Judge Won't Toss Charges In Chinatown Racketeering Case That Involved California State Senator

“As prosecutors near the home stretch of their criminal case against Donald Trump, one of the biggest questions looming over the historic trial is whether the former president will take the stand in his own defense,” NBC News reports. “Just last month, before jury selection began, Trump insisted he would be on the witness stand in Manhattan criminal court in New York City.”

Rep, Mike Collins (R-GA) actually tweeted this: “You either die a Kennedy with a hole in the brain or live long enough to become a Kennedy with a hole in the brain.”

“What once resembled a wall of legal obstacles that stood between Donald Trump and his return to the White House is now looking like little more than a series of speed bumps,” Politico reports. “Prosecutors handling cases from Georgia to Florida to Washington, D. C., are discovering that bringing groundbreaking criminal charges against a former president is a lot easier than getting them to trial.” “That’s because Trump has benefited enormously from a pileup of postponements.

“Nikki Haley is easing back into public life after dropping out of the Republican presidential race in early March, but has no immediate plans to endorse Donald Trump,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The former South Carolina governor is attending a retreat in Charleston, S. C., on Monday and Tuesday to thank about 100 of her biggest donors, a person close to Haley told The Wall Street Journal.

“Top Republicans, led by former president Donald Trump, are refusing to commit to accept November’s election results with six months until voters head to the polls, raising concerns that the country could see a repeat of the violent aftermath of Trump’s loss four years ago,” the Washington Post reports. “The question has become something of a litmus test, particularly among the long list of possible running mates for Trump, whose relationship with his first vice president, Mike Pence, ruptured because Pence resisted Trump’s pressure to overturn the 2020 election.”

Punchbowl News: “Johnson has been hugging former President Donald Trump as closely as possible for the last few months. Johnson held a news conference with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, appeared at the Trump campaign’s donor retreat, devoted the top of his news conference earlier this week to saying the charges against Trump are bogus, and stood with Trump’s allies on the Capitol steps Wednesday to push a bill making something illegal that’s already illegal.