Travis Gettys is a senior editor for Raw Story based in northern Kentucky. He previously worked as a web editor for WLWT-TV and a contributing writer for the Kentucky Enquirer, and he also wrote for the award-winning Sadly, No! blog. He has covered national, state and local politics, breaking news, criminal investigations and trials, sports and a variety of community issues, with a special emphasis on racial justice, right-wing extremism and gun safety.
Former President Donald Trump's staff at the White House were enraged with the cavalier way he handled classified information, according to a new report from ABC News.
"While much of [Special Counsel Jack] Smith's sprawling classified documents investigation has focused on how Trump handled classified materials after leaving the White House, a wide array of former aides and advisers — including personal valets, press assistants, senior national security officials, and even Trump's briefers from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — have provided Smith with firsthand accounts about how Trump allegedly handled and used intelligence while still in office," reported Katherine Faulders, Mike Levine, and Alexander Mallin.
One of the key incidents given more context in the report was when Trump shared a picture of a highly classified rocket explosion at an Iranian launch site.
"The image was captured by a U.S. satellite whose true capabilities were a tightly guarded secret. But Trump wanted to share it with the world — he thought it was especially 'sexy' because it was marked classified, one of his former advisers later recalled to special counsel Jack Smith's investigators, according to sources familiar with the former adviser's statements," said the report. One source who served as an adviser to the former president said, "It was so upsetting, and people were really angry."
When Smith interviewed former advisers close to Trump, said the report, they "described a president who could erupt in anger when presented with intelligence he didn't want to hear, who routinely reviewed and stored classified information in unsecured locations, and who had what some former officials described as 'a cavalier attitude' toward the damage that could be done by its disclosure, according to sources."
The classified documents case is currently stalled, as Judge Aileen Cannon, a far-right jurist appointed by Trump himself, sorts through the procedural issues, although she has yet to settle on a new date to hold the trial as the old date is now impossible.
Former Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward is among 11 individuals who have been charged in connection with alleged 2020 election subversion, according to a reporter.
Kyle Cheney of Politico flagged the filing on social media on Wednesday, saying, "Arizona prosecutors have charged 11 fake electors for their roles in efforts to subvert the 2020 election."
He also noted that there are "seven additional people charged in this indictment who have not yet been served."
"So their names remain redacted," the reporter added.
Of Ward, the filing states she "was the chair of the Arizona Republican party."
"She organized the fake electors' vote on December 14, 2020, and voted for Trump-Pence as a fake elector, falsely stating that she was 'duly elected and qualified.' After voting, Ward declared the Arizona Republican electors as the 'true electors,'" according to the filling. "She later urged Pence to accept false electoral votes for Trump-Pence on January 6, 2021. She did not withdraw her vote even though no legal challenge successfully changed the outcome of Arizona's 2020 Presidential Election."
The news broke the same day as it was revealed that the former president, Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani are unindicted co-conspirators in the criminal case over the state of Michigan's fake elector plot that hoped to reverse presidential election results in 2020.
Former President Donald Trump claims his gag order forcing him to stay mum on various individuals surrounding his historic criminal hush money trial is unprecedented.
In a Truth Social post, Trump moaned about the gag order that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan imposed and then strengthened barring him from criticizing witnesses, jurors, court staff, and the families of the prosecutor and judge.
"The Gag Order imposed on me, a political candidate running for the highest office in the land, is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL," Trump wrote. "Nothing like this has ever happened before."
"The Conflicted Judge’s friends and party members can say whatever they want about me, but I am not allowed to respond. The Trial is Rigged and should never have been allowed to take place on a charge that virtually every legal scholar and expert say is bogus, THERE IS NO CRIME. This is a Political Witch Hunt - ELECTION INTERFERENCE!"
She suggested that the gag order is drawn up almost identically to a federal gag order imposed on him in the Jan. 6 election subversion case, an order that was backed in December by the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Agnifilo stated that Merchan's gag order "mirrors" that.
"So for him to say it's never been done, it's unconstitutional — that's actually false," said Agnifilo. "It's actually the law of the land, according to the federal courts and so it absolutely is fine. It's constitutional. It's necessary."
She went on to show solidarity with Merchan for not letting the trial spiral into a circus.
"He's the judge has to keep control of his courtroom," said Agnifilo. "He has to make sure that witnesses aren't intimidated, and in particular, the jurors, and I think what's really concerning, is that he comments on the jurors — and it's very difficult to get people, just average people to serve on jury duty if they have to worry about something like that."
A ruling is expected by Merchan on whether Trump violated the gag order after a contempt hearing cited 10 posts on his social media account and campaign website serving as proof for prosecutors to show a “deliberate flouting” of the court’s prohibition.
