Trump news today: Judge rules Mike Pence must testify in Jan 6 case as NY indictment not expected this week

Ivana Trump was once underneath an FBI counterintelligence inquiry on allegations surrounding her ties to her house nation Czechoslovakia, a trove of secret paperwork has published.

The FBI “recommended a preliminary inquiry be opened on Ivana Trump” in response to information won from a confidential supply in 1989, in keeping with 190 pages of labeled paperwork launched via the regulation enforcement company on Monday as a part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from Bloomberg News.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has fired again at “baseless accusations” after House Republicans threatened to haul the New York City prosecutor prior to Congress to give an explanation for a possible indictment in opposition to Donald Trump.

Republicans have rallied in Donald Trump’s defence after the one-term president predicted that he’ll be arrested on Tuesday. A trio of House committee chairs threatened to name Mr Bragg to testify prior to Congress.

“We will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process, nor will we let baseless accusations deter us from fairly applying the law,” a spokesperson for Mr Bragg informed Fox News. “”In every prosecution, we follow the law without fear or favor to uncover the truth. Our skilled, honest and dedicated lawyers remain hard at work.”

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not having Republican House Oversight & Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer’s attempts to interfere with the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former president Donald Trump.

“I think what the chairman is attempting to do is completely inappropriate,” she told The Independent. “It breaks total precedent and then, frankly, isn’t really grounded in much logical or historical precedent and I think hammering that home is going to be … a matter of continued importance.”

The feedback had been made throughout an interview with journalist Piers Morgan, because of air in the approaching days at the streaming provider Fox Nation. Excerpts had been launched on Monday via Fox News.

The top federal judge in Washington, DC has ordered former vice president Mike Pence to testify before a grand jury regarding his interactions with former president Donald Trump in the days leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

In a sealed opinion first reported by CNN, Chief Judge James Boasberg reportedly ordered Mr Pence to give evidence in response to any questions from Special Counsel Jack Smith that could elicit answers about illegal acts committed by the ex-president.

Judge Boasberg’s order also reportedly allowed Mr Pence to decline to answer any question that touched on his actions during the certification, but did not preclude him from discussing his interactions with Mr Trump in the lead-up to it.

Andrew Feinberg has more:

The grand jury looking at evidence related to Donald Trump’s hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels is no longer expected to vote on whether or not to indict the former president this week.

That news was first reported by local NBC affiliate WNBC, which cited three sources who indicated that the grand jury would not meet on Wednesday and was not expected to hear matters related to this investigation on Thursday. That makes the prospect of a decision one way or the other regarding the former president’s fate highly unlikely before the members return next week.

Jim McKee is standing at the end of a line that snakes through five aisles of fiction inside the Books-A-Million store in Florida’s capital city.

He is smiling because in a matter of minutes, the book he’s holding will be signed by its author, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor who McKee believes should be the nation’s next president. But as a former Donald Trump loyalist, the 44-year-old Tallahassee attorney almost whispers when he first says it out loud.

“Personally, I’d rather see DeSantis win the Republican primary than Trump,” McKee says softly, having to repeat himself to be heard. His voice soon grows louder.

“Trump has upset so many people,” McKee says. “DeSantis is more palatable. He has a good story to tell.”

Indeed, conversations throughout Tallahassee’s book stores, conference rooms, state house offices and sports bars reveal that DeSantis’ allies are gaining confidence as Trump’s legal woes mount. The former president faces a possible indictment in New York over his role in a hush money scheme during the 2016 campaign to prevent porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public about an extramarital sexual encounter, which he denies.

The optimism around DeSantis comes even as an unlikely collection of establishment-minded Republican officials and Make America Great Again influencers raise concerns about the Florida governor’s readiness for the national stage. DeSantis has stumbled at times under the weight of intensifying national scrutiny as he builds out his political organization and introduces himself to voters in key primary states.

The former president criticised the use of mail-in ballots on his networking platform Truth Social.

“The Democrats used Covid inspired Mail In Ballots to CHEAT,” he said. “Even Jimmy Carter’s Commission said that Mail In Ballots will lead to massive cheating, which they they have. France, and others, gave up on them — MASSIVE FRAUD. Now they are using PROSECUTORS to CHEAT — No shame. They are the lowest of the low!”