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At a glance, it was a fairly representative docket at Manhattans Criminal Courthouse, on Centre Street. DefendantD., male, thirty-four, charged with menacing and aggravated harassment. DefendantB., female, thirty-four, criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation. DefendantH., female, twenty-two, assault in the second degree. DefendantP., male, forty, sexual abuse in the first. D.W.I. Petit larceny. Criminal mischief. Theft of services. A grocery deliveryman alleged to have kicked someone in the back, for unknown reasons: released on his own recognizance. Tara Sukhu, the arraignment supervisor with the Legal Aid Society, said, over the phone, Its been pretty quiet. So far, so good.

Outside the seventeen-story building, it was anything but quiet. Helicopters hovered. Whistles and clanging persisted amid sign-waving and costume-flaunting behind police barricades: a parade with nowhere to go. Representative George Santos, no stranger to masquerades, fled the scene quickly, declaring it unbearable. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene brought a megaphone but soon retreated to her S.U.V., where she invoked the famous scofflaws Jesus and Mandela. The unsealing of an unprecedented indictment was imminent: From approximately June 2015 to November 2016, the Defendant was a candidate for the office of President of the United States. On January20, 2017, he became President. That would be DefendantT., male, seventy-six, charged with falsifying business records in the first degree.

Setting aside the politics (good or bad for 24?) and the optics (observers likened the Palm Beach airport stakeout to the pursuit of O.J.s white Bronco), the nature of Donald Trumps alleged crimes was old, if tawdry, news. Hush money, improperly classified. Or, in legalese, The purpose of the payment was to avoid negative attention to the defendants campaign by suppressing information about an allegedly sexual encounter between defendant and an adult-film actress. That was an Assistant District Attorney speaking, up in the rarefied air of the fifteenth floor, which had been reserved for the days most prominently accused, as a safety precaution. Unlike the other defendants, who stood, often cuffed, before a judge in Room 130, down near the metal detectors, the man from Mar-a-Lago was free to sit, fidget, and admire the starched cuffs of his lawyers shirts.

Tempting as it may have been to imagine a kind of upstairs-downstairs dichotomy, an eavesdropper with his eyes closed could have identified a fair amount of thematic convergence in the proceedings of Trumps arraignment and that of, say, a man with an outstanding warrant in Suffolk County who was said to have erupted in violence when a woman refused to show him the contents of her phone. A lot boils down to logistics.

Upstairs: I am just stating the obvious that having President Trump in this courtroom today is extraordinarily burdensome.

Downstairs: He simply could not get to Long Island. He would be eager for supervised release.

Upstairs: I expect all other defendants to appear in court, even high-profile defendants.

Downstairs: There are trains and buses in Suffolk County, counsel. There is a bus that goes directly to the courthouse.

Upstairs: I was not suggesting President Trump does not want to be here.

Downstairs: Defendant has clear disregard of court orders.

Upstairs: This defendant has made... irresponsible social-media posts that target various individuals involved in this matter, and even their families.

Downstairs: You are to have no contact by phone, by text message, through social media, do you understand?

Upstairs: I never met Stormy Daniels. I never spoke to Stormy Daniels. Oops. Not Trump there, believe it or not, but Joseph Tacopina, a.k.a. Joey Taco, seated at Trumps left, and sounding less like a lawyer than like a guilty husband. He was denying that he had a prior association with the adult-film actress that could pose a conflict. The courthouse has a way of visiting indignities on all but the robed.

Trump, released on his own unmistakable recognizance, isnt due back at Centre Street until December. In the meantime, he faces looming investigations in Georgia and in Washington, involving more substantive concerns, like election interference and insurrection. Trial handicappers, left to pore over the D.A.s narrative account in the Statement of Facts, would do well to consider that, even with the briefest of arraignments, narratives can diverge. Take the case of a Defendant R., who arrived in handcuffs an hour after Trumps departure, with hair similarly aloft. According to the prosecutor, who asked that bail be set at ten thousand dollars, he was an incorrigible thief, a thirteen-time recidivist. He had even robbed one victim on three separate occasions! Enter the public defender: The amount of bail is extortionate for a client who is homeless and stealing paper towels. The repeat victim was a Target. Stay out of that store! the judge admonished, while declining to set bail. Uncuffed and releaseduntil next time.

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On the Docket with Donald Trump - The New Yorker

Saturday Night Live mocks conservatives comparing Donald Trump to Jesus.

Last week, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy for his alleged role in hush money payments to two women toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign. This historic moment was the first time a former president was indicted for his alleged crimes. Of course, Republicans couldnt wait to defend Trump with any justification for his behavior that they deemed viable.

This included his lawyer, Alina Habba, claiming Trumps New York City indictment puts him in the leagues of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. Habba. Donald Trump is Tupac. Donald Trumps Biggie Smalls, hes better than Tupac. Im east coast, so I love Biggie, Habba said. Donald Trump is his own brand. He is everything. This is just gonna boost him, weve seen it in the polls. Its not a question, its a fact.

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Shockingly, this would be the least incendiary statement the right would say about Trumps indictment. Resident Republican bigot Marjorie Taylor Greene compared Trumps prosecution to the persecution of Jesus Christ during an interview. Greene traveled to Manhattan to protest Trumps arraignment, discussed the timing of the arraignment before invoking the name of Christ.

Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus! Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government, she pathetically commented. There have been many people throughout history that have been arrested and persecuted by radical corrupt governments, and its beginning today in New York City.

Trump supporter and attorney Joseph McBride said on social media last month that President Trump will be arrested during Lenta time of suffering and purification for the followers of Jesus Christ. As Christ was crucified, and then rose again on the 3rd day, so too will @realDonaldTrump. Violence is never the answer. Winning the election is. Vote for Trump!

Story continues

Nothing is beneath the right to cling to power and propping up Trump as a political sacrifice was perhaps a predictable move. Even though its obviously outrageous and ridiculously tone-deaf, its how conservatives have always movedand its proven alarmingly effective. Saturday Night Live even mocked the analogy last night. During the Easter-themed opening skit, actor Mikey Day starred as Christ sitting with his disciples during The Last Supper.

However, the gathering was crashed by Trump (portrayed by James Austin Johnson) who challenged Christs assertions of persecution. Sound familiar? A famous, wonderful man arrested for no reason at all, Johnson said as the former president. As we speak, I am being persecuted on a level the likes of which the world has never seen, even worse than the late, great Jesus.

Johnson also called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis his own version of judas. Ron DeSantis came to me, tears in his eyes, he said, Help me, Mr. Trump, Im going to lose my election. So I very generously pretended to like him, and then he did a Judas, and now he cant even get the gays out of Disney World. Johnson continued:

Mr. Jesus, quite a guy, but now people are saying perhaps Im even better than Jesus because Im a self-made billionaire and Christ was, lets call it what it is, a nepo baby. I mean, his dad was God: Its pretty easy to start a religion when your dad is God. Though the number was comical, sadly it wasnt far-fetched. The country has seenand suffered because ofthe fanaticism of the right.

The irreparable damage conservatives have done to Americans in the name of religion continues to harm marginalized and vulnerabilities groups. Whether its laws that attempt to eradicate trans people, abolish womens rights, employ deadly police forces or emphatically uphold the right to bear arms, Christianity has become the go-to excuse for Republicans to act however they like.

In other words, Trumps martyrdom is just a symptom of a much largerand much more dangerousproblem.

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The Danger of Comparing Donald Trump to Jesus - Yahoo Life

The reason the United States reached its present astonishing condition is that a not wholly inadequate but complacent bipartisan consensus was moving the country slowly to the left and appeared to a large number of citizens to be favoring the educated middle-class and the scientifically and financially innovative higher income groups over the traditional working and middle classes and substantial numbers of the traditional minorities.

For some unexplained reason, few of the polls disclosed the vulnerability of the bipartisan governing majority. Donald Trump, long one of Americas most famous and controversial businessmen and celebrities, had been polling comprehensively for many years by 2015. He had developed the theory, after a near-death financial experience, that he could generate a large income by levering on and hyping his own name.

This process was commercially successful, and he suspected that it could be politically successful, also. To this end, he changed his official party designation seven times in 13 years waiting for an opportunity to take an open nomination in a year when the White House would not be defended by an incumbent president.

All will remember the howls of mockery and incredulity that greeted his descent on the escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. It became clear as soon as the primaries began that he had tapped into an unsuspected vein of electoral resentment.

The bipartisan arrangement that Mr. Trump called the swamp is best illustrated by the fact that in the eight terms, 32 years, ending in 2012, one member or another of the Bush and Clinton families had been president, vice president, or Secretary of State, and a member of each family was seeking the presidency in 2016.

Mr. Trump won almost all of the Republican primaries in every region, but incredulity rose and defied unfolding events. The Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, wrote of dropping him like a hot rock. The Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, was the overwhelming favorite to win even though the polls started fairly close and narrowed steadily toward election day.

