Trump news today: Trump shares threatening video as midnight deadline to appear before Jan 6 grand jury closes in

Donald Trump is now the subject of two criminal cases after being arrested over a state case in New York and a federal case in Miami – at a time when he is hot on the trail for another stint in the White House.

With a third looming, can he still run for office?

A military veteran who stormed the U.S. Capitol with a loaded pistol, metal-plated body armor and a gas mask was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in prison, one of the longest among hundreds of Jan. 6 riot cases.

Christopher Michael Alberts isn’t accused of brandishing his concealed gun during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. But he used a wooden pallet as a makeshift battering ram against police officers who were guarding a stairwell outside the Capitol, according to federal prosecutors.

The Department of Justice used a grand jury subpoena to obtain CCTV security footage from the Atlanta, Georgia, arena where ballots were counted following the 2020 election, indicating that federal prosecutors are examining some of the same matters as the Fulton County, Georgia district attorney who may soon bring charges against former president Donald Trump and others in his orbit.

Andrew Feinberg has the details.

In a decision released on Wednesday, Judge Lewis Kaplan said the jury did not reach a “seriously erroneous result” when it found the former president liable for sexual assault and defamation and ordered him to pay $5m.

Bevan Hurley has been following the case.

This comes on the heels of the former president’s announcement that he is readying himself for an indictment related to the Jan 6 riots and the revelation of three federal statutes, including conspiracy and obstruction, that could form the basis of fresh charges against him.

The letter Donald Trump said he had received from special counsel Jack Smith reportedly listed three federal statutes that could constitute charges against him over the Jan 6 riots.

The three federal statutes mentioned in the letter by Mr Smith, according to several reports, are conspiracy to commit offence or to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law and tampering with a witness, victim or informant.

Mr Trump is the sole individual mentioned in the letter and there are no other names mentioned, according to a source with knowledge of the matter cited by Rolling Stone magazine.

Maroosha Muzaffar filed this report.

Rep Matt Gaetz of Florida said on his podcast that he will in the coming days introduce a bill to defund Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into former President Donald Trump as Mr Trump reportedly asks Capitol Hill allies for help as he faces another potential indictment.

Abe Asher has the details.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has announced criminal charges against 16 people who signed certificates falsely declaring that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, part of a nationwide scheme to upend the results in states that the former president lost to Joe Biden.

Outrage over Florida’s new guidelines for schools that allow for the punishment of trans students and teach that slavery ‘developed skills’ for Black people that could be “applied for personal benefit”.

A Georgia-based political commentator said he’s done backing Georgia Republican Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggesting she has lost support in her own district.

“We have worked so hard for this individual,” said Brian K Pritchard, host of #BKPPolitics on Voice of Rural America. “When there was an attempt to keep this individual off the ballot from running, we fought against the media. We fought against Brad Raffensperger,” Georgia’s secretary of state, he added.

The host also said he stuck by her side when she touted conspiracy theories. “Every time the media wanted to say ‘QAnon’ or ‘Jewish space lasers,’ we pushed back. We fought for this individual,” he said. “But I fight no longer.”

Everyone has their limit, as Kelly Rissman reports.