After an extended rant about the New York investigation into his business and personal finances, Donald Trump has promised to make a “big political speech” at his Miami gold blub today. The event appears to be a response to “fake news media” criticism of the lacklustre start to his 2024 campaign that has barely seen him leave Mar-a-Lago.
Mr Trump is also reportedly poised to return to Twitter as part of his 2024 campaign and representatives have petitioned Facebook parent Meta for his account on that platform to be reinstated, according to reporting by NBC News.
The former president also continues to sound off about the parallel investigations into the discovery of classified materials at Mar-a-Lago and classified documents at President Joe Biden’s home and an office he once used. In angery Truth Social posts he claims he did nothing wrong but Mr Biden did.
Meanwhile, an awkward error by Mr Trump in his deposition for the case brought against him by writer E Jean Carroll who accuses him of raping her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s may have undermined part of his defence strategy.
Trump to make ‘big political speech’ today at his golf club
Donald Trump says he will make a “big political speech” today at his Miami golf course, Trump Doral. He hits back at the “fake news media” for saying he is “not campaigning very hard”, calling them “stupid and corrupt”.
Mr Trump has barely left Mar-a-Lago since the lacklustre launch of his 2024 campaign on 15 November 2022, shortly after the midterms handed the Republican Party a disappointing marginal win in the House of Representatives and a loss in the Senate.
The former president promises “MANY GIANT RALLIES” and other events and that it will be “wild and exciting”.
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 14:30
Awkward moment in E Jean Carroll case as Trump may have undermined his defence
Donald Trump mistook writer E Jean Carroll, who has accused him of sexual assault, for his former wife Marla Maples when a photo was shown to him during a deposition, according to newly unsealed court documents.
The former president was shown a black-and-white photograph of a small group of people, including Mr Trump and Ms Carroll, as per an excerpt from a deposition that took place in October 2020 at Mar-a-Lago.
“That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife,” Mr Trump said, referring to his former wife. The blunder was corrected by his lawyer Alina Habba, who told him it was Ms Carroll and not Ms Maples.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar explains why this may have undermined a portion of his defence case.
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 15:05
Kushner warned Trump against going down rabbit hole of bogus election claims
Jared Kushner warned Donald Trump against listening to the outside lawyers he’d gathered around himself during his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, telling his father-in-law that his legal team was sending him on “a funky ride”.
Andrew Feinberg has the story.
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 14:55
What you missed on Truth Social overnight
Late last night Donald Trump posted another rant directed at former special assistant district attorney in the office of New York County Mark Pomerantz who was part of the investigation into the former president and his business.
Mr Pomerantz wrote a book about his involvement in the investigation of Mr Trump, The People vs. Donald Trump, which is due for release on 7 February 2023.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg wrote a letter to the publisher Simon & Schuster cautioning against the release of classified information related to the investigation, which he worried could derail their case.
On Truth Social, the former president wrote:
Page 1: Now I’ve got Crooked Hillary Clinton’s, the DNC’s, & a big possibly implicated bank’s lawyer, SleazeBag Mark Pomerantz, who (get this!) took leave from his Democrat representing law firm, with staff, & with the firm’s OK, to go work for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in order to “GET TRUMP.” This is all coordinated with the Federal Department of Injustice, who sent a top person to the D.A.’s Office to help the Witch Hunt get done. Marxist Persecution like never before in USA!
What followed was a strange overnight gap of approximately nine hours before “Page 2” was posted.
Page 2: So just think of this corrupt system! A SleazeBag lawyer that represents Crooked Hillary Clinton & the Democrat Party, leaves his law firm which represents the Democrat Party, moves into the Manhattan D.A.’s Office in order to GET TRUMP. The Injustice Department sends its big gun to work in the Office also to help destroy the leading, by a lot, Republican candidate for President. Record murder & violent crime is RAGING in N.Y., NOTHING IS DONE ABOUT it, people are fleeing, but GET TRUMP!
Shortly after that, a new post was published (not titled “Page 3”, but still on the same topic) in which the former president claimed that the reason for the renewed interest in the case was pressure from the “Fake News Media” and that Mr Bragg had previously abandoned what he saw as a weak case.
A short time ago the Manhattan D.A., Alvin Bragg, wanted no part of a case against me. He though it was weak & ridiculous, and most agreed-Prosecutors started leaving the Office. Now the Fake News Media is pushing him hard to do the wrong thing. They want some Trump ACTION, even if I did NOTHING WRONG. Crooked Hillary’s lawyer, a SleazeBag, finagled his way into working for the D.A., but after a year of pushing them hard, couldn’t make the case-Got fired. Now writing a book! All headed up by DC.
Stay tuned, there’re more…
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 14:20
Amid new hush money probe, Cohen meets with Trump prosecutors
Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, said he met for 2½ hours Tuesday with Manhattan prosecutors who have revived a years-old investigation into payments made to a porn star to keep her quiet about an alleged extramarital tryst.
Cohen said he had been “ordered not to disclose” any of the people present at the meeting or to discuss prosecutors’ area of interest in any detail.
Cohen meets Trump prosecutors amid renewed hush money probe
Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen says he met Tuesday for about 2½ hours with Manhattan prosecutors, who are again investigating hush money payments he made to a porn star who said she had an extramarital affair with the former president
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 14:09
Awkward video shows Trump ducking fan’s high five
Donald Trump has been captured on video awkwardly avoiding a high five after taking a photo with a group of supporters during what appears to be a round of golf at his private Florida club.
Lawyer Ron Filipkowski shared the footage on Twitter, in which the former president smiles for the camera and gives a thumbs up before climbing back into his golf cart, without high-fiving the supporter next to him, whose arm is grabbed by a man, preventing him from touching Mr Trump.
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 13:30
Trump to preside over memorial service for Diamond
Donald Trump has announced that he will preside over the memorial service for Diamond of the political vlogging duo Diamond and Silk.
“They were with me from the beginning and they never wavered,” Mr Trump said.
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 12:30
Lincoln Project battles MAGA narrative on Biden documents
In its efforts to fight the rot of political dialogue by equating the Biden and Trump documents cases, the anti-Trump conservative group The Lincoln Project lays out why they are different in a tweet thread this morning.
The group states that ultra-MAGA talking points are endangering the political conversation and that the media has a bad habit of normalising bogus narratives from the right-wing ecosystem.
“We’re fighting bothsidesism (bias that presents an issue as balanced even when the evidence doesn’t support it),” the group tweeted.
“The right-wing media trying to equate Biden’s handling of classified documents with Trump’s malintent rots the political dialogue – and one of the Lincoln Project’s missions is to stop it.”
Setting out the facts as they stand in an attempt to help people set the record straight, the tweet thread continues:
1. No intent: There is no evidence President Biden ever actively knew about these documents.
2. Zero Coverup: President Biden has made no bizarre claim to have retroactively declassified these documents with his mind (you know, like the insane Trump excuse).
3. Total Cooperation: President Biden has completely cooperated with the investigation from the onset, including fully accepting the newly appointed special counsel.
“Disinformation can come in many different forms, and even small equivocations can damage the long-term health of our democracy,” the group concludes before directing followers to previous content on how to battle the right-wing ecosystem.
Lincoln Project battles MAGA narrative on Biden documents
In its efforts to fight the rot of political dialogue by equating the Biden and Trump documents cases, the anti-Trump conservative group The Lincoln Project lays out why they are different in a tweet thread this morning.
The group states that ultra-MAGA talking points are endangering the political conversation and that the media has a bad habit of normalising bogus narratives from the right-wing ecosystem.
“We’re fighting bothsidesism (bias that presents an issue as balanced even when the evidence doesn’t support it),” the group tweeted.
“The right-wing media trying to equate Biden’s handling of classified documents with Trump’s malintent rots the political dialogue – and one of the Lincoln Project’s missions is to stop it.”
Setting out the facts as they stand in an attempt to help people set the record straight, the tweet thread continues:
1. No intent: There is no evidence President Biden ever actively knew about these documents.
2. Zero Coverup: President Biden has made no bizarre claim to have retroactively declassified these documents with his mind (you know, like the insane Trump excuse).
3. Total Cooperation: President Biden has completely cooperated with the investigation from the onset, including fully accepting the newly appointed special counsel.
“Disinformation can come in many different forms, and even small equivocations can damage the long-term health of our democracy,” the group concludes before directing followers to previous content on how to battle the right-wing ecosystem.
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 11:30
Kushner claims ‘knock-down, drag-out screaming matches’ with Trump over 2020 election schemes
Former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one-time White House adviser, Jared Kushner, has described heated confrontations with the then-president over his allegations of voter fraud and attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 election.
Mr Kushner recalls the “knock-down, drag-out screaming matches” with Mr Trump in author Chris Whipple’s new book The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, Mediaite reports.
“With all due respect, I’m not going to like what you are doing, and you’re going to be screaming at me,” Mr Kushner reportedly told his father-in-law while arguing about debunked claims of voter fraud.
“Look, when you’re out of here, a lot of people will scatter,” he reportedly yelled at Mr Trump, according to the book.
“I’m with you until you hit the dirt — so you may want to listen to what I’m saying,” Mr Kushner added.
Mr Kushner also warned Mr Trump that some of his election lawyers including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell were taking him “on a funky ride”.
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 10:30
Watch: Trump says China buying up ‘crown jewels’ of US economy in campaign-style video
Donald Trump has posted a campaign-style video to Truth Social about Chinese ownership of US economic interests.
He writes: “When I’m president, I will ensure that America’s future remains firmly in American hands, not in China’s. We need to enact aggressive new restrictions on Chinese ownership of any vital infrastructure in the United States, including energy, technology, telecommunications, farmland, natural resources, medical supplies, and other strategic national assets.”
Oliver O’Connell19 January 2023 09:00
