(NEW YORK) — Stormy Daniels is “set to testify” in former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush money trial set for March, the adult film actress said on the most recent episode of her podcast.
“Obviously, things have been next level crazy since I am set to testify in, at this point in time, March,” Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said during an episode of her podcast, “Beyond the Norm,” that was released Sunday.
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment to ABC News.
Daniel’s lawyer said he could not comment on her potential testimony.
“That will be their call,” her attorney, Clark Brewster, told ABC News, declining to say whether his client met with prosecutors to prepare for possible testimony.
“I have no clue as to their timing, strategy, and whether they will call her as a witness,” Brewster said.
Daniels’ comments were first reported by CBS News.
Trump in April pleaded not guilty in New York City to a 34-count criminal indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election. The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
Judge Juan Merchan has tentatively set a trial date of March 25, but he has signaled a willingness to move the date in order to avoid a conflict with other Trump criminal cases.
ABC News previously reported that Daniels met with prosecutors at the request of the Manhattan district attorney’s office roughly two weeks before Bragg brought the case.
Trump in November dropped his effort to move his criminal prosecution over the hush money payment from state court into federal court.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits with his attorneys Joe Tacopina and Boris Epshteyn inside the courtroom during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court April 4, 2023 in New York City. (Andrew Kelly-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday lost an experienced defense attorney from his legal roster.
Joe Tacopina told ABC News, “I withdrew on all matters.”
Tacopina accompanied Trump when the former president pleaded not guilty in New York last April to charges that he falsified business records stemming from his hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan DA’s office allege that Trump engaged in a “scheme” to boost his election chances during the 2016 presidential race through a series of hush money payments made by others to help his campaign, and then “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records” to conceal that criminal conduct. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
In a letter to Judge Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, Tacopina wrote, “I write to respectfully inform the Court that my firm, Chad Seigel and I hereby withdraw as counsel for Defendant Donald J. Trump in this proceeding,”
Susan Necheles is Trump’s lead counsel in the case. Attorney Todd Blanche also appeared at April’s arraignment.
Tacopina also represented Trump in the civil defamation and battery case brought by former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, in which Trump was found liable and ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.
Tacopina will no longer handle Trump’s appeal of that verdict.
Attorney Alina Habba and her partner Michael Maddaio are representing Trump in Carroll’s other lawsuit in that case, which is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.
Tacopina was one of the most accomplished trial lawyers on Trump’s legal team, with a long history of criminal case victories. His client list has included former baseball star Alex Rodriguez, Fox News host Sean Hannity and rapper A$AP Rocky.
He declined to comment further on his withdrawal as Trump’s attorney.
(DES MOINES, IOWA) — Vivek Ramaswamy is ending his 2024 presidential campaign on Monday night after a disappointing result in Iowa’s Republican caucuses despite spending months in the state trying to woo voters, a spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(DES MOINES, IOWA) — A highly conservative electorate focused on immigration, the economy and rejection of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory cast the first votes in the 2024 presidential contest in Monday night’s Iowa caucuses, according to preliminary entrance poll results.
Sixty-five percent of GOP voters say they didn’t think Biden legitimately won the presidency in 2020. Sixty-four percent say they’d consider Donald Trump fit for office even if he were convicted of a crime. And 49% say they’re part of the “MAGA movement” that Trump started.
The Republican candidates’ late slogging through the Iowa snow may not have mattered much as 84% of caucusgoers in these preliminary results say they either made up their minds either earlier this month — 14% — or before that, 69%.
In terms of turnout among groups, 88% say they are conservative, matching the high in Iowa caucus GOP entrance polls, including 51% “very” conservative. White voters account for 97% of caucusgoers; evangelical white Christians, 51%.
Demonstrating the prevalence of conservatives and evangelicals, 58% of GOP caucusgoers say they’d favor a federal law banning all or most abortions.
Of four issues tested as most important, two dominated: immigration, at 40%, and the economy, 35%. Foreign policy and abortion were far behind, each cited by 11%.
Top-cited candidate attributes were someone who “shares my values” and “fights for people like me.”
The Iowa Republican caucuses were essentially uncontested in 2020, as Trump sought nomination for reelection. In the 2016 caucuses, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz edged out Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Cruz did especially well with very conservative caucusgoers, with 44% support; with those looking for a candidate who “shares my values, 38%; and with white evangelicals, 33%.
Trump did best in 2016 with those focused on immigration, with 44% support. He did 11 points better with moderates than with conservatives, 34 vs. 23 %; and lagged among white evangelicals, with 21%.
(DES MOINES, IOWA) — After a seemingly endless stream of rallies, bus tours, campaign stops and more, the 2024 Republican field’s convergence on Iowa will come to an end on Monday when the state holds its first-in-the-nation caucuses.
ABC News’ team of campaign reporters and producers have been following the action for months.
Here are some of their stories from the trail, impressions and memorable moments.
‘Iowa nice’ is real
“Iowa nice” isn’t just a phrase in the Hawkeye state, Iowans really embody it. When talking to voters across the state, after I get done questioning them about the policies they support and the candidates they are planning the caucus for, our conversations usually end with voters offering me a home cooked meal or highlighting the sites I should visit while I’m in town.
When I was stranded at a Pizza Ranch in Marshalltown after a late-night campaign event, one local photographer even drove out of his way so I could get back to Des Moines after the press bus left me.
– Lalee Ibssa
Life goes on — even in the center of the political universe
I was at a diner in Des Moines on caucus day morning as candidate Asa Hutchinson visited and as he spoke to voters, I noticed the servers didn’t skip a beat as they slipped around the candidates and journalists, balancing heavy platters stacked with pancakes and shakes, and they were often reaching in to refill glasses of water even while Hutchinson or a reporter were talking intently to the people around the booths.
It was a moment that reminded me how even during the excitement of caucus season, normal life is still happening all around us. Normal life still seamlessly cuts through all the campaigning, no matter how focused we are on the politics.
– Oren Oppenheim
‘Experience that I will never forget’
In living here, while also covering Vivek Ramaswamy, the guy who’s doing 300+ events in the state, a lot of that is learning a little finesse and multitasking, being innovative, being creative. And so it’s been fun — aside from waking up at an ungodly hour to drive to one corner of the state to the other.
All of that being said, it has been definitely a fun experience from the pizza ranches to the Midwest sunrises and sunsets, to even this blizzard we’ve just had now, to all the people I’ve met and connections I’ve made on the campaign trail. It’s definitely been an experience that I will never forget. So all of that being said, I can’t believe it’s over. I can’t believe that it’s coming to an end.
I had never been to Iowa before this and so now leaving is, you know, bittersweet … I’ve made friends here, I’ve lived here and so it’ll be it’ll be definitely a different pace moving forward. What are some things I’ll miss the most? Hopefully, I’ll be back for the Iowa State Fair for some more food to try, some more corn to judge. And the people.
– Kendall Ross
Iowans’ passion for politics
After covering politics in Washington, D.C., for nearly six years, coming to Iowa to cover the 2024 presidential election felt like coming back to my second home that is Missouri — the cornfields, the brutal snow and best of all, the Midwestern nice.
But unique to Iowa is Iowans’ passion for politics, the democratic process and their special role in nominating the next president of the United States.
It’s been a privilege to hear from them and experience this historic moment together.
-Soorin Kim
Nikki Haley at the baggage claim
Iowa is one of the few places in the country, and perhaps the world, where people can truly get up close and personal with their future leaders. It’s here where everyone — from the farmer to the teacher to the banker to the young child enamored by politics — gets a chance to rub shoulders and bump elbows with the dozens of politicos who descend on the center of America to stump for the support of the folks who live here, in the hope that with enough charismatic speeches and an incalculable number of hands shaken and babies kissed, they might someday get to the White House.
As reporters, we get a special window into those moments, when the campaigns are still small but the aspirations remain large. Occasionally, we even get small moments of our own.
On one September night, after a long series of flights into Des Moines from Los Angeles that included me missing a leg of my trip, nearly losing my bag, and sprinting through Denver International Airport, I waited wearily at the baggage claim, desperate for my head to hit my hotel pillow. As I stood alone in the small room of luggage carousels and watched the clock inch toward midnight, I noticed a familiar face approaching me — it was the candidate I’d been assigned to cover: former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
I stood there for a moment, trying to sneak glances and verify it was actually her before I walked over to introduce myself. Both of us looked exhausted after a long day of travel, but when I walked up she still smiled and the two of us exchanged pleasantries before we hoisted our bags and trekked out into the night, knowing the long road we both had ahead of us.
Looking back, it felt like the perfect encapsulation of what happens everyday here during a campaign. It was a human moment — small and largely forgettable. But in Iowa, it’s small moments like those, if you can get enough of them with voters, that can sometimes help move the needle just enough to propel a campaign forward.
(WASHINGTON) — Monday night’s Iowa caucuses are the first chance for voters to weigh in on the Republican presidential candidates — and President Joe Biden’s campaign has already readied their argument on the results.
Advisers tell ABC News that while GOP candidates are racing to the right, Biden is focused on fighting for democracy and American freedoms.
That is likely to be a familiar refrain throughout the 2024 race. The president, whom Republicans assail as too “feeble” and ineffective on issues like inflation and immigration, is pushing back on his would-be opponents, labeling them as election deniers enthralled to Trump-style rhetoric and opposed to abortion rights.
“There is no difference between the Republican candidates in the field … all of these Republican candidates are singing the same, terrible song,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a press conference on Monday, focusing his remarks on contrasts between Biden and Donald Trump, the GOP primary front-runner.
Biden’s campaign dispatched top allies to Iowa ahead of the caucuses, including Pritzker, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith and Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, to counterprogram Republicans’ message even as they acknowledge many voters still aren’t fully tuned in.
A campaign official said they will have a war room set up at campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, to monitor the Iowa caucuses. Aides will dissect data like results from precincts and GOP turnout.
The president has his own issues. He’s received months of poor or mediocre polling and has an approval rating mired in the 30s, according to 538. Republicans “think anyone can beat him,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
Pritzker seemed to acknowledge that on Monday, telling reporters, “Joe Biden has yet to have had a battle … between the Republicans and run against a single Republican. So until we see that, we won’t know really what the numbers are.”
Biden campaign officials told ABC News that their internal research shows voters are not yet paying close attention to the general election, set for Nov. 5.
A senior campaign aide said that their data shows around three-in-four undecided voters do not yet believe that Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee, despite his persistent polling lead.
Once the choice between Trump and Biden crystalizes, the president’s campaign believes Americans will be turned off by a MAGA message seen as dark and out of touch.
In the meantime, the campaign will continue to remind voters of the threats they see from a second Trump presidency because of Trump’s embrace of Jan. 6 and other rhetoric. (Trump, for his part, has tried to turn Biden’s attack back around on him.)
Though the Biden campaign has polling problems, it has been quick to tout its financial advantages: Biden is entering the election year with $117 million in cash on hand, the highest amount raised by any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the cycle.
Campaign officials said that while Republican candidates, including Trump, are expected to have to keep spending cash to battle in the primary, the Biden campaign — which faces no significant primary threat — can target funds on battleground states and save some spending for months closer to the general election.
One of those battleground states is Pennsylvania, which Biden has already visited three times since 2024 began.
Part of that is convenience: The state is the easiest of the battlegrounds for Biden to get to, a campaign official said.
This official addded that Pennsylvania has many critical voter groups for Democrats, including working-class voters, blue-collar voters, swing voters and many Black and Latino voters.
But, at this early stage in the 2024 race, the campaign official made clear that they are also focused on other swing states, with pilot programs in Arizona and Wisconsin. The official said to expect the president to travel to other battleground states in the coming months.
Harris responded to attacks from Republican Nikki Haley, who has made Harris a frequent target on the campaign trail, arguing that the vice president is who she’s really running against — because of President Joe Biden’s advanced age — and that Harris is a drag on the 2024 Biden reelection ticket.
“Let’s see what Iowa says to her!” Harris told ABC News’ Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, letting out a laugh.
ABC News spent the day with Harris in Columbia, South Carolina, her second trip to the state with 19 days to go until Democrats first-in-the-nation primary. It’s also Haley’s home state and the state which gave Biden his first big win of the 2020 race.
As former President Donald Trump remains the clear front-runner in the primary polls — even as challengers like Haley, a former U.N. ambassador, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hope to gain ground on him in Iowa — Harris was asked if her concerns for the country are the same no matter who wins the Republican nomination for president.
“Let me just tell you this, no matter who the Republican nominee is, we’re winning. We’re winning,” she said.
But it’s that confidence that has some Democrats sounding the alarm, concerned that the Biden-Harris team isn’t being aggressive enough in light of Biden’s anemic approval rating and lengthy string of poor or mediocre polling.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a close ally to the Biden-Harris campaign, has shared his apprehensions about building enthusiasm among Black voters ahead of November’s election, and former President Barack Obama reportedly suggested the campaign be more assertive as Trump appears on path to secure the Republican nomination.
Asked by Bruce on Monday if she views Trump as a forgone conclusion to top the GOP ticket, Harris was blunt.
“I don’t know. But look, if it is Donald Trump, we’ve beat him before and we’ll beat him again,” she said flatly. “When you … look at all of the issues that are at stake, including our standing in the world, I think that the people of America want more in terms of the outcome of this election and charting the course for the future of our country.”
Republicans, for their part, are seeking to paint Biden and Harris as incompetent at handling high inflation and immigration numbers, among other issues.
On the trail on Monday, Harris delivered the keynote address at the South Carolina NAACP’s annual “King Day at the Dome” event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
There — echoing what is a key campaign message – she warned against “extremists” whom she said are engaged in “a full-on attack on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms,” focusing, in particular, on abortion and voting rights.
Drawing comparisons between King’s civil rights fight and the fight Democrats face entering an election year, Harris did not call out any of the Republican candidates by name but delivered thinly veiled swipes at Trump, Haley and DeSantis.
“Today, extremists pass book bans! Books ban — in this year of our Lord 2024! And then they even try to erase, overlook and rewrite the ugly parts of our past. For example, the Civil War, which must I really have to say was about slavery?” she said from the South Carolina State House steps. “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates.”
Harris also made an afternoon campaign stop at Big T’s BBQ to thank supporters and encourage turnout for the Feb. 23 primary.
“Elections matter. Elections matter. So I’m here to say thank you,” she told the group of mostly Black supporters, many of whom had chanted “four more years” as she walked in.
“Let’s make sure everyone does what they know how to do and have always done to show the leadership of South Carolina for our nation. It’s first in the nation and sets the tone for everything that comes,” Harris said. “And when I think about what is at stake, there is so much.”
(NEW YORK) — Opening statements are expected Tuesday in the trial of Victoria Jacobs, an Uzbekistan native who is charged with using cryptocurrency to fund Syrian-based terrorist groups and launder supporters’ contributions.
It is the first-ever terrorism financing trial in the New York State court system.
The six-count indictment, filed in January 2023, charged Jacobs with providing support for an act of terrorism, money laundering and other crimes.
“This complex case demonstrates the depth of knowledge and resources this Office has to combat terrorism and extremism in New York and throughout the globe,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at the time.
Jacobs, who was known as Bakhrom Talipov, provided material support to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization, and provided more than $5,000 to the terrorist training group Malhama Tactical, which fought with and provided special tactical and military training to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the indictment said.
Jacobs allegedly laundered $10,661 on behalf of Malhama Tactical by receiving cryptocurrency and Western Union and MoneyGram wires from supporters around the globe and sending the funds to Bitcoin wallets controlled by Malhama Tactical. In addition to sending cryptocurrency, she also purchased Google Play gift cards for the organization, according to the indictment.
Jacobs pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In October 2018, the defendant saved notes on her cell phone, which the indictment quoted as saying “Assalamu aleykum my dear brothers and sisters, we currently are buildings new place (train camp), it’s getting cold and we need new place, who want help us and support can do this safely and anonymously by Bitcoin wallet. Send me DM for details. Retweet.”
In December 2019, Jacobs provided a comprehensive U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook to an online group – which she believed was associated with both Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and al-Qaeda affiliated Jihadist group Hurras al-Din – to facilitate their bomb-making efforts in Syria, the indictment said.
Prosecutors said Jacobs bought military-style combat knives, metal knuckles, and throwing-stars in August 2021 that were found in her Upper East Side apartment.
“Disturbingly, approximately one month later, on September 21-22, 2021, the defendant, in a Telegram chat, claimed to be a ‘brother’ who was ‘behind enemy lines’ and asked for prayers for the ‘courage, strength, guidance, and wisdom to carry out certain missions,'” Assistant District Attorney Edward Burns said.
“Along with these statements, defendant posted a 15-second video clip of an unknown person ominously moving around with a firearm. The timing of this post and the defendant’s acquisition of the weapons supports the conclusion that she intended to use the weapons in an unlawful manner.”
(NEW YORK) — A New York judge has cleared the way for Donald Trump to testify at his own defamation trial after lawyers for writer E. Jean Carroll raised concerns that the former president could “sow chaos” by attending the trial, which begins Tuesday.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said that, if necessary, he would grant a continuance so that the trial, which was initially scheduled to conclude this week, would be extended so Trump could testify on Monday, Jan. 22.
In a separate order, the judge rejected Trump’s request to postpone the trial for a week so he could attend Thursday’s funeral of Amalija Knavs, the mother of former first lady Melania Trump, who died last Tuesday after a long health battle.
“The Court offers its condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Trump and the rest of Ms. Knavs’ family,” the judge wrote. “Mr. Trump is free to attend the trial, the funeral, or all or parts of both, as he wishes.”
Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, sued Trump in November 2019 over comments he made shortly after Carroll publicly accused him of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s.
Last May, Carroll won a related case accusing Trump of battery and defamation based on a 2022 statement Trump made on social media in which he again accused her of lying about the alleged attack. Jury members found that Trump did not rape Carroll but sexually abused her, and awarded her a total of $5 million. Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, is appealing that case.
This week’s trial will determine how much Trump owes Carroll in damages for defaming her in 2019, after a Carroll in September won a partial summary judgment against Trump based on the ruling in last year’s case.
Concerned that Trump might “poison” this week’s court proceedings, Carroll’s attorney had requested “robust prophylactic measures” in case Trump attends the jury trial.
“If Mr. Trump appears at this trial, whether as a witness or otherwise, his recent statements and behavior strongly suggest that he will seek to sow chaos. Indeed, he may well perceive a benefit in seeking to poison these proceedings,” wrote Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is no relation to the judge.
In arguing for strict rules governing Trump’s attendance, Carroll’s attorney cited Trump’s conduct last week at his New York civil fraud trial, where Trump delivered a closing statement that the attorney said contradicted the court’s summary judgment ruling, attacked the legitimacy of the proceedings, and violated the ground rules established by the judge.
“It takes little imagination to think that Mr. Trump is gearing up for a similar performance here — only this time, in front of a jury,” Carroll’s attorney wrote.
In advance of the trial, Judge Kaplan had issued a series of orders limiting what Trump and his lawyers are allowed to argue. Per those orders, Trump cannot claim he did not rape Carroll, nor can he deny that he sexually assaulted her, or question her motives, or claim she was lying. With such testimony off the table, Carroll’s attorney argued that Trump would likely have no feasible arguments that he could make if he testifies, suggesting the move would be part of a broader political tactic to delegitimize the trial.
“While a defamation defendant could theoretically offer testimony about their lack of wealth in the hope of minimizing a punitive damages award, any such testimony from Mr. Trump here would run headlong into Mr. Trump’s sworn testimony and public statements elsewhere,” she wrote.
Carroll’s attorney asked that the judge warn Trump about the consequences of violating the court order against prohibited testimony, that he direct Trump’s lawyers to provide proof of that Trump understands the consequences before Trump testifies, and that he require Trump to testify on the record that he “sexually assaulted Ms. Carroll, and that he spoke falsely with actual malice and lied when accusing her of fabricating her account and impugning her motives.”
Responding in a letter to the court, Trump attorney Alina Habba described the requests as a “desperate attempt to pigeonhole President Trump’s defense and to prevent his legal team from preparing for the upcoming trial.”
Habba told the court that Trump “can still offer considerable testimony in his defense,” including clarifying the circumstances of his allegedly defamatory statements and differentiating the alleged multiple instances of sexual assault raised at trial. She added that the remedies proposed by Carroll’s team are “far-fetched” and unreasonable to enforce in front of a jury, including forcing Trump to state on the record that he sexually assaulted Carroll.
“We presume that this is not a kangaroo court of a third-world country where a party to a lawsuit is involuntarily made to say what a court and an opposing party wants them to say,” Habba wrote. “Given the Court’s prior rulings in this case, President Trump’s ability to defend himself at trial is already severely limited. Precluding him from taking the stand altogether would be a manifest injustice and a clear violation of his constitutional rights.”
Judge Kaplan declined to adopt the measures proposed by Carroll’s lawyers but vowed to ensure the rule of law would be followed during the trial.
“The Court will take such measures as it finds appropriate to avoid circumvention of its rulings and of the law,” the judge wrote.
(ERBIL, Iraq) — Several explosions were reported near the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq, an Iraqi security source told ABC News.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps quickly took responsibility for targeting and destroying what it said was the Mossad headquarters in Erbil, Iraq. Mossad is the national intelligence agency for Israel.
The IRGC said it used ballistic missiles in the attack.
Coalition forces also shot down three drones near Erbil airport in Iraq, the source said. There were no human losses among the coalition forces or American forces in the bombing of Erbil, an Iraqi security source told ABC News.
Air traffic has stopped in Erbil, an Iraqi security source said, and the source stated that the bombing was very violent.
The source said eight locations were targeted near the U.S. Consulate.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
