Closing summary
It’s been an expensive day in court for Donald Trump, who was on the wrong end of a $350m judgment from a New York judge for financial fraud committed by the Trump Organization.
We’re closing our live coverage of developments now, but here are the highlights (or lowlights, if you’re the former president) of the day’s events.
It wasn’t only a significant financial penalty against Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Jr, and their associates, for intentionally committing fraud by falsifying government disclosures. Judge Arthur Engoron banned the former president from serving as an officer or director or any New York corporation or entity for three years and his sons for two. The full ruling is here.
Letitia James, the New York attorney general, said Trump ‘“perfected the art of the steal”, a mocking reference to his best-selling book Art of the Deal. “This long running fraud was intentional, egregious, illegal, and he did it all of this with the help of the other defendants, his two adult sons, and senior executives at the Trump Organization,” James said at a Friday evening press conference in Manhattan. “The scale and the scope of Donald Trump’s fraud is staggering. And so too is his ego, and his belief that the rules do not apply to him.”
Trump lashed out at James and Engoron in a wild and freewheeling rant from the steps of his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida. He accused them of being corrupt, and repeated baseless allegations that Joe Biden and Democrats were driving several legal cases against him. “It’s a witch hunt against his political opponent, the likes of which our country has never seen before. This is Russia. This is China,” he said.
Buried in Engoron’s almost-100 page judgment was a questioning of the truthfulness of the former president’s daughter and ex-adviser Ivanka Trump. She was earlier removed as a party in the fraud case, drew criticism for consistently repeating “I don’t recall’” during depositions. “Ivanka Trump was a thoughtful, articulate, and poised witness, but the court found her inconsistent recall, depending on whether she was questioned by OAG [Office of the Attorney General] or the defense, suspect,” Engoron wrote.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement that the ruling was a “manifest injustice” and “culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch-hunt” against him. “This is not just about Donald Trump. If this decision stands, it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business,” Habba said, adding that she plans to appeal.
You can find our news report of the day’s events here:
Updated
Social media wasted little time in mocking Donald Trump, whom some analysts believe might have to sell some of his portfolio of properties to satisfy the $350m penalty for fraud handed down Friday by New York judge Arthur Engoron.
The Lincoln Project, a conservative group opposed to the former president, posted a picture of his flagship Trump Tower in Manhattan decked out as a Spirit Halloween store.
BREAKING: Trump Org pic.twitter.com/H82Pu4sX3H
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 16, 2024
The same building was also targeted by others who reposted pictures of it undergoing a liquidation sale:
Trump Tower pic.twitter.com/M4aaSDnnKw
— Bill M. 🟧 (@wilg111) February 16, 2024
As well as the financial obligation from today’s verdict, Trump also owes writer E Jean Carroll, whom he sexually assaulted in the 1970s, $83.3m from a defamation case ruling last month.
Trump lashes out at 'corrupt' prosecutor and judge in Mar-a-Lago rant
Donald Trump, meanwhile, is lashing out at Letitia James in an angry and largely fact-free rant from the steps of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Almost shouting at times, a visibly upset Trump repeated his frequent claims that the lawsuit against him was “a sham”, that James, the New York attorney general, and Judge Arthur Engoron were corrupt, and that the prosecution was directed by “Crooked” Joe Biden designed as “election interference” to harm his chances of re-election to the White House in November.
Insisting “there was no fraud”, and that “this is Russia, this is China”, Trump said:
A crooked New York state judge just ruled that I have to pay a fine of $355m for having built the perfect company. Great cash, great buildings, great everything that affects New York.
The banks all got their money… they love Trump. They testified that Trump is a great, great customer. One of our best customers, they testified beautifully, and the judge knows that he’s just a corrupt person.
There were no victims, because the banks made a lot of money. They made $100m. And, by the way, I paid approximately $300m in taxes.
Trump’s tirade quickly turned political, blaming migrants for “taking over” New York and insisting businesses were fleeing the state. He leveled a much-repeated but baseless allegation that Biden and Democrats were driving this and other legal cases against him:
A poll came out today, we’re up 20 points on Biden. If I weren’t running, none of this stuff would have ever happened. None of these lawsuits would have ever happened.
I’m competing with a man who can’t put two sentences together, who doesn’t know what he’s doing. And we’re heading into a third world war because of this guy. We have to win this election. They’re doing everything possible to step it away, but we’re not going to stand for it.
It’s all headed up by Biden who’s destroying our country. So this is Russia. This is China. This is what you’ve been reading about all your lives, and it’s happening right here in our country.
Updated
Letitia James took no questions at her press conference in Manhattan, but delivered a damning verdict on Donald Trump, and his fraudulent tenure at the helm of the Trump Organization:
Today, the court once again ruled in our favor, and in favor of every hard working American who plays by the rules. Donald Trump and the other defendants were ordered to pay $463.9m. That represents $363.9m in disgorgement plus $100m in interest, which will continue to increase every single day until it is paid.
I want to be clear, white collar financial fraud is not a victimless crime. When the powerful break the law and take more than their fair share, there are fewer resources available for working people, small businesses and families.
Everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank about how much money they have in order to get a mortgage, to buy a home, or a loan to keep their business afloat, or to send their child to college. And if they did our government would throw the book at them.
The scale and the scope of Donald Trump’s fraud is staggering. And so is his ego, and his belief that the rules do not apply to him.
Today, we are holding Donald Trump accountable. We are holding him accountable for lying, cheating, and a lack of contrition, and for flouting the rules at all of us. There cannot be different rules for different people in this country and former presidents are no exception.
This decision is a massive victory for every American who believes in that simple but fundamental pillar of our democracy that the rule of law applies to all of us equally fairly.
James: Trump 'perfected the art of the steal'
New York attorney general Letitia James has said: “Donald Trump may have authored the Art of the Deal, but he perfected the art of the steal.”
She’s just spoken at a press conference following the massive financial judgment against the former president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr on Friday for fraud.
She said:
Donald Trump falsely knowingly inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself, his family and to cheat the system. This long running fraud was intentional, egregious, illegal, and he did it all of this with the help of the other defendants, his two adult sons, and senior executives at the Trump Organization.
And so, after 11 weeks of trial, we showed the staggering extent of his fraud and exactly how Donald Trump and the other defendants deceived banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions for their own personal gain.
We proved just how much Donald Trump his family and his company unjustly benefited from his fraud.
Updated
Offensive social media posts emanate so easily and shamelessly from Donald Trump’s social media entity Truth Social.
He’s on a vicious, ad hominem rant tonight after the New York fraud trial judgement, in which he once again calls New York attorney general Letitia James racist.
It’s a tactic he has with Black prosecutors in particular, including Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who’s steering the hush money case that will become Trump’s first criminal trial next month, and Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis who is leading the Georgia election interference criminal case against him – both cases very much in the news this week.
Writing for Guardian US, Tayo Bero, last year comprehensively debunked Trump’s delusions about anti-white racism, pointing out that “the political and racial maneuvering here is obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less dangerous.” Her piece is here.
Trump sideswipes migrants with inaccurate information while he’s at it in this outburst just posted: “The Justice System in New York State, and America as a whole, is under assault by partisan, deluded, biased Judges and Prosecutors. Racist, Corrupt A.G. Tish James has been obsessed with “Getting Trump” for years, and used Crooked New York State Judge Engoron to get an illegal, unAmerican judgment against me, my family, and my tremendous business. I helped New York City during its worst of times, and now, while it is overrun with Violent Biden Migrant Crime, the Radicals are doing all they can to kick me out…..”
There’s more and Trump also promised “more to follow”, but the above sample probably proves sufficient to get his mindset/strategy.
Updated
There’s some more detail on judge Arthur Engoron’s decision not to order the cancellation of the Trump Organization’s business certificates.
That would have essentially ended the company’s ability to continue operation in New York for good, where it originated and has long been headquartered.
In Friday’s verdict, Engoron overturned his decision from last September, saying today that “the cancellation of the business licenses is no longer necessary” as he is ordering the appointment of two court monitors to oversee “major activities that could lead to fraud” in future.
He’s already spoken about the Trump family defendants’ borderline pathological “complete lack of contrition” over their wrongdoing, therefore seeing a risk that they could continue to cheat if not at least suspended from running the business.
Experts speaking, variously, to the New York Times in a previous piece and the BBC indicated, in short, that Engoron has played on the safer side by changing his mind about crushing the business entirely, thus helping to insulate the verdict on appeal.
New York attorney general hails 'massive victory' in Trump case
The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, has posted her initial reaction to the ruling in the Trump Organization fraud case, calling it a “massive victory”.
She posted on X: “In a massive victory, we won our case against Donald Trump for engaging in years of incredible financial fraud to enrich himself. Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and his former executives must pay over $450m in disgorgement and interest.”
In a massive victory, we won our case against Donald Trump for engaging in years of incredible financial fraud to enrich himself.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 16, 2024
Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and his former executives must pay over $450 million in disgorgement and interest.
Disgorgement, according to the Cornell University Law School, is “a remedy requiring a party who profits from illegal or wrongful acts to give up any profits they made as a result of that illegal or wrongful conduct. The purpose of this remedy is to prevent unjust enrichment and make illegal conduct unprofitable.”
James is planning a press conference at 6pm ET and we’ll bring you the news as it happens.
Here’s a recent profile the Guardian US published about James.
Updated
Judge uses understatement to damn Ivanka Trump's truthiness
Buried in the middle of Judge Arthur Engoron’s almost-100 page judgment in the Trump family business fraud case was a smoothly delivered but stinging rebuke of Ivanka Trump’s truthiness.
Ivanka was a witness not a defendant in the Trump Organization civil case in New York, and she took the stand last November, testifying in a calm and orderly manner most memorable for the infamous little phrase, “I don’t recall”.
Well, it didn’t fool Engoron. On page 45 of his ruling today he excoriated the former president’s older daughter thus: “Ivanka Trump was a thoughtful, articulate, and poised witness, but the court found her inconsistent recall, depending on whether she was questioned by OAG [Office of the Attorney General] or the defense, suspect.”
Ivanka Trump, 42, left her fashion business, which is now discontinued, while she was working as an unpaid senior adviser in the White House for the Trump administration. She has also been an executive vice-president in the Trump Organization and a judge on her dad’s television show The Apprentice.
Judge Engoron completed his Trump hand today thus: “In any event, what Ms Trump cannot recall is memorialized in contemporaneous emails and documents; in the absence of her memory, the documents speak for themselves.”
Updated
Engoron cancels 'dissolution' of companies that control real estate empire
But the judge canceled his prior ruling from September ordering the “dissolution” of companies that control pillars of Trump’s real estate empire, Reuters reports.
Engoron said on Friday that this was no longer necessary because he is appointing an independent monitor and compliance director to oversee Trump’s businesses.
Updated
Trump lawyer Alina Habba says ruling is 'manifest injustice'
Trump’s legal team has responded to the massive fine and three-year ban. Via Reuters:
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement that the ruling was a “manifest injustice” and “culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch-hunt” against him.
“This is not just about Donald Trump – if this decision stands, it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business,” Habba said, adding that she plans to appeal.
Updated
Engoron says Trump 'severely compromised his credibility' during trial
The New York fraud case ruling is a massive blow to Trump and his business empire and a big win for New York attorney general Letitia James, who is expected to speak on the ruling at a press conference this afternoon.
In addition to the big fine and ban on doing business, Trump also is barred from obtaining loans from New York banks for three years.
Trump’s conduct in the case entered into the judge’s opinion.
“Overall, Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial,” Judge Engoron wrote. “His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases, at all, severely compromised his credibility.”
Justice Engeron: The Trump family's "complete lack of contrition and remorse" for their extensive fraud and egregious financial misconduct "borders on pathological." https://t.co/L5Jpj2RDnt pic.twitter.com/Fv9Tlc5B8c
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) February 16, 2024
Updated
Trump and sons fined more than $350m
The New York attorney general Letitia James secured a fine of more than $350m against Trump, his eldest sons and their associates after a judge found them guilty of intentionally committing fraud by falsifying government disclosures.
Judge Arthur Engoron also banned the former president from serving as an officer or director or any New York corporation or entity for three years. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr were issued two-year bans.
The full ruling can be found here. We’re reading through it now.
Updated
Trump barred from running businesses in New York for three years
The ruling in the New York fraud case against former president Donald Trump has been released, banning Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for three years.
The New York attorney general’s office sued Trump for inflating the value of his assets on government financial statements in the case, which also includes Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, and two former Trump Organization executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney, as defendants.
The stakes in the case relate to Trump’s businesses, but his political career could be affected by the case as well. It’s factored into his 2024 campaign, where he talks about the “witch hunt” he’s facing across multiple court cases.
Updated
Lawyers who’ve been watching the hearings in the Fulton County case against Trump where defense attorneys are trying to get DA Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade removed from the case have said there’s been little evidence offered of any potential conflict – though the salacious nature of the allegations have done damage to Willis and potentially the case in the court of public opinion.
Friday’s hearings have not been as heated or sordid as yesterday’s, instead probing the people surrounding the relationship who may have some information on it. It’s been, at times, tedious and wonky, and the defense hasn’t gotten any kind of smoking gun to prove its claims of a conflict.
Terrance Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and onetime divorce attorney, is on the stand now and not offering much to help the defense’s case that the relationship is a conflict of interest or that the timeline of the relationship Willis and Wade have put forward isn’t accurate.
Remember, this was supposed to be the star witness to provide factual support for the defense motion. He has very little to offer and, what he has offered, has not contradicted any testimony thus far that was provided by Wade or Willis.
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) February 16, 2024
Robin Yeartie, a former employee in the DA’s office, had testified that Willis started her relationship Wade before he was hired on the Trump case, but she also affirmed she had been ousted over performance. Other witnesses have not shown evidence of a different timeline, nor did Yeartie.
On the southern border of the US and Mexico, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said he’s going to build a military “base camp” in Eagle Pass, the city where there’s an ongoing standoff between US Border Patrol and the Texas National Guard.
Here’s more from Reuters:
The facility - dubbed Forward Operating Base Eagle - will be an 80-acre complex along the banks of the Rio Grande and house up to 1,800 troops, with the ability to expand to 2,300, Abbott and state officials said at a press conference.
The move is part of a broader effort by Abbott to try to stop migrants from crossing the border illegally into Texas, including a makeshift barrier of shipping containers and concertina wire in a city-owned park in Eagle Pass. The state intends to install more barriers north and south of the park, officials said on Friday.
U.S. immigration enforcement historically has been the responsibility of the federal government and Abbott’s moves to secure the border have triggered legal standoffs with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration.
Nathan Wade's former law partner testifies
Back to the Fulton County hearing…
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s former law partner who at one point represented him in his divorce proceeding is on the stand now. Terrance Bradley is testifying on some things, but is limited in what he can talk about because of attorney-client privilege, making for a stilted line of questioning for someone once called the defense’s “star witness.”
Bradley may have some texts that would suggest Wade and Fulton County DA Fani Willis were in a relationship earlier than they’ve claimed, but Willis’ attorneys have disputed this and said he can’t talk about the texts anyway because of attorney-client privilege.
For now, those texts are off the table in the testimony.
NEW: Fulton County judge Scott McAfee rules there’s no crime-fraud exception to force Terrance Bradley — ex lawyer for Nathan Wade for divorce process — to testify about his texts suggesting Willis-Wade romance started before Wade was hired on the Trump RICO case
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 16, 2024
That’s the ruling, for now. But McAfee says they can have a sealed filing about the texts and he will decide after the conclusion of the hearing today. At issue is whether Bradley can testify the relationship started before — which would contradict Wade’s testimony.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 16, 2024
Updated
During remarks at the White House this afternoon, President Joe Biden touched on the Russian satellite issue that’s caused some alarm over security this week.
Biden said there was no sign Russia has decided to deploy an emerging anti-satellite weapon, the Associated Press reports.
The White House has confirmed that U.S. intelligence officials have information indicating Russia has obtained such a capability, although such a weapon is not yet operational. Biden said Friday that “there’s no evidence that they have made a decision to go forward with doing anything in space.”
“There is no nuclear threat to the people of America or anywhere else in the world with what Russia’s doing at the moment,” Biden said.
The president confirmed that the capability obtained by Russia “related to satellites and space and damaging those satellites potentially,” and that those capabilities could “theoretically do something that was damaging.”
But Russia hasn’t moved forward with plans yet, and, Biden added: “My hope is, it will not.”
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily halted the Boy Scouts of America’s $2.46 billion settlement of decades of sex abuse claims, which is being appealed by a group of 144 abuse claimants, Reuters reports.
Alito’s brief order freezing the settlement gives the court more time to decide a February 9 request by the abuse claimants to block the settlement from moving forward.
They contend that the deal unlawfully stops them from pursuing lawsuits against organizations that are not bankrupt, such as churches that ran scouting programs, local Boy Scouts councils and insurers that provided coverage to the Boy Scouts organization.
NPR reported last April that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced, as it was emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, that it would establish a $2.4bn fund for those in the organization who were victims of sexual abuse. as it emerges out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, covering more than 82,000 men who said they were victims.
The BSA had urged the supreme court on Thursday not to stop the settlement from moving forward, saying that a delay could “throw the Scouting program into chaos” and “potentially destroy BSA’s ability to carry out its 114-year-old charitable mission”, Reuters further reported.
Joe Biden commented briefly at the White House a little earlier about the development yesterday where a man at the center of congressional Republicans’ push to impeach the US president was arrested for lying about Joe and Hunter Biden.
“He is lying and it [impeachment] should be dropped – and it’s been an outrageous effort from the beginning,” Biden said. He made the brief remark in response to the last question he took from reporters, returning to the lecturn to do so, after appearing to talk chiefly about the deal of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The news emerged yesterday evening that an FBI informant has been charged with lying to his handler about ties between Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, falsely told FBI agents in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5m each in 2015 and 2016, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Smirnov told the FBI that a Burisma executive had claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems”, prosecutors said in a statement.
The allegations became a flashpoint in Congress over the summer as Republicans demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations as they pursued investigations of Biden and his family. They acknowledged at the time that it was unclear if the allegations were true.
The new development sharply undermines the thrust of congressional Republicans’ corruption accusations that the US president was making money from his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine. Full story here.
Incidentally, the misconduct hearing in Georgia for the leading prosecutors in the election interference case against Donald Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants has resumed after lunch. It’s in the weeds at the moment, but we’ll bring you highlights.
Joe Biden, speaking at the White House moments ago about temporary ceasefire talks with Israel in its war on Hamas, reminded the public that Americans are among the hostages still held inside Gaza.
“And my hope and expectation is that we will get this hostage deal, we will get these Americans home, and the deal is being negotiated now,” the US president said.
At least 120 hostages are believed still to be held in Gaza by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Palestinian territory and took more than 240 hostages from southern Israel after launching a massive attack on the area on 7 October last year. Most of the hostages are Israelis.
The White House said earlier this week that it was not known how many of the remaining hostages are still alive.
Updated
Biden 'hopeful' temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire, hostage deal can be done
Joe Biden has just spoken at the White House about the death of Russian activist Alexei Navalny but also discussing Nato, Israel and Burisma.
The US president expressed outrage at Navalny’s death in a Russian arctic prison camp. Biden’s remarks on that are in our live blog dedicated to Navalny news, here, and his comments responding to Donald Trump’s position on Nato earlier this week will also be in the blog.
But Biden also took some questions and one was about the latest on negotiations with Israel and the US demands that Israel have a credible plan for the 1.7 million people trapped in Rafah in the far south of Gaza before attacking the city in continued efforts to destroy Hamas. He said he has had “extensive talks” with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week “over an hour each” during phone calls.
“I have made the case and I feel very strongly about it – there has to be a temporary ceasefire to get the hostages out. I’m still hopeful that that can be done,” he said.
Biden added: “In the meantime, I do not anticipate … I’m hoping that the Israelis will not make a massive land invasion [of Rafah]. It’s my understanding that that will not happen.”
Updated
Eight members of the House of Representatives have unveiled a bipartisan proposal to provide $66.3bn in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as they attempt to make progress in the lower chamber amid the logjam, Politico reports today.
The total is lower than the $95bn bill for similar purpose passed by the Senate earlier this week but which has shaky prospects in the Republican-controlled House.
Politico writes:
Spearheaded by Ukraine caucus co-chair Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, the House counterproposal also includes provisions aimed at tightening border security and winning over Republicans who won’t approve Ukraine aid without addressing the border.
The bill is sponsored by an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. In addition to Fitzpatrick, the bill is co-sponsored by GOP Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Mike Lawler of New York and Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon.
Four centrist Democrats also signed on: Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Ed Case of Hawaii, Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez of Washington and Jim Costa of California.
House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes the Senate version, and it’s unclear how he will respond to the new bill. But the new proposal creates yet another bipartisan pressure point as Ukraine advocates look to force a vote on the House floor after months of inaction.
Full report here.
Joe Biden is due to make public remarks shortly about the death in custody of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and courageous critic if Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.
Our Guardian colleague in Moscow, Andrew Roth, writes in this report that the death of Navalny, once Putin’s most significant political challenger, is a watershed moment for Russia’s shattered pro-democracy movement, which has largely been jailed or driven into exile since the Ukraine invasion of 2022.
Navalny, 47, was being held in a jail about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been sentenced to 19 years under a “special regime”.
We are covering developments and reaction to this tragedy in a dedicated Guardian live blog, which you can follow here.
That blog will feature Joe Biden’s remarks as they happen.
Quick midday summary...
After Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis was not called back to the stand, the county’s hearing has continued with other witnesses, albeit much less explosive than yesterday’s testimony.
Former Georgia governor Roy Barnes testified that he was asked to be special prosecutor, but turned it down because it didn’t pay enough and would risk his safety.
John Floyd, Willis’ father, testified that he hadn’t met special prosecutor Nathan Wade until 2023 and didn’t know they were in a relationship until it became public. He also said he taught his daughter to keep cash on hand, something Willis said she used to pay back Wade for anything he paid for while they dated.
More witnesses should take the stand this afternoon. You can livestream the courtroom here.
Beyond the hearing, the big news of the day: US Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia, will not run for president, ending speculation that he could spoil the election as a third-party option. That’s a sigh of relief for President Joe Biden.
We’re still keeping an eye out for the expected ruling out of New York on the Trump fraud case, which should come sometime today. Stay tuned!
Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, announced in a speech today that he officially will not be running for president, ending speculation that he could run as a third-party candidate and throw President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects for a loop.
“I will not be a deal breaker or a spoiler,” Manchin said, according to the New York Times.
Manchin had considered running under the No Labels banner, a group that’s gotten on the ballot as a party in multiple states and is trying to recruit someone to run as an alternative to Trump and Biden this year.
Willis's father says he didn't know Wade and his daughter were dating until it became public
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis’ father took the stand now, testifying about threats she faced at the home he lived in with her in 2019 and 2020, before she moved to a new place after people outside her house called her slurs and threatened her there.
John Floyd, Willis’ dad, was asked about her romantic relationships and how often he saw people she had dated, including special prosecutor Nathan Wade. He said he hadn’t met Wade until 2023, and a previous boyfriend he saw often in earlier years was a disc jockey. (Previous testimony from a former friend of Willis claimed the two started dating much earlier than they’d claimed.)
Floyd also said he didn’t know Willis and Wade were dating until it became public knowledge weeks ago as part of the Trump case. He said he knew his daughter had gone on trips, but not with Wade. And he said he hadn’t been able to see his daughter in person much in recent years or go to her home because of safety concerns they both had.
For more info on Floyd’s background and long resume, check out this backgrounder from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He’s also a lawyer, was a Black Panther as a young man, and once dated Angela Davis, the paper writes.
One thing that came up in questioning of Floyd: Willis’ use of cash. The DA has said she would keep cash at home and pay Wade back for travel expenses in cash. She said her dad had told her to keep cash on hand at home, a lesson she followed.
Floyd confirmed this lesson, telling the attorneys keeping cash was something he did to protect himself as a Black man.
“Most Black folks, they hide cash and they keep cash. I was trained, you always keep some cash,” he said, sharing how he had been discriminated against in the past and not allowed to use credit cards or checks, highlighting the need for cash.
He would keep cash in safes in his home and gifted his daughter her first cash box, too. “I’ve told my daughter, you keep six months worth of cash, always,” he said.
Updated
Some relief today for President Joe Biden’s reelection bid: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin isn’t going to run for president.
Manchin, a centrist Democrat who at times stood against Biden’s policy objectives, previously announced he wouldn’t run for reelection to the Senate and had been eyeing the idea of a run for president instead, as a third-party candidate.
