As a local daily, High School Sports drive interest, as does s restaurant news. And we still run Birth Notices in our papers. Who does that anymore . Reporter not everyone loves the paper. Some elected officials, Community Leaders theres a lot of mischief that can go on in the dark that happens when you dont have local journalists keeping track of what is going on. Reporter mainers have relied On The Sun Journal for more than 175 years. Thanks to the trust, they still can and be a short delivery person beth combs will see you get your copy, even at your back door. Thank you to the amazing harry smith for one last piece of good news to take us off the air tonight. On that beautiful note, i wish you a very good night. From all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up ne late. Up late. Thanks to you at home for joining us. Really happy to have here. Right of the top, there has been Breaking News in the last hour or so in a couple of the legal cases involving former president donald trump. One of these, weve been watching for a few weeks. He lost a big fraud case against his company a few weeks ago. There were huge financial penalties hes been ordered to pay in that case. He is going to appeal the judgment, hes going to appeal the ruling in that case but he, in the meantime, has to put up a bond while he filed that appeal. Weve been watching this because the amount of the judgment against him was so huge the body has to put up is cute, roughly half 1 billion. His lawyers told the court as the deadline for filing the bond, for posting the bond approached, his lawyers told the court that they had been unable to obtain the bond. They said they had reached out to 30 Different Insurance Companies but nobody would help him post a bond of that size. At that point, it looked like new yorks Attorney General who brought this fraud case in the first case, the ag might be about to start seizing trumps Bank Accounts and seizing his properties to secure the judgment. Then, you may recall, there was a lastminute reprieve for trump. A new York Appeals Court lowered the bond to less than half of what had originally been ordered. They did not explain why they were doing that but that is what they did. They brought the bond amount down from nearly 500 million 175 million. That would be all that trump would have to put up while he appeals this Fraud Judgment against him. They also, in addition to reducing the amount he had to put up, they gave him more time. The deadline was extended so he would have until later this week to put up that new 175 million bond. As of this last hour, we just got confirmation in Court Documents trump has posted the reduced amount of bond. He secured a 175 million bond through something called night Specialty Insurance Company in los angeles. Knight specialty insurance, part of an Insurance Group chaired by a major republican donor. Make of that what you will. That move tonight would appear to mean that the former president has satisfied his financial obligations in that huge fraud case for now, at least until his appeal is heard and that is not expected to be at least until this fall. That is one of the two big developments that has happened this evening. Theres another in trumps other New York State case, which is a criminal case, not a civil case. This is the us money case that is due to start two weeks from today. The judge in that case has tonight just issued an expanded gag order on mr. Trump. Last week, this judge issued an order that banned trump from attacking witnesses or prosecutors or jurors or court staff, as well as their relatives. After that gag order, trump started publicly attacking not only the judge, whom is and remains fair game for criticism under the gag order but he repeatedly went after the judges daughter, including identifying her by name on social media. Now, the new York District attorney, the prosecutor that got this case asked the judge to expand the gag order to include Family Members of the judge and Family Members of the prosecutor. Tonight, the judge has done just that. The gag order still doesnt apply to the judge himself with the prosecutor himself but it does now include their families. In expanding the gag order in that way, the judge did not mince words. He said tonight, this pattern of attacking Family Members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose. It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings that not only they but their Family Members as well are fair game for defendants with real. The average observer must now, after Hearing Defendants recent attacks draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry not only for themselves but for their loved ones as well. Such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the very demonstration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the rule of law itself. Again, that case, that criminal case, the first ever criminal case brought against a former president of the United States, it is slated to get underway in a new york courtroom two weeks from today. That is when Jury Selection will start. The judge tonight making clear that attacks on his Family Members, Family Members of the prosecutor will henceforth not be tolerated and will be subject to punishment by the court. So, both of those stories breaking within the last hour or so. We will keep you apprised. If there is further development on this story, theres no reason in legal terms, that there should be further development, but you never know. When it is about misbehavior and attacking people and trying to meddle with the rule of law, sometimes these things develop in a way that the docket could not predict. We will keep ice on that over the course of this hour for you. All right, did you ever hear the one about the Cartier Jewelry, the Shopping Spree at cartier, new york city . This was a fake story but it was a good one. The fake story was that when the president of ukraine came to new york city to give a speech to the u. N. General assembly, the story was his wife, who came to new york with him, spent her time in new york at cartier buying over 1 million worth of jewelry for herself. This is meant to be a shocking story, right . Which in and give ukraine any more support, nobody should. Clearly the leaders of ukraine are just stealing it all so they can buy Diamond Rings for themselves or whatever. Totally fake story. It originated, apparently, in russia, no surprise. It was a pretty obvious fake from the outset. Even though it had all this detail that was supposed to make it more believable, the detail didnt help. The day on which this person was supposed to have bought all this jewelry at cartier was a day that she and her husband were not in new york. That was very Public Knowledge because they were doing lots of Public Events in a whole different country on that day. They were in canada on the day the supposed Shopping Spree happened in new york city. It was obvious, including in the supposedly dimming details from the very outset. But the people spread that story around. , and it states, one englishlanguage Russian Disinformation site in particular, one that is supposed to look like an American News site, a site called d. C. Weekly was particularly effective at spreading the fake story about the Cartier JewelryShopping Spree that never happened. Then a couple of months later, d. C. Weekly was doing another one of them, same idea, another totally fake but good story. At this time, it wasnt Cartier Jewelry, this time it was yachts, boats. This story, fake story included a photo of these two big yachts that you could look up by name on the internet. They are real yachts. But, the fake story about them was that this time, these two yachts had been bought by the president of ukraine himself. It wasnt the wife buying jewelry, the senate was the president of ukraine himself buying boats. 75 million he spent buying these two yachts. Again, the whole point of this fake story is very obvious, right . Russian disinformation site is spreading this around, russia obviously wants people to believe this story. They want people to think why should we, why should anyone keep providing support to ukraine to fight back against russia having invaded them, why should ukraine get any support from any other country . They are just stealing the support, they are stealing the money. They are biting yachts with it. Dont you remember Hearing Something about them buying Diamond Rings with it too . Just like the jewelry one was obviously false, the supposedly tails of it were easily disproven, same thing with the fake story about the yachts. There were two dots that were supposedly at the center of the scandal. The details of it are supposed to make it more believable. These are real yachts you can look up on the internet machine. The story was these were just sold to the leader of ukraine. Both of these boats exist, they are real, they are a noble thing. They are both for sale because they have not just been sold to the president of ukraine or to anyone. Ukraine didnt buy them, he didnt buy them. The president of ukraine has no yachts. It is a fake story that appears to have originated in russia, created for obvious reasons. You dont have to be thinking this through. The strategy behind this is as obvious as a brick. You are waging war on another country. If you can spread lies about that of the country and make their allies around the world stop supporting them, then you will cut off their support and their supplies sooner and you will be them in the war. It is a very simple stuff. It is obvious why russia would be doing stuff, even if they are doing it so ham handedly. The strategy is painfully obvious, the execution is obviously fake. I mentioned that the yachts fake story was spread by the same Russian Disinformation site that the jewelry fake story was spread by. When you start seeing multiple fake, easily disproven, widely discredited stories spread by the same entity, that itself is a red flag that maybe things spread by the website should not be believed, makes it all even more obviously fake. When it came to the yachts, republican senator jd vance of ohio decided he believed it. He decided to take that one and run with it. He spread that story himself, the yachts. He mentioned it as if it was a true thing on Steve Bannons podcast. While senator jd vance was talking about all the reasons we should cut off ukraine and let russia take that country and do what they want. We definitely shouldnt support ukraine anymore because they are taking our money and biting yachts. Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene not only spread the same story about the yachts she linked to a version of it. She decided to spread it online, directing her followers to follow the link she posted to a russian think tank. A russian think tank that the State Department quite recently has described as a pillar of russias disinformation and propaganda ecosystem. She is a sitting congresswoman. She linked to this site the State Department has publicly described as registered in russia and directed by russias foreign intelligence service. On the one hand, maybe we can be happy russias Disinformation Operations that are targeting us and trying to change our policies as a country, try to interfere in our alliances. On the one hand, we can be sort of happy that these efforts are so hamhanded and so obvious and so dumb. On the other hand, some of our elected officials are apparently not put off by any of those problems. They are jumping right in. Apparently, believing it all, definitely spreading it, even when spreading it means literally linking right to russias foreign intelligence service, telling all your american followers go here to check out the truth. Take it from me, youre Serving Member of commerce. After the Opposition LeaderAlexei Navalney was killed in a russian prison in february, russia created fake Audio Recordings. They said they intercepted fake Audio Recordings that purported to be two American Government officials, two u. S. State Department Officials talking amongst themselves about who america would pick next to be the new head of the russian opposition to Vladimir Putin now that Alexei Navalny was dead. They are trying to make people think there is no real opposition to that any putin. Anyone saying they are opposed to that may putin is the creation of the United States. All real russians love Vladimir Putin. There is no one actually posed to him there. It is obvious why they would do Something Like this. It is so obvious this was another hamhanded fake. This posted because audio of these american touch in a plot has them both speaking with really heavy russian accents. They are both americans who are native english speakers, they dont have accents when they speak english at all but they have them speaking english like boris and natasha without the squirrel. Still, you do what we can. Every once in a while, maybe with a jackpot and a genius like senator jd vance promotes what you made up on some very popular conservative podcast and then it becomes a Republican Party talking point as if it is a real thing. You keep doing all this done, and quickly transparent fake stuff, every once in a while, one of those guys will jump on board and help you get it done. It is also done. It is often funny, right . It is often kind of hilarious except when it is terrifying. A couple weeks after these Russian Disinformation websites started circulating the fake Audio Recording of u. S. Officials supposedly taking the new head of the opposition in russia, the person that was mentioned in that fake recording, the man whom the american officials were supposedly picking to be the new marilyn lands, he was physically attacked in front of his house by a man with a hammer. This is a guy who was already exiled from russia. He is an opponent for Vladimir Putin. He was in lithuania. Still, they came and found him there. He was attacked outside his house. They sprayed them with tear gas, they smashed him up with a hammer, they broke his arm, hospitalized him, nearly killed him. Again, this didnt happen in russia. Opponents of Vladimir Putin cant live in russia anymore. Opponents of Vladimir Putin get killed and attacked all over the world because russia does whatever it wants and whatever country in the world. No matter what their laws are, right . No matter even the threat of getting caught, they just act with impunity because they are assuming if they keep doing it, they will get away with it. In spain, they just murdered the Helicopter Pilot who defected to ukraine. In germany, they shot the guy in broad daylight in the middle of a parking downtown berlin. The uk, they used a proprietary Russian Military nerve agent to go after one guy. They used radioactive polonium to go after another guy. The United States, they were trying to kill a guy in miami but they watched it and the guy got arrested. 60 minutes reported last night on evidence Russian Military intelligence may be behind the socalled Havana Syndrome attacks on dozens of american intelligence officials and other high ranking u. S. Government personnel. It is not the u. S. Government citing russia is behind it, it is 60 minutes reporting, as of last night. But, it is troubling what they turned up. I mean, this is a rogue state, right . This is a country that is Still Holding american Journalists Hostage right now. This is a country that is digging into deep new alliances with great neighbors like iran and north korea, including new reporting in the new york times, that crusher is helping North Korea Revivify its Nuclear Program in exchange for North Korea Armin