Trump’s legal team prepares for ‘all-out war’

Lawyers for Donald Trump are preparing for a fierce legal battle if the former president is indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office this week.

Trump faces a looming indictment by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg (D) in a probe investigating a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. The adult-film actress claims she had an affair with Trump, which he has denied.

“They can do what they want,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said of the possible indictment in an interview with Kimberly Guilfoyle on Monday. “At that point, this is an all-out war.”

“He’ll be there loud and proud, and there’s nobody that’s gonna make him cower,” Tacopina added. 

The White House, meanwhile, has a simple strategy if Trump does get indicted: Get out of the way.

Aides and allies of the White House claim the strategy to keep mum is intentional because “the White House doesn’t have to do much here,” one Biden ally told The Hill’s Amie Parnes. “They need to acknowledge that it’s a serious legal matter and then leave it up to the courts,” the ally added.

The White House is also aware that Trump, as well as his team and supporters, will claim an indictment to be a “witch hunt” since Bragg is a Democrat.

Trump on his social media platform Truth Social over the weekend encouraged his supporters to take action if an indictment is indeed handed down, comments that stoked concerns about possible violence. Those remarks drew bipartisan pushback.

An official indictment has not yet been handed down, despite Trump’s prediction it would happen on Tuesday.

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• William McCall Calhoun, an attorney in Georgia, was found guilty in a D.C. court of felony and multiple misdemeanor charges for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

• Lawmakers and federal officials are debating whether to raise or temporarily waive the $250,000 insurance limit for bank deposits enforced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). 

   

• TikTok on Tuesday unveiled its updated community guidelines, which focus on improving content moderation by updating the company’s rules on how it evaluates content created or altered by AI technology and providing more details about how it protects civic and election integrity.

Former President Trump could face a myriad of charges if he is indicted

in the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s (D) investigation over Trump’s role in organizing hush-money payments to an adult-film star

While hush money payments in and of themselves are not illegal, the manner in which the payments are concealed can lead to a host of criminal charges. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen served jail time on charges related to campaign finance violations, as well as tax fraud.

If Bragg issues an indictment, his prosecution would rely on state statutes, such as state tax and campaign finance laws.

Some legal observers say an indictment of Trump could focus on charges of falsifying business records, although trying it as a felony instead of a misdemeanor could prove difficult. A felony charge would require a connection to a second crime, and the maximum jail time would be bumped from one year to four years.

Read more here

President Biden designated two new national monuments in Nevada and Texas on Tuesday.

Nevada’s Avi Kwa Ame, also known as Spirit Mountain, and Texas’s Castner Range were designated as monuments. This will protect upwards of 514,000 acres of public lands from development.

Avi Kwa Ame, which is part of the creation story of many tribes, is sacred to Indigenous groups, including the Mojave, Chemehuevi, and some Southern Paiute people. Avi Kwa Ame will still be accessible for activities such as hunting, camping, hiking and using off-highway vehicles. 

Castner Range, on Fort Bliss near El Paso, used to be an Army testing and training site during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The area, which has both hills and desert plains, contains archeological sites significant to Indigenous tribes.

The designations follow the administration’s recent approval of the Willow Project, which drew ire from environmentalists.

According to Rep. Joe Morelle (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, at least 17 current and former members of Congress had personal data exposed in a recent health care data breach.

DC Health Link, which administers health plans to members and their staff, suffered a “significant data breach” earlier this month, affecting hundreds of lawmakers and staffers in the House. Morelle said at least 17 lawmakers had sensitive information exposed.

“I think the number can and may grow,” Morelle told CBS News. “I don’t know what the probability is. But we’ve only been able to look through some of the data that’s gotten out.”    

Additional reporting claims 21 members had sensitive data exposed in the breach, as well as more 56,000 customers affected overall.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday claimed he would support legislation to repeal two Iraq war authorizations, saying at a news conference for a GOP retreat in Orlando, Fla, “I’m into it … I don’t have a problem repealing that.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) said the state will pay $600 million to settle lawsuits over Flint’s contaminated water supply, which combined with settlements from the city and a local hospital will comprise the largest legal settlement in the state’s history.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state’s constitution guarantees a “limited right” to abortions, following abortion rights activists’ challenge to the abortion ban that was signed into law last year.

“Don’t let Ukraine become just another partisan divide” — Doug Klain, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center (Read here)

“How DC can satisfy Congress and bolster public safety” — Marc A. Levin, Esq. is chief policy counsel for the Council on Criminal Justice, and Khalil A. Cumberbatch is director of strategic partnerships at the Council (Read here)

595 days until the presidential election.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will meet at 10 a.m. ET to discuss TikTok.