Bizarre New Wrinkle in Trump’s Fraud Case Could Hand Him a Big Win

A bit of alleged unsolicited advice may have compromised the judge in Donald Trump’s $454 million New York bank fraud trial.

New York’s judicial oversight body has opened an investigation into a conversation between Judge Arthur Engoron and real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey that allegedly occurred in the weeks leading up to the seismic judgment against Trump.

“I actually had the ability to speak to him three weeks ago,” Bailey told NBC New York on February 16, the day that Engoron’s decision was due. “I saw him in the corner [at the courthouse] and I told my client, ‘I need to go.’ And I walked over and we started talking.… I wanted him to know what I think and why.… I really want him to get it right.”

Bailey also said that Engoron had had a lot of questions about prior fraud cases and that they “went over it.” Ultimately, however, Engoron’s ruling went in a direction that Bailey did not advise: utilizing the statute to effectively shut down Trump’s New York real estate operation, which Bailey believed would hurt the local economy.

A spokesperson for Engoron denied in a statement that the unaffiliated attorney’s comments held any weight with the judge as he made his decision.

“No ex parte conversation concerning this matter occurred between Justice Engoron and Mr. Bailey or any other person. The decision Justice Engoron issued February 16 was his alone, was deeply considered, and was wholly uninfluenced by this individual,” Al Baker, a spokesman for the New York State’s Office of Court Administration, told NBC in a written statement.

The New York state rules of conduct specify that a “a judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers,” though there is wiggle room for a judge to “obtain the advice of a disinterested expert” if the judge gives advance notice to both parties in the case with the possibility of issuing their own responses.

A member of the Trump defense team, Christopher Kise, claimed that the conversation could cast doubt on Engoron’s entire process.

“The code doesn’t provide an exception for ‘Well, this was a small conversation’ or ‘Well, it didn’t really impact me’ or ‘Well, this wasn’t something that I, the judge, found significant,’” Kise told NBC. “No. The code is very clear.”

President Biden briefly held up sending weapons to Israel this week, and Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson promptly freaked out.

The Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader sent a rare joint letter to Biden on Wednesday saying they were “alarmed by media reports that your administration had delayed the delivery of a variety of weapons shipments bound for Israel. This news flies in the face of assurances provided regarding the timely delivery of security assistance to Israel.”

The shipment consisted of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to the BBC, and the delay reportedly came because Biden administration officials felt Israel has not “fully addressed” humanitarian concerns in Rafah, a city on Gaza’s border with Egypt where small amounts of aid have entered the territory and where civilians from the rest of Gaza have fled during the war. Israel has recently begun a military operation in the city.

Other Republicans also expressed outrage at the delay.

Senator Lindsey Graham said, “If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price. This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose.”

Republicans seem to be ignoring how Israel has already killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 14,500 children. The Biden administration has said previously that Israel’s military would cross a red line if they launched an operation on Rafah, but now maintain that Israel isn’t crossing that line. A cease-fire was agreed to by Hamas this week, only to be rejected by Israel, making Biden’s public statements and behind-the-scenes efforts toward Netanyahu look foolish.

Flippant statements from Israeli officials over the weapons holdup don’t help, either:

(A U.S. State Department spokesperson said in response, “Those comments are deplorable,” adding senior Israeli officials “should refrain from” these kinds of threats.)

At least one Democratic, or rather independent, senator saw the Biden administration’s decision as a good first step, perhaps toward a bigger move.

Bernie Sanders said:

Given the unprecedented humanitarian disaster that Netanyahu’s war has created in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of children face starvation, President Biden is absolutely right to halt bomb delivery to this extreme, right-wing Israeli government. But this must be a first step.

The U.S. must now use ALL its leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, the end of the attacks on Rafah, and the immediate delivery of massive amounts of humanitarian aid to people living in desperation. Our leverage is clear. Over the years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no longer be complicit in Netanyahu’s horrific war against the Palestinian people.

At a press conference Wednesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson pushed a right-wing conspiracy theory that undocumented immigrants are voting in elections—and then in the same breath admitted that there was no proof.

Johnson was speaking about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act, introduced by Republicans Wednesday in the House of Representatives and the Senate, which would require proof of citizenship to be able to vote in elections.

