Trump news – live: Trump repeatedly pleading 5th deposition video leaked as Stormy Daniels mocks him

Donald Trump pleaded the fifth more than 400 times while sitting for a deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case, it has been revealed.

On Tuesday, AG James’ office released a video of Mr Trump’s deposition from 10 August last year where he was questioned about an alleged sprawling financial fraud scheme where he and some of his adult children manipulated their worth to benefit from loans, tax breaks, and other benefits.

Mr Trump claimed that “anyone in my position not taking the fifth amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool”.

A Manhattan grand jury prepares to review evidence about the former president’s alleged hush payment to Stormy Daniels.

She offered a fierce blowback to Mr Trump whose attempt to ridicule the adult film star may have backfired as he seemingly appeared to acknowledge their alleged affair.

Ms Daniels thanked the former president for “admitting” to their alleged affair despite previously declaring that he “never had an affair”. She also mocked the one-time president for using wrong grammar in his Truth Social post.

Key Points

• Trump pleaded the fifth more than 400 times in fraud case deposition

• Donald Trump sues Bob Woodward and book publisher over interview tapes

• Manhattan DA opens grand jury probe into Stormy Daniels payment

• Ron DeSantis hits back at Trump’s recent attacks

• This Republican single mom wants the GOP to stop ‘being a**holes to women’. What will she do about it?

Trump claims war in Ukraine ‘would have never started had I been president’ in upcoming interview

11:00 , Gustaf Kilander

VIDEO: JD Vance calls Trump foreign policy ‘most cautious and careful’ in a generation

10:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Top Dem on House intel seeks briefings on classified records

09:00 , The Associated Press

The new top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday called for more information about the classified records discovered in the private possession of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut was named the committee’s ranking member Wednesday by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Along with Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the committee’s new Republican chairman, Himes will lead a panel that has been split by highly political fights in a break from its traditionally quieter oversight of the U.S. spy agencies.

Turner and the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee have in recent weeks pushed the White House to share more in private about the classified material found. The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence has declined to comment on its review of classified material, which is also the subject of multiple Justice Department investigations.

“There’s a strong bipartisan concern that Congress is not being briefed on even preliminary reviews of classified information that might have been exposed,” Himes said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. “That’s wrong. That’s wrong as a matter of law.”

The intelligence committees already face several major tests this year, from multiple discoveries of top leaders keeping classified documents to the fight over whether to renew foreign surveillance powers used by the FBI, National Security Agency and other spy agencies.

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Top Dem on House intel seeks briefings on classified records

Republican-led panel targets COVID relief dollars for review

08:00 , The Associated Press

House Republicans on Wednesday began their promised aggressive oversight of the Biden administration, focusing on what watchdogs described as “indications of widespread fraud” in federal coronavirus aid programs initiated under President Donald Trump.

GOP lawmakers complained that too little attention was paid to the problems when Democrats controlled Congress. Democrats blamed the Trump administration for much of the mess.

More than 1,000 people have pleaded guilty or have been convicted on federal charges of defrauding the myriad COVID-19 relief programs that Congress established in the early days of the pandemic. More than 600 other people and entities face federal fraud charges.

But that’s just the start, according to investigators who testified as the House Oversight and Accountability Committee held its first hearing in the new Congress on fraud and waste in federal pandemic spending. Congress approved about $4.6 trillion in spending from six coronavirus relief laws, beginning in March 2020, when Trump was in the White House and including the $1.9 trillion package that Democrats passed in the first months of the Biden presidency.

“We owe it to the American people to get to the bottom of the greatest theft of American taxpayer dollars in history,” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the committee chairman.

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Republican-led panel targets COVID relief dollars for review

Trump starts 3rd White House bid lagging in campaign cash

07:00 , The Associated Press

Former President Donald Trump’s political operation started the year with about $25 million socked away for his recently launched 2024 presidential campaign, a sum that is substantially less than what he had on hand just one year ago, new campaign finance reports show.

The diminished sum, which is spread out across four campaign committees, is far less than the $105 million that Trump reported at the start of 2022. It speaks to the potential challenges for Trump as he mounts his third bid for the presidency facing what is likely to be a crowded field of GOP candidates who will also be vying for campaign cash from the party’s donors.

Across his political committees, including his main campaign account, Trump raised $9.5 million since launching his bid on Nov. 15, according to his campaign, a far cry from the gargantuan sums his campaign boasted of raising in a matter of days — or even hours — back when he was still president.

