Tuesday, December 17, 2024

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1/ A judge rejected Trump’s effort to have his felony conviction dismissed on presidential immunity grounds. Judge Juan Merchan, addressing the Supreme Court’s decision to grant presidents “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution” for “official acts,” ruled that Trump’s actions were “decidedly personal.” Merchan wrote that it was “logical and reasonable to conclude that if the act of falsifying records to cover up the payments so that the public would not be made aware is decidedly an unofficial act, so too should the communications to further that same cover-up be unofficial.” Merchan also rejected Trump’s argument that he’s protected by presidential immunity because of his election win. Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of orchestrating an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election by falsifying business records. It’s unclear if the case will proceed to sentencing, and Trump’s lawyers now claim they have evidence of misconduct by a juror. (CNN / New York Times / Bloomberg / NBC News / NPR / Axios / CBS News / Associated Press)

2/ Trump filed a civil lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer, accusing them of engaging in “brazen election interference” and consumer fraud over a poll shortly before the election that showed Harris leading Trump by three points. Selzer’s prediction, however, was wrong, and Trump won Iowa by 13 percentage points. Two weeks after the election, Selzer retired from the polling business after three decades. “I’m not doing this because I want to. I’m doing this because I feel I have an obligation to,” Trump said. “We have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections.” The lawsuit comes days after ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit Trump brought against them over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ using the word “rape” rather than “sexual assault” of writer E. Jean Carroll. The network agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library. Trump is also suing CBS News for $10 billion over the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, claiming the editing amounted to “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” intended to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales” of the election in her favor. Separately, Trump is suing journalist Bob Woodward, who published the audio tapes of their 19 interviews he permitted Woodward to record for his book ...

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