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WASHINGTON, D. C. - U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan is deciding whether to draft legislation that would protect former and/or current Presidents from politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials in response to potential charges against former President Donald Trump for his role in making an alleged $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, joined the chairs of the House Administration and House Oversight and Accountability committees in a Saturday letter that reiterated an earlier demand for documents and testimony from the New York district attorney pursuing the case.

Congress has a specific and manifestly important interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former Presidents by elected state and local prosecutors, particularly those tried before elected state and local trial-level judges, said the letter Jordan wrote with Administration chairman Bryan Steil of Wisconsin and Oversight chairman James Comer of Kentucky.

Therefore, the Committee on the Judiciary, as a part of its broad authority to develop criminal justice legislation, must now consider whether to draft legislation that would, if enacted, insulate current and former presidents from such improper state and local prosecutions, the letter said. These legislative reforms may include, for example, broadening the existing statutory right of removal of certain criminal cases from state court to federal court. Because your impending indictment of a former President is an issue of first impression, the Committees require information from your office to inform our oversight.

Jordan and the other two committee chairs last week wrote a letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., that accused him of pursuing Trumps indictment for political reasons, calling it an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority. Their letter followed a claim by Trump last week that his arrest was imminent. If Trump is arrested, legal experts say he would be the first former U.S. president to ever face criminal charges.

A few days after Jordans first letter, an attorney for Bragg responded that the inquiry amounted to federal interference with a local prosecution. The letter noted Jordans first letter came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.

The letter from General Counsel Leslie B. Dubeck called the congressional requests an unlawful incursion into New Yorks sovereignty and said Congresss investigative jurisdiction is derived from and limited by its power to legislate concerning federal matters.

If a grand jury brings charges against Donald Trump, the DAs Office will have an obligation, as in every case, to provide a significant amount of discovery from its files to the defendant so that he may prepare a defense, it continued. It said the allegation that the DAs Office is pursuing a prosecution for political purposes is unfounded, and regardless, the proper forum for such a challenge is the Courts of New York.

Since becoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a new Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in January, Jordan has started probes of allegedly improper political acts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Biden administrations handling of immigration and border security issues, whether the federal government improperly influenced Twitter, and whether the U.S. Air Force improperly released personnel files to Democratic political operatives, among other things.

At a weekend rally for his presidential campaign in Waco, Texas, Trump claimed political pressure from Washington, D.C. was behind the New York prosecution. He also singled out Jordan and Comer for praise.

These are great people, putting themselves at risk because they take a lot of abuse but they are doing something we have not seen in Washington in 25 years, Trump said of the pair.

Sabrina Eaton covers the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Read more of her work here.

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Jim Jordan weighs bill that would keep ex-President Donald Trump from being indicted by local prosecutors - cleveland.com

One of the most obvious takeaways from Donald Trumps time in the White Housein addition to the determination that (1) people working for him should have received hazard pay and (2) he should never be allowed within 10,000 feet of the place again, not even as a chaperone for a school tripwas that the then first lady, Melania Trump, absolutely despised him. And it appears those feelings have not changed in the two-plus years since the duo left Washington!

According to a new report, Melania remains angry at her husband over the alleged affair he had with porn star Stormy Daniels, which could result in his being indicted by the Manhattan district attorneys office at some point in the near future, thanks to the hush money he paid to keep Daniels quiet in 2016. (Though the ex-president has denied sleeping with the adult-film star, he has admitted to the $130,000 deal brokered by his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on the eve of the 2020 election, which Trump subsequently reimbursed Cohen for during his first year in office.) And while it doesnt seem unreasonable for Melania to still be upset about her husband allegedly cheating on herjust months after she gave birth, according to Danielsher negative feelings for him apparently run so deep that she doesnt seem to give a f--k if he is criminally charged. The former first lady, a source familiar with the matter told People, wants to ignore the whole thing and hopes it will pass, but doesnt sympathize with Donalds plight.

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Not only that, but, according to the same source, the former FLOTUS really wouldnt be put out in the slightest if her spouse did time behind bars. Melania loves the beautiful weather and resort town atmosphere of Palm Beach, this person told reporter Linda Marx. She is happy when she is in Palm Beach. She has her son and other close family members. They are tribe-like and usually stick together. Despite what happens to Donald, she will be fine. She is well taken care of.

In related news, it appears that at least two other family members wont be holding any press conferences to decry the potential charges or claim Trump is the victim of witch hunt. According to the New York Post, former senior presidential advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner want nothing to do with this. They are staying away and dont want to be hounded by reporters. I dont think you will see them defending himit will be no comment. (In November, despite his reported begging, Ivanka declined to show up when her father announced his third bid for office, later saying in an official statement that she would not participate in his campaign.)

Obviously, this all stands in contrast to the online ravings of Donald Trump Jr., who seems prepared to chain himself to the door of the Manhattan DAs office until prosecutors agree to leave his dad alone.

No word from Eric Trump, though his stance is presumably somewhat more in line with Don Jr.s Dont worry, Dad, Im going to sneak you out through the prison tunnel system! vibe than his stepmothers POV.

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Report: Melania Trump Is Still Pissed About Stormy Daniels, Has No Sympathy About Trump Facing Prison Time - Vanity Fair

This is America, the land of second acts. Even Richard Nixon, having lost to Jack Kennedy in 1960, came back to win the White House in 1968 and, having later resigned in disgrace, still managed to insert himself into public debate as an elder statesman at times and after a suitable interval. Everyone gets to reinvent themselves in America. Here, you do not have to be an evangelical Christian to be born again.

Believing in the redemption of sinners and the grace of the confessional, I have long thought that this generous American habit of reinvention is a wonderful thing, an openness to grace in an often cold and judgmental culture. In most instances it is wonderful. There are some times, however, when it is right and proper for a person to give an account of themselves, to be able to point to the spot where they fell from the horse on the road to Damascus, demonstrate that something more than convenience is at work, especially when their second act has public ramifications. In the absence of an apologia, skepticism is appropriate.

So, when we read certain conservatives these days as they try yet again to rid their party of the moral stain of Donald Trump, it is a time to be wary.

The latest example of an all-too convenient distancing from Trump came from the pen of National Review editor Rich Lowry, whose essay at Politico last week examined the former president's labeling Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a "RINO," or "Republican In Name Only." Lowry observed that, "Records aren't kept on such things, but Trump is clearly the most promiscuous user of 'RINO' in Republican Party history. He applies it to everyone from Republicans who now have a genuinely strained connection to the party, like Liz Cheney, to stand-out governors like [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis and Brian Kemp of Georgia."

Lowry adds that RINO was never "a precise term. Once upon a time, it was an acronym applied to moderate Republicans who accommodated the other side on substance and process. In recent years, though, Trump has appropriated it as completely as the phrase 'fake news.' "

What Lowry is trying to do here is paint the picture of a post-Trump party without the shadow and stain of the former president. But Trump was not the standard bearer of the party in the manner of Mitt Romney or the Bushes, pere and fils. Trump remade the GOP in his own image.

It is an open question whether someone like DeSantis could become a contender had Trump not paved the way. They may be different in some regards, but they both embody the anti-elite populism that is the defining characteristic of the GOP today. If fiscal conservatism was the hallmark of Republicanism in the postwar era, and neoliberalism its distinguishing mark in the Reagan and Bush years, today it is anti-elite populism that most characterizes the party.

In 2018, Lowry was singing a different tune. "Indeed, most of the fears of how Trump would conduct himself in office have been realized (everyone would have thought Jeb Bush was crazy if he had predicted a President Trump would fire a high-level Cabinet official via Twitter, and not even using direct message)," he wrote back then. "Yet it doesn't follow that we should buy into the fantasy either that Trump is going to disappear into thin air, or that Trumpism can be blithely dismissed so the party can return to what some Never Trumpers believe constituted the status quo ante."

Lowry in 2018 was a lot more accurate than he is today. The most important stance a GOP leader must figure out is not their position on Ukraine or the debt ceiling. It is how deeply they want to submerge themselves into the cult of Donald Trump.

How else to explain the decision by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to meet with Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt who was killed during the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Only last month, Trump criticized McCarthy for defending the Capitol Police officer who shot Babbitt during the riot.

Politics is filled with tough calls. Assessing what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, is not one of them.

Political parties are always developing. The party of Lincoln became the party of the robber barons in the late 19th century, and of Reagan in the late 20th century. Now it is the party of Trump. And there isn't enough soap in the world.

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The GOP still belongs to Donald Trump - National Catholic Reporter

Fri, Mar 24 2023 5:36 PM EDT

A federal judge ordered Trump's former aides, including his ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows, to testify before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., investigating Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, NBC News reported Friday.

The developments in the D.C. case, which are separate from the Manhattan district attorney's hush money probe, pile yet more legal pressure on Trump, who is embroiled in numerous investigations as he simultaneously runs for the Republican presidential nomination.

In a sealed order, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled against Trump's bid to block his aides from speaking to the grand jury on the grounds of executive privilege, people familiar with the matter told NBC.

Executive privilege is the legal doctrine that allows for some executive-branch communications to be kept confidential. Trump is expected to appeal the ruling, which was filed in secret because it involves grand jury matters, according to NBC.

NBC's sources said the other aides affected by the ruling are former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, former national security advisor Robert O'Brien, former senior aide Stephen Miller, former Director of National IntelligenceJohn Ratcliffe, former deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, former assistant Nick Luna and former White House Presidential Personnel Officedirector John McEntee.

Kevin Breuninger

Fri, Mar 24 2023 2:56 PM EDT

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg exits a building, Wednesday, March 22, 2023, in New York.

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | AP

An envelope containing suspicious white powder with a note saying "Alvin I'm gonna kill you" was sent to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whom Trump has called an "animal" and "degenerate psychopath" in recent days.

The envelope was found in the DA's mail room, in the same courthouse where a grand jury has been hearing testimony in a criminal probe of Trump over a 2016 hush money payment to a porn star, a court spokesman and New York Police Department spokesman told CNBC.

The envelope contained a note inside that threatened to kill the DA, WNBC reported.

Police said the powder was deemed "non-hazardous," and no injuries were reported at the scene. The investigation into the situation is continuing.

Trump has blasted Bragg's probe and the DA personally on his Truth Social account.

In a scathing post early in the day, Trump warned of the potential for "death & destruction" if he were to face criminal charges.

Dan Mangan

Fri, Mar 24 2023 1:11 PM EDT

Evan Corcoran, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, departs after testifying before a federal grand jury investigating Trump's handling of classified documents, at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., March 24, 2023.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Trump's lawyer Evan Corcoran testified before a Washington, D.C., federal court grand jury for nearly three-and-a-half hours before leaving for the day, NBC News reported.

The grand jury is reviewing evidence in a criminal probe of Trump for keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club residence in Florida and for resisting efforts by government authorities to recover those records.

A federal appeals court earlier this week rejected Trump's effort to block a judge's order that required Corcoran to appear before the grand jury.

Dan Mangan

Fri, Mar 24 2023 12:27 PM EDT

A coterie of New York leaders, including Rev. Al Sharpton, former Gov. David Paterson and Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, defended Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after Trump labeled the prosecutor a "Soros-backed animal."

Trump and other Republicans have accused Bragg of being closely tied to or controlled by billionaire progressive donor George Soros, but those claims areoverblown. Soros has become a prominent character in some antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Noting that Bragg is Manhattan's first Black DA, the joint statement from the New York leaders decried Trump's "unprecedented" criticism.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg exits a building, Wednesday, March 22, 2023, in New York.

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | AP

"This disgraceful attack is not a dog-whistle but a bullhorn of incendiary racist and anti-semitic bile, spewed out for the sole purpose of intimidating and sabotaging a lawful, legitimate, fact-based investigation," the statement read.

"These ugly, hateful and anti-American attacks on our judicial system must be universally condemned without equivocation or hesitation. It is clear that Trump would burn down the greatest values of our democracy, and destroy honest, ethical officials performing their constitutional duties, to escape accountability," the statement added.

The statement was posted on Twitter by an account that appeared to be related to Bragg's 2021 campaign for DA.

In a tweet promoting the statement, Espaillat added, "Harlem and the entire nation has your back D.A. Bragg. We're New Yorkers we don't back down to bullies. The justice system will prevail."

Trump's attack is one of many he has fired off at the DA since Bragg's probe of Trump's involvement in a 2016 hush money payment appeared to enter its final stages.

Kevin Breuninger

Fri, Mar 24 2023 11:17 AM EDT

A man inspects a plane of former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Palm Beach International Airport, days after he posted a message on his Truth Social account saying that he had expected to be arrested, and called on his supporters to protest, in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. March 22, 2023.

Marco Bello | Reuters

Trump is scheduled to travel to Waco, Texas, on Saturday for what his campaign has billed as the first official rally of his 2024 presidential bid.

The kickoff event, which comes months after Trump formally launched his third White House campaign, coincides with the 30-year anniversary of the infamous siege that took place east of Waco.

The standoff between FBI agents and members of the Branch Davidians religious cult began in February 1993 and ended nearly two months later in a deadly blaze that engulfed the group's compound. Dozens of the group's followers and its leader, David Koresh were killed in the siege, as were four federal agents.

Trump's campaign has not linked his rally with the tragic anniversary. In a press release announcing the event, the campaign declared, "It is undisputed that Texas is Trump Country," pointing to the success of Trump-endorsed candidates in the state and some favorable polling data on Texas Republicans.

Trump's spokesman told The New York Times that the site was selected "because it is centrally located and close to all four of Texas' biggest metropolitan areas."

The rally comes at the close of a week in which Trump wrongly predicted he would be arrested on charges from the Manhattan District Attorney's office related to a 2016 hush money payment to a porn star who alleges she had a tryst with Trump. The former president has railed against the DA and portrayed himself as a victim of government overreach.

Trump is scheduled to speak at the rally at the Waco Regional Airport at 5 p.m. local time on Saturday.

Kevin Breuninger

Fri, Mar 24 2023 10:46 AM EDT

Former US President Donald Trump sits in the rear of his limousine as he leaves from Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 23, 2023.

Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images

After ramping up his campaign of vitriol against the Manhattan district attorney pursuing a hush money case against him, Trump left his Palm Beach, Florida, resort home and headed to his golf club, NBC News reported.

The former president's motorcade arrived at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach shortly after 9 a.m. ET, according to NBC.

Around the same time, Trump posted a two-word, all-caps message on Truth Social: "PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT!"

It was the latest in a series of escalating attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, which had reached a fever pitch overnight as Trump warned of "potential death & destruction" if charged in the probe.

Kevin Breuninger

Fri, Mar 24 2023 10:06 AM EDT

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (C) arrives at the Manhattan District Attorney's office in New York City, on March 23, 2023.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

The lawyer for Michael Cohen, Trump's ex-fixer turned key witness in the Manhattan district attorney's hush money case, said he would be let down if the former president is not charged in the probe.

"I'll be disappointed" if the DA Alvin Bragg ultimately decides not to indict Trump, attorney Lanny Davis told Politico.

"But I will grant him a good-faith judgment. And judgments can always be disagreed with, but I'll be disappointed for sure," Davis said.

Davis also told Politico that the probe began after he invited the former Manhattan DA, Cyrus Vance Jr., to visit Cohen in prison in Otisville, New York, where he was serving his sentence for financial crimes related to the hush money payment.

Their first meeting "did not go very well," Davis said, because Cohen had felt "mistreated" by federal prosecutors. But "they got past that," and "the next two sessions were very productive. And then it led to an open investigation."

Kevin Breuninger

Fri, Mar 24 2023 9:36 AM EDT

Evan Corcoran, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, arrives to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Trump's handling of classified documents, at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., March 24, 2023.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Trump, arrived at a Washington, D.C., courthouse ahead of a planned appearance before a federal grand jury reviewing evidence of Trump's retention of classified government records at his Florida home.

Corcoran's arrival came two days after an appeals court quickly denied a bid by Trump to block the lawyer's appearance, which a lower court judge had ordered.

The Justice Department is eyeing Trump in the criminal probe for failing to comply with a law requiring former presidents to return government records when they leave office.

He also is being investigated for potential obstruction of justice in refusing to turn over records to government officials when lawyers including Corcoran were being asked about such documents.

Last June, Corcoran told a fellow Trump lawyer Christina Bobb to give the DOJ a statement that an extensive search at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club had not found any more government documents than the ones returned to the National Archives and Records Administration earlier in 2022.

Two months later, FBI agents in a raid of Mar-a-Lago found hundreds of such documents, many of them marked highly classified.

Dan Mangan

Fri, Mar 24 2023 9:31 AM EDT

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a rally to support Republican candidates ahead of midterm elections, in Dayton, Ohio, U.S. November 7, 2022.

Gaelen Morse | Reuters

Trump in an ominous early-morning social media post suggested there could be "death & destruction" if he is hit with criminal charges.

The implication of violence came more than two years after thousands of the former president's supporters, spurred by his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, stormed the Capitol in a deadly attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's victory.

Trump in his Truth Social post cited his status as a former president and a current White House contender as he lashed out at an unnamed prosecutor. He argued that any criminal charge against him would be baseless.

"What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?"

"Why & who would do such a thing?" he added. "Only a degenerate psychopath that truly hates the USA."

The post came hours after a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that the jury in Trump's upcoming civil trial for allegations that he raped and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll would be anonymous. The decision was in part due to Trump's verbal and written attacks on legal system officials such as prosecutors, as well as individual grand jurors.

Trump faces a potential indictment next week in the Manhattan grand jury probe related to the Stormy Daniels hush money payment. Daniels' real name is Stephanie Clifford.

He also is the target of a federal criminal probe related to efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to Biden, and his actions surrounding the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot by his supporters after he urged them to protest the election results in Washington.

Dan Mangan

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Trump live updates: Threatening letter with nonhazardous white powder found at Manhattan DA's office - CNBC

Donald Trump also warned of a "nuclear world war".

Donald Trump, Former President of the United States, claimed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine conflict "within 24 hours" during an interview with Fox News. He said he would do so by presiding over peace talks, but "refused" to explain how.

Mr Trump informed that if the war doesn't conclude by the end of the US 2024 presidential elections and if he is re-elected to the White House, he would "within one day" have a peace settlement in place. Speaking to the outlet, he claimed that talks between Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and himself would be "easy".

"If it's not solved, I will have it solved in 24 hours with Zelensky and with Putin, and there's a very easy negotiation to take place, but I don't want to tell you what it is because then I can't use that negotiation," said Mr Trump.

"But there's a very easy negotiation to take place. I will have it solved within one day, a peace between them," he noted.

The former US President noted that the negotiations will not start for a "year and a half", adding "that's a long time". He also mentioned that there is a possibility that the war may get much worse in the meantime.

Discussing his good relationship with the Russian President, Mr Trump said that the conflict would not have happened if he was re-elected to office in 2020.

Furthermore, he also warned of a "nuclear world war". "If this thing isn't solved by the time we have the election - which it's possible it won't be, and it's also possible we'll be in World War Three with these idiots that are doing what they're doing- you could end up in a nuclear world war which will make World War I and World War II look like patty cakes," he said during the interview.

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Donald Trump Claims He Can End Russia-Ukraine War "Within 24 Hours" - NDTV