Trump team reveals first witness for defence in NY fraud trial

Donald Trump’s legal team have now revealed who will be the first witness called for the defence in the civil fraud trial in New York.

The former president’s son Donald Trump Jr will take the stand on Monday morning for what marks the start of the defence’s case as they seek to prevent the Trump family business empire from being toppled in the Big Apple.

Don Jr has already taken to the stand once in the case as a witness for New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office on 2 and 3 November, where he struggled to remember much about his role at the Trump Organization.

During courtroom testimony, he denied knowledge of the fraudulent financial statements at the heart of the $250m case – pushing the responsibility onto accountants who he said “had an incredible, intimate knowledge” of the documents.

“I relied on them,” he said on the stand.

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The Minnesota Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to bar former president Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot.

The challenge, from a bipartisan group of state voters, sought to block Mr Trump’s campaign under a 14th Amendment provision forbidding candidates who “engaged in insurrection.”

The state appellate court held in a brief ruling on Wednesday that the Civil War-era measure did not apply to the Minnesota primary process, which it argued was a fundamentally local process outside the purview of the US Constitution.

“There is no state statute that prohibits a major political party from placing on the presidential nomination primary ballot, or sending delegates to the national convention supporting, a candidate who is ineligible to hold office,” the ruling reads.

The court left open the possibility that the voters could challenge Donald Trump’s inclusion on the general election ballot in 2024.

“Daniel Cameron lost because he couldn’t alleviate the stench of Mitch McConnell,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I told him early that’s a big burden to overcome,” the ex-president said while adding that Mr McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader is “kryptonite” for GOP candidates.

Sadly for Mr Cameron, it was not to be…

Donald Trump’s legal team have now revealed the first witness to be called for the defence in the civil fraud trial in New York.

The former president’s son Donald Trump Jr will take the stand on Monday morning for what marks the start of the defence’s case as they seek to prevent the Trump family business empire from being toppled in the Big Apple.

Don Jr has already taken to the stand once in the case as a witness for New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, where he struggled to remember much about his role at the Trump Organization.

Ivanka Trump was the fourth and final family member – and the last prosecution witness – to testify on Wednesday, before the AG’s office rested its case.

Nikki Haley is known for a lot of firsts — the first Asian American woman to serve as governor in US history, the first Indian American member of a presidential Cabinet, the first woman of colour to run for the GOP nomination — but will she become the first woman to serve as US president?

Few think so.

On paper, Ms Haley is arguably the ideal GOP candidate. She boasts impressive foreign policy experience amid the bloody conflict in Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas. She is the only woman in the race, giving her a sophisticated position to discuss reproductive rights as Republicans struggle to appeal to voters following the demise of Roe v Wade. Still, the 51-year-old can’t seem to catch up to Mr Trump. Ms Haley’s candidacy demonstrates a larger problem with the 2024 Republican race — no one can touch him.

However, some have argued that her path to the White House isn’t as far-reaching as it once was, as her star has risen in recent weeks. As of the beginning of November, she is tied with rival candidate Florida Gov Ron DeSantis for the spot trailing the prominent frontrunner.

Mr Christie, Mr Trump’s onetime staunch ally turned sworn nemesis, pointed out that the former president had endorsed Daniel Cameron in the Kentucky’s gubernatorial race – and that Mr Cameron then landed a major defeat in the red state.

“Cameron was a rising star in the Republican party until he decided to throw his lot in with Donald Trump,” he told CNN on Tuesday night.

“Let’s face it, Donald Trump is political and electoral poison down ballot.”

Taking to Truth Social on Tuesday night, Mr Trump once again lashed out at “corrupt” New York Attorney General Letitia James and “Trump hating” Judge Arthur Engoron as he said that calling his daughter to the stand is “sad”.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked a federal judge in Washington DC to reject Donald Trump’s efforts to strike “inflammatory” descriptions of January 6 from the criminal indictment against him, saying Mr Trump is “responsible for the events at the Capitol” thus the statements are relevant.

The main focus on Donald Trump’s myriad of legal woes shifted to Lower Manhattan in October as his civil fraud case came to trial at New York state’s Supreme Court.

New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the case against the Trump Organization and maintains that between 2011 and 2021 the company falsified financial statements regarding the development of several real estate projects and artificially inflated Mr Trump’s net worth in order to get better financing terms from banks and insurance companies.

This was done by over-stating valuations of the former president’s most prestigious holdings including his triplex penthouse at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan and his current home at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

As the prosecution’s case draws to a close, three of his adult children are taking the stand to testify under oath, which begs the question: how are they wrapped up in all this and why is their testimony important at the trial?

Donald Trump falsely claimed that an episode of 60 Minutes and a recent federal law clarifying the electoral process backed up his unprecedented theory that former vice-president Mike Pence had the power to stop or overturn the counting of the 2020 election results.

Refering to the December 2022 Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which was mentioned on a recent 60 Minutes broadcast, Mr Trump argued on Truth Social, “The fact that they had to CLARIFY THE LAW means that there was UNCERTAINTY, which means that it was open to INTERPRETATION. It could have been done!”

Legal scholars dispute this interpretation.