Trump cases: lawyer argues to dismiss Georgia election subversion case; progressive groups call for ‘fair’ hush money trial – live | US politics

Donald Trump’s legal team was in Atlanta to argue that the charges brought by Fulton county district attorney Fanil Willis against the former president should be dismissed on first amendment grounds. Other defendants have tried unsuccessfully to make that argument, but Judge Scott McAfee wrapped up the hearing without giving any indication of how he may rule – or, perhaps more importantly, when Trump’s trial will actually start. Speaking of trials, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson sent the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer a letter demanding he get started on homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s impeachment trial as soon as the GOP transmits the charges on 10 April. Schumer’s office said the Senate leader plans to do so, but reports indicate that Democrats are considering voting to dismiss the impeachment articles.

Here’s what else is going on:

• Progressive groups have written an open letter asking that Trump receive “a prompt and fair trial” in the New York hush money case.

• Joe Biden called New York City mayor Eric Adams to offer condolences on the death of police officer Jonathan Diller. Trump plans to attend his wake.

• The Republican National Committee wants to know if new hires think the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has demanded the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer schedule the trial of homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “expeditiously” after his impeachment last month.

“As Speaker and impeachment managers of the US House of Representatives, we write to inform you that we will present to you upon the Senate’s return, on April 10, 2024, the duly passed articles of impeachment regarding Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. We urge you to schedule a trial of the matter expeditiously,” Johnson and the 11 Republican impeachment managers wrote in a letter sent today to Schumer.

They continued:

We call upon you to fulfill your constitutional obligation to hold this trial. The American people demand a secure border, an end to this crisis, and accountability for those responsible. To table articles of impeachment without ever hearing a single argument or reviewing a piece of evidence would be a violation of our constitutional order and an affront to the American people whom we all serve.

House Republicans alleged Mayorkas has mismanaged security on the border with Mexico, but Senate Democrats have shown no interest in removing him from office. They are reportedly considering dismissing the charges without holding a trial, and Schumer has said the allegations were ginned up at the behest of Donald Trump:

This sham impeachment effort is another embarrassment for House Republicans. The one and only reason for this impeachment is for Speaker Johnson to further appease Donald Trump.

House Republicans failed to produce any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed any crime.

House Republicans failed to show he has violated the Constitution.

House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense.

This is a new low for House Republicans.

Congress is currently out of Washington DC, with the Senate and House set to resume on 8 and 9 April, respectively.

A coalition of progressive groups has released an open letter calling for Donald Trump to receive “a prompt and fair trial” in New York, where he faces charges related to making hush money payments prior to the 2016 election.

Earlier this week, the judge overseeing that case set 15 April as its start date, making it the first of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial. The other three cases remain mired in pre-trial motions and appeals, and it is unclear if verdicts will be reached in any prior to the November presidential election.

“The facts alleged in the indictment recount much more than a sordid soap opera and corporate malfeasance; they also describe conduct that should matter to anyone who cares about democracy, voter information, and meaningful voter choice,” reads the letter, which was signed by 17 groups organized into the Not Above the Law coalition, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, MoveOn and Indivisible.

In New York, Trump stands accused of channeling funds from his business to adult actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in exchange for their silence on extra-martial affairs ahead of the 2016 election. He allegedly described the payments as legal costs, which New York prosecutors say broke the law.

The groups say this amounted to an “instance of election interference” that “might also be understood as an early sign of Trump’s antipathy for voters, which surfaced again in behavior culminating in the January 6th violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.”

They continue:

If the rule of law is to remain meaningful, no one — not even a former president — should be allowed to be above the law, and all the Trump criminal trials must play out. The first of these trials is important. We, the undersigned organizations, stand united in our desire for a prompt and fair trial that goes wherever the facts and the law lead. The undersigned organizations also express our hopes that as the Manhattan trial unfolds, the full context for the charges is made clear and understandable to the American public. Our nation deserves nothing less.

In the ongoing hearing in Atlanta, Steve Sadow, an attorney for Donald Trump, asked judge Scott McAfee to dismiss the charges related to election interference against the former president, saying they were attempting to criminalize speech protected by the first amendment:

In Atlanta, judge Scott McAfee is now hearing arguments over whether Donald Trump’s indictment for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election should be dismissed on free speech grounds.

Trump’s attorneys have argued that any false statement he made were protected by the first amendment, an argument prosecutors are encouraging the judge to reject.

In the words of Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis, today’s arguments boil down to this:

Georgia judge Scott McAfee will today weigh whether Donald Trump was just exercising his first amendment rights when he insisted, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen.

Such claims are alive and well at the Republican National Committee, where Trump recently installed several lieutenants in leadership position. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that new employees are being quizzed about their views on fraud in the 2020 election:

A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump did not deny a Washington Post report that said prospective RNC employees are being asked if they believe the 2020 election was stolen, constituting a “litmus test” as the 2024 election approaches.

“Candidates who worked on the frontline in battleground states or are currently in states where fraud allegations have been prevalent were asked about their work experience,” Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for the RNC and Trump, said in a statement.

“We want experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches.”

Trump has pursued his stolen election lie through his conclusive defeat by Biden; his attempts to overturn results in key states; his incitement of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress; his resulting impeachment and acquittal; his attempts to delay or avoid trial on four federal and 10 state criminal charges concerning election subversion; and his surge to a third successive presidential nomination.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today in Georgia, Donald Trump’s legal team will argue that the case brought against him by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis for allegedly trying to overturn the state’s 2020 election result should be dismissed on first amendment grounds, CNN reports. The hearing in Atlanta will be the first held since judge Scott McAfee ruled Willis could continue handling the case, but only if special prosecutor Nathan Wade quit, which he did. For Trump, the odds are not looking particularly good: two of his 18 co-defendants have made similar claims that they were merely exercising their free speech rights when claiming, without evidence, that the 2020 election was marred by fraud, but McAfee rejected their arguments.

Today’s hearing nonetheless represents a return to sorting out the actual merits of Willis’s case, which was delayed for weeks after defense attorneys alleged she had created a conflict of interest by hiring Wade, a romantic partner. The Georgia case is one of four criminal indictments against Trump, but still has no trial date – a crucial element to sort out, considering that a conviction could upend the 2024 presidential race.

Here’s what else we are watching today:

• Joe Biden this evening will head to a New York City campaign fundraiser where he is reportedly expecting to rake in a mammoth $25m, thanks to a little help from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, both of whom will be there.

• Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was briefly a presidential candidate, said he would not pursue a third-party presidential bid, leaving No Labels’s much-worried-over ticket empty once again.

• White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will see what reporters want to know, sometime after 11.40am ET.