Trump’s hush-money jury is a group of educated Manhattanites. Most follow several news outlets. Two are lawyers!
A expert jury consultant tells me he doesn’t love Trump’s odds.
“I think it’s going to be very difficult for him to get a full acquittal.”
Wayne LaPierre is liable for corruption and cost the NRA more than $5 million, a jury rules.
They add there was sufficient cause for his removal.
More TK
@CourthouseNews
Late-night filing from Allen Weisselberg:
He doesn’t want the court monitor snooping around his emails. He claims it’s “unconstitutional,” among other things.
The AG wants the monitor to investigate why certain emails were left out during Trump’s fraud trial.
The NYAG is claiming that Trump “withheld relevant and responsive” info during the civil fraud case. They want the court-appointed monitor to investigate.
They cite Allen Weisselberg’s perjury plea, which referenced an email about Trump’s triplex that the AG never got.
I was just at the hearing. Here's what happened.
Trump wants to delay the trial so he can argue against Judge Merchan's gag order.
He cites 3 reasons 🧵
As of 11:30 a.m., the parties are arguing the second prong of Trump's filings yesterday, an apparent appeal of the gag order under a NY statute known as Article 78. With oral argument now underway in full public view, why are the papers not equally accessible?
Trump and friends are blasting this Stormy Daniels statement that was "just found" all over social media.
It was not "just found," as the
@AP
explained weeks ago.
A half a billion dollar bond is simply not commercially available. The 30 largest bonding companies in the United States have never seen a bond close to this size for anyone, let alone a private company. Letitia James is hellbent on a political vendetta against my father with
New: Trump said he was having trouble getting a bond for his $464 million judgment. The AG isn’t buying it.
They say he should try to get several smaller bonds instead of one big one.
“There is nothing unusual about even billion-dollar judgments being fully bonded on appeal.”
But a note: A this just denies the INTERIM stay application.
A full panel of appellate judges will decide on delaying the trial on 4/15. That's the morning of jury selection 🫠.
Judge Merchan weighed in on Trump's modified advice-of-counsel defense, in which Trump seemingly wanted to have his cake and eat it, too.
Remember last week, we were like, "Can he even do this?"
He cannot.
NEW: Donald Trump will be mounting an advice-of-counsel defense in his upcoming criminal trial.
This means he'll argue that he can't be deemed responsible for hiding hush money payments to Stormy Daniels because he was acting on advice from his lawyers.
Donald Trump's civil fraud judgment has been signed by the county clerk.
It's now official - Trump owes $454,156,783.05 (disgorgement+interest) for lying about his net worth on yearly financial docs.
Starting today, he'll rack up more than $80,000/day in post-trial interest.
Prosecutor Steven Wu, like yesterday, chided Trump's attorneys for the timing of all this.
"They have delayed bringing this request for two full weeks after the order was [brought] by the judge."
He brings up Engoron's law clerk and Fulton County election workers in his args.
Ope! There's a new antitrust suit against the NFL, all 32 teams and Fanatics.
According to the complaint, the licensing deal between the NFL and Fanatics is anticompetitive and designed to thwart competition and keep the price of NFL-licensed merch as high as possible.
"There has already been difficulty in finding witnesses in our case," Wu says. "It has been a challenge getting people to come in because they know what their names in the press may lead to."
@CourthouseNews
Here's specifically what they ruled, as it relates to LaPierre. They said he cost the NRA $5.4 million but already repaid more than $1 million.
Mayor Eric Adams has officially been accused of sexual assault. Months after filing a summons, a complaint has hit the docket.
A former NYPD Transit Bureau employee claims Adams tried to force her into sex after she asked him for help with a promotion.
Meanwhile, the DA wants to expand Trump's gag order to expressly include the judge's family members.
They remind the court that Trump will have access to the potential jurors' names. That access can be revoked if he "threatens the safgety" of jury-selection.
Donald Trump accuses Judge Merchan of violating judicial ethics by "making public statements about the case."
"President Trump has not violated the gag order," he claims after attacking Merchan's daughter on social media.
1. Trump wants to respond to Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels' social media posts about him.
2. He wants to comment on the recusal motion against Merchan - specifically about his daughter.
3. He wants to be able to claim that the charges are poltiically motivated.
We should have a decision here from Judge Cynthia S. Kern in the next 30 mins.
This will only be on the interim stay of the criminal trial. A full panel will decide on the gag order soon.
Merchan just ruled on the Sandoval hearing, revealing what prior legal issues prosecutors can ask Trump about, if he chooses to testify.
