Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP) (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
(AFP via Getty Images)
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Former President Donald J Trump is appearing as a special guest speaker at a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Dayton, Ohio one day after his criminal trial was delayed.
Mr Trump is in the state to help boost the campaign of Bernie Moreno, a car dealership owner who has his backing in the state’s US Senate primary coming this Tuesday. The former president is wading into an abnormally vicious GOP primary that appears to be neck-and-neck between three candidates, with Mr Moreno holding a slight lead.
The race turned especially ugly over the past week as supporters of Mr Moreno’s rivals circulated a story from the Associated Press revealing that an email used by the businessman was registered on the sexual rendezvous site “Adult Friend Finder”; not to be outdone, Mr Moreno’s allies launched a mailer accusing another Republican in the race, conservative Frank LaRose, of being a closet ally of the LGBT+ community.
Additionally, it was a busy week for Donald Trump’s criminal cases.
Judge Juan Merchan has ruled that his New York hush-money trial will be pushed back by 30 days from today following a dump of new evidence for both parties to consider — the original start date was 25 March.
Stressing the stakes of Trump’s Georgia case, Fani Willis accepts Nathan Wade’s resignation
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has accepted the resignation of her outside prosecutor and former romantic partner who was hired to lead a sprawling criminal case against Donald Trump and his allies for their alleged scheme to overturn Georgia’s election results in 2020.
Nathan Wade’s notice arrived hours after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee determined that Ms Willis and her office should step aside or Mr Wade should withdraw following several days of hearings on allegations that she financially benefited from his hiring.
His letter to Ms Willis and her reply underscored Mr Trump’s alleged efforts to overthrow 2020 results and the years of work among prosecutors to get the case to trial, after they spent weeks hearing salacious allegations from Mr Trump and his allies that prosecutors argue were designed to embarass them and distract from the case against the former president.
Oliver O’Connell17 March 2024 02:15
Judge rules Fani Willis can stay on Donald Trump’s election interference case
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis will be allowed to continue to criminally prosecute Donald Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants who are accused of mounting a “criminal enterprise” to unlawfully overturn Georgia’s election results in 2020.
The judge overseeing that case has rejected efforts from Mr Trump and his allies to disqualify the district attorney following allegations of misconduct with a prosecutor she hired to lead the case.
In his 23-page decision on Friday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote the defendants “failed to meet their burden” in proving a “conflict of interest” that would require her removal, but he noted that any appearance of “impropriety” could necessitate Ms Willis or prosecutor Nathan Wade withdrawing for the case to move forward.
Hours later, Mr Wade announced his resignation.
Alex Woodward has the full story:
Oliver O’Connell17 March 2024 00:15
Analysis: The ‘authoritarian’ lessons Trump and the Republicans want to learn from Orbán’s Hungary
Katie Hawkinson spoke to experts on US-Hungary relations to find out what the impact of Donald Trump’s relationship with Viktor Orbán could be should the former president be re-elected.
Oliver O’Connell16 March 2024 22:15
Trump claims he is persecuted more than Abraham Lincoln
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated after the US civil war.
Michelle Del Rey16 March 2024 21:41
Trump opens speech by asking attendees to stand for ‘horribly and unfairly treated January 6 hostages’
Michelle Del Rey16 March 2024 21:11
WATCH: Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he’s not elected president
Mr Trump says there will be a “bloodbath” if he’s not elected.
Michelle Del Rey16 March 2024 20:56
Trump encourages audience not to pay teleprompter companies
During his speech, Mr Trump told the audience not to pay teleprompter companies after complaining that he wasn’t able to read the screen with his speech on it.
“Don’t pay” Mr Trump directed his staff. “Whoever did that son of a gun… I think go Biden put them in”
Michelle Del Rey16 March 2024 20:51
People seen pouring out of Trump event shortly after he begins talking
Crowds at the event started to leave minutes after Former President Donald J Trump took the stage. John Bowden, our correspondent at the event, said that attendees were choosing to leave because they wanted to beat traffic. In one case, a woman said she wanted a beer.
Mr Trump has so far made several offensive comments about President Joe Biden and Democrats. He’s referred to Mr Biden as “stupid” and said in some cases Democrats “are not people”.
Michelle Del Rey16 March 2024 20:29
SCOTUS rules public officials can sometimes be sued for blocking critics on social media
A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Friday that public officials can sometimes be sued for blocking their critics on social media, an issue that first arose for the high court in a case involving then-President Donald Trump.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the court, said that officials who use personal accounts to make official statements may not be free to delete comments about those statements or block critics altogether.
On the other hand, Barrett wrote, “State officials have private lives and their own constitutional rights.”
