Politics

By Joseph Ax

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump could be charged in New York as soon as this week for allegedly covering up hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign, nearly seven years after the money changed changes.

But any trial of the former U.S. president would still be more than a year away, legal experts said, and could coincide with the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign as Trump seeks a return to the White House.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he expected to be arrested on Tuesday and called on his followers to protest, though a spokesperson later said Trump has not been notified of any pending arrest.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has presented evidence to a New York grand jury about a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair, according to sources. Trump has denied the affair, and his lawyer has accused Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, of extortion.

Were he charged, Trump would become the first former U.S. president to face criminal prosecution. Polls show him leading other potential rivals for the Republican nomination, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is widely expected to mount a White House bid.

The average criminal case in New York takes more than a year to move from indictment to trial, said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, former Manhattan chief assistant district attorney, and Trump’s case is far from typical.

That raises the possibility of Trump having to stand trial in the middle of the 2024 presidential campaign, or even after Election Day, though putting a president-elect or president on trial for state charges would enter uncharted legal waters. If elected, he would not hold the power to pardon himself of state charges.

“This is so unprecedented that it’s hard for me to say,” Agnifilo said when asked whether a judge would put Trump on trial close to the election. “I think it’s tricky.”

The New York case is one of several focused on Trump, including a Georgia election interference probe and a pair of federal investigations into his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters trying to overturn his defeat and into his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.

CHALLENGING THE CASE

In his early career in real estate, as a television celebrity and then in politics, the famously litigious Trump has employed aggressive counter-attacks and delay tactics when confronted with legal challenges.

Trump has accused Bragg, an elected Democrat, of targeting him for political gain and could try to seek dismissal of the charges on those grounds.

Trump would likely pursue other avenues as well, some of which could present thorny legal issues that take time to resolve.

While serving as president, Trump reimbursed Cohen for the Daniels payments, and federal prosecutors who charged Cohen said in court papers that the payments were falsely recorded as for legal services. The New York Times, citing sources, has reported the most likely charges against Trump would be for falsifying business records, typically a misdemeanor.

To elevate that charge to a felony, prosecutors must prove that Trump falsified records to cover up a second crime. One possibility, according to the Times, is that prosecutors could assert the payment itself violated state campaign finance law, since it was effectively an illegal secret donation to boost his campaign.

Using state election law to elevate a false business record charge is an untested legal theory, experts said, and Trump’s lawyers would be sure to challenge it.

Trump could also challenge whether the statute of limitations – five years in this instance – should have run out. Under New York law, the statute of limitations can be extended if the defendant has been out of state, but Trump may argue that serving as U.S. president should not apply.

“There’s a whole host of possibilities,” said David Shapiro, a former FBI agent and prosecutor and a lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “This is a dream case for defense attorneys.”

FINGERPRINTS AND MUGSHOT

In the near term, any indictment would require Trump to travel to the district attorney’s office in downtown New York to surrender. In white-collar cases, the defendant’s lawyers and prosecutors typically agree on a date and time, rather than arresting the person at home.

Trump would have his fingerprints and mugshot taken and would appear for arraignment in court. He would likely be released on his own recognizance and allowed to head home, experts said.

Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told CNBC on Friday that Trump would surrender if charged. If Trump refused to come in voluntarily, prosecutors could seek to have him extradited from Florida, where he currently resides.

In an ironic twist, DeSantis would typically have to give formal approval for an extradition demand in his capacity as governor, though Florida legal experts said his role would be strictly administrative.

(This story has been refiled to correct typo to “changed hands” in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen and Tom Hals; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

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By Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he expects to be arrested on Tuesday as prosecutors consider charges over a hush money payment to a porn star, and called on his supporters to protest.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has been investigating a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, declined to comment.

No U.S. president – while in office or afterward – has faced criminal charges. Trump is seeking the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2024. He has said he will continue campaigning even if he is charged with a crime.

“Illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorney’s office … indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven … the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Protest, take our nation back!” said Trump, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat.

Trump did not say he had been formally notified of forthcoming charges and provided no evidence of leaks from the district attorney’s office. He did not discuss the possible charges in the post.

A Trump spokesperson said in a statement to reporters that, “There has been no notification,” beyond leaks to the media.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has been presenting evidence to a grand jury about a $130,000 hush money payment that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, made to Daniels in the waning days of Trump’s 2016 election campaign, sources have said.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she had an affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair happened.

Bragg’s office earlier this month invited Trump to testify before the grand jury probing the payment, which legal experts said was a sign that an indictment was close. Trump declined the offer, a person familiar with the matter said. 

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance violations tied to his arranging payments to Daniels and another woman in exchange for their silence about affairs they said they’d had with Trump, among other crimes. He has said Trump directed him to make the payments. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan did not charge Trump with a crime.

LEGAL WOES

An additional witness is expected to appear before the grand jury on Monday, at the request of Trump’s lawyers, the person familiar with the matter said on Saturday. 

    Trump’s statement that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday is based on news reports that Bragg’s office is going to be meeting with law enforcement to prepare for a possible indictment, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 

The probe is one of several legal woes Trump faces as he seeks the Republican nomination for the presidency.

Trump is also confronting a state-level criminal probe in Georgia over efforts to overturn the 2020 results in that state.

A special counsel named by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is currently investigating Trump’s handling of classified government documents after leaving office, as well as his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Bragg’s office last year won the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges. But Bragg declined to charge Trump himself with financial crimes related to his business practices, prompting two prosecutors who worked on the probe to resign.

Trump leads his early rivals for his party’s nomination, holding the support of 43% of Republicans in a February Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared with 31% for his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced his candidacy.

Trump in 2018 initially disputed knowing anything about the payment to Daniels. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment, which he called a “simple private transaction.”

Cohen, who served time in prison after pleading guilty, testified before the grand jury this week. Grand jury proceedings are not public. Outside the courthouse in lower Manhattan, he told reporters he did not testify out of a desire for revenge against Trump.

“This is all about accountability,” he said. “He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.” 

Daniels’ lawyer said she spoke with prosecutors last week.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Frances Kerry, Daniel Wallis and Alistair Bell)

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By David Shepardson and Echo Wang

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Six more U.S. senators on Friday backed bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden new powers to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok on national security grounds as the company ramped up efforts to make its case ahead of a hearing next week.

This month, 12 senators led by Democrat Mark Warner and Republican John Thune unveiled legislation backed by the White House to give the Commerce Department new powers to regulate TikTok, which has more than 100 million U.S. users.

TikTok’s critics fear its U.S. user data could be passed on to China’s government by the app owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance.

Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell told Reuters she thinks most senators agree with the Warner-Thune bill and giving the administration new authority to review the security issues surrounding TikTok “is a good approach.”

This week, TikTok said the Biden administration demanded that TikTok’s Chinese owners divest their stake in the app or it could face a U.S. ban.

ByteDance confirmed this week 60% of its shares are owned by global investors and 20% by employees. It said only 20% are owned by its Chinese founders, although they have additional voting rights.

Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, had tried to ban TikTok in 2020 but U.S. courts blocked the attempt.

Nine Republicans and nine Democrats now sponsor the legislation, the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act. Separately, a source confirmed to Reuters the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation after ByteDance said in December some employees improperly accessed U.S. TikTok user data of two journalists.

Reuters reported in December four ByteDance employees who were involved in the incident were fired, including two in China and two in the United States. Company officials said they were taking additional steps to protect user data.

ByteDance employees accessed the data as part of an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information this year, and were aiming to identify potential connections between two journalists.

“We have strongly condemned the actions of the individuals found to have been involved, and they are no longer employed at ByteDance,” a ByteDance spokesperson said on Friday. “Our internal investigation is still ongoing, and we will cooperate with any official investigations.”

