Donald Trump beats Nikki Haley in New Hampshire
Donald Trump’s defamation has resumed in New York this morning after it was postponed earlier this week over concerns that both the jury and defence team had been exposed to Covid-19.
The former president had been expected to testify against complainant E Jean Carroll on Monday. He is now expected to take the stand later today once Ms Carroll’s lawyers rest their case.
A previous jury has already found Mr Trump liable for sexually abusing Ms Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and for subsequently defaming her.
He continues to vigorously deny the allegations and, on Wednesday night, unleashed a series of attacks on Truth Social against the former Elle magazine columnist and the “Trump Hater” judge in the case.
This comes after the Republican front-runner celebrated his victory in the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary by mocking his last remaining opponent Nikki Haley as his grip on the party grows ever stronger.
Meanwhile, former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has been sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress for his refusal to appear before the January 6 select committee.
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The Smiths member warns Donald Trump to stop using their song
A member of The Smiths expressed his anger after Donald Trump used the band’s music during one of his rallies. Johnny Marr responded on Twitter/X after a user posted footage of “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” being played at one of the former president’s rallies in 2023. “I never in a million years would’ve thought this could come to pass. Consider this s*** shut right down right now,” the guitarist wrote. It’s not the first time Marr has hit out at a politician liking the band’s songs – he told David Cameron to “stop saying that you like the Smiths” in 2010.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 18:30
Trump defamation trial: Martin cross-examined
Ms Martin was cross-examined by Ms Carroll’s attorney about the text messages and her relationship and impression of the plaintiff.
Court will resume at 1.50pm with the jury brought back in at 2pm.
Judge Kaplan says he has some business with both legal teams to conduct before more evidence is heard.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 18:15
Full story: Peter Navarro sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress
A federal judge in Washington DC has sentenced former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro to four months in jail and fined $9,500 for wilfully defying a subpoena issued by the House January 6 select committee in 2021.
Navarro is the second ex-Trump administration aide to receive a custodial sentence after being convicted of contempt of Congress. Former president Donald Trump’s onetime chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon, was sentenced to four months in jail last year but is appealing his sentence.
Navarro, who a jury convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress in September, is expected to appeal his own sentence as well, though if Mr Trump returns to the White House after this year’s presidential election he is expected to pardon both of his former aides.
If Mr Trump does not become president and pardon them, and if their respective appeals are lost, either could become the first federal defendant to enter a correctional facility for contempt of Congress in more than fifty years, though the sentences both have received are far lighter than the year behind bars which is the maximum sentence possible for contempt convictions.
Andrew Feinberg25 January 2024 18:00
Trump defamation trial: Defence questions Carroll’s fear for her safety
Habba asks Ms Martin about a text from Ms Carroll that says she had no security concerns at the time — we heard earlier this was to allay the fears of Ms Martin’s daughter. The Trump defence is to argue that Ms Carroll’s claims have been exaggerated.
To further argue this she asks whether Ms Carroll had enjoyed the attention that came with her allegations and lawsuits against Mr Trump.
Ms Martin responds by saying that she had “at different times in the early years”.
Further texts are brought up in which Ms Martin told her friend that her “narcissism had run amok”, and in another, she told her daughter that Ms Carroll was “like a drug addict and the drug is herself”.
Ms Martin told the court she was “very sorry” about those sending those messages and said it was a poor choice of words and she had been a little “hyperbolic”.
Habba asks if she belives Ms Carroll is enjoying this fame.
Ms Martin responds that she believes her friend is “adapting”, adding that enjoying is a multi-faceted word.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 17:47
Ex-Trump staffer thrown out of victory party after Alina Habba photo
Ms Habba was photographed at the party alongside Mr Quattrucci, who shared the image on X.
“Just arrived at President Trump’s NH primary victory party and ran into the wonderful Alina Habba. Alina is President Trump’s rockstar attorney & a huge inspiration of mine!” he wrote.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 17:38
Navarro sentencing: Former Trump adviser sentenced to four months
Returning from the break, Judge Mehta prepares to deliver Navarro’s sentence by first talking about the former Trump trade adviser’s life including that he did not come “from means” and had joined the Peace Corps after college.
He continues by saying that “respect for the law” and the need for “general deterrence” should be reflected in the sentence.
“This was a significant effort by Congress to get to the bottom of a terrible day in American history,” Judge Mehta adds, referring to the January 6 select committee that Navarro refused to testify before.
Recounting Navarro’s defence, Judge Mehta says that he had claimed to have a conversation with Mr Trump in which the former president “clearly” invoked executive privilege — but the court does not know what was said because Navarro “elected not to tell us”.
On Navarro’s claim that there is a “two-tiered system of justice”, Judge Mehta counters: “Sitting here with four lawyers at his table who are extremely competent and have done an outstanding job, a real head-scratcher. There is, some would say, a two-tiered system of justice. This is not it.”
Judge Mehta then sentenced Navarro to four months in prison for contempt of Congress.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 17:32
Ms Carroll and Ms Martin worked together for a short time at “America’s Talking”, a now-defunct cable TV channel owned by Roger Ailes.\
Questioning turns to text messages:
These text conversations were believed by Trump’s previous lawyer in his defamation case, Joe Tacopina, to be crucial to their defence. The jury did not think so and returned a verdict in only a couple of hours.
Mr Tacopina dropped out of this second trial shortly before it started.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 17:26
Trump defamation trial: Defence calls first witness
Habba claims that Ms Carroll’s lawyers “opened the door” to her asking Mr Trump what he meant by certain statements in his deposition.
Ms Carroll’s lawyer counters he’s still barred from denying sexually abusing Ms Carroll because of the pre-trial ruling.
Trump’s team calls Carol Martin, a former anchor at WCBS-TV in New York, to testify as part of his defence. Ms Martin is one of two women whom Ms Carroll told about being abused in Bergdorf Goodman at the time.
She has known Ms Carroll for 30 years.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 16:57
Navarro sentencing: Trump ally speaks against his lawyer’s advice
Navarro has decided to make a statement, against the advice of his lawyers.
“I’m not going to introduce politics into this whatsoever … When I received that congressional subpoena …. I had an honest belief that the privilege had been invoked. And I was torn,” he says.
“Your comment sir that I should’ve got a lawyer or I wouldn’t be here. Is that the lesson of this entire proceeding?” Navarro continues. “I’m a Harvard-educated gentleman, but the learning curve when they come at you with the biggest law firm in the world is very, very steep.”
“The minute that violence erupted on Capitol Hill was one of the worst days of my life. That was not only a desecreation of our Capitol but it was also an end to any rational discussion related to the Electoral Count Act of 1887.”
Court recesses ahead of sentencing.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 16:46
Trump defamation trial: Plaintiff rests and Trump team introduce motion
Ms Carroll’s lawyers have rested their case and Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba introduced a motion to dismiss the case.
She argues that the backlash against Ms Carroll began before the former president had said anything about her allegations and it was the excerpt of her book in The Cut that caused the harm.
Judge Kaplan clarifies that Habba is arguing that there is no causation.
Habba continues by saying that Ms Carroll’s older posts on social media that were sexual in nature were seen by those responding to the excerpt. She adds that Ms Carroll intentionally deleted messages on the day the excerpt was published and continued to delete messages later.
Judge Kaplan interjects and says that the messages deleted by Ms Carroll (which are said to have included death threats) would have helped her case.
Responding to the argument that there was no causation, Ms Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan says there was as Mr Trump did speak before the tweets as there was a denial from the White House printed by The Cut and the tweets overlap with what Mr Trump said on 21-22 June.
The motion to dismiss the case is denied by Judge Kaplan.
Oliver O’Connell25 January 2024 16:44