Trump found guilty in hush money trial
CNN
A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records Thursday, an unprecedented and historic verdict that makes Trump the first former president in American history to be convicted of a felony.
A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records Thursday, an unprecedented and historic verdict that makes Trump the first former president in American history to be convicted of a felony. Not only is Trump the first former president to be found guilty of a felony, he’s also the first major-party presidential nominee to be convicted of a crime in the midst of a campaign for the White House. And if he defeats President Joe Biden in November, he will be the first sitting president in history to be a convicted felon. It will ultimately be up to voters in November to decide the significance of the guilty verdict delivered by 12 ordinary New Yorkers, which, on a legal basis, does not prevent him from being elected president again. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, announced charges against Trump last year and presenting the first indictment of a former president, accusing him of falsifying the repayment of his former lawyer Michael Cohen in order to cover up a $130,000 payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her from speaking out about an alleged affair with Trump before the 2016 election. (Trump has denied the affair.) Throughout the seven-week trial, the district attorney’s office brought in 20 witnesses to illustrate to jurors how the hush-money payment to Daniels was part of a pattern of payoffs to keep negative stories about Trump out of view before the election, and how Trump was concerned about the impact to the campaign when the payment was made in October 2016. Cohen was the prosecution’s key witness, describing how Trump directed him to pay Daniels and then approved the scheme to repay him in $35,000 monthly installments in 2017, an amount that was “grossed up” in part to account for taxes Cohen would have to pay.
Sen. Mitch McConnell was a generational force for the Republican Party — using procedural tactics and political will to stymie much of former President Barack Obama’s agenda, hand President Donald Trump key first-term political victories and deliver a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority. Now he’s the odd man out.
The Trump administration is forcing out senior leadership at the National Archives and Records Administration in a major shakeup, according to a source familiar. President Donald Trump has been highly critical of the archives since the agency asked the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s mishandling of classified documents after he left office.
Colorado prosecutors on Friday argued additional charges against James Craig, a dentist accused of fatally poisoning his wife, as new details were revealed in court about how he allegedly tried to get a fellow inmate to kill a detective on the case.
One week into the Trump administration, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a directive that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should stop sending money to non-governmental organizations that she characterized as helping “illegal aliens.”
The morning after the mass resignation of prosecutors sparked a crisis inside the Trump Justice Department, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove led a meeting with the Justice Department’s public integrity section. His message: they had to choose one career lawyer to file a dismissal of the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to three people briefed on the meeting.
Seventh prosecutor in Eric Adams case resigns and calls out Trump’s former lawyer in scathing letter
A federal prosecutor assigned to the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams resigned Friday in a blistering letter that accused top leaders at the Justice Department of looking for a “fool” to dismiss the criminal charges.
A Texas judge on Thursday ordered a New York doctor to pay more than $100,000 in penalties for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas, a ruling that could test “shield laws” in Democratic-controlled states where abortion is legal.
The Trump administration has gutted the federal government’s ability to fight public corruption in a matter of weeks.
A woman suspected of killing three members of the same family by poisoning a Christmas cake has been found dead in her prison cell in Brazil.
An Indiana teenager has been accused of plotting a school shooting on Valentine’s Day allegedly inspired by the gunman who murdered 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school on February 14, 2018, according to police and court records.
Vice President JD Vance warned on Thursday that the United States could send troops to Ukraine and hit Russia with further sanctions if Vladimir Putin doesn’t negotiate a peace deal in good faith.
After accruing immense governmental power over the past month, tech billionaire Elon Musk got his biggest boost yet this week when President Donald Trump signed an executive order giving him broad authorities over the hiring and firing of federal workers.
Border czar Tom Homan met with New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday in a sign of how the Trump administration has its eyes on the country’s biggest city to carry out its immigration enforcement plans.