Congress will get its first crack at questioning TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on March 23 when he testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He is in Washington preparing.

TikTok said content creators will come to Washington next week to make the case why the app should not be banned. “Lawmakers in Washington debating TikTok should hear firsthand from people whose lives would be directly affected by their decisions,” TikTok said.

TikTok said it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts, rejects spying allegations and said “if protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Diane Craft and David Gregorio)

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(Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump posted to YouTube and Facebook on Friday, in a return to the tech platforms he used to power his political rise until he was cut off following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his followers.

The posts on his Facebook page and YouTube channel, which were titled “I’M BACK!,” show a CNN video announcing Trump’s election as president in the 2016 race against Hillary Clinton. It then fades to a ‘Trump 2024’ screen.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Trump says in the video.

Alphabet Inc’s YouTube restored Trump’s channel earlier on Friday. Meta Platforms Inc had reinstated Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts earlier this year.

His Twitter account was reinstated in November by the platform’s new owner Elon Musk but Trump has yet to post on Twitter.

Trump powered his improbable 2016 presidential campaign through his use of social media. His return gives him access to key vehicles for political fundraising, allowing him to reach a combined 146 million followers across three major tech platforms as he makes another run for the presidency in 2024.

“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election,” YouTube said in a tweet, referring to its move to restore his account.

Trump’s campaign team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

His campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital in January that being back on Facebook “will be an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters.”

The former president founded his own social media platform called Truth Social in late 2021, which he relied on to communicate with supporters during his ban from Twitter and Meta.

YouTube banned Trump in 2021 for violating its policy against inciting violence after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Opponents of Trump’s return point to his messages on Truth Social, where he has nearly 5 million followers, as evidence that he still poses the same risk that led to his suspensions.

Trump’s return to YouTube and Facebook is happening just as the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is considering criminal charges related to hush-money payments made to a porn star during Trump’s 2016 campaign, charges that Trump and his allies are arguing without evidence are politically motivated.

Trump also faces a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit brought by New York state, alleging a decade-long scheme to manipulate more than 200 asset valuations and Trump’s net worth to win better terms from banks and insurers. Trump has called the suit a witch hunt.

(Reporting by Shubham Kalii, Chavi Mehta and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by David Gregorio and Rosalba O’Brien)

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(Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump posted to Facebook on Friday, marking his return to the social media platform two years after he was banned.

Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced on Jan. 25 that it would reinstate Trump’s access to his accounts, saying the public should be allowed to hear from politicians, but that Trump would be subject to “heightened penalties” for repeated violations of its rules.

The former president was suspended for praising rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Despite Trump’s reinstatement, it had been unclear whether he would post on the accounts.

Facebook and Instagram are key vehicles for reaching voters and fundraising and could give a boost to Trump, who will make another run for the presidency in 2024. Trump had 23 million followers on Instagram and 34 million on Facebook as of Feb. 9.

Trump’s campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital in January that being back on Facebook “will be an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters.”

Trump founded his own social media platform called Truth Social in late 2021, which he relied on to communicate with supporters during his ban from Twitter and Meta.

Opponents of Trump’s return point to the messages he has posted on Truth Social as evidence that he continues to pose the same risk that led Meta to suspend him in the first place.

More than 350 of his Truth Social posts would have violated Facebook’s rules, including posts amplifying the conspiracy theory QAnon and pushing false claims of election fraud, liberal advocacy group Accountable Tech said in a December report.

In a blog post, Meta said it updated its protocols on moderating public figures during times of civil unrest. Under the protocol, Meta said it may restrict the distribution of a Trump post that doesn’t violate its rules but “contributes to the sort of risk that materialized on Jan. 6.”

A restriction would mean the posts would remain available on Trump’s profile, but would not be distributed in users’ feeds, even if they follow Trump, Meta said.

The company said it could also prevent the posts from being reshared or run as paid ads.

Ad buyers previously told Reuters that Trump’s reinstatement was unlikely to change how brands advertise on the platforms, but it reinforced long-standing concerns about how Meta prevents ads from appearing next to certain content.

(Reporting by Sheila Dang; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll have agreed to a single trial on whether Trump defamed the former Elle magazine columnist by denying he raped her in the mid-1990s.

According to a letter filed late Friday in Manhattan federal court, lawyers for both sides agreed to an April 25 trial to consider whether the former U.S. president should be liable for critical statements about Carroll in June 2019 and last October.

Carroll has been pursuing separate lawsuits over those statements, with the first scheduled for trial on April 10.

“Because of the overlapping nature of these proceedings, a single trial will reduce costs across the board, avoid the risk of inconsistent factual rulings or jury confusion, and economize matters for the court,” her lawyer Roberta Kaplan wrote.

The proposed schedule requires approval by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversees both cases and is not related to Roberta Kaplan.

Alina Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, signed a proposed order combining the cases. Joseph Tacopina, another lawyer for Trump, in an email said he also found it acceptable.

A trial would come in the midst of Trump’s campaign for a second White House term.

Carroll, 79, has accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996.

She sued in November 2019 after Trump told a reporter at the White House that he did not know her, that “she’s not my type,” and that she concocted the rape claim to sell her memoir.

Carroll sued again three years later after Trump called the rape claim a “hoax,” “lie,” “con job” and “complete scam” in a social media post.

The second lawsuit also includes a battery claim under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which lets sexual abuse victims sue their attackers even if statutes of limitations have run out.

A Washington, D.C. appeals court is deciding whether Trump should be immune from Carroll’s first lawsuit, but not her second, because he was acting as president when he spoke.

Both sides proposed asking that court on April 17 to defer any decision until the trial is over. A trial could last five to seven days, court papers show.

The cases are Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Nos. 20-07311 and 22-10016.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Diane Craft)

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Republican U.S. senator’s accusation on Thursday that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had lied during a tussle over the future of the Social Security program obscured behind-the-scenes talks between the White House and lawmakers that have been underway for months, according to sources.

The war of words came in a Senate Finance Committee hearing when Republican Senator Bill Cassidy asked Yellen if Democratic President Joe Biden was aware that Social Security funds will run out within the next decade unless Congress shores up the popular retirement program with 66 million beneficiaries.

When Yellen responded that Biden “stands ready to work” with lawmakers, Cassidy shot back, “That’s a lie because when a bipartisan group of senators has repeatedly requested to meet with him about Social (Security) … we have not heard anything on our requests.”

For several months now, Cassidy and independent Senator Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, have tried to address Social Security underfunding as approximately 10,000 baby boomers retire every day.

Within a decade, tax revenues and a backup dedicated trust fund will be insufficient to meet the payouts for what is often regarded as the most successful program the federal government has administered since Social Security’s inception in 1935.

Central to the Cassidy-King bipartisan effort is the possible creation of a second trust fund that for the first time would allow money to be invested in the stock market, instead of traditional Treasury securities that achieve lower returns.

It would be modeled after a railroad pension fund that invests in stocks.

The last week of bank failures and worries of a wider-ranging crisis, however, could give lawmakers second thoughts about investing Social Security funds in stocks.

Cassidy and King are leading a group of workhorse senators that include Republican Mike Rounds, Democrat Tim Kaine and independent Kyrsten Sinema.

While no meetings between the senators and Biden have been scheduled, a source familiar with the discussions said that White House aides are engaged in talks with the Senate. But a formalized plan has not yet been crafted to present to Biden, the source added.

White House officials did not respond to a request for comment.

“It’s going to be tough. I don’t think we should sugarcoat it. But there are serious conversations in the Senate … on a package that would improve Social Security’s finances,” said Shai Akabas, economic policy director at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a centrist think tank in Washington.

