Trump returns to campaign trail pushing 'migrant crime' agenda: Live – The Independent

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Republican returns to campaign trail in Michigan and Wisconsin to rail against illegal immigration and compare himself to notorious Chicago crimelord Al Capone
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Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has urged US district judge Aileen Cannon, overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, to reject the Republican presidential candidate’s contention that he had any claim to personal ownership over the boxes of top secret files reclaimed by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
The former president refused to return the documents to the National Archives when requested, leading Mr Smith to issue a federal indictment, with the special counsel now calling on Judge Cannon to ignore Mr Trump’s claim that he designated the information “personal” while president as “pure fiction”.
Elsewhere, Mr Trump is suing his fellow co-founders of the parent company behind Truth Social, former Apprentice contestants Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, to try to wrestle ownership of the company from them.
The candidate also returned to the campaign trail in Michigan and Wisconsin on Tuesday, where he revived his “bloodbath” rhetoric on illegal immigrants and attacked President Joe Biden on everything from the border to golf.
Mr Trump also warned that the country would “cease to exist” if he lost November’s election, proclaimed a “Christian Visibility Day” and compared himself to notorious gangster Al Capone.
Hope Hicks, a former aide to Trump during his presidential administration, could be called as a witness for the prosecution at his upcoming New York hush money trial, according to reports.
Former White House communications director could be called as witness for the prosecution
Sigh. We’re never going to get there are we?
I’m not sure it’s fair to “empty chair” someone who has not refused to debate you and especially when you yourself ducked out of all of your own party’s televised debates but whatever.
Mike Bedigan reports.
‘We have an empty podium right here to my right. You know what that is? That’s for Joe Biden,’ he told crowds in Green Bay
You Know Who is suing two co-founders of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of his Truth Social network, claiming that they set up the company improperly and should lose their stock in the venture.
TMTG went public last week, enjoying a remarkable debut on the Nasdaq exchange with shares trading at a high of $78 before plunging days later as the company’s extraordinary 2023 losses came to light – leading some to warn that it is the latest example of a volatile “meme stock” offering that has little underlying value.
Now, the Republican presidential candidate has filed a new lawsuit against Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, two former contestants from his NBC reality show The Apprentice turned co-founders of the company.
Former president files lawsuit against Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss arguing they set up parent company improperly and should forfeit stock
In a late-night filing on Tuesday, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith urged US district judge Aileen Cannon, overseeing Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, to reject his contention that he had any claim to personal ownership over the boxes of top secret files reclaimed by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 after the former president refused to return them to the National Archives when requested.
Smith argued that Judge Cannon accepting Trump’s argument that he had the power to designate the documents as personal would not only be “pure fiction” but would be “meritless and fatally undermined” by the evidence the government had gathered as part of its case.
The special counsel cites as evidence his interviews with Trump’s own Presidential Records Act representatives and “numerous” high-ranking White House officials, none of whom said they “had heard Trump say that he was designating records as personal”.
“To the contrary, every witness who was asked this question had never heard such a thing,” Smith said.
Here’s a little timely fact-checking of two of the former president’s claims from yesterday’s rally: he did not win Wisconsin and suburban women still don’t like him.
Some more gross pandering from Trump, this time over the Republicans’ faux-outrage over Trans Visibilty Day falling on Easter Sunday.
Also on the immigration front, Trump shamelessly exploited the murder of a young Michigan woman yesterday as he used her death to criticise Joe Biden’s border policies – and didn’t even have the decency to get the details right.
In his speech on Tuesday afternoon in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the former president invoked 25-year-old Ruby Garcia. Law enforcement officials say Garcia was murdered by Brandon Ortiz-Vite, also 25, a man from Mexico with whom she was romantically involved.
Speaking about Garcia’s death, Trump incorrectly told his supporters: “On 22 March, [Ortiz-Vite] shot 17-year-old Ruby, actually, she was a beautiful, beautiful young woman. Ruby Garcia was shot multiple times.”
Mike Bedigan has more.
The former president told supporters at a rally in Michigan on Tuesday that 25-year-old Ruby Garcia was 17
The Republican presidential candidate claimed he had been indicted more times than the infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone during his rally in Wisconsin.
“I got indicted more than Alphonse Capone – ‘Scarface’, you know,” he said, clearly relishing the comparison.
“Bad, he was you know… if you ever looked at Alphonse Capone, you wouldn’t be tough at all. You’d be dead by the morning most likely. I got indicted more than Alphonse.
“Alphonse was a tough man. They did a movie called Scarface check it out.”
At least he’s right on that last point – but go for the 1932 version with Edward G Robinson.
Donald Trump pointedly repeated his controversial “bloodbath” rhetoric as he returned to the campaign trail in Wisconsin on Tuesday, where he attacked President Joe Biden on everything from his border policies to his golfing ability.
The former president previously accused the media of willfully misinterpreting his words after he used the violent expression to predict dire economic consequences for an American automotive industry under pressure from China should he lose November’s election.
Speaking a the rally in Green Bay, Mr Trump said: “I’m here tonight to declare that Joe Biden’s border bloodbath – remember they used the name bloodbath, I was talking about something entirely different – but this is a border bloodbath ends the day I take the oath of office.”
“With your vote, I will seal the border I will stop the invasion I will end the carnage, bloodshed and killing and we will crush the human traffickers.”
That was not the only worry rhetoric he served up yesterday.
He also said the country would “cease to exist” if he lost in November and scaremongered about “illegal aliens” breaking into people’s homes, also calling them “animals” and warning the US Treasury would be “raped, plundered, and robbed bare”.
Honestly, he’s a sick man.
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Donald Trump in Grand Rapids, Michigan
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