After declaring that he wanted to testify in his criminal trial, it appears increasingly unlikely that Donald Trump will do so, as the jury seems poised to hear closing arguments next week.
Defendants rarely testify in their own defense, because their lawyers advise them that the risks of doing so, particularly when it comes to being questioned by prosecutors under oath, are simply too great.
Even so, defense attorneys often try to hold out until the last possible minute to say whether their client will testify, hoping to keep prosecutors guessing.
In Trump’s case, the judge’s discussions with lawyers in recent days indicate that even if the defense calls a small number of witnesses, they do not expect Trump to be one of them.

At a campaign speech in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday, former President Donald J. Trump claimed, “Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole… country.”
During his nearly 90-minute speech, the former president discussed the 2020 election, the US-Mexico border, and the US economy while criticizing several government officials, including Fani Willis, the Atlanta prosecutor overseeing his criminal case in Georgia. He attacked President Joe Biden numerous times, calling him “stupid” and even referring to him as a “dumb son of a—” before trailing off.

Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, remained in serious condition on Sunday but has been given a positive prognosis four days after he was shot multiple times in an assassination attempt that has sent shockwaves across the deeply polarized European Union nation, the defense minister said. “The worst of what we feared has passed, at […]

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The IDF has announced that an officer who was seriously wounded during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on May 15, has succumbed to his injuries. The officer has been identified as Maj. Gal Shabbat HY”D, 24, a company commander in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion. His death increased the total number of IDF soldiers […]

U.S. officials have developed specific and highly credible intelligence suggesting that an American citizen who disappeared seven years ago while traveling in Syria has died, the man’s daughter said Saturday. Maryam Kamalmaz said in an interview with The Associated Press that during a meeting in Washington this month with eight senior American officials she was […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during a visit to China that Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but that there are no plans to capture the city. The remarks were Putin’s first on the offensive launched May 10, which opened a new front and displaced thousands […]