Interesting hearing this evening in Missouri’s lawsuit seeking to block DOJ from sending two election observers to monitor a St. Louis polling site on Election Day. No ruling from the bench (recap below)
Complaint: assets.bwbx.io/documents/user…
DOJ oppo: assets.bwbx.io/documents/user… Missouri argues state law spells out who can enter a polling place to observe and DOJ monitors aren’t covered. DOJ says there’s a 2021 settlement with the St. Louis board of elections for ADA violations re: disability access that allows this

Hello on this stunning September morning from the DC federal courthouse, where Judge Tanya Chutkan is holding the first hearing in the Trump case since SCOTUS kicked it back to her. Trump won't be here. Waiting to see what kind of schedule Chutkan will set for the next round of fights over the future of the indictment
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Trump's lawyers all just entered the courtroom, and also thrilled to report that courthouse security dog Legend is here and continues to be a Very Good Dog (no pics allowed I'm afraid)

Hello from the DC federal courthouse, where Rudy Giuliani is waiting to get through security as jury selection is set to begin this a.m. to determine how much in damages he'll owe two Georgia election workers who sued him for defamation. Stay tuned.

Prev: bloomberg.com/news/articles/… And jury selection is just getting underway in Rudy Giuliani's damages trial -- Judge Beryl Howell, who was not amused that Giuliani was not in the courtroom at 9am when they were supposed to begin, is presiding

BREAKING: A Colorado judge has ruled that Donald Trump can appear on 2024 ballots - she found that he *did* engage in insurrection by inciting the Jan. 6 attack, *but* that the Constitutional prohibition does not apply to the presidency. More to come.
assets.bwbx.io/documents/user…




NEW: A Colorado judge found Donald Trump engaged in insurrection by inciting the Jan. 6 attack.

But she held the Constitution's insurrectionist ban didn't apply to a president/the presidency, meaning he'll appear on 2024 ballots.

Story, more to come: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Today at 10am: Prosecutors will make their case before a DC federal judge for a partial gag order restricting what Donald Trump can say about the election obstruction case against him.

Why DOJ says it's necessary:


Trump's oppo: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… On how as long as Donald Trump is facing criminal charges and civil claims in court, what he says and does in the outside world can have consequences in a courtroom:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Justice Clarence Thomas's 2022 financial disclosure is in, noting three trips w/ expenses paid for by Harlan Crow:

Thomas notes 2014 sale of properties to Crow (1st reported by ProPublica), saying he "inadvertently" didn't realize that should be reported assets.bwbx.io/documents/user…




Justice Samuel Alito's 2022 disclosure is also out now:

No travel reported paid for by individuals, no note re: ProPublica reporting on earlier luxury trip reimbursed by GOP donor Paul Singer (Alito has publicly defended this/denounced the reporting)assets.bwbx.io/documents/user…

Hello on this humid late August a.m. from the DC federal courthouse, where Judge Tanya Chutkan will hear arguments and is expected to set a trial date in Trump's 2020 election obstruction case. Special counsel wants to start Jan. 2. Trump wants April 2026:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Judge Chutkan is on the bench and starts by saying that *neither* trial date proposal is "acceptable" -- DOJ wants Jan. 2, Trump wants April 2026.

Says trial sched can't depend on a defendant's personal and professional obligations, so Trump will have to make a date work

Hello on this not-too-hot August morning from the DC federal courthouse, where Donald Trump is expected to appear for a 4pm arraignment. It is obviously many hours until 4pm but here we are! A few streets are closed so far, barricades still going up, much heavier police presence https://t.co/UxzL1blKgWtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…



Coming up: Donald Trump returns to Washington
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

UPDATE: Shortly after 5pm, a federal magistrate judge in DC accepted three new indictments -- the initials of the first two were read aloud, but not the third. The third was presented by prosecutor Molly Gaston, whose past work includes the Steve Bannon contempt of Congress case Gaston also made a motion to seal that third case, which the judge granted

BREAKING: May 20, 2024, trial date set in Trump classified documents case. Judge Cannon's order means DOJ won't get to try the case this year as they'd hoped, but it's a significant setback for Trump, who was angling for a postelection delay. More to come.
https://t.co/iP13baqfoKbloomberg.com/news/articles/…
During the hearing earlier this week in Fort Pierce, Cannon had signaled her skepticism with both sides' proposals -- and hinted at an interest in a spring/early summer timeline, asking how firm the NY trial date in March was

