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Trump to Deliver ‘Policy’ Speeches as He Returns to DC, Weighs Timing of Expected Presidential Run Announcement: Reports

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Donald Trump is ramping up his political efforts, with a series of planned “policy” speeches and conversations with top GOP donors as he weighs the timing for an expected announcement he is running for president. That announcement could come at any time but some close to the former president believe it will be before the November midterms.

Exactly when is anyone’s guess, unbeknownst to even the prospective candidate himself.

But amid criticism the Dept. of Justice’s investigation has offered no apparent evidence it is planning to indict the former president despite 58% of Americans saying it should, reports state Trump is expected to once again run for president.

“The former president is now eyeing a September announcement, according to two Trump advisers,” The Washington Post reports. “One confidant put the odds at ’70-30 he announces before the midterms.’ And others said he may still decide to announce sooner than September.”

READ MORE: Ahead of J6 Hearing Nearly 6 in 10 Say Trump ‘Misled’ Americans About 2020 Election and Blame Him for Attack: Poll

“You can only hold him off so long,” one adviser told The Post. “One day he’ll wake up and say, ‘Put it out.’”

Trump faces many challenges, including news that broke Wednesday night that the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack plans to hold a second series of hearings starting next month. The Committee, whose hearings have drawn huge viewership ratings, originally planned to end its publicly televised hearings on the insurrection it lays at the former president’s feet with a primetime event next week.

Polling shows that the vast majority of Americans (59%) hold Trump responsible for the insurrection, and that same number believe he “misled” them about the results of the 2020 election. Two out of three (67%) also say Trump attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Almost as many, (65%) say Trump claimed that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent without evidence.

GOP strategists and politicians have cautioned Trump to not announce until after the November midterms, on fears over his low approval rating and indications many of his former supporters have moved on and do not want him to run a third time.

READ MORE: Trump’s Inner Circle Positioning Meadows to Become ‘Likely Fall Guy’ – But Legal Experts Have Charges for ‘TFG’ in Mind

“Public and internal party polls in several key states show that Trump rates behind even Biden, who has suffered a historic collapse in public support since taking office. Trump lost a recent hypothetical head-to-head poll against Biden in New Hampshire and trails Biden in favorability in Wisconsin, both sites of marquee Senate contests this fall.”

“Of all the selfish things he does every minute of every day, it would probably be the most,” a “prominent Republican strategist” told The Post.

Trump initially wanted to announce last year in August, but advisors urged him to wait, citing campaign financing rules that would “limit his ability to access funds in his Save America PAC, which has been paying for his staff and events, trigger equal time rules on television and allow Democrats to reframe the election away from Biden’s unpopular presidency,” according to The Post.

READ MORE: ‘Hot-Blooded, Contentious, Deranged’: J6 Hearing to Reveal Details About ‘Craziest Meeting in Trump Presidency’ – Report

More recently, rumors of a July 4 announcement came and went.

“Trump has decided in recent weeks to stage a series of what aides dub policy speeches as he continues to plan the structure of his next campaign. He gave a speech on crime Friday in Las Vegas, where he resurfaced his old idea that drug dealers should be given the death penalty.”

Trump “will return to Washington on July 26 to deliver what’s being billed as a major policy speech,” CNN adds, noting it will be his first time back in D.C. since he left office, refusing to attend his successor’s inauguration. “Trump will deliver remarks at the America First Agenda Summit, a conference hosted by one of the MAGA-aligned outside groups that formed after his presidency.”

Axios reports that July 26 event will be attended by a huge number of his former aides, advisors, and cabinet officials. Among them, eight former cabinet-level officials, eight former administration officials, 13 GOP House members, 10 GOP Senators, three former GOP governors, and Newt Gingrich.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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Dominion Wins ‘Blockbuster Victories’ Against Fox News – Last Legal Issue Will Be Decided by a Jury: Report

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Dominion Voting Systems won what are being called “blockbuster victories” Friday afternoon when a judge ruled the company suing Fox News for $1.6 billion in a major defamation lawsuit had met its burden of proof that Rupert Murdoch‘s far-right wing cable channel had repeatedly made false statements.

The final, and likely greatest legal issue Dominion will have to prove will be actual malice. That issue will be decided in a jury trial, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis ruled Friday, according to Law & Crime.

Unlike previous cases, Fox News will reportedly not be able to argue the on-air statements its personalities made were opinion.

CNN legal analyst and Brookings senior fellow Norm Eisen calls Friday’s decision a “huge win for Dominion on their summary judgment motion against Fox News.”

READ MORE: Capitol Police Issue Warning Over Possible Trump Protests ‘Across the Country’

“Dominion won partial summary judgement that what Fox said about them was false! Now they just have to prove actual malice and damages,” Eisen says. “Meanwhile Fox’s motion was totally denied.”

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, an MSNBC contributor adds: “Dominion’s evidence Fox made false statements with reckless disregard  is as strong as any I’ve seen.”

The judge was very clear in his ruling.

“While the Court must view the record in the light most favorable to Fox, the record does not show a genuine issue of material fact as to falsity,” Judge Davis wrote. “Through its extensive proof, Dominion has met its burden of showing there is no genuine issue of material fact as to falsity. Fox therefore had the burden to show an issue of material fact existed in turn. Fox failed to meet its burden.”

READ MORE: ‘Propaganda Network’: Media Reporter Says Dominion Filing Exposes Fox News as ‘Void of the Most Basic Journalistic Ethics’

Attorney and MSNBC host and legal analyst Katie Phang points to this key passage in Judge Davis’ ruling.

Court watchers and news junkies are familiar at this point with the massive legal filings Dominion has made in which it exposed how Fox News knowingly made false statements regarding the 2020 presidential election. Those filings, each hundreds of pages, also detail internal Fox News communications and bombshell conversations between the company’s top personalities, executives, and even Chairman Rupert Murdoch.

 

Image of Rupert Murdoch via Shutterstock

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Trump Trial Could Go Well Into the 2024 Election – Or Possibly Even Past It: Former Prosecutor

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Donald Trump, and all of America, could spend the next 18 months – or longer – engrossed in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s trial of the ex-president, and that could bring the trial close to Election Day.

That’s according to a former prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Charles Coleman, who is now a civil rights attorney and MSNBC legal analyst.

Asked by MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, “How long typically might a case like this take?” Coleman offered a two-tiered answer.

“A case like this is usually going to take a year or a year and a half,” Coleman said.

That could be through September of 2024.

READ MORE: ‘Lighting the Match’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasted for Off the Rails Rant Defending Trump

“Wow,” a surprised Jansing replied. “So it’s going right up into the campaign.”

“Absolutely,” agreed Coleman. “But it’s important to understand I said a case ‘like this.’ This particular case, I expect may take longer because I am anticipating a number of different legal maneuvers by Donald Trump’s defense team.”

That theoretically means into October of 2024, or longer.

“I do see motions to dismiss at a number of different terms, more likely than not to the point that the judge probably will ultimately end up admonishing them and telling them stop filing motions to dismiss. I think that that’s going to happen,” Coleman explained.

“I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, I do believe that we are going to see an attempt to try to change the venue, in this case outside of somewhere in the five boroughs. All of that is going to extend the time deeper and deeper into election season.”

READ MORE: Manhattan DA Unleashes on Jim Jordan With Stern Warning: You May Not ‘Interfere’ With Trump Prosecution

Reuters agrees, reporting Friday morning, “any potential trial is still at minimum more than a year away, legal experts said, raising the possibility that the former U.S. president could face a jury in a Manhattan courtroom during or even after the 2024 presidential campaign, as he seeks a return to the White House.”

And because “Trump’s case is far from typical,” Reuters notes, his trial could extend “past Election Day in November 2024.”

 

 

 

 

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Manhattan DA Unleashes on Jim Jordan With Stern Warning: You May Not ‘Interfere’ With Trump Prosecution

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After a Manhattan grand jury indicted Donald Trump late Thursday afternoon on reportedly 34 felony charges, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took one more step to preserve the rule of law: Friday morning, via his General Counsel, he sent the top three Republican House Chairmen attempting to interfere in his office’s investigation and prosecution of Donald Trump a stern warning.

The letter, addressed to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, Oversight Chairman James Comer, and Administration Chairman Bryan Steil spans six-pages. Its letterhead does not say District Attorney’s Office, but “District Attorney,” and has Bragg’s name in the upper corner, although it is signed by Bragg’s General Counsel, Leslie B. Dubeck. Politico has published the full letter.

It clearly states Bragg is drawing a red line: “What neither Mr. Trump nor Congress may do is interfere with the ordinary course of proceedings in New York State.”

The letter also accuses the trio of “an improper and dangerous usurpation” and “attempted interference with an ongoing state criminal investigation.” And it warns them against “unlawful political interference.”

READ MORE: ‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

“The Committees’ attempted interference with an ongoing state criminal investigation and now prosecution–is an unprecedented and illegitimate incursion on New York’s sovereign interests,” the letter reads. “Moreover, your examination of the facts of a single criminal investigation, for the supposed purpose of determining whether any charges against Mr. Trump are warranted, is an improper and dangerous usurpation of the executive and judicial functions.”

In a section titled, “The Committees Lack Jurisdiction to Oversee a State Criminal Prosecution,” the letter points to reports that the Trump team has been working in coordination with House Republicans.

“Even worse, based on your reportedly close collaboration with Mr. Trump in attacking this Office and the grand jury process, it appears you are acting more like criminal defense counsel trying to gather evidence for a client than a legislative body seeking to achieve a legitimate legislative objective.”

Bragg’s general counsel also uses the letter as a warning to all House Republicans that their actions, behaviors, and words are on the record.

READ MORE: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Says It Is Coordinating With Trump to ‘Surrender’

He holds up U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as an example, suggesting to others they should moderate their rhetoric.

After dismissing Jordan’s threat in a previous letter to withhold federal funds from Bragg’s office – noting the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has “has helped the Federal Government secure more than one billion dollars in asset forfeiture funds in the past 15 years” – Bragg serves up another warning.

He notes that “some committee members have explicitly stated an intent to interfere with the state proceeding. For example, responding to Trump’s statement that he would be arrested, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene stated that ‘Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this! We have the power to do it and we also have the power to DEFUND their salaries and departments!’ … and that Republicans who ‘do nothing to stop’ the prosecution ‘will be exposed to the people and will be remembered, scorned, and punished by the base.'”

 

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