NEWS: Sen. Joe Manchin is about to announce he is NOT running for president after months considering a run
— Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) February 16, 2024
Roy Barnes, the Democratic former governor of Georgia, took the stand today in the Fulton County hearing over the attempt to disqualify district attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Barnes testified that he was approached for the special prosecutor role, but he turned in down in part because it didn’t pay enough to draw him into the high-profile case. Safety concerns played a role in his refusal, he said.
Former Governor Roy Barnes explains why he turned down the offer to be special prosecutor: I lived with bodyguards for four years, and I didn't like it, and I wasn’t going to live with bodyguards for the rest of my life pic.twitter.com/9oE0KxFSEH
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 16, 2024
Barnes complimented Wade, saying he had a good ability to organize and wasn’t surprised he was tapped as special prosecutor, and called Willis well-qualified as well.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign launched a new ad focusing on Donald Trump’s attacks on Nato, the military alliance among the US and dozens of other countries, after Trump has spoken against the alliance multiple times in the past week.
The new ad, dubbed “Walk Away,” talks about the value of Nato and how all US presidents since Harry Truman have supported the alliance, “the most important military alliance in the world.”
Trump this week said he wouldn’t protect countries that he thinks don’t pay enough to be in the alliance. He said he would encourage Russia to attack those countries that don’t pay, saying Russia and Putin could “do whatever the hell they want” to those allied countries.
“No president has ever said anything like it,” the ad says. “It’s shameful, it’s weak, it’s dangerous, it’s unamerican.”
Biden, the ad says, knows that Nato is “good for America and good for the world” and that he will “honor it because that’s what a strong American president does.”
The ad targets voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all swing states. It will run for three weeks and cost six figures in the run up to Super Tuesday on March 5. It will run online in various places, including as search ads on Google when people look up Trump’s comments, the campaign said.
These three states are home to “more than 2.5 million Americans who identify as Polish, Finnish, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Latvian, or Estonian,” the Biden campaign noted. These countries are all part of Nato and border Russia, meaning they face the threat of any expanded Russian movement in the Ukraine war.
In addition to Fani Willis not taking the stand again today, the Fulton County attorney’s office had no further questions for Robin Yeartie, a former employee in the office who had been put forward by the defendants in the Trump case as a witness because her testimony contradicted Willis’s claims.
The move not to recall Yeartie suggested the district attorney’s office saw her testimony as unpersuasive. Yeartie had testified that Willis started her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade before he was hired on the Trump case, but also affirmed she had been ousted over performance.
Despite Willis not testifying again, there will be additional people called to the stand today as the defense attorneys try to make their case that Willis and Wade, and therefore the whole DA’s office, should be taken off the Trump election subversion case.
The eventual outcome of the hearing – expected to take all day Friday and potentially continue next Tuesday for arguments over what legal standards should be applied for disqualification – could have far-reaching implications for the viability of one of the most perilous criminal cases against the former president.
Donald Trump, the former president and Republican frontrunner for the top office, has been sharing all kinds of messages about Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis’ hearing and making claims about the case’s weaknesses on his social media platform, Truth Social.
This morning, Trump wrote with skepticism about Willis’ claims she reimbursed her former partner and current special prosecutor Nathan Wade for personal trip expenses using cash.
“Does anybody really believe that Fani Willis paid cash to her ‘lover’ whenever they took expensive ‘trips’ together. Really? Where did she get the CASH? Pretty weak questioning yesterday!!! I guess they don’t want to insult her. No way she can explain any of this corruption away!!!” Trump wrote.
Last night, Trump wrote that the Willis incident is now trending “all over the world.”
“It was a FAKE CASE from the start, and now everybody sees it for what it is, a MAJOR LEAGUE SCANDAL! The legal pundits, experts, and scholars are all screaming that this Witch Hunt, which has hurt so many fine people and patriots, should be immediately terminated and permanently erased from everyone’s memory,” the former president wrote.
While we wait for the Fulton county hearing to get under way, here’s some news from the Associated Press about a visit Joe Biden will take today to East Palestine, Ohio, a town where a train derailed last year. The AP’s Josh Boak reports:
For over a year, President Joe Biden waited for what the White House said was the right moment to visit East Palestine, Ohio, facing criticism that he was ignoring the victims of an explosive fire caused by a train derailment.
