Donald Trump Impeachment

Trump's lawyers urge judge to drop his hush money criminal conviction

President-elect Donald Trump's lawyers formally asked a judge Monday to throw out his hush money criminal conviction, arguing continuing the case would present unconstitutional disruptions to the institution of the Presidency. In a filing made public Tuesday, Trump's lawyers told Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that dismissal is warranted because of the extraordinary circumstances of his impending return to the White House. Wrongly continuing proceedings in this failed lawfare case disrupts President Trump's transition efforts, the attorneys continued, before citing the overwhelming national mandate granted to him by the American people on November 5, 2024. Prosecutors will have until Dec. 9 to respond. They have said they will fight any efforts to dismiss the case but have indicated openness to delaying sentencing until after Trump's second term ends in 2029. Following Trump's election victory last month, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed his sentencing, ...

US Election 2024: The fate of Trump's legal cases if he wins or losses

The outcome of the US election could reshape Donald Trump's legal battles. Can he govern from prison or will his cases be dismissed? A look at the link between his politics and legal issues

Marine accused of Nazi salute during Capitol riot gets almost 5 yrs of jail

A Marine who stormed the US Capitol and apparently flashed a Nazi salute in front of the building was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison. Tyler Bradley Dykes, of South Carolina, was an active-duty Marine when he grabbed a police riot shield from the hands of two police officers and used it to push his way through police lines during the attack by the mob of then-President Donald Trump's supporters on January 6, 2021. Dykes, who pleaded guilty in April to assault charges, previously was convicted of a crime stemming from the 2017 white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dykes was transferred to federal custody in 2023 after he served a six-month sentence in a state prison. US District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced Dykes, who's 26, to four years and nine months of imprisonment, the Justice Department said. Federal prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of five years and three months for Dykes. He directly contributed to some of the

Planning for potential transition underway as Biden admin kicks it off

President Joe Biden's administration on Friday formally began planning for a potential presidential transition, aiming to ensure continuity of government no matter the outcome of November's general election. Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent memos to all executive departments and agencies, directing them to name a point person for transition planning by May 3. It's the routine first step in congressionally mandated preparedness for presidential transitions. Next week, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients who also chaired Biden's 2020 transition effort will lead the first meeting of the White House Transition Coordinating Council, which consists of senior White House policy, national security and management officials, as required by the Presidential Transition Act. The act provides federal support for major party candidates to prepare to govern so that they can have personnel in place to take policy actions on their first day in ...

Prez Biden surpasses Trump's record for blacklisting chinese entities

In February, the US added eight companies to the entity list, quietly taking Biden past Trump's record, with six more added this week

Donald Trump 2020 election case: I'm not on trial, says Fani Willis

For roughly two hours, Willis then fought for her professional reputation and the historic case she brought against the former president seeking a return to the White House

Prez Biden forms task force to avoid mishandling of classified documents

President Joe Biden on Monday launched a task force aimed at addressing the "systemic" problem of mishandling classified information during presidential transitions, days after a Justice Department special counsel's sharply critical report said he had done just that. The Presidential Records Transition Task Force will study past transitions to determine best practices for safeguarding classified information from an outgoing administration, the White House said. It will also assess the need for changes to existing policies and procedures to prevent the removal of sensitive information that by law should be kept with the National Archives and Records Administration. The report from special counsel Robert Hur listed dozens of sensitive documents found at Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at his former Washington office. The papers were marked as classified or later assessed to contain classified information. The majority of the documents, Hur's report stated, appeared to have

Trump spent $76 mn over last 2 years on attorneys as legal troubles mount

Donald Trump's storied business career is checkered by bankruptcies and blunders. His investment in Eli Bartov, a New York University accounting professor, looms as another failed venture. Trump's Save America political action committee paid Bartov nearly USD 930,000 last year as an expert witness in the New York attorney general's civil fraud case that threatens the former president's real estate empire, according to new Federal Election Commission filings. Bartov bombed. New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron declared in December the professor's testimony proved only that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say. An Associated Press analysis of new Federal Election Commission filings shows the payments to Bartov are among USD 54 million in legal expenditures made last year by Trump's political fundraising machine. The spending came as Trump has been battling multiple lawsuits and dozens of felony charges in four criminal cases. Save .

New York court orders Trump to pay $83.3 million for defaming Carroll

Trump wasn't in the courtroom for the verdict. A few minutes after it was announced, he continued to fight back on social media

Donald Trump suggests Nikki Haley out of running for VP pick as insults fly

Haley served as UN ambassador under Trump and the two fell out after she announced that she would run for the Republican nomination

Trump barred from GOP primary in 2 states. Can he still run for prez?

First, Colorado's Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump wasn't eligible to run for his old job in that state. Then, Maine's Democratic secretary of state ruled the same for her state. Who's next? Both decisions are historic. The Colorado court was the first court to apply to a presidential candidate a rarely used constitutional ban against those who engaged in insurrection. Maine's secretary of state was the first top election official to unilaterally strike a presidential candidate from the ballot under that provision. But both decisions are on hold while the legal process plays out. That means that Trump remains on the ballot in Colorado and Maine and that his political fate is now in the hands of the US Supreme Court. The Maine ruling will likely never take effect on its own. Its central impact is increasing pressure on the nation's highest court to say clearly: Can Trump still run for president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol? WHAT'S THE LEGA