Highlighted chunks are fair game.
Notably, he won't allow the DA to ask Trump about the sexual assault findings in the E. Jean Carroll cases.
NEW: Donald Trump will be mounting an advice-of-counsel defense in his upcoming criminal trial.
This means he'll argue that he can't be deemed responsible for hiding hush money payments to Stormy Daniels because he was acting on advice from his lawyers.
Judge Engoron threatens Donald Trump with PRISON for violating his gag order. Trump didn't remove the Truth Social post berating Engoron's staff from his campaign website.
He just opened court with this:
The NYAG is claiming that Trump “withheld relevant and responsive” info during the civil fraud case. They want the court-appointed monitor to investigate.
They cite Allen Weisselberg’s perjury plea, which referenced an email about Trump’s triplex that the AG never got.
"This is not a formal advice-of-counsel defense," his lawyers say.
They're claiming that his specific argument won't require him to break attorney-client privilege, so there is "no basis" for prosecutors to get a preview of their defense prior to trial.
The family of Oleksandra "Sasha" Kuvshynova, a Ukrainian Fox News journalist who was killed covering the Russian war, is suing the network for wrongful death.
They claim that Fox sent reporters into dangerous warzones where reporters were banned and ignored security advice.
Judge Merchan isn't happy that Donald Trump is throwing around accusations that prosecutors "coerced" Allen Weisselberg into a guilty plea.
Those "serious allegations" have "no apparent basis in fact," he said.
Delay request denied. Trial will start Monday.
In Donald Trump's civil fraud appeal docket:
Allen Weisselberg is dropping Alina Habba. He's replacing her with Armen Morian, another Trumpland regular.
Morian represented Trump's business entities in the civil fraud case, per the docket.
@CourthouseNews
I filled out the full verdict sheet as the jury read out its findings. Link below.
FYI - the jury also found that the NRA violated NY whistleblower law.
NRA Trial - The jurors have been deliberating for 5 days. No verdict yet, and no jury notes so far this morning.
Breaking for lunch soon. I’ll try to find out what the jury is eating today. Yesterday it was Chipotle. 🥪
Cohen says that after going through all this, after paying Stormy Daniels' $130,00 hush money, Trump cut his end of year bonus by 2/3.
"I was really, even for myself, unusually angry."
A consistent theme of this case has been Trump's stinginess coming back to bite him.
Hoo boy.
The judge just tore into Trump lawyer Chris Kise for making a comment about his clerk.
“I sometimes think there may be a bit of misogyny… If there’s any further reference to anyone on my staff… I will consider expanding the gag order to include the attorneys.”
😳
New note from the jury - they want coffee. It's the AG's turn to pick up the tab.
(The AG has been alternating paying for food/drink with the defense.)
Sounds like a compicated order, too. At least one flat white. Some packets of brown sugar.
NEW: An appellate judge has ruled on Donald Trump's stay request on his $455 million civil fraud penalties.
Trump will still have to post a bond for the full judgment, but the industry and loan bans have been temporarily lifted.
Last year, two Grimaldi's Pizza operators were on Fox News complaining about the state of NYC.
"We have dispensaries, these stores are popping up selling crack pipes, and they’re worried about me with a pizza oven?"
Today, they were were indicted for paying workers with IOUs.
A Hell's Kitchen investment banker says he follows
@MichaelCohen212
and
@MuellerSheWrote
on Twitter, but that wouldn't affect him as a juror.
"They're talking about politics, they're not talking about the specifics of this case."
New gag order just dropped.
Judge Engoron is banning all counsel from making statements (in and out of court) about communications he has with his staff.
He mentions Trump lawyers Chris Kise, Alina Habba and Clifford Robert as the key offenders.
Judge Engoron laid into Trump for potentially violating his gag order outside of the courtroom, assuming he was referring to Engoron's clerk when speaking to press.
But Trump's lawyers swear Trump was talking about Michael Cohen, who was sat next to Engoron in the witness stand.
Judge Merchan is reading instructions to the jury, who is now seated in the packed courtroom. Jurors can take notes, but they'll be kept at the courthouse overnight.
"At the end of the trial, they will be destroyed," Merchan says.
Trump is slouching, looking straight ahead.
@CourthouseNews
Reminder: This was a civil trial, no jail time or criminal penalties. The ~$6.4 million in damages ($4.4m from LaPierre, $2m from Woody Phillips) goes back to the NRA.
Full story here 🫵