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The Justice Department described the organization as a criminal enterprise and linked the New York chapter to the Gambino crime family. Mr. Zito later left the biker group to try to become a movie star in Hollywood. Mr. Trump has long shown an affection for macho bikers, and addressed a rally of them in Washington in 2016 before the election. A group called Bikers for Trump took part in several so-called Stop the Steal rallies after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election. Mr. Zito was joined in the courtroom on Monday by several Trump allies who have been charged with crimes.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Chuck Zito, Gambino, Zito, ”, Mr Organizations: New York Nomads, Hells Angels, The Justice Department, Trump Locations: Manhattan, New York City, California, York, Hollywood, Washington

☆ Appeals Court Upholds Gag Order on Trump in Manhattan Trial
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A New York State appeals court on Tuesday upheld a gag order imposed on former President Donald J. Trump in his criminal trial in Manhattan, rejecting arguments that the measure had violated Mr. Trump’s First Amendment rights. The judge overseeing the trial, Juan M. Merchan, initially issued the order in March, barring Mr. Trump from threatening many participants in the proceeding, including jurors, witnesses, line prosecutors and staff members of the court. The order does not cover the judge himself or Alvin K. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, who brought the case against the former president. Since then, Justice Merchan has twice held Mr. Trump in contempt for violating the order, imposing $10,000 in fines. The judge has also warned Mr. Trump that if he continues to break the rules, he could face time in jail.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Juan M, Merchan, Alvin K, Bragg, ” Locations: York State, Manhattan

☆ Federal Appeals Court Upholds Bannon’s Contempt Conviction
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the contempt conviction of Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to former President Donald J. Trump, for having defied a subpoena from the Jan. 6 House select committee, a ruling that could lead to Mr. Bannon serving a four-month term in prison. The decision by the court means that Mr. Bannon could soon become the second former Trump aide to be jailed for ignoring a subpoena from the committee. The House panel sought his testimony as part of its wide-ranging investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, and its explosive hearings two years ago previewed much of the evidence used against Mr. Trump in a federal indictment filed last summer accusing him of plotting to overturn his defeat. In March, Peter Navarro, who once worked as a trade adviser to Mr. Trump, reported to federal prison in Miami to begin serving his own four-month prison stint after a jury found him guilty of contempt of Congress for ignoring one of the committee’s subpoenas. The judge who oversaw Mr. Bannon’s trial had allowed him to remain at home during the appeal of his conviction and is now in a position to force him to surrender.

Persons: Stephen K, Bannon, Donald J, Trump, Peter Navarro, Bannon’s Organizations: Trump, Mr Locations: Miami

☆ Judge’s Decisions in Documents Case Play Into Trump’s Delay Strategy
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The decision by Judge Aileen M. Cannon to avoid picking a date yet for former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents trial is the latest indication of how her handling of the case has played into Mr. Trump’s own strategy of delaying the proceeding. It is not impossible that the trial could still take place before Election Day, but the path is exceedingly narrow. And the question of when — or even whether — the charges against Mr. Trump will go before a jury will now largely hinge on how Judge Cannon handles an array of pretrial matters in the next few months, issues that many legal experts have said she could dispense with much more quickly. Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump in his final days in office, has been on the bench for only four years. For months now, she has stood in the glare of the spotlight with each of her most minute decisions scrutinized by an often critical gallery of legal scholars and reporters.

Persons: Aileen M, Cannon, Donald J, Trump’s, Trump, Judge Cannon Organizations: Mr, White

☆ Judge Postpones Start of Trump Documents Trial Without New Date
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case formally scrapped her own May 20 start date for the trial on Tuesday but declined to set a new one, saying there was much more work to be done before a jury could hear the charges. The decision by Judge Aileen M. Cannon to delay the start of the trial was more or less a foregone conclusion given the number of legal issues that remain unresolved less than two weeks from the date she had originally set. In a brief order, Judge Cannon wrote that picking a new date at this point would be “imprudent and inconsistent with the court’s duty to fully and fairly consider” what she described as “the myriad and interconnected” pretrial issues that she had not yet gotten to. Those included several of Mr. Trump’s pending motions to dismiss the case and a host of thorny questions surrounding how to decide what sorts of sensitive information can be revealed at the trial under a law known as the Classified Information Procedures Act.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Aileen M, Cannon, Judge Cannon