“We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it’s not been something that is easily provable. We don’t have that number,” Johnson said.

Johnson claimed the new bill would allow states to track instances of illegal voting and would give them the ability to enforce the law against such instances. But the idea that “a lot of illegals” vote in elections is a long-standing right-wing myth, repeated without proof by personalities such as Elon Musk and far-right members of Congress like Byron Donalds. Statistics show that fewer than 1 percent of noncitizens even attempt to register to vote.

So why repeat it? It seems to be a recurring pattern for Republicans to scare up votes by demonizing immigrants. It hasn’t worked the last few elections, though, and this time around, Trump and the GOP even scuttled a border security bill out of fears it would be good for Biden, making it clear to voters that Republican rhetoric is merely theater. They want to use fear about immigration to win in 2024 so they can enact more laws like the Muslim ban and streamline deportations.

The Ku Klux Klan is the “the military wing of the Democratic Party,” and migrants coming to the United States “have no interest in being Americans,” Republican Representative Scott Perry said in a closed-door meeting with other lawmakers Tuesday.

CNN obtained a recording of Perry, whose district encompasses south central Pennsylvania, making the remarks during a House Oversight Committee member briefing on “The Origins and Implications of Rising Antisemitism in Higher Education.”

“The KKK in modern times, a lot of young people think somehow it’s a right-wing organization, when it is the military wing of the Democratic Party. Decidedly, unabashedly, racist and antisemitic,” Perry said in the recording.

“‘Replacement theory’ is real,” Perry added, referencing the discredited, racist idea that elites are deliberately replacing white people with immigrants and other racial groups. “They added white to it to stop everybody from talking about it.”

His comments at the meeting didn’t end there.

“What is happening now is we’re importing people into the country that want to be in America … but have no interest in being Americans, and that’s very different, and to disparage the comments is to chill the conversation so that we can continue to bring in more people that we never met that are un-American,” Perry said, according to the recording.

When CNN contacted Perry for comment, he claimed that he was taken out of context.

“Once again, the radical Left twists facts in order to silence conversation about its own crimes and Biden’s intentional failures to enforce laws and close or regulate our borders. My point is proven yet again: when the Left loses an argument, it debases and smears instead of engaging in debate on merits,” Perry said in a statement.

Perry’s statement doesn’t actually dispute his recorded comments, which sound damning in just about any context. The irony of stating his beliefs on replacement theory is that it is very much connected to antisemitism, with many claiming that Jewish people are the “elites” leading the efforts to replace white people. These days, replacement theory has been tied to massacres like the Buffalo shooting, parroted by people like Elon Musk, and used by some Republicans to justify regressive policies on abortion and immigration alike. 

This is yet another mark on Perry’s record, as the Pennsylvania congressman has been extensively linked to Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021, even having his cell phone briefly seized by the FBI and narrowly escaping a lawsuit from his own state to be removed from the 2024 ballot for his part in the insurrection.

Donald Trump simply can’t help himself from taking a solid jab at the partial gag order he’s under in his New York hush-money trial. The court-imposed gag order prevents him from speaking publicly about courtroom staff, prosecutors, jurors, witnesses, or their family members—but according to Trump, not having the opportunity to openly insult them is thoroughly “unfair.”

“It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning, during his only break from the courtroom this week.

“It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be PUT IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time,” he continued. “This Fascist mindset is all coming from D.C. It is a sophisticated hit job on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME!”

Trump then went on to attack Judge Arthur Engoron and Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw two of his prior civil trials, including the New York bank fraud trial in which Trump had to cough up $15,000 for violating a similar gag order.

“Judges Engoron and Kaplan, also of New York, are equally Corrupt, only in different ways,” Trump wrote, attempting to tie court cases in which he, a former real estate mogul, reality TV star, and indicted former president, was tried for his own misconduct, to the liberties of the average American. “What these THUGS are doing is AN ATTACK ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND OUR ONCE GREAT NATION ITSELF. OUR FIRST AMENDMENT MUST STAND, FREE AND STRONG. ‘GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!’”

