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Lawyers representing the State of New York and Donald J. Trump will help select the 12 people who will decide the former president’s fate. The lawyers will try to divine unspoken political biases, opinions about law enforcement and other hidden agendas. The potential jurors, who could face public anger and threats if they are chosen, will be asked about their education, occupations, families and news sources. The questions will drill slowly deeper: Potential jurors, all from one of the state’s most liberal counties, will be asked to reveal whether they volunteered for or against Mr. Trump. Perhaps most critically, they will be asked whether their feelings would interfere with their ability to be fair.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Organizations: State Locations: Manhattan, American, New York

Allies of Donald J. Trump are discussing ways to elevate third-party candidates in battleground states to divert votes away from President Biden, along with other covert tactics to diminish Democratic votes. They plan to promote the independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “champion for choice” to give voters for whom abortion is a top issue — and who also don’t like Mr. Biden — another option on the ballot, according to one person who is involved in the effort and who, like several others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans. Trump allies also plan to amplify the progressive environmental records of Mr. Kennedy and the expected Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, in key states — contrasting their policies against the record-high oil production under Mr. Biden that has disappointed some climate activists. A third parallel effort in Michigan is meant to diminish Democratic turnout in November by amplifying Muslim voters’ concerns about Mr. Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Trump allies are discussing running ads in Dearborn, Mich., and other parts of the state with large Muslim populations that would thank Mr. Biden for standing with Israel, according to three people familiar with the effort, which is expected to be led by an outside group unaffiliated with the Trump campaign.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Mr, Kennedy, Jill Stein Organizations: Democratic, Green Party Locations: Michigan, Gaza, Dearborn, Mich, Israel

Jared Kushner’s investment fund is not especially large by global finance standards. His $3 billion fund is financed almost entirely from overseas investors with whom he worked when he served as a senior adviser in the Trump White House. He has taken money from government wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as from Terry Gou, a founder of Foxconn, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer, whose role in Mr. Kushner’s firm has not been previously disclosed. Mr. Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, is collecting approximately $40 million a year in management fees from those investors even before any share of profits earned on investments. He has made 10 investments to date, totaling $1.2 billion, many of them in companies based abroad.

Persons: Jared, Donald J, Trump, Terry Gou, Kushner’s Organizations: Trump White House, United Arab, Foxconn, Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr, Affinity Partners Locations: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan

Former President Donald J. Trump said in a video statement on Monday that abortion rights should be left up to the states, remarks that came after months of mixed signals on an issue that he and his advisers have worried could cost him dearly in the election. Mr. Trump said his view was that the states should decide through legislation, and that “whatever they decide must be the law of the land, and in this case, the law of the state.” But he added that he was “strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be,” Mr. Trump said in the video, which he posted on his Truth Social website. “At the end of the day, it’s all about will of the people,” he added. “That’s where we are right now and that’s what we want — the will of the people.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, “, ”, Mr Organizations: “

Follow our live coverage of Trump’s hush money trial. Mr. Blanche recently bought a home in Palm Beach County near Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. He brought his family to Mr. Trump’s campaign celebration there on Super Tuesday. And during Mr. Trump’s first criminal trial, set to begin in Manhattan on April 15, he will use space at 40 Wall Street, the former president’s office tower near the courthouse. After a well-credentialed career as a federal prosecutor and a white-collar defense lawyer, Mr. Blanche, 49, has bet his professional future on representing Mr. Trump, the first former U.S. president to be indicted.

Persons: Todd Blanche, Donald J, Trump, Blanche, Trump’s Organizations: New York Democrat, Florida Republican Locations: Palm Beach, Mr, Lago, Manhattan, U.S

☆ Trump Spoke Recently With Saudi Leader
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Maggie Haberman | Jonathan Swan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Former President Donald J. Trump spoke recently with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, their first publicly disclosed conversation since Mr. Trump left office in January 2021, according to two people briefed on the discussion who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. It was unclear what the two men discussed and whether it was their only conversation since Mr. Trump’s departure from the White House. Neither representatives for Mr. Trump nor an official of the Saudi government responded to requests for comment. If President Biden manages to clinch a trilateral megadeal — which would probably include a Saudi-Israeli peace agreement, an Israeli commitment to a two-state solution, a U.S.-Saudi defense treaty and U.S.-Saudi understandings on a civilian nuclear program in Saudi Arabia — he will need support from two-thirds of senators to ratify the U.S.-Saudi treaty. Mr. Trump, as the presumptive Republican nominee in firm command of his party, could potentially either block any deal or greenlight it for congressional Republicans.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump’s, Biden, Saudi Arabia — Organizations: Mr, U.S ., Republican, Republicans Locations: Saudi, Israel, U.S, Saudi Arabia

Donald J. Trump watched anxiously from the White House in April 2018 as news broke about federal agents searching the home of Michael D. Cohen, the man entrusted to conceal some of the president’s deepest secrets. After initially coming to Mr. Cohen’s defense, Mr. Trump washed his hands of his fixer within weeks, brushing aside Mr. Cohen’s feelers about a pardon and disavowing his legal bills. Mr. Trump took a different tack when prosecutors shifted their scrutiny to Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump family’s longtime financial gatekeeper. Mr. Trump’s company paid Mr. Weisselberg’s legal bills and awarded him a $2 million severance, with a condition: He could not voluntarily cooperate with any law enforcement agency. But prosecutors say Mr. Weisselberg lied during his testimony, and this month he pleaded guilty to perjury.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Michael D, Cohen, Cohen’s, Allen H, Weisselberg, Mr Organizations: White House, Trump Locations: Manhattan, U.S

On Tuesday, lawyers for Ms. Lake indicated she would not dispute the facts of a defamation lawsuit that Stephen Richer, the Maricopa County recorder, had filed against her. But they seem to be more durable and pervasive in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, riling up residents long after campaigns have closed up shop. Credit... Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesThe numbers back up Arizona’s outsize role in election fraud claims. At a news conference on Monday, Gary M. Restaino, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, said seven of the nation’s roughly 18 federal cases regarding election threats involved people targeting Arizona election officials, though the suspects are not Arizonans. Image Bill Gates, a Maricopa County supervisor, during Arizona’s primary presidential election in Phoenix earlier in March.

Persons: Joseph R, Biden, Donald J, Kari Lake, Trump, baselessly, hasn’t, Lake, Stephen Richer, Richer, —, ”, Joshua Garland, Rebecca Noble, Gary M, “, Mr, Restaino, Lake’s, ” Mr, they’re, Katie Hobbs, Bill Gates, Gates, Lake —, ‘, ’ ‘, ’ ”, “ It’s Organizations: Republican, Arizona State University, “, The New York Times, Arizona, U.S, Supreme, Lake’s Democratic, Mr, Republicans Locations: Arizona, Maricopa, Maricopa County, Phoenix, Georgia, U.S, . Credit, Gitmo

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, added a new item to the list: a $60 Bible. Days before Easter, Mr. Trump posted a video on his social media platform in which he encouraged his supporters to buy the “God Bless the USA Bible,” named after the ballad by the country singer Lee Greenwood, which Mr. Trump plays as he takes the stage at his rallies. “All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” said Mr. Trump, who before entering politics was not overtly religious and who notably stumbled while referencing a book of the Bible during his 2016 campaign. “It’s a lot of people’s favorite book.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, ”, Lee Greenwood, “

☆ Trump’s Financial Squeeze
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Donald Trump has 10 days to come up with a $175 million bond in his New York civil fraud case. After that, he may be on the hook for the full penalty in the case: almost half a billion dollars. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, sued Trump and the Trump Organization in 2022. She accused them of committing widespread fraud over a decade by inflating the values of properties, at times by as much as $2 billion a year. Trump has insisted that since his lenders weren’t stiffed, there were no victims, and that he considers the judgment corrupt.

Persons: Donald Trump, Letitia James, Trump, James, weren’t Organizations: New, Trump Organization Locations: New York

☆ Trump Isn’t Reaching Out to Haley and Her Voters. Will It Matter?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Shane Goldmacher | Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Nikki Haley dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in early March, she withheld endorsing Donald J. Trump and extended a pointed invitation for him to court her and the political coalition she constructed. “This is now his time for choosing,” she said then. There has never been very much magnanimity in the MAGA movement. Even out of the race, Ms. Haley has continued to pull in a significant number of voters in ongoing primary contests. Across the five swing states that have held primaries so far — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada — a total of about 750,000 people cast ballots for Ms. Haley.

Persons: Nikki Haley, Donald J, Trump, ”, MAGA, Biden, Haley Locations: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada

Mr. Trump, casting the disclosure as evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, has asked Justice Merchan to delay the trial 90 days, or throw out the case altogether. The tentative April 15 trial date, Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday, provides “a more than reasonable amount of time” for Mr. Trump to review the information. It is unclear whether the judge will set a trial date on Monday or rule later this week. If he sets the case for trial next month, Mr. Trump would for the first time face the prospect of time behind bars. Here’s what else you need to know about Mr. Trump’s daunting day:

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Mr, Stormy Daniels, Juan M, Merchan, Michael D, Cohen, Trump’s, Alvin L, Bragg Organizations: New, Mr Locations: Manhattan, American

At 11 a.m. Monday, a New York appeals court made Donald J. Trump’s day, rescuing him from financial devastation in a civil fraud case. By noon, the New York judge overseeing his criminal case had nearly ruined it, setting Mr. Trump’s trial for next month and all but ensuring he will hold the dubious distinction of becoming the first former American president to be criminally prosecuted. The contrasting outcomes of Mr. Trump’s twin New York legal crises — a triumph in the civil case and a setback in the criminal one — set the former president on a winding path as he seeks to navigate around an array of legal troubles to recapture the White House. Unfolding in rapid succession in his hometown courts, the day’s events captured the disorienting reality of having a candidate who is also a defendant. And they showed that nothing about the six months until Election Day will be easy, linear or normal — for Mr. Trump or the nation.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Trump Organizations: New, Mr Locations: New York, American, York

☆ Trump's lawyers dance for him when he's in the courtroom. At a criminal trial, that could torpedo his chances of winning.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

And at a criminal trial, causing a ruckus can bring its own consequences. In a criminal trial, Trump, along with his eager-to-please lawyers, must attend every day. he quipped in response to an argument from one of Trump's lawyers. Technically, Trump faces a maximum of four years in prison for each count he's charged with in his criminal case. The criminal trial will give Trump a chance to hold multiple campaign-boosting rallies before the hallway cameras each day.

Persons: —, Donald Trump, they're, Trump, he's, Jean Carroll, Juan Merchan, Carroll, Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's, Arthur Engoron, shrewdly, TIMOTHY A, CLARY, Stormy Daniels, Melania Trump, Kaplan, Eliza Orlins, Orlins, there's, Susan Necheles, Steven Hirsch, Maggie Haberman's, huff, Lewis Kaplan, Alina Habba, Randy Zelin, they've, Engoron, Letitia James of, York —, Kaplan quizzed, Merchan, He's, Donald Trump's, Seth Wenig Merchan, Prosecutors, Zelin, OJ, I'm Organizations: Service, Secret Service, Business, Trump, New York, sophistry, Attorneys, Getty, Manhattan Criminal, Trump Organization, New York Times, Truth, New, AP, Merchan Locations: Manhattan, New York, New York City, Brooklyn, York, America, U.S, Trump

☆ Trump Will Face His Greatest Fears as Two Legal Threats Coincide Monday
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Maggie Haberman | Ben Protess | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Donald J. Trump is expected to spend his Monday morning in the courtroom of a New York judge who might soon preside over his criminal trial and, ultimately, throw him behind bars. And that’s not even the legal predicament that worries Mr. Trump most that day. To avoid a mortal threat to the Trump Organization, Mr. Trump must persuade another company to post a bond on his behalf, promising that it will cover the judgment if he loses a pending appeal and fails to pay. Unless Mr. Trump strikes an 11th-hour deal, Ms. James could freeze his bank accounts, and begin the long and complicated process of seizing some of his properties. And barring Mr. Trump’s lawyers achieving an improbable legal triumph, the judge in his criminal case could set a trial date for as soon as next month.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, —, Letitia James, James Organizations: New, Trump Organization, Mr Locations: New York, Manhattan

In 2013, two years before he began running for president, Mr. Trump — Mr. Kushner’s father-in-law — told a top Serbian government official that he wanted to build a luxury hotel on the site. Associates of the Trump Organization traveled to Belgrade to inspect the location. The project did not come together before Mr. Trump’s election in 2016, and after being sworn in he vowed to not do any new foreign deals. But developing the site would again draw interest from Mr. Trump’s circle. Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump had appointed as a special envoy in the Balkans, pushed a related plan during the Trump administration that Serbia and the United States jointly work to rebuild the Defense Ministry site.

Persons: Jared Kushner, Donald J, Trump, Kushner, Kushner’s, —, Richard Grenell Organizations: Yugoslav Ministry of Defense, NATO, The New York Times, Serbian, Associates, Trump Organization, United, Defense Ministry Locations: Belgrade, Serbian, Balkans, Serbia, United States, American

The schedule seemed stacked against Donald J. Trump: four criminal trials in four cities, all in the same year he is running for president. But rather than doom Mr. Trump, the chaotic calendar might just save him. Mr. Trump, who as president helped reshape the federal judiciary, has already persuaded the Supreme Court to delay his trial in Washington. The case in Manhattan, where Mr. Trump is accused of covering up a sex scandal during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, was the only one not mired in potential postponements. On Friday, Justice Juan M. Merchan, who is overseeing the case, delayed the trial at least three weeks, until mid-April.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Juan M, Merchan Organizations: Trump Locations: Washington, Florida, Georgia, Manhattan

☆ How Trump Is Scrambling to Raise Cash
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Shane Goldmacher | Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But advisers to Mr. Trump’s campaign and his super PACs hope the charm offensive will eventually pay political and financial dividends. One of the most pressing issues facing Mr. Trump is the financial disparity he and allied groups now face with Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party. The Trump operation did not release a full total, but his campaign account and the Republican National Committee had around $40 million. Mr. Trump enters the general election ahead of Mr. Biden in public polls. But Mr. Biden has taken full advantage of one of the benefits of incumbency, both socking away cash and building out a political operation earlier than his challenger.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden, Larry Ellison, Pepe Fanjul Organizations: Republican, Oracle, Democratic Party, Democrats, Republican National Committee, Mr Locations: schmoozing

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald J. Trump, confirmed on Friday that he was closing in on major real estate deals in Albania and Serbia, the latest example of the former president’s family doing business abroad even as Mr. Trump seeks to return to the White House. Mr. Kushner’s plans in the Balkans appear to have come about in part through relationships built while Mr. Trump was in office. Mr. Kushner, who was a senior White House official, said he had been working on the deals with Richard Grenell, who served briefly as acting director of national intelligence under Mr. Trump and also as ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the Balkans. One of the proposed projects would be the development of an island off the coast of Albania into a luxury tourist destination. A second — with a planned luxury hotel and 1,500 residential units and a museum — is in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, at the site of the long-vacant former headquarters of the Yugoslav Army destroyed in 1999 by the NATO bombings, according to a member of Parliament in Serbia and Mr. Kushner’s company.

Persons: Jared Kushner, Donald J, Trump, Kushner’s, Kushner, Richard Grenell Organizations: Mr, White House, Yugoslav, NATO Locations: Albania, Serbia, Germany, Balkans, Belgrade

☆ Trump’s Court Delays Pile Up While the Presidential Race Gathers Speed
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Alan Feuer | Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Donald Trump’s New York hush money case — the only one of his four criminal cases that looked as if it would soon go to trial — suddenly faced the likelihood of delay on Thursday when a big batch of potential new evidence abruptly became available. The news of the likely postponement arrived as the former president was in federal court in Florida for a separate hearing in a different case — the one in which he stands accused of mishandling classified documents, which even now has no solid start date. The judge there rejected one of a multitude of motions from Mr. Trump to dismiss the case. And in Washington, prosecutors and Mr. Trump’s lawyers are preparing for a showdown at the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments next month on his claim that he is immune from charges in the federal indictment that accuses him of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss. That case was originally supposed to go in front of a jury this month.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, —, Trump Organizations: Supreme Locations: York, Florida, Georgia, Washington