As Mr. Trump alleged in his powerful and measured speech on the evening of April 4, after his indictment, Mr. Trumps enemies had begun even before he was inaugurated, the unconstitutional process of using the intelligence agencies, the FBI, and other parts of the Justice Department to persecute and defame him.

We now know that the heads of the national and central intelligence agencies and the FBI lied or dissembled under oath and that senior officials of the Justice Department knowingly signed false affidavits to justify illegal intercepts on the Trump campaign and transition team. We now know that the strenuous effort to pretend that concerns about the Biden familys financial relations with Ukraine and China were unfounded was an outright fraud that was conducted even though a grand jury had been investigating the same matters for many months.

We now know that President Biden has lied repeatedly to the public about his knowledge of these activities. The failure of the United States attorney in Delaware to produce any findings at all on an investigation of more than three years into the Biden familys questionable finances is as disquieting about the failure of justice to operate impartially as is its failure to be roused to any action at all about then candidate Hillary Clintons destruction of subpoenaed evidence.

We now know that neither President Trump nor his organization had any involvement in encouraging illegalities at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. We also know that then-Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Mayor Bowser of the District of Columbia declined President Trumps urgings that they accept 20,000 national guardsmen that he was prepared to provide as reinforcements because of his concern that hooligans could infiltrate the large crowd of his supporters that he had invited to Washington to object legally to voting irregularities in the late election.

We now know that both of the Trump impeachments were completely unwarranted. We also know that it is unlikely that he would have been defeated in the 2020 election if there were not millions of unverifiable, unsolicited, mailed ballots voted anonymously in drop boxes; or that he would have been defeated if the publics awareness of the proportions of the Bidens overseas financial dealings had not been improperly suppressed by the FBIs partisan collusion with major social media platforms.

We now know how feeble and frivolous is the New York district attorneys spurious indictment of Mr. Trump and we know, because Mr. Trump told us, that the special counsel looking into the preposterous FBI raid at Trumps home in August and the classified document incident that was invoked as the pretext for it, and into the January 6, 2021 events, is engaging in the United States prosecutors customary threat to indict those who do not, with full guarantees against prosecution for perjury, ransack their memories successfully to find inculpatory evidence against the former president.

It is all a disgraceful picture of systematic lawlessness by one of two national political factions of almost equal strength against the other: an act of usurpation and perversion of the institutions of justice accompanied by a total collapse of professionalism and integrity in the national political media, all with no precedent in American history.

His supporters, and the few uncommitted people in the middle, are deeply concerned that this abuse of the justice system and failure of the free press could destroy constitutional government in the United States.

The only positive elements in this crisis are that the vigorous reaction of the old establishment shows that it is not decadent and easily defeated: it has fought tooth and nail with an early and constant recourse to rank illegalities to defend its position. A vigorously abusive governing class is preferable to a defeatist one.

The other positive element is that the forces for change are equally determined; even the most inflamed Trump-hater will acknowledge that he has proved to be a foe of undreamed-of formidability. Nothing in his prior career with its frequent instances of outright hucksterism would have prepared those who did not know him well to expect that Donald Trump would be so indefatigable.

In a phrase of third-party candidate George Wallace, much more accurately applied here, Trump has shaken the American political establishment by the eye-teeth, and he has already received more votes for president than anyone in American history.

Now one of these two protagonists must win. For the sake of all the goals identified by Mr. Trumps opponents, particularly the preservation of the Constitution and the integrity of the American political system, it is Donald Trump that must prevail.

The truth that dare not be uttered, is that he is now leading all the polls. His enemies, in their blind and mindless outlawry, are turning him into the last man standing, the only recourse and salvation for those who believe in the Constitution and in the continued greatness and moral distinction of the United States of America.

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The Truth That Dare Not Be Uttered About Trump - The New York Sun

There have been 135 mass shootings so far this year in America. Its barely April. Ban assault weapons now.

That was the claim from former Democratic presidential candidate and US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

It looks like shes using stats compiled by the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which had recorded 135 mass shootings so far this year at the time Mrs Clinton tweeted.

But what counts as a mass shooting is hotly disputed.

The GVA tally includes any incident in which four or more people were injured, whether or not anyone died.

If we restrict the count to only those incidents where there was at least one fatality and three non-fatal injuries, the number of mass shootings in the archive falls from 135 to 86 so far this year.

But the GVA is not the only source of mass shootings data.

The magazine Mother Jones compiles its own list and has more stringent criteria. By its definition, an event only becomes a mass shooting if three or more people die.

By Mother Jones estimate, there have been four mass shootings in the US so far in 2023. Those are the school shootings in Nashville and Michigan, as well as the two that struck around Lunar New Year celebrations in California.

The second part of Mrs Clintons tweet urges a ban on assault weapons.

Theres no settled definition of this either, though in 1994, the US Department of Justice described them as semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use.

Its not clear how many of the 135 mass shootings Mrs Clinton refers to involved assault weapons. However, all four of the incidents in the Mother Jones database this year did involve semiautomatic firearms, according to reports.

Some gun control campaigners argue that assault weapons allow shooters to fire more bullets in quick succession, therefore increasing the possible death toll.

And a 2019 peer-reviewed study found that mass-shooting related homicides were lower between 1994 and 2004, when a ban on assault weapons was in place across America.

But as FactCheck has previously reported and as the researchers themselves note the evidence is observational. In other words, it cant tell us whether its the assault weapons ban that caused the reduction in shootings and deaths.

And another major study of thousands of scientific papers by the Rand Corporation found inconclusive evidence that such bans lead to fewer mass shootings.

Indeed, assault weapons are only used in 16 per cent of mass shootings, according to gun control campaign group, Everytown. By contrast, handguns are the predominant choice for those carrying out a mass shooting, which suggests that limiting access to those firearms might be a better use of campaigners time.

Hillary Clinton said there have been 135 mass shootings in 2023 already. This is supported by data from the Gun Violence Archive. However, that organisation uses a broad definition of what counts as a mass shooting and includes incidents in which there were no fatalities. A more stringent definition at least three deaths is used by the website Mother Jones, which has recorded four mass shootings this year.

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FactCheck: is Clinton right that there have been 135 mass shootings ... - Channel 4 News

The Republican presidential primary was always expected to revolve around Trump. But post-indictment, as Republicans rally to his defense including, crucially, conservative talkers on Fox News Trumps opponents are confronting an even more damaging dynamic in race: their inability to break through at all. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

With the volume blaring on The Donald Trump Show, other Republican presidential hopefuls are struggling to make any noise of their own.

In the span of a week, Nikki Haley, former United Nations ambassador, campaigning at the U.S.-Mexico border, complained that no one is talking about immigration because of the focus on Trumps political drama. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeos trip to Ukraine was reduced to a blip on the media landscape, while Ron DeSantis avoided the spectacle and instead revived his war with Disney.

On the same day Trump was indicted in an alleged hush money scheme, the Florida governor was posing with puppies at a pet adoption event as his aides instructed reporters to leave.

This is deja vu all over again, said Terry Sullivan, who ran Marco Rubios 2016 campaign for president. Trump dominates media coverage, making it impossible for his competitors to get any coverage or forward traction.

The Republican presidential primary was always expected to revolve around Trump. But post-indictment, as Republicans rally to his defense including, crucially, conservative talkers on Fox News Trumps opponents are confronting an even more damaging dynamic in race: Their inability to break through at all.

It feels like fucking 2016, said a Republican strategist who supports DeSantis and was granted anonymity to speak freely about the dynamics of the race. Is there anything that can suck up as much political oxygen in the American political landscape as Trump? I dont think so.

Far from cable TVs focus on Trumps indictment, DeSantis has been plowing ahead with a political operation that resembles the early stages of a presidential campaign. But during the final weeks of Floridas jam-packed legislation session the backdrop against which DeSantis is preparing his case for taking his local conservative agenda nationwide the governor hasnt gotten a fraction of the attention Trump has. Visiting Long Island recently to promote his record and his book, he was greeted by a number of New Yorkers in MAGA hats and a sign that read DeSantis 2028, suggesting he get out of Trumps way in 2024.

One man in the DeSantis-friendly audience repeatedly shouted Trump! before being escorted out of the museum where DeSantis spoke. Nearly all of the attendees POLITICO interviewed spoke favorably about DeSantis, but said they are already committed to supporting the ex-presidents comeback bid.

To Republicans who saw Trump steamroll through the primary in 2016, its all beginning to look like a rerun. And largely helpless to do anything about Trump on their own, they have been venting frustrations increasingly at the media.

Whats frustrating to me is we didnt learn a damn thing from 2015 and 2016 when it comes to just giving him absolute, roadblock media coverage, said David Kochel, a veteran of six Republican presidential campaigns. I get it, its a big story. But this was getting covered like the opening of the war in Iraq or the O.J. chase. You couldnt escape it.

