Trump fined $10k after violating fraud trial gag order: Latest

A federal judicial panel has determined that its hands are tied following requests from member of Congress and news organisations to televise Donald Trump’s upcoming federal trials.

The Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules determined that it has no ability to change existing bands on broadcasting federal criminal trials, as the former president faces cases surrounding his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his hoarding of sensitive White House documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Even if the panel were able to change the rules, they could not go into effect for several years, Politico reported.

Trump’s criminal trial in Georgia, however, will be carried live by the courts and news outlets.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump launched a series of attacks against the judge overseeing his fraud trial, the attorney general suing him, the witness testifying against him, and a reporter who wrote about Trump’s last two days in court.

He claimed Michael Cohen was “chocking [sic] like a dog” on the witness stand and “broke down” in court.

What actually happened in court: Cohen testified that he was “tasked by Mr Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected” for his statements of financial condition, the documents at the centre of the case.

Cohen and convicted former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg were instructed to “reverse engineer the various different asset classes – increase those assets – in order to achieve the number that Mr Trump had tasked us with,” Cohen said.

Asked by counsel for the attorney general’s office what that number was, Cohen replied: “Whatever number Mr Trump told us to.”

Under cross examination from Trump’s attorneys, Cohen agreed that Trump never asked him to “inflate” those figures, but that Trump’s commands were implicit rather than explicit.

“Donald Trump speaks like a mob boss,” Cohen testified. “He tells you what he wants without specifically telling you … That’s what I was referring to.”

Trump also was called to the witness stand to testify – about his out-of-court insults – and he was fined $10,000 for violating a gag order in the case.

“When did I break down?” Cohen wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Is he referring to me laughing at him and his minion of moron lawyers? In fact, Judge Engoron stated ‘I do not find you (Trump) credible’. Meaning…Donald, you’re a f***** liar and perjurer as you were under oath!”

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson was instrumental in a Republican-led campaign to keep Donald Trump in the White House after losing the 2020 election.

The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander explains how the man who is now leading the House GOP and is second in line for the presidency pushed the same debunked conspiracy theories that are at the centre of several criminal investigations, lawsuits and a riot in the halls of Congress.

Jenna Ellis is the fourth of 19 defendants to plead guilty in the sprawling election interference case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Other former Trumpworld attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro took plea deals last week, just days before their trial was due to start in Atlanta.

The newly minted cooperating witnesses in Georgia’s sweeping criminal case targeting Trump and a dozen others could pose a significant legal threat to the former president as he enters several criminal and civil proceedings while he campaigns for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Donald Trump is furious that the judge overseeing his fraud trial shot down his attorneys’ arguments to rule in the former president’s favour or dismiss the case against him.

He has posted about the case on his Truth Social four times today after he was sanctioned a second time for violating the trial’s gag order and then abruptly walked out of the court in the middle of his attorneys’ arguments in front of the judge.

In his latest tirade, he lashed out at Maggie Haberman with a barrage of insulting nicknames following her report on Mr Trump’s trial appearance for The New York Times.

He also falsely claimed that Michael Cohen was “chocking [sic] like a dog” on the witness stand.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen called the former president a “defeated man” after offering two days’ worth of testimony in a New York state fraud trial.

“I saw somebody that knows that it’s the end of the Trump Organization,” he told reporters outside the court on Wednesday. “Already found guilty of fraud, the license will ultimately be taken, and now this entire case is merely about how much.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee will hold a hearing on 1 December over Donald Trump’s attempts to dismiss the state’s election interference case against him.

The former president faces 13 criminal counts, including a charge under the state’s anti-racketeering statute. He has pleaded not guilty.

Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman shared his thoughts about Donald Trump’s influence, and lack thereof, in the weeks-long race for House Speaker.

It appears that Trump took a Sharpie to a printed-out version of Sherman’s post, added his thoughts and “corrections” that give him more credit for his role in the fight, and then gave it to Marjorie Taylor Greene to post on X, formerly Twitter, on his behalf.

“Better luck next time, Jake,” Trump wrote, just above his signature.

Greene told him to “get your story straight”.

“So, to reiterate, [Trump] endorsed Jordan. Jordan lost,” Sherman wrote. “Emmer was down 26 votes before Trump came out against him. Trump probably helped sink [Emmer]. Fair. He endorsed [Banks] for leadership. Banks lost.”

In a written order against Donald Trump after finding that he violated the court’s gag order in the civil fraud trial, Judge Arther Engoron wrote that the former president’s testimony in his defense of the statements he made outside the courtroom “rings hollow and untrue”.

In statements steps outside the courtroom on Wednesday, Trump criticised the “very partisan judge” and “a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside of him,” what the judge determined was a comment aimed at his chief clerk.

Trump was fined $10,000 for comments that he claimed to the judge under oath were about Michael Cohen. The judge did not find his testimony credible.

“The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘alongside’ as ‘close to the side of; next to.’ Witnesses do not sit ‘alongside’ the judge, they sit in the witness box, separated from the judge by a low wooden barrier,” the judge wrote in a written version of his order posted publicly on Thursday.

“Further, Donald Trump’s past public statements demonstrate him referring to Michael Cohen directly by his name, or by a derogatory name, but in all circumstances, his in unambiguous in making it known he is referring to Michael Cohen,” he added.

“Moreover, the language Donald Trump used on October 25 mirrors the language he used in public statements to the press on October 2, wherein he inappropriately and unquestionably spoke about my Principal Law Clerk,” the judge wrote.

“Using imprecise language as an excuse to create plausible ambiguity about whether the defendant violated this court’s unequivocal gag order is not a defense; the subject of Donald Trump’s statements in the press was unmistakably clear.”

He wrote that Trump “intentionally violated the gag order” and ordered Trump to post a proof of payment of the latest fine as well as the one imposed last week within two days of making them.

Skylar Baker-Jordan writes how Mike Johnson is “a prime example of the Republican Party’s dysfunction”: