Donald Trump news today: Manhattan DA resumes Stormy Daniels hush money probe as Elon Musk unbans conservatives

The appointment of a special counsel to oversee the remainder of two significant investigations related to former President Donald Trump focuses fresh attention on the role such prosecutors have played in modern American history.

Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been reinstated by Elon Musk after it was banned for nearly two years.

Mr Musk announced on Saturday evening that he would reinstate the former president’s account after it was banned for inciting violence in the wake of the 6 January insurrection, a move that was previously described as permanent.

The former US president has voiced his commitment to his Truth Social platform, writes Chris Stevenson. But for how long will he resist the temptation to return to Twitter?

Republican leaders in Washington are seeking someone to blame after some late-game fundraising issues and poor overall showings in a number of key races across the country led to Joe Biden having the best midterm performance of a sitting president in decades. Among the targets: Donald Trump, and the head of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, Rick Scott.

Many of the GOP’s candidates in expensive midterm contests were political newcomers with far-right positions who saw themselves outraised by their Democratic opponents. It’s a symptom of the loyalty-above-all standard that Donald Trump used to select candidates for his endorsement this year.

Read more in The Independent:

A week after Donald Trump’s not-so-surprise announcement of a 2024 bid for the presidency, fractures in the GOP are beginning to emerge and potential challengers to his bid for the Republican nomination are not yet backing down.

With that in mind, The Independent’s Oliver O’Connell took a look at who accepted invitations to be at Mr Trump’s side for the historic moment at Mar-a-Lago — and who chose to remain behind.

Former President Barack Obama is headed down to Georgia as Democrats hope to hold the seat currently occupied by Senator Raphael Warnock, who won a special election in 2021.

Still one of the Democrats’ top campaigners, Mr Obama’s star power will be put to the test as Donald Trump remains fully supportive of his scandal-plagued ally, Herschel Walker, and polls indicate the race remains tight. Mr Warnock held a slim lead over Mr Walker in the initial results earlier this month.

Prosecutors with DA Alvin Bragg’s office in Manhattan have rested their case in the proceedings against the Trump Organization.

The district attorney’s office is alleging that the company committed tax fraud through a scheme in which its ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg concocted a lavish perks package for executives at the corporation so they could avoid paying taxes on what was essentially wide swaths of their income.

The New York Times reported that the decision by the prosecutors was a sign of the “confidence” Mr Bragg’s team had in their case. Mr Weisselberg testified himself in recent days.

A judge in Georgia has ruled that a ban on voting this coming weekend would be an undue burden on voters in the state and has nullified the law for the state’s upcoming runoff election between Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.

State law forbids early voting on the weekend after a major holiday, which would mean voting would not have taken place this coming weekend after Thanksgiving. But a judge has ruled that it will take place, thanks in part to a separate law passed by Republicans this year which further restricted early voting to end the Friday before a runoff election.

The development could be a boon for Democrats, who are hoping for large turnout especially in urban areas as Mr Warnock faces a challenge for his seat from Mr Walker, a Trump-backed Republican.

Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg is reportedly resuming an investigation into whether Donald Trump paid hush money to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who alleged that she had an affair with the businessman and ex-president.

According to The New York Times, the investigation recently resumed after Mr Bragg made the decision to focus narrowly on the issue of the supposed hush money payment and not, as his predecessor had done, looked into a wider range of legal statutes that were seen as being on sturdier prosecutorial grounds.

Mr Trump has long denied that he ever had a relationship with Ms Daniels, though his onetime fixer Michael Cohen has confirmed that it took place.

Joe Biden took a shot at Donald Trump and the failure of his hand-picked candidates to bring a “red wave” at this year’s Turkey Pardon on the White House lawn.

Mocking the GOP’s failure to take the Senate and marginal gains in the House, he quipped that the only red wave he’d be seeing this year would come if his dog Commander knocked over the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving dinner.

Follow Andrew Feinberg’s coverage of the annual tradition here: