TV News LIES

With just days to go before his first – and likely only – debate against Kamala Harris, Donald Trump posted a warning on his social media site threatening to jail those “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election, which he said would be under intense scrutiny.

“WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” the former president wrote, again trying to sow doubt about the integrity of November’s election, even though cheating is incredibly rare.

“Please beware,” the Republican nominee went on, “that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

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Robert F Kennedy Jr’s campaign for president failed – but his campaign to avoid being a spoiler in North Carolina and Michigan appears for the moment to be more successful.

The North Carolina court of appeals made a last-minute decision on Friday to remove Kennedy’s name from presidential ballots, creating a scramble to reprint ballots and begin sending them to voters.

In Michigan, a state appellate court also ruled on Friday that Kennedy’s name as the Natural Law party’s candidate must be stricken from ballots. The Michigan secretary of state’s office said it would appeal to the state supreme court.

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Former President Donald Trump's sentencing in his criminal hush money conviction has been pushed back until three weeks after the November election, the judge said Friday.

Trump will now be sentenced Nov. 26, if sentencing is still required by then, Judge Juan Merchan ruled.

Trump had asked Merchan to push his sentencing, which was scheduled for Sept. 18, until after the upcoming presidential election in November. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office chose not to take a position on Trump's request.

"Adjournments for sentencing are routinely granted, often several times, in any number of other criminal matters pending in this courthouse, particularly when unopposed, for reasons ranging from personal circumstances to the scheduling needs of the parties involved," Merchan wrote in the Friday decision.

"Given the unique facts and circumstances of this case, there is no reason why this Defendant should be treated any differently than any other," Merchan said.

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The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal prosecution for interference in the 2020 election issued a series of deadlines on Thursday that will see prosecutors have the last word just days before the November election on whether the charges should be kept against the former president.

In a brief order, the US district judge Tanya Chutkan decided that prosecutors could file the first brief explaining how the charges against Trump in a slimmed-down indictment complied with the US supreme court’s ruling granting former presidents broad immunity from prosecution.

That means prosecutors – over the Trump team’s objections – will also have the final word on why they believe all of the conduct in the superseding indictment is not covered by immunity in a filing that is due on 29 October, just one week before the presidential election in November.

The order resolved a nagging issue for the Trump campaign ever since the supreme court returned the case to Chutkan in the weeks after it issued its ruling: how much of the damaging criminal case could be a factor in the final sprint to election day.

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Donald Trump has quietly wound down his presidential campaign in states he was targeting just six weeks ago amid polling evidence showing that Kamala Harris’s entry into the presidential race has put them out of reach and narrowed his path to the White House.

The Republican presidential nominee’s campaign has diverted resources away from Minnesota, Virginia and New Hampshire – states Trump was boasting he could win while Joe Biden was the Democratic candidate – to focus instead on a small number of battleground states.

Money is being poured into the three “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which were all carried by Biden in 2020 and are seen as vital to the outcome of November’s election.

Special attention is being paid to Pennsylvania, which has 19 electoral college votes, and where a new CNN poll shows Trump and Harris tied at 47% each.

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In a surprise move Thursday, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to all nine federal tax charges he faced, avoiding a weekslong trial as jury selection was scheduled to begin.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi set sentencing for Dec. 16. Scarsi had balked at an earlier offer from Biden to plead guilty under what is called an Alford plea. The plea is when a defendant accepts sentencing by acknowledging the prosecution has enough evidence to convict him, even if he doesn't admit wrongdoing.

Justice Department special counsel David Weiss’ team opposed an Alford plea, arguing that Biden should be forced to admit his guilt.

But ultimately Biden pleaded guilty to three felonies and six misdemeanors, on charges he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019.

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