Trump implores Christians to vote for him in rambling speech at DC faith conference: Live updates

Trump speaks at Faith and Freedom Coalition ‘Road to Majority’ conference in Washington, DC before evening rally in Philadelphia

Trump’s lawyers want charges dropped in missing documents case

Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail, imploring conservative Christians at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, DC to vote for him in an energetic and joke-filled speech.

The former president, a convicted felon and accused adulterer, has also declared his “love” of the Ten Commandments following new legislation in Louisiana that requires them to be displayed in all classrooms.

He then traveled on to a rally in Philadelphia, continuing a recent streak of campaigning in traditionally solidly Democrat cities.

Meanwhile, on Friday, a hearing in the former president’s classified documents case ended with no ruling as Judge Aileen Cannon entertained a motion from Trump’s legal team that Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel.

Smith has brought charges for allegedly mishandling classified information in Florida and in the District of Columbia for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

The Trump argument that Smith’s appointment was illegal stems from the claim that Attorney General Merrick Garland doesn’t have the legal authority to appoint a special counsel who the Senate hasn’t confirmed.

Cannon seemed skeptical but also said that the prosecution’s argument was an excessively “malleable” reading of the Constitution.

Key Points

• Trump gives confused shout-out to Barry Loudermilk at Faith & Freedom conference
• No ruling from Cannon on Smith appointment
• Cannon seems skeptical of Trump’s argument Smith was appointed illegally
• Reclusive banking heir billionaire gave Trump $50m one day after hush money conviction
• Trump set to ask judge to revoke prosecutors’ access to memos by ex-attorney
• Manhattan DA requests that Judge Merchan keep in place elements of Trump gag order

[21 June 2024 20:45 · Jake Offenhartz, AP]

NY prosecutors urge judge to keep gag order blocking Trump from criticizing jurors who convicted him

Prosecutors on Friday urged the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case to uphold provisions of a gag order that bar him from criticizing jurors and court staff, while agreeing to lift a restriction on his public statements about trial witnesses.

In court papers filed Friday, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued that portions of the gag order remained necessary given the Republican former president’s “singular history of inflammatory and threatening public statements,” as well as efforts by his supporters to “identify jurors and threaten violence against him.”

“Since the verdict in this case, defendant has not exempted the jurors from his alarming rhetoric that he would have ‘every right’ to seek retribution as president against the participants in this trial as a consequence of his conviction because ’sometimes revenge can be justified,” the filing states.

The gag order, issued in March, prohibited Trump from making or directing others to make public statements about witnesses, jurors and others connected to the case. It does not restrict comments about the judge, Juan M. Merchan, or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case.

[21 June 2024 20:37 · Gustaf Kilander]

‘That sounds very ominous'

On Friday, Judge Cannon questioned Trump attorney Emil Bove on what he meant by that Smith’s appointment amounted to a “shadow government”.

“That sounds very ominous. But what do you really mean?” she asked, according to CNN.

Instead of answering the question, Bove went on to argue that Smith was improperly appointed. He added that there should be another hearing on the matter, including testimony regarding the relationship between Garland and Smith.

When Cannon said there are regulations Smith must follow, Bove replied that Smith wasn’t reporting to anyone.

Prosecutor James Pearce said Garland could fire Smith at “this very moment.” He noted later that Garland doesn’t look over each decision Smith makes.

[21 June 2024 20:30 · Katie Hawkinson]

Judge Judy calls out Trump trial as ‘nonsense’ and says taxpayer money better spent making NY subways safer

Judy Sheindlin, better known as TV icon Judge Judy, has described Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York as “nonsense.”

The retired judge spoke with CNN’s Chris Wallace on Friday about the former president and his recent felony conviction. Sheindlin was the star of reality TV hit “Judge Judy,” where she presided over small claims cases on the show, which ran from 1996 to 2021.

Sheindlin, who is originally from Brooklyn, said that she had not been in favor of Trump’s Manhattan prosecution.

“I would be happier as someone who owns property in Manhattan, if the district attorney of New York County would take care of criminals who are making it impossible for citizens to walk in the streets and use the subway, to use his efforts to keep those people off the street, than to spend 5 million or ten million of taxpayers money trying Donald Trump on this nonsense,” she said.

[21 June 2024 20:20 · Alex Woodward]

Judge dismisses criminal charges against Trump’s ‘fake electors’ in Nevada

A judge in Nevada has dismissed a criminal case against six so-called “fake electors” who tried to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election.

Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus argued that the case from state prosecutors was filed in the wrong county.

Attorneys for the six defendants argued that the case should have been brought in Carson City, where they approved false certificates certifying Trump’s electors, or in Douglas County, where those documents were mailed.

Nevada’s Attorney General Aaron Ford is expected to appeal the decision.

[21 June 2024 20:15 · Martha McHardy]

Trump goes on late-night rant about ‘love’ for Ten Commandments and backs forcing it in public schools

Donald Trump has declared his “love” for the Ten Commandments and has called for them to be displaye in schools and other places in an all-caps, late-night post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

His post came after Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed legislation this week that requires the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in the state. Elementary, middle and high schools, as well as public colleges, must all display posters no smaller than 11 by 14 inches and the commandments must be “the central focus of the poster” and “in a large, easily readable font,” the law states.

Louisiana is the only state in the country with such a requirement however it appears that it is one that the former president would like to expand.

[21 June 2024 20:05 · Gustaf Kilander]

Labor leader to speak at RNC, Trump says

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that Sean O’Brien, the General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“Our GREAT convention will unify Americans and demonstrate to the nation’s working families they come first. When I am back in the White House, the hardworking Teamsters, and all working Americans, will once again have a country they can afford to live in and be respected around the world. Sean, I look forward to seeing you represent the Teamsters in Milwaukee,” Trump wrote.

[21 June 2024 19:45 · Katie Hawkinson]

Trump’s media company suffers another huge slump as share price falls nearly 15%

Share prices for Donald Trump’s media company fell nearly 15 percent on Thursday as the former president’s business continued to endure a tough month.

Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group — the business that runs Trump’s Truth Social platform — cost just $26.75 at the close of trading on Thursday, marking a 14.56 percent fall from opening.

Meanwhile, Thursday’s price marks a more than 40 percent drop from the beginning of June, when shares sold for about $49 and a Manhattan jury had just found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts related to falsifying business documents.

This drop comes amid high sharing activity, with some 13 million stocks trading hands on Thursday.

The former president’s 114 million shares of stock in the company are now worth just $3.2BN, CNBC reports, a major drop from $5.6bn just three weeks ago.

[21 June 2024 18:45 · Josh Marcus]

Alvin Bragg gets more than 100 threats in the three weeks after Trump’s conviction - more than all of 2023

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has received more than 100 threats and abusive messages in the weeks since his office finished convicting Donald Trump in the former president’s unprecedented hush money case, more than all the threats the prosecutor received in the previous year.

The threats, analyzed by the DA’s New York Police Department security detail and obtained by the New York Daily News, included messages filled with hateful racial slurs, and ominous comments like “Bragg in Trouble” and a messenger who sent an email from an address named ThisMeansWar.

The volume of aggression far outpaces what Bragg has faced previously, according to court filings. There were 89 threats against the DA in 2023, New York prosecutors disclosed as they sought a gag order in the Trump hush money case, up from just one threat prior to when Trump was indicted.

Throughout the prosecution of Donald Trump, which ended in May, Bragg, who is Black, has received a deluge of threats, many of them racist, including a package sent to his campaign mailbox with a cutout of him hung from a noose.

[21 June 2024 18:45 · Alex Woodward]

Manhattan DA points to chilling bomb threats as he asks to extend Trump gag order

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicated on Friday that he’s willing to partially lift Donald Trump’s gag order in his hush money trial, but slammed the former president for his “patent disrespect” for the rule of law and warned the trial judge of credible bomb threats made against people involved in the case.

Trump — who is blocked from publicly attacking witnesses, jurors and other parties in the case, excluding Bragg and Justice Juan Merchan — has asked the judge to lift the gag order entirely, now that the criminal trial has come to an end with guilty verdicts on all 34 counts against him.

In a filing on Friday, Bragg said his office agrees that the gag order can be amended to lift the restrictions against trial witnesses — but that’s as far as he will go.

There is “no basis whatsoever” to let Trump attack attorneys and court staff and their families who are protected under the gag order, according to prosecutors with Bragg’s office.

[21 June 2024 18:42 · Gustaf Kilander]

VIDEO: Trump's Legal Team Challenges Special Counsel's Appointment