The return of Donald Trump to New York and the onset of a presidential movement in his time as a US president: A message of strength and courage

Monday was not a great day for Trump, despite his talk by pundits that his legal problems will make him a political gold medal. He returned to New York under threat, and was going to turn himself in on Tuesday to face criminal charges related to his time as president. Trump has long been a force of nature who rebels against constraints and has always been impossible for his staff to control. He will now be subject to the rules and procedures of the legal system, which will make it more difficult for him to subvert or divert the political accountability he has subverted.

There are increasing signs that this new reality is going to be duplicated at a time when he is already facing the intense demands of another White House bid.

It was a historic day when former President Donald Trump faced charges for the first time as a US president.

Smith’s prosecutors have secured daily notes, texts, emails and photographs and are focused on cataloguing how Trump handled classified records around Mar-a-Lago and those who may have witnessed the former president with them, CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Evan Perez reported Monday. The new details coincide with signs the Justice Department is taking steps consistent with the end of an investigation.

Ty Cobb, who was Trump’s lawyer at the time, said the developments are a serious turn in the case. The steps were under way and we did not know about the alleged results until today. I think these are very consequential.

All of these investigations have Trump denying wrongdoing. He has described his behavior in Georgia as “perfect.” And he has lambasted the sealed indictment in New York, where he faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud, as an example of politicized justice.

Trump made a big show on Monday of his return to New York ahead of his arraignment. The motorcade of black Secret Service SUVs to and from his private Boeing 757 in its sparkling new livery had the appearance of a presidential movement, being meant to send a message of strength.

He will go back to Mar-a-Lago and try to distract the public from the fact he will be a criminal defendant with a speech in which he will proclaim his innocence.

One criminal prosecution is enough. Trump hasn’t been charged in any of the other cases, but a multi-front defense in multiple cases would represent an extraordinary storm. And it would further disrupt the ex-president’s capacity to dictate his political schedule and control his destiny. Trump exploited his huge popularity with Republican voters while he was under scrutiny, to undermine accusations against him during his two impeachments. He made the GOP senators who voted to convict him in an impeachment trial pay with their careers.

Because of the fact-based standards of evidence and the law, courts were unable to overturn the will of voters in the 2020 election when Trump attempted to have votes thrown out.

Trump’s attorneys tried to wrest control of the court proceedings on Monday despite CNN asking for tv cameras to be allowed to observe Tuesday’s bond hearing. The media outlets argued that the case was of such public interest that it should be broadcast. Trump lawyers said that it will create a circus like atmosphere, raise unique security concerns, and would be inconsistent with the president’s presumption of innocence.

But the irony of the ex-president complaining about being the subject of a media circus was rich indeed. Without his salesman’s talent for whipping up media circuses, he’d have never have been president. Trump built his “The Art of the Deal” mythology in New York by constantly providing fodder for the city’s ravenous tabloids with his famed celebrity feuds, colorful personal life and business hits and failures. His presidency and entire campaign was a series of scandals and lawlessness spurred by his often un chained social media posts.

The most high-profile case to date is probably Trump, even after a long career atop the state-level trial court.

He sentenced Allen Weisselberg to prison and presided over the tax fraud trial for the Trump Organization.

Still, Earl Ward, a trial attorney and chair of public defender nonprofit The Bronx Defenders claimed that the judge in the Mental Health Court sided with prosecutors.

If the former Trump associate had not been promised a five-month sentence, he would have been handed a much greater sentence than the one he received, according to Merchan.

Trump’s attorney said during an interview that the judge was not easy on him when he tried the case but he thinks the judge will be fair.

His background: Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Merchan emigrated to the United States at the age of 6 and grew up in the New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, according to a New York Times profile of the judge. He was the first in his family to go to college. He received his law degree from Hofstra University.

In 1994 he started his legal career as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Several years later, he moved on to the state attorney general’s office, where he worked on cases in Long Island. In 2006 the Republican mayor of New York appointed Merchan to Family Court in the Bronx, and in 2009 the Democrat governor appointed him to the New York State Court of Claims.

Is Donald Trump Really upset with the judiciary? The Manhattan district attorney on Tuesday night addressed his accusations against Donald Trump and the consequences for the U.S.

This uncomfortable reality is actually something for every member of the G.O.P. to think about. Again. Because, if Mr. Trump’s prime-time, post-arraignment remarks on Tuesday were any indication, this is going to be a central theme of his third presidential run — one that promises to relegate everyone else in the party, including those considering a 2024 run themselves, to being minor players in this latest, tawdriest season of “The Trump Show.”

The criminal charges against Mr. Trump came down on Tuesday night, giving him his first real chance to counterpunch. Safely back in the gilded cocoon of Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by American flags and supporters sporting red hats and campaign signs, he delivered a half-hour battle cry that was painfully on brand: a greatest hits of his witch-hunt grievances interwoven with his dark take on how the country is “going to hell” without him. As he tells it, “all-out nuclear World War III” is just around the corner. It can happen! We’re not very far away from it!” He also suggested that the investigation into his squirreling away sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago could somehow lead to his being executed.