The senators’ effort is not the only Social Security rescue plan being devised.

Democrats in Congress might rally around a bill that Representative John Larson will unveil by early April, which would increase benefits across-the-board along with other changes, with an emphasis on helping those receiving the least.

“There are close to 5 million Americans who get below-poverty level checks from Social Security,”Larson said. His bill would create a new floor for benefits at 125% of the poverty level, “making sure no one can ever retire into poverty.”

To succeed, any proposal would need the support of Democrats, who control the Senate, and Republicans, who have the majority in the House of Representatives.

Several House Republicans have been pushing for an outside commission to recommend reforms under a fast-track approval process, much like one that was part of a successful effort in 1983.

“If someone’s got a better idea that they can pass, that’s great. I tend to be conservative and say this worked once, let’s try that again,” Republican Representative Tom Cole told Reuters.

“That’s really just a way to have (benefit) cuts without leaving your fingerprints on it,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works and head of a coalition of labor unions and other liberal-leaning groups.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Josie Kao)

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By David Shepardson and Echo Wang

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Six more U.S. senators on Friday backed bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden new powers to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok on national security grounds as the Chinese company ramped up efforts to get its story heard in Washington before an important hearing next week.

Earlier this month, 12 senators led by Democrat Mark Warner and Republican John Thune unveiled legislation backed by the White House to give the Commerce Department new powers to address TikTok that has more than 100 million U.S. users.

The announcement comes after TikTok said this week the Biden administration demand its Chinese owners divest their stake in the company or it could face a potential U.S. ban.

Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, had tried to ban TikTok in 2020 but was blocked by U.S. courts.

The legislation, the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act, now has 9 Republicans and 9 Democratic sponsors to address fears ByteDance-owned TikTok’s U.S. user data could be passed on to China’s government.

Separately, a source confirmed to Reuters Friday the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation after ByteDance said in December some employees improperly accessed U.S. TikTok user data of two journalists.

Reuters reported in December four ByteDance employees who were involved in the incident were fired, including two in China and two in the United States. Company officials said they were taking additional steps to protect user data.

ByteDance employees accessed the data as part of an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information earlier this year, and were aiming to identify potential connections between two journalists.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will appear the first time before Congress when he testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23.

TikTok said content creators will come to Washington next week to make the case why the app should not be banned. “Lawmakers in Washington debating TikTok should hear firsthand from people whose lives would be directly affected by their decisions,” TikTok said Friday.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Diane Craft)

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(Reuters) – A coalition of 14 attorneys general condemned payment networks majors including Visa Inc, American Express Co and Mastercard Inc for pausing work on a merchant code to help detect suspicious gun sales in the United States.

The group, led by New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin, condemned the firms for buckling under political pressure, in a letter sent to the chief executives of the companies, and called their action “unjustifiable” on Thursday.

Visa, Mastercard and American Express did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The credit card companies last week said they had paused work on a new merchant category code (MCC), citing Republican pushback in various U.S. states on concerns about improper tracking of consumer behavior.

“We see no valid reason why these companies, who process millions of transactions in firearms, ammunitions, gun kits, and more, would renege on their pledge to take…steps to help flag potential gun traffickers and mass shooters,” said AG Platkin in the letter.

U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Elizabeth Warren have also called on federal regulators to help speed up the adoption of the MCC by payment networks.

The MCC, aimed at identifying firearms sellers, would identify the type of store where consumers shopped, though not the individual items they bought.

(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chair of a U.S. House of Representatives panel wants TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to address questions next week about the popular Chinese-owned video app’s efforts to protect children.

Chew will be appearing for the first time before Congress when he testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23.

Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said Thursday lawmakers “need to know what actions the company is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms.” On Wednesday, ByteDance-owned TikTok said the Biden administration had threatened to ban the app in the United States if its Chinese owners did not sell their stakes in the company.

(Reporting by David Shepardson)

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