update - Fed'l appeal court upholds $1 Million costs sanction against Trump and Habba

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Here's where all the legal cases against Trump stand since his return to the White House


A judge on Wednesday dismissed the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others, bringing an end to the last of four criminal cases filed against him that threatened to upend his finances and take away his freedom as he sought a return to the White House.

The Georgia dismissal came after a new prosecutor in the case declined to pursue the charges.

Since Trump's reelection last year, four separate criminal cases — including his hush money conviction and federal allegations of election interference and illegally hoarding classified documents — have either been dropped, resolved or put aside. On the civil side, several high-profile lawsuits against Trump have been quietly working their way through the appeals process.

Here's a look at some of Trump’s criminal and civil cases and where they stand now:

New York hush money case

Trump became the first former U.S. president convicted of felonies when a New York jury found him guilty in May 2024 of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

Though Trump could have faced jail time, Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan in January sentenced him instead to what’s known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him any punishment.



Trump was set to take office just days later, and Merchan said he had to respect Trump’s upcoming legal protections as president, even wishing him “Godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”

Trump is trying to get the conviction erased, a push that was given new life in November when a federal appeals court ordered a lower court to reconsider its decision to keep the case in state court instead of moving it to federal court.

Georgia election interference case

In August 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and 18 others with participating in a scheme to illegally try to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Willis cited Trump’s January 2021 phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, an effort to replace Georgia’s Democratic presidential electors with ones who would vote for Trump, harassment of a Fulton County election worker and the unauthorized copying of data and software from elections equipment.

But the case stalled over revelations Willis had been in a relationship with the man she appointed to prosecute it. A state appeals court in December removed Willis from the case and the state Supreme Court later declined to hear her appeal.

Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case in November after he said several prosecutors declined to take it. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a brief order dismissing the case in its entirety Wednesday after Skandalakis said he has decided not to pursue it further.

Federal election case

Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in August 2023 with conspiring to overturn the results of his election loss to President Joe Biden in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors allege Trump and his allies knowingly promoted election fraud lies in a bid to push state officials to overturn Biden’s win and pressure Vice President Mike Pence to disrupt the ceremonial counting of electoral votes.

But Smith moved to drop the case after Trump won reelection in November. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.

Classified documents case

In a separate prosecution, Smith charged Trump in June 2023 with illegally retaining classified documents he took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after he left office in January 2021, and then obstructing government demands to give them back. Prosecutors filed additional charges the following month, accusing Trump of showing a Pentagon “plan of attack” to visitors at his golf club in New Jersey.

Smith also moved to drop that case after Trump's election victory.

Sexual assault lawsuits

In May 2023, a federal jury found that Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million.

In January 2024, a second jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump had made about her while he was president, finding that they were defamatory. A federal appeals court panel upheld the jury's finding in September. Trump has since asked the full appellate court to hear arguments and reconsider the ruling.


Trump also appealed the first jury decision, but a federal appeals court in December upheld it and then declined in June to reconsider. In November, Trump asked the Supreme Court to hear his appeal.

New York civil fraud lawsuit

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump in 2022, alleging he habitually exaggerated his wealth and the value of marquee assets like Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago.

In February 2024, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $355 million in penalties, but an appeals court in August threw out that massive financial penalty while narrowly endorsing a lower court’s finding that he engaged in fraud by padding his wealth on financial statements provided to lenders and insurers.

The appeals court judges ruled that the penalty — which had soared to $515 million with interest tacked on each day — violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on excessive fines. At the same time, they left in place other punishments, including bans on Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years.

James filed a notice of appeal with the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, in September.

The Associated Press

 

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Challenge to GOP's gerrymander in crucial battleground state suffers early loss


A panel of Republican-appointed federal judges dealt an early blow to a lawsuit seeking to have the North Carolina GOP's mid-decade gerrymander of state congressional districts tossed as a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

North Carolina Republicans already aggressively redrew their congressional maps after winning control of the state Supreme Court this decade, creating a map to reliably elect 10 Republicans and four Democrats in a state that routinely has razor-thin statewide results.



However, earlier this year, the legislature did yet another redraw in response to President Donald Trump's demand for Republicans to create extra seats for themselves, reconfiguring the 1st and 3rd Districts to try to draw out Democratic Rep. Don Davis, who represents a heavily Black area of the state.

Plaintiffs, including the state NAACP, argued in a suit that the redraw is a scheme to deprive Black voters of their rights.


But in an order on Wednesday, a three-judge panel consisting of Allison Rushing and Richard Myers, two Trump appointees, and Thomas Schroeder, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, disagreed and declined to grant a preliminary injunction.

