donald trump
Page: 24
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Los Angeles Times / Getty
The current lawyer for A$AP Rocky, Joseph Tacopina, has withdrawn himself from Donald Trump’s legal team in two major upcoming cases.
On Monday (Jan. 15), Joseph Tacopina submitted a notice to the court in Manhattan, New York, overseeing the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump informing them that he was no longer going to represent Trump against adult film star Stormy Daniels. He submitted a similar notice to the judge overseeing the civil lawsuit brought against Trump by E. Jean Carroll, who said that Trump raped her in a department store.
Trump is currently appealing the guilty verdict returned against him in that case. Tacopina is currently representing A$AP Rocky in his upcoming criminal trial where he’s accused of shooting his former friend A$AP Relli in Hollywood in 2021.Tacopina has had an extensive history of representing high-profile clients including Hip-Hop artists such as Meek Mill, Foxy Brown and Sticky Fingaz of Onyx as well as going up against them in court. He earned the wrath of Cardi B during her 2019 strip club assault case by criticizing her courtroom attire, prompting her to blast him and his handling of Meek Mill’s case in deleted Instagram videos.
The barrister’s client base also includes such notable figures as Fox News host Sean Hannity, who referred to him as one of the “greatest defense attorneys of all time” as well as former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez. “He’s not a person that just phones it in; he lives it,” Rodriguez said briefly when contacted by the New York Times about the bold lawyer. “When he defends you, he defends you like you’re family.”
Tacopina’s withdrawal from these cases came hours before the Republican presidential caucuses were held in Iowa, which saw Donald Trump handily defeat his opponents by a wide margin. When contacted by reporters about the moves, Tacopina declined to comment. “President Trump has the most experienced, qualified, disciplined, and overall strongest legal team ever assembled as he continues to fight for America and Americans against these partisan, Crooked Joe Biden-led election interference hoaxes,” said Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the former president in an email response to press inquiries.
However, Cheung didn’t directly address why Tacopina left. Trump was expected to appear at Manhattan Superior Court today for proceedings, announcing the damages that E. Jean Carroll would be granted by the judge in that case.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
For years now Donald Trump‘s mental decline has been on full display both on camera and on his social media posts, and yesterday the front runner for the Republican nomination for President of The United States once again found himself trending for showing just how mentally incompetent he’s become.Yesterday Donald Trump once again lashed out at New York Attorney General Letitia James for trying to make him cough up $370 million dollars in the civil-fraud case he’s currently battling in court and in a video rant he posted on his Truth Social website, Trump titled his post “Even my Political Opponents Have Spoken Against the Ludacris Demands of NYS AG Tish James.”
Of course many were quick to notice that “Ludacris” somehow broke through unto Donald Trump’s limited vocabulary and Rep. Jared Moscowitz (D-FL) was quick to point out the rapper’s name and tagged him on the post for comedy’s sake saying “@Ludacris he forgot to tag you.”
It was all downhill for Donny after that as social media users pounced on the opportunity to once again remind Trump and his cult that the wannabe dictator isn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the bunch. Might be the whitest, but not the brightest.
Though Luda hasn’t responded to the tag nor to Trump using his name, the rapper did denounced Donald back in 2020 when he said he felt that Trump’s administration was causing more “dissension instead of unity.” This statement came well before MAGA cult members resorted to death threats, swatting and actual violence against Trump critics, so maybe Luda is steering clear of that MAGAt smoke that no one wants any part of.
Check out some more of the hilarious responses to Trump’s “Ludacris” post below and let us know your thoughts on the hiccup in the comments section.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty
Documents in a case linked to Jeffrey Epstein were unsealed for the public, and former President Donald Trump’s name is among those mentioned.
On Wednesday evening (January 3), court documents related to a case involving the disgraced hedge fund billionaire Jeffrey Epstein who was accused of sex trafficking were unsealed and released to the public. Many were eagerly anticipating the release to find out if there were other notable figures mentioned. Former President Donald Trump was confirmed to be among those names.
Trump’s name first appears on a document where Epstein is quoted as saying that he intended to meet up with him during a weather-related stop en route from Palm Beach to Atlantic City (at that time, Trump was still involved in real estate) in a conversation with former accuser Johanna Sjoberg. She mentioned going to one of his casinos, to which Epstein agreed: “Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to—I don’t recall the name of the casino, but—we’ll go to the casino,” Sjoberg was quoted as saying. The other instance where Trump is mentioned in the documents is when a witness states that she was never asked by Epstein to enter into sexual relations with Trump.
Trump was friendly with the 66-year-old for quite some time in the early 1990s, with the two often hanging out at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach by the accounts of witnesses in the documents. In a 2002 interview for New York Magazine, Trump referred to Epstein as a “terrific guy”. Epstein’s pilot also recalled Trump being present on the financier’s jet for several flights from Palm Beach to New York City. In 2009 though, Trump stated that the two had a falling out, saying: “I had a falling out with him a long time ago; I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan.”
The twice-impeached former president has been quiet since the unsealing of the documents. Right-wing supporters of Trump have been steadily hurling accusations of wrongdoing at former President Bill Clinton, who has also been mentioned often in documents related to Epstein to smear Democrats. Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and associate of the late Epstein (who died by suicide in 2019), states that a former accuser, Virginia Guiffre, lied about seeing Clinton at Epstein’s private island in a now-settled 2015 lawsuit. That dispute lies behind Clinton’s repeated mentions.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty
Documents linked to the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein will be released in full soon, leaving right-wingers to allege Bill Clinton was involved with him in sex trafficking.
A list of clients connected to the alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is set to be released as part of a packet of court documents in connection with a defamation case brought against his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell in New York City. The pending release has already prompted many prominent right-wing figures to hurl accusations against Democratic political figures like former President Bill Clinton without concrete proof of wrongdoing.
The list is believed to contain over 150 names of people associated with Epstein over the years. U.S. federal Judge Loretta Preska ruled that the documents were to be unsealed after January 1, stating that there was no legal standing for the “John and Jane Does” to be anonymous. Epstein died by suicide while incarcerated in 2019 in Manhattan as he awaited trial for federal sex-trafficking charges.
Among the names that have floated out along with Clinton are former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Both men confirmed their encounters, adding their “regrets” over having done so. A spokesperson for Clinton said in a 2019 statement that he “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago or those with which he has been recently charged in New York.” Former President Donald Trump hasn’t been identified in the documents, but he has previously spoken about knowing Epstein. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” he said in a New York Magazine interview from 2002.
Despite that, right-wing politicians have begun a campaign of public accusations against Clinton and other Democratic or left-leaning figures supposedly involved with Epstein. GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter saying: “For some us, it’s no surprise at all that Bill Clinton will be named in the Jeffrey Epstein files. We said it a long time ago but they labeled us conspiracy theorists.”
Other names that have surfaced concerning the documents include Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew, who were sued by Virginia Guiffre for sexual abuse. She’d settle with Prince Andrew afterward, and drop her claims against Dershowitz.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Jason Koerner / Getty
It’s not as if Vanilla Ice would ever have credibility in the Hip-Hop community. But perhaps to compound that fact, there was the man born Robert Van Winkle performing at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago for its New Year’s Eve party.
Actually, there was Vanilla Ice and a Teenage Mutant Turtle performing on the Mar-A-Lago stage. We couldn’t make this stuff up as we tried.
We really could care less about who the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper performs for. But kicking bars for a roomful of Trump supporters (and Trump himself)—who in turn are cool with the Orange Oaf’s racist and sexist antics (and 91 indictments)—tells us all we need to know that Mr. Ice will do just about anything for a check.
We compiled some of the best slander off social media below, for archival purposes.
The late, great Phife Dawg still reigns true: “Vanilla Ice platinum?/That sh*t’s ridiculous.
5. Never forget.
13. What a time.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: JEFF KOWALSKY / Getty
A new report says Donald Trump was caught on tape personally pressuring electors in Michigan to not certify the 2020 presidential election.
A new recording of Donald Trump speaking to Michigan electors to get them not to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election was revealed to the public on Thursday (December 21). The call was made by then-President Trump and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on November 17, 2020, to Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, two Republican canvassers for Wayne County. Trump and McDaniel led off the conversation by saying the two would look “terrible” if they voted to certify the results after voicing opposition to the results in an earlier meeting.
“We’ve got to fight for our country,” Trump can be heard saying on the call. “We can’t let these people take our country away from us.” Later on in that same call, McDaniel implored Hartmann and Palmer to go home.”If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys,” McDaniel said. Trump added, “We’ll take care of that,” also stating “Everyone knows Detroit is crooked as hell.”Palmer and Hartmann would go home without signing the official statement of votes for Wayne County and tried to rescind their votes in favor of certification claiming to have been pressured. Hartmann passed away in 2021, and Palmer has not returned any requests for comment.
The recording revelation comes as Trump is now facing four counts of criminal conspiracy for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election which led to Joe Biden becoming Commander-In-Chief, with the events in Michigan a core part of the case brought against him in federal court. Trump is also facing twelve counts of attempting to overturn election results in Georgia. It also becomes more damning for McDaniel, who resides in Wayne County. Marshall Cohen, a reporter for CNN, stated that the tape could be a boon to Special Counsel Jack Smith. “If he doesn’t have it, he definitely wants to get it,” Cohen said Thursday night. “It could be a huge piece of additional evidence.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Fulton County Jail / Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
The former Kanye West publicist Trevian Kutti will need new lawyers after being dropped by her legal team following her recent Instagram posts.
On Monday (December 18), the legal team defending former Kanye West publicist Trevian Kutti filed a motion with the Fulton County Superior Court to withdraw as her counsel. The document notes that Kutti was advised of the move, and it doesn’t give an explicit reason as to why she was dropped. But it does come after Kutti posted a photo to her Instagram account showing her posing with the convicted January 6 rioter Jacob Chansley, notoriously known as the “QAnon Shaman”, with both holding up middle fingers.
In the caption, Kutti writes “Just like they lied on him THEY ARE LYING ON ME,” with the phrase “Cue the haters” superimposed on the photo. The photo was taken at AmFest 2023, an annual convention for the right-wing organization Turning Point USA which was held over the past weekend in Phoenix, Arizona. Chansley, known for his buffalo headdress, was one of the more prominent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol building first and received one of the heftiest sentences by far among those convicted.
Kutti, who is on trial as a co-defendant of former President Donald Trump for their attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, has been unrepentant over her actions as four of the other 19 indicted by Fulton County have already accepted plea deals and will testify. She even went so far as to threaten election worker Ruby Freeman during an Instagram Live session she held to raise funds for her defense in November. “There’s a woman sitting somewhere who knows that I’m going to f**k her whole life up when this is done,” she said during the video. Such actions can be taken as a violation of her bond agreement.
The filing listed Darryl B. Cohen and the law firm Cohen Cooper Estep & Allen; Steven A. Greenberg and the law firm Greenberg Trial Lawyers; and Joshua G. Herman and the law firm Law Office of Joshua G. Herman as Kutti’s former barristers. She now has ten days to file an objection, prepare to defend herself in court, or seek new legal representation.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images / Getty
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump is disqualified from the Republican ballot for 2024 due to engaging in insurrection, prompting many online responses.In a striking decision, Donald Trump was disqualified from holding political office again by the top court of Colorado on Tuesday (December 19) due to his engaging in actions that led to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The decision means that the former president is ineligible to appear on the state’s ballot for the upcoming 2024 Republican primary elections for president. It also rules that voters cannot write Trump’s name in on that ballot.
“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the four-justice majority wrote in the decision. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.” The majority decision cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment which disqualifies anyone engaging in insurrection against the Constitution. The three remaining justices dissented.
The monumental decision does not apply to the presidential ballot, but it has major ramifications for Trump’s current campaign. Representatives for Trump said that they would immediately appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, setting the stage for a decision that could not only impact the upcoming presidential election but other cases set before them such as whether he is immune from criminal prosecution for actions he committed while in office including his alleged involvement in the January 6 insurrection. The Colorado Supreme Court did state that they would uphold the decision until January 4 next year for the
The reactions to the ruling online ranged from observers and experts applauding the decision to those showing skepticism over the conservative-dominated Supreme Court’s majority (with three justices nominated by Trump during his term) upholding the Colorado court’s ruling. One Republican candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, issued a video stating that he would withdraw his name from the state’s GOP primary ballot in protest and demanded that Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis do the same in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
We’ve collected some of the responses from social media below.
1. Robert Reich
2. Joey Blue
A “Seinfeld” meme gets employed to imagine the real reactions of Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and other GOP nominees to the news of the decision.
3. Alex Cole
4. Ragnarok Lobster
5. Jon_Davis
6. Elie Mystal
The Nation writer and lawyer chimed in initially with a witty reference to Trump’s past rage reactions.
7. Imani Gandy
The lawyer and journalist offered her perspective on why the public may not see the Supreme Court uphold the Colorado decision.
8. Tristan Snell
9. Neal Katyal
Katyal, who has argued several cases before the Supreme Court, offered his analysis of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision and his opinion on how the Supreme Court could rule.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Tom Williams / Getty
Former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, blamed former President Barack Obama for setting race relations in the United States back decades.
Rudy Giuliani leveled a claim against former President Barack Obama on his WABC radio show Sunday (Dec. 10), that he was responsible for the degradation of race relations in America. He began his tirade by stating that the Democratic Party is “the party of slavery.” The Republican politician then said, “These miserable anti-American leaders of the party of slavery have taken us back 40 or 50 years on race relations with Obama. It began with Obama.”
Giuliani would continue: “You think it’s accidental; I know it’s Marxist planned and executed over a long period,” he stated. “Open border is not coincidental. The open border comes right out of Karl Marx. It comes right out of [communist activist] Saul Alinsky, who, by the way, Saul Alinsky and his acolytes taught Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.”
The attacks by the 79-year-old on Obama are nothing new – he’s been a repeat offender in claiming that the 44th POTUS was never born in America, a racist smear that was constantly tossed out during Giuliani’s failed attempts at becoming the GOP’s choice for president and vice-president.He would also bring up the controversial former President Donald Trump in his rant, noting that he has been often called a racist. “Trump gets into a psychological illness I think they have about Trump,” Giuliani said. “Trump derangement syndrome is real – so obsessive.”
The embattled politician is currently dealing with a slew of problems due to his involvement with Trump, notably his having to pay two Black women election workers after being found guilty of defaming them during the 2020 election. That decision of how much is set to be announced soon by a jury. Giuliani is also trying to raise money for his legal defense related to Trump’s RICO case in Fulton County, Georgia.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Ethan Miller / Getty
Donald Trump stated in a town hall meeting with Sean Hannity that he’d only be a dictator on “day one” if reelected president, raising more alarms among observers.
On Tuesday (Dec. 5), former President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News host Sean Hannity for a town hall meeting event that was taped at Davenport, Iowa. Hannity asked the Republican frontrunner about his remarks targeting rivals and vowing revenge by abusing his power if reelected to the White House. Hannity pressed him on the subject by asking, “Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?”
“You mean like they’re using right now?” Trump replied.
Hannity asked him again “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked. Trump’s response was quick. “Except for day one,” he replied. “Meaning?” Hannity interjected. In a jesting manner, the twice-impeached president continued. “I love this guy,” he stated, “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one.’ We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.” The assembled crowd cheered as Hannity rejoined, “That’s not retribution.”
The clip has further alarmed many who have been pointing out Trump’s increasingly authoritarian rhetoric in the past months, telling his supporters at rallies that he “is their retribution” and promising to seek revenge against President Joe Biden and his family if elected to another term. “When we get there, the Biden crime family will pay a price like other people are being forced to pay. And that price will be very, very substantial,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social back in August. President Biden has stated that Trump is “determined to destroy American democracy” in a meeting with donors earlier on Tuesday.
“Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he’s reelected, and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. Americans should believe him,” said Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in a statement issued after the town hall meeting aired. The remarks come a day before the remaining Republican primary candidates are set to debate each other in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.