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      New York probation officers to interview Trump prior to his criminal sentencing

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      Donald Trump is scheduled to be interviewed by New York probation officials Monday, a required step before his July sentencing in his criminal hush-money case, according to three people familiar with the plan.The former president will do the interview via a computer video conference from his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, the people told the Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose the plans publicly.One of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche, will be present for the interview. People convicted of crimes in New York usually meet with probation officials without their lawyers, but the judge in Trump’s case, Juan Merchan, said in a letter Friday that he would allow Blanche’s presence.The usual purpose of a pre-sentencing probation interview is to prepare a report that will tell the judge more about the defendant, and potentially help determine the proper punishment for the crime.Such reports are typically prepared by a probation officer, a social worker or a psychologist working for the probation department who interviews the defendant and possibly that person’s family and friends, as well as people affected by the crime.Present reports include a defendant’s personal history, criminal record and recommendations for sentencing. It will also include information about employment and any obligations to help care for a family member. It is also a chance for a defendant to say why they think they deserve a lighter punishment.A jury convicted Trump of falsifying business records at his own company as part of a broader scheme to buy the silence of people who might have told embarrassing stories about him during the 2016 presidential campaign. One $130,000 payment went to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, which he denied.Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, says he is innocent of any crime and that the criminal case was brought to hurt his chances to regain the White House.Following Trump’s historic conviction, a New York Times/Siena College post-verdict analysis of nearly 2,000 interviews with voters found that Trump’s advantage over Joe Biden narrowed from three to one point.Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, said in a statement Sunday that the president’s Democratic party allies “continue to ramp up their ongoing Witch-Hunts, further abusing and misusing the power of their offices to interfere in the presidential election”.“President Trump and his legal team are already taking necessary steps to challenge and defeat the lawless Manhattan DA case,” he said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMerchan has scheduled Trump’s sentencing for 11 July. He has discretion to impose a wide range of punishments, ranging from probation and community service to up to four years in prison.In his first rally earlier this week following his conviction, Trump, who is appealing his conviction, issued foreboding threats.“Those appellate courts have to step up and straighten things out, or we’re not going to have a country any longer,” Trump said at a Turning Point Action event in Phoenix, Arizona.Meanwhile, reports have emerged of New York police planning to revoke Trump’s license to carry a gun as a result of his conviction.Speaking to CNN anonymously, a New York police department official said that it will complete its investigation “that will likely lead to revocation of his license”. More

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      Businessman testifies he promised Bob Menendez up to $250,000 in bribes

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      A New Jersey businessman took his star turn on the witness stand on Friday in the bribery case against US senator Bob Menendez, telling a jury he believed he had a $200,000-$250,000 deal in 2018 for the Democrat to pressure the state attorney general’s office to stop investigating his friends and family.Jose Uribe testified in Manhattan federal court in the afternoon, providing key testimony against Menendez and two other businessmen charged in a conspiracy along with Menendez’s wife. Next week, Menendez’s lawyers will get to cross-examine the naturalized US citizen.“Next week we get the truth,” Menendez said just before stepping into a car that carried him away from Manhattan federal court, where he has been on trial for the last month.Uribe, 57, who pleaded guilty to charges in a March cooperation deal, was the star witness for the government in its bid to win a conviction against the senator, who once held the powerful post as chair of the Senate foreign relations committee. He was forced out of the position after he was criminally charged last fall.Menendez, 70, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he accepted gold bars, cash and a luxury car in return for doing favors for the businessmen. Two businessmen and Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, also have pleaded not guilty. Nadine Menendez’s trial has been postponed until at least July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.Uribe testified that he had been close friends with Wael Hana, who is on trial with Menendez, when Hana told him in early 2018 that New Jersey state criminal investigations swirling around the trucking business of a friend of his and Uribe’s own insurance business could be largely put to rest if he was willing to spend $200,000 to $250,000.Uribe said Hana told him that he would go to Nadine Arslanian (her name before she married the senator), who had begun dating Menendez that year, and then “Nadine would go to Senator Menendez”, although Uribe did not testify about how the couple could resolve multiple investigations.Uribe said he held a 13 July 2018 political fundraiser for Menendez, which the senator attended, raising $50,000. He said he attended an afterparty with Menendez and Arslanian that included cocktails, along with “some laughs, some jokes and some dancing”, but there was no mention of the work he expected Menendez to do on his behalf.View image in fullscreen“It was a crowded and loud place,” Uribe said.He said his confidence that the deal was working faded in the fall when an investigator from the attorney general’s office asked to interview his employee.“I was not happy,” he said.Assistant US attorney Lara Pomerantz showed jurors a series of text messages between Uribe and Hana in which Uribe pressed his friend to get the senator to stop the criminal investigations.“Please be sure that your friend knows about this,” Uribe wrote to Hana in one text.Pomerantz asked whom he was referring to as “your friend”.“Senator Menendez,” Uribe responded. Hana, according to the texts, responded: “I will.”Hana arranged for Uribe to have dinner with Menendez and Arslanian at a restaurant in October 2018, but Uribe testified there was no mention of the deal.“Nothing was discussed there of value, I will say,” Uribe testified. “It was a … pointless meeting.”Uribe said he began communicating directly with Nadine Arslanian in March 2019 and promised that he would buy her a car if she delivered on the deal to get the senator to shut down New Jersey criminal investigations.“She agreed to the terms,” he said.When the prosecutor asked Uribe what he understood the terms of the deal to mean, he said he understood that Nadine Arslanian would contact Menendez and get him to use his “influence and power to do anything possible to stop and kill” the investigations.On Thursday, former New Jersey attorney general Gurbir Grewal testified that Menendez in an early 2019 telephone call and in a September 2019 office meeting tried to talk to him about a criminal investigation. Grewal said he followed his policy and refused to do so, telling Menendez to contact defense lawyers so they could reach out to trial-level prosecutors or the judge.Uribe, of Clifton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in March, saying during his plea that he gave Nadine Menendez a Mercedes-Benz in return for her husband “using his power and influence as a United States senator to get a favorable outcome and to stop all investigations related to one of my associates”.Uribe was accused of buying the luxury car for Nadine Menendez after her previous car had been destroyed when she struck and killed a man crossing the street. She did not face criminal charges in connection with that crash. More