Donald Trump’s big mouth in the hush-money trial has so far cost him $10,000* and earned him a formal warning about the possibility of jail time if he continues to violate the gag. In the days since Trump was last formally warned, he has come pretty close to breaching the order—including deleting a post about Stormy Daniels moments before she was set to take the stand. It remains to be seen if his latest post—which seems to lambast witnesses in the case as “sleazebags” and “lowlifes”—will constitute another violation.

Trump is accused of using Cohen to sweep an affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels under the rug ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The Republican presidential nominee faces 34 felony charges in this case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

*This article originally misstated the amount Trump has been fined for violating the gag order.

A Republican lawmaker has decided that the violent detention of college students participating in Gaza solidarity protests isn’t enough of a punishment. Instead, he believes the only way to encourage them to stop using their First Amendment right to protest is to ship them off to Gaza.

Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles introduced a new bill into the House Wednesday, proposing that students who were arrested for protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza should be sent abroad to “provide community service” for a minimum of six months in the war-torn territory.

“Any person convicted of unlawful activity on the campus of an institution of higher education beginning on and after October 7, 2023, shall be assigned to Gaza for the purpose of providing community service… for a period not fewer than six months,” the bill reads.

It is not currently clear what the exact parameters of the proposed community service would be, though the bill points to the term’s definition in U.S. Code, which are identified by universities “through formal or informal consultation with local nonprofit, governmental, and community-based organizations.”

Although it’s unlikely to gain momentum, the bill could impact approximately 2,100 students who were arrested while participating in peace protests in recent weeks.

It’s at least the second time Ogles has hatefully condemned the citizens of Gaza and their American allies who want an end to the war. In February, the Tennessee Republican ruthlessly advocated for the complete extermination of Palestine while engaging in a fiery spat with an activist.

“You know what? So, I think we should kill ’em all, if that makes you feel better,” Ogles, a self-described Christian, told a protester asking him about dead Palestinian children. “Everybody in Hamas.”

“Hamas and the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for 20 years. And It’s time to pay the piper,” the lawmaker continued.

Meanwhile, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 77,000 Palestinians have been injured in the conflict, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry. Most of the victims have been women and children.

Israel has advanced its attacks on Gaza by blocking humanitarian aid from reaching those who need it. Israel has also utilized mass starvation, as well as blocked or destroyed access to critical resources such as water, food, fuel, electricity, and medical aid.

America’s disgraced mayor seems to have lost practically everything in his bid to aid Donald Trump.

A Tuesday filing in United States Bankruptcy Court revealed that Rudy Giuliani has lost more than just cash in his New York City–based federal bankruptcy case, but also the hired hand intended to tally it.

“Unfortunately, the debtor originally had an accountant who was helping, however, he had a change of heart and indicated that he no longer wished to help prepare the monthly operating reports,” the filing reads.

The former Trump adviser also sought out the help of several other accounting firms for help with his expenses, but nobody wanted the job, according to the legal document, which noted that Giuliani’s sole source of income is mainly from his Social Security and “whatever little bit of money” comes in from his WABC radio show and podcast.

The telling filing is just the latest in a long series of legal woes suffered by Giuliani since he risked it all to allegedly help Trump steal the 2020 presidential election. In December, the former Trump attorney was ordered to cough up $148 million for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss. And three months before that, Giuliani faced a suit from his former legal representation, who accused him of failing to pay his bill and allegedly only dishing out $214,000 of nearly $1.6 million in legal expenses, after he claimed he was stiffed by his favorite client, Trump, to the tune of millions of dollars.

That resulted in an embarrassing show in which Giuliani had no other option than to beg Trump for help settling his seven-figure legal fees, to which the stingy developer refused but offered to throw a couple of fundraisers for him instead.

Giuliani is also one of 19 co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case and was named in April in an Arizona indictment charging another slew of Republican officials and Trump allies for their alleged involvement in a scheme to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.

After complaining about being forced to attend his hush-money trial, Donald Trump is spending his day off with people who spent thousands of dollars on his NFTs.

Axios reports that, after his trial wrapped up for the day on Tuesday, Trump flew back to Palm Beach, Florida, to have dinner with the NFT buyers at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The buyers each bought at least 47 of his “Mugshot Edition” NFTs, which cost $99 each. The “artworks” consist of images ranging from his actual mugshot to artist renderings of him dressed as a cowboy or superhero.

After his trial wrapped on Tuesday, Trump told reporters “I’d like to be campaigning” and has vented on his Truth Social account about being required to attend every day of his trial proceedings in New York in accordance with state law. But he has no campaign events scheduled for Wednesday. He has also complained that he wouldn’t be allowed to attend his youngest child Barron’s high school graduation (he also scheduled a campaign event for the same day). But the former president is also desperate for cash due to the many legal judgments against him.

He owes E. Jean Carroll $83 million after she successfully sued him for defamation. He owes The New York Times $400,000. He also currently has a surety company backing him to the tune of $175 million to appeal the fraud trial ruling against him. That doesn’t include the legal fees he’s racked up, which at least one of his former lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, says he isn’t paying.

He could easily be going bankrupt and, in his desperation for cash, has engaged in ventures including branded $399 sneakers, the aforementioned NFTs, and even “God Bless the USA” Bibles.

Donald Trump just got some good news on another legal front.

A Georgia appeals court has agreed to review the decision to keep Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on the RICO prosecution against Trump in his Georgia election interference case. That criminal trial charges Trump and more than a dozen of his associates with trying to steal Georgia’s 2020 election from the candidate that actually won the majority of votes, Joe Biden. Now, with Tuesday’s decision from the appeals court, it’s not clear when the case will actually go to trial.

This is a huge win for Trump, who had appealed a lower court ruling to allow Willis to continue overseeing the case. The appeal court’s order says Trump can file a notice of appeal within the next 10 days.

Willis was allowed to remain on the Georgia RICO case after she was accused of hiring special prosecutor Nathan Wade—a man she had a relationship with and who billed her office (and taxpayers) more than $728,000 in legal fees—for personal financial gain. The couple was also accused of taking several international vacations together that were allegedly partially bankrolled by public funds. However, after weeks of intense questioning, a Georgia judge ruled in March that Willis would be allowed to continue prosecuting Trump so long as Wade took the fall.

In a letter submitted to the District Attorney’s Office filing, Wade wrote that his leave, effective immediately, was in the “interest of democracy” and to move the case forward “as quickly as possible.”

That expediency may have been for naught, however. Deliberating Trump’s appeal is expected to push back the election interference trial significantly, with some attorneys predicting it could easily push past November.

“Trump & his allies will always find something, anything to delay their day in Court,” wrote former Justice Department official Anthony Coley. “Bottom line: This November, the people will decide if Trump will ever face accountability for trying to overturn the will of voters.”

As if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. couldn’t get any weirder, the presidential candidate has admitted that a doctor once suspected a worm ate part of his brain and then died inside his head.

The New York Times reports that in 2010, Kennedy was experiencing severe mental fog and memory loss, so he went to see specialist doctors, including some of the same neurologists who had treated his uncle Senator Ted Kennedy’s brain cancer. After brain scans, doctors thought that he had a tumor and quickly scheduled a surgery to have it removed.

But, while he was preparing, another doctor called him with a different opinion: Kennedy had a dead parasite in his head, “a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Kennedy said in a 2012 deposition from his divorce proceedings reviewed by the Times.

In the deposition, Kennedy said, “I have cognitive problems, clearly. I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.”

The 70-year-old independent presidential candidate claims to be in better shape, mentally and physically, than his opponents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who are 81 and 77, respectively. He’s posted videos skiing and lifting weights shirtless at an outdoor gym in Venice Beach, California. In an interview with The New York Times, Kennedy said he had recovered from symptoms including memory loss and fogginess.

But he’s also had his own health issues over the years, such as atrial fibrillation, a heart issue linked to an increased risk of stroke or heart failure; mercury poisoning, which can cause neurological issues; and spasmodic dysphonia, which results in a shaky, tight or strained-sounding voice.

Kennedy’s campaign has had mixed news as of late, gaining ballot access in California and Delaware and worrying the Trump campaign. But he’s also faced calls to drop out from his allies in the environmental movement, and one of his campaign consultants was arrested for allegedly choking and punching a woman.