Trump news - live: Ex-president goes to Supreme Court to weigh in on Mar-a-Lago dispute

Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked the Supreme Court to step in on the case surrounding the classified documents recovered from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

Meanwhile, legal experts have spoken out strongly against Mr Trump after he filed a $475m lawsuit against CNN for defamation, describing his case as “garbage” and “not worth the paper it’s written on”.

Attorneys representing the one-term president claim in the lawsuit that, “CNN’s campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander against the Plaintiff has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears the Plaintiff will run for president in 2024.”

Meanwhile, Herschel Walker, the Donald Trump-backed Republican nominee for the Georgia Senate seat who has previously supported a total ban on abortions, has denied reports of paying for a woman’s abortion in 2009.

The former football star has also vowed to sue the news outlet that published the report of him having paid for one woman’s abortion years ago. He labelled the report a “flat-out lie”.

Key points

• Trump sues CNN for defamation claiming network ‘fears’ his political comeback

• Stewart Rhodes urged allies to reject 2020 outcome hours after Election Day, trial hears

• Trump-backed GOP candidate denies paying for abortion

• Ex-president nicknames Maggie Haberman ‘Maggot’ after serving as source for her book

• Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest spooked Trump, prompted Oval Office meeting inquiry

Trump’s direct handling of Mar-a-Lago records could strengthen DoJ case, legal experts say

14:40 , Johanna Chisholm

Legal experts are warning that the latest revelation from the Washington Post on Monday that Donald Trump reportedly packaged up more than a dozen of the initial boxes that were returned to the National Archives and kicked off the Justice Department probe could strengthen the government’s case.

Though the government has not indicated whether it has chosen to prosecute the former president, legal experts told The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch that the Post’s reporting of the president’s involvement in packing the boxes could strengthen their case, should they choose to pursue it.

On Monday, the Post reported that one of Mr Trump’s attorneys, Alex Cannon, had refused to comply with an ask the one-term president that he certify that all of the government material that was being stored at Trump’s Florida resort had been returned.

“The fact that he packed them is very significant because I imagine the Justice Department is trying to resolve how much evidence they have that Trump personally knew and personally was involved in hiding the documents,” Ryan Goodman, a co-director of the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law, told The Hill.

Read the full report from The Hill here.

Georgia Republican Party is partially funding lawyers for ‘fake’ Trump electors in Fulton County probe, report claims

14:20 , Johanna Chisholm

The District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia is alleging in a new court filing that the Georgia Republican Party is providing the legal funds for many of the so-called “fake electors” who are currently under investigation for their supposed involvement in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Yahoo News reports.

According to campaign finance filings that the news outlet reviewed, the Republican Party in Georgia “paid $35,419 last July to two lawyers who are representing 11 of 16 party operatives and activists and activists who declared themselves on Dec. 14, 2020, “the duly elected and qualified” electors from the state pledged to Donald Trump despite the fact that Joe Biden had won the popular vote there.”

Read the full report here.

Trump used slur to describe his first attorney general, book says

14:00 , Johanna Chisholm

A new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman says former president Donald Trump routinely used a slur often employed to describe persons with intellectual disabilities when speaking of the first person to serve as attorney general in his administration, ex-Alabama senator Jeff Sessions.

Mr Sessions, who was the first member of the upper chamber to endorse Mr Trump during the 2016 election and advised his campaign, drew the then-president’s ire and scorn after he followed Department of Justice policy by recusing himself from the department’s probe into ties between Mr Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.

Read more:

Trump used slur to describe his first attorney general, book says

Pete Buttigieg disputes Marjorie Taylor Greene’s remarks about electric cars being ‘emasculating'

13:40 , Johanna Chisholm

While rallying with Donald Trump in Michigan over the weekend, Georgia Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene went on the attack against Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and accused the Democrat of trying to “emasculate the way we drive” for promoting greener forms of transportation.

On Tuesday night, the transportation secretary was asked about the Republican congresswoman’s comment, which he struggled to hide a sincere look of bemusement when the quote was read back to him by Fox News host Neil Cavuto.

“Democrats like Pete Buttigieg want to emasculate the way we drive and force all of you to rely on electric vehicles,” the quote from Ms Greene read. Mr Cavuto then asked what Mr Buttigieg thought of the Georgia congresswoman’s comments.

“I literally don’t even understand what that means,” he replied. “My sense of manhood is not connected to whether or not my vehicle is fuelled by gasoline or whether it’s fuelled by electricity,” he said, before noting that her remarks were “a strange thing to say”.

“You know, to be honest, there are other members of Congress that I pay more attention to when I’m thinking about opinions that really matter or ideas that are going to be critical to engage with.”

New York Democrat says he wouldn’t back Biden or Trump in 2024 presidential race

13:20 , Johanna Chisholm

Former Rep Max Rose, who is running against Republican congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis in the race to represent New York’s 11th Congressional District, said on 6 O’clock News on FOX 5 NY that he wouldn’t back President Joe Biden or ex-president Donald Trump in the 2024 bid for the White House.

“I do not think that Donald Trump should run 2024. I do not think that Joe Biden should run in 2024,” Mr Rose, who previously worked in the Biden administration, said. “I’m sick and tired of that generation being in power. We’ve got to move on.”

“We have to turn the page, not just on this politics of ineffectiveness, but also these politics of division and vitriol. It's time to move on as a nation,” he added.

Gun safety group launches attack ads against Trump-backed Oz and Mastriano in Pennsylvania races

13:00 , Johanna Chisholm

Everytown for Gun Safety is launching a $2.1m TV ad campaign attacking Dr Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano, both Trump-endorsed candidates running on the GOP ticket in the Senate and gubernatorial races, respectively, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The ad campaign focuses on the two candidates’ gun policies, zeroing in on their opposition on restrictions like universal background checks.

“When an abuser armed, women are five times more likely to be killed,” the ad begins. “Mehmet Oz would make it easier for domestic abusers to get guns, even opposing background checks on all gun sales.”

“Mehmet Oz won’t keep us safe.”

Watch the new ad below:

Conservative radio hosts says she doesn’t care if Trump-endorsed Walker paid to abort ‘baby eagles'

12:40 , Johanna Chisholm

Conservative radio host Dana Loesch said she does not care if Republican Georgia Senate nominee Herschel Walker paid to abort “baby eagles,” as long as the GOP candidate arrives in the Senate after the midterms.

It was reported earlier this week by The Daily Beast that the family-values-first Republican, who has previously voiced his support for a total ban on abortions, allegedly paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009.

The former football star has vowed to sue the news outlet and has flatly denied the report, labelling it a lie. At least some of his supporters, such as Ms Loesch, seem to care little about the veracity of the reports.

“If the Daily Beast story is true, you’re telling me Walker used his money to reportedly pay some skank for an abortion and Warnock wants to use all of our monies to pay a whole bunch of skanks for abortions,” she said on her radio program on Monday night. “I don’t know if he did it or not,” Ms Loesch added. “I don’t even care.”

On Tuesday, she continued with her campaign in defense of Mr Walker’s alleged payments. Writing on Twitter, she compared Mr Walker to his Democratic rival, Raphael Warnock: “One guy who reportedly paid for a girlfriend’s abortion compared to one guy who wants to pay for everyone’s abortions. This isn’t hard, dude.”

Later she tweeted, “Democrats want power to control the Senate to pass taxpayer-funded zero restriction abortions on demand”.

DeSantis holds 11-point lead over Democratic rival in governor race, new poll finds

12:20 , Johanna Chisholm

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a man who Donald Trump touts as being in the governor’s mansion on account of his endorsement, is currently leading his Democrat rival, Charlie Crist, by 11 points, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

The Mason-Dixon Florida poll found that 52 per cent of likely voters supported Gov DeSantis, as opposed to the 41 per cent that backed Mr Crist, who resigned from Congress this year to pursue his bid for governor of Florida, a position he held - as a Republican - from 2007 to 2011.

Mr Crist left the GOP in 2010 when he ran as an independent in his race for Senate against GOP Senator Marco Rubio.

GOP candidate in New Hampshire continues to waffle on Trump’s election conspiracies

12:00 , John Bowden

A Republican candidate running for Senate in New Hampshire has changed his position regarding whether the 2020 election was stolen — again.

Don Bolduc now says he can’t be sure whether the 2020 election results were wrongfully declared in Mr Biden’s favour, telling supporters that he was only sure that “irregularity” had occurred.

He previously took the position during the GOP primary that Donald Trump was the rightful winner, declaring: “I’m not switching horses, baby.”

Read more about his rapidly evolving views in The Independent:

Another shift for NH GOP Senate candidate on 2020 election

Former Trump advisor says ex-president’s Supreme Court move is a tactic to ‘delay’ legal proceedings

11:35 , Johanna Chisholm

While appearing on CNN on Tuesday night, David J Urban, a senior advisor to the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, explained how Donald Trump’s latest move to ask the US Supreme Court to step in in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents dispute is part of his larger strategy to “deny, delay and distract”.

CNN host Anderson Cooper put the question to the former aide of the one-term president, asking if it was a “delay tactic basically”, which Mr Urban - who once helped orchestrate the 2016 Republican National Convention in a successful effort to win Pennsylvania for Mr Trump - whole heartedly agreed.

“Anderson, you know the president’s famous for the three D’s. Deny, delay and distract. So this is delay,” said Mr Urban. “But at the end of the day, the Supreme Court is probably not going to rule in his favour.”

“Even if Trump wins, if she gets access to these documents, she may not rule in his favour, she might not like what she sees ... even if it goes his way in the court, it might not go his way ultimately.”

Former Trump attorney says CNN can’t use First Amendment in defamation lawsuit with ex-president

11:15 , Johanna Chisholm

Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for Donald Trump while he served as president and who was personally involved in the effort to lobby Vice President Mike Pence and persuade him to interfere with efforts to certify the 2020 election results, went on Newsmax to once again stump for Mr Trump.

This time, however, she was defending the one-term president’s decision to sue CNN for defamation, after he claimed that the network “fears” he is launching a bid for president again in 2024.

“We all know the bottom line here is that his complaint is absolutely correct and CNN is wrong in what they’re doing, and I don’t think that that should be covered under the First Amendment because we don’t protect the ability for reporters to simply lie and make factually false statements,” said Ms Ellis in an appearance on the right-leaning news program.

Lawyers for Trump filed the lawsuit, which seeks $475m in punitive damages, in US District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Monday.

Trump nixed Taliban Camp David talks amid worries Ivanka would have to wear burqa

11:00 , Andrew Feinberg

Former president Donald Trump nixed plans to host Taliban officials at Camp David for talks on withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan after one of his advisers questioned whether his daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump would need to wear the head-to-toe garment which women under Taliban rule must don before leaving their homes.

The question of whether Ms Trump would be forced to wear a burqa to meet with the Taliban was posed sarcastically to the then-president by intelligence briefer Beth Sanner, according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.

Read more:

Trump nixed Taliban Camp David talks amid worries Ivanka would have to wear burqa

‘He was at 3 per cent’: What Trump said about DeSantis in interview with Maggie Haberman

10:40 , Johanna Chisholm

Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday night, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman discussed what former President Donald Trump told her about the rise of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the likelihood that Mr DeSantis would run against him in 2024.

In the interview, Ms Haberman shared audio from one of her interviews with the former president in 2021, where he explicitly talks about the Florida Republican’s campaign to get elected and how his backing was essential to that victory.

“He was at three per cent. He was a great defender of mine in the Russian hoax; he was on television. But the people of Florida didn’t associate him with the word “governor”. In other words, they saw him constantly me on Russia, Russia, Russia. But you know, often times you see that, but you don’t say, ‘Oh, he’s going to be governor of Florida.’ He came to me, he said, ‘I’d love your endorsement’. I said, ‘Ron, your at 3 per cent. You can’t win.’ He said, ‘If you endorse me, I can.’ And I said, ‘Well, look you know, you never know, but it’s not going to be easy. This guy’s got $28m he’s been running for eight years’” Mr Trump said in the audio clip from an interview with Ms Haberman, collected in 2021.

Ms Burnett asked the White House veteran reporter what her thoughts were about this specific section of the interview with the one-term president, noting that Mr Trump clearly knew these details would be aired to his potential 2024 rival.

“There is no potential candidate in the Republican field who Trump has talked about more to aides than Ron DeSantis. It is a constant running discussion,” said Ms Haberman, emphasising how she discusses in the book about how he views his interactions with friends, colleagues and peers as transactional.

“He clearly believes that Ron DeSantis should be aware of the fact that Trump vaulted him ahead,” she said, adding that the twice-impeached president also likely believes that Mr DeSantis shouldn’t run against him as he was the key to his earlier success in Florida.

Watch the full clip of their interview here.

Trump complains there’s ‘no security’ at National Archives

10:00 , John Bowden

Donald Trump issued a rambling statement Tuesday evening attacking the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for a breach of security that almost affected members of the Clinton White House.

In a statement released on Truth Social, Mr Trump attacked NARA for the 2009 misplacement of a hard drive containing backed-up data including Social Security numbers and contact information including addresses for thousands of administration officials. Bizarrely, he claimed that this was a good enough reason for him to violate laws related to the control of presidential records, which are required to be placed under the control of NARA.

“There is no security at NARA. I want my documents back!” complained the former president.

Trump backs Herschel Walker in abortion scandal: ‘He has true greatness in his future’

09:00 , John Bowden

Former President Donald Trump isn’t backing down from his support of Herschel Walker.

The Republican Senate candidate in Georgia faces a stunning report from The Daily Beast claiming that Mr Walker paid for an abortion for a woman he was in a relationship with in 2009. The woman provided a receipt for the procedure and an image of a personal check from Mr Walker to the publication, as well as a “get well soon” card signed by the candidate.

Mr Walker is staunchly anti-abortion and favours banning the practice without exception.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump stood behind his ally now facing a withering barrage of criticism on social media as well as statements from his own son, Christian Walker, who has accused him of being an absentee father. The younger Mr Walker added in a video statement that he believes the Beast’s reporting given that the writing on the card matche’s his father’s penmanship.

Read more:

Trump backs Herschel Walker in abortion scandal: ‘True greatness in his future’

Trump issues statement mourning death of country singer

08:00 , John Bowden

Donald Trump issued a statement via Truth Social on Tuesday night in remembrance of Loretta Lynn, a three-time Grammy-winning country singer who passed away earlier in the day at the age of 90.

“The great country singer, Loretta Lynn, passed away today. She was beautiful both inside and out, with the voice of an angel. She will never be forgotten and thankfully, her music will go on forever. Rest In Peace, Loretta!” he wrote.

Trump asks Supreme Court to stop FBI from using classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago

07:00 , Andrew Feinberg

Attorneys for former president Donald Trump have asked the US Supreme Court to reinstate a Florida judge’s order which effectively blocked the FBI and Department of Justice from using classified documents seized during the 8 August search of his home to further the criminal investigation against him.

In an application with the high court filed late Tuesday, Mr Trump’s legal term asked Justice Clarence Thomas — the Supreme Court justice responsible for overseeing the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals — to vacate a three-judge panel’s order staying Judge Aileen Cannon’s order enjoining the federal government from using “any of the materials seized from Plaintiff’s residence on August 8, 2022, for criminal investigative purposes” with respect to 103 documents bearing classification markings.

Read more:

Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene for him in Mar-a-Lago documents case

Pro-Trump commentator’s response to Herschel Walker story sparks derision

06:00 , John Bowden

Commentator Dana Loesch’s response to news that a woman has provided evidence of payment from Mr Walker for an abortion that she received in 2009 is sparking charges of hypocrisy.

Ms Loesch, formerly a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, said on her podcast that she didn’t care if Mr Walker “paid to abort endangered baby eagles”, because she’d still vote for him.

“I want control of the Senate,” declared Ms Loesch.

Reactions from liberals who declared it a revealing look into the conservative psyche poured in.

“Sometimes they helpfully admit it. None of their so-called “values” are real,” tweeted MSNBC’s Joy Reid.

34 Capitol riot defendants sign letter asking to be moved to Guantanamo

05:00 , John Bowden

Dozens of defendants in the Capitol Riot investigation have asked to be moved from their Washington DC jail to Guantanamo Bay as they claim they’d be treated better there.

As many as 34 defendants awaiting court dates or serving sentences linked to the insurrection on January 6 2021 signed a letter slamming the conditions in the federal correctional facility in the US capital.

The letter is likely to be ammunition for far-right members of the House like Marjorie Taylor Greene who have rallied behind the accused participants in the deadly attack on Congress and depicted them as political prisoners.

Read more:

34 Capitol riot defendants sign letter asking to be moved to Guantanamo

Biden apologises to family of dead congresswoman for ‘Where’s Jackie?’ gaffe

04:00 , John Bowden

Joe Biden continues to deal with the consequences of his most recent embarrassing gaffe.

During a recent White House event on hunger, the president briefly called out for a congresswoman who was not in the room. The member in question, Jackie Walorski, actually had died in a widely-publicised car accident earlier this year.

The president on Friday apologised to the Indiana Republican’s 83-year-old mother Martha Walorski and her widowed husband Dean Swihart in the Oval Office of the White House.

Read more:

Biden apologises to family of dead congresswoman for ‘Where’s Jackie?’ gaffe

Video shows ‘steady stream’ leaving Trump rally after just 15 minutes

03:00 , John Bowden

Many of Donald Trump’s fans appeared to have had enough of his recent Michigan rally just a few minutes after the festivities began.

Attendees began leaving the venue after only 15 minutes as Mr Trump launched into a list of his familiar grievances, Detroit Free Press reporter Paul Egan said.

Read more:

Video shows ‘steady stream’ leaving Trump rally after just 15 minutes

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis claims ‘regime media’ wanted Hurricane Ian to hit Tampa

02:00 , John Bowden

Ron DeSantis is joining in on Donald Trump’s frequent baseless claims about the US news media, now claiming that reporters were rooting for a storm to strike the Sunshine State.

It’s a callous accusation that demeans those who have put themselves in tough situations to report on the deadly storm, which is thought to have killed dozens of people.

“Quite frankly, you have national regime media that… wanted to see Tampa, because they thought that would be worse for Florida. That’s how these people think,” Mr DeSantis said. “They don’t care about the people of this state. They don’t care about the people of this community. They want to use storms and destruction from storms as a way to advance their agenda.”

Read more:

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis claims ‘regime media’ wanted Hurricane Ian to hit Tampa

Alex Jones says he may plead the fifth in Sandy Hook hoax trial because he’d get jailed for telling the truth

01:00 , John Bowden

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones says he may invoke the 5th Amendment when he takes the stand at his Sandy Hook defamation trial to avoid going to jail.

It’s the latest sign that the Infowars host is completely untethered from reality. He is not facing jail time; defamation does not carry that penalty.

“[The judge] says if I tell the truth, she’ll put me in the Waterbury jail for six months. That’s what she can do,” he ranted to reporters outside of the courtroom.

Read more;

Alex Jones says he may plead the fifth in Sandy Hook hoax trial

Biden to meet with DeSantis and tour hurricane damage in Florida on Wednesday

Wednesday 5 October 2022 00:00 , John Bowden

Joe Biden will meet with Florida’s Ron DeSantis and tour damaged areas of Florida’s coastal and other communities on Wednesday.

The otherwise unremarkable visit will play an interesting dynamic given that Donald Trump remains a resident of Florida and will now have to endure his two biggest likely-rivals for the 2024 election appearing presidential and official during the visit. It’s an image that will likely reignite Mr Trump’s barely-hidden urge to criticise both men.

Read more:

Biden to meet with DeSantis and tour hurricane damage in Florida on Wednesday

Ron Johnson claims January 6 wasn’t ‘armed insurrection’ despite scores of guns at Capitol riot

Tuesday 4 October 2022 23:20 , John Bowden

During a Tuesday talk before the Milwaukee Rotary Club, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin downplayed the extent of armed threats during the January 6 riots at the US Capitol, despite the numerous protesters who were found with guns and other weapons.

It’s the latest attempt by a Republican, particularly a vulnerable incumbent, to downplay the deadly riot that shocked millions of Americans and led to Donald Trump and his political movement being labeled a threat to democracy by Joe Biden and Mr Trump’s other critics.

“Some of the protesters did teach us all how you can use flog poles, that kind of stuff, as weapons,” he said. “To call what happened on January 6 an armed insurrection, I just think is not accurate. You saw the pictures inside the capitol I saw that day.”

