The Daily Signal - Supreme Court Hears Trump Immunity Case, Biden Will Let Tax Cuts Expire, Harvey Weinstein Case Overturned | April 25

Starting point is 00:00:02 I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Thursday, April 25th. Here are today's headlines. Former President Donald Trump is facing criminal charges for allegedly trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. But Trump says he has presidential immunity from any such charges because he was operating in an official capacity and official access president are protected from prosecution. Now, the D.C. Circuit Court previously ruled that Trump is not immune from prosecution, but now the Supreme Court is weighing in. The nine justices heard oral arguments today for the case, and I caught up with Heritage Foundation a senior legal fellow and the vice president for the Institute for Constitutional Government at Heritage, John Malcolm, after the arguments concluded. And I asked John

Starting point is 00:01:06 a little bit about the case. He said he was surprised that Trump's lawyers did not argue that the entire indictment against Trump should be dismissed. Instead, the justices and lawyers spent a long time discussing what actions of the president, and in this case Trump specifically, constitute as official actions that may be immune from prosecution versus what acts are private and therefore not immune. That's a big question that the justices now have to answer. John told me that there are actually three questions, including that one, that the justices need to consider in this case? One, is there a blanket immunity for a president's official actions because he was not

Starting point is 00:01:50 impeached and convicted by the Senate? Two, what is a private action and what is an official action? And three, if the court rejects John Sowers's absolute immunity argument, will there be any other kind of immunity that might attach to an official action. I asked John how quickly a ruling might come down in the case, and he said we might be waiting a while. I think it'll be very, very tough to get this case tried before the election. So they just had the argument.

Starting point is 00:02:30 If they operate at lightning speed, the Supreme Court, they would issue the opinion in a couple of weeks. I think it's going to take longer than that. but let's say they did. It's going to go back. You're going to have to have these evidentiary hearings. If you're curious to learn a little bit more about this case and what happened at the Supreme Court today,

Starting point is 00:02:49 you can catch my full conversation with John on the Daily Signal's Morning Show, Friday morning tomorrow. While the Supreme Court was hearing arguments for Trump's immunity case, Trump was sitting in a courtroom in Manhattan as his criminal trial continues there. Today's court proceedings began with claims that Trump has violated, violated his gag order again. Trump has been ordered to not comment on likely witnesses, jurors, or other individuals who are involved with the case.

Starting point is 00:03:18 But prosecutor Christopher Conroy says that just in the past few days, Trump has violated this gag order four times. For example, Conroy says that Trump has made comments attacking his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. He also said that Trump has made a veiled threat about former National Inquirer publisher David Pecker. Pecker is testifying in the case, and Trump has called Pecker a nice guy recently, but Conroy told the judge, this is a message to Pecker, be nice. And Conroy added that Trump is sending a message to others. I have a platform and I can talk about you and I can say things like this or I can say things like I said about Cohen. prosecutors are accusing Trump of violating the gag order 15 times, and the judge could find Trump for violating the gag order or hold Trump in contempt. Before walking into that courtroom this morning in New York, Trump paid a visit to a group of construction workers in the city early this morning. And he briefly spoke with the press as well and commented on that issue of the gag order per CBS News.

Starting point is 00:04:28 They've taken my constitutional right away with a gag order. That's all it is. It's election interference. This whole thing is election interference. Inside the courtroom today, the Associated Press reports that Trump was listening intently. As David Pecker testified, he detailed calls with Trump about alleged conversations that they had about a possible tabloid story regarding former playboy model Karen McDougal's claims about an affair with Trump. And later in the day, the prosecuting attorney began to ask questions about Trump's alleged sexual encounter with porn star Stormy Daniels in 2006. Trump continues to deny that that happened.

Starting point is 00:05:11 President Biden told voters this week that taxes will go up for some Americans if he's reelected. Biden posted on X last night, Donald Trump was very proud of his $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and big-eastern. corporations and exploded the federal debt. That tax cut is going to expire. If I'm reelected, according to Biden, it's going to stay expired. When Trump was president, he signed legislation in 2017 that lowered corporate tax rates from 35% to 21%. The tax cuts also brought those at the top individual earning income bracket down over 2% from 39.6% to 37%. The Washington Examiner reports that if the tax break is allowed to expire, it won't be the wealthy alone that are affected. The examiner says that the Tax Foundation found that a person making $30,000 per year would pay about 253 more dollars in taxes

Starting point is 00:06:17 in 2026, and a married couple with two children making $165,000 a year would pay about $2,450 more in taxes. The White House has said that if reelected, Biden would extend all middle class tax cuts, and he will not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year. The highest court in New York State today has overturned a rape conviction, of film producer Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein was found guilty of a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape in New York City and has been serving a 23-year sentence. But the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the judge in the case had made some big heirs. The appeals court said the judge presiding over Weinstein's trial had allowed women to testify on allegations that were not part of

Starting point is 00:07:15 the case. The ruling from the court states, we conclude that the the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes. The remedy of these egregious heirs is a new trial. So now it looks like this major hashtag me too case is headed back to court. But in the meantime, 72-year-old Weinstein will continue serving out a 16-year prison sentence for a rape that he was convicted of in Los Angeles. With that, that's going to do it for today's episode.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Thanks so much for being with us here on The Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't at the chance, make sure you check out our morning show. Once again, tomorrow morning, I'm going to be sitting down with the Heritage Foundation's John Malcolm as we discuss the Supreme Court case regarding Trump's immunity. Be sure to check that out Friday morning. Also make sure to hit that subscribe buttons you never miss out on new shows from the Daily Signal. And if you would be so kind to do so, would you leave us a phone. five-star rating and review. We love hearing your feedback. It's very helpful for us to know

Starting point is 00:08:21 what you want to hear more of and what you like about the show. Thanks again for being with us today. Have a great night. We'll see you right back here tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Bluey and Kate Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Mary Margaret O'Lehann, and Tyler O'Neill. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more or support our work, please visit dailysignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Supreme Court Hears Trump Immunity Case, Biden Will Let Tax Cuts Expire, Harvey Weinstein Case Overturned | April 25

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