Trump fraud trial live: Trump blames Biden after chaotic testimony

As Donald Trump’s legal battles grow more complex, many are wondering whether he will win the nomination and campaign for the election as a convicted criminal.

We want to know if you think time is up for Trump. With the accusations surrounding the former president is it time he threw in the towel and sought a desk job away from the limelight and politics?

Or do you believe there’s still merit in bringing Mr Trump back to the White House?

We want to know your thoughts…

“We don’t have time to waste. We have one day to do this,” an exasperated Judge Arthur Engoron said. At another point, turning to Trump’s attorney, the judge said, “I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can’t, I will.”

The exchanges underscored Trump’s unwillingness to adapt his famously freewheeling rhetorical style to a formal courtroom setting governed by rules of evidence and legal protocol. But while his presence on the stand was a vivid reminder of the legal woes he faces as he vies to reclaim the White House in 2024, it also functioned as a campaign platform to raise anew his claims of political persecution at the hands of government lawyers and judges.

A former adviser to Barack Obama has suggested Joe Biden should drop out of the 2024 presidential race in the wake of polling that shows the President would lose to Donald Trump in five key states.

David Axelrod, who was a senior adviser to President Obama, said the poll was a sign of “legitimate concern” would send “tremors of doubt” through the Democrats.

Writing on X/Twitter, he said it was “very late to change horses”, but added: “Trump is a dangerous, unhinged demagogue whose brazen disdain for the rules, norms, laws and institutions or democracy should be disqualifying. But the stakes of miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore.

“Only Joe Biden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?”

Prosecutors with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office are calling on Judge Tanya Chutkan to reject former president Donald Trump’s effort to have the election subversion and conspiracy charges against him dismissed, writing in a Monday court filing that Mr Trump “stands alone in American history for his alleged crimes” and pointing out that cases cited by the ex-president’s lawyers don’t support the arguments they’ve made.

“No other president has engaged in conspiracy and obstruction to overturn valid election results and illegitimately retain power. The indictment squarely charges the defendant for this conduct, and the defendant’s constitutional and statutory challenges to it are meritless,” they said.

In the 79-page filing opposing two separate motions filed by Mr Trump’s legal team, Assistant Special Counsels James Pierce and John Pellettieri and Senior Assistant Special Counsels Thomas Windom and Molly Gaston noted that the indictment returned against the ex-president by a Washington, DC grand jury over the summer accused him of “perpetrating an unprecedented campaign of deceit to attack the very functioning of the federal government to collect, count, and certify votes; to obstruct the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the election results are certified; and to disenfranchise millions of voters”.

They further described Mr Trump actions as part of “a concerted criminal effort to overturn the presidential election results and prevent the lawful transfer of power to his successor”.

Voters are headed to the polls in two states where the “Dobbs Effect” will face its latest test.

A year after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ended federal protections for abortion in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the issue of abortion is back on the ballot in two battleground states that will each play a major role in next year’s presidential election.

In Ohio, voters will consider an amendment to the state constitution enshrining “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” as a right of all Ohioans, allowing for some limits on the practice of abortion but generally protecting it from an all-out ban or severe restrictions.

And in Virginia, the state’s Republican governor is rallying his party around a 15-week abortion ban, and encouraging a perception of the state House of Delegates and Senate as either a green light or a roadblock ahead of the implementation of that legislation. Republicans took the governor’s mansion and House of Delegates in 2021, leaving Democrats in control of just one corner of government.

Washington is 364 days away from the next presidential election. Which means naturally, Democrats are engaging in their favourite pastime: fretting about national polls or calming each other down that the polls are not nearly as bad.

This usually ignores one fact about polling everyone seems to forget: they are not meant to predict what will happen but rather serve as a snapshot of where public opinion is at the moment.

The latest case came on Sunday when The New York Times and Siena College released its survey showing that former president Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada, the five major swing states.

Naturally, this set off alarm bells given that Mr Biden is running essentially unopposed, save for a quixotic run by Rep Dean Phillips (D-MN) and author Marianne Williamson. Running against an incumbent president would likely kill the career of any Democrat with some semblance of promise. So for now, it looks like Democrats are stuck with the president.

Donald Trump’s conservative allies are crafting a blueprint for a Republican presidency in 2025 which could include the use of US troops to put down protests and acts of civil disobedience across the US resulting from a Trump 2024 election victory.

In an extensive report published on Sunday, The Washington Post detailed the work being done under the umbrella of “Project 2025”, an effort by a coalition of conservative groups to prepare a policy and governing agenda for a GOP president. Though none of its connections to the Trump campaign are official, the Post reports that the coalition has ties to a number of members of Mr Trump’s inner circle, including most prominently Jeffrey Clark, the former assistant US attorney general who is now facing criminal charges in Fulton County, Georgia.

“You know it’s funny, these hits from the media. Some of them are so funny they are just laughable,” Ms DeSantis said to a crowd at the Florida Republican Party’s “Freedom Summit” in Kissimmee.

She recalled when her friend called to tell her the media was “hitting” her. Ms DeSantis told the crowd, “They’re ‘hitting’ me? Like what did I do? I’m just standing up for parents’ rights and the innocence of our children, those sorts of things, but they’re hitting me?”

Donald Trump’s testimony in his high profile civil fraud case was, fittingly, not short of confrontation – with proceedings devolving into the typical bouts of name-calling and inflammatory rhetoric favoured by the former president.

Here are the key moments from the day’s proceedings: