Change on team: Trump hires new lead counsel
Trump hires new lead counsel for Manhattan district attorney case
From CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Alayna Treene, Kara Scannel and Kirsten Holmes
Former President Donald Trump has hired a new attorney to serve as lead counsel in his defense against charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, multiple sources tell CNN.
Trump has hired Todd Blanche, who was most recently a partner at law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Blanche has previously represented Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Igor Fruman, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who was also a key figure in Trump’s first impeachment trial. Politico was first to report the news of Blanche’s hiring.
Trump attorney’s Joe Tacopina and Susan Necheles will remain on Trump’s legal team.
Blanche’s hiring has been seen by some inside Trump’s orbit as a sidelining of Tacopina, who up until this point has been one of the most forward-facing attorney’s dealing with Trump’s defense. However, a senior adviser to Trump pushed back on that characterization and said the addition of Blanche was intended to add more legal firepower to Trump’s defense.
When pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday if Tacopina was the right lawyer in New York to take Trump to trial, another lawyer representing the former president, Tim Parlatore, pointed to a potential conflict of interest.
“I know that Joe has certain potential conflict issues, given his prior contacts, with Stormy Daniels. So, who’s the right attorney, to take it to trial, is something that the client will have to decide. Ultimately, the decision of who to stand next to, before a jury, is a decision that only the client can make,” Parlatore said.
Asked by CNN’s Paula Reid if he is still on the case and whether he will be in court tomorrow, Tacopina said: “Yes of course ! And I will be the lead trial lawyer when the bell rings!”
CNN’s Paula Reid contributed reporting to this post.
No indication that DC protests will become dangerous, Senate Homeland Security chair says
From CNN’s Morgan Rimmer
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters said he has not seen any indication that protests in Washington, DC, over former President Donald Trump’s indictment will become dangerous.
“I think you’re always going to be vigilant, so folks will be vigilant. Security and local law enforcement are certainly monitoring it,” he told reporters Monday.
Peters, who is also a member of Senate Democrat leadership, said it is unclear what effect the indictment will have on the Senate. “We don’t know what’s gonna transpire tomorrow, let alone what’s going to happen in the few weeks and months. I think we’d have to take a look at what the indictment is all about.”
NOW: Trump leaves Florida for New York ahead of tomorrow’s arraignment
From CNN staff
Former President Donald Trump has departed Florida and is en route to New York to face criminal charges.
His personalized Boeing 757 took off from the Palm Beach International Airport this afternoon at about 12:59 p.m. ET ahead of his Tuesday appearance in a Manhattan courtroom to be arraigned.
Trump, the first current or former president to face criminal charges in American history, is expected to land at New York’s LaGuardia airport around 3 p.m. ET, according to a source familiar with his plans. He will stay at Trump Tower tonight, the source told CNN.
Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud, according to two sources familiar with the case. A New York grand jury handed down the sealed indictment late last week. The charges have yet to be made public.
The former president is not expected to stay in New York City for very long. Immediately after his Tuesday court appearance, Trump plans to return to Florida, the source said, where he has scheduled an event to speak publicly.
Track Trump’s plane from Florida to New York here.
CNN’s Alta D. Spells and Jack Forrest contributed reporting to this post.
New York City mayor to Marjorie Taylor Greene: “While you’re in town, be on your best behavior”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to “be on your best behavior” after the Republican firebrand said she will travel to the city to protest former President Donald Trump’s indictment.
Adams made the statement at a press conference as New York security officials detailed plans ahead of Trump’s arrival in Manhattan for his arraignment scheduled on Tuesday.
“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves. New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger. We have the safest large city in America because we respect the rule of law in New York City. And although we have no specific threats, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech — she stated she is coming to town. While you’re in town, be on your best behavior,” Adams said.
“As always, we will not allow violence or vandalism of any kind. And if one is caught participating in any act of violence, they will be arrested and held accountable. No matter who you are,” he added.
New York City mayor says there are “no specific credible threats” to the city in connection with Trump’s case
New York City Mayor Eric Adams began his Monday news conference by reiterating that there have been “no specific credible threats” to the city in connection with former President Donald Trump’s travel to NYC for his arraignment.
He encouraged all New Yorkers to “go on with their regular activities,” while noting that commuters and other people traveling about the city may experience “some disruptions” due to additional traffic and street closers near the courts in lower Manhattan.
Adams issued a warning to any “rabble rousers” considering coming to New York because of Trump, saying his message is “is clear and simple: control yourselves.”
“New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger. We have the safest large city in America because we respect the rule of law in New York City,” Adams said.
Trump’s Hill allies threaten retribution against Manhattan DA through spending process
From CNN’s Melanie Zanona and Annie Grayer
Some House Republicans are threatening to use the annual spending process to exact retribution on the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, as Trump’s congressional allies ratchet up their response to his indictment ahead of Tuesday’s arraignment.
“I am disgusted with District Attorney Bragg’s office. They’ve spent thousands of dollars in federal funds to investigate President Trump and receive millions more in federal grants,” tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs, a former Freedom Caucus chairman. “Congress should immediately cease funding this weaponized office.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who is a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, echoed a similar sentiment on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“We control the power of the purse, and we’re going to look at the appropriations process and limit funds going to some of these agencies, particularly the ones engaged in the most egregious behavior,” Jordan said.
In response to the House GOP’s previous inquiries into how federal funds were used in the probe, the Manhattan DA’s office disclosed in a letter on Friday that out of the more than one billion dollars in asset forfeiture funds it helped the federal government secure, approximately $5,000 was spent on expenses relating to Trump or the Trump organization between October 2019 and August 2021.
Bragg’s office maintains that no federal grant money was used toward expenses in the Trump investigation. It shared details with Congress about the three federal grant programs the office participates in regarding its casework and stated in Friday’s letter, “no expenses incurred relating to this matter have been paid from funds that the Office receives through federal grant programs.”
What Trump’s legal team has said about the indictment — and how they plan to respond to the charges
From CNN’s Katelyn Polantz
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team will look to challenge “every potential issue” in his indictment once the charges are unsealed, an attorney for the former president told CNN Sunday.
“We’re not doing anything at the arraignment because that would be showmanship and nothing more because we haven’t even seen the indictment yet. We will take the indictment, we will dissect it, the team will look at every – every – potential issue that we will be able to challenge and we will challenge it,” Joe Tacopina told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
Tacopina and other Trump lawyers have done several TV interviews in anticipation of the former president’s first appearance in court Tuesday, when he will learn the charges that the Manhattan grand jury has approved against him.
At times, the lawyers have vowed to ask for the charges to be dismissed. But the full slate of charges still aren’t known. And crucially, a judge will ultimately determine if the law is sound enough for the case to move forward to trial.
Former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday, “We can speculate on what evidence we think they may or may not have, but even with the indictment published, we really will not know what the district attorney’s evidence is and what they would present at trial.”
Vance’s team investigated the case but did not charge it, leaving it under the purview of his successor, Alvin Bragg.
What we know so far: Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud in the indictment. The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office began when Trump was still in the White House and relates to a $130,000 payment made by his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels in late October 2016, days before the presidential election, to silence her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.
The Trump team’s court strategy could center around challenging the case because it may rely on business record entries that prosecutors tie to hush money payments to Daniels seven years ago, beyond the statute of limitations for a criminal case.
Tacopina suggested in TV interviews Sunday that the statute of limitations may be passed, and said the Trump businesses didn’t make false entries.
“They’re not false entries. But assuming they were, they’re misdemeanors way beyond the statute of limitations, so they had to cobble them together to try and get a felony,” he said.
Tacopina on Sunday also said a request to move the case to a different New York City borough isn’t on the table yet for Trump’s legal team.
What you need to know about Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney in Trump indictment
From CNN’s Sydney Kashiwagi
Alvin Bragg, a former New York state and federal prosecutor, drew national attention when he made history as the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office first Black district attorney. Now, he is back in the spotlight after a grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump after a yearslong investigation into the former president’s alleged role in a hush money scheme.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Harvard-educated attorney previously served as an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, worked as a civil rights lawyer and as a professor and co-director of the New York Law School Racial Justice Project, where he represented family members of Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after being placed in an unauthorized chokehold by a then-police officer, in a lawsuit against the City of New York seeking information.
Bragg has aggressively pursued Trump and other progressive priorities so far in his tenure, including not prosecuting some low-level crimes and finding alternatives to incarceration.
Before Bragg’s swearing-in last year, he had already worked on cases related to Trump and other notable names in his role as a New York state chief deputy attorney general.
He said he had helped sue the Trump administration more than 100 times, as well as led a team that sued the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which resulted in the former president paying $2 million to a number of charities and the foundation’s dissolution.
Bragg also led the suit against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein and his company, which alleged a hostile work environment.
Bragg emerged the winner in a crowded Democratic primary in the summer of 2021 to lead the coveted Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, for which Vance had announced earlier that year he would not seek reelection. While campaigning, he often spoke about his experience growing up in Harlem, saying he was once a 15-year-old stopped “numerous times at gunpoint by police.”
“In addition to being the first Black district attorney, I think I’ll probably be the first district attorney who’s had police point a gun at him,” he said during a victory speech, following his historic election to the office. “I think I’ll be the first district attorney who’s had a homicide victim on his doorstop. I think I’ll be the first district attorney in Manhattan who’s had a semi-automatic weapon pointed at him. I think I’ll be the first district attorney in Manhattan who’s had a loved one reenter from incarceration and stay with him. And I’m going to govern from that perspective.”
Bragg ran as a reformer, releasing a memo just days after taking office detailing new charging, bail, plea and sentencing policies – a plan that drew criticism from police union leaders. He said his office would not prosecute marijuana misdemeanors, fare evading and prostitution, among other crimes.
Trump attorney says there’s no purpose in a mugshot: “He’s the most recognized face in the world”
From CNN’s Andrew Millman
Alina Habba, an attorney representing former President Donald Trump in several civil matters, argued Trump shouldn’t need to take a mugshot, telling CNN This Morning, “There’s no need for theatrics.”
Habba told host Don Lemon, “Mugshots are for people so that you recognize who they are. He’s the most recognized face in the world, let alone the country, right now, so there’s no need for that.”
Sources familiar with the preparations were uncertain as to whether there would be a mugshot.
Trump’s attorney says she believes that the indictment will be unsealed “no matter what,” and accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of leaking the number of counts in the indictment.
When pressed by host Don Lemon about the claim, Habba declared, “it’s not speculation.”
On Trump’s social media posts attacking the judge in the case, Habba said, “We have many judges, frankly, and I’m before some of them, who have shown a venomous vitriol against President Trump that is like nothing we’ve ever seen in the state of New York.”
She also called Bragg a “woke DA who’s now bringing a misdemeanor stacking it and trying to make it a felony” and dismissed the looming indictment as “30-34 counts of garbage.”
When asked about her role in searching Mar-a-Lago for documents, Habba said she wasn’t looking for classified documents, adding, “I was looking for tax documents in another garbage case by [New York Attorney General] Leticia James.”
When pressed by Lemon about the accuracy of these claims, Habba responded, “I’m not in a deposition right now and I’m not going to continue this conversation.” She said her affidavit “is very public and I recommend you read it.”
“Yes, that’s not a secret. I testified to the grand jury,” she acknowledged.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-indictment-stormy-daniels-news-04-03-23/h_4e6f6b4aa6183e30e6d7b97ed1484ae2
