Closing summary
Donald Trump will go to trial on 15 April in New York City on charges related to making hush-money payments, after a judge rejected his attorney’s arguments that prosecutors had committed misconduct and the trial should be delayed, or canceled outright. The decision raises the possibility that the former president could be convicted or exonerated of one of the four sets of criminal charges he faces before the November presidential election – which could upend the campaign. However, things could still change. Trump says he’ll appeal the ruling, and scored a win at an appeals court in a separate matter earlier today, when his attorneys managed to get the bond he must produce in his civil fraud judgment reduced, and his payment date delayed.
Here’s what else happened today:
The supreme court will on Tuesday hear a case brought by a conservative group against abortion pill mifepristone, which Joe Biden’s allies warn is a preview of a second Trump administration’s aspirations.
Before the appeals court ruling, Trump came close to blowing his deadline to produce at $454m bond, which he said he was struggling to find backers for.
The UN security council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza after the United States abstained.
Trump encouraged Israel to wrap up its invasion of Gaza, warning that it was risking its international reputation.
Biden mocked Trump after he gave himself an award for golfing at his own club.
Trump tells Israel to 'get it done' in Gaza, warns of damage to international reputation
In an interview with a conservative publication, Donald Trump encouraged Israel “to finish up your war” in Gaza and warned “you’re losing a lot of the world”.
Trump’s comments came the same day as the United States allowed the UN security council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, reversing months of obstruction. Joe Biden has seen some Democratic supporters defect recently over his support for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and earlier this month, the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accused him of inhibiting peace and called for Israel to hold new elections.
In an interview with Israel Hayom, which is owned by the family of Sheldon Adelson, a conservative mogul and supporter of both Trump and Netanyahu who died in 2021, Trump expressed support for Israel’s response to the 7 October attack.
“I would act very much the same way as you did. You would have to be crazy not to,” he said.
But he also criticized Israel for harming its reputation, as images of destroyed infrastructure and dead civilians poured out of Gaza:
You have to finish up your war. To finish it up. You gotta get it done. And, I am sure you will do that. And we gotta get to peace, we can’t have this going on. And I will say, Israel has to be very careful, because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support, you have to finish up, you have to get the job done.
With the supreme court set to weigh a conservative challenge against abortion pill mifepristone, the Guardian’s Carter Sherman reports on a study showing more and amore Americans are relying on the medication to end their pregnancies:
In the six months after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, roughly 26,000 more Americans used pills to induce their own at-home abortions than would have done so if Roe had not fallen, according to a new study.
Published on Monday in Jama, one of the leading peer-reviewed medical journals in the United States, the study comes ahead of a key Tuesday hearing at the US supreme court at which the justices will hear oral arguments in a case that could determine the future of a major abortion pill, mifepristone.
Pills are used in 63% of all abortions within the US healthcare system, and the study suggests they are being used by even more people than previously known in order to evade abortion restrictions that now blanket much of the US.
Analyzing data from abortion pill suppliers who operate outside of the US healthcare system, the study provides a rare window into the growing practice known as “self-managed abortion”. Although definitions of self-managed abortion can vary, the practice generally refers to abortions that take place outside the formal healthcare system, without the aid of a US-based clinician.
Ahead of the supreme court’s hearing on Tuesday on the availability of a widely used abortion pill, Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren warned that a future Trump administration would seek to ban abortion nationwide.
Warren said the case brought by a conservative group, which centers on the drug mifepristone, highlighted the stakes of the 2024 election.
“Republicans have gone to the courts acting as if they know better than the scientific experts at the FDA about the safety of medication abortion,” she said today on a press call organized by the Biden campaign. “What does that tell us? Donald Trump and Maga Republicans are prepared to use every tool in their toolbox to control women’s bodies: banning abortion nationwide, ending access to IVF and even attacking contraception access.”
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, manager of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, said they planned to make abortion a central theme, noting that Democrats had performed strongly in elections where the issue was on the ballot. The campaign, she said, would keep reminding voters that it was Trump who laid the groundwork to overturn Roe v Wade with his appointment of three conservative supreme court justices.
Mini Timmaraju, the CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said Trump’s support of a national abortion ban at 15 or 16 weeks of pregnancy would backfire.
“A 15-week abortion ban is still an abortion ban,” she said on the call. “And as we showed in Virginia, Americans hate abortion bans, they will not fall for it, they will not stand for it.”
