The US had failed in a series of quiet diplomatic efforts with top Malaysian leaders to get them to be less hostile to Israel.

In politics, loud urban narratives have proven to be urban myths when it comes to the ballot box.

Kennedy is nephew of former president John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and the son of former US senator Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 during his own presidential bid.

The scathing decision will make it easier for New York Attorney-General Letitia James to establish damages at a scheduled Oct 2 trial.

His defence team says such restrictions would violate his free speech rights as he runs for president as the clear front runner for the Republican nomination in 2024.

The judge plans to rule on Sept 26 on both sides' motions.

The trial could still begin as scheduled, depending on how the appeals court, known as the First Department, rules.

The federal government will enter its fourth shutdown in a decade next month unless the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democratic-run Senate can pass a long- or short-term funding bill and Biden signs it into law.

This is higher than the US$812 million to US$2.23 billion range Letitia James estimated last week.

Attorney-General Letitia James says inflating values of more than a dozen assets by hundreds of millions of dollars established the defendants' liability for fraud under the state's Executive Law.

Supporters and campaign managers have embraced the image of his arrest, while to critics, the photo is a symbol that his long list of legal woes has finally caught up to him.

He describes the indictment as a politically motivated effort to derail his re-election campaign.