Trump trial live: Opening statements set to begin Monday as his legal fees eat into campaign fund

A member of Trump’s legal team yesterday divulged the defence’s plan to “focus on the facts” to show that the former president did nothing wrong, one day before the opening arguments are set to begin in the landmark hush money trial.

Posts like these seem extremely unlikely to endear the defendant to Judge Merchan and Alvin Bragg but Trump keeps right on “truthing” them anyway.

The first – invoking the right’s favourite liberal bogeyman, billionaire financier George Soros – finds him dabbling in antisemitic conspiracy theories to suggest the Manhattan DA is a puppet of shadowy and sinister forces. Entirely without evidence, of course.

That doesn’t stop him calling, with remarkable gall, for the removal of the gag order imposed on him by the judge.

Elsewhere, he’s been slamming the media for interviewing a former member of his own administration and threatening “non-profits” in a rather vague manner.

Former president Donald Trump’s legal team has used various defences for — and attempts to delay — his hush money case in which he is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

[Spoiler alert: No. You have to follow this blog. You’re welcome.]

Should Mr Trump ultimately be found guilty, he could theoretically face more than a decade in prison, according to CNN chief legal analyst Laura Coates, who points out that the felony counts against Mr Trump are classified as Class E crimes in New York, which are the lowest level felonies in the state.

But there’s more to it than that…

In a typical presidential election year, candidates will spend the 11 months leading up to election day shaking hands and kissing babies at rallies as the primaries unfold.

Instead, the ex-president will be forced to juggle his campaign for the White House while also defending himself in federal and state courts in four different cases that have hearings and trial dates scattered throughout 2024.

Ariana Baio breaks down what the former president is facing:

Attorneys for Donald Trump told a judge overseeing the former president’s hush money trial on Friday that Manhattan prosecutors are merely trying to “distract” jurors and “pile things on” by introducing evidence from his string of other criminal and civil cases.

New York Justice Juan Merchan presided over a hearing to outline what prosecutors intend to ask Mr Trump if he chooses to testify at his criminal trial, including a defamation case and allegations of sexual abuse, a massive civil fraud judgment finding him liable for tens of millions of dollars, felony convictions targeting his business, and the dissolution of a namesake foundation used to boost his presidential campaign.

But the judge said that prosecutors’ request falls within the grounds of the so-called Sandoval hearing, during which a defendant with a history of misconduct or criminal acts who also plans to testify in his defence knows what they could be walking into.

Mr Trump has repeatedly tried, and failed, to move the case out of the borough, where he baselessly smeared the borough as hopelessly biased against him.

And so, during jury selection in the trial, he sat and heard firsthand from a group of Manhattan residents who pledged that they would be fair and impartial in hearing the case against him.

Tony Gonzales of Texas was speaking to CNN when he was asked whether Speaker Mike Johnson would survive a motion to vacate his title being led by several lawmakers on the far right win of his party.

“He will survive,” Mr Gonzales said, before launching into his tirade…

John Bowden reports on what he said: