Trump news today: Trump lawyers ask hush money trial judge to drop gag order blocking attacks on witnesses and jurors

Fewer Republicans think it should be illegal to pay hush money for the purposes of influencing an election than they did a year ago, and more Republicans now believe felons should be allowed to become president than they did just a few months ago, according to a new poll.

While the shares of Americans’ opinions of Trump has generally remain unchanged, most Republicans have changed their minds about whether felons should be president compared to polling taken before Trump was convicted on May 30, according to the YouGov survey.

In April, only 17 percent of Republicans believed convicted felons should be allowed to be president, according to a YouGov poll. That share rose to 58 percent in the post-conviction survey – an increase of 41 percentage points.

He really did say this an awful lot.

I can’t believe even Trump could seriously expect people to just forget one of his most famous lines.

Here’s Martha McHardy on the orange felon’s latest U-turn.

The adult film star, who enjoyed her greatest role yet as a key witness at Manhattan Criminal Court last month, has described the ordeal she went through in the run-up to her testimony and her fears for her life as she braved the animosity to speak out against the former president.

Here’s the latest on late-night’s reaction to Trump’s conviction.

New York Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, one of several prominent GOP figures currently jostling to be Trump’s running mate, has had one of her nuisance, long-shot attempts to interfere with the judges overseeing her hero’s criminal cases dismissed, according to a state document marked “confidential” obtained by The Daily Beast.

Despite Stefanik’s best efforts, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron and his law clerk, Allison Greenfield, have been cleared by a state commission of allegations of “inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance”.

The congresswoman made her baseless accusations against Judge Engoron on X in November in a characteristically long-winded post, blustering: “Americans are sick and tired of the blatant corruption by radical Leftist judges in NY. All New Yorkers must speak out against the dangerous weaponized lawfare against President Trump.”

All to no avail, however.

Here’s our report on her attempting to do the same thing last week to Judge Juan Merchan in the hush money case.

A federal appeals court in Florida has said it will no longer accept complaints about US district judge Aileen Cannon, who has received heavy criticism for her botched handling of the classified documents case against Trump, ruling that the influx it has received so far appears to be part of an “orchestrated campaign.”

The 11th Circuit Judicial Council, which oversees lower courts in the Sunshine State, said that since May 16 2024, its clerk has received more than 1,000 complaints about Judge Cannon from members of the public “that raise allegations that are similar to the allegations raised in previous complaints.”

The council ordered the court clerk to stop accepting complaints that “question the correctness of her rulings or her delays in issuing rulings” on the basis of allegations “unsupported by any evidence” that Judge Cannon has an “improper motive in delaying the case,” according to the opinion.

Last month, the justice indefinitely postponed the start of Trump’s trial, seemingly ending its chance of commencing before Election Day.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report.

Phone numbers and home addresses belonging to Michael Cohen’s wife and children were leaked online after Donald Trump’s conviction in New York.

Personal information for Cohen’s family members wound up on a site “known for doxxing”, according to Daniel J Jones, the president of nonprofit research group Advance Democracy.

The Maryland Democrat truly excels as a soundbite warrior and was at it again during Monday’s Fauci farce.

Here’s more from Eric Gracia.

Donald Trump’s attorneys are asking the judge overseeing his hush money trial to lift the trial’s gag order, “now that the trial has concluded.”

“The concerns articulated by the government and the Court do not justify continued restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump – who remains the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election – and the American people,” according to Monday’s letter from Trump attorney Todd Blanche to Justice Juan Merchan.

He has not yet been sentenced. A sentencing hearing is tentatively scheduled for July 11.

A gag order prevents Trump from publicly attacking witnesses, jurors, prosecutors and court staff and their families, with the exception of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the judge himself.

Trump was fined $10,000 for 10 statements directed at witnesses and the jury, and Judge Merchan threatened him with jail if he continued to violate the terms of the gag.

He evaded scrutiny from prosecution in the trial’s final weeks of the trial while a parade of his so-called “surrogates” lashed out at witnesses and the judge’s daughter, and as Trump himself took aim at the prosecution’s star witness Michael Cohen.

Blanche now argues that the basis for the gag order no longer exists, and that recent statements from President Joe Biden, Cohen and Stormy Daniels entitle him to a response. He also argued the gag order should be lifted ahead of a June 27 presidential debate.