Trump fraud bond documents rejected as he is forced to come clean about finances: Live

Donald Trump has seen paperwork related to the $175m bond he posted on Monday to appeal the $464m New York fraud judgement against him rejected and “returned for correction”, according to the New York County Supreme Court.

The documentation failed to include a current financial statement or list an attorney-in-fact and has been returned to the Republican presidential candidate for resubmission.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump suffered a further legal setback when his efforts to have his upcoming Manhattan hush money trial delayed on presidential immunity grounds were likewise rejected.

Judge Juan Merchan ruled that “the defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity” long before he ever did and that, because the justice was denying the motion on that basis, he need not address whether immunity “precludes the introduction of evidence of purported official presidential acts in a criminal proceeding”.

Meanwhile, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has urged Judge Aileen Cannon, overseeing the classified documents case in Florida, to reject the ex-president’s contention that he had any claim to personal ownership over the boxes of top secret files reclaimed by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, deriding the argument as “pure fiction”.

Yep sure it is. Nothing unusual about it at all. Nothing to see here.

Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton spoke with Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch about the threat the ex-commander-in-chief represents should he be re-elected — principally concerning the future of Nato and the problem of trusting him with nuclear weapons.

Bolton suggests one potential strategy for preventing a withdrawal from the North Atlantic military alliance would be to