Trump judge to hear arguments about Jan 6 trial gag order – live

It’s a triple-header in Donald Trump’s world of legal woes today.

Week three of the New York civil fraud trial kicks off in Lower Manhattan with Trump Organization Vice President Patrick Birney back on the stand for his continued direct examination by prosecutors.

It’s a big week for the trial presided over by Justice Arthur Engoron, with former Trump fixer Michael Cohen expected to testify tomorrow. The former president is campaigning in Iowa today but is expected to be in court in New York on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for more performative ad hoc press conferences in the hallways of the court building.

Over in Washington, DC at the E Barrett Prettyman courthouse, Judge Tanya Chutkan will hear arguments for and against a proposed “gag order” in the former president’s federal election interference case as requested by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Mr Trump will not be present but the hearing was weighing on his mind last night when he posted on Truth Social:

Tomorrow is a big day for Democracy. A Leaking, Crooked and Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith, who has a terrible record of failure, is asking a highly partisan Obama appointed Judge, Tanya Chutkan, who should recuse herself based on the horrible things she has said, to silence me, through the use of a powerful GAG ORDER, making it impossible for me to criticize those who are doing the silencing, namely Crooked Joe Biden, and his corrupt and weaponized DOJ & FBI. They want to take away my First Amendment rights, and my ability to both campaign and defend myself. In other words, they want to cheat and interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election. Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before. It is strictly Banana Republic kind of “stuff.” These political Hacks and Thugs are destroying our Country. Let’s see what happens on Monday in Judge Chutkan’s courtroom. Will America survive, or not? I’ll be campaigning in the Great State of Iowa, where I am leading by 50 Points!!!

Meanwhile, down in Atlanta, Judge Scott McAfee is holding a hearing on the jury questionnaire ahead of the trial of former Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell for their role in the sprawling Fulton County 2020 election interference case brought by District Attorney Fani Willis. Their joint trial is scheduled to begin on 23 October.

Court resumes in Manhattan at 10am ET and both hearings in Washington, DC and Fulton County also begin at 10am.

Donald Trump is furious with CBS News show 60 Minutes for daring to air an interview with the sitting President of the United States.

The former president wrote on Truth Social:

The show “60 Minutes” should be ashamed of themselves. They just interviewed Crooked Joe Biden, and led him along like a lost child. Each question contained the answer, and was so weakly and apologetically asked that it was a JOKE which should be considered a campaign contribution to the Democrat Party. Why should CBS get free public airwaves for this highly partisan “show,” which never apologized to me for the mistakes they made on the “Laptop from Hell?” They are protecting Biden even though he is the most corrupt and incompetent President in the history of the United States. The Carter Administration looks absolutely brilliant by comparison. The only thing the Biden Regime does well is go after Crooked Joe’s political opponent, ME, but even that will fail. The Middle East, Ukraine, Inflation, Bad Economy, the Open Border, Horrendous Afghanistan Embarrassment, Gas Prices, our great Autoworker Death March, & so much more, make Crooked Joe a total disaster for our once great USA. MAGA!

[Autoworker Death March is a great band name…]

Not content with his usual ranting, Mr Trump also “joined” 60 Minutes for his own mocked-up interview with Joe Biden.

Joe Biden has raised more money for his re-election campaign than any previous Democratic candidate in history, and has also outraised his chief rival — former President Donald Trump.

Mr Trump, who is far and away the front-runner for the GOP heading into 2024, announced earlier in October that he has raised $46m in the past three months, with $38m cash-on-hand.

Mr Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, however, have brought in more than $71m in the same time period, bringing their total campaign war chest to $91m.

Attorney General Jeff Landry, who ran with the backing of Donald Trump, has won Louisiana’s governor’s race.

The Republican defeated a crowded field of competitiors, but ultimately delivered a major win for the GOP as they retake the governor’s mansion from the Democrats for the first time in eight years.

Mr Landry will replace Governor John Bel Edwards, who was unable to run again due to term limitations.

Mr Edwards was the only Democrat serving as governor in a Deep South state.

“Today’s election says that our state is united,” Mr Landry said during his victory speech on Saturday night. “It’s a wake up call and it’s a message that everyone should hear loud and clear, that we the people in this state are going to expect more out of our government from here on out.”

Retired General Frank McKenzie, who formerly was the commander of US Central Command, said that Donald Trump was incorrect when he claimed Israel refused to participate in the assassination of Iranian commander Quassem Soleimani in 2020.

He appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation, where he insisted that the operation was purley a US endeavour.

“This was a U.S. operation. It involved only U.S. forces,” Mr McKenzie said.

Mr Trump faced backlash when he criticised Isreali PM Benjamin Netanyahu following Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October.

Republicans in New Hampshire kicked a 15-year-old journalist out of a candidate showcase, though he was later allowed to return, according to the New York Times.

Most of the Republican presidential primary candidates — including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis but excluding Donald Trump — were at the event.

Quinn Mitchell, the teen reporter who runs his own blog and podcast from his home in Walpole, New Hampshire, had had two previous interactions with Mr DeSantis. In June, Quinn asked whether or not Mr DeSantis thought Mr Trump had tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in the US. In July, Republicans shooed him away from Mr DeSantis during an Independence Day parade.

On Friday, Quinn was removed from the First in the Nation Leadership Summit, hosted by the New Hampshire Republican Party.

“They said, ‘We know who you are,’” Quinn told the Times.

He was ultimately escorted out by police.

Jimmy Thompson, the New Hampshire Republican Party spokesperson, said the incident was a mistake by an “overzealous volunteer.”

“During the course of the two-day event, an overzealous volunteer mistakenly made the decision to have Quinn removed from the event, thinking he was a Democrat tracker,” Mr Thompson wrote. “Once the incident came to our staff’s attention, NHGOP let him back into the event, where he was free to enjoy the rest of the summit.”

Joe Biden says that Hamas must be entirely eliminated but that he supports a two-state solution creating a country for the Palestinian people.

The president spoke about the escalating violence between Israel and Hamas during a Sunday night interview for 60 Minutes on CBS, and was asked by Scott Pelley if he believed Hamas should be “eliminated.”

“Yes, I do. But there needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state,” said Mr Biden.

Pelley asked Mr Biden if he believed that Israel would support the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank in the current circumstances.

Donald Trump released a statement on Truth Social on Saturday saying he believed his primary rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would soon drop out of the Republican presidential primary race.

“Ron DeSanctimonious has the Poll numbers of a wounded bird falling from the sky. It’s pretty sad to watch,” Mr Trump said in a video posted to his social media platform.

He said he was leading Mr DeSantis by “more than 57 points” and said Mr DeSantis has “proven to be a terrible and inept candidate who “even fought Social Security and Medicare, wanted to raise the age to 70.”

“He will soon be out of money and dropping out of the race for president,” Mr Trump predicted.

He then took credit for getting Mr DeSantis elected.

“After single-handedly getting him elected governor with no thanks or glory, it has been a beautiful thing to watch him not do so well. So I say: good luck Ron, but I think you’re pretty much finished.”