Donald Trump is hoping to have the Supreme Court rule that presidential immunity will block him from being prosecuted in the January 6 case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
If the court does not rule in Trump's favor, Smith just added more evidence against Donald Trump.
According to the most recent reporting, Trump's former Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, may have just buried Trump.
Scavino, who has worked for Trump for decades and is still listed as a campaign adviser, spoke with Special Counsel Jack Smith's legal team about Trump's alleged actions that day.
After refusing to testify before the House Select Committee on January 6, Scavino did speak with Smith's team.
According to the ABC News report, Scavino told Smith's team that as the violence started to erupt that day, Donald Trump "was just not interested" in doing more to stop it from raging out of control.
When Trump was told that then-Vice President Pence had to be taken to a secure location, Scavino reportedly told Smith's team that the president's response was, "So what?"
The Selection Committee had accused Trump of "an utter moral failure" as well as "a clear dereliction of duty," and Scavino's account would apparently back that up.
The report went on to say that Trump had pretty much closed himself off from talking to all but a handful of advisers that day, with Scavino being one of them.
It further claimed that Scavino warned Trump that day, "This is all your legacy here, and there's smoke coming out of the Capitol."
The new report revealed that Scavino was the only other person to have access to Trump's Twitter account at the time, and when the post was made regarding Pence not having "the courage to do what should been done," aides rushed to find Scavino to ask him why he would post something that appeared to agitate the crowd even more. Scavino replied, "I didn't do it," with the implication being that Trump himself made that particular post.
It was not until 4:15 p.m. local time that Trump released a video message that stated, "This was a fraudulent election. But] we have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special." The House Select Committee found that the crowd started to disperse and leave the Capitol once Trump released that message.
When Trump's campaign team was asked about the ABC News report, it called it "second-hand hearsay." Dan Scavino has declined to comment about the report as of this writing.
One of Donald Trump’s most significant obstacles in his court cases has been the judges that have been assigned to these cases.
In all but one case, Trump has drawn a hostile judge with Democrat ties, including the E. Jean Carroll case.
To that point, Judge Kaplan has ruled in favor of a motion filed by E. Jean Carroll’s attorneys to block Trump from referencing arguments regarding Carroll’s rape claims in the second defamation case.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued his ruling on Saturday night for the motion filed by Carroll’s legal team.
Kaplan’s ruling prohibited Trump’s legal team from “offering any evidence, conducting any examination, or making any argument” that had to do with the first defamation case.
Kaplan added, “Whether Mr. Trump forcibly and without Ms. Carroll’s consent penetrated her vagina with his fingers—as the Carroll II jury and the Court both found—or also with his penis has nothing to do with injury inflicted on her by the defamatory statements.”
This is one in a string of defeats that Trump has suffered from during this case, the most recent being a denial to delay the case so Trump’s attorneys could consider other options.
Trump has and continues to deny the allegations made by Carroll, addressing them again this weekend at an Iowa rally, where he called out Kaplan as a “radical Democrat” and said the allegations were “all made up.”
Trump lost the first defamation case, with Carroll being awarded $5 million in the judgment.
After that judgment was announced, Trump went on Truth Social and trashed Carroll again, with the author immediately stating that she believed Trump opened himself up to a second defamation suit.
Once the second suit was filed, Trump again tried to invoke presidential immunity, but he lost his appeal in December, citing that Trump had waited too long to raise the defense.
In addition to the Carroll case, Trump is also litigating a civil suit brought by Attorney General Letitia James and four federal cases with nearly 100 charges.
Trump is expected to lose the James civil suit, with his best chances for winning the case being on appeal. James has actually upped her request from $250 million to $370 million in the New York fraud case.