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Critics of Alvin Bragg's case against Trump are missing something important: former federal prosecutor

Politico reported Wednesday that a number of legal scholars and Republicans are complaining that Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's case against Donald Trump is worthless and will never work.

"I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office. Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said in a statement released moments after Bragg's press conference. “The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.”

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Trump 'knows what’s coming and he’s conditioning the market': former Mueller prosecutor

Tuesday was Donald Trump's first day in court for the Manhattan D.A.'s case over the alleged falsification of business records to hide hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and others. While in court, Trump was given what is called "The Parker Warning."

The transcript of the Judge Juan Merchan's comments says: "If you become disruptive to such a degree that it affects my ability to preside over this case and my ability to ensure that the case is treated the way it needs to be treated for both sides, I do have the authority to remove you from the courtroom and continue in your absence, do you understand that?"

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MSNBC host breaks down how Trump is 'going to hurt himself' if he continues to attack the judicial system

MSNBC's Ari Melber read some further pieces of the transcript from the recent courtroom scene in which the judge warned former President Donald Trump about threats towards the district attorney and other officials.

"We had legal experts on talk about how this could be a five, ten-minute thing, but the D.A.'s team made an unusually aggressive choice not to waste any time and risk people saying, 'oh, why was this different for the defendant?'" said Melber. "And they would say, not for any reason about the courts of bias, but because the defendant already had acted in a way that even those accused of violent crimes don't — by attacking court officials. They actually spent a considerable amount of time doing that, and it worked."

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The Trump arraignment showed the truly bizarre groups that make up the MAGA world: report

The Southern Poverty Law Center fights for civil rights in the courts, but it also monitors hate groups and activists known for pushing hate or violence against specific groups of people. In writing about the crowds seen outside of the courthouse on Tuesday for Donald Trump's arrest, they noted that the people being attracted to the MAGA movement are growing more bizarre and more extreme.

It began with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) attempting to speak to the crowd gathered by the New York Young Republicans Club (NYYRC), but was drowned out by anti-Trump protesters. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was there for a few moments, but left before the main event, blaming the press. It then continued into bizarre rants about China and the arrest of jailed Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who is accused of defrauding thousands.

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Lead Jan. 6 investigator details questions special counsel will likely ask of Mike Pence

Timothy Heaphy, the former lead investigator for the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, has a list of questions that special counsel Jack Smith could ask of former Vice President Mike Pence.

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday, Heaphy first addressed her questions about why Pence refused to get into the car in the basement of the Capitol that day. Pence had said to his aide that he didn't know who was driving and didn't trust that person. Trump aide Marc Short said that Pence was afraid of how the appearance of the VP's motorcade fleeing from the Capitol might look to the world at a time when the United States Capitol was under attack.

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Trump mocks conservative judicial candidate for losing after he didn’t ask for ex-president’s endorsement

Former President Donald Trump mocked former Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly on Wednesday after the conservative judicial candidate was defeated by progressive Janet Protasiewicz.

"Daniel Kelly of Wisconsin just lost his Supreme Court Election," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "He bragged that he won’t seek Trump’s Endorsement, so I didn’t give it—which guaranteed his loss. How foolish is a man that doesn’t seek an Endorsement that would have won him the Election?"

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The Murdochs and Paul Ryan can be forced to testify in Dominion case: judge

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis ruled Wednesday that Dominion Voting Systems can force News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan to testify in the trial scheduled this month.

The judge ruled that they must appear live and in-person. The other person that can be compelled to testify is Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the House who joined the Fox Corporation Board of Directors in March 2019.

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Maddow details all of the terrible things that are about to hit Trump in the coming weeks

April will not be a good month for Donald Trump, as several court appearances and procedures for many of the former president’s other legal troubles are scheduled this month.

"While he's campaigning!" Joy Reid noted Tuesday night during a panel discussion with Rachel Maddow and other MSNBC hosts.

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How Trump's long history of other people fixing his problems ended today

One of the things that Dr. Mary Trump, Ph.D. talks about in her book is that Donald Trump has had a number of people take care of things for him throughout his life. Mentioning that, MSNBC host Joy Reid remarked that each of the scandals cited in Alvin Bragg's statement of facts in the indictment are examples of people simply trying to fix Trump's problems.

"Donald Trump has always relied on more intelligent, powerful men, to fix everything," she said. "When it was his financial issue, his father would fix it. He would burn money, essentially, throw it in the incinerator. The father would give him more. He even got extra money from the father's will because he took it from his siblings. The father's money fixed it. He lost $317 million of his inheritance! Went deep into the hole. The courts fixed it. Roy Cohn, who could step in and fix everything. The courts always fixed his problems. He had Michael Cohen whose job was to fix this. And he had AMI [American Media Incorporated, the parent company of the National Enquirer], whose job was to fix this."

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Here’s what can happen if Trump and his allies keep posting about violence: former Manhattan DA lawyer

On Monday, an ally of Donald Trump compared the former president to rappers like Tupac or The Notorious B.I.G. Given Ari Melber's expertise in hip-hop, it was something that he refuted.

A Biggie song, for example, has a character crafted for the purpose of the song in which the character appears before a judge to plead not guilty. The character tells the judge he's kidnapped his daughter, and then enters his plea.

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Mark Meadows testimony could open up the whole Jan. 6 investigation: reporter

Donald Trump's aides and staff lost their appeal to avoid testimony before the Washington, D.C. grand jury over Jan. 6. It's something that New York Times reporter Luke Broadwater said could open the special counsel's probe even further.

"They have been no-commenting everything about these investigations, but my understanding is George Terwilliger is still representing him," said Broadwater. "They participated enough with the Jan. 6th committee to, in the Justice Department's eyes, to avoid a contempt of Congress charge. But now this is really the big moment, because if Mark Meadows has to come in and testify, you know, that could potentially open up the entire investigation."

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Trump's hush money case began in 2016 — but the fraud against America continued through the 2020 election: expert

Former Justice Department official Mary McCord connected the dots between Donald Trump's hush money payments in 2016 to the attacks on the American democracy in 2020.

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, McCord cited the first two paragraphs of the "Statement of Facts" published by the D.A.'s office, "paint[ing] this as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 election. And if we start back in 2016 with a scheme to influence the election, and then we think about where we have come since 2016, including the 2020 election, the ongoing scheme to override the will of the people, even in if 2020 election, I think this is just the beginning of the painting of a picture over a series of years of Donald Trump's attempts to undermine democracy, attempts to undermine the rule of law, attempts to avoid accountability. I think what the world saw is that this is a man who is finally being held to account."

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Prosecutors address Trump's social media threats, Don Jr. posts article with photo of the judge’s daughter

Hours before Donald Trump walked into court for his arraignment, his son, Donald Trump Jr., posted links to a Breitbart article displaying photos of the presiding judge's daughter. It comes after Trump has made attacks on the judge, the prosecutor, and the prosecutor's wife.

While in the arraignment hearing, the District Attorney's office specifically made comments about the social media posts, asking the judge to address them going forward.

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