Trump has another chance to get Fani Willis off election interference case: Live

John Bowden filed this report from Cleveland, Ohio:

Bernie Moreno decisively won the GOP nomination for US Senate in Ohio on Monday, the second candidate to be essentially carried to victory by former President Donald Trump in the state in two years.

He’ll join the other Republican with that distinction, JD Vance, in Ohio’s US Senate delegation next January if he is able to beat incumbent Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in the fall. Mr Moreno actually ran against Mr Vance in the last election cycle but withdrew to clear the way for his one-time rival after the Hillbilly Elegy author won Mr Trump’s endorsement that year.

Tuesday evening’s victory is a sign of Donald Trump’s continued endorsement strength — particularly in the midwest and in states where he has less directly clashed with state Republican leaders.

Ariana Baio has the details…

But he also asked, “Why should we guard these countries that have a lot of money?”

Gustaf Kilander has the story…

Donald Trump has falsely claimed that the US funds “90 to 100 per cent” of Nato as he suggested the US would defend fellow alliance members from attack – if they paid their bills.

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James has asked a New York appeals court to reject Donald Trump’s argument that it’s a “practical impossibility” to post a bond to pause his fraud judgment while he’s appealing after the former president approached 30 companies for the $464m bond and was rejected by all.

In a court filing, the NY AG argues that the court should not consider Mr Trump’s new argument and allegations as they are “procedurally improper”. It states:

Indeed, defendants here had no reason to wait for their reply to raise their allegations and arguments about the difficulty of obtaining a bond, as their efforts to obtain that bond began before their stay motion was filed and indeed before judgment was even entered.

Defendants’ allegations thus boil down to the proposition that sureties have been unwilling to accept Mr Trump’s real-estate holdings as collateral in this case. Yet defendants supply no documentary evidence that demonstrates precisely what real property they offered to sureties, on what terms that property was offered, or precisely why the sureties were unwilling to accept the assets. As far as the Court can infer, sureties may have refused to accept defendants’ specific holdings as collateral because using Mr Trump’s real estate will generally need “a property appraisal” and his holdings are not nearly as valuable as defendants claim.

Even if the court were to accept Mr Trump’s argument that real estate is difficult for a surety to accept as collateral for a bond to meet the judgment amount, the NY AG argues that they fail to suggest a serious alternative.

The defendants object to a “fire sale” of property to sell assets and generate cash but the alternative would be to shift the risk of executing such a sale to the NY AG.

It is suggested that at a minimum, Mr Trump’s team should consent to having their real-estate interests held by the New York Supreme Court to satisfy the judgment or pledge security in real estate holdings of sufficient value to secure payment for the entire judgment.

The NY AG also says that nothing stops Mr Trump from getting multiple, smaller bonds.

Here’s Joe Sommerlad reporting on what might happen next and the prospect of Mr Trump’s New York properties being seized:

Ms Daniels was allegedly paid for her silence over an alleged affair she claims she had with Mr Trump at Lake Tahoe in 2006. Mr Trump has continually denied that the affair took place.