Wisconsin Right Now

Former Independent party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a lawsuit  against the Wisconsin Election Commission to remove his name from the state’s ballot this November, part of his ongoing battle to exit from races in swing states. The case argues that, absent a compelling reason, different treatment for third party candidates violates the Equal Protection Clause and Kennedy’s First Amendment rights. It claims the different deadlines for ballot withdrawal for Democrat and Republican candidates versus third-party candidates–September 3 for the former and August 6 for the latter–are unlawfully discriminatory. “Third parties can’t be treated differently and they can’t be discriminated against. Yet that’s what happened here. The Republicans and the Democrats have until today at 5 p.m. to withdraw their nominees and replace them with someone else,” the lawsuit argues. “But those rules don’t apply to independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr…He has not been treated

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are tied in a new poll of Wisconsin voters. In a head-to-head matchup between the Republican and Democratic nominees for president, the American Greatness/TIPP poll of likely and registered voters shows both Trump and Harris at 47% support. When independent and third party candidates are added, Harris garners 46% support to Trump's 45%, within the poll's +/- 3.4% margin of error. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulls in 6% support, with 2% undecided. "The presidential race is very tight like 2020, within the margin of error," pollster Raghavan Mayur with TIPP told The Center Square. "It is probably the tightest among the battleground states." Mayur said that the economy, immigration, and national debt/government spending are the key issues that could sway independent and undecided voters in the state, with 52% listing the economy as among their top three issues and 36% citing immigration and bord

Former President Donald Trump called for special counsel Jack Smith to be sanctioned or censured for "attacking" the judge in Trump's classified documents case. Trump's comments on Thursday come after Smith and his team of prosecutors made it clear they think Judge Aileen Cannon's latest ruling was based on "an unstated and fundamentally flawed legal premise." Prosecutors objected to Cannon's order to produce proposed jury instructions under two different legal scenarios. Smith said both legal scenarios were flawed . In response to the judge's order, prosecutors said they need clarification on Cannon's position so they can appeal if needed. They asked the judge to decide before the trial if the Presidential Records Act "has an impact on the element of unauthorized possession" of classified documents. Failure to do so could make it impossible to prosecute Trump because of the double jeopardy clause in the Fifth Amendment, which

  Former President Donald Trump said Friday he has enough cash on hand to cover the New York civil judgment against him and his business but wants to use that money to get re-elected. In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump made it clear he wants to hang on to both his cash and his real estate portfolio. New York Attorney General Letitia James has said she will take steps to seize Trump's assets if he doesn't put up the money. Monday is the deadline for Trump to come up with $464 million, plus interest, or a bond for that amount to appeal a civil case that threatens his presidential campaign and his real estate portfolio. "Through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million in cash, a substantial amount of which I intended to use in my campaign for president," Trump wrote in all caps Friday morning. Trump is appealing a ruling by Superior Court Judge Arthur Engoron in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by James in 2022.

The former Milwaukee election manager who sent three fake military ballots to a state lawmaker back in 2022 is claiming to be a whistleblower, but the lawmaker who got those ballots isn’t sure. Kimberly Zapata’s trial began this week. She’s the former Milwaukee Election Commission supervisor charged with official misconduct after she mailed three military ballots to state Rep. Janel Brandtjen ahead of the 2022 election. Zapata’s lawyers said she is “political whistleblower” who simply wanted to ensure a “fair and secure” election. “I had never met or known Kim Zapata. Her case makes it abundantly clear that the online WISvote system allows anyone, under indefinitely-confined, overseas or military ballots to request and receive a ballot, without security. In addition, the system allows ballot requests with a VPN, meaning the persons who request a ballot may never be known,” Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, told The Center Square. “If Ms. Zapata had wanted to point out a concern in

  Former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential primary Wednesday morning and declined to endorse former President Donald Trump. "I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we have received from all across our great country, but the time has now come to suspend my campaign," Haley said during her remarks. "I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that." Haley said she has no regrets. "In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meet in July," Haley said. "I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America's president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us. "I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee," Haley continued. "But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatch

  Former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial date, in a case involving porn actress Stormy Daniels, will be March 25. A New York judge rejected a request to dismiss the case from Trump. He faces charges in multiple states while commanding the lead for the Republican nomination in the presidential race. His lawyers, appearing before Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, said the case will interfere with his campaign to return to the White House. Trump has three other prosecutions unresolved, one of which involved a district attorney under heavy scrutiny in Georgia on Thursday. Trump’s defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, said the president should not be spending the next two months in preparation for a trial when he should be on the campaign trail. Trump, after the decision, said he would be in court during the day and “campaigning during the night.” It echoes previous statements he has made. This New York case , with a prosecution led by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, was the fir

  A former friend of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified Thursday that Willis' romantic relationship with a special prosecutor started years before Willis hired him to lead the election interference case against Donald Trump. Robin Bryant-Yeartie, a friend since college and former Fulton County District Attorney's Office employee, said that Willis began a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade in 2019 shortly after they met at a judicial conference. Wade, who took the stand after Bryant-Yeartie, said the relationship with Willis started in March 2022, after he had been hired in November 2021. The conflicting testimony during a contentious legal hearing Thursday comes as Judge Scott McAfee looks to determine if Willis should be removed from the case. In August 2023, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former state Republican Party Chair David Shafer, on charges they tried to

Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says Democrats in the state continue to hate him for what he did more than a decade after he took office. But he said the current redistricting effort, and the political change that could follow, are more a reflection of the left’s hate for former President Trump. Walker told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber the effort to flip Wisconsin toward Democrats is a direct result of last spring’s election that flipped the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And that election, Walker said, is a direct result of the Democrat’s fundraising and campaigning in the state. “It is a reflection of what happens when the left is driven largely by their hate and disdain nationally for President Trump. They see Wisconsin is a key state, which it is. And they've just been better at Republicans and conservatives at pouring money into things like the Supreme Court race,” Walker said. “It's hard to deny the enormous advantage that was held by the liberal candidate in that

  Former President Donald Trump will remain on the Illinois ballot after the State Board of Elections dismissed a challenge alleging he was ineligible because of his challenging the results of 2020 election. The elections board, in a bipartisan 7-1 vote, said it did not have the jurisdiction to remove Trump from the ballot. A hearing officer had earlier recommended Trump’s name be removed. The primary in Illinois is March 19. The General Election is Nov. 5. This story is developing and will be updated. The Center Square Go to Source Reposted with permission https://www.wisconsinrightnow.com/trump-to-remain-on-illinois-ballot/?feed_id=9908&_unique_id=65b972e9e5146

A former IRS contractor who leaked former President Donald Trump's tax returns along with tax information for some of the nation's wealthiest people was sentenced Monday to five years in prison. Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty in October to disclosing tax return information without authorization. Littlejohn, while working at the IRS as a contractor, stole tax return information associated with Trump and others. Littlejohn accessed tax returns associated with Trump on an IRS database "after using broad search parameters designed to conceal the true purpose of his queries," according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He then evaded IRS protocols to detect and prevent large downloads or uploads from its systems. Prosecutors said Littlejohn then saved the tax returns to multiple personal storage devices, including an iPod, before contacting a news outlet. Between around August 2019 and October 2019, Littlejohn provided the news outlet

The former head of Wisconsin’s Republican Party and the man in charge of this summer’s Republican National Convention says he doesn’t see anyone but Donald Trump getting the nomination. Reince Priebus told News Talk 1130’s WISN that after the former president’s resounding win in the Iowa Caucuses, Trump is the presumptive nominee. “I think that Donald Trump exceeded expectations,” Priebus said. “I think that he exceeded the mental threshold that Democrats and people that don’t like Trump wanted to out there. ‘Oh, he didn’t get 50%.’ I think it ended up being 51%.” Trump doubled the vote totals of both Ron DeSantis and Nikki Halley in Monday night’s caucuses. Reince Priebus said that kind of victory will make it tough for either challenger to find a path forward, especially DeSantis, Priebus said. “His play is that he is going to get second in South Carolina. That he’s going to talk to donors about whether any of these cases are going to matter, in regard to President Trump,

  Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ended his bid for the Republican nomination for president after receiving only 191 votes in the Iowa caucuses. Hutchinson frequently called out former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail. "Trump not only wants to be above the law, but claims he is the law," Hutchinson said in a pinned post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. Trump received 51% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses , followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with just over 21% and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley with 19.1%. "My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner did not sell in Iowa," Hutchinson said in a statement Tuesday morning. "I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for the country's future." Hutchinson did not endorse another candidate. Vivek Ramaswamy, who received 8

  Former President Donald Trump on Monday night easily won the caucuses in Iowa, the first state to vote in a months-long primary process where Republican voters will decide who they want to face the likely Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, in November. Based on national polling and Trump's decisive win Monday, it might not take months to decide the GOP nominee. Iowa has 40 delegates up for grabs, and 1,215 are needed to win the Republican nomination. Initial results showed Trump winning more votes than all of his opponents combined, though he dropped to about 50% of the total as more votes were counted. The outcome seemed so lopsided early, most major news outlets – including Fox News, CNN, CBS News and ABC News – called the race less than 30 minutes into the caucuses. Trump's top challengers, former South Carolina Gov. and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, were in a tight battle for second place with thousands of votes still to be co

  Former President Donald Trump is the heavy favorite to win Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses Monday, leading his closest challengers in polls by more than 30 percentage points. RealClearPolitics Poll Average of major polls across the country shows Trump with more than 52% support in The Hawkeye State. His closest challenger there, former South Carolina Gov. and Ambassador Nikki Haley, shows 18.2% support, a nearly 34% percentage point gap between the No. 1 and No. 2 candidates in the state. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is an even more distant third with 15.6% support. Monday's caucuses in Iowa – where temperatures are expected to hover just below 0 degrees and wind chills could hit minus 35 degrees or worse – are the first time voters get to weigh in during the Republican primary season. Unlike a standard primary election where voters simply go to the polls and cast their ballots for the candidate of their choice (or in more recent years, mail in their ballots),

  A Black Trump supporter wrote, “he is really a man of his words and doesn’t have a lot of lobbyists telling him what to do or say.” (The Center Square) – Former President Donald Trump holds a lead over President Joe Biden heading into this presidential election year, the latest poll shows. Trump’s lead is due in large part to his growing support among Hispanic and Black voters, which is higher than Republican presidential candidates have received in the past. One portion of the survey allowed Republican voters to share why they prefer Trump over his primary competitors, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, over whom he holds a wide lead. A Black Trump supporter wrote, “he is really a man of his words and doesn’t have a lot of lobbyists telling him what to do or say.” The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll, conducted Jan. 2-4, found that among likely voters, Trump holds 45% support compared to Biden’s 41% in a head-to-head face

With former President Donald Trump’s access to Illinois’ primary ballot being challenged, it’s possible his name could appear on the Republican ticket but with a condition. Nominating petitions for presidential electors are being filed this week to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Elections board spokesman Matt Dietrich said the board can’t discuss the nature of objections. “Because we do not release anything related to objections until they are in the hands of a hearing officer,” Dietrich told The Center Square. “That’s not going to happen until Jan. 17.” The Chicago Sun-Times reports that objectors, using the 14th Amendment, claim that Trump is barred for encouraging protestors to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court similar moves from Colorado and Maine. “It’s time to put a STOP to all of these vicious attempts to REMOVE my name from the ballot,” Trump said in a fundraising email. “That’s why my attorneys have officiall

  Former President Donald Trump's legal team alleged Thursday that federal prosecutors have deliberately violated a stay order in his Washington D.C. case to thwart his presidential bid. In the defense's clearest attack yet, they alleged special counsel Jack Smith and his team were trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election. "Unstated, but obvious, is the prosecutors' desperate effort to harass President Trump and prevent his likely victory in the 2024 Presidential Election," Trump's defense attorneys wrote in the latest court filing. "A significant part of this strategy, which the prosecutors have employed from the outset, is to use this case as a platform to advance the Biden Campaign’s dishonest political talking points, including, for example, echoing the false and defamatory claims that President Trump spreads 'disinformation.'" The defense motion comes in response to request last month from Smith's team, which

  Former President Bill Clinton is among several high-profile names identified in nearly 1,000 pages of unsealed court documents stemming from a defamation lawsuit related to Jeffrey Epstein. The documents released out of the Southern District Court of New York Wednesday evening, were filed by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s close associate and partner. The documents reveal a damning relationship between Clinton and Epstein. In a shocking deposition, Johanna Sjoberg, recruited to work as a “massage therapist” for the accused pedophile, said Epstein claimed, “Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.” In the documents, Maxwell denied Clinton ever visited Epstein’s private Caribbean Island while confirming the former president dined on Epstein’s private jet while traveling around the world. “The allegation that Clinton had a meal on Jeffrey’s Island is 100 percent false,” Maxwell testified. She could not indicate how many times Clinto

Former President Donald Trump fulfilled a promise made last month to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled he wasn’t constitutionally eligible for the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot in March. Trump’s legal team filed their appeal to the nation’s highest court on Wednesday after Colorado’s highest court ruled in a 4-3 decision his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. "The questions presented in this Petition are of the utmost importance," the request states. "President Trump is the leading candidate for the nomination for President of the United States of one of two major political parties. In 2020, President Trump received more than 74 million votes nationally, and more than 1.3 million votes in Colorado alone to be reelected as President of the United States. Thus, the Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado an