Assistant DA Asks Judge to Remind Trump That 'Incarceration Is an Option' If He Violates Gag Order

Good evening and welcome to the Capitol Report on Entity Television. I'm Steve Lance. And coming up, the former publisher of the National Enquirer resuming testimony today in former President Trump's criminal trial in New York. Plus, both sides argue on whether Trump violated the judge's gag order and why Trump thinks the order is unconstitutional. And the Senate passing the $95 billion foreign aid package, which includes a bill to force TikTok to divest from China. And day seven of the historic campaign finance trial against former President Trump, the former publisher of the National Enquirer returning to the stand, but not before both sides argued about the prosecution's request for gag order sanctions. As he left the courthouse, Trump said the gag order is unconstitutional. Entity's Arlene Richards has an update. After attorneys debated whether former President Trump violated the gag order, former National Enquirer boss David Pecker returned to the stand. The judge did not make a decision on the gag order, but Trump commented on it this afternoon. Well, I think the gag order is totally unconstitutional. Can't even allow articles to be put in. As an example, these are articles that were over the last day and a half. They're very good articles. And I don't even know if you're allowed to put a gag on it, which to me is totally unconstitutional. I'm not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me. Pecker was granted immunity by prosecutors to testify about his so-called catch and kill strategies. Monday, Pecker candidly explained, we used checkbook journalism and we paid for stories. He said during the 2016 presidential election, he purchased the rights to the Stormy Daniels affair allegations in order to shield Trump from embarrassment. Prosecutors are looking to establish that this case is about election fraud and that Pecker purchased damaging stories to benefit Trump while he was running for president. In the indictment, prosecutors did not identify any underlying crime that Trump was allegedly trying to cover up, which is required in order to elevate the 34 counts of financial records fraud to felonies. Through Pecker's testimony, prosecutors for the first time attempted to introduce an alleged conspiracy under New York election law, which prohibits conspiracies to promote the election of a specific candidate through unlawful means. The defense objected to the testimony and the judge stopped it. Trump has said that Judge Juan Mershon is taking him off the campaign trail. The presumptive GOP nominee commented on the Pennsylvania election this morning. Thank you very much. It's a big day in Pennsylvania and we hope the people get out there and vote. It's important to vote to let them know that we're coming on November 5th. We're coming big. Today is preliminary, but still it's very important. Pecker testified for just over two hours in the last two days. The judge is expected to rule on the gag order sanctions by Thursday. Arlene Richards, NTD News. Former President Trump's attorneys this morning defending his social media posts in a separate hearing, the prosecution asking Judge Juan Mershon to remind him that incarceration is an option. Joining me now is William Trachman, general counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation to analyze how the judge's gag order is impacting the former president's first amendment rights. William Trachman, thank you so much for joining. Thanks for having me. Of course, William, given reports of Judge Mershon's donations to President Biden and potential financial benefits his daughter has gained from the case, what are your thoughts on this most recent gag order being expanded, particularly after Trump's criticisms? Might this be viewed as an infringement on his free speech? Well, we're in unprecedented territory because we've never had at the same time a really high profile criminal trial going on. And the defendant is running for president and is in fact the presumptive nominee. So here we have core political speech and a judge who's telling the criminal defendant, don't engage in that speech and effectively don't defend yourself on the campaign trail and don't do the things that you would naturally do if someone were attacking you as another candidate. So it really is a unique situation and it's interesting. I don't think there's any sympathy on the part of the judge in terms of recusal or limiting his activity in the case. So I think we're just going to proceed and the Trump team will preserve the issue for appeal. And if there really is a gag order that prevents President Trump from doing something significant on the campaign trail, we may see some sort of appeal to the Supreme Court. How does the gag order, which includes withholding the witness list from Trump's defense, impact the preparation for the trial? And could the situation form the basis of an appeal, particularly with the judge not recusing himself? Well, it's clearly affecting Trump's speech on the campaign trail. So just over the last few days, there was apparently a tweet that said, oh, we're not sure that all the jurors are going to be questioned accurately. And so maybe some folks fit their way on to the jury so that they have influence over the 2024 election. And when Trump commented on that, it became an issue for the prosecution to say, now you're attacking the witnesses. So here you really do have a unique conflict between Trump on the campaign trail and Trump as criminal defendant. I do think these are issues for appeal, but we might not even get there before it goes to a higher level, because the time between now and November is short. And President Trump needs every day on the campaign trail, just like President Biden has between now and November. In light of David Pecker's testimony about the catch and kill tactic with stories, negative stories about Trump, how does this strategy compare to, say, the mainstream media's handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story, which now we know was certainly suppressed? Well, it seems like one is being protected by the media and one is being gone after by the media. So obviously, the Hunter Biden laptop story essentially died before the election because you had intelligence officials and the media saying it was no big deal, it was Russian disinformation. Here, Mr. Pecker's testimony appears relatively irrelevant to the main claims in the case. It is designed to embarrass President Trump and to make the jury think that there's a lot of stuff going on in the orbit of President Trump that is shady and illegitimate. William Trachman, always appreciate your perspective. Thank you. Thanks so much. The Senate just passing the foreign aid package that the House passed over the weekend, providing several billion dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It will also include a bill that will force TikTok to break ties with its Chinese parent company. NTV's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley is joining me in studio to help break this all down. Jack, great to have you in here. As I mentioned, the Senate just passing the substantial foreign aid package, including aid, billions of dollars in assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along with a significant measure aimed at TikTok. Give us an overview of this package. So Steve, this package is a $95 billion package. It passed the Senate by overwhelmingly, it needed only 60 votes, but it got 80 to 19. So this funding, it's a procedural vote, but it's likely to pass either today or tomorrow. So with another vote, it'll reach President Biden's desk. He vowed to sign it. This package includes $61 billion in funding for Ukraine, $20 billion, $26 billion for Israel and over $8 billion for Taiwan now and the Indo-Pacific. Now this bill also, as you said, would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be banned from U.S. app stores. I talked to some senators earlier. Let's take a look. I want to play some of those for you. I think it sends a bad message to our European allies that we'll keep doing it. You know, when's it going to happen again in the future? Just ask that a moment ago. And you've got a bill like the TikTok bill thrown in with something totally different. I mean, I think TikTok is a bad idea for this country. Look at the fact that on their websites, you never, ever see anything about Tiananmen Square or the Dalai Lama, any of their sensitive topics to the Chinese government never appear on TikTok. If that's not a clear admission that they are influencing and controlling the algorithms for their best interests, I don't know what is. Every American company that wants to do business in China, like Dave McCormick, you have to make all kinds of concessions and do whatever the Chinese government demands. We should be doing the same thing for any company that's in bed with the Chinese government as well, too. So, Jack, it was rather impressive hearing from Democrats and Republicans in unity over something being against the TikTok application. Regarding the TikTok bill, what was the impetus behind the bill and what challenges did it face getting through Congress? Right. So, Steve, I learned a lot of these things of packaging these together. It happens behind closed doors. And when it comes to a vote, they get bundled together like this. Now, this bill about TikTok, it prompted by national security concerns. There's the concern that the Chinese government can readily access this data that's collected by users of TikTok. This makes TikTok users' personal information readily accessible by the Chinese regime. The Biden administration already banned TikTok on all government devices. And, you know, there's there has been calls by TikTok. They've been lobbying government officials and their users to, you know, not pass this bill. But as we can see, that hasn't happened. Now, Jack, I want to get your thoughts on Speaker Mike Johnson on the foreign funding in particular. He's faced some backlash from his colleagues on the Republican side. There have been calls to remove him as the speaker of the House. Where does it where does his favorability stand at this moment? Right. You know, one of the most outspoken people against this is Marjorie Taylor Greene. You know, there are other congressional Republicans. They say that securing the southern border should take precedence over supplying funding for foreign countries. Jack Bradley, appreciate the update. Thank you. And on the funding for Ukraine, Speaker Mike Johnson has been facing backlash, as we mentioned, and we'll be getting back to that in just a moment. Joining us now to discuss President Biden's decision to consider sanctions against certain units of the Israeli defense forces, as well as the current threats at the southern border, is Chuck DeBoer, chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Chuck DeBoer, thank you so much for joining. Great to be with you. Chuck Waters, I mean, you're you're located in Texas, and so I think you have a bird's eye view of a lot of the inner workings of what's taking place there. So specifically when it comes to the threats, there are various ones. How? Tell us about some of the most important ones that you think that we're facing and how would that potential funding have mitigated some of those threats? So I think we're looking at three broad categories. I mean, certainly you have the health and safety aspect where you have criminal aliens and aliens, for example, with antibiotic resistant tuberculosis and things like that coming across. You also have a huge increase in people on the terror watch list coming across. And those are the dumb ones that we catch. Right. The third issue is, is I think even more significant. You've heard the FBI kind of hinted this, which is that since the beginning of 2023, we've seen this some 6000 percent increase in military aged Chinese nationals coming across the border. We know that some of them are going to illegal marijuana grows. We know that some of them just kind of disappear into the economy. But we can't discount the possibility that some of these individuals may be here as kind of an advanced military effort, for example, to engage in sabotage or a targeted assassination campaign should tension with the People's Republic of China escalate. Chuck, I want to switch gears a little bit here and get your thoughts on Israel in the war in Gaza against Hamas. Right now, the Biden administration looks like they may be preparing to sanction in IDF battalion for allegations overusing excessive force in the war that they're waging in Gaza. I guess my first question is, is this the time or place? Well, clearly, from a political standpoint, it's the time. That's why Biden's doing it. Biden has a big problem with his his Democratic progressive base. You see that in elite college campuses all over the nation where you have. And I'm not going to characterize these as pro-Palestinian protests. They're not. They're pro-terrorist protests. They're in favor of people who raped and murdered and tortured some fourteen hundred Israelis on October 7th, including some American citizens. That's who they're in favor of. Now, Biden knows he has a big problem in Michigan. And so what this is, I think, is political sop for his far left. He's trying to, for example, prevent utter chaos from breaking out in the Democratic Convention in Chicago. Can you imagine what an incredible dumpster fire that's going to be? So this has nothing to do with the practical realities of war. War is hell. The Israeli defense forces are among the most professional and restrained forces in the world. When you think about Hamas launching rockets constantly out of Gaza into southern Israel, think about it for a moment. If the positions were a little different, what if what if this were Mexican drug cartels in Tijuana and the city being targeted with San Diego? Do you think that the that the American public and the military would exercise even a fraction of the degree of restraint that Israel has shown towards Hamas and Gaza? I don't think so. I think Tijuana would be quickly under martial law and if not, it would be flattened if that were to happen. Chuck DeVore, really appreciate you joining us. Thank you. And coming up, hundreds of arrests at the NYU campus, how anti-Israel protests are escalating and how former President Trump is now speaking out following President Biden's comments on the demonstrations. That and more when we return. Is your shower trying to tell you something? Is getting in and out of the bathtub becoming a safety concern? Are you worried about the cost of a bathroom remodel that could go on for weeks and weeks? Well, now you can have a gorgeous new bath or shower that's safer at a price you can afford with a one day jacuzzi bath remodel. It was done the same day. We did not have to wait. It is amazing. Amazing. 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He doesn't even know what's coming. Another victim of senselessly expensive repair bills. Can't save them all. But we can keep trying. Didn't have to end this way. If he'd have just called CarShield before his car broke down. Exactly. Protect yourself from the unprecedented rise in cost for parts and repairs. Call now to save money with your price lock guarantee. Call 800-429-5128. And welcome back to the Capitol Report. I'm Steve Lance. Anti-Israel protests on college campuses sparking a new fight between former President Trump and President Biden. One calls the protests a disgrace, the other trying to strike a careful balance. Joining us now live is NTD's White House correspondent Iris Tao. Good evening, Iris. So what is the latest on these protests and how are Trump and Biden both responding? Good evening to you, Steve. So Columbia University today announced that it's now shifting all classes to either remote or hybrid for the rest of the entire semester. And that's due to concerns over Jewish students' safety on campus. And that's as these anti-Israel protests have now been spreading among these elite colleges including MIT, Yale and NYU, where on Monday night there were over 100 protesters arrested. And also in New York, former President Trump on Tuesday outside of his courthouse said this, basically speaking out against these protests and blaming them on President Biden. Watch. What's going on at the college level, at the colleges, Columbia, NYU and others is a disgrace. And it's really on Biden. He has the wrong signal, he's got the wrong tone, he's got the wrong words, he doesn't know who he's backing. And it's a mess. And President Trump's criticism of President Biden comes after Biden on Monday said that he condemned anti-Semitic protests but also condemned those who, quote, don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians. And that's as President Biden is facing protests from some of his own voter base over his support for Israel. Steve. So, Iris, the Israel-Hamas war has certainly become a central topic in the 2024 presidential election. Tell us more about President Biden's visit today to Florida and what his goal was in going there. Right. So, President Biden is in Florida today, again, targeting Trump on the issue of abortion, specifically over a six-week abortion ban that's set to go into effect in Florida in just a few days. Here's President Biden speaking in Tampa. Watch. There's one person responsible for this nightmare, and he's acknowledging, he brags about it, Donald Trump. Trump goes out and says individual state laws are working his words brilliantly, brilliantly. It's a