Trump wants the judge overseeing his RICO case against Hillary Clinton to recuse himself because he was appointed by Bill Clinton
It's exceedingly rare for courts to grant motions seeking the recusal of judges based on the party of the president who nominated them. Former President Donald Trump has asked for the judge overseeing his RICO case against Hillary Clinton to be disqualified because he was appointed by then President Bill Clinton. Trump sued Hillary Clinton last month, accusing her — and several other defendants linked to her 2016 campaign, the Democratic Party, the DOJ, and the FBI — of carrying out an "unthinkable plot" to tie his 2016 campaign to the Russian government.
A Capitol rioter's defense lawyer called Trump an "evil and sinister man" responsible for January 6.
Federal prosecutors stressed that Trump was unable to authorize the Capitol attack or make it legal.
Dustin Thompson's defense strategy aims to undercut charges he acted "corruptly" on January 6.
An accused Capitol rioter's defense lawyer on Thursday referred to former President Donald Trump as a "gangster" who bears responsibility for whipping up the crowd of supporters that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In a closing argument at the trial of accused rioter Dustin Thompson, the defense lawyer Samuel Shamansky punctuated his argument that Trump manipulated his supporters on January 6 and deserved blame for the violence at the Capitol that day.
Trump was repeatedly introduced as the '45th and 47th president' during a party at his Mar-a-Lago club
Trump suggested several times on Tuesday evening that he may run again in 2024, according to a new Washington Post report. On Tuesday night at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, the former president and his top Republican allies and donors gathered for a screening of a film titled "Rigged: The Zuckerberg Funded Plot to Defeat Donald Trump," produced by Trump ally David Bossie, the president of conservative advocacy organization Citizens United.
"You had, frankly, a gangster who was in power," Shamansky said.
In another apparent reference to Trump, Shamansky said the Capitol attack was coordinated by an "evil and sinister man who would stop at nothing to get his way on January 6."
Shamansky's closing argument came a day after Thompson, 38, took the stand in his own defense against charges that he obstructed Congress' certification of the 2020 election results and stole a coat tree from a Senate office. Thompson was preceded on the witness stand by his wife, Sarah Thompson, who testified that her husband had spent much of 2020 unemployed, isolated amid pandemic restrictions, and watching "conspiracy theory-type videos" online.
2022 is shaping up to be a legal nightmare for Trumpworld. Here's a timeline of upcoming court cases and legal obstacles.
Donald Trump and his allies are facing a flurry of legal challenges this year.
Investigations into his company's finances are ongoing, along with others related to January 6.
Here are the dates to watch out for this year.
Former President Donald Trump has had a number of surprising legal victories ever since he left the White House — though his greatest potential battles are still looming.
House holds Trump aides Peter Navarro, Dan Scavino in contempt for defying Jan. 6 subpoenas
The Justice Department is prosecuting former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and considering charging former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. But members of the House committee investigating the attack, which is authorized to complete its work this year, have voiced impatience with the department’s pace. Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to comment Wednesday on the Jan. 6 investigation. But he said in Meadows' case, federal prosecutors in D.C. would "follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. We don't comment any further on investigations.
In November, Summer Zervos, who had accused Trump of sexual assault following her appearance on "The Apprentice," dropped her lawsuit against him before he was forced to sit for a deposition. At around the same time, a New York state judge dismissed a lawsuit from Michael Cohen seeking to have the Trump Organization reimburse his legal fees for work he did on Trump's behalf.
But greater dangers loom. The Trump Organization is the subject of a sprawling investigation from the Manhattan district attorney's office and the New York attorney general's office into alleged financial misconduct.
In Atlanta, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is weighing charges over his conduct in the 2020 election. Those investigations are proceeding as the Justice Department comes up on the five-year deadline to prosecute Trump over acts of possible obstruction that former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III scrutinized as part of his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
Can Congress get your phone records? Jan. 6 lawsuits aim to find out
More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed against the House Jan. 6 committee, which is probing the Capitol riot, to block phone record subpoenas.No one knows for sure, not least because the question hasn’t been tested in court – until now. The question is at the heart of a dozen federal lawsuits against the House Jan. 6 committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is sending a steady stream of Trump's White House records to the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. And Trump — along with many of his allies — face federal investigations and lawsuits stemming from the January 6 insurrection. Expect the judges in those cases to set court dates later this year.
While Trump mulls whether to run for president again in 2024, 2022 is shaping up to be a year of legal headaches for the former president and his associates. Here's a timeline of the threats Trumpworld faces.
April 15 — The Trump Organization is required to meet this deadline to hand over a batch of outstanding discovery documents to the New York Attorney General's office for its investigation into potential financial misconduct.
April 20 — For the same case brought by the New York Attorney General's office, the Trump Organization needs to give the judge a progress report on how it's complying with subpoenas for other documents.
A Trump-appointed federal judge acquits a defense contractor accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6
Matthew Martin, a federal defense contractor with security clearance, was found not guilty by a federal judge appointed by Trump. Martin is the first January 6 defendant to be fully acquitted at trial. A US District Court judge acquitted a defense contractor accused of illegally entering the Capitol on January 6, 2021.US District Judge Trevor N.
April 25 — Judge Arthur Engoron, who's overseeing the subpoena case between the New York Attorney General's office and Trump's company, is scheduled to hold a hearing to make sure all his orders have been complied with.
May 2 — Jury selection is scheduled to begin in a trial regarding a civil lawsuit brought by a group of protesters against the Trump Organization. The protesters sued in 2015, alleging the company's security guards roughed them up during a demonstration outside Trump Tower. A video of a deposition Trump was forced to take this past fall is expected to be shown at the trial as evidence.
May 2 — A special grand jury for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation into Trump will be empaneled on May 2 and continue for up to 12 months. This announcement on Monday comes after Willis formally requested to have a special grand jury that would give her the subpoena power to obtain documents and compel witnesses to testify.
May 6 — Federal prosecutors need to meet this deadline to respond to Stephen Bannon's motion to dismiss the charges against him for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the House of Representatives January 6 Committee. After allowing Bannon to respond, the judge is expected to rule whether the charges can stick and when to set a trial.
Proud Boys member Charles Donohoe pleads guilty to conspiracy, assaulting police in Jan. 6 Capitol attack
Donohoe is one of nearly 800 people charged in connection with the attack that injured 140 police officers and paused the Electoral College count.Donohoe, 34, of Kernersville, North Carolina, faces up to 28 years in prison and a $500,000 fine when he is sentenced, but federal guidelines call for about six or seven years in prison. He also agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in the cases against fellow defendants including Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.
May 10 — Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is scheduled to give a deposition for a lawsuit brought by a group of people who say the Trump Organization pushed an alleged pyramid scheme.
May 12 — Eric Trump is scheduled to give his own deposition for the same lawsuit. Ivanka Trump will also be required to testify, though her deposition date hasn't yet been finalized. Their father is set to testify the following month.
May 13 — A federal judge has ordered the government to provide a status report on the cooperation of Joel Greenberg, a former Gaetz associate who has pleaded guilty to federal sex trafficking charges.
Greenberg could potentially be a key witness in the Justice Department investigation into Gaetz, one of Trump's most loyal supporters. He'd been scheduled to be sentenced in March but his attorney requested a delay while his client continues to answer federal investigators' questions.
May 20 — The Manhattan District Attorney's office has until this date to respond to motions from the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg to dismiss the criminal charges against them. It'll be an opportunity to lay down any new evidence they've gathered since filing the indictment last July, as well as to dispel reports that the investigation is faltering.
June — Willis told the Associated Press in January that she is expecting to decide whether to charge Trump in Fulton County, Georgia, by the first half of 2022.
June 16 — Two days after his birthday, Trump is scheduled to sit for his deposition in the lawsuit brought by plaintiffs alleging the Trump Organization pushed a pyramid scheme. As Insider's Yelena Dzhanova reported, they sued after saying they lost thousands of dollars from joining a company called ACN and trying to sell its telephones with video capabilities.
Blame Trump: An accused Capitol rioter wants jurors to pin January 6 on the former president
"You're not a child, right?" a federal prosecutor asked, undercutting the defense strategy of blaming Donald Trump for the January 6 Capitol attack.On Wednesday, the accused Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson took the witness stand in his own defense and testified before jurors that he was "following presidential orders" on January 6. He also said he'd been swept up in the spirit of the pro-Trump crowd after nearly a year of isolation and unemployment caused by COVID-19.
June 29 — Litigants will get to see a copy of Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice" tapes. June 29 marks the deadline of discovery for the ACN case. While Trump, in "Celebrity Apprentice," vouched for the ACN Videophone, litigants are trying to figure out if other footage shot for the show demonstrated otherwise. ACN lost an attempt to bring the case to arbitration, and a jury trial is expected to be scheduled for late 2022 or 2023.
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July
July 7 — Prosecutors and Roger Stone, one of Trump's longtime political advisors, have to meet this deadline for a civil case in which the US Attorney's Office in Florida alleged Stone failed to pay $2 million in unpaid taxes, interest, and penalties.
July 12 — The New York State Supreme Court will hold a hearing in the Manhattan District Attorney's criminal case against the Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg, who's become more marginalized within the company following the indictment from last July.
The status conference is expected to update the public on how Trump Organization lawyers are reviewing the 6 million pages of discovery material for the case, in which the Manhattan District Attorney's office alleges the company and executive dodged millions of dollars in taxes. The judge has also signaled he wants to hold a trial before the end of 2022.
July 18 — Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, is expected to go on trial in Washington, D.C. Bannon is facing two criminal charges over defying a congressional subpoena. The Justice Department formally charged him in November 2021 after he refused to comply with a subpoena handed down from the House Select Committee that is investigating the January 6 riot.
September 7 — Tom Barrack, the chairman of Trump's 2017 inaugural committee, is set to stand trial in September on charges he secretly acted as an agent of the United Arab Emirates.
Capitol Rioter Who Said Trump 'Ordered' Him May Face 20 Years
A jury found Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson guilty of felony obstruction of Congress and five other charges on Thursday.Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson, 38, could face 20 years in prison after being convicted by a jury in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Thompson was captured in surveillance images taken inside the Capitol while carrying a coat rack and a bottle of bourbon that he had stolen from the Senate Parliamentarian's Office, according to Law & Crime.
Barrack was charged in July with using his access to Trump to advance the United Arab Emirates' foreign-policy goals and later misleading federal investigators about his activities in a 2019 interview.
The indictment of the top Trump fundraiser marked an escalation of the Justice Department's crackdown in recent years on covert foreign influence.
Barrack's legal team is headlined by Daniel Petrocelli, a partner at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers who previously represented Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and, more recently, defended AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner Inc. against a Justice Department antitrust challenge.
September 26 — The Trump Organization and Donald Trump's 2016 inaugural fund are expected to go to trial for a lawsuit brought by Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine alleging they misused nonprofit funds. A precise trial date has not been set.
In November, Trump notched a partial win when the judge dismissed part of the suit, but other elements of the case — such as the attorney general's claim that the committee illegally misused funds — will be moving forward. But on February 15, another judge reversed that decision, reinstating the Trump Organization as a defendant.
November 7 — Trump's longtime political advisor Roger Stone is scheduled to go to trial in federal court in Florida over allegations that he failed to pay $2 million in taxes, as well as interest and penalties for the unpaid sum.
On the witness stand, Dustin Thompson said he felt he was following "presidential orders" when he advanced on the Capitol on January 6. Thompson testified that he came to believe in 2020 that, if Trump didn't win the election, "it was gonna be stolen."
In March of that year — just months after marrying his wife on New Year's Day — he lost his job as an exterminator as COVID-19 caused mass layoffs.
"It was just an awful year," he recalled. "It's not good to be isolated like I was."
In an indictment last year, prosecutors alleged that Thompson traveled from Ohio to Washington, DC, to attend a Trump rally on January 6. After Trump's speech, he walked to the Capitol, where he entered the Senate parliamentarian's office and stole a bottle of liquor and a wooden coat tree, prosecutors alleged.
Later on January 6, Thomspon ran away from law enforcement officials who approached him near the Capitol out of fear that he would be arrested.
Video: Republicans recommit to Trump after blaming him for the Capitol attack (The Washington Post)
Shamansky on Thursday urged jurors to sympathize with Thompson and consider his state of mind on January 6.
"The vulnerable are seduced by the strong," the defense lawyer said. "That's what happened."
In his own closing argument, federal prosecutor William Dreher called the defense strategy a "sideshow" and told jurors to hold Thompson accountable for his actions regardless of how they feel about Trump's responsibility for January 6.
"President Trump did not hold his hand as he walked down to the Capitol to loot and defile the Senate parliamentarian's office," Dreher said.
Dreher said the jurors did not "have to choose" between Trump and Thompson "because this is not President Trump's criminal trial."
"This is the trial of Dustin Thompson," he added.
"It is not up to you to decide whether anyone other than the defendant should be prosecuted for any of the crimes charged."
Thompson's trial has played out as a test of sorts for the strategy of shifting blame onto Trump.
In two previous jury trials, defense lawyers disputed at least some facets of the Justice Department's case. Shamansky, for his part, has done little to dispute the Justice Department's telling of Thompson's actions on January 6, choosing instead to pin responsibility on Trump.
In the aftermath of January 6, Democratic lawmakers and police officers have filed civil lawsuits alleging that Trump and his political allies, including Rudy Giuliani, incited the crowd that later stormed the Capitol. In court filings, others facing criminal charges in connection with January 6 have claimed that they were acting at Trump's direction, but judges have largely rejected that argument.
But, in Thompson's case, that argument is now before a jury.
Before sending them into deliberations, Judge Reggie Walton instructed jurors that Trump and his political allies lacked the ability to authorize the Capitol attack or make it legal.
Dreher emphasized in his closing argument Thursday that "President Trump could not make that legal."
"When the proof is overwhelming, and the defense doesn't make sense, your job as the jury is very easy," he said.
The jury began deliberations early Thursday afternoon. A verdict could come within hours.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Capitol Rioter Who Said Trump 'Ordered' Him May Face 20 Years .
A jury found Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson guilty of felony obstruction of Congress and five other charges on Thursday.Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson, 38, could face 20 years in prison after being convicted by a jury in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Thompson was captured in surveillance images taken inside the Capitol while carrying a coat rack and a bottle of bourbon that he had stolen from the Senate Parliamentarian's Office, according to Law & Crime.
It's exceedingly rare for courts to grant motions seeking the recusal of judges based on the party of the president who nominated them. Former President Donald Trump has asked for the judge overseeing his RICO case against Hillary Clinton to be disqualified because he was appointed by then President Bill Clinton. Trump sued Hillary Clinton last month, accusing her — and several other defendants linked to her 2016 campaign, the Democratic Party, the DOJ, and the FBI — of carrying out an "unthinkable plot" to tie his 2016 campaign to the Russian government. 
Trump suggested several times on Tuesday evening that he may run again in 2024, according to a new Washington Post report. On Tuesday night at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, the former president and his top Republican allies and donors gathered for a screening of a film titled "Rigged: The Zuckerberg Funded Plot to Defeat Donald Trump," produced by Trump ally David Bossie, the president of conservative advocacy organization Citizens United. 
The Justice Department is prosecuting former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and considering charging former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. But members of the House committee investigating the attack, which is authorized to complete its work this year, have voiced impatience with the department’s pace. Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to comment Wednesday on the Jan. 6 investigation. But he said in Meadows' case, federal prosecutors in D.C. would "follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. We don't comment any further on investigations.
The Justice Department is prosecuting former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and considering charging former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. But members of the House committee investigating the attack, which is authorized to complete its work this year, have voiced impatience with the department’s pace. Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to comment Wednesday on the Jan. 6 investigation. But he said in Meadows' case, federal prosecutors in D.C. would "follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. We don't comment any further on investigations. 
More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed against the House Jan. 6 committee, which is probing the Capitol riot, to block phone record subpoenas.No one knows for sure, not least because the question hasn’t been tested in court – until now. The question is at the heart of a dozen federal lawsuits against the House Jan. 6 committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. 
Matthew Martin, a federal defense contractor with security clearance, was found not guilty by a federal judge appointed by Trump. Martin is the first January 6 defendant to be fully acquitted at trial. A US District Court judge acquitted a defense contractor accused of illegally entering the Capitol on January 6, 2021.US District Judge Trevor N. 
Donohoe is one of nearly 800 people charged in connection with the attack that injured 140 police officers and paused the Electoral College count.Donohoe, 34, of Kernersville, North Carolina, faces up to 28 years in prison and a $500,000 fine when he is sentenced, but federal guidelines call for about six or seven years in prison. He also agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in the cases against fellow defendants including Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. 
"You're not a child, right?" a federal prosecutor asked, undercutting the defense strategy of blaming Donald Trump for the January 6 Capitol attack.On Wednesday, the accused Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson took the witness stand in his own defense and testified before jurors that he was "following presidential orders" on January 6. He also said he'd been swept up in the spirit of the pro-Trump crowd after nearly a year of isolation and unemployment caused by COVID-19. 
A jury found Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson guilty of felony obstruction of Congress and five other charges on Thursday.Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson, 38, could face 20 years in prison after being convicted by a jury in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Thompson was captured in surveillance images taken inside the Capitol while carrying a coat rack and a bottle of bourbon that he had stolen from the Senate Parliamentarian's Office, according to Law & Crime. 
Trump wants the judge overseeing his RICO case against Hillary Clinton to... 
Trump was repeatedly introduced as the '45th and 47th president' during a... 
House holds Trump aides Peter Navarro, Dan Scavino in contempt for defying... 
Can Congress get your phone records? Jan. 6 lawsuits aim to find out 
A Trump-appointed federal judge acquits a defense contractor accused of... 
Proud Boys member Charles Donohoe pleads guilty to conspiracy, assaulting... 
Blame Trump: An accused Capitol rioter wants jurors to pin January 6 on the... 
Capitol Rioter Who Said Trump 'Ordered' Him May Face 20 Years