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Trump Media scrambles to stop short sellers from tanking share prices



Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, is scrambling to stop short sellers from tanking its share values.

NBC News reports that Trump Media this week sent around suggestions to shareholders to prevent their shares in the company from winding up in the hands of short sellers who are essentially betting on the company's failure to make money.

According to NBC, the "tips include holding DJT shares in a cash account at a brokerage firm as opposed to a margin account, 'opting out of any securities lending program,' moving Trump Media shares to the company’s designated transfer agent, and transferring shares to a bank and 'holding them in your retirement account.'"

Short sellers essentially pay brokerage firms fees to borrow shares on a temporary basis on the belief that the shares will sink in price.

READ MORE: From 'really rich' to begging: Inside Trump's U-turn on one of his first campaign lies

After borrowing the shares, the short sellers proceed to sell them on the open market and then by them back by a specific date when they have to be returned to their owners.

If the share price in that time has indeed gone down, then the short sellers pocket the difference they made between the original sale and the repurchase.

If the share price increases, however, the short sellers lose money because they'll be buying back the shares at a higher price than the original sale.

Short sellers have swarmed to Trump Media shares for weeks now, as its price has plummeted from a high of $66.22 on March 27th to a low of $22.84 on Tuesday, although its price has recovered some of that lost value in the last day-and-a-half of trading.

The longer-term threat to Trump Media's value likely isn't short sellers, however, but simply a lack of profitability. The selloff in shares started earlier this month when the company released an earnings report showing that it lost $58 million in the last fiscal year while generating just $4 million in revenues.

Lara Trump downplays hush money charges as simple ‘bookkeeping error’



Lara Trump downplayed the criminal charges against her father-in-law Donald Trump as a mere "bookkeeping error."

The Republican National Committee co-chair appeared Wednesday on Sean Hannity's Fox News program, where she suggested Manhattan prosecutors were engaged in election interference for trying the former president on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up alleged hush money payments to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels, reported HuffPost.

"Everyone can see what this is about," Lara Trump said. "They have, and are forcing, Donald Trump to sit in a courtroom — this is a former president of the United States, the current nominee for the Republican side of the aisle for president — for weeks on end. For what, Sean? They claim a bookkeeping error — really?"

“This is insane," she added. "We can all see exactly what this is all about and what the goal of this is. Of course, it’s to keep Donald Trump from the campaign trail."

Prosecutors allege in their indictment that Trump directed his then-attorney Michael Cohen, who has already served nearly three years in prison after pleading guilty in the scheme, to pay Daniels off in the weeks before the 2016 election to ensure her silence about an extramarital affair.

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Trump then allegedly falsified business records by reimbursing Cohen in a series of transactions described as payment for legal services.

Trump has denied all the allegations.

The ex-president's campaign circulated talking points ahead of the trial, which started Monday, directing surrogates to describe the case as a "a full-frontal assault on American Democracy and the Constitution" and a "witch hunt," and recommending that supporters do not refer to the case as a "hush money case," but to instead describe it as "entries in the company’s records."

Watch the video below or at this link.

‘Virtually impossible’: Trump demands delay to classified docs case as NYC trial continues



Former President Donald Trump Thursday demanded a pause in his classified documents case in Florida, arguing his lawyers are too busy trying to keep him out of jail in New York City, court records show.

Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Chris Kise doubled down on the weekend's deadline extension demands, opposed by special counsel Jack Smith, in a new request to Judge Aileen Cannon, according to Florida federal court documents.

The attorneys claim they cannot continue without access to a sensitive compartmented information facility, a military term for an enclosed area used to process sensitive information.

“Simply put, [former] President Trump and his counsel cannot prepare — or even discuss — the required filings anywhere but an appropriate SCIF,” the attorneys write. “A virtually impossible task given President Trump and Messrs. Blanche ... involvement in People v. Trump.”

People v. Trump is more commonly known as the hush money trial, which began this week in New York City, where the former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments made to a star of adult films, Stormy Daniels.

Legal experts also call it an election interference case, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg contends Trump paid Daniels not to talk about sexual encounters ahead of the 2016 presidential race. Trump denies the allegations.

Blanche is overseeing both the hush money and the classified documents case — in which the former president stands accused of Espionage Act violations linked to classified documents found in his Mar-a-Lago bathroom, among other places — as well as weighing in on the D.C. election interference case.

Reports from inside the courtroom show Blanche’s many responsibilities Thursday included chastising Trump for disobeying court rules by taking out his phone.

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“Trump is using his phone in the courtroom, openly flouting the rules of the courtroom,” reported NBC correspondent Kyle Griffin. “Blanche just told him to stop and Trump tucked the phone in his pocket while looking annoyed.”

Thursday’s filing also contains the promise that the New York City trial is moving along at rapid speed.

“The trial is proceeding expeditiously,” the lawyers write. “And jury selection may be completed by the end of this week.”

This letter arrived the same day two jurors were excused, leaving just five selected for a panel of 16.

This is hardly Trump's first attempt to delay the Florida trial, a tactic legal experts say is aims to push the court date past the presidential election. If Trump reclaims the White House, he could essentially kill the case.

‘Coming for them’: Ex-prosecutor says Trump is promoting ‘fake allegations about jurors’



Donald Trump is already sharing "fake allegations about jurors" in his criminal hush money case, a former federal prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Trump made history this week when he became the first former president to face criminal trial after jury selection began in the case accusing the ex-president of falsifying business records to hide an affair from the public ahead of the election. Before the fog has even settled on the jury selection, the former president is now coming directly for those jurors, according to MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance.

For his part, Trump quoted Fox News host Jess Watters.

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"'They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury,' Jesse Watters," Trump wrote on his own social media network, Truth Social, Wednesday. He didn't add further context.

But Vance thought that was inappropriate behavior coming from a criminal defendant.

"Trump is now 're-truthing' fake allegations about jurors," she wrote on Wednesday. "A fully jury isn't even sworn in and he's already coming for them."

Democrat Harry Sisson called it "jury intimidation."

"This is absolutely jury intimidation," he said. "This is against the rules of the court and Donald Trump should be held accountable for it. No more playing games."

‘Hypocritical’ Mitch McConnell blasted after fit about ‘ignoring’ Senate procedure



Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) complained that Democrats had ignored Senate procedures after they voted down two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

In a vote along party lines, Democrats managed to table the two articles of impeachment. Republicans cried foul because the move circumvented a Senate trial.

"We've set a very unfortunate precedent here," McConnell said following the vote. "This means that the Senate can ignore, in effect, the House's impeachment."

"And by doing what we just did, we have, in effect, ignored the directions of the House, which were to have a trial," he added. "No evidence, no procedure, this is a day that's not a proud day in the history of the Senate."

In a move that broke Senate precedent, then-Majority Leader McConnell refused to grant a hearing to Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court in 2016. The decision marked a significant shift in the handling of Supreme Court nominations.

ALSO READ: Revealed: What government officials privately shared about Trump not disclosing finances

In August 2016, McConnell expressed pride in blocking Obama's nominee, a sentiment echoed by the 11 Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who also opposed any proceedings for Garland.

"One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, 'Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy,'" McConnell said in a speech at the time.

Critics called the minority leader hypocritical after his remarks on Wednesday.

"Isn't Mitch McConnell being rather hypocritical in saying the Senate should have respected the wishes of the House for an impeachment trial?" Ben McCrory asked on X (formerly Twitter).

"McConnell can shove it on precedence and the institution. He’s done enough to break that body and this country," another commenter wrote.

Watch the video clip below or click the link.

‘Going to need some Democrats’: Jake Tapper corners Speaker Johnson in rare CNN interview



House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was confronted by CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday morning about how exactly he plans to fend off the motion to remove him from power being planned by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and her allies, and whether he has looked for any votes from Democrats to save him in the midst of a critically narrow House majority.

Johnson had few answers to any of these questions.

"I'm wondering, have you talked to Democrats at all about if that happens and if some of these Republicans voted to remove you as speaker — and it's this is not a hypothetical, it looks like this actually might happen — will Democrats vote to keep you as speaker?" asked Tapper.

ALSO READ: Who will Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hurt more in Election 2024? History has an answer4

"I've not asked any Democrats to get involved in that," said Johnson. "I believe the House will do its will." He added, "We live in a very divided time and very divisive policy ticks and the age of social media, 24-hour news cycle, where everybody can express their opinions every moment of the day about things that are disgruntled about, it makes a lot of challenges. But we're going to get through this. Listen, we are the greatest nation in the history of the world, okay? We are going to show that we're going to keep the train on the tracks and not get derailed and get involved in all this at such a dangerous time on the world stage. And look ... I don't walk around thinking about the motion to vacate. It's a procedural matter here that I think has been abused in recent times. Maybe at some point we change that. But right now, I gotta do my job and so do all my colleagues and I'm confident in the end of the day, in spite of all the drama and all the palace intrigue, I think we're going to get that done."

"Well, whoever — I mean, if they bring the motion to vacate forward, there aren't enough Republicans, there aren't 218 or whatever Republicans," said Tapper. "Somebody's going to need Democrats ... if you win and keep your job, if there is a motion to vacate, it will be with Democratic support, or these people who are who rebelled against Kevin McCarthy and thought voting with Democrats was the worst thing in the world will also use Democratic votes."

"Jake, I don't know what's gonna happen," said Johnson. "I'm not focused on that. I'm focused on doing my job. Look, when you do the right thing, you let the chips fall where they may. I mean, that's that's how that's my life philosophy ... we tried to get the best possible outcome for the American people, to move the ball forward for the American people. And I've got to stay focused on that every day and not, not all the drama that's that's my answer."

Watch the video below or click here.

Jake Tapper confronts Mike Johnson about vacate motion www.youtube.com

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