Nancy Mace tipped as Trump’s running mate as John Durham grilled by Congress – live

A judge in California barred an expert witness from testifying in the disbarment trial of John Eastman, the former attorney for former president Donald Trump, since the witness was not an expert, The Daily Beast reported.

Mr Eastman is facing a potential disbarment for his involvement in a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. He attempted to call a man named Joseph Fried, an accountant who wrote an eBook that questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election results, as a witness.

But California State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland vetoed the attempt.

Donald Trump’s grasp over the GOP primary base appears to be slipping after the news of his second criminal indictment broke this month.

But a new CNN poll shows that even an active prosecution for alleged criminal retention of classified materials hasn’t undone Mr Trump’s lead over his rivals just yet.

Donald Trump was left speechless during his latest interview with Fox News journalist Bret Baier this week when the host pointed out that, had Mr Trump’s proposed policy of executing convicted drug dealers been active during his presidency, among its victims would have been Alice Johnson, a woman to whom Mr Trump granted clemency after being persuaded to do so by a campaign led by Kim Kardashian protesting her innocence.

“No, no. No. Under my pl…. Under that? UHHHHHHHHHHH…” Mr Trump flubbed, subsequently accusing the host of being “hostile” to him.

Donald Trump’s close allies and aides have started using the rat emoji in text message discussions about his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a report says.

The phrase – which can be used to describe an informer – became popular in the former president’s inner circle after Mr Meadows’s lawyer was vague about whether he is cooperating with special counsel Jack Smith, reports Rolling Stone.

Graeme Massie reports on the 🐀.

With former President Donald Trump under indictment for mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House, Fox News on Monday played a compilation of Mr Trump promising to protect classified information as president during his 2016 campaign.

Donald Trump declined to commit to attending the first Republican Party primary debate on Fox News in an interview which aired Tuesday evening, even denouncing the channel as “hostile” during a contentious interview with Bret Baier.

The former president was clearly unhappy with Baier’s unmoving explanation of his 2020 election loss, which the former president has long contested despite having been proven wrong in his countless conspiracies about election fraud and malign activity.

Criminal defendants are routinely advised to avoid commenting on pending charges against them. But Donald Trump, the former president and current White House hopeful, is no ordinary defendant.

In his first televised interview since his arraignment last week on federal charges, the former president acknowledged that he delayed turning over boxes of documents despite being asked to do so, drew factually incorrect parallels between his case and classified document probes concerning other politicians, and claimed he didn’t actually have a Pentagon attack plan that the indictment says he boasted about to others.

Those comments — like any remarks made by a defendant about an ongoing case — could complicate his lawyers’ work, potentially precluding defenses they might have otherwise wanted to make or alternately boxing them into certain arguments so as to remain consistent with their clients’ claims. The interview could give the Justice Department compelling, and admissible, insight into Trump’s state of mind as the case moves forward, allowing prosecutors to preemptively attack defenses he might intend to invoke.

Chris Christie unleashed an epic Twitter takedown of Donald Trump’s White House hiring practices after the former president bragged about bringing on “the best” staff.

The announcement that federal prosecutors have reached a plea deal with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter over tax and gun charges marks the likely end of a five-year Justice Department investigation that has dogged the Biden family.

It doesn’t, however, mean that congressional Republicans are done with their own wide-ranging probe into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden‘s business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of his finances.