Trump suffers double court blow over Jan 6 cases: Latest – The Independent

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In New York, an appeals court reinstated a gag order in the former president’s fraud trial
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Trump zips his lips to camera after leaving New York court during civil fraud trial
Donald Trump’s legal team made its debut in Georgia to try to get election interference charges against him dismissed on First Amendment grounds.
They also argued that he shouldn’t be on trial at all as he campaigns for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, and that he shouldn’t be on trial if he wins next year’s election, meaning that he shouldn’t be on trial until at least 2029, they argued.
Friday’s hearing started moments after a long-awaited federal appeals court ruling determined that Mr Trump can be held civilly liable for inciting the riots at the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021 in the wake of his 2020 loss.
The ruling, which followed three lawsuits from law enforcement officers and members of Congress whose lives were threatened that day, finds that the former president cannot use presidential “immunity” as a shield from that litigation.
On Thursday, a state appeals court in New York reinstated a gag order in his civil fraud trial following a wave of death threats and abuse targeting members of the court staff.
Justice Arthur Engoron put the gag order in place to protect his chief clerk and others from the former president’s posts and subsequent menacing messages that have flooded his office. Mr Trump then lashed out at the judge’s wife in a series of false and inflammatory posts on his Truth Social.
A former Black Lives Matter organiser in Rhode Island endorsed Donald Trump this week, an announcement that the chapter and national groups have condemned, stressing that he not longer is affiliated with the group.
“This is a publicity stunt,” according to a statement. “The right-wing continues to use and amplify fringe Black voices to create an idea of broad support for their corrupt candidates.”
Trump, who previously accused the movement against racial injustice of “hating” and “destoying” the US, has welcomed the endorsement, a move that organisers argue is a bad-faith distortion and exploitation of the group and its message.
Ex-president has in the past refused to condemn white supremacist groups
The White House and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are already shooting down Republican claims that the House’s impeachment probe into President Joe Biden is being obstructed or stonewalled by the Biden administration and members of the president’s family.
A memo reviewed by The Independent lays out the case against GOP claims targeting the president, while House Speaker Mike Johnson and top Republicans lay the groundwork for a formal impeachment investigation, which has thus far produced no evidence of any wrongdoing.
Republicans are looking to step up their efforts to impeach Joe Biden as revenge for the two impeachments of former president Donald Trump
A former server is suing Donald Trump’s National Golf Club in Bedminster, alleging she was sexually harassed and coerced into sex by one of her supervisors before she was tricked into signing an illegal non-disclosure agreement by his lawyer, Alina Habba.
The lawsuit was filed in New Jersey this week
‘All I knew was that the person claiming to be my friend and advisor threw me in the trash as soon as she pressured me into silence,’ Alice Bianco said
Today’s mammoth pre-trial hearing in Georgia has been wading into some major arguments around the First Amendment and the trial schedule, including whether Trump can even be tried at all if he’s back in the White House.
According to his attorney Steven Sadow, “this trial would not take place at all until he left office.”
Attorneys also argued that Trump shouldn’t be on trial at all while he campaigns for the presidency. Should he win the election next year, he wouldn’t be on trial in this case until at least 2029, according to his attorneys.
“Can you imagine … not being able to campaign because he’s in some form or fashion in a courtroom defending himself?” they argued, calling it “the most effective election interference.”
“This trial does not constitute election interference,” Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade told Judge Scott McAfee. “I don’t think it in any way impedes defendant Trump’s ability to campaign or do whatever he needs to do to seek office.”
Trump attorney Steve Sadow speaks in Fulton County Superior Court on 1 December.
Following the death of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the nation’s highest court, Trump offered his condolences on Truth Social, touting her relationship with his late sister.
“Melania and I are saddened by the loss of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She was a great friend of my Sister, the amazing Judge Marianne Trump Barry, who left us just a few weeks ago. My wonderful Sister and Justice O’Connor had deep respect and admiration for one another’s intellect and fairness, with Marianne receiving the Sandra Day O’Connor Medal of Honor. We send our deepest condolences and prayers to the entire O’Connor family.”
The Independent’s Ariana Baio reports on her death:
O’Connor became the first woman to be appointed the Supreme Court in 1981, paving the way for future female justices
Donald Trump defended his co-defendant Bob Cheeley on Truth Social while Cheeley’s attorney began a First Amendment defense in court.
Cheeley is “a “highly respected lawyer and man of deep faith” who is being persecuted, along with the rest of us, for no reason,” Trump wrote.
He blasted Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as “radical left” and “totally out-of-control”.
Cheeley, who mounted spurious election lawsuits, is charged along with Trump in the RICO case alleging a criminal enterprise to overturn 2020 election results in Georgia. Cheeley also is charged with perjury and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath.
In brief remarks defending a motion to dismiss the Georgia case on First Amendment grounds, Donald Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow asked the judge to reconsider an earlier ruling that was made in the cases for his now-former co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell.
He asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to reconsider a ruling in their case on First Amendment challenges.
Lawyers are up now to argue that the indictment against the defendants in the Georgia election subversion case are being wrongfully prosecuted against their First Amendment rights.
They argue that the entirety of the indictment, which includes an alleged conspiracy and “criminal enterprise” to overturn election results in the state, rests on “political speech.”
“Political speech is given the highest level of protection of any speech that the courts look at,” an attorney told the judge.
The sprawling indictment references the false claims of voter fraud and baseless allegations that fuelled challenges to election results, but the criminal charges target the actions that result from them, not the statements.
Attorneys argue prosecutors are “attacking” the “challenges, speech and concerns defendants had in regards to their beliefs.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee listens to arguments in the Georgia election interference case on 1 December.
Attorneys for co-defendants charged in the Georgia case as part of the so-called fake elector scheme argue that those electors were not fake at all but “contingent” ones submitted to Congress while Trump was contesting the state’s results.
Both slates, even the one based on the actual outcome of the state’s election results, are “contingent”, according to attorneys arguing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Friday.
“That gets decided by Congress on January 6 and not a moment before,” Holly Pierson, an attorney for co-defendant and Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, told the judge.
Other courts have rejected similar arguments.
Holly Pierson, an attorney for David Shafer, appears in Fulton County Superior Court on 1 December.

In Fulton County Superior Court this morning, attorneys for GOP electors who tried to certify Georgia’s election results falsely claiming Trump’s victory argue that they did nothing wrong, and that the state can’t prosecute them.
But “they were not electors, they are not electors, the arguments about preemption do not apply to them,” according to prosecutors with the Fulton County District Attorney’s office.
Similar arguments have previously been rejected.
“Sending in documents that say they’re the duly elected and qualified electors, which they were not” is the heart of the case against them, assistant prosecutor Will Wooten said.
“A sticky note, a piece of paper, whatever it is – you can do that without getting prosecuted, as long as you are not purporting to be someone else or with authority you don’t have … with fraudulent intent,” Wooten added.
Fulton County assistant prosecutor Will Wooten
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Former president Donald Trump, pictured in February 2021
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