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Trump starts 3rd White House bid lagging in campaign cash

Former Obama speechwriter blasts Trump for ‘promoting rants from other old men promising violence’

06:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump calls for ‘all parties involved to pursue a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine'

05:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump goes after DeSantis in Truth Social rant: ‘The real Ron is a RINO GLOBALIST'

04:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday that “the real” Ron DeSantis “is a RINO GLOBALIST, who closed quickly down Florida and even its beaches. Loved the Vaccines and wasted big money on ‘Testing.’ How quickly people forget!”

Mr Trump has previously told his supporters to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Mr Trump was responding to a user on the platform who wrote, “President Trump will destroy DeSantis in the primary”.

Conservative judge and Jan 6 panel witness believes Trump will be indicted

04:00 , Gustaf Kilander

The conservative judge and January 6 panel witness Michael Lutting told The Washington Post in a piece published Tuesday that he believes Mr Trump will be indicted, saying that he sees “ample evidence” of crimes.

“What Nixon did was just an ordinary crime,” the judge told the paper, referring to the Watergate scandal. “What Trump has done is quite arguably the worst crime against the United States that a president could commit.”

Trump calls US-Mexico border ‘Southern Border Death Machine'

03:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday morning that “our Southern Border Death Machine is 20 times worse today than at any time in the history of our Country, and it is only getting worse. Just two years ago, we were GOLD, the best in U.S. History. SAD!”

Trump says ‘only thing that can save’ cable news is him in the White House again

02:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump took to Truth Social to argue that the “only thing that can save” cable news is him being in the White House again.

“It’s an incredible and very beautiful thing to watch. After all these years, the purveyors of Fake News are being CRUSHED in the Ratings,” he wrote on Wednesday morning. “Be careful FoxNews, your numbers are WAY down also — heading in the wrong direction. You don’t want to be another Fake News CNN or MSDNC. Their FINISHED! Sorry to say, but the only thing that can save them is the Trump Presidency. I told them that a long time ago, but they just wouldn’t listen!”

Top House Democrat slams Trump for relationship with Kim Jong-Un

01:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Former Rep Adam Kinzinger goes after Trump for taking the fifth 400 times

01:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Former Illinois Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger went after Donald Trump after a video was leaked revealing that the former president repeatedly used the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions during a deposition in August.

Trump goes after Morning Joe as he claims ratings have gone ‘down the drain'

00:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump went after Morning Joe on Wednesday morning, claiming that the MSNBC show’s ratings have gone “down the drain”.

“Wow! Ratings on my former friends show, Morning Joe, with his calm, steady, and lovely wife, ‘Mike,’ have really gone ‘down the drain.’ I know them both very well. They’ll probably be back, it’s only a question of ‘is it too late?” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

GOP congressman compares TV provider dropping Newsmax to Holocaust

Wednesday 1 February 2023 23:45 , Andrew Feinberg

When Republican members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday took to the floor of their chamber for an hour-long airing of grievances in support of a GOP-friendly cable news channel, one of them decided it would be appropriate to compare the satellite television carriage dispute to the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

Eric Burlison, a freshman representative who was sworn in as the House member for Missouri’s 7th District less than a month ago, first compared DirecTV’s decision to cease carrying the right-wing Newsmax channel to an aborted Department of Homeland Security effort to combat disinformation, and suggested the satellite television provider was abusing “special privileges” the government has granted it.

Late last month, DirecTV ceased carrying the signal of the pro-Trump outlet after the carriage agreement between Newsmax and the satellite provider expired. Newsmax, which previously granted DirecTV the right to carry the channel free of charge, had demanded a new agreement under which the company would be charged for the right to beam the channel into subscribers’ homes.

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GOP congressman compares TV provider dropping Newsmax to Holocaust

New York attorney general seeks sanctions after Trump caught lying in court documents

Wednesday 1 February 2023 23:15 , Andrew Feinberg

New York Attorney General Letitia James has asked the judge overseeing her $250m fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump, his three eldest children, and their eponymous real estate company to sanction the Trumps and their attorneys for “demonstrably false” statements made in a “verified” response to her complaint.

Ms James’ office cited denials of basic facts and statements that contradicted what the Trumps had said in other court filings and appearances in a letter to New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron seeking sanctions against the defendants and their attorney, Alina Habba.

“Defendants falsely deny facts they have admitted in other proceedings, they deny knowledge sufficient to respond to factual allegations that are plainly within their knowledge, and they propound affirmative defenses that have been repeatedly rejected by this Court as frivolous and without merit,” she said.

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New York attorney general seeks sanctions after Trump caught lying in court documents

Trump mentions George Soros as he blasts Manhattan DA amid hush-money probe

Wednesday 1 February 2023 22:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump mentioned financier George Soros as he criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg amid the probe into the hush-money payment to adult actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

Ms Daniels alleged that she had had an affair with Mr Trump in 2006, the year after he married former First Lady Melania Trump.

“When Soros backed Alvin Bragg attained the office of Manhattan District Attorney, he received great praise from large circles of people for dropping some of the most ridiculous Witch Hunt type cases ever looked at by that office,” Mr Trump claimed on Wednesday morning shortly before 7am.

“Now some Radical Left crazies, coupled with ‘ratings crushed’ and failing Fake News, are trying to get him to go the Prosecutorial Misconduct route, and take on certain very weak cases which are dead anyway based on the Statute of Limitations. FIGHT VIOLENT CRIME!” he wrote on Truth Social.

VIDEO: Trump pleads the 5th Amendment in fraud deposition

Wednesday 1 February 2023 21:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump endorses Jim Banks in Indiana Senate race

Wednesday 1 February 2023 21:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump endorsed Jim Banks in the Indiana Senate race on Wednesday morning.

“Jim Banks is running for the United States Senate from the Great State of Indiana. I know Jim well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and WIN!” he wrote on Truth Social shortly after 6am. “Strong on the Border, Crime, our Military and our Vets, Jim will fight for low taxes and regulations, Sanity in Government, and our under siege 2nd Amendment. Jim Banks is respected by all, will never let you down, and has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”

Trump blasts Biden: ‘Wrong, and not even close. Nuclear War is the biggest threat!’

Wednesday 1 February 2023 20:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump went after President Joe Biden on Tuesday night after the president said the climate crisis is the biggest threat facing humanity, including nuclear war.

At a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York City on Tuesday, Mr Biden said in a speech that “if we don’t stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius, we’re going to have a real problem. It’s the single-most existential threat to humanity we’ve ever faced, including nuclear weapons”.

“And so we have a real big problem,” he added, arguing that he inherited an “America First” foreign policy from Mr Trump which in actuality had placed “America last”.

“Wrong, and not even close. Nuclear War is the biggest threat!” Mr Trump responded on Truth Social.

Trump says he got ‘1.2 Million Votes MORE than Ron DeSanctimonious’ in Florida

Wednesday 1 February 2023 20:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday evening to blast Florida Governor Ron DeSantis amid their ongoing feud.

“Remember, I was 233-20 in the Midterms, and got 1.2 Million Votes MORE than Ron DeSanctimonious in the Great State of Florida. Also, 12 Million MORE Votes in 2020 than in 2016, and Won!” the former president said, repeating his false claim that he won the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

VIDEO: Michael Cohen says he handed over cell phones to manhattan DA in Trump hush-money probe

Wednesday 1 February 2023 19:45 , Gustaf Kilander

JD Vance endorses Trump for 2024 nomination

Wednesday 1 February 2023 19:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Freshman Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance endorsed Mr Trump’s 2024 campaign in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

“Mr. Trump did more than simply keep the peace. He brokered the Abraham Accords, a historic agreement between Israel and Sunni Arab states providing the best hope of a long-term counterbalance to Iran,” he wrote in the piece.

“He began the long, slow process of decoupling the U.S. from its economic reliance on China. He opened diplomatic talks with North Korea after a half century of stagnation,” Mr Vance added.

‘Anybody can run’: GOP senators downplay possibility of Trump coronation in 2024

Wednesday 1 February 2023 18:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Republican Senators are arguing that there should be a wide range of options in the 2024 primary and not a coronation of the former president to run for a third time.

“Anybody can run,” Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a possible 2024 candidate, said, according to The Hill.

South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds said would be “healthy” to have “lots of folks considering the race”.

His fellow South Dakota senator, the Republican Whip John Thune, said the feud between Mr Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is “going to be between the two of them”.

But he also said that “if people feel compelled or called to run for” the White House, “that’s their prerogative, it’s a free country”.

Mr Trump has argued that it would be “disloyal” of Mr DeSantis to mount a campaign against him.

‘There are no Trump policies without Donald Trump’: Lindsey Graham defends record of former president

Wednesday 1 February 2023 18:15 , Gustaf Kilander

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham came to the defence of Mr Trump over the weekend, arguing during a campaign event for the former president that he deserves more credit for what he did in office.

“How many times have you heard: ‘We like Trump policies, but we want somebody new?’” Mr Graham said, according to The Hill.

“There are no Trump policies without Donald Trump,” he added.

