Month: October 2023

The judge in former-President Donald Trump’s business fraud trial in New York City issued a partial gag order on Tuesday, after Trump blasted the judge, his top law clerk and New York Attorney General Letitia James in a post on social media. James has accused Trump, his two adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, of fraud, claiming that the Trump organization inflated the values of his real estate properties by more than $2 billion to gain tax benefits and secure favorable loan and insurance terms. James is seeking $250 million in damages, as well as a ban that would keep Trump and his family from doing business in New York.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued the order on the second day of the civil trial, after Trump posted a photo of court clerk Allison Greenfield with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on his Truth Social site on Tuesday morning with the caption “Schumer’s girlfriend.” Trump, who argued that his case should be dismissed because she is “running this case against me,” removed the post several hours later.

Judge Engoron announced Tuesday afternoon: “Consider this a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member on my staff. This morning one of the defendants posted on a social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff. Although I have since ordered the post deleted and apparently it was, it was also emailed out to millions of other recipients. Personal attacks on my members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances,” threatening nonspecific “serious sanctions.” The limited gag order bans any emails, posts or public remarks about the judge’s staff.

The former president has criticized Engoron as a “far-left Democrat” and has accused him of political bias, also claiming Engoron is trying to hurt him politically. Trump told reporters Tuesday that the judge is a “Trump-hater” and trying to “interfere with an election and it’s a disgrace.” Trump has also blasted New York Attorney General Letitia James, calling her a “fraud” and saying “she should probably be dismissed also… she used this to run for governor. She failed in her attempt to run for governor. She had virtually no following. She came back and she said, ‘Well, now I will go back to get Trump again.’ And this is what we have. It is a scam and a sham.”

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The House of Representatives voted on Tuesday afternoon to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from his leadership position. The House voted 216-210 to oust McCarthy, with eight Republicans joining Democrats to remove him, and seven members absent. It is the first time in U.S. history that a House speaker has been removed in a no-confidence vote.

Republican Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, who was presiding over the chamber, said: “The office of Speaker of the House of the United House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant.”  The House is now in recess while members meet to decide how to proceed forward. Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Financial Services Chair and a top McCarthy ally, was then appointed speaker pro tempore. The rules of the 118th Congress state that “in the case of a vacancy in the office of speaker, the next member” named on a list submitted by McCarthy to the clerk of the House in January will become speaker pro tempore in the event of a vacancy. After House Republicans met Tuesday night as a conference to discuss their next steps. McCarthy told his colleagues he would not run for speaker again.

McCarthy can be renominated and reelected as speaker, but that path seems unlikely. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who led the effort to remove McCarthy, told reporters after the vote: “Kevin McCarthy has made multiple contradictory promises, and when they all came due, he lost votes of people who maybe don’t even ideologically agree with me on everything. This represents the ripping off of the Band-Aid and that’s what we need to do to get back on track.” Seven Republican in addition to Gaetz voted to oust McCarthy — Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana. For weeks, Gaetz had threatened to call a vote to expel McCarthy if he passed a short-term government funding bill relying on Democratic votes. When McCarthy did just that last weekend to avert a shutdown, Gaetz moved to oust him. Gaetz has consistently opposed McCarthy’s speakership, and was among those who helped draw out the process of electing him speaker to a record 15 rounds of voting. In order to win over far-right Republicans, McCarthy agreed to a condition making it possible for a single member to motion to oust the speaker.

The speaker of the House is also second in line for the presidency, and ousting a sitting speaker by vote in the middle of a congressional term is unprecedented in American history. Democratic leadership members had urged their caucus to vote “yes” on the motion to vacate.

Up until the vote, McCarthy had expressed confidence to reporters that he would prevail: “I’m an optimist because I think there’s no point in being anything else,” McCarthy said.

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