Donald Trump shares ‘weird’ superhero video to warn about ‘major announcement’? | World | news

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Donald Trump has released a strange video in which he appears to transform himself into a superhero as he announces that there will be a “major announcement” on Thursday, December 15. At the beginning of the video, which was originally shared on Truth Social, the former President of the US says: “America needs a superhero.”

Re-sharing the video on Twitter, Eastern European media NEXTA mocked Mr Trump.

They wrote: “Trump posted a strange video in which he promised to make an important announcement on Thursday.

“The former US president no longer knows how to ignore his ‘modest persona’.”

The announcement came as Mr Trumps company obstructed a grand jury investigation last year by repeatedly failing to turn over evidence in a timely manner, leading to a secret contempt finding and a $4,000 fine, according to court records made public Tuesday.

The Trump Organization was found to have “willfully disobeyed” four grand jury subpoenas and three court orders, at the expense of Manhattan prosecutors who were unwilling to question witnesses, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan ruled.

The subpoenas, issued in March, April, May and June 2021, preceded the indictment of the Trump Organization in July 2021 on criminal tax fraud charges for helping executives avoid taxes on perks paid by company.

The $4,000 contempt fine is the maximum allowed by law.

This is another kerfuffle involving Trump and allegations of mishandling or withholding of records. In April, a judge convicted Trump and fined him $110,000 for being slow to respond to a civil subpoena issued by New York’s attorney general. The former president is also under investigation for storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Merchan vaguely mentioned continuing the Trump Organization’s contempt while presiding over the company’s criminal trial, saying he would wait until after it was over to unseal records related to an undisclosed trial held last year.

That proceeding turned into a closed-door contempt trial of the Trump Organization on Oct. 7, 2021 and Merchan’s partially redacted 28-page decision finding the company in contempt, which he issued on December 8, 2021.

While the company’s name was blacked out in the court record released Tuesday, details on the ruling and the way the judge opened it made it clear who was involved.

Manhattan prosecutors, frustrated by the company’s lack of compliance, sought a “coercive penalty” of $60,000 per day, Merchan said.

Trump Organization lawyers argued that the company was providing a steady stream of records, at one point totaling more than 3.5 million pages of records, but Merchan said “that’s enough to throw ” the prosecution’s request for sanctions “while not fully meeting any of the deadlines.”

“When challenged (the company) gave one excuse after another,” Merchan wrote. “Sometimes it says it’s impossible to meet deadlines because the demands are too numerous, overbroad or vague. At other times, it blames delays and omissions on human error” or technical issues.

In the recently concluded criminal tax fraud trial, two corporate entities in the Trump Organization were indicted on December 6 on charges including charges of conspiracy and falsifying business records. Sentencing is set for Jan. 13. The defense said it will appeal. Trump himself has not been tried.

The company’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, previously pleaded guilty to charges that he manipulated the company’s books to illegally reduce his taxes by $1.7 million in fringe benefits such as an apartment in Manhattan and luxury cars. He testified in exchange for a promised five-month jail term.

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