"We conclude that ... Plaintiffs, at this stage of the case, have failed to make a clear showing that the General Assembly likely enacted S.B. 249 with the intent to 'minimize or cancel out the voting potential' of black North Carolinians living in CD 1 or 3," said the opinion. “Because Plaintiffs at this point in the litigation have not made a clear showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of any claim advanced in their motions, a preliminary injunction is unwarranted.”

While litigation will continue, the ruling makes it all but guaranteed the GOP's new map will be used in the 2026 midterms.

This comes as Republicans suffer setbacks on some other redistricting fronts, including retaliation from Democrats in California, and a court ruling that suspended the GOP's gerrymander of Texas — though the Supreme Court has put that order on hold and may overrule it in coming days.

 

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Analysis shows steep drop in Trump’s public appearances


A fresh review of President Donald Trump’s publicly documented schedule suggests his second-term workday has shifted noticeably, with fewer official appearances and later start times compared with his first four years in office.

Trump, now 78, returned to the White House in 2024 as the oldest person ever elected to the presidency.

Public events drop compared with first term
The New York Times, drawing on records compiled by the database Roll Call, reported a significant decline in Trump’s public activity. Between January 20 and November 25 in 2017, he logged 1,688 official events.

Over the same period this year, that number stood at 1,029 — a reduction of 39 percent, according to the Times and The Express.


The analysis also noted a shift in the timing of the President’s workday. During his first term, Trump typically began official duties at around 10:31 a.m.. In his second term, the average start time has moved to 12:08 p.m., although his end-of-day routine remains close to 5 p.m. in both years.

Recent medical evaluation
The White House faced renewed questions last month after confirming that Trump underwent an MRI at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

In a statement, presidential physician Dr. Sean Barbabella described the appointment as a “scheduled follow-up evaluation” that included imaging, lab tests and routine assessments. He said the President “continues to demonstrate excellent overall health.”

Trump acknowledged having the MRI but did not specify which part of the body was scanned, telling reporters that he was pleased with the results.

Ongoing questions about Trump’s health
Trump has repeatedly said he is in strong physical and cognitive condition since returning to office, but scrutiny has persisted. According to The Express, observers have pointed to a dark mark visible on his hand in several public photographs, sometimes appearing to be covered with makeup. Commentators have questioned whether the mark could reflect bruising or a medical issue, though no official explanation has been offered.

Sources: The Express, The New York Times, Roll Call

 

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Trump says land action against alleged Venezuela drug cartels to start ‘soon’


The US will start taking action to stop suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers on land “very soon”, Donald Trump has said.

“You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” he said.

“The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon,” Trump said, during a speech via video to US military service members.

“We warn them: Stop sending poison to our country,” the US President added.

Trump has been evaluating whether to take military action against Venezuela, to combat what the US claims is President Nicolas Maduro’s role in supplying illegal drugs.

Earlier this week the US government designated the Cartel de los Soles, which it alleges is headed by Maduro, as a foreign terrorist organisation, giving it greater powers to target and dismantle.

Maduro has denied the allegations and says they are a “ridiculous fabrication” meant to “justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela”.


The Venezuelan communications ministry has not yet commented on Trump’s latest remarks.

US forces in the region so far have focused on counter-narcotics operations, carrying out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since September, killing at least 83 people.

Reports of looming action have proliferated in recent weeks as the US military has deployed forces to the Caribbean amid worsening relations with Venezuela.

Military aircraft including B-52 bombers have been spotted on tracking websites flying off the northern coast of South America, and north of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.

The US military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela, including the world’s largest warship, aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, and its carrier strike group.

There are dozens of F-18 Super Hornet jets on board the carrier, which the Pentagon said would bolster US firepower and make it easier to attack air defence systems in Venezuela.

With agencies

 

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Trump to ‘permanently pause migration from all third world countries’


President Donald Trump has vowed to “permanently pause” migration from “all third world countries” after a National Guard member was killed in an attack near the White House.

The president’s comments are a further escalation of immigration measures ordered by Trump since two soldiers were shot Wednesday, one of whom remains in hospital. Investigators believe an Afghan national was behind the attack.

“I will permanently pause migration from all third world countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The president said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens”, adding he would “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilization.”

He did not provide any details on what he meant by the apparently contradictory “permanently pause” or which countries would face migration bans.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has already indefinitely suspended all immigration requests involving Afghan nationals after the attack, which is believed to have been carried out by Rahmanullah Lakanwal. The 29-year-old Afghan national resided in Washington state and had no known criminal history.



Police at the scene of the shooting near the White House, Washington, D.C. (Mike Ryan)
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was injured in the ambush and later died. Fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life”, Trump said.

The president has pursued an aggressive immigration agenda since his return to the White House, and, in June, he announced a travel ban on immigrants from 19 countries, including Afghanistan.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security said Trump has ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under Biden’s administration and Green Cards issued to citizens of 19 countries.



Sarah Beckstrom, 20, has died from her injuries in the shooting (Reuters)
In a second Truth Social post, Trump claimed that hundreds of thousands of people poured into the U.S. totally “unvetted and unchecked”, during what he described as the “horrendous” airlift from Afghanistan.

He said his administration's goals are aimed at significantly reducing “illegal and disruptive populations”, suggesting that measures would be taken to achieve this outcome, adding that “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation”.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News that Lakanwal worked with the CIA while in Afghanistan as a “member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation”.

The Independent has always had a global perspective. Built on a firm foundation of superb internation

 

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MAGA turns on Kristi Noem


It’s not every day that President Donald Trump’s own Homeland Security secretary sends the MAGA world into a fury — but Kristi Noem managed it with a single Fox News appearance.

What she appeared to think would be a victory lap about immigration policy instead sparked a wave of outrage from some of the loudest voices on the right as she touted how the Trump administration has “sped up” legal immigration.

The remarks that set off MAGA


Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem heavily complimented President Donald Trump’s immigration policies during a recent Fox News appearance, calling him a “visionary” and “our greatest president ever.” By: Francis Chung – Pool via CNP / MEGA© Knewz (CA)
Noem appeared on Fox & Friends where host Lawrence Jones asked her about the government’s recent decision to add new fees to H-1B visas for high-skilled foreign workers.

Jones wanted to know the Trump administration’s stance, especially given the president had just told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that America doesn’t have enough “talented” workers.

“Now, we’re going to keep using our visa programs. We’re just going to make sure that they have integrity, that we’re actually doing the vetting of the individuals who come into this country, that they want to be here for the right reasons, that they’re not supporters of terrorists and organizations that hate America,” Noem said.

“And that’s what I think is so remarkable: Under the Trump administration, we’ve sped up our process and added integrity to the visa programs, to green cards, to all of that,” she continued.




“But also, more people are becoming naturalized under this administration than ever before — more people becoming citizens — because we’re not just streamlining and building some processes back into our immigration policies,” she said.

“We’re also making sure that these individuals that are coming into our country and get that privilege actually are here for the right reasons,” she reiterated before getting in a dig at former President Joe Biden.



“The Biden administration let thousands of terrorists into this country. They opened the southern border. They abused our asylum programs, abused our protective programs and visa programs, and we fixed all of it,” Noem claimed.

High praise for the commander-in-chief followed.

“It’s remarkable what President Trump has done, and it’s because he’s a great leader,” Noem said. “He’s a visionary, and this man is going to go down as a legend in history as our greatest president ever.”

Conservatives erupt


President Donald Trump and Fox News host Laura Ingraham got into a tense back-and-forth over H-1B visas in a recent interview, with Trump insisting “you do have to bring in talent” and telling her, “No, you don’t,” when she argued the U.S. has “plenty of talented people here” — a remark that immediately sparked backlash from the right. By: Yuri Gripas – Pool via CNP / MEGA© Knewz (CA)
As Noem’s comments made their way across conservative circles, the reactions from many commentators were not kind, Mediaite reported.

“We do not want or need more people to become citizens,” podcaster Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire wrote on social media in response to a clip of Noem’s remarks.

Steve Bannon’s White House correspondent Natalie Winters piled on. “Not sure what is worse: this actually happening or the admin thinking this is a ‘win,'” she wrote on X.

“Kristi Noem basically saying, ‘We’re making sure AOC or Gavin Newsom have more voters in 2028,'” noted Ryan Girdusky, founder of the 1776 Project Political Action Committee.

And the criticism kept coming.

More outrage


When Fox News host Laura Ingraham recently pressed President Donald Trump on what was “MAGA” about welcoming large numbers of Chinese students to the U.S., he grew defensive, telling her, “Don’t forget MAGA was my idea. MAGA was nobody else’s idea,” insisting, “I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive.” By: ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA© Knewz (CA)
Right-leaning journalists accused Noem of bragging about exactly the opposite of what they believe Trump voters wanted.

“What is going on in the Trump admin? Who told them MAGA was all about mass immigration as long as the paperwork gets filed properly? We don’t need more paper Americans, we need fewer foreigners taking jobs that should go to actual Americans,” complained John Daniel Davidson, a senior correspondent for The Federalist.

Another The Federalist journalist, elections correspondent Brianna Lyman, chimed in, too, writing, “America didn’t vote for a legal invasion either, @Sec_Noem.”

Breitbart News immigration and fashion writer John Binder added skepticism about Noem’s claims.

“Aside from this being the opposite of what Trump voters voted for, I’m not sure how this is true. Biden naturalized almost 3.5M migrants in 4 years — the most ever by any POTUS,” Binder shared on X. “For Trump to beat this, USCIS would have to be naturalizing a million migrants every year.”

More people pile on


Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s praise of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies during a recent Fox News interview sparked strong pushback from many conservatives, highlighting divisions within the MAGA movement over the future of immigration. By: Francis Chung – Pool via CNP / MEGA© Knewz (CA)
Blowback also came from social media accounts that normally align with hard-line Trump politics.

“Trump is accelerating the flood of foreign workers into the workforce. And they are proud of it. Just listen to Secy Noem brag about it,” wrote the conservative X account War for the West, which positions itself against “neo-Marxist” movements.


“The biggest source of all is the employer-sponsored Green Card program. It allows employers to choose who immigrates to the United States. Why do we let corporations control this massive component of our immigration system?” War for the West added.

X account Oilfield Rando summed up the mood among angry supporters. “So MAGA straight up died this week huh,” noted the creator of conservative-leaning RandoLand, which reports on U.S. government spending.

 

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The 19 ‘third-world countries’ Trump has blocked migration from – and what it means


Donald Trump has said the US will “permanently pause” migration from all “Third World Countries” following the death of a National Guard member in a shooting near the White House.

He did not identify the countries he was referring to by name, but the Department of Homeland Security said it was re-examining green cards issued to people from 19 “countries of concern”.

It came after Trump announced the death of Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who was shot along with another National Guard member, Andrew Wolfe, 24, who remains in a critical condition.

Investigators say the shooting was carried out by an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme.

Which countries are being targeted?
Writing about his latest migration crackdown on Truth Social, Trump did not name any of the countries being targeted or explain what he meant by “Third World”.

“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” he wrote.




Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens”, adding that he would “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilization”.



A picture of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who is the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members (Photo: Nathan Howard/Reuters)
Earlier, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the Department of Homeland Security, said Trump had ordered a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern”.

When asked which countries were considered to be “of concern”, USCIS pointed to 19 countries targeted in a previous immigration crackdown announced in June.

They are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

The department has not provided further details about what the re-examination will entail.

USCIS has already stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely, pending a review of “security and vetting protocols”.

Why are they being targeted?
Trump blamed the attack in Washington on the resettlement programme set up by President Joe Biden after the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

“Hundreds of thousands of people poured into our Country totally unvetted and unchecked,” Trump said. “We will fix it, but will never forget what Crooked Joe Biden and his Thugs did to our Country!”

Trump suggested the Afghan resettlement programme was an example of broader failures with US immigration policy that he was seeking to address.


Trump said his administration was aiming to achieve a “major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations”.

Going further, Trump blamed refugees for causing the “social dysfunction in America” and vowed to remove “anyone who is not a net asset” to the US.

The 19 countries targeted are primarily in Africa and the Middle East.

In June, Trump justified their inclusion as a matter of national security, following an attack on Colorado’s Jewish community, which was allegedly carried out by an Egyptian national.

A presidential proclamation gave individual reasons for why restrictions were being applied to each country. In most cases, they were either accused of being linked to terrorism (Iran, Somalia and Libya), or that their citizens tended to overstay visas (Chad, Congo and Equatorial Guinea).


What comes next?
As with previous crackdowns, the restrictions are likely to face challenges in the courts.

The measures announced in June expanded on the travel ban announced by Trump in 2017, during his first term in office. Dubbed the “Muslim ban”, it targeted seven predominantly Muslim countries: Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

It had to be amended twice to overcome court challenges, after opponents argued it was illegal and unconstitutional because it discriminated against people based on their faith.

A toned-down version was ultimately upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2018 but then rescinded by the Biden administration.



Protests against Trump’s first travel ban in 2017 (Photo: Reuters)
The travel ban announced in June was designed to avoid some of the legal pitfalls of Trump’s first attempt, placing less emphasis on religion.

In August, a judge in Washingon DC ruled that the federal law invoked by Trump did not give the State Department the power to deny visas to foreigners.


The decision, issued by US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, applied to 82 people from Afghanistan, Burma, Togo, Somalia and Iran who won the right to apply for visas under the so-called diversity visa programme.

However, the ruling accepted that immigration authorities were still allowed to deny the foreign citizens entry to the US by turning them away at a port of entry or instructing airline officials to refuse them boarding.