'Bombshell exchange' at Trump fraud trial sparks 'instant objection' from lawyer

ALSO READ: Anger as ICE dances around judge's demand to reveal polling place plans

Patrick Birney, an assistant vice president for financial operations at the Trump Organization, delivered explosive testimony on Monday that drew a furious reaction from an attorney representing former President Donald Trump.

As reported by The Messenger's Adam Klasfeld, an attorney representing New York Attorney General Letitia James' office asked Birney whether former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg had ever told him that Trump wanted to see his net worth on his statements of financial condition go up from year to year, to which Birney replied, "Yes."

Klasfeld then added that this "bombshell exchange instantly sparked an objection by Trump's lawyer Chris Kise," who argued that Birney's testimony in this matter should be inadmissible on the grounds that it is "the heart of hearsay."

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Forbes reporter Dan Alexander added some context to Birney's testimony, which he said would leave a mark regardless of whether Judge Arthur Engoron finds it admissible.

"His testimony, delivered in monotone with long pauses, was certainly not theatrical," wrote Alexander, who has become a frequent target of Trump for his reporting on the ways the former president fraudulently inflated his net worth. "But the actual words he said were devastating to his employer, the Trump Organization – and ultimately to Donald Trump."

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'Say good night': MAGA ex-MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's primary loss prompts online glee

MAGA former MyPillow CEO and election denier Mike Lindell lost his bid to become the governor of Minnesota, per reports.

According to projections by NBC News and CBS News, Lindell lost to state lawmaker Lisa Demuth, who won with more than 44 percent of the vote. However, she'll face what's expected to be an uphill battle against Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

The result was an upset. Lindell had been leading in limited public polling heading into Election Day and carried an endorsement from President Donald Trump, according to reporting by NBC News.

However, online commentators didn't seem very upset by his loss. Lindell entered the race in December and stepped down as the MyPillow CEO this month to focus on his campaign. He built his political profile by spreading false claims that Trump won the 2020 election. A federal judge ruled last year that he defamed Smartmatic by falsely claiming its voting machines helped rig that election.

"Say good night, My Pillow guy!" wrote political commentator and former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod in a post on X. "Despite @realDonaldTrump's endorsement, Lindell loses his @GOP race for governor of Minnesota."

"He was doomed in the general against Klobuchar," wrote Democratic political strategist Mike Nellis. "But Mike Lindell falling short in Minnesota is a HUGE embarrassment to Trump after his endorsement. He looks more and more like a lame duck every single day."

"Poor Mike Lindell," joked political consultant Norman Ornstein. "He won't sleep well tonight. It could be because he lost the Republican primary for governor in Minnesota despite being endorsed by Trump. Or, more likely, it's because of his pillow."

"Apparently Minnesota Republicans have gotten tired of nominating losers," wrote radio show host Matt Forney. "Amnesty Mike Lindell got trounced and that waterbrained psycho Royce White came in a distant third in the Senate primary."

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Trump ditched cabinet secretaries as 'sacrificial lambs' on decoy plane: NYT

President Donald Trump left his cabinet secretaries and top advisers on a plane threatened by Iran while he moved to safety, The New York Times reported.

Air Force One was targeted by Iran as he left a NATO summit in Turkey, but reports are surfacing that Trump switched planes by hiding in a catering cart. However, the latest reporting by The Times reveals Trump also ditched Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and traveling press, who were "kept in the dark."

Two anonymous officials told Times reporter Maggie Haberman that Stephen Miller, Trump's top domestic policy adviser, and Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, were also left on the threatened decoy plane. Trump meanwhile left Ankara, Turkey, aboard a C-32A military jet.

According to Haberman's reporting, Rubio knew about the threat from Iran and that he was traveling on a plane that had been targeted for an attack. However, it's unclear if other top White House officials knew about the threat too.

The anonymous officials who spoke with Haberman said that at least some of the White House staff who also left on the endangered plane were unaware of the threat.

A White House spokesman didn't respond to a request from The Times for comment about the discussion to decide who would be left on the threatened plane and who would be whisked to safety with Trump.

The New York Times's reporting did, however, include a comment from Andrew Marlowe, the Hollywood screenwriter of the 1997 Harrison Ford thriller "Air Force One."

Marlowe told The Times that even though the Secret Service was trying to keep Trump safe, the optics of the reporting that has been coming out don't make him look good.

"Now real life isn't a movie, but given the circumstances, I'm not sure I could ever script a moment like that for a heroic main character," Marlowe said. "If the threat were that great, it's hard to imagine the audience rooting for any character who would trade his own safety by treating the remaining civilians onboard as potential sacrificial lambs, especially without their informed consent."

'It's so unbelievable': Lawyer floored as Trump DOJ seeks to revive case without evidence

A lawyer who stood up to the Department of Justice and won in a high-profile case expressed shock when talking about it being revived.

During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday night, lawyer Norm Eisen spoke about the possibility of President Donald Trump's DOJ bringing back the case against Olympic canoer David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. The case was dismissed last week, as the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, said that the damage happened during installation.

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Eisen about the possibility of the Trump DOJ bringing the case back, despite Pirro saying that the evidence pointed to a botched installation by the Interior Department, not Hearn, who constantly denied allegations that he ripped up the pool's liner.

"If there are charges brought against him again, I mean, would you use Jeanine Pirro's filing to fight those charges?" Collins asked. "Wouldn't that be the word of the DOJ versus the DOJ?"

Eisen laughed, agreeing with the absurdity. "It's so unbelievable," Eisen said. "They said in that filing that there was no evidence beyond a reasonable doubt because the damage was caused by a botched and rushed installation."

If the DOJ follows through, "The very first thing that the judge, if charges are brought again, is the words of the U.S. attorney's office blaming the Department of the Interior," Eisen said.

Eisen brought up that he used to work as President Barack Obama's special counsel and recalled a memo that said, "The president could not interfere with or intervene in enforcement cases precisely to avoid this kind of thing."

He continued, "So the outrageousness of it, it won't stand in a court of law if it comes back, and I assume the reason we read about it today in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere is because people in the DOJ are as horrified as I am."

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