New York attorney general hails ‘massive victory’ in Trump case
The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, has posted her initial reaction to the ruling in the Trump Organization fraud case, calling it a “massive victory”.
She posted on X: “In a massive victory, we won our case against Donald Trump for engaging in years of incredible financial fraud to enrich himself. Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and his former executives must pay over $450m in disgorgement and interest.”
In a massive victory, we won our case against Donald Trump for engaging in years of incredible financial fraud to enrich himself.
Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and his former executives must pay over $450 million in disgorgement and interest.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 16, 2024
Disgorgement, according to the Cornell University Law School, is “a remedy requiring a party who profits from illegal or wrongful acts to give up any profits they made as a result of that illegal or wrongful conduct. The purpose of this remedy is to prevent unjust enrichment and make illegal conduct unprofitable.”
James is planning a press conference at 6pm ET and we’ll bring you the news as it happens.
Here’s a recent profile the Guardian US published about James.
Key events
Judge uses understatement to damn Ivanka Trump’s truthiness
Buried in the middle of Judge Arthur Engoron’s almost-100 page judgment in the Trump family business fraud case was a smoothly delivered but stinging rebuke of Ivanka Trump’s truthiness.
Ivanka was a witness not a defendant in the Trump Organization civil case in New York, and she took the stand last November, testifying in a calm and orderly manner most memorable for the infamous little phrase, “I don’t recall”.
Well, it didn’t fool Engoron. On page 45 of his ruling today he excoriated the former president’s older daughter thus: “Ivanka Trump was a thoughtful, articulate, and poised witness, but the court found her inconsistent recall, depending on whether she was questioned by OAG [Office of the Attorney General] or the defense, suspect.”
Ivanka Trump, 42, left her fashion business, which is now discontinued, while she was working as an unpaid senior adviser in the White House for the Trump administration. She has also been an executive vice-president in the Trump Organization and a judge on her dad’s television show The Apprentice.
Judge Engoron completed his Trump hand today thus: “In any event, what Ms Trump cannot recall is memorialized in contemporaneous emails and documents; in the absence of her memory, the documents speak for themselves.”
Engoron cancels ‘dissolution’ of companies that control real estate empire
But the judge canceled his prior ruling from September ordering the “dissolution” of companies that control pillars of Trump’s real estate empire, Reuters reports.
Engoron said on Friday that this was no longer necessary because he is appointing an independent monitor and compliance director to oversee Trump’s businesses.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba says ruling is ‘manifest injustice’
Trump’s legal team has responded to the massive fine and three-year ban. Via Reuters:
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement that the ruling was a “manifest injustice” and “culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch-hunt” against him.
“This is not just about Donald Trump – if this decision stands, it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business,” Habba said, adding that she plans to appeal.
Engoron says Trump ‘severely compromised his credibility’ during trial
The New York fraud case ruling is a massive blow to Trump and his business empire and a big win for New York attorney general Letitia James, who is expected to speak on the ruling at a press conference this afternoon.
In addition to the big fine and ban on doing business, Trump also is barred from obtaining loans from New York banks for three years.
Trump’s conduct in the case entered into the judge’s opinion.
“Overall, Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial,” Judge Engoron wrote. “His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases, at all, severely compromised his credibility.”
Trump and sons fined more than $350m
The New York attorney general Letitia James secured a fine of more than $350m against Trump, his eldest sons and their associates after a judge found them guilty of intentionally committing fraud by falsifying government disclosures.
Judge Arthur Engoron also banned the former president from serving as an officer or director or any New York corporation or entity for three years. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr were issued two-year bans.
The full ruling can be found here. We’re reading through it now.
Trump barred from running businesses in New York for three years
The ruling in the New York fraud case against former president Donald Trump has been released, banning Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for three years.
The New York attorney general’s office sued Trump for inflating the value of his assets on government financial statements in the case, which also includes Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, and two former Trump Organization executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney, as defendants.
The stakes in the case relate to Trump’s businesses, but his political career could be affected by the case as well. It’s factored into his 2024 campaign, where he talks about the “witch hunt” he’s facing across multiple court cases.
Lawyers who’ve been watching the hearings in the Fulton County case against Trump where defense attorneys are trying to get DA Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade removed from the case have said there’s been little evidence offered of any potential conflict – though the salacious nature of the allegations have done damage to Willis and potentially the case in the court of public opinion.
Friday’s hearings have not been as heated or sordid as yesterday’s, instead probing the people surrounding the relationship who may have some information on it. It’s been, at times, tedious and wonky, and the defense hasn’t gotten any kind of smoking gun to prove its claims of a conflict.
Terrance Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and onetime divorce attorney, is on the stand now and not offering much to help the defense’s case that the relationship is a conflict of interest or that the timeline of the relationship Willis and Wade have put forward isn’t accurate.
Remember, this was supposed to be the star witness to provide factual support for the defense motion. He has very little to offer and, what he has offered, has not contradicted any testimony thus far that was provided by Wade or Willis.
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) February 16, 2024
Robin Yeartie, a former employee in the DA’s office, had testified that Willis started her relationship Wade before he was hired on the Trump case, but she also affirmed she had been ousted over performance. Other witnesses have not shown evidence of a different timeline, nor did Yeartie.
On the southern border of the US and Mexico, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said he’s going to build a military “base camp” in Eagle Pass, the city where there’s an ongoing standoff between US Border Patrol and the Texas National Guard.
Here’s more from Reuters:
The facility – dubbed Forward Operating Base Eagle – will be an 80-acre complex along the banks of the Rio Grande and house up to 1,800 troops, with the ability to expand to 2,300, Abbott and state officials said at a press conference.
The move is part of a broader effort by Abbott to try to stop migrants from crossing the border illegally into Texas, including a makeshift barrier of shipping containers and concertina wire in a city-owned park in Eagle Pass. The state intends to install more barriers north and south of the park, officials said on Friday.
U.S. immigration enforcement historically has been the responsibility of the federal government and Abbott’s moves to secure the border have triggered legal standoffs with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration.
Nathan Wade’s former law partner testifies
Back to the Fulton County hearing…
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s former law partner who at one point represented him in his divorce proceeding is on the stand now. Terrance Bradley is testifying on some things, but is limited in what he can talk about because of attorney-client privilege, making for a stilted line of questioning for someone once called the defense’s “star witness.”
Bradley may have some texts that would suggest Wade and Fulton County DA Fani Willis were in a relationship earlier than they’ve claimed, but Willis’ attorneys have disputed this and said he can’t talk about the texts anyway because of attorney-client privilege.
For now, those texts are off the table in the testimony.
NEW: Fulton County judge Scott McAfee rules there’s no crime-fraud exception to force Terrance Bradley — ex lawyer for Nathan Wade for divorce process — to testify about his texts suggesting Willis-Wade romance started before Wade was hired on the Trump RICO case
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 16, 2024
That’s the ruling, for now. But McAfee says they can have a sealed filing about the texts and he will decide after the conclusion of the hearing today. At issue is whether Bradley can testify the relationship started before — which would contradict Wade’s testimony.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 16, 2024
During remarks at the White House this afternoon, President Joe Biden touched on the Russian satellite issue that’s caused some alarm over security this week.
Biden said there was no sign Russia has decided to deploy an emerging anti-satellite weapon, the Associated Press reports.
The White House has confirmed that U.S. intelligence officials have information indicating Russia has obtained such a capability, although such a weapon is not yet operational. Biden said Friday that “there’s no evidence that they have made a decision to go forward with doing anything in space.”
“There is no nuclear threat to the people of America or anywhere else in the world with what Russia’s doing at the moment,” Biden said.
The president confirmed that the capability obtained by Russia “related to satellites and space and damaging those satellites potentially,” and that those capabilities could “theoretically do something that was damaging.”
But Russia hasn’t moved forward with plans yet, and, Biden added: “My hope is, it will not.”
Joanna Walters
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily halted the Boy Scouts of America’s $2.46 billion settlement of decades of sex abuse claims, which is being appealed by a group of 144 abuse claimants, Reuters reports.
Alito’s brief order freezing the settlement gives the court more time to decide a February 9 request by the abuse claimants to block the settlement from moving forward.
They contend that the deal unlawfully stops them from pursuing lawsuits against organizations that are not bankrupt, such as churches that ran scouting programs, local Boy Scouts councils and insurers that provided coverage to the Boy Scouts organization.
NPR reported last April that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced, as it was emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, that it would establish a $2.4bn fund for those in the organization who were victims of sexual abuse. as it emerges out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, covering more than 82,000 men who said they were victims.
The BSA had urged the supreme court on Thursday not to stop the settlement from moving forward, saying that a delay could “throw the Scouting program into chaos” and “potentially destroy BSA’s ability to carry out its 114-year-old charitable mission”, Reuters further reported.
Joanna Walters
Joe Biden commented briefly at the White House a little earlier about the development yesterday where a man at the center of congressional Republicans’ push to impeach the US president was arrested for lying about Joe and Hunter Biden.
“He is lying and it [impeachment] should be dropped – and it’s been an outrageous effort from the beginning,” Biden said. He made the brief remark in response to the last question he took from reporters, returning to the lecturn to do so, after appearing to talk chiefly about the deal of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The news emerged yesterday evening that an FBI informant has been charged with lying to his handler about ties between Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, falsely told FBI agents in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5m each in 2015 and 2016, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Smirnov told the FBI that a Burisma executive had claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems”, prosecutors said in a statement.
The allegations became a flashpoint in Congress over the summer as Republicans demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations as they pursued investigations of Biden and his family. They acknowledged at the time that it was unclear if the allegations were true.
The new development sharply undermines the thrust of congressional Republicans’ corruption accusations that the US president was making money from his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine. Full story here.
Incidentally, the misconduct hearing in Georgia for the leading prosecutors in the election interference case against Donald Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants has resumed after lunch. It’s in the weeds at the moment, but we’ll bring you highlights.
Joanna Walters
Joe Biden, speaking at the White House moments ago about temporary ceasefire talks with Israel in its war on Hamas, reminded the public that Americans are among the hostages still held inside Gaza.
“And my hope and expectation is that we will get this hostage deal, we will get these Americans home, and the deal is being negotiated now,” the US president said.
At least 120 hostages are believed still to be held in Gaza by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Palestinian territory and took more than 240 hostages from southern Israel after launching a massive attack on the area on 7 October last year. Most of the hostages are Israelis.
The White House said earlier this week that it was not known how many of the remaining hostages are still alive.
Biden ‘hopeful’ temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire, hostage deal can be done
Joanna Walters
Joe Biden has just spoken at the White House about the death of Russian activist Alexei Navalny but also discussing Nato, Israel and Burisma.
The US president expressed outrage at Navalny’s death in a Russian arctic prison camp. Biden’s remarks on that are in our live blog dedicated to Navalny news, here, and his comments responding to Donald Trump’s position on Nato earlier this week will also be in the blog.
But Biden also took some questions and one was about the latest on negotiations with Israel and the US demands that Israel have a credible plan for the 1.7 million people trapped in Rafah in the far south of Gaza before attacking the city in continued efforts to destroy Hamas. He said he has had “extensive talks” with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week “over an hour each” during phone calls.
“I have made the case and I feel very strongly about it – there has to be a temporary ceasefire to get the hostages out. I’m still hopeful that that can be done,” he said.
Biden added: “In the meantime, I do not anticipate … I’m hoping that the Israelis will not make a massive land invasion [of Rafah]. It’s my understanding that that will not happen.”
Eight members of the House of Representatives have unveiled a bipartisan proposal to provide $66.3bn in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as they attempt to make progress in the lower chamber amid the logjam, Politico reports today.
The total is lower than the $95bn bill for similar purpose passed by the Senate earlier this week but which has shaky prospects in the Republican-controlled House.
Politico writes:
Spearheaded by Ukraine caucus co-chair Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, the House counterproposal also includes provisions aimed at tightening border security and winning over Republicans who won’t approve Ukraine aid without addressing the border.
The bill is sponsored by an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. In addition to Fitzpatrick, the bill is co-sponsored by GOP Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Mike Lawler of New York and Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon.
Four centrist Democrats also signed on: Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Ed Case of Hawaii, Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez of Washington and Jim Costa of California.
House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes the Senate version, and it’s unclear how he will respond to the new bill. But the new proposal creates yet another bipartisan pressure point as Ukraine advocates look to force a vote on the House floor after months of inaction.
Full report here.
Joe Biden is due to make public remarks shortly about the death in custody of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and courageous critic if Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.
Our Guardian colleague in Moscow, Andrew Roth, writes in this report that the death of Navalny, once Putin’s most significant political challenger, is a watershed moment for Russia’s shattered pro-democracy movement, which has largely been jailed or driven into exile since the Ukraine invasion of 2022.
Navalny, 47, was being held in a jail about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been sentenced to 19 years under a “special regime”.
We are covering developments and reaction to this tragedy in a dedicated Guardian live blog, which you can follow here.
That blog will feature Joe Biden’s remarks as they happen.
Quick midday summary…
After Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis was not called back to the stand, the county’s hearing has continued with other witnesses, albeit much less explosive than yesterday’s testimony.
-
Former Georgia governor Roy Barnes testified that he was asked to be special prosecutor, but turned it down because it didn’t pay enough and would risk his safety.
-
John Floyd, Willis’ father, testified that he hadn’t met special prosecutor Nathan Wade until 2023 and didn’t know they were in a relationship until it became public. He also said he taught his daughter to keep cash on hand, something Willis said she used to pay back Wade for anything he paid for while they dated.
-
More witnesses should take the stand this afternoon. You can livestream the courtroom here.
Beyond the hearing, the big news of the day: US Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia, will not run for president, ending speculation that he could spoil the election as a third-party option. That’s a sigh of relief for President Joe Biden.
We’re still keeping an eye out for the expected ruling out of New York on the Trump fraud case, which should come sometime today. Stay tuned!
Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, announced in a speech today that he officially will not be running for president, ending speculation that he could run as a third-party candidate and throw President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects for a loop.
“I will not be a deal breaker or a spoiler,” Manchin said, according to the New York Times.
Manchin had considered running under the No Labels banner, a group that’s gotten on the ballot as a party in multiple states and is trying to recruit someone to run as an alternative to Trump and Biden this year.