Trump ballot eligibility in question as Illinois weighs disqualification: Latest – The Independent

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Republican’s name submitted for prestigious award by New York GOP representative Claudia Tenney in recognition of Abraham Accords as Middle East tensions continue to simmer
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E Jean Carroll vows to give $83m defamation damages to ‘something Trump hates’
Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Republican lawmaker Claudia Tenney in recognition of the Abraham Accords he signed in office, the submission coming at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East and in the wake of three US soldiers being killed in a drone strike.
As Mr Trump awaits the outcome of a civil fraud trial in New York, his lawyers have reacted angrily to a report by a court-appointed monitor overseeing his businesses alleging that their financial disclosures are “either incomplete, present results inconsistently” or “contain errors.”
The 12-page report by former judge Barbara Jones alleges that the ex-president not only repeatedly lied about his net worth and assets, as alleged by state attorney general Letitia James, but that a major $48m loan for one of his brand-building properties may have never actually existed.
Meanwhile, the Illinois Board of Elections is expected to vote on Tuesday to determine if Mr Trump may appear on the 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot, becoming the latest state to weigh in on his eligibility under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
We saw Trump fuming over the US-Mexico border earlier.
Our own Eric Garcia writes:
“Republicans might have gotten high on their own supply when it comes to immigration.
“As Inside Washington explained last week, Republicans delaying passing an immigration bill to allow Trump to benefit makes it hard for them to argue that the influx of migrants is a crisis that requires immediate addressing.
“If passing a bill can wait 12 months, then it’s hardly urgent.
“Right-wing opposition to the immigration legislation also means that Republicans are turning against each other.”
It looks like the GOP just overplayed its hand
Trump’s rival for the Republican nomination has so far attempted to steer clear of discussing his legal troubles but they are proving increasingly difficult to avoid.
She was also interviewed by Newsmax yesterday and had the following to say about her opponent:
There’s shameless attention-seeking and then there’s this.
New York Republican representative Claudia Tenney told Fox News Digital in a statement:
”Donald Trump was instrumental in facilitating the first new peace agreements in the Middle East in almost 30 years.
“For decades, bureaucrats, foreign policy ‘professionals’, and international organizations insisted that additional Middle East peace agreements were impossible without a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“President Trump proved that to be false.
“The valiant efforts by President Trump in creating the Abraham Accords were unprecedented and continue to go unrecognized by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, underscoring the need for his nomination today.
“Now more than ever, when Joe Biden’s weak leadership on the international stage is threatening our country’s safety and security, we must recognize Trump for his strong leadership and his efforts to achieve world peace.
“I am honored to nominate former President Donald Trump today and am eager for him to receive the recognition he deserves.”
Here’s another remarkable observation from Carroll yesterday, this time during an appearance with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC:
She also told Maddow she would “absolutely” sue Trump again if the need arose and that she’s planning a shopping spree with her $83m compensation payout.
Former Elle columnist E Jean Carroll has accused Donald Trump of using the defamation case for political gain.
“The courtroom is not a courtroom to him. It was a campaign stop,” Carroll told CNN on Monday of the 2024 GOP frontrunner.
She said the former president’s legal team and her lawyers had two separate objectives: “Ours was to win a case. His was to win voters.”
“He’s using me to win voters,” Carroll said.
“The man found liable for sexual assault is using the woman he sexually assaulted to get votes.”
Kelly Rissman has the story.
Mr Trump is ‘using me to win voters,’ Ms Carroll claimed after winning a massive defamation suit
Having until very recently claimed that a new Wall Street crash was imminent (so dismayed were investors by the state of Biden’s America), Trump is now attempting to take credit for its rude health!
“MY POLLS AGAINST BIDEN ARE SO GOOD THAT INVESTORS ARE PROJECTING THAT I WILL WIN, AND THAT WILL DRIVE THE MARKET UP,” he froths, presumably before running outside to the beach and howling at the Florida moon as aides half-heartedly chase after him with a fresh dressing gown.
This was him just three weeks ago, for context.
Republican insists Joe Biden’s success amounts to ‘running off the fumes of what we did’
Trump is falsely claiming to have stopped all movement between the US and Mexico in a bid to push lawmakers to scuttle a bipartisan proposal to increase President Joe Biden’s power to curb illegal crossings.
He took to Truth Social on Monday to claim that he had not needed what he described as a “big, complex Democrat-oriented Border Bill” to stop crossings between the US and Mexico during his administration.
He also said that he had “by far, the Safest Border in the History of our Country” during his time in office because he “just closed the Border” and claimed — without offering any evidence — that the people seeking asylum after surrendering to the US Border Patrol are “pouring” into the US “from jails and mental institutions located all over the World”.
Andrew Feinberg digs into the former president’s latest remarks below.
Mr Trump never completely stopped crossings along the US-Mexico border despite his harsh anti-immigrant policies
Days before an expected final judgment in a fraud case that could imperil Donald Trump’s sprawling business empire, a court-appointed monitor overseeing his businesses reported financial disclosures that are “either incomplete, present results inconsistently” or “contain errors.”
One of those findings, according to her report, appears to suggest that the former president evaded taxes on millions of dollars in income by hiding money in fake loan transactions.
Trump and his associates have been cooperative throughout the months-long monitoring process, former federal judge Barbara Jones wrote in her 12-page report on Friday.
But one detail in a footnote halfway through the letter to New York Judge Arthur Engoron appears to allege that the former president not only repeatedly lied about his net worth and assets, as alleged by the state’s attorney general, but that a major $48m loan for one of his brand-building properties may have never actually existed.
Alex Woodward has more.
A court monitor’s discovery of a $48m debt mystery arrives days before a final judgment in his civil fraud trial
The Illinois Board of Elections is expected to vote today to determine if Trump may appear on the 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot, becoming the latest state to weigh in on his eligibility under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
In early January, four Illinois registered voters, backed by Free Speech For People, challenged Trump’s ballot eligibility, claiming his involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol was a form of engaging in an insurrection.
Under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, those who take part in insurrections or aid enemies of the United States government are prohibited from taking office.
The little-known provision has been used in countless other lawsuits across the country.
Ariana Baio reports.
State’s Board of Elections will determine former president’s ballot eligibility on Tuesday
The IRS contractor who stole and leaked Trump’s tax records has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Charles Littlejohn, 38, pleaded guilty in October last year to one count of unauthorized disclosures of income tax returns after leaking Trump’s and thousands of other people’s tax records.
His plea agreement states that he stole Trump’s tax returns as well as the tax information of “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people”.
At the time, he was working for a consulting firm with IRS contracts.
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
Judge calls leak ‘biggest heist in IRS history’ and an ‘an attack on our constitutional democracy’
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Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump
Reuters
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