Raw Story

Donald Trump's defense lawyer may have committed a ruinous blunder during his closing argument.

Attorney Todd Blanche characterized former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who was a key witness for the prosecution, as dishonest and untrustworthy but portrayed former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker as truthful — and MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said that was essentially a gift to prosecutors.

"Todd Blanche just painted David Pecker as a truth teller in marked contrast to his portrayal of Michael Cohen," Rubin posted on X. "If I am prosecutor Josh Steinglass, I just did a happy dance."

Pecker told the jury that he purchased damaging stories about Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 election as part of an agreement with his campaign, which prosecutors say amounted to an illegal in-kind contribution that forms the basis of the felony charged against the former president and corroborated much of Cohen's testimony.

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Trump is accused of falsifying business records to conceal his reimbursements to Cohen, who had paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to remain silent about her sexual relationship a decade earlier with Trump.

Cohen and other witnesses have testified that Trump was particularly concerned about Daniels going public with her claims after the "Access Hollywood" tape surfaced, showing him boasting to TV host Billy Bush that he had groped numerous women's genitals and gotten away with it because he was a celebrity.

The 2005 recording came to light weeks before the 2016 election and caused multiple Republicans to rescind their endorsement of the reality TV-host-turned-presidential candidate, and prosecutors say Trump managed to win despite that due in part to the hush money payments that prevented voters from learning about his extramarital affairs.

Historian and filmmaker Ken Burns used his graduation commencement address at Brandeis University over the weekend to give students a warning about the prospects of reelecting former President Donald Trump.

In his address, Burns said that alarm bells should go off in students' heads whenever they hear Trump-style demagoguery that tries to divide Americans into competing factions of warring tribes.

"If I have learned anything over those years, it's that there's only us," Burns said. "There is no them. And whenever someone suggests to you, whomever it may be in your life that there's a them, run away. Othering is the simplistic binary way to make and identify enemies, but it is also the surest way to your own self imprisonment."

Burns then turned his attention to the upcoming November election, which he said he "dreaded" doing due to his longstanding efforts to project neutrality.

"There is no real choice this November," he said. "There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route."

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He then explicitly laid out why Trump -- "the other route" -- was exactly the type of candidate he had warned students to avoid.

"The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids, an easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems," he said.

"When in fact with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction and addiction, 'a bigger delusion,' James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide as Mr. Lincoln prophesies. Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer."

Read the whole speech at this link.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied a request from special counsel Jack Smith to modify Donald Trump's bond conditions in his classified documents case.

In a motion last week, Smith asked Cannon to modify the conditions to clarify that Trump cannot endanger law enforcement officials investigating his case.

"The Government moves to modify defendant Donald J. Trump's conditions of release, to make clear that he may not make statements that pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents participating in the investigation and prosecution of this case," Smith's motion said.

Smith said Trump made statements "falsely suggesting that [the agents] were complicit in a plot to assassinate him" — referring to claims that agents were authorized to use "deadly force" when they went to Mar-a-Lago looking for classified documents.

On Tuesday, Cannon denied the motion without prejudice "for lack of meaningful conferral" with the defense.

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"[T]he Court finds the Special Counsel's pro forma 'conferral' to be wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy. It should go without saying that meaningful conferral is not a perfunctory exercise. Sufficient time needs to be afforded to permit reasonable evaluation of the requested relief by opposing counsel and to allow for adequate follow-up discussion as necessary about the specific factual and legal basis underlying the motion," Cannon wrote.

"Any future, non-emergency motion brought in this case — whether on the topic of release conditions or anything else — shall not be filed absent meaningful, timely, and professional conferral," she warned. "Failure to comply with these requirements may result in sanctions."

Actor Robert DeNiro got into a verbal argument with a Donald Trump supporter on a New York City street outside the former president's trial.

As Trump sat in a nearby Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, DeNiro held a press conference outside the courthouse on behalf of the Biden-Harris campaign. He was accompanied by former Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, who fought with rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.

"On January 6th, while Republican lawmakers despicably tried to keep the loser Trump, the loser Trump, in the White House, and Trump-inspired insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, brave men and women from law enforcement put their lives on the line to defend this country," DeNiro said. "These guys are the true heroes. They stood and put their lives on the line for these low lives, for Trump."

"They lied under oath," a Trump supporter heckled.

"Who lied under oath?" DeNiro asked. "What are you telling me?"

"Those two traitors behind you," the Trump supporter insisted.

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"You got to, I don't know, I don't even know how to deal with you, my friend," DeNiro replied. "I don't even know how to deal with you. They stood there. They didn't have to."

"They stood there and fought for us, for you. For you," he added.

"They weren't fighting for me," the Trump supporter insisted.

"No, they fought for you, buddy," DeNiro shot back. "You're able to stand right here now. They are the true heroes."

Watch the video below from NTD.

Many libertarians and Never Trump conservatives have been highly critical of the Libertarian Party for featuring former President Donald Trump as a speaker at its annual convention, which will be held this Saturday in Washington, D.C.

These critics have been arguing that Trump's MAGA agenda is diametrically opposed to libertarianism in a variety of ways. Libertarians, for example, often describe themselves as fiscally conservative but socially liberal — whereas Trump is a close ally of the religious right and far-right evangelical Christian nationalists who favor outlawing abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage.

One of the critics who is speaking out is Peter Goettler, president of the Cato Institute — a libertarian think tank founded in 1977.

READ MORE: Group that created Tea Party dissolves over split between 'MAGA and Never Trump factions'

In a biting op-ed published by the Washington Post Thursday, Goettler argues that featuring Trump as a speaker shows that the Libertarian Party has abandoned libertarian principles.

"It will be the first time in U.S. history that a presidential candidate of a rival party will address the convention of a party that is presumably gathering to nominate its own candidate," Goettler observes. "And this strange turn of events has many libertarians scratching their heads. "

The Cato Institute president continues, "With a razor-thin Electoral College contest in the offing this November, it's clear that any play for incremental support is worth Trump's effort and could make the difference. But what's in it for the National Libertarian Party? The answer, unfortunately, reveals the truth about today's party: It's hardly libertarian anymore."

Goettler goes on emphasize that a "long list" of Trump policies are opposed by libertarians.

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"He allowed government spending and debt to continue to spiral upward, increasing the national debt by $8.4 trillion," the Cato president notes. "Federal outlays soared from $4 trillion his first year (2017) to $6.8 trillion in his last year. He persists in railing against immigration and free trade, supports further expansion of presidential power and seeks to crack down on political enemies."

The Libertarian Party's leadership, according to Goettler, has "been taken over by a faction that places it well outside the bounds of libertarianism altogether and appears comfortable with right-wing authoritarianism."

"Some tweets issued from state Libertarian parties and other Libertarian operators can only be described as shockingly racist or antisemitic — the Libertarian Party of Michigan, for instance, posted a cartoon portraying Jews as puppet masters of the Democratic and Republican parties — and would be more welcome on the alt-right than among true libertarians," Goettler warns. "This is not what traditional libertarians represent, and it isn't aligned with the position of most Americans."

READ MORE:'This isn't a joke to us': Far-right evangelicals aim to enlist Trump in 'censorship regime'

Urging Democratic lawmakers to use the power they currently hold in the U.S. Senate, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday night called on party leaders in the upper chamber to launch immediate investigations into the insurrection-linked flags that were seen flying outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's homes.

Hours after The New York Times reported that last year, an "Appeal to Heaven" flag associated with the baseless claim that President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump had been displayed at Alito's beach house, the New York Democrat appeared on "All In with Chris Hayes" on MSNBC and said the party must waste no time in holding Alito accountable.

"What we are seeing here is an extraordinary breach of not just the trust and the stature of the Supreme Court, but we are seeing a fundamental challenge to our democracy," Ocasio-Cortez said.

The flag, which was carried by pro-Trump rioters who attempted to stop the 2020 election from being certified on January 6, 2021, reportedly flew in July and September 2023 at Alito's beach house in New Jersey—around the time that a case regarding whether January 6 insurrectionists could be charged with obstruction arrived at the Supreme Court.

Last week, it was revealed that an upside down American flag—another historic symbol adopted by right-wing insurrectionists and "Stop the Steal" supporters—was flown at Alito's home near Washington, D.C. The justice claimed the flag was displayed by his wife during a dispute with a neighbor.

Legal experts and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly called on both Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from certain cases due to conflicts of interest following reports of luxury travel and gifts they received from right-wing operatives. Advocates have demanded Thomas' recusal from cases centering on Trump and January 6 defendants, considering his wife's support for efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Trump's favor.

Now, critics are demanding Alito's recusal from the obstruction case and one regarding Trump's claim that he has immunity in his federal election interference case, both of which the court is expected to rule on in the coming weeks.

Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday night said Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee should use their current majority to subpoena Alito and demand answers about his affinity for symbols embraced by groups that sought to overturn the 2020 election.

“I don't even think that we have to wait until we have a Democratic House majority because we have a Democratic Senate majority,” she said. "Samuel Alito has identified himself with the same people who raided the Capitol on January 6 and is now going to be presiding over court cases that have deep implications over the participants in that rally. And while this is a threat to our democracy, Democrats have a responsibility for defending our democracy."

"There should be subpoenas going out. There should be active investigations that are happening," she said, adding that Democrats cannot take "for granted" that they will be able to take action after the November elections, after which Republicans could take power.

"Every single minute matters," she said, "and we have to use our power when we have it."