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Trump set to return to social media as Meta lifts ban
Donald Trump reportedly made a secret $1m donation to a partisan-driven“audit” of Arizona’s election results in his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
According to The Guardian, it was Mr Trump who largedly bankrolled the discredited review of election results which the president hoped would support his baseless claims that the election was “stolen” from him and swing the outcome in his favour.
The revelation comes as it also emerged that Mr Trump’s attorney John Eastman is facing disciplinary charges and potential disbarment in California over his involvement in the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
This weekend, Mr Trump set to begin his 2024 presidential campaign trail this weekend with back-to-back appearances in New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday.
It comes at the end of a week where parent company Meta announced that it would reinstate his Facebook and Instagram accounts in the “coming weeks”.
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In an exclusive interview ahead of a profile of the South Carolina congresswoman, Nancy Mace told The Independent’s Washington bureau chief Eric Garcia that newly elected congressman George Santos has got to go.
“I mean, if you look at the allegations about his campaign finance, there are serious issues there,” she said.
Says ‘nothing’ the New York Republican has said is true.
Ron DeSantis, who is expected in political circles to run for president in 2024, has frequently used the governor’s office as a bully pulpit to stoke national culture war issues targeting libraries, LGBT+ people and Black history.
The Independent’s senior US correspondent Richard Hall on the latest wave of school book removals in Florida and the governor’s efforts to steer control of public school education through his office:
As Florida celebrates Literacy Week, one teacher tells Richard Hall how she was ordered to remove all non-sanctioned books from her shelves to abide by a law introduced by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Days after claiming he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine “within 24 hours,” the former president said he wants to build an “impenetrable dome” to protect the US from missile strikes.
One-term president says America needs own version of Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ air defence system
John Eastman, who led Donald Trump’s legal bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, could be stripped of his licence to practise law after he was hit with 11 charges stemming from his efforts fuelled by the former president’s election lies.
The State Bar of California’s Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona announced the case against Mr Eastman on Thursday.
An 11-count complaint includes charges based on “allegations that Eastman engaged in a course of conduct to plan, promote, and assist then-President Trump in executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by obstructing the count of electoral votes of certain states.”
Attorney was top member of Trump’s legal team during post-election bid to overturn his defeat
In a lengthy, wild response to the New York attorney general’s $250 lawsuit alleging widespread fraud across his business empire, attorneys for Donald Trump and his three eldest children have argued that the “Trump Organization” at the centre of her blockbuster case against them cannot be sued because it does not legally exist.
The filing argues that the “Trump Organization” is used by the defendants only for “branding and business purposes” and that “no entity as such exists for legal purposes”, an argument that is repeated dozens of times across a 300-page document.
Thousands of pages across 16 answers to Letitia James’s case were filed just before a midnight deadline on Thursday, as the former president, his children Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric and recently convicted chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and other associates and entities face a sweeping lawsuit alleging that Mr Trump falsely inflated the value of his net worth by billions of dollars. He’s alleged to have done so in an effort to gain tax benefits and other benefits from insurers and financial institutions.
In a court filing, Mr Trump’s attorneys argue that “Trump Organization” is used by the defendants only for “branding and business purposes” and that “no entity as such exists for legal purposes”
Former vice president Mike Pence said he takes “full responsibility” for the presence of documents with classification markings at his Carmel, Indiana home that were turned over to the FBI earlier this month.
Speaking at an event at Florida International University on Friday, Mr Pence said the documents “should not have been in my personal residence”.
“Mistakes were made, and I take full responsibility, and I’ve directed my counsel to work with the National Archives with the Department of Justice, and with the Congress to fully cooperate in any investigation,” he said.
“Our national security depends on the proper handling of classified and sensitive materials, and I know that when errors are made, it’s important that they be resolved swiftly and disclosed”.
Comes as Joe Biden faces criticism for documents in his home
Ronna McDaniel has been re-elected to lead the Republican National Committee following a challenge from Harmeet Dhillon and conspiracy theorist and pillow salesman Mike Lindell to lead the GOP conference.
Members of the conference voted 111-51 for Ms McDaniel. Mr Lindell got four votes.
Lee Zeldin, who led a close challenge for New York governor against Kathy Hochul last year, received one vote, though he was not on the ballot.
Ms Dhillion received support from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis when he called for “new blood” to lead the GOP less than 24 hours before party members convened for a vote on Friday.
Trump, who picked Ms McDaniel for chair of the RNC following his 2016 victory, stayed out of the race.
In a video statement, the former president argued that parents should be able to elect and remove school principals, a far-reaching demand targeting the so-called “parental rights” movement that has sought a radical transformation of the nation’s school system.
Galvanised by Covid-19 guidelines, far-right activists have mounted anti-LGBT+ campaigns and efforts to remove “critical race theory” from classrooms, while Republican officials advance sweeping policies targeting libraries and curriculum discussing race and racism, gender and sexuality.
Mr Trump said he would implement “the direct election” of school principals by the parents of schoolchildren.
“The parents should be able to vote to fire them,” he said.
In a Twitter post sharing the video, Donald Trump Jr added that “it’s time to end wokeness in our schools”.
His father “wants to implement direct elections of school principals by the parents, as the ultimate form of local control,” he added.
A $1m donation to the group responsible for the sham “audit” of Arizona’s Maricopa County election results in 2020 came from Donald Trump’s Save America PAC, according to analysis of publicly available data by the watchdog group Documented.
The analysis was based on campaign finance disclosures, tax filings, and communications records obtained by another transparency group.
It contradicts statements made by the former president’s associates who denied he had anything to do with the effort to “audit” election results in Arizona’s most populous county.
The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg reports:
The sham “audit” recieved a million-dollar donation from Mr Trump’s Super PAC
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