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'Solid use of public funds': Republican mocked for flying to NY to 'stand with Trump'
April 30, 2024
Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday morning that he was supporting his friend, Donald Trump, during his hush money trial in New York.
The Texas leader wrote via X (formerly Twitter), "With President Trump in NYC to sit through this sham of a trial. This trial is a travesty of justice. I stand with Trump."
Last May, CNN published an article by longtime Texas political journalist James Moore, who reported:
The impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over allegations of corruption, bribery and obstruction of justice has political experts contemplating whether things are coming undone for the state's Republican Party and its control of government. The answer is no — at least not yet. The Texas GOP has decided to dump an officeholder who appears to have gone a bit too far and embarrassed the party to the point of becoming a political liability. The challenge for Republicans will be how to remove him from office without harming the party or its members. And that won't be easy.
READ MORE: Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial could 'seriously wound' Texas Republicans
The far-right Texas leader was not successfully ousted.
Washington Post editorial writer and columnist James Hohmann noted in an op-ed last month that Paxton "was acquitted by the state Senate in September, and now the attorney general has embarked on a revenge tour aimed at many of the Republicans in the state House who impeached him."
Hohmann wrote:
His top target is Dade Phelan, the House speaker. The attorney general stars in commercials for one of Phelan’s primary challengers, David Covey, and flew to Phelan’s hometown, Beaumont, to campaign against him. Paxton even enlisted Donald Trump to endorse Covey. On social media, the former president blamed Phelan for Paxton’s impeachment, which Trump called an 'absolute embarrassment' for 'our Great Republican Party.'
A few political experts — some based in Texas — mocked the attorney general's decision to stand by Trump during his first criminal trial.
READ MORE: Tensions between Ken Paxton and Republican Texas House speaker reach boiling point
Harris County, Texas Attorney Christian D. Menefee said, "Solid use of public funds here."
Quorum Report editor Scott Braddock wrote, "Attorney General Paxton did not sit through his own "sham of a trial" in the Texas Senate last year #TxLege"
Vanity Fair special correspondent Molly Jong-Fast tweeted, "If Eric [Trump] were an AG."
READ MORE: Ken Paxton impeachment fight exposes deep fissures among Texas GOPCONTINUE READINGShow less
'Irreparable breakdown': Trump campaign law firm suddenly retreats from years-long case
April 30, 2024
A longstanding legal firm serving former President Donald Trump's campaign and businesses is seeking to withdraw from a lengthy case because of “irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship,” according to a new report and court records.
The firm LaRocca, Hornik, Greenberg, Rosen, Kittridge, Carlin and McPartland on Friday requested to remove itself from a lawsuit filed by a campaign surrogate who said the campaign sidelined her in 2016 after she revealed she was pregnant, the New York Times was first to report.
"The timing of the motion was notable," the Times notes, "just two days after the same federal court had ordered the campaign to turn over in discovery all complaints of sexual harassment and gender or pregnancy discrimination from the 2016 and 2020 campaigns — materials that the defendants have long resisted handing over."
The surrogate, A. J. Delgado, is representing herself and objected to the withdrawal in a filing Monday, arguing it should not be allowed until the discovery process has been completed and calling the request a “scheme to avoid compliance," the Times reports.
Delgado made headlines in 2022 when she accused longtime Trump aide and political confidante Jason Miller of engaging in "a cycle of sexual coercion, rape, sexual assault, abuse, battery, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking."
ALSO READ: A neuroscientist reveals how Trump and Biden's cognitive impairments are different
Lead attorney Jared E. Blumett, in the request in filed in Manhattan federal court, cites a problems he says cannot be fixed.
"The primary reason for the Firm's motion is due to an irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship between the Firm and the Campaign," he wrote.
The Times reported that Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker has since requested that LaRocca Hornik stay on to represent the campaign for a spell until she can schedule a conference to hash out the issue and determine how to move forward.
The firm has represented Trump’s business interests for at least a decade and his campaign in both of Trump’s previous presidential elections, according to the Times.
Trump's super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., paid LaRocca Hornik $15,103.90 as recently as March 25, according to the Times.
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'Big deal': Ex-prosecutor says Trump just made criminal court history in hush money trial
April 30, 2024
Former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin Tuesday took a harsh view of the contempt order handed down by Manhattan criminal court judge Juan Merchan to former President Donald Trump.
"I think it is historic and I think we need to pause and recognize what a big deal this," Toobin told a CNN panel Tuesday night. "This is a finding of criminal contempt that had to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and that's what the judge did."
Trump has not been convicted in his criminal hush money case and has pleaded not guilty to charges he falsified business records to cover up hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
ALSO READ: A criminologist explains how Americans achieve a post-Trump democracy
But Toobin laid emphasis on the court where Trump was found Tuesday to have violated a limited gag order, fined $9,000 and warned jail "might be necessary" should the former president test the order's limits again.
"This is not a civil judgment," Toobin said. "This is not a slip-slap on the wrist,"
ALSO READ: Revealed: What government officials privately shared about Trump not disclosing finances
Toobin then admitted he might be the lone person to take such a harsh view of Merchan's ruling.
"Will, the voters care? Beats the hell out of me," Toobin said. "But this is something that I think is worth recognizing that has never come close to happening before in American history."
Watch the complete interview video below or click the link here.
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