Trump lawyers appeal against DC trial partial gag order: Live – The Independent

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Former president gagged from making “disparaging or “inflammatory” comments about people or entities involved in election interference trial
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Trump vows to ‘take over’ Washington DC: ‘We are going to make it beautiful’
Donald Trump’s legal team was in federal court in Washington, DC this morning for oral arguments concerning the partial gag order imposed on the former president in his federal election interference case.
Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that Mr Trump cannot make “disparaging or “inflammatory” comments about people or entities involved in the case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Mr Trump’s team argued that as he is running for president any restrictions on what he can say while he campaigns would violate his right to free speech. A panel of judges didn’t appear to buy that argument.
Meanwhile, the former president’s civil fraud trial in New York enters its eighth week. In that trial, Mr Trump’s attorneys won a pause on the gag order imposed on him there.
Over the weekend, Mr Trump visited the US-Mexico border in Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott endorsed his 2024 White House run.
Mr Trump served food to members of the National Guard and others stationed at the border for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday before a rally of his supporters.
This came after a bizarre appearance in Iowa on Saturday where he resurfaced the claims about him taking “golden showers”.
Donald Trump’s co-defendant in his civil fraud trial in New York, Jeff McConney, is back on the stand as a witness for the defence. He testified as a witness for the prosecution some weeks ago.
Mr McConney was the controller of the Trump Organization and was responsible for the company’s statements of financial condition from 2011 to 2017 though distanced himself from accountancy firm Mazars who prepared the statements.
“We as the Trump Organization didn’t prepare the statement,” said Mr McConney.
Donald Bender with Mazars already testified in the trial as the very first witness eight weeks ago, telling the attorney general’s team that the Trump Organization appeared to withhold information from him in the preparation of the statements.
Today, Mr McConney claims that Bender could’ve asked for anything he wanted from the Trump Organization. He said he never hid anything from him.
Judge Arthur Engoron and the attorney general’s team have previously hinted this kind of argument isn’t gonna work, pointing to an example of tax preparers who base their filings off the documents you give them.
Elon Musk’s X platform handed over 32 direct messages from Donald Trump’s account with the social media platform to special counsel Jack Smith as part of his election subversion probe.
The former president was a voracious user of his @realDonaldTrump as he tried to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, but was suspended by the platform, formerly known as Twitter, in the wake of the January 6 attack “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Last November, following Mr Musk’s $44bn purchase of the social media app, the billionaire said that banning Mr Trump had been a mistake. The former president, who has a financial stake in Truth Social, said that he would never return to Twitter, but in August posted there for the first time in two years.
But that has not stopped federal prosecutors from getting access to a string of Mr Trump’s private messages from the high-profile account, according to court filings.
Graeme Massie has the details.
Prosecutors have not given any detail about the nature of the messages handed over by Elon Musk’s platform
While at a Thanksgiving dinner event commending US troops serving at the Southern Border, former President Donald Trump jokingly complained that organisers didn’t save him a plate of food.
“The food looked very good,” the former president said at a luncheon for Texas State Patrol officers. “I wanted to have some but they didn’t have any for me.
“They had none left. That’s not good. That’s my kind of food too.”
Mr Trump later took to Truth Social, his social media platform, to thank the officials.
MIchelle Del Rey reports.
Former President Donald Trump made the joke at a luncheon for border police officers
Donald Trump’s attorney in the sprawling Fulton County election interference case in Georgia has asked District Attorney Fani Willis — who brought the case against the former president and his 18 co-defendants — for help gaining access to lists of evidence disclosed to Mr Trump’s defence team in his federal election interference case.
A protective order handed down by Judge Tanya Chutkan, at the request of Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, prevents the disclosure of evidence ahead of the trial.
Georgia attorney Steve Sadow has asked Ms Willis to contact Mr Smith and ask if he will disclose discovery letter and lists of evidence to her, which she can then share with him as he builds his defence case in the state criminal indictment.
Given both cases involve interference in the 2020 election, there is potential for crossover between the two criminal cases against the former president.
The federal trial is currently scheduled for 4 March 2024, whereas Georgia prosecutors have asked for a trial date in early August 2024. The timing of Mr Trump’s two other criminal trials is expected to change but the New York hush-money trial is currently scheduled for 25 March, and the federal classified documents trial is set for 20 May.
What a tangled web.
Read the full court filing here.
Donald Trump has vowed to “take over” Washington DC if re-elected, describing the US capital city as “a nightmare of murder and crime”. The former president made a campaign speech in Iowa over the weekend, branding DC the “crime centre of our country”. “We will take our horribly run Washington DC capital… and cleanup, renovate and rebuild our capital city so it is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime,” he said. “It will become the most beautiful capital anywhere in the world. We’re going to take over the capital and we’re going to make it beautiful, we are going to make it safe, we’re going to make it great.”
Democrats saw a series of welcome victories across Ohio, Virginia, and Kentucky last week as voters in statewide elections delivered the GOP key defeats chiefly tied to the issue of abortion rights.
Left-leaning activists in Virginia and Ohio in particular appeared energised by their victories, a much-needed boost to their confidence and optimism after heartbreaking defeats for the party in 2022 and 2021. Ohioans saw the election of author and Trump convert JD Vance to the US Senate, while Virginians witnessed the downfall of Terry McAuliffe, their state’s former governor, as he sought to defeat Republican Glenn Youngkin. Both were considered blows to Joe Biden for different reasons — in Virginia, Mr McAuliffe ran aligned with Mr Biden and was beaten soundly just months into the latter’s presidency, and in Ohio the president lost a much-needed opportunity to pick up a vote for his agenda in the US Senate.
But 2024 is on the horizon, and Democrats are looking ahead to the future — though not without some considerable sense of unease. Their incumbent president remains in serious trouble, if the polling is to be believed, based on concerns about his age and ability to represent America through a time of multiple global crises. At the same time, the prospect of a Trump victory — with the former president openly plotting to unleash the powers of the federal government on his political enemies — presents a real reason to be concerned about the country’s future.
Enthusiastic as they are about the party’s victory on a ballot initiative enshrining abortion rights in the state’s constitution, Ohio Democrats are cognizant of the fact that no such issue will be as directly on the ballot next year. What that means for Joe Biden and other Democrats is simple: they’ll be running on their own political reputations and that of the national Democratic Party.
If you listen to former Congressman Tim Ryan, that’s a real problem.
Read the full article
Ron DeSantis has said he thinks both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are too old to run the country as the president celebrates his 81st birthday today.
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, the Florida governor and 2024 hopeful claimed that he is in the “prime of my life” while his two rivals are far from it.
“I just think that that’s something that has been shown with Joe Biden. Father Time is undefeated. Donald Trump is not exempt from any of that,” he said.
Mr DeSantis, 45, said that running the White House is “not a job for somebody that is pushing 80”.
Rachel Sharp has the story.
Age has become a major talking point in the 2024 race
Newly released video footage has captured the cruel attacks and terrifying situation that a Capitol police officer endured just two weeks before he took his own life.
Officer Jeff Smith’s body camera footage reveals the harrowing reality of what unfolded in the halls of the Capitol building on January 6 2021.
In it, the officer is seen facing a barrage of physical and verbal attacks from rioters.
People are screaming and lining the walls of the monument as officers pass by.
One woman is seen telling Smith: “Get a real job. We don’t support y’all anymore.”
Outside, someone else is yelling repeatedly: “You stand with criminals! You stand with criminals!”
Kelly Rissman reports.
Smith was one of four Capitol Police officers who took their own lives following the attack
A three-judge federal appeals court panel appears sceptical of arguments from Donald Trump’s legal team to overturn a gag order that blocks the former president from attacking witnesses and prosecutors in a criminal conspiracy case surrounding his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
But the judges also appear likely to narrow the scope of the order, hoping to balance First Amendment protections and political speech against the wave of threats and harassment unleashed by Mr Trump and his supporters towards the prosecutors, judges, witnesses and prospective jurors involved with a growing list of litigation against him.
The gag order imposed by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan last month blocked Mr Trump from launching a “pretrial smear campaign” as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination for president, the judge wrote.
That order was paused by the appeals court in Washington DC, which heard arguments in the case on Monday during a hearing that lasted nearly three hours.
Alex Woodward reports.
Federal appeals court seems open to a narrow order that blocks the former president’s threats
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Trump is seen at a campaign rally in Iowa on 18 November
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