Lawyers for Donald Trump have requested more time to pay a $5m civil judgment to magazine columnist E Jean Carroll from 2023, days after the US supreme court declined to hear an appeal.

In a new filing, the president’s attorney said that since his former lead counsel, Justin Smith, took up a position as a federal judge last month (a post he was nominated to by Trump), his new lead counsel, Josh Halpern, needed more time “to become completely familiar with the facts and procedural circumstances” of the case.

A jury awarded Carroll damages after concluding that Trump had sexually abused her in 1996 and then defamed her after she publicly described the attack in 2019. Trump deposited money in an escrow fund to pay the award but is trying to delay the release of an amount that is now nearly $5.8m with interest.

Trump’s attorneys requested that the court extend the deadline for a response to Carroll’s request for payment to 14 July, arguing that the “plaintiff faces no risk of material harm as a result of granting this request”.

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President Trump on Friday issued a “fierce rebuke” of communism as part of his Independence Day kickoff speech, injecting partisan rancor into remarks commemorating America’s 250th birthday with Mount Rushmore as the backdrop. 

Speaking in Keystone, South Dakota, Trump declared that “such doctrines can be given no quarter,” issuing a thinly-veiled dark threat against less than a handful of rising Democratic candidates running as Democratic Socialists and progressives.

“As we approach this magnificent anniversary, we see our American identity under a renewed attack,” Trump warned. 

“There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success,” he continued.

“Communism is the enemy of free people everywhere, everywhere in the world, never works, it’s the enemy of the Constitution, above all, it’s the enemy of July 4, 1776 – it is the enemy indeed.”

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A group of people wearing symbols of the White supremacist organization Patriot Front gathered and paraded in parts of the nation's capital on July 4.

The group was spotted at Union Station and the Eastern Market metro station in Washington, DC, on Independence Day. The Eastern Market station is one of the closest to the Capitol building.

Videos posted on social media captured the individuals marching in their signature blue shirts, chinos and white face coverings. Several wore hats with the Patriot Front logo. The group marched to a drum beat outside Union Station, the city's main train station, and carried flags that included an upside-down American flag and a Confederate flag in a video shared on social media by WTOP reporter Mitchell Miller.

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Plans for President Donald Trump's speech and what he has described as a record-breaking fireworks show are still on after severe thunderstorms wreaked havoc on Fourth of July celebrations in the Eastern United States.

From Washington, D.C., to Boston, Independence Day events are back on after brief delays due to inclement weather as the country marks its 250th anniversary. Trump’s “Salute to America” event was postponed until 11 p.m. due to “approaching severe weather.” In New York, organizers opted to launch fireworks early to beat weather concerns.

Festivities in Western and Central states, meanwhile, are chugging along as planned, with star-studded concert lineups taking the stage in Nashville and Los Angeles.

"Storms bring luck to whatever the occasion," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "They also make events a little bit more exciting! We will wait it out, I don’t care if it’s 2:00 O’Clock in the morning, or in one hour from now. Looks like it is going to pass, they always do. I will be there no matter what, but the “what” usually turns out to be a good thing."

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