Trump frets about New York criminal trial one day ahead of jury selection

Former president Donald Trump has promised to pardon supporters of his who have been charged, convicted, and in some cases imprisoned for crimes committed during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

But according to a new report from anti-authoritarianism group Protect Democracy, he may not actually have that power even if he is returned to the White House after this year’s election.

The report, titled Checking the Pardon Power: Constitutional Limitations & Options for Preventing Abuse, lays out a number of circumstances in which a presidential pardon would not be valid because it would not be a legitimate use of the president’s authority to grant reprieves for “offenses against the United States”.

A special prosecutor has been assigned to look into whether Georgia Lt Gov Burt Jones should face criminal charges over efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.

The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia announced Thursday that its executive director, Pete Skandalakis, will handle the matter after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was barred from prosecuting Jones as part of her election interference case against former President Donald Trump and others.

Jones was one of 16 state Republicans who signed a certificate stating that Mr Trump had won Georgia and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors even though Democrat Joe Biden had been declared the winner in the state. As a state senator in the wake of the election, he also sought a special session of Georgia’s Legislature aimed at overturning Biden’s narrow win in the state.

Donald Trump has lashed out at President Joe Biden in a Truth Social video accusing the president of being a “criminal” after he failed to delay an imminent criminal trial in Manhattan. his string of criminal trials.

The former president faces 88 felony counts across four state and federal prosecutions as he campaigns for a return to the White House. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

Mr Trump continues to baselessly assert that he is the victim of a Democratic-led conspiracy against him, despite the fact that his criminal prosecutions were recommended by grand juries of members of the public. His federal cases are overseen by an independent special counsel under the US Department of Justice.

That hasn’t stopped Mr Trump from accusing his rival of “lawfare” against him.

Martha McHardy and Alex Woodward report:

Donald Trump and his mentor Roy Cohn — or at least fictionalised versions of them — are heading to Cannes.

Martha McHardy has the details:

One of the Democratic Party’s rising stars was on Donald Trump’s case over what she said were the “lies” the former president told the American people for years about his stance on reproductive rights.

The presumed nominee of the Republican Party to take on President Joe Biden in 2024, Mr Trump released a video last Monday outlining his (current) stance on the issue of abortion rights.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer joined Sunday’s Meet The Press on NBC and responded to moderator Kristen Welker’s assertion that Mr Trump was “straddling the line” on the issue.

With the beginning of Mr Trump’s trial now just hours away, it’s worth looking back at the hush money case that started this whole thing: the Stormy Daniels affair.

Mr Trump was only indicted for the scheme in 2023, but news of his payments to the porn star was first reported by The Wall Street Journal way back in 2018.

Read more from The Independent about how we finally got here:

The first criminal trial of a former US president will begin with jury selection on Monday.

The hush money case surrounds 34 charges of business fraud following allegations that Donald Trump instructed staff that hush money payments be logged as legal expenses.

Steve Duffy at Trial Behavior Consulting spoke to The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander about the likely demographics of the jury and the selection process itself.

Donald Trump weighed in on Iran’s airstrike against Israel on Saturday evening.

“ISRAEL IS UNDER ATTACK,” the former president said on his social media platform, Truth Social. “This should never have been allowed to happen – This would NEVER have happened if I were President!”

Mr Trump’s comments come after the Israeli Defense Forces announced Iran had launched dozens of drones against Israel, set to arrive Saturday evening. President Joe Biden has since pledged his support for Israel.

Katie Hawkinson has more from The Independent’s DC bureau.

The word “unprecedented” gets thrown around a lot, but Monday will truly be one of those “unprecedented” days in American history.

The trial of Donald Trump, the first criminal prosecution of a US president, will begin in Manhattan on Monday morning at 10am, when the jury selection process begins. The former president lost three last-minute bids to delay his trial over the past few weeks, and will now go down as the first commander-in-chief to defend himself on felony charges of illegally falsifying business records to cover up payments to a porn star.

It’s a moment of historical significance, and one that has wholly consumed Mr Trump’s attention: he posted a lengthy statement on Truth Social criticising the judge in the case, Juan Mercham, on Sunday morning as the rest of social media was consumed by news of a massive Iranian strike against Israel.

A longtime attorney for Donald Trump who is expected to be a key witness in a criminal case targeting the former president’s possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago has reportedly left his legal team.

Evan Corcoran, who recused himself from the Florida case last year, is no longer representing the former president in any of his criminal and civil cases, according to CNN, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.