Key events
There has been a fair amount of commentary that the high profile indictment of former President Donald Trump would boost his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2024 election, and help Republicans at the polls. That didn’t bear any fruit immediately, most notably in Wisconsin, where liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz is projected to win her race for a seat on Wisconsin’s supreme court.
Her win will flip the ideological balance of the state’s highest court, in an election which democracy observers have called the most consequential one of the year, with abortion rights, redistricting and election rules at stake.
In yesterday’s other vote, progressive candidate and Cook county board commissioner Brandon Johnson won the election for Chicago mayor on Tuesday evening after pulling ahead of his opponent Paul Vallas in the evening.
David Smith
Here is how my colleague David Smith in Washington assessed Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Largo last night:
The former president ignored a plea from the judge in the case to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric, even launching a broadside at the judge’s daughter over her political connections.
Supporters wore “Make America Great Again” and “Trump 2024” caps and snapped pictures of the president turned defendant. The audience included Trump’s son Eric and his wife, Lara, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and pillow maker and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America,” Trump said. “I never thought it could happen. The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”
The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, alleges that Trump – the first former president to face criminal charges – falsified business records to conceal a violation of election laws.
He described Bragg, an elected Democrat, as “a local failed district attorney charging a former president of the United States for the first time in history on a basis that every single pundit and legal analyst said there is no case.
“There’s no case. They kept saying there’s no case. Virtually everyone. But it’s far worse than that because he knew there was no case.”
Trump added: “The criminal is the district attorney because he illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information for which he should be prosecuted or, at a minimum, he should resign.”
Read more of David Smith’s report here: ‘US going to hell’ – Donald Trump attacks hush money case in grievance-filled Mar-a-Lago speech
On Tuesday Donald Trump gave a 25-minute speech after his New York arrest, where he listed long-held grievances and complaints about the several investigations he is facing before briefly addressing the indictment. As well as the hush money indictment, Trump is being investigated over his handling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, and pressure he put on state officials over the 2020 election result in Georgia. Trump repeated falsehoods about the nature of the accusations he is facing, and personally attacked the prosecutors and investigators leading the cases.
What we know so far …
Welcome to our live US politics coverage the day after former president Donald Trump appeared in a New York courthouse, and then after pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts, returned to his base in Mar-a-Lago to give a speech condemning the prosecution. Here is what we know so far …
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Donald Trump was charged on Tuesday with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a historic case over allegations he orchestrated hush-money payments to two women before the 2016 US election to suppress publication of their alleged sexual encounters with him.
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Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges. The frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination in 2024, Trump was subdued, responding briefly when the judge asked him if he understood his rights.
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Trump flew home to Florida where he addressed family, friends and supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, delivering a litany of grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. He falsely described the New York prosecution as election interference.
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The former US president attacked the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, and his family in the speech at the Mar-a-Lago ballroom, in which he also claimed the US was “going to hell”.
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Merchan, the judge assigned to Trump’s case, did not impose a gag order but warned Trump to avoid making comments that were inflammatory or could cause civil unrest. Prosecutors said Trump made a series of social media posts, including one threatening “death and destruction” if he was charged. If convicted of any one of the 34 felony charges, Trump could face a maximum of four years in prison.
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The judge set the next hearing for 4 December. Legal experts said a trial may not even get under way for a year. An indictment or conviction will not legally prevent Trump from running for president.
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Trump’s mugshot was not taken, according to two law enforcement officials, though the Trump camp did create their own one to put on a T-shirt as part of a fundraising effort.
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