☆ Stormy Daniels and Trump Have Met in Court Before, to Her Detriment
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Stormy Daniels’s testimony on Tuesday against Donald J. Trump at his criminal trial in Manhattan was not the first time that the porn star and the former president have clashed in court. Six years ago, Ms. Daniels — then known by her off-camera name, Stephanie Clifford — filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Trump that ultimately failed, leading to damaging consequences for both her and her lawyer. The lawsuit, first filed in Manhattan federal court in April 2018 and then transferred to California, accused Mr. Trump of posting a social media message that called into question Ms. Daniels’s credibility. It came in response to one of her own posts, in which she included a sketch of a man who, she said, had threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, telling her to keep silent when she was first considering revealing her account of having had sex with Mr. Trump.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Daniels —, Stephanie Clifford —, Mr Organizations: Mr Locations: Manhattan, California, Las Vegas

The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan rebuked the former president on Monday for mounting “a direct attack on the rule of law,” holding him in contempt of court for a second time and threatening to jail him if he continued to break a gag order that bars him from attacking jurors. In a moment of remarkable courtroom drama, the judge, Juan M. Merchan, addressed Mr. Trump personally from the bench, saying that if there were further violations, he might bypass financial penalties and place the former president behind bars. Justice Merchan acknowledged that jailing Mr. Trump was “the last thing” he wanted to do, but explained that it was his responsibility to “protect the dignity of the justice system.”The judge said that he understood “the magnitude of such a decision” and that jailing Mr. Trump would be a last resort. He noted: “You are the former president of the United States, and possibly the next president as well.”

Persons: Donald J, ”, Juan M, Merchan, Trump, Justice Merchan Locations: Manhattan, United States

After the judge rebuked Mr. Trump for violating a gag order and mounting “a direct attack on the rule of law,” the prosecutors provided jurors with their first look at the 34 records they say he falsified to cover up an infamous payment. Mr. Trump made the payment to his longtime fixer, Michael D. Cohen, reimbursing him for a $130,000 hush-money payoff to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, prosecutors say. Before Mr. Trump repaid Mr. Cohen, prosecutors say, he orchestrated a scheme to falsify the records. Mr. Trump, the first American president to face prosecution, is on trial for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, one for each document: 11 checks to Mr. Cohen, 11 invoices from Mr. Cohen and 12 entries in Mr. Trump’s general ledger. The invoices and ledger entries claimed that Mr. Cohen had been repaid for “legal expenses” that arose from a “retainer agreement.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Mr, Michael D, Cohen, reimbursing, Stormy Daniels, ”

☆ Judge Pushes Back Critical Filing Deadline in Trump Documents Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Reversing one of her own decisions, the federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case granted his request on Monday to postpone the deadline for a crucial court filing in the criminal proceeding, increasing the chance that any trial would be pushed past the November election. The ruling by the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, was made in a bare-bones order that contained no factual or legal reasoning. It did not schedule a new deadline but erased the one she had set almost a month ago ordering Mr. Trump’s lawyers to file by Thursday a detailed list of the classified materials that they intend to introduce at the trial, which is set to take place at some point in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla.That list is enormously consequential because, when filed, it will mark the first step in what will ultimately be a pitched battle between the defense and prosecution over what sorts of classified materials the jury will get to hear about at trial — a contested process, balancing issues of public access and national security, that could take months to complete. Mr. Trump has relentlessly pursued a strategy of delaying all four of the criminal cases he is facing, and if he succeeds in delaying his trial on charges of mishandling classified documents until after the election, he could order his Justice Department to drop the matter altogether if he wins.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Aileen M, Cannon, Trump Organizations: Court, Department Locations: Fort Pierce, Fla

Rumors that the Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan was in rehab. A lawsuit by Hulk Hogan, the former pro wrestler, against the gossip website Gawker for publishing a tape of him having sex. Testimony on Thursday at former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan dove deeply into the celebrity-obsessed digital media environment of the past fifteen years or so that helped fuel Mr. Trump’s rise to political prominence. In his testimony, particularly as he was cross-examined, Mr. Davidson and a defense lawyer, Emil Bove, together led the jurors on a whirlwind tour of several gossipy and tawdry deals he had a hand in. Prosecutors say that the former president’s efforts to continue to keep the story hidden were criminal.

