encounter, which he denies.

The optimism around DeSantis comes even as an unlikely collection of establishment-minded Republican officials and Make America Great Again influencers raise concerns about the Florida governor’s readiness for the national stage. DeSantis has stumbled at times under the weight of intensifying national scrutiny as he builds out his political organization and introduces himself to voters in key primary states.

Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, was under FBI investigation, report claims

15:30 , Shweta Sharma, Andrew Feinberg

Ivana Trump was under an FBI counterintelligence inquiry on allegations surrounding her ties to her home country Czechoslovakia, a trove of secret documents has revealed.

The FBI “recommended a preliminary inquiry be opened on Ivana Trump” based on information received from a confidential source in 1989, according to 190 pages of classified documents released by the law enforcement agency on Monday as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from Bloomberg News.

One passage in the trove of documents noted that it was “unknown” whether the allegations against her “stem[med] from jealousies of her wealth and fame” but said the probe was nonetheless “continuing”.

Born Ivana Zelníčková in 1949 in what was then Czechoslovakia, she left the then-communist country in 1971 after marrying an Austrian ski instructor who she divorced a year later after obtaining Austrian citizenship, eventually making her way to California, then New York, where she earned a living as a model.

Read more:

Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, was under FBI investigation, report claims

Trump offers rambling defence for post showing him wielding baseball bat next to Alvin Bragg’s head

15:00 , Stuti Mishra

Donald Trump offered a bizarre and rambling response when he was asked about a controversial Truth Social post showing him wielding a baseball bat next to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s head.

Mr Trump’s defence has come as his social media shows an increase in inflammatory rhetoric against the investigation on a hush money payment that could lead to charges being brought against him, but which the twice-impeached president now claims have been dropped.

In a Fox News interview on Monday, the former president claimed the two photos in the post were unrelated.

Fox host Sean Hannity began by questioning Mr Trump about the post, which was later taken down, and the criticism it generated.

“Why open yourself up to criticism?” Hannity asked.

Read more:

Trump offers rambling defence of post of him wielding bat next to Alvin Bragg’s head

Trump says Ron DeSantis would be working in a pizza parlour if it wasn’t for him

14:30 , Namita Singh

Donald Trump has bragged about how his “great” endorsement for Ron DeSantis during the 2018 gubernatorial race had helped the Florida governor, without which he would be “working in a pizza parlour”.

Both Republican leaders have stepped up attacks on each other in the run up to the 2024 presidential election, though Mr DeSantis is yet to officially declare that he will run for president.

Mr Trump, who had earlier come up with a nickname for Mr DeSantis using his Italian-American heritage, gave a detailed account of how he allegedly helped the Florida governor.

Mr Trump’s fresh remarks in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Monday night have come after Mr DeSantis’s own sass-infused comments about the investigation on the hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels.

“The question I’m asked the most about you of late is Ron DeSantis. This is the question – what happened? I thought they were friends,” said Hannity.

Read more:

Trump says Ron DeSantis would be working in a pizza parlour if it wasn’t for him

Trump escalates rhetoric against Manhattan DA

14:00 , AP

Trump raised anticipation that criminal charges were imminent with a March 18 post on his social media platform in which he said he expected to be arrested last Tuesday. He has since used the absence of an indictment to claim, furnishing no evidence, that the investigation is somehow faltering.

The Republican former president has also escalated his rhetoric, warning that “potential death & destruction” would accompany any indictment. He also posted a photo of himself holding a baseball bat next to a picture of District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat. On Thursday, Trump referred to Bragg, Manhattan’s first Black D.A., as an “animal.”

In a memo to staff Friday, Bragg thanked the nearly 1,600 people for persevering in the face of “additional press attention and security around our office“ and said their safety remains the top priority.

“We will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly, which is what each of you does every single day,” Bragg wrote.

Since then, former federal prosecutors in New York City have rallied to Bragg’s defense, signing a letter that condemned the verbal attacks.

“As former prosecutors, we denounce efforts to intimidate the Manhattan District Attorney and we call upon all to support and protect prosecutorial independence and the rule of law,” he said.

‘I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David'

13:40 , AP

Among the witnesses the grand jury has already heard from is Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer who has said he orchestrated the payoffs. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges arising from the payments and has become a potentially major witness for state prosecutors.

Pecker is seen as relevant to the investigation because his company, American Media Inc., secretly assisted Trump’s campaign by paying $150,000 to McDougal in August 2016 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump. The company then suppressed McDougal’s story until after the election, a dubious journalism practice known as “catch-and-kill.”

Cohen made recordings of a conversation in which he and Trump spoke about the arrangement to pay McDougal through the tabloid publisher.

At one point in the recording, Cohen told Trump, “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David,” a reference to Pecker.

Cohen told Trump that he had already spoken with the Trump Organization’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, on “how to set the whole thing up.”

Trump then said: “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”

Cohen also signed an agreement to buy the nondisclosure part of McDougal’s contract with AMI for $125,000 through a company he formed called Resolution Consultants LLC, but a few months later Pecker told Cohen that the deal was off and Cohen never paid the $125,000, according to court documents from Cohen’s criminal case.

Separately, Cohen has admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels to keep her from telling her story to the Enquirer or some other media.

