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1 Trump Trial Day Six: "National Enquirer" Publisher Testifies
Day six of the criminal “hush money” trial of former President Donald Trump saw testimony from David Pecker, the former CEO of the parent company of the Enquirer. Before the testimony, a contentious hearing was held on whether or not Trump had violated a gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan, limiting what Trump can say publicly about many of the people involved in the case. District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office asked the judge to find Trump in contempt for 10 posts on Truth Social and fine him $1,000 for each one. Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued that his client was just responding to political attacks and didn’t believe he was violating the order. Merchan didn’t make an immediate ruling on the request. During his testimony, Pecker said he agreed to be Trump’s “eyes and ears” in 2015 and let Michael Cohen know about any damaging stories that might hurt the campaign, and described using a technique called “catch and kill,” where he would buy the rights to a story and then decline to publish it, keeping them hidden. During his testimony, Pecker said that the Enquirer completely made up the story that the father of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was with Lee Harvey Oswald handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets in New Orleans. Trump repeatedly brought the story up on the campaign trail when talking about his then-rival for the Republican.
2 Senate Advances Aid Package And TikTok Ban
The Senate has sent the foreign aid package to the president’s desk. In a 79-18 bipartisan vote last night, senators approved the package sent to them by the House over the weekend. Included in the package is $60-billion of aid to Ukraine, $26-billion to Israel, $8-billion for security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, and legislation that gives TikTok’s parent company ByteDance nine months to sell the social media app or see it banned in the US. While President Joe Biden, who has already said he’ll sign the legislation into law, can extend the deadline another three months, giving ByteDance a year to sell TikTok, a sale might take longer than that, but it's not likely. U.S. users make up only about two-percent of the app's users. TikTok has said it’ll fight the law in court once it’s signed, a process that could take years.
3 Federal Trade Commission Votes To Ban Noncompete Agreements
We had the “Great Resignation,” now get ready for the “Great Job-Swap.” The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 yesterday to ban noncompete agreements at companies. Noncompetes bar workers from jumping to or starting competing companies for a prescribed period of time after leaving, a situations that the FTC say affects roughly 30 million people, or one in five workers. The US Chamber of Commerce said yesterday it’ll file a lawsuit to block the rule, and also said the FTC was overstepping its authority. John Lettieri, the CEO of the Economic Innovation Group, argues that the ability of early innovators to leave a company and start a competitor was the key to the development of the semiconductor industry. Barring a hold from the courts, the ban will take effect in 120 days.