Tag: Judge Juan Merchan

Mar-a-Lago Case Dismissal Could Spell the End of Smith’s D.C. Prosecution and Anti-Trump Lawfare

Just the News
Mar-a-Lago Documents

After surviving an assassination attempt over the weekend, Trump began the week with good news in the form of Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing special counsel Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago case against him in a seismic ruling that could spell the end of his federal legal woes and build on his existing momentum in the national spotlight.

Smith had charged Trump in connection with his storage and retention of materials at his Mar-a-Lago estate, which the FBI raided in August of 2022. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in late 2022 to pursue the case and he brought an initial indictment in 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty though Smith in July of that year brought a superseding indictment with additional charges. The former president has long maintained he was innocent of any wrongdoing and that the case was part of a broader political witch hunt designed to derail his 2024 bid for the White House.

Read the full story

Trump Moves to Reverse Verdict in New York Case After Historic Supreme Court Ruling

Just the News

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers moved quickly Monday night to take advantage of the Supreme Court ruling that he enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, sending a letter notifying the judge in his New York hush money case that they intend to ask to set aside the verdict reached by a jury last month, according to multiple sources.

Read the full story

Alvin Bragg Wants Trump to Stay Under Gag Order Even After Conviction

Admin
Alvin Bragg and Donald Trump in a courtroom (composite image)

Democratic Manhattan District Alvin Bragg’s office defended on Wednesday keeping former President Donald Trump under his gag order, requesting that it stay in place at least through Trump’s sentencing hearing in late July and any post-trial motions.

Trump attorney’s asked Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday to lift the order, writing in a letter that the “concerns articulated by the government and the Court do not justify restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump” now that the trial has concluded. Prosecutors disagreed, responding that the order was intended to protect more than just the trial proceedings.

Read the full story

‘Give Us The Documents’: Tempers Flare as Matt Gaetz Grills Garland on Biden DOJ ‘Collusion’ with Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis

Admin
Attorney General Merrick Garland

Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz hammered Attorney General Merrick Garland Tuesday for calling claims that the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) directed former President Donald Trump’s conviction a “conspiracy theory,” but refusing to say whether he would turn over the department’s communications with prosecutors.

During his opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearing, Garland slammed “baseless” attacks on the DOJ’s work, specifically calling out “false claims” about the DOJ’s involvement in Trump’s Manhattan case, which ended last week with a jury convicting Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Gaetz pressed Garland on whether the DOJ would turn over communications with Bragg’s office, as well as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia James, noting Garland was making the case for collusion appear stronger by not answering the question.

Read the full story

Trump Speaks as Jury Deliberates: ‘Mother Teresa Could Not Beat These Charges’

Just the News

Former President Trump addressed the media on Wednesday as the jury in his hush money trial deliberates. “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged. The whole country’s a mess between the borders and fake elections and you have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted he can’t breathe,” Trump said outside of the courtroom in New York. “It’s a disgrace and I mean that. Mother Teresa could not beat those charges but we’ll see how we do.”

Read the full story

Former Biden DOJ Official Prosecuting Trump Received Thousands of Dollars From DNC

Admin
Matthew Colangelo

The lead prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump received thousands of dollars from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2018, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

Matthew Colangelo, who was President Joe Biden’s acting associate attorney general and spent two years in the current president’s Department of Justice (DOJ), joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as senior counsel in December 2022. The lawyer received $12,000 from the DNC in 2018 for “political consulting” in two payments of $6,000 on Jan. 31 of that year, FEC records show.

Read the full story

Judge Merchan Uses Trump’s Interview with John Fredericks to Declare Former President in Contempt of Court

Tom Pappert
Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump was held in contempt on Monday by New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan over remarks the former president made on April 22 to radio and television host John Fredericks during an appearance on Outside the Beltway.

Merchan previously gagged Trump with an order preventing him from discussing prosecutors, witnesses, jurors or the judge, with the fines and potential jail time listed as potential repercussions.

Read the full story

Julie Kelly Commentary: Ties Between Judge Merchan’s ‘Child’ and Adam Schiff Represent Major Conflict in Hush Money Trial

Julie Kelly
Loren Merchan

At the end of 2019, Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was leading the first impeachment effort against President Donald Trump.

After months of making accusations and conducting Congressional inquiries related to Trump’s July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—a conversation Democrats described as a “quid pro quo” attempting to trade military aid for an investigation into the Biden family’s corrupt business deals—Schiff and six other Democrats delivered articles of impeachment to the Senate in January 2020.

Read the full story