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      ‘Slap in the face’: outrage after New York governor halts congestion pricing

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      An 11th-hour decision to halt a plan to charge a fee for cars entering the heart of New York City has provoked outrage from environmental advocates and Democratic lawmakers, potentially scuppering hopes of congestion pricing taking hold in any US city in the near future.New York City was, on 30 June, primed to be the first American city to toll drivers in its traffic-clogged centre, with cars entering Manhattan south of 60th Street set to be charged $15 a day in a plan heralded as a landmark moment in tackling air pollution, helping curb carbon emissions and providing a funding boost for New York’s sprawling yet beleaguered public transit system.Yet on Wednesday, New York’s governor Kathy Hochul said she had come to the “difficult decision that implementing the planned congestion pricing system risks too many unintended consequences”, adding that she had ordered her administration to “indefinitely pause” the system.Hochul cited concerns over the plan’s cost to low-income people who drive into Manhattan at a time of relatively high inflation, although a political calculation has also shaped the governor’s thinking, with suburban districts near to New York City rife with car-owning voters expected to be closely contested in November elections.But supporters of the plan say that New York has missed a crucial opportunity to follow cities around the world, such as London and Stockholm, that have managed to enact congestion pricing in a successful way, with lawsuits now expected to try to force through the scheme.“I’ve been in touch with a lot of urban planners and city officials around the country and I can’t remember these people being as furious as they have been in the last 24 hours,” said David Zipper, a transportation expert and senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative.“New York is America’s biggest city, with the lowest levels of car ownership and highest share of transit ridership – you’d expect to see congestion pricing there first. Los Angeles and Boston were looking to New York, this could’ve spread nationwide, and yet Hochul has decided that low-income residents matter less than a few grumpy suburbanites. It’s deflating and it’s a slap in the face.”The decision is “disastrous to both the city and the broader economic region since the benefits of free-flowing traffic and faster commutes outweigh the costs”, said Rich Geddes, an infrastructure expect at Cornell University.“Some cite concerns about equity associated with congestion pricing, but traffic congestion itself disproportionately hurts the poor, with city buses and other public transportation stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.”Hochul herself was until recently a vocal backer of congestion pricing, which would’ve generated around $1bn a year in revenue destined for upgrades to the accessibility and signaling in New York’s creaking subway system, as well as a fleet of new electric buses.“Fewer cars means safer streets, cleaner air and more room to maneuver for pedestrians and bicyclists,” the governor said just two weeks ago. “In that way, expanded train service or an extra subway stop can actually change the trajectory of someone’s life. That’s powerful. That’s what cities are meant to do.”In December, at a rally in support of congestion pricing, Hochul said, somewhat ironically, that “leaders are called upon to envision a better future, be bold in the implementation and execution, and be undaunted by the opposition”.Transportation is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, although advocates for the plan have largely focused on its more immediate benefits – cutting air pollution that worsens conditions such as asthma in city residents, as well as freeing up space in New York’s famously clotted streets. Around 700,000 vehicles enter the lower half of Manhattan each day, often at a crawl – the average travel speed is now around 7mph, down from around 9mph 15 years ago.Around half of New York City households do not have a car, with 85% of commuters to Manhattan using the city’s network of subways, trains and buses to get there. It’s estimated that only 1.5% of all commuters under the plan would pay the full $15 fee.“We cannot allow a vocal minority of drivers who don’t qualify for exemptions and discounts to dictate our policy decisions,” said Jerry Nadler, a Democrat whose House of Representative district includes central Manhattan.The decision was celebrated by opponents, however, who have pointed to worries over congestion pricing’s financial impact as well as concerns that it would simply displace pollution to places near Manhattan, such as the Bronx.Some of the fiercest criticism of the plan came from neighboring New Jersey, with the state’s governor suing in an attempt to halt it. “Jersey families, their wallets and the environment won big,” said Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat who claimed that commuters from the state would be hardest hit. “As I always say, don’t mess with Jersey.”In New York, lawmakers are now faced with a budget hole in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which each day moves more people by subway alone than passengers on all flights across the entire US but will not be able to undertake planned upgrades if the $1bn not be replaced by a new payroll or business tax.There seems no immediate solution to this. Liz Krueger, a state senator and chair of the senate finance committee, said Hochul’s decision is “reckless” and a “staggering error”. She added: “The legislature certainly will not be rushing to raise taxes on hard-working New York City residents and small businesses.”Zipper said the episode should not feed into a “myth” that Americans have a unique love affair with cars compared to other countries. “It’s more like a forced marriage, which is to our detriment, because it prevents us from seeing how better urban life could be,” he said. “It’s frustrating.” More

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      Trump’s gun license to be revoked following conviction, media reports say

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      Donald Trump’s license to carry a gun is expected to be revoked by the New York City police department now that he has been convicted of a felony, according to reports on Wednesday evening.The former president once boasted that he was so popular with the electorate, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” He made the claim in January 2016 during the Iowa caucuses campaign.Trump’s permit to carry a concealed weapon was suspended in April last year after he was indicted on charges of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, according to CNN.Now, the NYPD is preparing to revoke Trump’s license altogether, CNN first reported, followed by NBC, with the latter citing a police spokesperson.Last week Trump was found guilty on 34 charges stemming from a hush-money scheme to influence the 2016 election, including felony falsification of business records.Prosecutors successfully argued that Trump falsely recorded payment he made to Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer, to cover fees paid to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about an affair with Trump.Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 election, will retain some privileges not afforded to all US felons. It appears he will still be able to vote in the November race, because New York – the state where the hush-money trial took place – is one of 23 states where people convicted of a felony can vote as long as they are not incarcerated.Trump is due to be sentenced on 11 July but experts say it is unlikely that he will serve time in jail. Trump has denounced the historic conviction as a “rigged trial”.More details soon … More

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      Trump lawyers and prosecutors at odds over lifting gag order before sentencing

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      As Donald Trump fights for Judge Juan Merchan to lift a gag order barring him from speaking publicly about key figures in his New York trial, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office are urging the judge to keep the order in place.“The court has an obligation to protect the integrity of these proceedings and the fair administration of justice at least through the sentencing hearing and the resolution of any post-trial motions,” wrote the prosecutors in a letter on Wednesday.During the trial – over Trump’s efforts to bury a sex scandal before the 2016 election – Trump repeatedly inveighed on social media against figures connected to the case, including witnesses and the judge’s daughter, who has worked as a Democratic consultant.In response, Merchan issued a series of orders barring Trump from speaking publicly about jurors, witnesses and the family of the judge.The trial concluded on 30 May, with the jury finding Trump guilty on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to hide hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who says she had an affair with the former president.Prosecutors had said they wanted the gag order to “protect the integrity of this criminal proceeding and avoid prejudice to the jury”. In the order, Merchan noted prosecutors had sought the restrictions “for the duration of the trial”. He did not specify when they would be lifted.Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche told the Associated Press last Friday that it was his understanding the gag order would expire when the trial ended and that he would seek clarity from Merchan, which he did on Tuesday.“It’s a little bit of the theater of the absurd at this point, right? Michael Cohen is no longer a witness in this trial,” Blanche told the AP. “The trial is over. The same thing with all the other witnesses. So, we’ll see. I don’t mean that in any way as being disrespectful of the judge and the process. I just want to be careful and understand when it no longer applies.”In a letter on Tuesday, Blanche and Emil Bove asked Merchan to end the gag order, arguing there was nothing to justify “continued restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump” now that the trial is over.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAmong other reasons, the lawyers said Trump was entitled to “unrestrained campaign advocacy” in light of President Joe Biden’s public comments about the verdict last Friday, and continued public criticism of him by Cohen and Daniels, both key prosecution witnesses.Trump’s lawyers also contend the gag order must go away so he is free to fully address the case and his conviction with the first presidential debate scheduled for 27 June.The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.Trump has continued to operate under the belief that he is still muzzled, telling reporters on Friday at Trump Tower: “I’m under a gag order, nasty gag order.”Referring to Cohen, Trump said, “I’m not allowed to use his name because of the gag order” before slamming his former lawyer-turned-courtroom foe as “a sleazebag”.During the trial, Merchan held Trump in contempt of court, fined him $10,000 for multiple violations of the gag order and threatened to put him in jail if he did it again.Trump’s use of the term “sleazebag” to describe Cohen just before the trial rankled prosecutors, but was not considered a gag order violation by the judge. Merchan declined to sanction Trump for a 10 April social media post, which referred to Cohen and Daniels by that insult.The judge said at the time that Trump’s contention that he was responding to previous posts by Cohen that were critical of him “is sufficient to give” him pause on whether prosecutors met their burden in demonstrating that the post was out of bounds.Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on 11 July. More