NOW: Here is the 49-page federal indictment of former president Donald Trump and his aide Walt Nauta, more to come
assets.bwbx.io/documents/user… More updates and details from the federal indictment against Donald Trump, updating as we go (no paywall): bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

NEW: After ethics complaints were lodged against Justice Clarence Thomas in 2011, a member of the federal judiciary's senior leadership body repeatedly raised concerns about how that was being handled internally
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… According to letters, other materials and accounts from people familiar with the events, US District Judge Mark Wolf, a member of the Judicial Conference, protested that the leadership body was being kept in the dark and shut out of potentially doing its own review

NEW: Justice Clarence Thomas said he was advised he didn’t have to disclose trips and gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow because Crow, a close friend, “did not have business before the court.”

But in at least one case to reach the justices, Crow did.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… In 2005, the justices declined to a hear a case involving a company that was part of the Crow family's real estate empire. Crow's office says the family holdings firm, which Crow led at the time, had a non-controlling stake in the parties and wasn't involved in the litigation.

Ahead of tomorrow's arraignment for Donald Trump, here's @pathurtado37 on what to expect: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

And more on his newest lawyer, from Patty and @davidvoreacos: bloomberg.com/news/articles/… What to know about gag orders:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

And venue change motions, from @eelarson: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

BREAKING: Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury for crimes connected to the alleged payment of illegal hush-money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Answering one immediate question that might come to mind: An indictment in NY doesn't stop DOJ or the Fulton Co. DA's office from pursuing charges against Trump. But a logjam of cases likely will pose logistical challenges, esp. as 2024 campaign heats up bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

New: Donald Trump has called Special Counsel Jack Smith a “fully weaponized monster” whose Obama-era ties made him a “political hit man.”

One of Trump's own lawyers shares some of those ties, and used to call Smith something else: a colleague and friend.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… A deep dive into the five years that Trump Special Counsel Jack Smith and Trump defense lawyer Jim Trusty served as DOJ Criminal Division section chiefs -- Smith tackling public corruption, Trusty going after gangs and organized crime
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

NEW: DOJ won't back Trump's absolute immunity claim against civil lawsuits seeking to hold him liable for the Jan. 6 attack -- allegations of inciting violence, wouldn't fall within presidential duties, US says.

Doc, with more to come: assets.bwbx.io/documents/user… Footnote #1, alluding to the elephant in the room: " the United States does not express any view regarding the potential criminal liability of any person for the events of January 6, 2021, or acts connected with those events"

Dueling briefs are in from DOJ and NYT/Politico lawyers on media petition to unseal info about Trump or others reportedly claiming exec privilege re: Jan. 6 investigation. The judge asked for extra briefing on her authority to unseal docs related to grand jury proceedings... DOJ's brief: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

NYT/Politico brief: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

Just in: A NY federal judge denied a request to keep under seal the amount of $ Trump's 2016 campaign agreed to pay in attorney fees and a plaintiff incentive award to settle a long-running fight with an ex-staffer over NDA agreements. More to come

Prev: bloomberg.com/news/articles/… (ack just noted the duplicate "A" and "agreements" in that last tweet, pardon!)

New: The US Supreme Court’s inconclusive report on the source of last year’s leaked draft opinion raises more big questions than it answers, including, critically: Were justices questioned and subject to the same process as staff?

From me + @swillmer:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… The report was a disappointment across the spectrum, albeit for different reasons.

"Embarrassing" for the court to focus on the leak versus substance of stripping abortion rights, other potential ethics breaches, says @LiptonLubet of Take Back the Court
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Hello from the DC Court of Appeals, where en banc arguments are starting at 10am in the latest phase of E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against Donald Trump.

Previously: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Watch live (video!):

https://twitter.com/DC_Courts/status/1612811562984562690?t=oI6btDjBFJw7Wve-4ooQjw&s=19

More to come on today's arguments, but a big takeaway is the DC judges expressed concern about being the ones to make a call about whether Trump was acting w/in official duties when he made statements about Carroll based on the record they have, which is limited to the complaint