Trump news today: Trump to hold rally in Texas after Jan 6 committee subpoena and week of legal setbacks

Tom Barrack, a one-time fundraiser for former President Donald Trump, is expected to take the witness stand in his own defense next week in his trial on charges of being an illegal foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates.

Mr Barrack‘s lawyer Randall Jackson said in open court on Friday that his client would take the stand on Friday afternoon. Later, prosecutor Sam Nitze said he expected to take substantial time to cross-examine the current witness, former Barrack lawyer Brady Cassis, meaning Mr Barrack did not take the stand Friday.

For defendants, testifying is potentially risky because it opens them up to probing cross-examination by prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Mr Barrack, 75, used his influence with Mr Trump‘s election campaign and administration to push the UAE’s interests without notifying the US attorney general, as required by law.

They rested their case earlier this week after showing jurors hundreds of emails and text messages between Mr Barrack, his former assistant Matthew Grimes, and an Emirati businessman named Rashid Al Malik, who prosecutors described as an intermediary between them and Emirati officials.

Those messages showed Emirati officials provided feedback to Mr Barrack on what he should say in television interviews and an op-ed about US policy toward the Middle East in 2016 and 2017, and gave input about what Mr Trump should say about energy policy in a 2016 campaign speech.

Mr Barrack, 75, has pleaded not guilty, as has his co-defendant Mr Grimes. Mr Al Malik is at large.

Mr Barrack‘s lawyers argued his interactions with Emirati officials were part of his job running Colony Capital, a private equity firm now known as DigitalBridge Group Inc. Even in instances where his interests and goals aligned with the UAE’s, he was acting on his own volition, they said.

The trial has featured testimony from former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — who testified for the prosecution that he was unaware of Mr Barrack‘s role in foreign policy — and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who testified on Thursday for the defense that Mr Barrack pushed him to convince Mr Trump to support Qatar in a blockade brought by regional rivals including the UAE.

The man, Robert Vargo, is facing a bevy of other criminal charges related to his threat to kill Mr Thompson, Mr Thompson’s family, and President Joe Biden, per Reuters. He is also charged with threatening the president, threat by interstate communications, and influencing a federal official by threat.

The House January 6 committee on Friday subpoenaed former President Donald Trump – an extraordinary but not unprecedented move as the panel works to wrap up its investigation of the 2021 Capitol insurrection.

The committee is asking Trump to hand over documents by Nov. 4 and provide testimony “on or about” 14 November and possibly longer. While the nine-member panel has already interviewed more than 1,000 people, many of them close to Trump, lawmakers say there are details that only he can confirm.

In a letter accompanying the subpoena, the committee said that Trump personally oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat, that he knew it was illegal and that he knew his claims about the election were false.

Here’s what the House January 6 committee wants from Trump:

Asked why he supports Donald Trump, a man at today’s Trump rally in Robstown, Texas, says it is because: “He’s embracing biblical principles.”

In a letter to former President Donald Trump, January 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney underscored Trump’s central role in a deliberate, orchestrated effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and block the transfer of presidential power.

Read the full letter here:

Lindsey Graham has filed an emergency request asking the US Supreme Court to block a grand jury subpoena for his testimony in a Georgia probe of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state.

The South Carolina senator then appealed to the nation’s high court on 21 October.

The opening prayer today at Eric Trump and Michael Flynn’s ReAwaken America event in Pennsylvania this morning included a call to not surround former President Donald Trump with “Deep state trash” and “RINO trash”… “in the name of Jesus.”

Former Trump White House official Stephanie Grisham also had some thoughts on Eric Trump’s remarks at the ReAwaken America tour’s latest stop outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania on Friday night.

Mr Trump said to the crowd: “My father finally got a subpoena from the J6 Committee. I told him a minute ago, you have to go testify, because it will be the greatest entertainment. Who wants to pop a beer, make some popcorn, and watch Trump talk about election fraud?”

Ms Grisham, once a member of the Trump inner circle, commented: “Yep. Sadly this is what I predicted last week on [CNN”s OutFront]. Everything is a show or a way to make money, or both.”

Watch Mr Trump’s remarks below:

Former president Donald Trump has told the New York judge overseeing a review of documents seized from his Florida property that 15 documents pertaining to pardon requests and immigration policy matters belong to him and should be treated as personal records.

Per a review of the court filings by The Independent, most of the documents at issue pertain to clemency requests made when Mr Trump was still president and had the authority to grant pardons for federal crimes. Two of them are related to his former administration’s immigration policy, and another is a letter from someone who worked at a US service academy.

If former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo decides to run for president in 2024, he told CBS News he would likely announce his campaign next spring, adding it’s “a very serious” decision.

He also said that a Trump presidential bid would not keep him out of the race.