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 Jeenah Moon/Pool via Reuters Donald Trump knows how to play to the audience, whether it's the deluded millions of his MAGA base or the jurors in the first criminal trial of a former president.
That was clear on Friday when Trump seized a moment in his criminal trial to seemingly comfort a witness—his still-loyal ex-assistant Rhona Graff.
The jury had just finished listening to supermarket tabloid sleaze David Pecker testify about what prosecutors say was a criminal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to kill potentially damaging stories about Trump.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Ex-tabloid publisher David Pecker and Donald Trump's former assistant Rhona Graff were among those who testifed Friday in the hush money trial.
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 Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesDonald Trump's presidency has served as a wake-up call that our Constitution and our laws were not designed to handle an authoritarian like him. And Thursday's Supreme Court hearing on presidential immunity was yet another reminder of that fact.
It's dangerous to try and divine the court's opinion based on oral arguments; however, the consensus seems to be heading in a direction that says that a president should be immune from prosecution over "official," but not private, acts. On the surface, this seems like a reasonable precedent. After all, we don't want a banana republic where former presidents are unfairly targeted for prosecution after they leave office.
Still, this foreboding thought remains: It is virtually impossible to untwine "official" acts from personal crimes. Someone like Trump can always lie about his motives.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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 ANDREW HARNIKThe retired cop who became the face of D.C. Metropolitan Police brutalized at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 has launched a private security business with a name evoking the attack—and is already providing services to a campaign of the congressman who helped spearhead the subsequent impeachment of President Donald Trump, as well as "major political organizations," the pol told The Daily Beast.
Federal Election Commission records show the campaign of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) paid nearly $50,000 between August and February to Lower West Terrace LLC, a venture launched by Officer Michael Fanone and bearing the name of the entrance he defended on the infamous vote certification date.
As one of the managers of the second Trump impeachment trial, Swalwell committed to the congressional record Fanone's account of the injuries he sustained during the election deniers' bloody assault on the seat of government: Trump supporters swarmed him on the lower west terrace, tased him until he suffered cardiac arrest, and pummeled him into unconsciousness.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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 Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker, who was reported to have questioned the suspension of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, a key element in the inquiry leading to President Donald Trump's impeachment, resigned on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said.
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