Read more:

Ron Johnson says January 6 wasn’t ‘armed insurrection’ despite numerous guns at riot

Oath Keepers founder: Be 'ready to fight' after Trump loss

Tuesday 4 October 2022 22:40 , John Bowden

Hours after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group was discussing how to push President Donald Trump to go further in his fight to cling to power, according to messages shown to jurors Tuesday in his US Capitol attack trial.

Stewart Rhodes and four other members of his organisation are charged with the most serious crime related to the breach on the Capitol thus far: Seditious conspiracy. Mr Rhodes has plead not guilty.

Tuesday was the first full day of testimony in the high-stakes case that’s expected to last several weeks.

Read more:

Oath Keepers founder: Be 'ready to fight' after Trump loss

Trump used slur to describe his first attorney general, book says

Tuesday 4 October 2022 22:00 , John Bowden

A new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman says former president Donald Trump routinely used a slur often employed to describe persons with intellectual disabilities when speaking of the first person to serve as attorney general in his administration, ex-Alabama senator Jeff Sessions.

Mr Sessions was eventually driven out of the Trump administration after clashing with the president privately over his recusal from the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.

In Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, Ms Haberman writes that Mr Trump’s fury with Mr Sessions was such that he would routinely rant to officials about the attorney general’s refusal to resign.

Read more:

Trump used slur to describe his first attorney general, book says

Trump asks Supreme Court to stop FBI from using classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago

Tuesday 4 October 2022 21:20 , John Bowden

Attorneys for former president Donald Trump have asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a Florida judge’s order which effectively blocked the FBI and Department of Justice from using classified documents seized during the 8 August search of his home to further the criminal investigation against him.

The former president saw the appointment of three justices to the nine-member bench under his one term in office.

Read more:

Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene for him in Mar-a-Lago documents case

Biden reportedly says he’s running in 2024 after meeting with civil rights leaders

Tuesday 4 October 2022 21:01 , John Bowden

President Joe Biden reportedly told MSNBC host and National Action Network leader Reverend Al Sharpton that he will be a candidate for the presidency in the 2024 election, according to a report by NBC News.

The Independent has not confirmed the report of Mr Biden’s statement, and the president has repeatedly said he intends to be a candidate in 2024. However, he has not made a formal declaration that he will run.

Read more:

Biden reportedly says he’s running in 2024 after meeting with civil rights leaders

Tuesday 4 October 2022 20:20 , John Bowden

Former President Donald Trump isn’t backing down from his support of Herschel Walker.

The Republican Senate candidate in Georgia faces a stunning report from The Daily Beast claiming that Mr Walker paid for an abortion for a woman he was in a relationship with in 2009.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump stood behind his ally now facing a withering barrage of criticism on social media as well as statements from his own son, Christian Walker, who has accused him of being an absentee father.

Read more:

Trump backs Herschel Walker in abortion scandal: ‘True greatness in his future’

Herschel Walker’s son lashes out and calls father a liar over denial he paid for abortion

Tuesday 4 October 2022 20:00 , John Bowden

Christian Walker, a right-wing influencer on Instagram and other platforms, released a video Tuesday morning in which he unloaded on his father, his own critics on the right and left and the media following roughly 12 hours of mayhem caused by the report, which dropped Monday evening.

In the video, the younger Mr Walker excoriated his father, Georgia US Senate candidate Herschel Walker, and called him a liar who does not live up to the “family values” image that he so frequently preaches in interviews.

“I’m done. Done. Everything has been a lie,” Mr Walker declares in his video. “I was silent lie after lie after lie. The abortion card drops yesterday. It’s literally his handrwriting in the card!”

Read more:

Herschel Walker’s son calls his father a liar for denial he paid for abortion

CPAC deletes tweet criticising support for Ukraine against Russian invasion

Tuesday 4 October 2022 19:20 , John Bowden

The Conservative Political Action Conference’s Twitter account deleted a tweet criticising Congress for passing aid to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion on Friday.

On Friday evening, the account for the popular conservative gathering had tweeted about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of certain territories in Ukraine and Congress’s recent passage of additional aid to Ukraine.

Read more from Eric Garcia:

CPAC deletes tweet criticising support for Ukraine against Russian invasion

Judge expects Steve Bannon’s wall fraud trial in Nov. 2023

Tuesday 4 October 2022 18:44 , John Bowden

Top Trump ally Steve Bannon could be spared from facing trial over charges that he defrauded investors in the “We Build the Wall” scheme until late next year.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said he anticipates Bannon, former President Donald Trump’s longtime ally, will go to trial in November 2023 — about a year before the 2024 presidential election. The reason for the estimated wait is the time it will take for both sides to go through pretrial motions and the submitted evidence.

Prosecutors say so far they've turned over about four terabytes of material — the size equivalent of millions of written pages or hundreds of hours of video.

Read more in The Independent:

Judge expects Steve Bannon’s wall fraud trial in Nov. 2023

Trump nixed Taliban Camp David talks amid worries Ivanka would have to wear burqa

Tuesday 4 October 2022 18:14 , John Bowden

Donald Trump decided against attending talks with Taliban leaders at Camp David over fears that his daughter Ivanka would have to wear a burqa, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman writes.

The revelation is one of many in the Trumpworld correspondent’s upcoming book, Confidence Man.

Read more in The Independent:

Trump nixed Taliban Camp David talks amid worries Ivanka would have to wear burqa

Trump asked aides if Ghislaine Maxwell had mentioned him after her arrest

Tuesday 4 October 2022 17:28 , John Bowden

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman reports in her upcoming book Confidence Man that the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell caused a particular consternation for Donald Trump.

According to Ms Haberman, Mr Trump queried his advisers about the Post story during a meeting in the Oval Office, asking: “You see that article in the Post today that mentioned me?”

Ms Maxwell, the longtime boyfriend of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors and received a 20-year sentence; she did not cooperate with prosecutors or attempt to secure a plea deal, according to the DoJ.

Read more from Andrew Feinberg:

Trump asked aides if Ghislaine Maxwell had mentioned him after her arrest

Trump campaign lawyers mocked him for being broke in newly-revealed emails

Tuesday 4 October 2022 16:57 , John Bowden

Attorneys working for former president Donald Trump’s failed 2020 re-election campaign mocked his lack of financial liquidity and his rampant violations of the US Constitution in emails released in a court filing by the House January 6 select committee.

In one exchange, attorney Bruce Marks told his colleague Kenneth Chesebro that it was “a shame” Mr Chesebro was not in Washington at Mr Trump’s hotel so he could “contribute to violation of the emoluments clause” of the US Constitution.

Read more from Andrew Feinberg in The Independent:

Trump campaign lawyers mocked him for being broke in newly-revealed emails

Herschel Walker rants about crime and inflation in bid to deflect from abortion scandal

Tuesday 4 October 2022 16:11 , John Bowden

The Trump-backed US Senate candidate in Georgia was desperate to change the subject on Monday as he appeared on Fox News to answer an accusation raised in a story from The Daily Beast reporting that he paid for a woman to seek an abortion in 2009.

Sean Hannity’s questions about the evidence seemed to come as a surprise to Herschel Walker, who pivoted to talking about rising consumer prices and America’s immigration system when questioned about why an unnamed woman would have proof that he sent her a $700 check around the same time she sought an abortion procedure.

Read more from The Independent’s John Bowden:

Herschel Walker rants about inflation in bid to deflect from abortion scandal

Trump s claims CNN ‘fears’ him running in 2024

Tuesday 4 October 2022 15:42 , John Bowden

Donald Trump claimed in his lawsuit against CNN that the network “fears” him running for president again in 2024.

In court filings, the former president accused its hosts and contributors of depicting him as the equivalent of the Nazi dictator and mass murderer Adolf Hitler.

“As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the Left, CNN has tried to taint the Plaintiff with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler,’” read the filings.

Take a look at Mr Trump’s newest battle against the media:

Trump sues CNN in $475million defamation lawsuit

Fact check: Trump allies claim Kamala Harris said racial ‘equity’ would decide Hurricane Ian support

Tuesday 4 October 2022 14:42 , John Bowden

Kamala Harris’s conservative critics are once again wrapping themselves up in supposed outrage after the vice president made an observation about the effects of the climate crisis.

The vice president found herself at the center of a storm of controversy over the weekend after she declared that the Biden administration was considering the concept of equity as it sought to build a response to the global climate crisis.

But conservatives took Ms Harris’s answer and wrongly changed the meaning of what she was saying:

Did Kamala Harris really say racial ‘equity’ would decide Hurricane Ian support?

ICYMI: Trump asks appeals court to delay classified documents case until 2023

Tuesday 4 October 2022 13:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Attorneys for former president Donald Trump have asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to deny a Department of Justice request to expedite its appeal of a Trump-appointed judge’s decision which has effectively blocked the criminal investigation into whether the ex-president broke the law by hoarding government-owned records at his Florida beach club.

Read the full story by Andrew Feinberg here:

Trump asks appeals court to delay classified documents case until 2023

ICYMI: National Archive says it is still missing some Trump administration records

Tuesday 4 October 2022 12:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

The National Archives and Records Administration sent a letter to Congress saying that it is still missing records from the Trump administration, despite the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Read the full story by Eric Garcia here:

National Archive says it is still missing some Trump administration records

Trump under fire for CNN lawsuit

Tuesday 4 October 2022 12:09 , Maroosha Muzaffar

After Donald Trump filed a $475m lawsuit against CNN for defamation, claiming the network “fears” that he will run again in 2024, several legal experts trashed the lawsuit, labelling it as “garbage”.

Brad Moss, the legal expert at the Above the Law website and a national security lawyer, called it a “garbage” lawsuit.

CNN legal analyst Renato Mariotti said that the lawsuit was “not worth the paper it’s written on” and called it “a media stunt, not a serious lawsuit”.

Attorney George Conway wrote that “local lying liar who lies claims reputation was damaged by news reports saying he lied.”

ICYMI: Trump thanks Ginni Thomas for sticking to stolen election lies

Tuesday 4 October 2022 12:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Former president Donald Trump on Saturday offered a shout-out to the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for continuing to parrot his lies about the 2020 election in an interview with the House January 6 select committee.

Mr Trump praised Ms Thomas during remarks at his most recent political rally in Michigan, calling her “a great woman” who is the wife of “a great man”.

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Trump thanks Ginni Thomas for sticking to stolen election lies

Trump-backed GOP candidate denies paying for abortion

Tuesday 4 October 2022 11:46 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Herschel Walker, the Donald Trump-backed Republican nominee for the Georgia Senate seat who has previously supported a total ban on abortions, has denied reports of paying for a woman’s abortion in 2009.

The former football star has also vowed to sue the news outlet that published the report of him having paid for one woman’s abortion years ago. He labelled the report a “flat-out lie”.

The GOP candidate’s son, Christian Walker, took to Twitter to attack his father and said: “I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us.”

He continued: “You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence.”

ICYMI: Journalist Maggie Haberman says Trump is driven to run again by desire for ‘revenge’ on Biden

Tuesday 4 October 2022 11:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, author of a book about Donald Trump, says Mr Trump misses the “pomp” of the presidency and wants revenge against Joe Biden.

Yet, she says Mr Trump may not have the drive or desire to run again, given the rigours of a presidential campaign.

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Maggie Haberman says Trump is driven to run again by desire for revenge on Biden

Trump asked aides if Ghislaine Maxwell had mentioned him after her arrest

Tuesday 4 October 2022 11:00 , Andrew Feinberg

The arrest of notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislane Maxwell left former president Donald Trump anxious that she might raise his name to investigators or the press, according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, which The Independent obtained ahead of publication.

In Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, Ms Haberman writes that the then-president’s mind became occupied by a July 2020 story in the New York Post about Maxwell’s arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Trump asked aides if Ghislaine Maxwell had mentioned him after her arrest

ICYMI: Video shows ‘steady stream’ leaving Trump rally after just 15 minutes

Tuesday 4 October 2022 10:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Donald Trump supporters reportedly started leaving the venue in large numbers just 15 minutes into his speech at a rally in Michigan on Saturday night.

Watch the video here:

Video shows ‘steady stream’ leaving Trump rally after just 15 minutes

National Archive says it is still missing some Trump administration records

Tuesday 4 October 2022 10:00 , Eric Garcia

The National Archives and Records Administration sent a letter to Congress saying that it is still missing records from the Trump administration, despite the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Acting Archivist of the United States Debra Streidel Wall sent a letter to House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney. “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” the letter stated.

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National Archive says it is still missing some Trump administration records