six-week ban in Florida, it's really brilliant, isn't it? And in a latest email, the Biden campaign is now calling Florida a battleground state. That's a sign that Biden is eyeing Florida, a state that voted for Republicans in the past two presidential elections. Meanwhile, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis slammed Biden's visit on Tuesday, saying, quote, Floridians are not buying what Joe Biden is selling. And in November, we're going to play an instrumental role in sending him back to Delaware. Steve. A little sarcasm there from the current president. Iris Tau reporting live from the White House. Thank you, Iris. And President Biden making a campaign stop in former President Trump's home state of Florida. As we just saw, Biden visiting the state to rail against Florida's six-week abortion ban goes into effect on May 1st, and to capitalize on a November ballot measure to amend Florida's constitution to allow abortions. Joining me now to discuss the implications of Biden's visit is Horace Cooper, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research. Horace Cooper. Thank you so much for joining. Thanks for having me on. Of course. Horace, President Biden campaigning in Florida today, kind of an interesting choice of location for him. Florida has some of the strictest abortion restrictions in the nation, a six-week ban. What do you think his motivation is for going there? Is it to rally the base or do you think he has some other motive? This president says all he has to offer is fear itself. Without leadership scaring people, the agenda of this administration has been awfully destructive in terms of making it nearly impossible for working class, middle class Americans to be able to maintain their lifestyle. And rather than offer a redress of that, he wants to divide us on the basis of abortion. This is really, really ironic because in the reelection when Richard Nixon was running for office, he once quipped that the Democrats, all they had was acid, amnesty and abortion. We are looking at at least two of those. And when you start talking about drug legalization, which this administration is pushing, we may be seeing all three of these as far out of the mainstream visions that this administration is pushing. So, go to Florida, talk about these kinds of really, really divisive items. But if you're not prepared to make the kinds of changes to your economic program, I don't see how it works. President Biden is potentially going to be changing the rules in Title IX. You have former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos criticizing the Biden administration for this. It suggests that it would undermine women's protection in college sports. Tell us what your thoughts are on how this would affect women. So the Title IX statute was one of the last laws passed, enacted by Richard M. Nixon. Its purpose was to see to it that colleges and universities that already had programs that allowed young men to come in, receive scholarships, participate in athletic activities, also make some effort to do so with women. What this new rule does is it says that if some of the so-called women are actually biologically men, they're going to get that protection. And it focuses more on gender than it does on biology. So you could go back to a pre-1972 period where we were looking at over 90% of all resources going to men. How? Because some 60% would be going to men who identify as men. And then if there's 40% that are supposed to go to women, if 25% of that is going to individuals who are biologically men, you could end up with more than 80% of resources, assistance, and support actually going to people who are biologically men. This rolls back the clock for women's rights. Of course, Cooper, as always, really appreciate your perspective. Thank you. An award-winning film depicting China's human rights abuses has hit the big screen on Capitol Hill. It delves into the life of a student at an elite Chinese university who risked his life and career to expose a nationwide persecution. Entity Sam Wong has more. Chinese government's own estimate is... On Tuesday, the award-winning film, Unsilenced, hit the big screen on Capitol Hill. Based on actual events, the movie tells the story of a group of university students who risked their lives to expose a brutal nationwide persecution by the Chinese regime. The film follows the footsteps of Wong, a Falun Gong practitioner, and a jaded American journalist who finds himself lost in the industry he loves. Facing possible arrest, torture, and death, they must make a choice, remain silent, or tell the public the truth. It probably deserves a wider distribution to let people know what, yeah, what the situation is in China. I thought it was deeply informative. It was also really poignant and disturbing. It just made me want to think about the people more in China, those who had the same belief as I do. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. On July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched a nationwide persecution against the group, even mobilizing state-run media to defame its teachings. No power is allowed to exist outside the party, and that's something that's characteristic of totalitarian regimes. Unsilenced has received a string of honors, including the Audience Award at the 2021 Austin Film Festival. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Sam Wang, NTD News. Aid is coming Israel's way, but pro-Palestine protests continue to escalate across the country. Latest on that and insights from an Israeli parliament member on NTD Evening News at 6 p.m. Eastern. And for round-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at NTD.com and download our NTD app. That's all we have for you this evening on the Capitol Report. Thank you for watching. From the nation's capital, I'm Steve Lance. Have a nice evening. See you back here tomorrow.