That is certainly what we have seen happening. The Manhattan district attorney is being trashed by Republicans. It was in no way surprising to see Representative Lauren Boebert comparing the indictment of Mr. Trump to the actions of Mussolini and, yes, Hitler. One would have expected more from the governor, especially since he is seen as the biggest threat to Mr. Trump in the foreseeable future. Weak, Ron. It was very weak.

During his speech at Tuesday’s rally, Donald Trump spoke about the criminal charges against him and said he wanted to defend his nation from those who want to destroy it.

In court on Tuesday, it was the lawyer for Trump who did the talking, rather than a rejoinder from Trump. He told Merchan that Trump was “frustrated, upset, and believes that there is a grave injustice happening with him being in this courtroom today.”

During the case, Merchan warned both sides not to make comments that could lead to civil unrest or harm the safety of any individuals, but he did not mention what would cause action to be taken.

D.C.: Donald Trump Slams Out to Old Tricks After arraignment Hearing, and Why Does He Live in New York?

But once Trump was able to jet away from his native New York and back to the friendly confines of Florida, the former president reverted back to victimized campaigner.

He called two other prosecutors who are or have investigated him “racist.” Trump’s called Bragg that, too, and an “animal.” Black is also Bragg’s race.

This wasn’t about adding voters, this was about locking down who already is with him. But therein lies the problem for Trump – the more his grievance politics have become about him, the more views of him from independents (and certainly Democrats) have hardened.

It could be happening in the middle of the Republican presidential primary. And right now Trump is the clear front-runner for the GOP nomination once again. But that would mean a strong possibility of Republicans backing someone with pending criminal charges to advance to a general election.

Republicans seem to be fine with that at this point. In that same NPR poll, 8 in 10 Republicans have a favorable opinion of Trump, and three-quarters think he should be president again.

Sarah Longwell, a Republican pollster who is not a fan of Trump, discovered during one of her focus groups last week that not a single person would vote for Ron DeSantis over Trump.

Since he rang the alarm, Trump’s numbers improved with the GOP. He’s boxed out the anti-Trump Republicans, who fear offending the base, since they’ve also criticized the New York case. According to his campaign, Trump has raised over $7 million in less than a week.

The Attorney General’s wingman in D.C. is going to be a missile-armed weapon, and it’s going to be piloted by Jack Smith.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168113684/donald-trump-lashes-out-resorting-to-old-tactics-after-arraignment-hearing

The Trump-Hasting Judge is Not Daring: Attacking the Judge with His Hating Words on the Laws of Mar-a-Lago

His brand has proven toxic in competitive states and districts, the precise places that Republicans need to win in order to take back the White House.

“I have a Trump-hating judge with the Trump-hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris,” Trump said during a speech at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday evening.

During Tuesday’s arraignment, prosecutors provided the judge with a packet of Trump’s social media posts, raising concerns about veiled threats he made, including posting a story that showed a photo of Trump with a baseball bat next to Bragg.

“He’s almost daring the judge,” Honig said. Even though the threats are far over the line, I think that the judge is unlikely to impose a gag order given that the First Amendment concerns are greater than the threats themselves.

Elie Honig, a former prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst, said Trump’s comments Tuesday evening indicated he was openly defying the judge with his rhetoric.

Trump uses the same attacks against Bragg as he has against all of the prosecutors investigating him, but the judge presiding over the case is different and he has different views on how to handle the case.

Trump and his allies have criticized his daughter for working with Biden and Harris.

The Biden- Harris 2020 campaign and Harris’s own failed presidential primary campaign were listed on the Authentic Campaigns website. Federal campaign finance records show payments to the firm in 2020 from the Biden campaign and 2019 from the Harris primary campaign.

According to a screenshot from her social networking page, she was the Director of Digital persuasion for the Harris campaign, and it was captured by right-wing media outlets.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/05/politics/trump-criminal-case-whats-next/index.html

A New Look at President Donald Trump’s Correspondence with Analysing the CNN Podolski-Baxter Investigative Report

That is a relevant fact here, according to Tacopina. It is not an attack on the judge or his family. No one is suggesting that anything should happen to the judge or his family, and President Trump’s comments did not in any way, shape or form.”

The political connections of Merchan’s daughter does not disqualify him as a judge in a case, a CNN legal analyst said.

“What does Biden have to do with any of this? And it’s his daughter. “You can not control your family”, said Agnifilo. It doesn’t come close to a conflict.

The exchanges Tuesday showed that the district attorney had concerns about what Trump might say about the evidence they hand over.

Prosecutors asked Merchan to plan on a trial beginning in January 2024, but Trump’s attorneys suggested that the spring might be more realistic, given they had not yet received any documents in the case.

“I understand what you are saying,” Merchan said. I think that is reasonable. You have not received discovery. It is difficult to anticipate if you will be ready for trial in January of 2024. We would like to move ahead as quickly as possible without the need for further delay.

Trump said, of the case being led by Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis, that she is “doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call, even more perfect than the one I made with the president of Ukraine.”

Finally, Trump went on to condemn New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into the Trump Organization saying she, “campaigned on ‘I will get Trump.’ I am going to get him. This was her campaign in some way. Never ran for public office. I’ll get him. He said that Letitia James is her name.

Toward the end of his remarks, Trump returned to criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the charges leveled against him Tuesday in New York.