Trump fuels DeSantis feud by posting video of Florida governor saying he wants to be like Paul Ryan: ‘Wow’

Wednesday 1 February 2023 17:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump has escalated his feud with Ron DeSantis by posting a video of the Florida governor in which he says wants to be like former House Speaker Paul Ryan, whose now a Trump critic.

Mr Trump’s only comment on the footage, which was posted on his Truth Social page on Tuesday, was “wow!”

“I would be somebody who would be different, I think you see that I’ve been recognized nationally as being somebody who would be different, who would be a leader, who could be somebody like a Paul Ryan very quickly,” Mr DeSantis says in the footage.

Following Mr Trump’s criticism of his handling of the pandemic, Mr DeSantis responded to the former president on Tuesday by noting that he was reelected while Mr Trump wasn’t.

“I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles, it’s been happening for many, many years,” Mr DeSantis said during a press briefing in Bradenton, south of Tampa. “The good thing is, is that the people are able to render a judgment on that whether they reelect you or not. And I’m happy to say, you know in my case, not only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has had in the history of the state of Florida ... That verdict has been rendered by the people of the state of Florida.”

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Trump posts video of DeSantis saying he wants to be like Paul Ryan

VIDEO: Former South Carolina Governor and Ambassador Under Trump, Nikki Haley, Set to Announce 2024 GOP Candidacy

Wednesday 1 February 2023 17:15 , Gustaf Kilander

‘It’s not a matter of disloyalty’: GOP Senator pushes back on Trump’s 2024 primary argument

Wednesday 1 February 2023 16:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis defended Ron DeSantis and argued that it wouldn’t be disloyal for him to run for president in 2024, despite recent comments from Mr Trump arguing that it would be.

“I expect to see a number of Republican candidates for president and a number of them had President Trump’s endorsement so I don’t see it as an act of disloyalty to run for president, even people on the president’s cabinet may get in this race,” she told The Hill, referring to Mr Trump’s 2018 endorsement of Mr DeSantis when he ran for the Florida governorship.

“So, it’s not a matter of disloyalty,” she added. “The person who best articulates a future agenda for the country will emerge from [the] Republican primary and it’s not a foregone conclusion who that will be.”

GOP Senator ‘barely stifles laugh’ when asked if 2024 DeSantis campaign would be disloyal to Trump

Wednesday 1 February 2023 16:15 , Gustaf Kilander

On his plane this weekend while making campaign trips to New Hampshire and South Carolina, Mr Trump argued that he got Florida Governor Ron DeSantis into the governor’s mansion by supporting him in 2018. Mr DeSantis previously served in the US House from 2013 until 2018.

“So then when I hear he might run, I consider that very disloyal. But it’s not about loyalty, but to me it is, it’s always about loyalty, but for a lot of people it’s not about loyalty,” he told reporters.

Following the criticism from Mr Trump, GOP Senators defended Mr DeSantis and his possible 2024 campaign.

Texas Senator John Cornyn commented on a possible DeSantis campaign, telling The Hill that “he ran an impressive reelection campaign for governor from an important state. It looks to me like he’s polling well. I think we need some new blood and I think he’d probably qualify”.

The outlet noted that Mr Cornyn “barely stifled a laugh” when asked if it would be disloyal for Mr DeSantis to run.

“No, no, I don’t think so,” he said.

‘Donald cannot keep track of the lies that he tells,’ Michael Cohen says

Wednesday 1 February 2023 15:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Video footage was recently released showing Mr Trump in a deposition at the office of the New York attorney general in August, in which he used the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions more than 400 times, according to CNN.

“Donald cannot keep track of the lies that he tells, and so, what better way to stop a fool from being deposed and hurting himself further than to tell him to plead the Fifth at least 400 times,” his former fixer Michael Cohen told the network on Wednesday.

VIDEO: Michael Cohen says he handed over his phones to Manhattan DA in hush-money investigation

Wednesday 1 February 2023 15:15 , Gustaf Kilander

Michael Cohen says he handed over cell phones to Manhattan DA in Trump hush-money probe

Wednesday 1 February 2023 14:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, has said that he has handed over his cell phones to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Cohen made the revelation on CNN on Wednesday morning.

He met with New York prosecutors last month as the DA’s office is focusing on the Trump Organization’s role in the hush-money payment made to adult actor Stormy Daniels in connection to the former president’s 2016 campaign for the White House.

“Most recently, they asked for my cell phones because they want to be able to extract from it the voice recordings that I had had with Keith Davidson, former attorney to Stormy Daniels before Michael Avenatti, as well as a bunch of emails, text messages and so on,” Cohen told CNN on Wednesday morning.

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Michael Cohen says he handed over cell phones to Manhattan DA in hush-money probe