Trump fraud bond questioned by NYAG as judge denies classified docs dismissal: Live

The Biden administration has finalised a new set of regulations to prevent a future president from initiating a wholesale purge of the US civil service along the lines of what former president Donald Trump envisioned during the final months of his term.

The new rules, published in the Federal Register on Thursday and which would go into effect on 9 May, are meant to provide the 2.2 million nonpartisan civil servants who staff the executive branch with more defined protections that cannot be easily stripped away by presidential fiat.

The centrist group No Labels announced on Thursday that it was ending its bid to generate support for a third-party bid for the 2024 presidential election cycle, ending a number of headaches for the Biden re-election campaign.

Members of the group, who had faced calls to disclose the fundraising backing the effort, said in a statement that while Americans supposedly remain “open” to the concept of a third-party candidate, they had been unable to identify a credible and willing figure to take up that mantle.

Nebraska legislators overwhelmingly voted against modifications to the state’s electoral system that would have awarded one presidential candidate all of its electoral votes – a change that would benefit former president Donald Trump.

On Wednesday evening, the Republican-majority legislature voted 36-8 against the proposal which would have switched the state’s current method of distributing electoral votes to a winner-take-all system.

Ariana Baio explains why that might be important in the presidential election:

Yes, despite Donald Trump’s protestations and attempts to amp up the now publicly-traded parent company of Truth Social, Trump Media & Technology Group continued its slide, losing another 5.45 per cent in trading today.

The stock closed at $46.15, having finished out last week ahead of the Good Friday and Easter holiday weekend at $61.99. New financial statements filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission on Monday caused the stock to plummet when it was revealed the company mades just $4m in revenue and lost more than $58m last year.

As the former president owns 60 per cent of the company, as its value falls, so does his wealth.

Here’s what he had to say on Truth Social this morning:

All of the competitors to TRUTH SOCIAL, especially those in the Radical Left Democrats Party who are failing at every level, like to use their vaunted “disinformation machine” to try and convince people, and it is not easy to do, that TRUTH is not such a big deal and doesn’t “get the word out” as well as various others, which they know to be false. I THINK TRUTH IS AMAZING! First of all, it is very solid, having over $200,000,000 in CASH and ZERO DEBT. More importantly, it is the primary way I get the word out and, for better or worse, people want to hear what I have to say, perhaps, according to experts, more than anyone else in the World. My TV ratings are by far the highest, and my Rallies are not equaled, even close, anywhere or by anyone. Look, I had hundreds of millions of followers on various platforms, and could have them back again, but was cancelled for largely political reasons. Those platforms all want me back…They need me back! On Truth I have 7,000,000 followers……

Page 2: Very good for a startup, and growing fast. But when I put out a statement or message, it is SPREAD all over the place, fast and furious. EVERYBODY SEEMS TO GET WHATEVER I HAVE TO SAY, AND QUICKLY. At press conferences I will sometimes ask, “who is on TRUTH.” I have never had one reporter tell me they are not. They are all on TRUTH because the have to be. So don’t believe the FAKE NEWS. Until I came along and exposed them, they were respected and believed. Now they are the exact opposite. With the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. and all of the others, people get it. Look, using TRUTH, I became the Republican Nominee for President of the United States, and in record time! When I ENDORSE a politician on TRUTH, they almost ALWAYS WIN. If it didn’t work, or properly get the word out, I wouldn’t use it – But it does work, and work really well – And the fun is just getting started!!!

Here’s our earlier reporting:

In a Thursday afternoon filing, Judge Aileen Cannon denied Mr Trump’s request to dismiss the case saying the counts made “no reference to the Presidential Records Act” and “track the applicable statutory language and the essential elements of the charged crimes.”

The former president has often invoked the PRA in declaring his innocence in the case, something federal prosecutors vehemently pushed back on.

But simultaneously, Judge Cannon denied Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request for a finalised jury instructions “prior to trial, charge conference and presentation of trial defence and evidence.”

She called Mr Smith’s request “unprecedented and unjust”.

Donald Trump was on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show this morning and claimed that President Joe Biden was “higher than a kite” during the State of the Union address to Congress.

The former president then tried to link the cocaine discovered in a visitor area of the White House last year to the administration in another conspiracy-fueled schpiel.

Here’s what was said this morning:

Trump: I think what happened is you know that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House, I don’t know, I think something’s going on there, because I watched this State of the Union, and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast. There’s something going on there. I want to debate. And I think debates, with him, at least, should be drug tested. I want a drug test.

Hewitt: Mr. President, are you suggesting President Biden’s using cocaine?

Trump: I don’t know what he’s using, but that was not, hey, he was higher than a kite. And by the way, it was the worst, it was the worst address I’ve ever seen, the State of the Nation. I’ll tell you, State of the Union, that’s not State of the Union, because he doesn’t represent us properly. That, I can tell you. But he’s obviously, he’s being helped some way, because most of the time, he looks like he’s falling asleep. And all of a sudden, he walked up there and did a poor job. But he was all jacked up.

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the president is or was on cocaine. The Secret Service closed an investigation after it was unable to determine any suspects in its hunt for who might have left cocaine in a cubbyhole in the executive mansion.