Donald Trump news today: Trump wins temporary stay to New York fraud trial after suing judge as he hails ‘best polls ever’

A judge from a New York state appeals court has issued a temporary halt to the upcoming 2 October trial in the fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Donald Trump and his family business.

The judge’s directive was issued during a surprise virtual hearing that was closed to the public.

The order was issued in response to the former US president’s lawsuit against Justice Arthur Engoron, the trial judge responsible for the case.

In his lawsuit, Mr Trump accused Justice Engoron and Ms James of disregarding a court order that could limit the scope of the lawsuit, the Daily Beast reported.

A court spokesperson said that Justice David Friedman from the appeals court has granted a temporary suspension of the trial and has referred the issue to a five-judge panel – which is expected to rule during the last week of September. That means that the trial could in theory still go ahead on 2 October, depending on the panel’s ruling.

The charges in Washington followed another special counsel prosecution against Mr Trump in Florida.

On 8 June, a federal grand jury indicted Mr Trump on 37 charges for allegedly retaining classified national defence information after leaving the White House, then conspiring to obstruct justice and making false statements when federal officials sought to take back the official documents.

Nearly two months later, on 28 July, federal prosecutors added three additional charges in the case, accusing Mr Trump and employees of his Mar-a-Lago estate of attempting to delete security footage pertaining to the documents so it couldn’t be used in a future investigation as evidence.

On 1 August, a grand jury approved an indictment accusing Mr Trump of conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, and deprivation of civil rights under colour of law, the latter charge using a post-Civil War law designed to prosecute the Klu Klux Klan.

The four-count indictment alleges Mr Trump and his allies knew they lost the 2020 election, but sought to hold onto power anyway. They did so, according to federal prosecutors, by pressuring officials to ignore the popular vote, organising slates of illegitimate electors, conducting sham Justice Department investigations into state election counts, coercing Vice President Mike Pence to reject certifying the legitimate election results, then fueling the mob of supporters who sacked the Capitol on January 6.

Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed he was the victim of a political prosecution.

“This was never supposed to happen in America. This is the persecution of the person that’s leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot so if you can’t beat them you persecute them or prosecute ‘em,” he said on 3 August.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law Thursday restricting release of her travel and security records after the Legislature wrapped up a special session marked by a fight to more broadly scale back the state Freedom of Information Act.

The law, which took effect immediately, allows the state to wall off details about the security provided the GOP governor and other constitutional officers, including who travels on the State Police airplane and the cost of individual trips. Proposed changes to the 1967 law protecting the public’s access to government records were among several items Sanders had placed on the agenda for a session that met this week.

Sanders has argued the restrictions are needed to protect her and her family, citing threats she’s faced since taking office and going back to her time as White House press secretary for former President Donald Trump.

“We protected the police officers who protect our constitutional officers and my family in keeping their security information and tactics exempt from Freedom of Information Act disclosure,” Sanders said before signing the measure, about two hours after lawmakers gave it final it approval.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wallis began investigating the former president shortly after he left office in 2021. At the time, an infamous recording had just gone public of Mr Trump pressuring election officials to “find” him just enough votes to win him the state.

A grand jury empaneled by Ms Willis found that there was persuasive evidence that Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants, including high-profile lieutenants like Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff, sought to tamper with the state’s election results through various schemes like coercing local officials and attempting to send a slate of false electors to Washington for the final Electoral College certification process.

He and his co-defendants were set to face arraignment on 6 September.

But on 31 August, Mr Trump entered a not guilty plea and waived his arraignment – in a move to avoid appearing in court where the judge had already granted cameras.

Without the privileges and prestige of the presidency to protect him, Mr Trump is facing serious lawsuits and criminal indictments across New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington.

Federal officials, local prosecutors, and individuals are going after him for everything from his private conduct to his political maneuvering during the 2020 election. If even just one of these efforts are successful, the US could see its first-ever former president in prison.

The highest-ranking officer in the US military has denied Donald Trump’s claims that he recommended a US strike on Iran.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, pushed back on the claims made by the former president in an audio recording made in July 2021.

“I can assure you that not one time have I ever recommended to attack Iran,” Gen Milley told CNN.

Mr Trump made the claim during a conversation at his Bedminster golf club with biographers of his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, which emerged during the Mar-a-Lago documents probe.

A transcript of the recording is now part of the investigation into the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi used a graphic hand gesture to symbolise something being slowly crushed when speaking about Kevin McCarthy’s “incredibly shrinking speakership”.

She said the probe was launched as part of a deal with the far-right flank of the House Republicans pushing Mr McCarthy to give in to their demands or risk losing the speakership.

“You have to impeach the president or else we’re going to vacate the chair of speaker. You have to shut down government or else we’re going to vacate the chair of speaker,” she said. “This is not responsible governance, but it’s the chaos on the Republican side.”

Cooper asked if Mr McCarthy had put himself in an “impossible situation”.

Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz accused Republicans of hypocrisy regarding the Biden impeachment.

Mr Muskowitz was taking part in a hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Wednesday morning when he argued that Republicans were guilty of hypocrisy as they accused President Joe Biden of benefiting from suspicious foreign interests.

“We sit here, we hear our colleagues bring up certain things like, ‘Oh, the Biden family took money from a foreign entity’,” he said with mock concern.

“I mean, do they really not know that Jared Kushner took $2bn from the Saudis? They go on Twitter and blame the Saudis for 9/11. But then Jared Kushner, who, by the way, was not a wealth expert, before he worked in the White House, nor was he a Middle East expert, before he worked there, gets $2bn from the Saudis, and they don’t have any questions.”