Updated
Biden campaign hammers Trump as 'weak and desperate'
Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has released a statement attacking Donald Trump after a weekend the former president spend awarding himself while struggling to secure a bond for his civil fraud conviction.
“Donald Trump is weak and desperate – both as a man and a candidate for president,” said James Singer, a spokesman for the Biden-Harris campaign.
“His campaign can’t raise money, he is uninterested in campaigning outside his country club, and every time he opens his mouth, he pushes moderate and suburban voters away with his dangerous agenda. America deserves better than a feeble, confused, and tired Donald Trump.”
National security spokesman John Kirby has just wrapped up his part of the press briefing at the White House and left the room, leaving press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre handing questions about congressional matters now involving the stuck legislation over aid to Ukraine.
Kirby said of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s canceling of the high level delegation visit to the White House tomorrow for talks on Gaza:“It’s disappointing, we would have preferred to have had that meeting.”
Kirby said that Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant is currently at the White House for a long-scheduled visit, meeting with national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“Humanitarian assistance will be on the agenda,” Kirby emphasized.
He said that the US abstained in the UN security council resolution vote this morning calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages by Hamas, which controls Gaza.
“We chose to abstain [rather than veto] because it did not include language condemning Hamas,” Kirby said. And it did link a ceasefire to a hostage deal. The US put forward a ceasefire resolution last Friday but it was more conditional than the one it abstained on today. The US resolution last week was vetoed by Russia and China.
Kirby added: “Hamas could solve all these problems right now by putting down their arms and releasing the hostages.”
Updated
Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant is in Washington, meeting with national security adviser Jake Sullivan today and will meet with US defense secretary Lloyd Austin tomorrow.
My colleague Julian Borger wrote earlier that after the vote at the UN [this morning], the office of Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a planned visit to Washington by two of his ministers, intended to discuss a planned Israeli offensive on the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, which the US opposes. The White House said it was “very disappointed” by the decision. However, a previously arranged visit by the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, went ahead.
US national security spokesperson John Kirby said just now at the White House press briefing underway that Israel was still “a friend and ally” and that the US was still supplying Israel with aid and weapons.
But the US is adamant that Israel should not only agree to a ceasefire tied to a hostage deal but should not invade Rafah, the city closest to Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, which is packed with more than 1.5 million desperate Palestinians who fled the military operation that has decimated a lot of Gaza further north.
“We have the same concerns about a ground offensive in Rafah that we had yesterday and the day before,” Kirby said.
The Israeli military bombed parts of Rafah overnight.
Updated
National security spokesperson John Kirby just spoke to the press about the US abstaining on the vote at the UN security council in New York earlier today calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Our vote does not represent, repeat, does not represent, a shift in our policy,” he said.
Kirby added: “We wanted to get to a place where we could support this resolution.”
The US did not support it because it did not contain language condemning Hamas, he said.
He was just asked about Israel then cancelling the high-level diplomatic delegation visit to the White House tomorrow.
“We are kind of perplexed by this,” he said. He said it was a non-binding resolution at the UN so does not hamper “Israel’s ability to go after Hamas”.
He emphasized that the US has not changed its policy, no matter what the Israeli government is implying.
Updated
The White House press briefing is running later than originally scheduled today.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is due to be joined in the west wing briefing room by national security spokesperson John Kirby.
Jean-Pierre usually deals with most of the domestic issues while Kirby deals with foreign policy issues.
The situation in Russia after the probable-Islamic State attack last Friday night at a concert hall and the latest on Israel-Gaza will be prominent on the agenda.
The US abstained on a UN security council vote on an immediate ceasefire and hostage release earlier today, following which Israel cancelled its diplomatic government visit to Washington to discuss Rafah.
The briefing is getting underway now.
Updated
The day so far
Donald Trump will go to trial on 15 April in New York City on charges related to making hush-money payments, after a judge rejected his attorney’s arguments that prosecutors had committed misconduct and the trial should be delayed, or canceled outright. The decision raises the possibility that the former president could be convicted or exonerated of one the four sets of criminal charges he faces before the November presidential election – which could upend the campaign. However, things could still change. Trump says he’ll appeal the ruling, and scored a win at an appeals court in a separate matter earlier today, when his attorneys managed to get the bond he must produce in his civil fraud judgment reduced, and his payment date delayed.
Here’s what else is going on:
Before the appeals court ruling, Trump came close to blowing his deadline to produce at $454m bond, which he said he was struggling to find backers for.
The UN security council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza after the United States abstained.
Trump gave himself an award at his own golf club, drawing mockery from Joe Biden.
Updated
Trump says he would testify at hush-money trial
Asked if he would testify in his defense at the hush-money trial, Donald Trump said yes.
“I would have no problem testifying. I didn’t do anything wrong,” Trump said.
He was then asked if he was worried that a conviction would hurt his presidential campaign.
It could “make me more popular because the people know it’s a scam”, Trump replied. “It’s a Biden trial.”
The former president has inhabited the witness stand before, including in author E Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial earlier this year:
Updated
Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s attorney, then took over to more concisely outline his objections with the former president going to trial on 15 April.
“We very much believe that starting this trial in April, or even starting this trial at any point before the election, is completely unfair to President Trump. It’s completely unfair to the American people who are evaluating who they want to be the next president,” Blanche said.
He referred to 15 April as “not a day we should go to trial, and we’re going to continue to fight”.
Updated
Donald Trump has kicked off his press conference with familiar allegations that the criminal prosecutions against him amount to “election interference”.
“They’re dying to get this thing started. The judge cannot go faster. He wants to get it started so badly,” Trump said, after New York judge Juan Merchan ruled not long ago that his hush-money trial could begin on 15 April.
Trump then appears to mix his words, and implies that elections should not be held because of all his legal troubles.
“It’s illegal, what they’re doing. It’s criminal what they’re doing, and it’s never been done before in this country. You can’t have an election in the middle of a political season,” Trump said. Perhaps he meant to say “trial”.
Updated
Trump to hold press conference after New York judge allows hush-money case to proceed
Donald Trump says he will hold a press conference at 1pm, following New York judge Juan Merchan’s ruling allowing his trial on charges related to making hush-money payments to begin on 15 April.
Updated
Trump says he will appeal judge's ruling beginning hush-money trial on 15 April
As he departed the Manhattan courthouse where Judge Juan Merchan ruled that his trial on charges related to making hush-money payments can begin on 15 April, Donald Trump announced that he would appeal the decision.
Updated
The ruling setting 15 April as the start of Donald Trump’s trial on charges related to paying hush money raises the prospect that the former president will receive a verdict on one of his four criminal matters before the November election.
The other three cases – two of which concern his attempts to block Joe Biden’s election win in 2020, and the third regarding his possession of classified documents after leaving the White House – remain tied up in pre-trial motions and appeals. Here’s a rundown of all the cases’ status:
Updated
New York judge rules Trump hush money case can start on 15 April
Judge Juan Merchan has ruled that Donald Trump’s trial on charges related to making hush-money payments will begin on 15 April.
The former president’s attorneys had alleged misconduct by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office in sharing evidence, and asked for the charges to be dismissed, or the proceedings to be delayed at least 90 days.
“The district attorney of NY County is not at fault for the late production of documents from the US attorney’s office,” Merchan said.
He added that “defendant has been given a reasonable amount of time to prepare,” and “Jury selection in this matter will commence in 21 days, on April 15.”
Updated
Trump says he will 'abide' by ruling to put up reduced bond
In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said he would put up the $175m bond required to satisfy the judgment in his New York civil fraud case, while attacking Arthur Engoron, the judge who presided over the trial, and the state attorney general Letitia James.
“We will abide by the decision of the Appellate Division, and post either a bond, equivalent securities, or cash. This also shows how ridiculous and outrageous Engoron’s original decision was at $450 Million,” Trump wrote.
He also let fly at Engoron, saying, “His credibility, and that of Letitia James, has been shattered.”
New York attorney general's office says Trump 'still facing accountability' despite reduced bond
In a statement, a spokesperson for New York attorney general Letitia James said Donald Trump is still liable for paying the full amount of his judgment, even though an appeals court reduced how much he must put up as a bond:
Donald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud. The court has already found that he engaged in years of fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization. The $464 million judgment – plus interest – against Donald Trump and the other defendants still stands.
The former president is responsible for $454m of the total judgment in the case, with the rest to be paid by his co-defendants.
Donald Trump has narrowly avoided defaulting on his obligation to put up a bond after being found liable for civil fraud in New York. But even if he had blown his deadline, the Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports that it may have taken a long time for New York authorities to seize his assets to satisfy the judgment:
The face-off between Donald Trump and Letitia James, the New York attorney general, could reach a denouement as soon as Tuesday when James assumes the legal right to begin seizing the former US president’s assets in lieu of a $454m fine Trump says he can’t meet.
But anyone expecting Anthony Miranda, sheriff of the city of New York, to show up at Trump’s premiere property and home on 5th Avenue to cart off the faux-Louis XIV furniture, the golden cherubs, crystal chandeliers or chisel the 24-karat gold from the architraves and cornices, may be disappointed.
Collecting a financial judgment is a slow and arduous process, according to New York real estate attorneys, especially when the assets that could be seized to satisfy that judgement are properties withheld in a complex web of ownership and titles, subject to mortgages and co-ownership claims.
The same problem that Trump says he faces raising a bond against his properties is the same problem that James could find in liquefying his assets to satisfy the punishment brought in after she won a fraud trial against Trump’s real estate empire.
“Bonds people do not like to use property as collateral because it’s hard to liquify the asset if there’s a default,” said Adam Leitman Bailey, a real estate attorney, “and for the attorney general this isn’t so easy either. It’s going to be very difficult to seize his properties. It takes a lot of work.”
Updated
Appeals court reduces Trump bond to $175m, extends deadline
A state appeals court has reduced the bond Donald Trump must put up in response to his civil fraud judgment in New York to $175m, and given him 10 more days to get the money together, Reuters reports.
Previously, the former president had until today to produce a $454m bond in response to a judge’s finding that he fraudulently manipulated the value of his assets, an amount Trump said he was not able to secure.
Due to an error by Reuters, this post was corrected to note the decision was made by a New York appeals court, not a federal court.
Updated
A key plank of Donald Trump’s pitch to presidential election voters has been a return to what he characterizes as the good old days of his first term in the White House. The Guardian’s David Smith reports that the former president appears to mean what he says, as he gets together his old team of problematic campaign advisors:
Donald Trump’s getting the band back together. But this time they come with political baggage, conspiracy theories and, in some instances, criminal convictions.
The former US president’s old acolytes are returning to the fold, eager to exert influence on his bid for the White House and have their say in a potential second administration. That poses a headache for his election campaign team, whose efforts to run a disciplined operation can be upended at any moment by the mercurial Trump.
“Trump always wants to feel comfortable about the people who surround him and what better way to do that than to get the band back together?” said Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington DC. “We could look forward to the greatest hits ad nauseam.”
If a man is judged by the company he keeps, Trump’s speaks volumes. There was uproar in 2022 when when the rapper Kanye West brought the white supremacist Nick Fuentes to dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump’s inner circle includes the far-right representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democrat turned rightwing media personality and outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine; and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who has pushed the “great replacement” theory and claimed that the 6 January 2021 insurrection was an inside job.
US abstains as UN security council passes resolution calling for ceasefire in Gaza
Elsewhere in Manhattan, the UN security council just passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, after failing to do so for months due to the vetos of major powers.
The United States objected to previous resolutions but abstained from this vote, allowing it to pass and potentially signaling a new approach to its relationship with Israel, as Joe Biden faces mounting criticism from allies in the Democratic party over his support for its invasion of Gaza.
Follow our live blog for the latest on this developing story:
Merchan asked Trump’s team why they waited so long to bring the document receipt issues to him, noting that they had met on 15 February.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche responded: “When we met with the court on the 15th, the process was ongoing. There wasn’t any resolution at that point … we didn’t know if [the request] would be granted. We didn’t believe, even as I sit here today, I don’t know what kind of intervention we could have sought from your honor at that point. We had certainly been trying to get these materials.”
Merchan also asked both sides: “How many of those documents were actually relevant to this case?”
The prosecution said: “Our assessment is that the number of relevant usable new documents is quite small. Our analysis is ongoing but I think we have in the neighborhood of 300 or fewer are related to the subject matter of this case. The people believe that those materials are almost exclusively cumulative in our view [and] largely inculpatory.”
Updated
As the hearing kicked off, Judge Juan Merchan started by recapping Donald Trump’s arguments.
Trump’s attorneys claim that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg did not share evidence in a timely manner, and have asked Merchan to either delay the case by at least 90 days, or throw it out altogether.
Merchan noted Trump attorney Todd Blanche filed a motion that accused “the people of engaging in serious discovery violations”, which were “specifically to interfere in the 2024 presidential election”.
Updated
The hearing is about to begin.
Judge Juan Merchan just arrived on the bench. Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg came into the room shortly before Donald Trump.
Trump arrives in Manhattan courtroom for hearing where judge could further delay hush-money trial
Donald Trump just walked into the Manhattan courtroom for what could be a pivotal hearing in his hush-money case, as judge Juan Merchan weighs whether to set a new trial date, or delay proceedings further.
Wearing a navy suit, red tie and white shirt, the former president entered just before 10am, without much of an expression on his face.
“This is a witch-hunt and a hoax,” he said, before going into the courtroom.
Updated
Among the readers of Donald Trump’s Truth Social account is Joe Biden – or at least whoever manages his X account.
They saw fit to mock the former president for announcing he had received an award from … well, himself:
Congratulations, Donald. Quite the accomplishment. pic.twitter.com/nyDivqPwoI
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 25, 2024
Here’s the latest on Donald Trump’s search for a $454m bond, and what happens if he does not secure one in the coming hours, from the Guardian’s Dominic Rushe:
Time was running out for Donald Trump to secure a bond covering the $454m loss for his recent fraud case loss on Monday, opening the way for New York’s attorney general to begin the long, slow process of seizing his assets.
The former president has until Monday to secure a bond covering the half-billion-dollar judgment against him while he appeals the decision. Trump must post collateral covering 120% of the judgment, according to court filings, a sum of more than $557m. Last week his lawyers said it was a “practical impossibility” for him to secure a bond of this size.
“A bond of this size is rarely if ever seen. In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is provided to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or privately held businesses,” his lawyers argued.
The attorney general, Letitia James, had made clear that she will seize Trump assets if the bond is not secured. On Friday her office filed judgments in Westchester county, north of New York City, home to Trump’s sprawling Seven Springs estate and golf course.
A judgment has already been entered in New York City, home to some of Trump’s most famous assets, including Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street.
As deadline to post $454m bond looms, Trump asks 'Why should I be forced to sell my "babies"'
Donald Trump is this morning doing what he does: raging on Truth Social about the latest developments in his rollercoaster of a career as a businessman and politician, the latest subject being the massive $454m bond he is on the hook for.
The former president has not found someone willing to back his guarantee, raising the possibility that Letitia James may start freezing his bank accounts and seizing his property. On Truth, Trump was apoplectic about the prospect that he’d have to part with some of his real estate, or his “babies”, in order to satisfy his financial obligations:
Crooked Pols!!! There should be no FINE. Did nothing wrong! Why should I be forced to sell my “babies” because a CORRUPT NEW YORK JUDGE & A.G. SET A FAKE AND RIDICULOUS NUMBER. “TAKE HIS CASH SO THAT HE CAN’T USE IT TO DEFEAT HIS POLITICAL OPPONENT, CROOKED JOE BIDEN.” ELECTION INTERFERENCE, ALL HEADED UP BY THE WHITE HOUSE - THIS INCLUDES FANI AND THE CORRUPT MANHATTAN D.A. BRAGG ADMITTED THERE WAS NO CRIME, WAS MORTIFIED BY WHAT MARK POMERANCE DID - AND HE SHOULD BE. WITCH HUNT!
New York judge may set new trial date in Trump hush money case as ex-president faces deadline for bond
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today is another big one for Donald Trump and his lawyers, who are expected in a New York City courtroom for a hearing that may decide when his case on charges related to hush money payments goes to trial anytime soon. Jury selection was originally supposed to begin today, but Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg requested a delay after receiving new documents from federal prosecutors. He now says no further postponements are necessary, and we’ll see if judge Juan Merchan agrees. Trump has been indicted four times, but all of his cases have been tied up in pre-trial motions and appeals, raising the possibility that none are resolved prior to his expected face off in the November presidential election against Joe Biden. The Manhattan case appears to be the one closest to starting trial, and we’ll see if Merchan gets the ball rolling, or gives the former president another delay.
Today is also the deadline for Trump to put up a $454m bond required by the judgement in his fraudulent property valuation case, or face that prospect that New York attorney general Letitia James starts seizing his bank accounts and, potentially, his commercial property. The former president has had trouble finding a backer willing to do that, but there’s still time for someone to step up.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Biden, who has not been popular with voters for most of his presidency, overtook Trump in the Economist’s polling average, perhaps a sign of better days to come.
Congress left Washington DC after narrowly averting a partial government shutdown, but leaving behind all kinds of unfinished business, including whether or not to approve military aid to Israel and Ukraine.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spars with reporters at 1pm ET.