He said upcoming debates, cattle calls and other events during the campaign will give everybody an equal footing, an opportunity to drive their own coverage. But for now, he said, there isnt much any Trump rival can do.

I dont know that theres a strategy anybody could employ, he said. Maybe try shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue.

Left unsaid was that many of the GOP contenders owe their careers to the man they are now wishcasting away. Mike Pence was Trumps vice president, Pompeo served as his CIA director and secretary of state and Haley, who had been governor of South Carolina, was elevated as his United Nations ambassador. Trump often laments DeSantis disloyalty, saying he was trailing his opponent before Trump endorsed him in 2018.

One GOP Congressional staffer, granted anonymity to describe sensitive discussions about the campaign, said that in the current climate, everybody is worried about DeSantis chances.

Most people are quietly watching from the sidelines, praying that he puts it together, the person said.

While hoping for the Trump saturation to ease, his opponents are putting on a brave face and working at the edges to draw attention to themselves. Without yet announcing his candidacy something expected shortly after the legislative session ends in the coming weeks DeSantis is putting together endorsements. And in pleas to donors, he has been pitching himself as a low-drama version of Trump. Meanwhile a PAC formed to bolster his candidacy has reportedly raised $30 million so far.

DeSantis traversed the Northeast in recent days to tout his book, then delivered an hour-long speech to a Republican group in Michigan and addressed the Christian liberal arts Hillsdale College about his record in Florida. Later this month he is planning to visit Israel a significant overseas trip for any presidential contender.

An adviser to Haleys campaign, granted anonymity to talk candidly about the situation, acknowledged that theres no question this week Trump was getting the bulk of the coverage.

But Haley plowed ahead with her previously planned trip to the border last Monday. Her event received conservative media coverage, despite many mainstream news outlets remaining squarely focused on Trumps looming arraignment. Haleys border visit and Fox News interview about it appeared on the networks shows nine times that day, and then five more times on Tuesday.

Her campaign last week was conscious of timing, the adviser said, noting that it would have been foolish to announce Haleys $11 million first-quarter fundraising haul on Tuesday when Trumps arraignment was receiving wall to wall coverage. So they waited until Wednesday to drop the news and were pleased with the level of national media coverage they received, the adviser said.

Ken Farnaso, spokesperson for Haleys campaign, said her strategy has not changed at all given the Trump indictment, and her focus continues to be on holding frequent events in the early primary states.

Perhaps of all the other Republicans in the field, biotech entrepreneur and Woke Inc. author Vivek Ramaswamy has leaned most into the Trump campaigns messaging on the prosecution. While some candidates, including DeSantis, hesitated to weigh in after news broke of a forthcoming indictment, Ramaswamy jumped to decry the case and hasnt stopped since.

But he is still trying to capture his own audience, too. Last week, he launched a new daily podcast from a high-end, newly built studio in his Columbus campaign headquarters. This week, he will set out across New Hampshire on a 10-county tour, traveling in a decaled bus emblazoned with his headshot.

Sen. Tim Scott, whose advisers formally announced his upcoming swing to Iowa and New Hampshire just moments before Trump entered the courthouse on Tuesday, will visit those early states this week. Haley will spend three days in Iowa, and Pence, the former vice president, is set to speak this weekend at both the National Rifle Association annual conference and a closed-door gathering of Republican National Committee donors.

Its possible that attention will shift eventually to those candidates. Campaigning is not yet in full-swing in early primary states, and the candidates are still months away from their first debate.

Several people supportive of or close to DeSantis, who routinely polls as the leading alternative to Trump, said members of his team are privately projecting confidence in their methodical strategy, and not betraying any worries about Trumps consuming presence in the field.

Im not worried at all. I think theres a bunch of hand-wringing from some nervous nellies prematurely, said Jason Roe, a Michigan-based Republican strategist who worked for Rubio.

Roe, who speaks favorably about DeSantis but hasnt decided who to support yet, said time is in the governors favor the Republican Partys first primary caucus in Iowa is still 10 months away.

Right now no one occupies the stage except Trump, Roe said. The dust has to settle.

At some point does all the chaos surrounding him create an opening for a candidate like DeSantis? he said.

Then, mulling over his own question, he added, I want to remain optimistic.

Alex Isenstadt and Gary Fineout contributed to this report.

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As Trump dominates the airwaves, 'it feels like f--king 2016' - POLITICO