Donald Trump news today: Trump tells judge he ‘may’ try to move Georgia case to federal court as Navarro guilty of contempt

Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to grumble about Mike Pence, claiming his former vice president went to the “Dark Side” and is “making up stories” about him.

“For 7 years Mike Pence only spoke well of me. Now he’s decided to go to the ‘Dark Side.’ Why didn’t he do this years before,” Mr Trump wrote.

“Was just watching Mike Pence make up stories about me, which are absolutely false,” the former president continued.

Kelly Rissman has the story.

Donald Trump is showing no signs of holding back his continued allegations of bias and unfairness against the judge overseeing his January 6 case in Washington, DC, even after being accused of trying to taint the jury pool by prosecutors.

On Truth Social, the ex-president continued to release statements throughout Tuesday and into Wednesday attacking Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and Judge Tanya Chutkan, the jurist who has now become a target of baseless criticism from conservatives on Capitol Hill — some of whom voted to confirm her to the bench.

Right-wing cable network One America News (OAN) has settled a defamation lawsuit brought by a former Dominion Voting Machines executive over false claims the company had rigged the 2020 presidential election, according to court filings.

Eric Coomer, Dominion’s former top security official, sued OAN and star correspondent Chanel Rion for spreading lies that he and the company had engaged in a massive voter fraud effort to flip votes from Mr Trump to Joe Biden.

Bevan Hurley reports on the latest in the case.

Georgia prosecutors are estimating a four-month trial involving more than 150 witnesses will be required in the case of Mr Trump and his 18 co-defendants following the handing down of a racketeering indictment accusing them of engaging in a criminal enterprise to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the swing state.

Prosecutors offered an early glimpse of the courtroom arguments against the former president and is allies during the first-ever televised hearing connected to the case on 6 September.

Judge Scott McAfee also shot down efforts by former lawyers to Mr Trump to have their cases severed from each other.

Alex Woodward reports on yesterday’s action in court in Fulton County.

Donald Trump’s own lawyer warned him against fighting the National Archives and Department of Justice over documents he had retained from the White House, but the ex-president chose instead to resist all attempts by authorities for him to turn them over.

That revelation was made by none other than Mr Trump’s former attorney, Evan Corcoran, in voice memos describing his conversations with his client that have since become evidence in the former president’s upcoming trial over allegedly mishandling classified information. Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty.

When a Black veteran began peppering Ron DeSantis with questions about recent gun policies in connection with the Jacksonville shooting, the Florida governor defended himself and talked over him before the veteran was eventually removed from the news conference altogether.

The confrontation comes after Mr DeSantis was booed at a memorial for victims of the racist attack.

As the Trump accountability era continues, Ahmed Baba asks what the lengthy jail sentences handed out to members of the far-right group over their part in the Capitol riot could mean for the former president whose bogus election fraud claim inspired them to act.

Mr Trump’s estranged former attorney, Michael Cohen, offered some advice to the 2024 presidential hopeful’s co-defendants in Georgia’s election interference case: “Speak now.”

Mr Cohen appeared on CNN, where he was asked whether he believed that the alleged co-conspirators would eventually break and cooperate with the Fulton County district attorney’s case.

“My hope is that they take a look to see what just happened with Enrique Tarrio, where he got 22 years while the other insurrectionists got 17 years. These are real sentences,” he said, alluding to the former Proud Boys leader who has been jailed for his part in the failed insurrection of 6 January 2021.

So far, Mr Trump has been criminally indicted four times – two of which are on the federal level and two are on the state level. This is on top of two civil lawsuits the ex-president is involved in New York City.

Though Mr Trump’s legal team has continuously pushed judges to delay trial dates until after the 2024 election, nearly all of the dates for his criminal indictments have been set for next spring.

Here are the trial dates for Mr Trump thus far:

A former Donald Trump adviser who refused to testify to House lawmakers investigating the events surrounding January 6 has been found guilty of contempt of Congress.

Peter Navarro was charged with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for what federal prosecutors argued was his abject defiance of the House select committee’s attempts to obtain evidence as part of its investigation into Mr Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

Alex Woodward has the story: