Trump DA seeks gag order at hush money trial as ex-president could ‘lose assets’ over $454m appeal bond: Live

Michigan residents will on Tuesday help to decide whether Donald Trump or Nikki Haley will represent the Republican Party in this year’s presidential election .

After the public has its say, local Republican officials will meet at a party convention on Saturday 2 March to add their own votes in a two-stage primary process.

But this year, there will be not one but two duelling conventions, convened by two rival party leaders – both of whom claim they are the real one.

Such is the chaos that has engulfed the Great Lake State’s GOP since its disastrous showing in the 2022 midterm elections, which saw Democrats take both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s seat for the first time in decades.

Here’s more from Io Dodds.

Over on social media, Trump has been attempting to scare up support by warning that a “Border INVASION is destroying our country and killing our citizens” and that the barbarians at the gate are “Vicious gangs and gang members”, rather than some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on earth fleeing desperate circumstances at home in pursuit of a better life in the United States.

Here’s more on the horrific murder of University of Georgia student nurse Laken Riley, whose death Trump invokes above, disgustingly, for political ends.

Donald Trump’s lawyers have moved to block the porn star Stormy Daniels, ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal and the businessman’s former fixer Michael Cohen from testifying at his New York “hush money” criminal trial, which is set to begin next month.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of falsifying business records in order to conceal payments made to Daniels and McDougal by Cohen in order to buy their silence during the 2016 election about earlier extramarital affairs he is alleged to have had with both women.

The Republican presidential candidate denies the affairs and has pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony charges he faces.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche submitted a 47-page motion on Monday attacking the credibility of those witnesses, suggesting Daniels would offer “false” and “salacious” testimony and calling Cohen a “liar”.

Trump’s legal team also asked to have the notorious 2005 Access Hollywood tape from being shown, in which the defandant was caught on a hot mic talking about “grabbing women by the p****”, as well as evidence from close confidants at the time of his alleged crime such as Rudy Giuliani and the former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is asking a criminal court judge to impose a limited gag order against Donald Trump, citing his “long history” of “inflammatory” remarks aimed at the parties involved in his mountain of litigation ahead of a March 25 trial.

A 30-page filing on Monday cites threatening social media posts, including a photo Trump posted that depicts him wielding a baseball bat at the back of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head.

The filing also notes that his office has received at least two “terroristic mailings” that included envelopes with white powder.

Trump’s attorneys are appealing a $454m judgment against the former president after a sprawling civil trial found him liable for a decade of fraud in his family business.

Lawyers for Trump and his co-defendants filed paperwork with a New York appellate court on Monday, arguing that the judge overseeing the case “committed errors” of law or facts, “abused its discretion” and “acted in excess of its jurisdiction”.

But the ruling against him won’t be paused until the former president and his co-defendants post a bond equal to the massive judgment against them.

If a bond is not posted within a 30-day period from the judgment, New York Attorney General Letitia James can begin seizing his assets.

Donald Trump is all but guaranteed to be the Republican nominee for president. The recent Conservative Political Action Conference offered a glimpse into who could fill his potential administration.

The Independent’s Eric Garcia and Holly Baxter report:

At least one member of the Republican National Committee is working to slow Trump’s attempted takeover of the organization by pushing to keep the committee neutral until Trump is officially the presidential nominee and avoid picking up his legal bills.

The effort comes after Trump last week publicly called to replace the RNC’s current leaders and install one of his senior campaign advisors and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump in top roles.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and lead prosecutor Nathan Wade have been accused of having an improper relationship that has financially benefited from Trump’s prosecution for election interference.

Attorneys for Donald Trump and his co-defendants are expected to deliver closing arguments on Friday in a parallel case to remove from the prosecution altogether, after a revealing two-day hearing lay bare the circumstances of their relationship and the allegations against them.

After a court filing sought to show that their relationship was much older than they had testified, Trump’s lead attorney reportedly told the DA’s office that he had mistakenly shared unredacted phone records with a reporter, who did not publish the records.

But Ms Willis and Mr Wade have had to change their phone numbers because of an “explosion” of calls in recent days, according to CNN.

Trump’s attorneys are appealing a $454m judgment against the former president after a sprawling civil trial found him liable for a decade of fraud in his family business.

Lawyers for Trump and his co-defendants filed paperwork with a New York appellate court on Monday, arguing that the judge overseeing the case “committed errors” of law or facts, “abused its discretion” and “acted in excess of its jurisdiction”.

But the ruling against him won’t be paused until the former president and his co-defendants post a bond equal to the massive judgment against them.

If a bond is not posted within a 30-day period from the judgment, New York Attorney General Letitia James can begin seizing his assets.

Donald Trump is demanding Alabama lawmakers “act quickly to find an immediate solution” to protect in vitro fertilization in the wake of a shock state supreme court ruling that forced hospital systems and IVF clinics to halt treatments, while throwing doctors and families into legal chaos.

But at this weekend’s CPAC and elsewhere, conservatives were praising the ruling.

The Independent’s Eric Garcia talks to attendees at the conference:

Meanwhile, here’s the view from the Trump universe – and how President Joe Biden and Democratic officials are seizing on the aftermath: