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‘Every Time You Talk It’s a Campaign Speech’: Judge Blasts Trump’s Lawyer

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The judge presiding over New York’s civil business fraud case against Donald Trump had a “testy exchange” with one of the ex-president’s attorneys, this time over the lawyer’s demand he be allowed to call as a witness the monitor overseeing Trump’s real estate holdings and who may oversee the disgorgment of some of his assets.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who already was forced to impose a gag order on Donald Trump and subsequently the lawyers for the ex-president, criticized attorney Chris Kise on Monday afternoon.

Last year Judge Engoron had appointed former U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones as a monitor for the Trump Organization.

“The Trump family’s lawyer Clifford Robert asked to call her to the witness stand on Monday, a request that Engoron promptly denied,” The Messenger reports. “’Besides being untimely and inappropriate, Judge Jones and her staff are arms of the court,’ Engoron said in a denial from the bench, adding that having her also testify would invite a conflict of interest.”

READ MORE: Johnson Suggests Santos May Resign – Will Indicted Congressman Try to Burn the House Down First?

Trump’s lawyers appear to want to use Jones to rebut Judge Engoron’s pre-trial ruling that Trump is liable for fraud.

Trump Hotels’s chief accounting officer Mark Hawthorn testified that he had had “ongoing conversations” with Jones.

“There were concerns they highlighted that required more and we responded diligently and adequately, but I would say no one from the team communicated to us [that] they uncovered any fraud or irregularities,” Hawthorn said.

The Messenger’s Adam Klasfeld reported on Monday, Trump attorney Chris Kise told the judge, “They’re the only ones in the courtroom jumping up and down claiming there’s fraud. The bank isn’t. The monitor isn’t.”

“Every time you talk, it’s a campaign speech,” Judge Engoron responded.

 

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World Leaders Laugh as Trump Arrives Late to G7 With Odd Excuse: ‘I’m the Boss’

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President Donald Trump arrived late to Wednesday’s G7 summit, crossed the room where world leaders were already seated and had started their meeting, and offered an excuse before joining the group: “I’m the boss.”

According to The Daily Beast, Trump’s colleagues “laughed awkwardly” at his “crass joke.”

President Emmanuel Macron, who is hosting the meeting in Évian-les-Bains, France, greeted President Trump by saying, “Well, hello.” Trump — who was nearly one hour late — turned and faced the table before making his declaration.

“A self-satisfied smile flashed across Trump’s face after he delivered his one-liner, as he walked around to his seat next to Macron, who greeted Trump with a more restrained handshake,” The Daily Beast reported.

“Hello! How are you?” Macron asked.

Trump also invited members of the media to stay for the meeting, although they were later ushered out of the room.

“Would you like to stay for the meeting? It’s OK with me,” Trump said.

“It’s not clear why Trump was delayed,” The Daily Beast noted. “A White House source claimed to NBC that he had been ‘on some very important calls with people back in the States.'”

Leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom are also in attendance for the G7.

“All have welcomed the news that an agreement has been reached between Washington, D.C., and Iran, saying in a statement that it ‘provides an historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities,'” The Daily Beast reported.

The G7 leaders also released a statement that said, “President Trump has delivered a deal that we support in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.”

Trump also posted a diatribe Wednesday morning attacking Democrats — whom he called “Dumocrats” — in his lengthy Truth Social statement. He declared, “for the Good of the Nation, and the People of our Country, I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it.”

 

Image via Reuters 

 

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MAGA Revolt Erupts as Trump’s Own Hawks Turn Against His Iran Deal

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President Donald Trump’s Iran war has divided his MAGA base more than any other issue since he came down the Trump Tower escalator to launch his first presidential campaign, Axios reports. Now, some of his top allies are turning against his Iran deal in a series of denunciations.

“The backlash has been particularly scathing from allies Trump spent months amplifying as validators of his Iran campaign,” Axios reports. The Iran deal has “opened an explosive second front in MAGA’s civil war, waged by hawkish allies who view U.S. concessions as an existential betrayal of Israel.”

The Hill notes that conservative “pundits and hawkish Iran experts are warning against any agreement that gives up key leverage against the Islamic Republic, or opens access to badly needed funds, without completely giving up its nuclear capacity.”

Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen wrote: “$300 billion to Iran under any circumstances is a disaster. Like offer[ing] the Marshall Plan to rebuild Germany while the Nazis were still in power.”

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro told The Wall Street Journal: “If the president signed a bad deal, many of us who cheered and stood by him and thought that his action in Iran was heroic, will be extraordinarily disappointed.”

Many, including pro-Israel conservatives who backed Trump’s war, are now demanding to see the text of the “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) with Iran. They are frustrated with both the secrecy behind the deal — the MOU has yet to be officially released — and the reported leaked details.

Senior White House officials had said the text would be released Tuesday or Wednesday, while Trump said Friday — after it is officially signed in a ceremony in Geneva. Vice President JD Vance suggested that the text might be released before Friday, BBC News reported.

Trump’s own remarks have not quelled concern from his top allies, Axios noted.

“We’re dealing with people that I think are very rational people,” Trump said on Tuesday at the G7 summit. “They were nice to deal with.” He called them “strong people, smart people,” and added: “They’re not radicalized. They’re looking to help their country.”

“For hawks who view Iran’s government as a terrorist regime incapable of reform,” Axios reported, “the president’s language deepened their fear that the deal rewards Tehran for surviving the war.”

Vice President Vance may bear more of the ultimate backlash. He will sign the deal in Geneva, while Trump “can always pitch himself as the president who took on Iran when no one else dared.”

 

Image via Reuters 

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Susan Collins Doesn’t Regret Kavanaugh Vote After Roe Repeal: ‘Didn’t Impact Maine’

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Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she does not regret her tie-breaking vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, even after the Supreme Court voted to reverse Roe v. Wade, ending the right to an abortion at the federal level. She said that the decision did not affect her state.

Speaking to reporter Randy Billings fo the Portland Press Herald, Collins said that she disagreed with the Roe decision, but pointed out that she also supported Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who all dissented from the decision.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed in that decision, which turned abortion issues back to the states. It has not had an impact on the state of Maine in that name actually expanded its law,” Collins said, according to WCSH-TV.

READ MORE: ‘She Knew What Brett Kavanaugh Was Going to Do’: Morning Joe Calls Out Susan Collins Over Abortion Ruling

In explaining her vote to confirm Kavanaugh, she said “When I look at a justice, I look at their qualifications, their integrity, their background, their experience in reaching a decision.” During Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, he dodged questions from senators on whether he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade calling it “settled law.”

“One of the important things to keep in mind about Roe v. Wade is that it has been reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years, as you know, and most prominently, most importantly, reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992,” Kavanaugh said at the time.

When pressed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) over a 2003 email he wrote where he said he was “not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level,” Kavanaugh said he was merely referring to the positions of such scholars.

“But the broader point was simply that I think it was overstating something about legal scholars. And I am always concerned with accuracy, and I thought that was not quite accurate description of legal, all legal scholars because it referred to ‘all,'” he said. “To your point, your broader point, Roe v. Wade is an important precedent of the Supreme Court. It has been reaffirmed many times… That makes Casey precedent on precedent. It has been relied on. Casey itself has been cited as authority in subsequent cases such as Glucksberg and other cases. So that precedent on precedent is quite important as you think about stare decisis in this context.”

Following the 2022 ruling that overturned Roe, Collins admitted that the decision was “completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office.”

Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing also hinged on accusations of sexual assault. Christine Blasey Ford testified before Congress that Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her while they were in high school, allegations Kavanaugh denies. During the hearings, sexual assault survivors met with Republican senators Collins and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, urging them not to confirm, according to Time magazine.

Murkowski ultimately was the lone Republican vote against confirming Kavanaugh.

Image via Shutterstock

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