Less than two weeks before Donald J. Trump is set to go on trial on criminal charges in Manhattan, the prosecutors who brought the case proposed a delay of up to 30 days, a startling development in the first prosecution of a former American president. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which accused Mr. Trump of covering up a sex scandal during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, said the delay would give Mr. Trump’s lawyers time to review a new batch of records. In response to the new records — tens of thousands of pages of them — Mr. Trump’s lawyers requested that the trial be delayed 90 days. Mr. Trump, who clinched the Republican presidential nomination for the third time this week, faces four criminal trials and several civil lawsuits. The Manhattan case had been the only one of the four criminal cases not mired in delays.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Locations: Manhattan, American

He has repeatedly accused three Black prosecutors investigating him of “reverse racism.” He told a gathering of Black Republicans that Black people like him because he, too, has been charged by the criminal justice system. There’s a fundamental tension in Donald J. Trump’s attempts to woo Black voters. Public polling shows him faring better with Black voters than any Republican presidential candidate has in decades. Mr. Trump currently receives nearly four times the support from Black voters in polling than the 6 percent who actually voted for him in 2016, according to Pew Research Center data. The margins of victory are expected to be small in those four states, where Mr. Trump hopes to offset his potential weaknesses with independent voters and suburban women.

Persons: ”, Donald J, Trump’s, Biden, Cornel West, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Trump Organizations: Black Republicans, Black, White House, Republican, Pew Research Locations: Michigan , Wisconsin , Pennsylvania, Georgia

Three days after Donald J. Trump posted a $91.6 million bond in the defamation case he lost recently to the writer E. Jean Carroll, her lawyer on Monday suggested she was considering filing yet another defamation lawsuit against the former president. The lawyer raised the prospect of a new lawsuit after Mr. Trump in recent days repeatedly lashed out at Ms. Carroll, using the same kind of disparaging language that led to the huge judgment against him in January. “The statute of limitations for defamation in most jurisdictions is between one and three years,” Roberta A. Kaplan, Ms. Carroll’s lawyer, said in a statement Monday morning. “As we said after the last jury verdict, we continue to monitor every statement that Donald Trump makes about our client.”In a separate court filing, Ms. Kaplan told the federal judge overseeing the case that she and Mr. Trump’s lawyers had reached an agreement on the details of his proposed $91.6 million bond. The bond — provided by Federal Insurance Company, an arm of the insurance giant Chubb — will prevent Ms. Carroll from collecting her multi-million-dollar judgment while Mr. Trump appeals the defamation verdict.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Jean Carroll, Carroll, ” Roberta A, Kaplan, Donald Trump, Chubb Organizations: Federal Insurance Company

Former President Donald J. Trump offered a rambling and confusing explanation on Monday of why he had reversed himself on whether the United States should ban TikTok over concerns that its Chinese ownership poses a threat to national security. In a CNBC interview, Mr. Trump said that he still considered the social media app a national security threat but that banning it would make young people “go crazy.” He added that any action harming TikTok would benefit Facebook, which he called an “enemy of the people.”“Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it,” Mr. Trump said. “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”“There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok,” he added, “but the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, “, ”, ” Mr Organizations: CNBC, Facebook Locations: United States

Mr. Trump met with Ms. Riley’s parents before taking the stage, and the Trump campaign distributed signs at the rally with Ms. Riley’s photograph. At one point, Mr. Trump slurred his words and pretended to stutter in a mocking imitation of the president, who has dealt with a stutter since childhood. It was one of several such attacks Mr. Trump lobbed during the event. Mr. Trump called Ms. Willis “corrupt,” referring to allegations that she benefited financially after becoming romantically involved with a lawyer whom she hired on the case. “Perfect phone call,” Mr. Trump said, “other than we challenged the honesty of this election.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden’s, Joe Biden, ”, Mr, Biden, Laken Riley, ” Mr, Riley’s, Trump’s, Riley, “ Joe Biden, Megyn Kelly, Jeff Zucker, Fani, Willis, Willis “, “, Maggie Haberman Organizations: Saturday, stoke, Republican, Trump, Mr, State, NBC Locations: Biden’s, Rome, Georgia, United States, Venezuelan, South America, America, New York

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