Persons: Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Hulk Hogan, Donald J, Keith Davidson, Davidson, Emil Bove, Karen McDougal, Stormy Daniels, Trump, Michael D, Cohen Organizations: Hollywood, Prosecutors Locations: Manhattan, Los Angeles

The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan held him in contempt on Tuesday, fining the former president $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order and warning that he could go to to jail if he continued to attack witnesses and jurors. “The court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders,” the judge, Juan M. Merchan, said as Mr. Trump’s trial reconvened for a third week. He added that while he was “keenly aware of, and protective of, defendant’s First Amendment rights,” he would jail Mr. Trump “if necessary and appropriate.”Justice Merchan determined that Mr. Trump had flouted the gag order by making nine public statements on social media and on his campaign website in which he attacked witnesses and the jury. He ordered Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, to remove the posts by Tuesday afternoon. The judge’s ruling and admonition came one week after a fiery hearing in which prosecutors had argued that Mr. Trump’s statements threatened the trial.

Persons: Donald J, fining, “, ”, Juan M, Merchan, Trump’s, Trump Organizations: Republican Locations: Manhattan

☆ Trump Wants to Prosecute Biden. He Also Thinks Presidents Deserve Immunity.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Alan Feuer | Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Could President Biden someday be charged with unlawfully inducing immigrants to enter the country illegally for his border policies?” the lawyer, D. John Sauer, asked. What Mr. Sauer did not mention was that Mr. Trump has done as much as anyone to escalate the prospect of threatening political rivals with prosecution. In 2016, his supporters greeted mentions of Hillary Clinton with chants of “lock her up.” In his current campaign, Mr. Trump has explicitly warned of his intent to use the legal system as a weapon of political retribution, with frequent declarations that he could go after President Biden and his family. In effect, Mr. Trump has asked the Supreme Court to enforce a norm — that in the United States, public officials do not engage in tit-for-tat political prosecutions — that he has for years threatened to shatter. In promising to sic his Justice Department on Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump has laid the grounds for the very conditions that he was asking the justices to guard against by granting him immunity.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, ceaselessly, “, Biden, John Sauer, Sauer, Hillary Clinton, ” Organizations: Mr Locations: United States

☆ How a Supreme Court Immunity Ruling Could Affect Trump’s Election Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If the Supreme Court’s hearing on Thursday about former President Donald J. Trump’s claims of executive immunity is any indication of how the court might ultimately rule, the justices could end up helping Mr. Trump in two ways. The justices signaled that their ruling, when it comes, could lead to some allegations being stripped from the federal indictment charging Mr. Trump with plotting to overturn the 2020 election. And because the process of determining which accusations to keep and which to throw away could take several months, it would all but kill the chance of Mr. Trump standing trial on charges that he tried to subvert the last election before voters get to decide whether to choose him again in this one. Near the end of the arguments, however, Justice Amy Coney Barrett abruptly floated a way that prosecutors could maneuver around that time-consuming morass. If the special counsel, Jack Smith, wanted to move more quickly, she said, and avoid the ordeal of lower courts reviewing his indictment line by line, deciding what should stay and what should go, he could always do the job himself.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Trump, Amy Coney Barrett, Jack Smith

covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Organizations: The Times, Capitol

covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Organizations: The Times, Capitol

☆ 4 Takeaways From the Supreme Court Hearing on Trump’s Immunity Claim
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Charlie Savage | Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday about Donald J. Trump’s claim that the federal charges accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election must be thrown out because he is immune from being prosecuted for any official act he took as president. Several justices seemed to want to define some level of official act as immune. Although Mr. Trump’s claim of near-absolute immunity was seen as a long shot intended primarily to slow the proceedings, several members of the Republican-appointed majority seemed to indicate that some immunity was needed. Some of them expressed worry about the long-term consequences of leaving future former presidents open to prosecution for their official actions. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. criticized an appeals court ruling rejecting immunity for Mr. Trump, saying he was concerned that it “did not get into a focused consideration of what acts we are talking about or what documents are talking about.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Brett Kavanaugh, John G, Roberts Jr, Trump, “, ” Organizations: Republican

☆ Gag Order Hearing Is Heated as Judge Considers Citing Trump for Contempt
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s trial in Manhattan held a fiery hearing on Tuesday about whether to find Mr. Trump in criminal contempt for repeatedly violating the provisions of a gag order. While the judge, Juan M. Merchan, did not issue an immediate ruling, he engaged in a heated back-and-forth with one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, scolding him for his failure to offer any facts in his defense of the former president. “You’ve presented nothing,” Justice Merchan told the lawyer, Todd Blanche, adding soon after: “You’re losing all credibility with the court.”Justice Merchan’s rebuke came moments after prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office had complained that Mr. Trump willfully violated the gag order by making 10 public statements on social media and on his campaign website that attacked two likely witnesses and the jury.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Juan M, Merchan, “ You’ve, Todd Blanche, “ You’re, Merchan’s Locations: Manhattan

☆ To Justify His Immunity Defense, Trump Flips the Prosecution Script
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the Supreme Court considers Donald J. Trump’s sweeping claims of executive immunity on Thursday, it will break new legal ground, mulling for the first time the question of whether a former president can avoid being prosecuted for things he did in office. But in coming up with the argument, Mr. Trump used a tactic on which he has often leaned in his life as a businessman and politician: He flipped the facts on their head in an effort to create a different reality. At the core of his immunity defense is a claim that seeks to upend the story told by federal prosecutors in an indictment charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election. In that indictment, prosecutors described a criminal conspiracy by Mr. Trump to subvert the election results and stay in power. In Mr. Trump’s telling, however, those same events are official acts that he undertook as president to safeguard the integrity of the race and cannot be subject to prosecution.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Trump

The Manhattan criminal trial of Donald J. Trump will be closely followed around the world. There will be no video feed aired live from the courtroom. Nor will there be an audio feed, as some federal courts allow. New York courts generally do not permit video to be broadcast from courtrooms, although a feed is being transmitted into an overflow room for the reporters covering the trial. And cameras will be stationed in the hallway outside the courtroom to capture Mr. Trump’s remarks as he enters and leaves.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s Locations: Manhattan, New York

☆ Judge Rejects Trump’s Effort to Delay Jan. 6 Civil Cases
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal judge on Thursday rejected former President Donald J. Trump’s attempt to delay a group of civil lawsuits that are seeking to hold him accountable for inspiring the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Trump had sought to have the suits put on hold until after the completion of his federal criminal trial connected to many of the same events. But in a nine-page ruling, the judge, Amit P. Mehta, decided that the civil lawsuits could move forward without running the risk that Mr. Trump might damage his chances in the criminal case by revealing his defense strategy prematurely or making statements that prosecutors might use against him. Last month, when lawyers for Mr. Trump first asked Judge Mehta to postpone the civil cases, it was the latest example of the former president seeking to pit his multiple legal matters against one another in an effort to delay them. In the past few days, Mr. Trump has also sought to push back an important filing deadline he is facing in his classified documents case in Florida by arguing that the lawyers who have to write the court papers in question need more time because they are busy representing him at yet another criminal trial — the one in Manhattan where he stands accused of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal on the eve of the 2016 election.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Trump, Amit P, Mehta, Judge Mehta Organizations: Capitol, Mr Locations: Florida, Manhattan

☆ Judge in Documents Case Rejects Dismissal Motions by Trump Co-Defendants
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case on Thursday denied initial attempts by Mr. Trump’s two co-defendants to have the charges against them dismissed. The ruling by the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, was the first time she had rejected dismissal motions by the two men, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, both of whom work for Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida. The men have also been charged with lying to investigators working on the case. At a hearing last week in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla., lawyers for the two men tried to convince Judge Cannon that their clients had no idea that the boxes they had moved on Mr. Trump’s behalf contained classified materials. The lawyers also said they needed more details about the evidence against the men than what was contained in the 53-page superseding indictment.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Aileen M, Cannon, Walt Nauta, Carlos De Oliveira, Trump, Jack Smith, Nauta, De Oliveira, Judge Cannon Organizations: Mar, Prosecutors, White, Federal, Court, Mr Locations: Florida, Fort Pierce, Fla

☆ Supreme Court’s Review of Jan. 6 Charge Has Already Freed Some Rioters
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court’s decision to consider the soundness of an obstruction law that has been widely used against those who took part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is already having an effect on some of the rioters. A small group of people convicted under the law have been released from custody — or will soon go free — even though the justices hearing arguments on Tuesday are not expected to decide the case for months. Over the past several weeks, federal judges in Washington have agreed to release about 10 defendants who were serving prison terms because of the obstruction law, saying the defendants could wait at home as the court determined whether the law should have been used at all to keep them locked up. Among those already free is Matthew Bledsoe, the owner of a moving company from Tennessee who scaled a wall outside the Capitol and then paraded through the building with a Trump flag, ultimately planting it in the arm of a statue of President Gerald R. Ford.

Persons: Matthew Bledsoe, Gerald R, Ford Organizations: Capitol Locations: Washington, Tennessee, Trump

☆ Trump’s Jan. 6 Case Could Go On Even if Court Limits Use of Obstruction Law
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even though Donald J. Trump was never mentioned during the Supreme Court’s hearing on Tuesday about a federal obstruction statute used against hundreds of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the former president loomed large over the proceeding. That is because Mr. Trump has been charged under the law in question in an indictment he is facing in Washington that accuses him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. And the court’s eventual decision on the obstruction law could affect how his case moves forward. But even if the court tosses out the use of the law against the Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol, it does not mean that the course of Mr. Trump’s own case will be greatly altered. Lawyers representing hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants have been questioning the use of the obstruction statute since long before Mr. Trump was charged with it in August.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s Organizations: Capitol, Trump Locations: Washington

☆ Trump’s Criminal Trial Begins With a Bumpy Jury Selection
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Matthew Cullen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York prosecutors joined Donald Trump and his attorneys today in a Manhattan courtroom for the official start of the first criminal trial of an American president. Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign. My colleague Alan Feuer noted that such a high initial failure rate is “surpassingly rare,” underscoring the challenges of seating an impartial jury for a defendant whom much of the country has already made its mind up about. The trial — perhaps the only one against Trump that will unfold before Election Day — is projected to take about six weeks, the judge told the prospective jurors. But it could stretch out longer if jury selection turns out to be especially time consuming.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Alan Feuer Organizations: Trump Locations: York, Manhattan

☆ Inside Donald Trump’s Embrace of the Jan. 6 Rioters
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Alan Feuer | Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two days before former President Donald J. Trump was booked at an Atlanta jail on his fourth indictment, he held an event at his golf club in New Jersey for another group of people facing criminal charges: rioters accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Standing next to a portrait of himself portrayed as James Bond, Mr. Trump told the defendants and their families that they had suffered greatly, but that all of that would change if he won another term. “People who have been treated unfairly are going to be treated extremely, extremely fairly,” he said to a round of applause at the event last August in Bedminster, N.J. “What you’ve suffered is just ridiculous,” he added. “But it’s going to be OK.”That private event was emblematic of how Mr. Trump has embraced dozens of Jan. 6 defendants and their relatives and highlights how he has sought to undermine law enforcement when it suits him, while he also puts forth a law-and-order campaign.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, James Bond, ”, you’ve Locations: Atlanta, New Jersey, Bedminster, N.J

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