Trump news – live: Vance slated for ‘kissing Trump’s ass’ as new details of McCarthy’s Jan 6 call emerge

Prosecutors and defense lawyers on Tuesday made progress toward picking a 12-member jury, with seven people selected by early afternoon. The two sides questioned prospective jurors about topics ranging from their opinions about Trump to their views on taxation.

Lawyers for the Trump Organization pressed prospective jurors - all residents of heavily Democratic Manhattan - about whether their views on the Republican former president would affect their ability to decide the case fairly and impartially.

One prospective juror said she did not vote for Trump and “would have gone with some different Supreme Court justices,” but affirmed that she could remain fair and impartial. She was picked as a juror.

A prospective juror who called Trump a “criminal” was dismissed by the judge at the Trump Organization’s request.

“I think Mr Trump has no morals,” the man said, while adding that he believed he could be fair in this case because it involved alleged conduct that was “trivial” compared to Trump’s other actions.

“I think he is a criminal. I think he has done irreparable damage to this country,” the man added.

The Trump Organization, which operates hotels, golf courses, and other real estate around the world, could face up to $1.6m in fines for the three tax fraud counts and six other counts it faces. The company has pleaded not guilty.

A prosecutor in the tax fraud trial of Donald Trump’s company told prospective jurors on Tuesday the government’s star witness — a longtime Trump Organization executive — may be “reluctant” to answer questions, while some jury candidates were dismissed after expressing contempt for the former US president.

“I can’t deny that I really, really don’t like Trump. Yes, I hate him,” said one prospective juror — a woman who Justice Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the trial, later dismissed on the second day of jury selection in a New York state court.

Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told 18 jury candidates that former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who will testify for the prosecution, is still employed by the real estate company.

“Some of the witnesses work for the defendants, so they may be a little reluctant to answer the questions,” Steinglass said. “One of the witnesses that I’m talking about is Allen Weisselberg.”

Steinglass asked prospective jurors if they would discount Weisselberg’s testimony because he was hoping for a lighter sentence. None of them indicated it would be a factor. Weisselberg was promised a sentence of five months in jail if he testifies truthfully in the trial.

The district attorney’s office last year charged the Trump Organization and Weisselberg with awarding “off the books” benefits to some senior executives, enabling certain employees to understate their taxable compensation and the company to evade payroll taxes.

Weisselberg in August pleaded guilty to charges including grand larceny and tax fraud while admitting to concealing $1.76 million in income. Weisselberg agreed to testify against the company at trial as part of his plea agreement.

Trump, who is considering another run for the presidency in 2024, has not been charged in the case, which he has called politically motivated.

Reuters

The Department of Justice investigation into whether former president Donald Trump violated laws prohibiting unauthorised retention of national defence information and obstruction of justice has reportedly zeroed in on a US Navy veteran.

The veteran is Walt Nauta, who served as Mr Trump’s White House valet and remained in the ex-president’s employ after the end of his term.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

Former President Donald Trump is eyeing longtime Virginia operative Chris LaCivita to take on a senior role in his next presidential campaign which could be announced shortly after the midterms, The Washington Post reports citing four people familiar with the matter.

No decisions have been made on the exact role that Mr LaCivita would take in any future Trump campaign, though discussions have included a possible role as campaign manager or senior adviser.

Mr LaCivita is a longtime Republican political consultant who helped lead the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth campaign against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 and who is now directing a super PAC tied to Trump.

Neither side confirmed the report to the Post.

One of Donald Trump’s onetime closest White House advisers will testify before the Jan 6 committee on Tuesday in a sign that his once tight circle of advisers has now splintered following the attack on the Capitol.

Hope Hicks will meet with the committee’s lawmakers today, NBC News reported, citing a source familiar with the proceedings. Her testimony represents one of the highest-ranking defections in the Trump sphere.

John Bowden has the latest.

Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday lunchtime to complain about veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s recent release of his recorded conversations with the former president.

Mr Trump wrote: “As he fully understands, writer Bob Woodward never got my permission to release tapes of my various interviews with him. Those tapes were allowed only for purposes of making sure that he got my quotes & statements correct for “the WRITTEN WORD,” in other words, for his, nevertheless, highly inaccurate book. The tapes are much better than the book, at least if they were not bludgeoned to death by him to make me look as bad as possible, but he & his publisher had NO right to use my “VOICE” or them!”

Mr Woodward recently released an audiobook of the recordings with commentary about the conversations with the then-president that he taped for his book Rage.

The veteran journalist also made a rate attack on Mr Trump in an op-ed published on Sunday, calling him “an unparalleled danger”.

Hillary Clinton warns that extremist Republicans already have plans to “steal” the 2024 presidential election.

In a video posted to Twitter by Indivisible Guide, a group that builds progressive grassroots activism, the former secretary of state stresses the importance of voting for Democratic state legislatures to thwart such efforts.

Federal prosecutors are putting pressure on some of Donald Trump’s aides in an effort to secure testimony in the Mar-a-Lago documents probe, according to a new report in The New York Times.

The Times reports: “A key focus for prosecutors is Walt Nauta, a little-known figure who worked in the White House as a military valet and cook when Mr. Trump was president and later for him personally at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s private club and residence in Florida.”

Donald Trump is once again blaming his legal woes on the vengeance of his political enemies.

The ex-president posted a rant on Truth Social on Tuesday as his company heads to trial in Manhattan where it is accused of a scheme in which executives took home “off the books” compensation to avoid taxes.

“The highly partisan Democrat Witch Hunt goes on, this time in New York where, after viewing millions of pages of documents over many years, charges were brought against a long time Trump executive who they ’tortured’ & threatened for years, for not paying taxes on the use of company cars, the use of a company apartment, & the education of his grandchildren,” wrote the ex-president.

He went on, claiming that the case had been brought “right during the important Mid-Term Elections, of course!”, though he himself is not running for office and is thought to be preparing an announcement of a 2024 candidacy after the election.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has issued a threat to Anthony Fauci, saying the president’s chief medical adviser and his entire family are going to “suffer” after the midterm elections next month.

It’s the latest escalation of violent rhetoric against Bannon’s political enemies that the ex-Breitbart chief has become known for as he faces the likelihood of a prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena without the protection of Donald Trump and his pardon pen in the Oval Office.

The top Trump aide has most recently lent his aid to the effort to destroy his former boss’s credibility via footage that was uncovered of him openly suggesting that Donald Trump should declare victory in 2020 even if he loses — a prospect that the former president eventually chose as his course of action following his defeat to Joe Biden.

Read more in The Independent: