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Former President Donald Trump’s longtime friend and former fundraiser, Tom Barrack, was found not guilty Friday of charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates during the Trump administration and then lied to the FBI about those contacts. In addition, he was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI about his UAE contacts during a 2019 interview with federal agents. Prosecutors largely built their case around texts and email messages Barrack and Grimes exchanged with an Emirati businessman named Rashid Al Malik, whom they described as their go-between for the pair's dealings with Emirati officials. The messages showed UAE officials giving feedback to Barrack about what he should say in TV interviews and input about what Trump should say about energy policy in a 2016 campaign speech. Barrack denied sharing that information while testifying in his own defense, and also denied having lied to the FBI.

A New York state judge on Thursday ordered an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization's financial statements following allegations that the company has been vastly overstating its assets. In a hearing in state Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan, Trump attorney Chris Kise argued the move was unnecessary and could hamper the company's business. The motion for a preliminary injunction said Trump Organization representatives created a new company with the same name in Delaware six days before James’ office brought the suit. The company then filed paperwork to register Trump Organization II LLC in New York on Sept. 21, the same day the civil action was filed. In a letter to Engoron on Thursday morning, James' office said the trust documents "pertain to ownership and control of the business assets."

Barrack, 75, is charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI. Prosecutors allege he used his decades-long friendship with Trump to “illegally provide” government officials from the UAE with access to — and information about — the president and top officials. Jackson told jurors that the government’s claim of overwhelming evidence against Barrack was “a joke,” and that there was “nothing nefarious” about his client’s dealings with Emirati officials. Jackson further argued the government had no direct evidence that Barrack had struck a deal with the UAE. Grimes' attorney, Abbe Lowell, disputed that his client was an unregistered foreign agent, saying he did what his boss Barrack told him to do, not what UAE officials requested.

The criminal trial focused on the Trump Organization was delayed until next week after a witness in the case tested positive for Covid on Tuesday. McConney, the first witness to be called in the case, had been coughing frequently since taking the stand on Monday. The judge presiding over the case, acting state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, adjourned the case until Nov. 7. McConney acknowledged on the stand that Trump signed $359,000 in checks for tuition for Weisselberg's grandchildren in the years before he was elected president. Weisselberg had been expected to testify next week, but McConney's illness will likely push back Weisselberg's testimony to mid-November.

Jury selection begins Monday in a civil trial for a group of protesters who are suing former President Donald Trump and his company over allegations that they were assaulted by security personnel outside Trump Tower in New York in 2015. Five protesters filed the suit against Trump, the Trump Organization and his presidential campaign in 2015 after they said they were roughed up outside of Trump Tower while protesting comments then-candidate Trump made about Mexicans. Trump sat for a videotaped deposition in the case in October 2021, which will be played in court and will serve as his trial testimony. That testimony was later refuted by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen during his own videotaped deposition. Like Trump, Cohen will not appear in person at the trial, but lawyers will play his four-hour videotaped deposition for the jury as his trial testimony.

Opening arguments are set to begin Monday in the high-profile criminal case against the Trump Organization, the former president's family-run company that helped make him a household name. The star witness for prosecutors will be Allen Weisselberg, the company’s longtime chief financial officer who is currently on paid leave from the Trump Organization. He was indicted alongside the Trump Organization last year after a yearslong investigation into the company’s financial practices by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The Trump Organization faces up to about $1.6 million in penalties if convicted on all counts. They're seeking unspecified money damages, and the trial will feature videotaped testimony that Trump gave in the case last year.

After he received the request, Barrack said, he turned to employees at his private equity fund, Colony Capital, to draft Trump's remarks. Prosecutors allege that in doing so, Barrack was trying to cash in on his ties to Trump while acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the UAE. Barrack testified that one of the points of the energy comments was to reassure foreign governments after a blistering speech Trump had given about foreign policy, in which he bashed China and Middle Eastern countries. Barrack testified that he, indeed, ran the draft speech by his UAE contacts and wound up incorporating some of their suggestions. But Trump and his campaign essentially threw out that version of the speech, Barrack said, in favor of one he considered "imbecilic."

Barrack, 75, is charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent and lying to the FBI. Prosecutors said UAE officials also pressed Barrack for details on who Trump would pick for various high-level jobs, including CIA director and at the State and Defense departments. Barrack's lawyers have said their client is his own man and was doing what he thought was right — not acting as an Emirati agent. Even viewed in the light most favorable to the government, the evidence shows only that the 'UAE' sometimes asked Mr. Barrack to do something, or to consider doing something, and Mr. Barrack then decided for himself whether he would do it or not." He said that Barrack had pushed him to convince then-President Trump to support Qatar in a blockade over the UAE.

The Trump Organization and Weisselberg, its longtime chief financial officer, were indicted last year following a yearslong investigation into the company's financial practices by the Manhattan district attorney's office. He also agreed "to testify truthfully at the upcoming trial of the Trump Organization" or face a sentence of up to 5 to 15 years in prison, prosecutors said. Under New York law, the Trump Organization faces up to about $1.6 million in penalties if convicted on all counts. “The scheme also allowed the Trump Organization to evade the payment of payroll taxes that the Trump Organization was required to pay in connection with employee compensation,” the indictment said. The trial comes at an already perilous time for Trump and his company.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked the Supreme Court on Friday to halt a subpoena compelling him to testify in a Georgia county prosecutor’s criminal probe of potential interference in the 2020 election. Graham’s request comes a day after a federal appeals court ordered him to testify in the grand jury investigation that has already ensnared Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani. "Without a stay, Senator Lindsey Graham will soon be questioned by a local Georgia prosecutor and her ad hoc investigative body about his protected 'Speech or Debate' related to the 2020 election," the filing says. The grand jury in Georgia was convened earlier this year to assist Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation into possible 2020 election interference by former President Donald Trump and others. The grand jury wants to question Graham about the circumstances of two phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his office after the election.

Share this -Link copiedSteve Bannon sentenced to four months Bannon was sentenced to four months in federal prison along with a $6,500 fine. He noted Bannon had not been employed in the executive branch for several years and so was unlikely to possess information that would be covered by executive privilege. Share this -Link copiedNo comments from Bannon Bannon declined to make a comment before the judge imposes his sentence, saying his lawyers had spoken for him. The committee countered that executive privilege should not extend to Bannon, because he was not working for the White House at the time. Share this -Link copiedThis isn't the end of Bannon's legal troubles Bannon has more legal problems on the horizon.

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., must testify before a Georgia grand jury examining possible election interference in the state two years ago. It also sided with the lower court's finding that "there is significant dispute about whether his phone calls with Georgia election officials were legislative investigations at all." Willis has said publicly she’s investigating a pair of post-election phone calls Graham made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and his staff. Graham has been fighting the subpoena since it was issued in July, turning to federal court after an unsuccessful bid to challenge it in state court. The Fulton County grand jury is currently in a “quiet period” through Election Day, Nov. 8.

☆ Judge says Trump knew his voter fraud numbers were false, orders ex-lawyer to give more emails to Jan. 6 committee
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | Dareh Gregorian | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

In his order, Judge David Carter found Eastman should hand over eight documents under the "crime-fraud exception" to attorney-client and attorney work privileges. But, the judge said, Trump signed off on the suit, "swearing under oath" that the numbers were correct, anyway. Nevertheless, the judge noted, "Trump and his attorneys ultimately filed the complaint with the same inaccurate numbers without rectifying, clarifying, or otherwise changing them. Andy Cross / The Denver Post via Getty Images file“The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public, the judge ruled. The Jan. 6 committee, which has prominently featured Eastman in its hearings, had subpoenaed Eastman's emails from his former workplace, Chapman University.

The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal appeals court to vacate an order appointing a special master to review documents seized during the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Florida estate — and to throw out Trump's legal challenge altogether. The 11th Circuit also blocked the special master and Trump's lawyers from being able to review those classified documents, citing the DOJ's national security concerns. The Justice Department also said that Trump's team has not provided any evidence the documents were wrongly seized or that the former president has any need for their return. Trump's team is scheduled to file its response in the case on Nov. 10. Trump's team had sought to allow the special master, federal Judge Raymond Dearie, to review the more than 100 documents taken from Mar-a-Lago that were marked classified.

A federal judge in Texas on Friday extended an order temporarily allowing hundreds of thousands of young immigrants enrolled in a program to work and study in the U.S. without fear of being deported. The administration's revised version of DACA, aimed at codifying and strengthening the protections, is set to go into effect on Oct. 31. Texas, which is home to over 100,000 people enlisted in the DACA program, filed suit to end the program in 2018, alleging that the program is illegal because it should have been created by legislation, not executive order. Hanen agreed that the program was unlawful his July 2021 ruling. The program narrowly survived a different challenge before the high court in a 5-4 ruling in 2020, but the court now has a larger conservative majority.

Jury selection is scheduled to get underway Tuesday for the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and four other members of the right-wing militia group charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The biggest charge, seditious conspiracy — trying “to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States” — carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. “They were not there to storm the Capitol, to stop the certification, to take over the Government,” Rhodes’ lawyers argued in court papers. Prosecutors said Rhodes helped organize “quick reaction forces,” some of them at a hotel in nearby Virginia. The pool will start to be whittled down Tuesday as potential jurors face questions from government prosecutors and lawyers for the defendants.

"One of the best defenses to this matter is to delay, delay, delay." New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference in New York on Sept. 21, 2022. "The core of that argument is the financial statements that were relied upon by these banks were marked as non-audited financials," Levin said. They know how to read these financial statements." "It's going to be very difficult to overcome some of that," Levin said of the inflated financial statements.

The special master appointed to review documents federal agents seized at Donald Trump’s Florida estate has given the former president until next Friday to back up his allegation that FBI planted evidence in the search on Aug. 8. Following the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump and his lawyers have publicly insinuated on multiple occasions without providing evidence that agents had planted evidence during the search. In an filing Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie of New York, the court-appointed special master, ordered the government to turn over copies of all non-classified items seized in the case to Trump's lawyers by Monday. Dearie also asked Trump's lawyers to identify any items that were seized by agents but not listed in the inventory. Both sides were ordered to appear for a status conference in the case on Oct. 6.

He also provided UAE officials with sensitive information, including internal discussions within the Trump administration concerning the blockade of Qatar by the UAE, Mehta said. When he was asked by the FBI about his dealing with UAE officials and the actions he'd taken, Barrack "started lying" and "lied and lied again." Schachter argued that the feds were blowing up "meaningless, inconsequential acts," including Barrack praising the UAE as an "important ally" during a TV interview. "Barack Obama has said the same thing," Schachter told the jury. While Grimes did set up appointments for Barrack, including with UAE officials, he did so at his boss' request, Lowell said, adding that he’d also get Barrack his coffee and smoothies and babysit his kids.

The special master appointed to review documents seized by federal agents who searched former President Donald Trump's Florida estate appeared doubtful Tuesday about Trump's contention that he had declassified the various top secret and other highly sensitive documents found there. The special master, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie, had previously asked Trump's attorneys for more information about which of the over 100 sensitive documents federal agents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate might have been declassified. During a hearing in a Brooklyn federal court, Dearie noted the current case is a civil dispute, not a criminal one, but that he was taking the government's concerns about national security seriously. "As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it," Dearie said, unless Trump's team has some evidence to the contrary. “We are starting from scratch and we would be well served to have time to look at the documents," Trusty said.

A judge's order approving a special master to review documents the FBI took from former President Donald Trump's Florida home is a deeply flawed and unworkable mess, legal experts told NBC News on Tuesday. Rosenzweig agreed, calling it "absurd" that a special master should be searching out potential executive privilege issues. "I don't know how a special master would proceed, which means inevitable delay and dispute," he said. "I don’t think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up. Saltzburg, who has worked as a special master, said the reason judges generally want special masters "is they want a review to be done quickly and thoroughly, and they don’t have the time to do it themselves."

The Biden administration on Wednesday released over 1,000 previously classified documents relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The 1,491 documents include filings from the CIA, FBI, State Department and other federal agencies. The documents say they spoke about Oswald's efforts to get a visa to go to the Soviet Union. Under a 1992 law inspired by the Oliver Stone movie "JFK," the National Archives was supposed to have released all of the remaining classified records by October 2017. The National Archives released a large tranche of documents that month, but held back others at the request of then-President Donald Trump.

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