The possibility of another federal indictment charging former U.S. president Donald Trump with crimes looms large. Anticipation grows after the leading GOP presidential candidate announced, via his Truth Social media site, that he is the target of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing investigation into events surrounding January 6.
This comes on the heels of Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis recently convening a grand jury looking into possible crimes with which to charge Trump and others.
Like the federal January 6 investigation, Willis is narrowing in on criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Ever the cunning and wily showman that he is, Trump has used the spectre of indictments and criminal prosecutions as rocket fuel to supercharge his political standing.
And in the early voting states of Iowa and South Carolina, Trump remains comfortably ahead.
He now wields the trifecta; sitting atop the national polls, early state polls, and the vaunted money race. Yet, leading in the political race could be a pyrrhic victory for the ex-president as he faces overwhelming and mounting evidence against him in federal and state criminal cases spread across several jurisdictions.
Six months ago, Trump's then-nascent presidential campaign was flailing. Lacking resources, supporters, and seemingly a GOP, all eager to move on from the reality-television-star-turned politician.
According to The Associated Press, the Make America Great Again pol raised US$18.8 million in the first quarter of the campaign with $4.4 million raised after his first indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney in New York City.
The second quarter saw the former president nearly double that amount, raising more than $35 million. Not just limited to fundraising, the latest PBS Newshour/NPR/Marist poll shows the remarkable resilience of the ex-president. His support among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents continues to increase even as he faces dozens of felony charges.
According to the poll, “Seventy-six percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they hold a favourable view of Trump which is up 8 percentage points since mid-February.”
Trump's strengths as a GOP candidate are undeniable. His popularity among the base remains resolute and unflinching. However, go inside the numbers and they tell a very different, more ominous story for Trump the defendant. Those numbers should invoke fear and trembling in Trump the candidate.
In that same PBS Newshour/NPR/Marist poll, it shows that: three-quarters of Americans overall think the leading Republican candidate for president has done something either illegal or unethical.
The poll goes on to state: a majority of Americans (56 per cent) say the twice-impeached and twice indicted former president should drop out of the 2024 race for the White House. These are deeply troubling numbers for Donald Trump. Not just for what it portends for his candidacy in a general election matchup with President Joe Biden but what a potential jury pool might think of his guilt or innocence.
The preponderance of evidence against the ex-president is devastating. The 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, stemming from hush money payments made during the 2016 election, carry with them a maximum of 136 years in state prison if convicted on all counts. Each charge in the 37-count indictment, stemming from the classified documents case, carries prison time ranging from 5-20 years. Trump's efforts to shape a political narrative out of his legal travails have proven successful so far.
Yet, once inside an actual court of law, the political bromides cease and it is the facts and evidence that speak volumes, not inane schoolyard antics. The loquacious ex president has offered a bevy of baffling defences but none that seem remotely adequate to convince a jury. Perhaps even more confounding, as the Washington Post reported, it is unclear if Trump has settled on a legal team that will represent him in the classified documents case.
Ironically, Trump has expertly and strategically developed a blueprint to use the criminality surrounding him to his political benefit. Yet that same expertise and precision quickly morphs into ineptness when attempting to mount an equally effective and sound legal strategy to combat charges that could see him spend the rest of his life in prison.
If the strategy is to delay the trials until after the presidential election such a plan is already proving unsuccessful. The Trump legal team, to no avail, argued before the judge that a start date for the classified documents trial should wait until after the election. The Trump-appointed judge, in the case, rejected the argument in favour of a May 20, 2024 start date.
The Manhattan case begins two months prior in March 2024. Delaying tactics surrounding potential indictments in Georgia and Washington, DC might prove less fruitful as well. Such efforts appear to have worn thin. Moreover, potential judges in those jurisdictions are less likely to be as enamoured with Trump as the GOP base.
Trump clearly has found marketing and political gold with the plethora of criminal investigations he is facing. He has figured out how to use the threat of conviction to energize his base and thwart the competition. His ability to shape a narrative that benefits his own aims is what catapulted him to the White House in 2016.
Unfortunately for Trump, there are limits to this strategy. Smart, savvy, and dogged prosecutors are relentlessly pursuing cases against him and unlike the former president, they are not playing to a political audience. Alvin Bragg, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis are playing to a potential jury pool. And it is those jury pools that could upend Trump, politically and legally.
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sentenced the mother and stepfather of a six-year-old boy who died from blunt-force trauma in 2018 to 15 years in prison.
The Speaker of the Saskatchewan Legislature Randy Weekes has severed ties with the Sask. Party after accusing some members of harassment and intimidation tactics, including a situation he claimed saw the Government House Leader bring a hunting rifle to the legislative building.
Kevin Spacey is pushing back on the 'rush to judgment' against him and is being backed by some big names as he seeks to reclaim his acting career.
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
A father has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 34-year-old daughter in southern Quebec.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assailed New Brunswick's premier and other conservative leaders on Thursday, calling out the provincial government's position on abortion, LGBTQ youth and climate change.
Canada's new $10-a-day child care program is expanding, but there's growing evidence that demand for the program is rising even faster, leaving many parents on the outside looking in.
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sentenced the mother and stepfather of a six-year-old boy who died from blunt-force trauma in 2018 to 15 years in prison.
Quebec's Crown prosecution office said it will not lay charges against a Montreal imam following comments he made at a pro-Palestinian rally last fall.
The Ottawa Police Service says its hate crime unit is investigating a reported hijab-pulling incident at Tuesday's protest at Ottawa City Hall when the Israeli flag was raised for the country's independence day.
A judge has rejected a B.C. man's claim that his genitals "accidentally" fell out of his shorts – twice – at a Surrey mall, finding him guilty of indecent exposure.
The Speaker of the Saskatchewan Legislature Randy Weekes has severed ties with the Sask. Party after accusing some members of harassment and intimidation tactics, including a situation he claimed saw the Government House Leader bring a hunting rifle to the legislative building.
Canada's new $10-a-day child care program is expanding, but there's growing evidence that demand for the program is rising even faster, leaving many parents on the outside looking in.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a full pardon Thursday for a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice.
Slovak authorities charged a man Thursday with attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Robert Fico, saying he acted alone in a politically motivated attack.
An Air Force instructor pilot was killed when the ejection seat activated while the jet was still on the ground at a Texas military base, the Air Force said Tuesday.
Early estimates indicate up to 2,000 gallons of oil may have spilled into surrounding waters when a barge carrying fuel broke free from a tugboat and slammed into a bridge near Galveston, Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
A former top official in Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont's budget office allegedly extorted private contractors into paying him thousands of dollars in bribes as he oversaw large blocks of state money for school construction projects, federal authorities said Thursday.
Donald Trump's lawyers accused the prosecution's star witness in his hush money trial of lying to jurors, portraying Trump fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen on Thursday as a serial fabulist who is bent on seeing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee behind bars.
To give Canadians a break on their summer road trips, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to suspend all gas and diesel taxes from Victoria Day to Labour Day.
Canada on Thursday imposed its first-ever sanctions on what the foreign ministry called 'extremist' Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and said Ottawa was weighing additional measures to deter settler violence against Palestinians.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assailed New Brunswick's premier and other conservative leaders on Thursday, calling out the provincial government's position on abortion, LGBTQ youth and climate change.
The province’s health minister and solicitor general are urging Toronto to rescind its request to decriminalize simple possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use, calling the proposal 'misguided' and 'disastrous.'
Southern British Columbians may see smoky skies from wildfires burning in the northeastern part of the province over the weekend and one local doctor is warning of the potential long-term health risks associated with that poor air quality.
Countless people seek emergency care for back pain, muscle strains and similar injuries resulting from “moving wrong” during mundane, everyday tasks such as bending over to tie shoes, lifting objects or doing household chores.
Mounties in B.C. are urging people to think twice before sharing "heartbreaking posts" on social media.
A black bear cub with signs of neurological disease was euthanized in Banff last week.
What is big, with a fluffy, cotton candy-like composition? Turns out, a planet. An international coalition of astronomers has newly discovered an unusual planet, dubbed WASP-193b, that’s about 50 per cent bigger than Jupiter and somehow still the second lightest planet ever found.
There’s no point asking Marisa Abela to sing Amy Winehouse songs at karaoke. Her friends have already tried and failed. But you can see her sing — and become — Winehouse in the new film “Back to Black,” which opens in the U.S. on Friday.
Savannah Gankiewicz of Hawaii was crowned Miss USA 2023 on Wednesday, more than a week after the previous titleholder resigned citing her mental health.
Kevin Spacey is pushing back on the 'rush to judgment' against him and is being backed by some big names as he seeks to reclaim his acting career.
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. said Thursday it's ready to sign on to the grocery code of conduct, paving the way for an agreement that's been years in the making.
Canada's telecom and television complaints watchdog says many telecom providers aren't following complaints section rules on their websites, and it's particularly concerned about some repeat offenders.
A key Boeing supplier that makes the fuselages for its popular 737 Max airplanes is laying off about 450 workers because production has slowed down ever since a panel flew off one of those airplanes operated by Alaska Airlines in midair in January.
Many Canadians found a message from the Canada Revenue Agency this week as they received their first direct deposit for the Canada Carbon Rebate.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Airplane overhead compartments. Home to luggage of all shapes and sizes, the odd coat or two, several duty-free bags, a fair bit of dust and… passengers?
As the Canucks prepare to take on the Oilers for Game 5, Vancouver head coach Rick Tocchet is making changes to the team's lineup.
Xander Schauffele broke the PGA Championship scoring record, seizing on the rain-softened conditions at Valhalla on Thursday with a 9-under 62 to set the early target.
A burgeoning track star says his dream of going to the Olympics is being derailed by a deportation order after Immigration officials rejected his family’s claim for asylum
It’s a good time to be in the market for a used Tesla.
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The Ontario government is expected to introduce legislation on Wednesday that, if passed, will see impaired drivers face stiffer penalties.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sentenced the mother and stepfather of a six-year-old boy who died from blunt-force trauma in 2018 to 15 years in prison.
With boating season upon us, people are being urged to prioritize safety before heading out on the water.
Eighty-seven-year-old Gisela Filion has lived in Mount Pleasant for more than 30 years. As a gift to her longtime community, the Vancouver senior decided to donate a tiny library.
Five months after a coroner's inquest into the death of a mentally ill man at an Ontario jail, his family said Thursday the province has failed to implement any of the dozens of recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future.
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
Ontario’s so-called 'Crypto King' Aiden Pleterski was soliciting new investors as recently as February – a year-and-a-half after he was petitioned into bankruptcy for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme worth more than $40 million – police alleged on Thursday.
RCMP have closed a portion of Lower Springbank Road west of Calgary for a deadly crash.
Family and friends are mourning the loss of an Alberta couple who were killed Sunday in a highway crash northwest of Lethbridge, Alta.
As a housing crisis continues in Calgary, the city is looking to strike a balance between increasing density – both in established neighbourhoods and in new ones.
More reaction is coming from parents as the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board looks to make major adjustments to its elementary programs including French immersion and how it is delivered.
It's been a rocky start to the $10-a-day daycare program in Ontario. There still aren't enough spots and many daycares are short funding and say they may opt-out all together.
The Ottawa Fire Service says firefighters responded to a call for a fire on Tall Oak Private, near the Ottawa Hospital General Campus, at approximately 9:30 a.m.
A father has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 34-year-old daughter in southern Quebec.
A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.
Quebec's Crown prosecution office said it will not lay charges against a Montreal imam following comments he made at a pro-Palestinian rally last fall.
Some Fort McMurray evacuees say they're struggling to access supplies and accommodations after leaving their homes and travelling to Edmonton.
A dead serial sexual offender and killer has been linked to four homicides in the 1970s in Alberta, RCMP say.
Alberta's police watchdog has determined the amount of force used by RCMP officers in the shooting death on Highway 2 near Leduc of an armed man in May 2020 was justified, with its report into the incident saying there are no "reasonable grounds to believe an offence was committed."
A Nova Scotia couple is $5 million richer after winning the latest Atlantic Lottery 6/49 draw.
A section of Highway 102 is closed Thursday evening after a transport truck drove off an overpass.
A growing trend of century-old churches being closed, sold and/or demolished in the Maritimes is a sad reality many parishioners are starting to get used to.
A severe thunderstorm warning is in effect for Winnipeg, producing heavy rain and hail in some areas of the city.
A second chance could be coming for dozens of dogs seized from inhumane conditions at a Winnipeg home.
Jeremy Skibicki’s ex-wife was called as a Crown witness in the 37-year-old accused’s quadruple homicide trial in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench on Thursday.
Police have issued a Canada-wide warrant for a man wanted in a homicide which occurred in Regina on May 12.
The Speaker of the Saskatchewan Legislature Randy Weekes has severed ties with the Sask. Party after accusing some members of harassment and intimidation tactics, including a situation he claimed saw the Government House Leader bring a hunting rifle to the legislative building.
A tornado warning has been issued for a small region of southwest Saskatchewan.
A Waterloo MPP is speaking out after her private member’s bill, aimed at improving transparency around sexual assault cases, was pulled from debate.
Most people want to break out of an escape room. A Waterloo, Ont. business, however, has been broken into – not once – but twice.
The local humane society is asking for the public's help to care for five puppies that were found abandoned in a box near Hwy. 401 in Kitchener.
A Saskatoon water skier who is blind and deaf has partnered with a well-known artist to fundraise for the national adaptive water ski team.
Giant Tiger has announced that the company is closing a number of stores including one location in Saskatoon.
A new zoning bylaw, that would allow livestock operations to be closer to homes in the RM of Dundurn, Sask., isn't sitting well with those who live near Blackstrap Lake.
One person is in custody while a second suspect is on the loose following a stabbing that sent two people to hospital in northern Ontario, police say.
A legal clinic from southern Ontario is reminding Timmins city council that it’s “unlawful” in Ontario to evict people from homeless encampments on public property.
Repairing the scales at Sudbury’s main landfill site on The Kingsway is causing delays and long lineups for residents and businesses using the site to dispose of waste and trimmings.
It’s been three months since 38-year-old Tanya Wiebe was found dead inside a home on Roberts Line in Central Elgin.
The father at the centre of a child abuse case in London, Ont. took the stand Thursday in his own defence, pointing the finger at his estranged wife.
LIving next to the boarded up house at 219 Adelaide St. N. for two years has taken a toll on Theresa Mullins and her family.
Zehrs has returned to the north end of Barrie.
Six months after being found guilty of a fatal hit and run in 2018 that claimed the life of Dominik Adamek in Springwater Township, Maimuna Baldeh heard from his grieving family, who told the court about the pain they've endured since that day.
A beloved community staple in cottage country is finally reopening after a destructive fire forced it to shutter its doors last spring.
Windsor police officers have arrested one suspect and seized over $250,000 in illegal drugs after an investigation.
Just 26 metres is all that remains of bridge deck construction on the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor and Detroit.
The Windsor Essex Child/Youth Advocacy Centre (WECYAC) is calling on the community to learn more about local services as part of Victims and Survivors of Crime Week 2024.
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sentenced the mother and stepfather of a six-year-old boy who died from blunt-force trauma in 2018 to 15 years in prison.
Premier David Eby delivered an election-style speech to his New Democrat caucus, warning of the potential merger between the opposition BC United and B.C. Conservative parties, saying the fall election is shaping up to be the "starkest choice in a generation."
A nurse in Metro Vancouver has been suspended for two weeks and ordered to take remedial education after she accessed the personal health records of several people for no work-related purpose.
One person is dead after a fight in Penticton early Sunday morning, according to authorities.
A suspect is at large after robbing a convenience store at gunpoint in Merritt, B.C., Friday, according to local police.
After four targeted shootings in four days, Mounties in Kamloops are taking the unusual step of warning the public about two men they believe are likely to be targeted in future violent incidents.
Lethbridge has been working to address lawlessness in the city’s downtown over the past six months.
It's just about patio season in Lethbridge, and the city is once again rolling out its annual patios and parklets program.
Family and friends are mourning the loss of an Alberta couple who were killed Sunday in a highway crash northwest of Lethbridge, Alta.
With no active wildland fires burning in northern Ontario, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry sent 10 crews to Manitoba to help battle the blazes there.
Patricia Doiron of Sault Ste. Marie won $250,000 playing Instant Bingo Multiplier.
Sault Ste. Marie city council is calling on the provincial government to recognize Ontario’s physician shortage.
A new study shows an Atlantic salmon population in southern Newfoundland is disappearing, and it says nearby aquaculture operations are a likely contributor to the decline.
Police in Newfoundland say patrol officers were assaulted Thursday by a "very irate male" wielding a block of cheese.
Health officials say there is an outbreak of whooping cough in eastern Newfoundland.
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