On Friday, the president goes to the village of 5,000 at the invitation of its mayor and as the Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of finishing an extensive cleanup paid for by the train company, Norfolk Southern. Republicans have blasted Biden for not visiting sooner and there are some enduring tensions in the community.
“The president has always said when the time is right and when it made sense for him to go, he would go,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “And so, that’s what he’s doing.”
During Biden’s visit, there will be a separate rally for former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner. Trump won nearly 72% of the vote in Ohio’s Columbiana County, which includes East Palestine.
Mike Young, the rally’s coordinator, described the grass-roots event as “anti-Biden.” He said he delivered water to the community after the disaster and the president should have been an immediate presence on the ground.
“The sentiment from residents has been: Where were you a year ago?” Young said. “Too little, too late. And now Biden shows up at election time.”
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Fani Willis won't take stand again
The Fulton county district attorney won’t be taking the stand again, the state said.
New: Fulton County DA Fani Willis won’t be returning to the stand for more testimony bc the state has no further questions. State also won’t further cross examine Robin Yeartie, suggesting DA’s office doesn’t feel she was persuasive about when relationship began
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 16, 2024
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Georgia misconduct hearing on Fani Willis resumes
The hearing over the effort to disqualify the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, from the sprawling election subversion case against Trump and his allies resumes this morning, with Willis expected to again take the stand for questioning.
The former romantic relationship between Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade is a sideshow to the case, which alleges Trump and his network tried to steal the 2020 election.
But it’s become a way for Republicans and Trump to undermine the case. On the campaign trail, Trump often calls the handful of court cases he now faces “election interference”, though he also campaigns on the cases, too, talking about how they’re evidence of a deep state and that he’s doing something right if so many people are coming after him. He’s spent recent weeks popping back and forth between campaign stops and courtrooms, and the fact he could end up on jail doesn’t seem to be hurting his campaign.
These cases are a main feature of the 2024 election, with Trump’s foes hoping for accountability that keeps the former president away from the White House, and his allies wanting him to fend off the challenges to show his strength.
The hearing in Fulton county will begin shortly. We’ll have coverage from on the ground and analysis from our reporters who’ve covered the case here.
You can follow a livestream of Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom here.
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Trump fraud trial ruling expected today as Fani Willis misconduct hearing resumes
Good morning, US politics readers. Yesterday was dominated by two Trump-related hearings in different parts of the country. Today, one will resume, in Georgia. And a ruling is expected in another Trump case, in New York.
Former president and current Republican frontrunner Donald Trump appeared in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday for his first criminal trial, a case that revolves around hush money paid to the adult film star Stormy Daniels and the playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump’s run for reelection played into the president’s antics in and out of the courtroom.
Further south, in Georgia, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, sat for a hearing where her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade was picked apart and questioned by a defendant in the Trump case, Mike Roman, who is seeking to have them both removed from the case, alleging a conflict of interest because of their romantic relationship.
At issue in the hearing were the timeline of the two attorneys’ relationship and any shared finances, like Wade potentially paying for trips they took together, as defense attorneys try to make the case that Wade’s payments for working the case somehow enriched Willis.
The Georgia hearing was salacious and heated, with Willis hitting back at defense attorneys questioning her with: “I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
The hearing resumes in Georgia today at 9am eastern. Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom has a livestream here, or you can check out news stations’ livestreams.
Meanwhile, back in New York but in a different case from the hush money one, a ruling is expected today in a fraud trial where Trump faces a potential $370m fine and a lifetime ban on doing real estate in the state.
The New York fraud case came from the state attorney general’s office suing the former president for inflating the value of his assets on government financial statements.
If you’re having trouble following all the Trump cases, we have a rundown of them here, with the key players and details of the allegations in each one.
Beyond Trumpworld, news broke late yesterday that an FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, was charged for lying to his handler about ties between Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, allegations that became fodder for Republicans.
The Trump trials will probably be today’s big news in US politics again, as we follow the second day of the hearing over Willis and Wade’s relationship in Georgia and the expected ruling on the New York fraud case.
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