Trump has said that he personally, not his company, reimbursed Cohen.

Federal prosecutors revealed in 2018 that they had agreed not to bring criminal charges against AMI. Pecker has since stepped down as CEO.

In Trump probe, key witness returns, no indictment vote yet

13:22 , AP

A pivotal figure in the hush money payment investigation of Donald Trump returned on Monday to the building where a grand jury has been meeting for months, a repeat appearance suggesting his testimony could be key as prosecutors push toward potential criminal charges.

There was still no word on when the panel might vote on a possible indictment of the former president.

David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend and the former chief executive of the parent company of The National Enquirer, was back as the grand jury heard testimony in the probe for the first time since last Monday, when a witness favorable to the ex-president appeared.

The grand jury is now back on the Trump matter, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss secretive proceedings. The ex-president is being investigated over payments during his 2016 campaign to two women who alleged affairs or sexual encounters with him.

Trump denies being involved with either of the women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, and claims he’s the victim of “extortion.”

Trump grand jury back at work this week in Manhattan

13:00 , John Bowden

The Manhattan grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump over hush money payments returned on Monday to hear more evidence, with still no word on when it might be asked to vote on a possible indictment.

It was the first time the panel was hearing testimony in the Trump probe since last Monday, when a witness favorable to the ex-president appeared before the grand jury. The jurors did not meet at all on Wednesday, one of the days when they ordinarily convene, and heard other matters on Thursday. The members typically do not meet on Tuesdays or Fridays.

The grand jury is now back on Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss secretive proceedings. It was not immediately clear whether an additional witness might be called before the panel.

Trump raised anticipation that criminal charges were imminent with a March 18 post on his social media platform in which he said he expected to be arrested last Tuesday. He has since used the absence of an indictment to claim, furnishing no evidence, that the investigation is somehow faltering.

Read more:

In Trump probe, Manhattan grand jury is back at work

Trump claims Manhattan DA ‘already dropped’ case after falsely predicting his imminent arrest

12:30 , John Bowden

Following his campaign rally in Waco, Texas, Donald Trump said he believes prosecutors in New York City have “already dropped” a case against him, one week after his false prediction of his imminent arrest generated a media firestorm, a rush of Republican support and a surge in donations to his campaign.

Speaking to reporters on 25 March, the former president said he thinks the office of New York County district attorney Alvin Bragg is no longer investigating Mr Trump’s alleged hush money payment to an adult film star in the runup to the 2016 presidential election.

“I think they’ve already dropped the case,” he said, according to Axios. “It’s a fake case. Some fake cases, they have absolutely nothing.”

A New York grand jury continues to hear witnesses and evidence in that case. Mr Trump and his aides have blamed “leaks” and “rumours” for his claims, though the former president appeared to be the only source for publicly announcing them, and his team has clarified that he did not receive any indications from prosecutors that would be imminently charged.

Read more:

Trump claims Manhattan DA ‘already dropped’ case after falsely predicting arrest

Has Trump been arrested? The former president’s moving indictment timeline

12:00 , John Bowden

Workers began erecting barricades around the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse last week, bracing for a potential, unprecedented moment: Donald Trump arriving to face charges in a hush money probe, making him the first president in US history to face criminal charges.

In an all-caps warning on his Truth Social account on 18 March, the former president predicted his own arrest and called on his supporters to protest what he called the “corrupt and highly political Manhattan district attorney’s office.”

A Trump spokesperson later clarified the former president’s team has been given “no notification” of an impending arrest or indictment beside “illegal leaks,” though Mr Trump was the only person to have announced his imminent arrest, which he said would take place on 21 March.

A grand jury in New York City has met on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays since January to consider evidence involving the former president’s role involving a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels that prosecutors at the New York County district attorney’s office reportedly allege was an illegal campaign expenditure.

Read more:

Alex Jones peddles Trump assassination conspiracy as MAGA ramps up violent rhetoric

‘Completely inappropriate’: AOC calls out Oversight chairman’s attempt to interfere with Trump probe

22:44 , John Bowden

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not having Republican House Oversight & Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer’s attempts to interfere with the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former president Donald Trump.

“I think what the chairman is attempting to do is completely inappropriate,” she told The Independent. “It breaks total precedent and then, frankly, isn’t really grounded in much logical or historical precedent and I think hammering that home is going to be ... a matter of continued importance.”

Read more:

AOC calls out Oversight chairman’s attempt to interfere with Trump probe

One-time ally Netanyahu criticises Trump over Nick Fuentes meeting

11:30 , John Bowden

Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu, once considered to be a political ally of Donald Trump’s, has come out swinging against the former US president in a new interview that touched on Mr Trump’s meeting with disgraced rapper Kanye West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

The comments were made during an interview with journalist Piers Morgan, due to air in the coming days on the streaming service Fox Nation. Excerpts were released on Monday by Fox News.

Speaking with Morgan, Mr Netanyahu said that Mr Trump “should be rebuked and condemned” for his meeting with Fuentes, who regularly rants about the Jewish people and is known for his denial of the Holocaust.

Read more:

One-time ally Netanyahu criticises Trump over Nick Fuentes meeting