New Mexico's major parties prepare for June presidential primary ballot

New Mexico's major political parties are scheduled to certify presidential contenders to appear on the state's June 4 primary ballot, amid uncertainty about whether Donald Trump can be barred from contention by any state under anti-insurrection provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Party-certified presidential candidates will be vetted in February by the New Mexico secretary of state's office to ensure they meet administrative requirements to run for the office. New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said she won't exclude candidates that meet administrative requirements unless a court with jurisdiction intervenes. The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday barred Trump from the state's ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone from holding office who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection against it. It's the first time in history the provision has been used to prohibit someone from running for the

Nikki Haley, Ramaswamy oppose court decision barring Trump from presidency

Indian-American presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday opposed the Colorado Supreme Court decision to disqualify Donald Trump from the presidency next year in the state because of his role in the attack on the US Capitol in 2021. The disqualification of the 77-year-old former president on Tuesday was based on the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which says officials who take an oath to support the US Constitution are banned from future office if they "engaged in insurrection." Trump is currently the front-runner in the Republican Party's nomination process for the race for the White House in 2024. Responding to Trump's disqualification, two-term former South Carolina Governor and a rival to Trump in the Republican primaries, Haley, said that "the last thing we want" is judges deciding who can and cannot be on the presidential ballot. "I will tell you that I don't think Donald Trump needs to be president. I think I need to be president. I think that's goo

Donald Trump's 'presidential immunity' argument denied in defamation suit

A federal appeals court has ruled that former President Donald Trump gave up his right to argue that presidential immunity protects him from being held liable for statements he made in 2019 when he denied that he raped advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. A three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Wednesday upheld a lower court's ruling that Trump had effectively waived the immunity defense by not raising it when Carroll first filed a defamation lawsuit against him four years ago. Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said in an emailed statement that the ruling was fundamentally flawed and that the former president's legal team would be immediately appealing to the US Supreme Court. Roberta Robbie Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, said the ruling allows the case to move forward with a trial next month. We are pleased that the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Kaplan's rulings and that we can now move forward with trial next month on January 16, she said in an email

US election: Trump energises campaign after Colorado ballot case win

Former President Donald Trump celebrated a win in a closely watched election case during a return visit to Iowa Saturday, where he blasted his political foes and encouraged his supporters to not move past their grievances with President Joe Biden. A Colorado judge Friday rejected an effort to keep the GOP front-runner off the state's primary ballot, concluding that Trump had engaged in insurrection during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol but that it was unclear whether a Civil War-era constitutional amendment barring insurrectionists from public office applied to the presidency. It was Trump's latest win following rulings in similar cases in Minnesota and Michigan. Trump, campaigning in west-central Iowa, called the decision "a gigantic court victory" as he panned what he called "an outrageous attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters by getting us thrown off the ballot." "Our opponents are showing every day that they hate democracy," he charged before a crowd of abo

Donald Trump to be questioned under oath in lawsuits from ex-FBI employees

Donald Trump is scheduled to be questioned under oath Tuesday as part of lawsuits from two former FBI employees who provoked the former president's outrage after sending each other pejorative text messages about him. Peter Strzok, who was a lead agent in the FBI's investigation into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign, has alleged in a lawsuit against the Justice Department that he was wrongfully fired for exercising his First Amendment rights when he and a colleague traded anti-Trump text messages in the weeks before he became president. Lisa Page, the FBI lawyer who texted with Strzok and had also been assigned to the Russia investigation, has sued as well, alleging that the Justice Department violated her privacy by disclosing copies of her messages with Strzok to members of the news media. She voluntarily resigned from the FBI in May 2018, and Strzok was fired several months after that. Both allege that the Justice Department acted under unrelenting pressure from ...

Donald Trump's mug shot made public after surrender at Atlanta jail

In the photo, Trump casts a stern look in the direction of the camera. All of the other defendants in the case that have been booked, including Rudy Giuliani, have had their mug shots taken

Donald Trump surrenders in Georgia on 2020 election probe charges

Trump's latest criminal booking is another milestone for the former president as he seeks to return to the White House in the 2024 elections

Trump to surrender at Georgia jail on charges to overturn 2020 election

Donald Trump is set to surrender Thursday to authorities in Georgia on charges that he schemed to overturn the 2020 election in that state, a booking process expected to yield a historic first: a mug shot of a former American president. Trump's arrival follows a presidential debate featuring his leading rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination, a contest in which he remains the leading candidate despite accelerating legal troubles. His presence in the state, though likely brief, is expected to swipe the spotlight at least temporarily from his opponents in the aftermath of a debate in which other candidates sought to seize on Trump's absence to elevate their own presidential prospects. The Fulton County prosecution is the fourth criminal case against Trump since March, when he became the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted. Since then, he's faced federal charges in Florida and Washington and, this month, was indicted in Atlanta with 18 others including his ex-chief

You'll make US less safe: Haley to Ramaswamy at Republican Party's debate

Indian-American US presidential aspirants Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy clashed during the Republican Party's maiden presidential primary debate over foreign policy issues, with the former South Carolina Governor criticising her rival and entrepreneur for lacking foreign policy experience and supporting Russia. Haley, 51, and Ramaswamy, 38, have been clashing over foreign policy issues over the past few days on social media. During the debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, Haley accused Ramaswamy of supporting America's foreign adversaries and abandoning its friends after he said he would not support Ukraine in the war against Russia. Form Standing next to him, Haley, the former US Ambassador to the UN, slammed her fellow Indian-American that he is taking the side of a murderer Russian president and said that the US would be unsafe under his presidency. He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to go and stop funding Israel, Haley sai