Trump has shared tales of courtroom spectacles with supporters. The reality is much more subdued
CNN
Former President Donald Trump’s dramatized retellings of his legal peril to supporters have veered considerably from the events actually unfolding in the courtroom.
An email Monday night from Donald Trump – subject line: “My farewell message” – carried a fateful warning to his backers. “Tomorrow is my GAG ORDER hearing,” it read. “If things don’t go our way, I could be thrown in jail.” Ominous? Certainly. Dubious? Yes, that too. Trump faced little risk of ending up behind bars Tuesday. Rather, the prosecution in his hush money trial wanted the former president to pay a modest $1,000 for violations of a court order against attacking witnesses, the district attorney and others involved with his case. They suggested 10 fines. At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, the judge had held off on making a decision for now. Throughout the first six days of his trial, Trump’s dramatized retellings of his legal peril have veered considerably from the events actually unfolding in and around Manhattan’s criminal courthouse. In social media posts and in fundraising pitches, a frantic Trump shares tales of courtroom spectacles and plots against him, untethered from the subdued – and sometimes sleepy – rhythms of the criminal justice system in motion. In one fundraising email on the first day of his trial, Trump claimed he “stormed out” of the proceedings. Reporters in the courtroom observed no such animations during the former president’s exit, but that didn’t stop Trump from repeating the falsehood in an email Friday.
Four days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk’s top lieutenants at the Treasury Department asked its acting secretary, a career civil servant, to immediately shut off all USAID payments using the department’s own ultra-sensitive payment processing system.
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning
Security for the Super Bowl in New Orleans will feature more boots on the ground, more tech and more intelligence – spearheaded by a federal official who grew up 40 miles from where kickoff will take place.
The Trump administration’s rapid moves to dismantle the US Agency for International Development have left thousands of workers scrambling to figure out what comes next and scores of those posted in dangerous hotspots around the world afraid for their safety.
President Donald Trump’s bid to remake the federal government is already affecting some vulnerable populations in the United States, according to nonprofits and health care providers who are grappling with delays in federal funding, new rules and changed guidance.
President Trump is seeking to end birthright citizenship in the United States. What is it, which other countries apply the policy and who would be affected by the order?
Panama denied a claim made by the State Department on Wednesday that the Central American nation had agreed to no longer charge fees for US government ships to transit the country’s famous canal.
The one-time Georgia prosecutor accused of using her office to impede the investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s killers is set to stand trial more than four years after the Black 26-year-old’s death fueled nationwide protests over racial injustice.
Eligible federal workers must decide by 11:59 pm ET on Thursday whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.
Two Treasury Department employees affiliated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will keep limited access to the highly sensitive payment system within the agency, following emergency court proceedings Wednesday that arose out of privacy concerns about DOGE’s access to the system.
The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter – a deeply unorthodox move that could potentially expose the identities of those officers to foreign government hackers.
After nearly three weeks in the minority, Democrats have finally settled on a target to rally against: Elon Musk.
The Office of Personnel Management’s chief financial officer, who manages more than $1 trillion in funds, was pushed out this week, two sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.