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      Trump hails Republicans for defending him and calls conviction ‘a scam’

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      Donald Trump on Sunday lauded the Republican party for rallying behind him in the wake of his conviction on 34 felony charges in a hush-money case aimed at influencing the 2016 election.Trump made the comments in his first sit-down press interview since the guilty verdict was returned on Friday that held he falsified business records linked to an illicit affair with adult actor Stormy Daniels. The former US president appeared on Sunday in a taped interview on Fox & Friends, a friendly forum on the rightwing channel and in which he was served up a series of softball questions by a trio of Fox hosts.Throughout the interview, Trump derided the conviction, baselessly characterizing it as political weaponization of the US justice system, while thanking the Republican party for largely supporting him.“People get it. It’s a scam,” he said, speaking of the trial. “And the Republican party … they’ve stuck together in this. They see it’s a weaponization of the justice department of the FBI and that’s all coming out of Washington.”Nearly all senior Republican leaders have vociferously defended Trump, echoing his claims the convictions were politically motivated, including the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, the House majority leader Steve Scalise, and the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. Since the verdict Trump campaign officials say they have also seen a funding boost of tens of millions of dollars in donations from supporters.Trump and the Fox News interviewers characterized the “weaponization” as similar to corruption in Latin American governments. He also claimed his attorney’s objections were routinely denied through the trial, while the prosecution were given preferential treatment: all familiar attack lines and conspiracy theories that Trump has peddled for months.“These people are sick, they’re sick, they’re deranged,” said Trump. “The enemy from within, they are doing damage in this country,” claiming his political opponents want to “quadruple” taxes. He dismissed New York and Washington DC as partisan areas where Republicans receive “virtually no votes”.He cited his campaign has received an influx of donations since the conviction, nearly $53m and claimed it has bumped his approval ratings in polls against Biden.A Reuters poll found one in 10 Republicans are less likely to vote for Trump following the conviction. A Morning Consult poll found 49% of independents and 15% of Republicans think Trump should end his presidential campaign as a result of the conviction.Over the course of the trial, Trump’s position in head to head surveys with Joe Biden did not shift much as he frequently maintained a narrow lead over his Democratic opponent. Trump also kept performing strongly in the key swing states needed to win the 2024 race for the White House. Strategists from both the Trump and Biden campaigns will eagerly be watching fresh polls this week to see if the verdict has had any meaningful impact on Trump’s support.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump will be sentenced later this month just before the Republican party convention that is almost certain to nominate him to be the party’s presidential candidate.Trump responded to the possibility that he could face jail time for his conviction. “I don’t know that the public would stand it, you know, I don’t. I think I think it would be tough for the public to take, you know at a certain point, there’s a breaking point,” he told FoxTrump also faces three other criminal trials: one over an attempt to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia, another about his handling of sensitive documents after leaving office and a third on his actions around the January 6 attack on the Capitol in Washington DC. However, all three have faced significant delays and are seen as unlikely to play out before November’s presidential election. More

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      Minnesota Democrat Dean Phillips calls on New York governor to pardon Trump

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      The outgoing Democratic US representative who failed in his presidential primary challenge against Joe Biden called on the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, to pardon Donald Trump over his criminal conviction for hush-money payments to influence the 2016 election “for the good of the country”.Minnesota representative Dean Phillips, who was the first Democrat to call on fellow party member Henry Cuellar to resign following bribery charges against the Texas representative, urged for the pardon on Friday in a post on X.“Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim,” wrote Phillips, who was first elected to Congress to represent a wealthier suburban area outside Minneapolis in 2019 but gave up seeking re-election to his seat in November to pursue his unsuccessful primary challenge to Biden.Hochul, Phillips added, “should pardon [Trump] for the good of the country”.In another X post on Saturday morning, Phillips doubled down on his call for leniency for the former Republican president.“You think pardoning is stupid? Making him a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid. (Election charges are entirely different),” he wrote. Referring to Trump’s claims that he has seen a spike in donations after his conviction, Phillips added: “It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost.”The chances of Hochul pardoning Trump seem slim. The Democratic governor’s statements after Trump’s conviction touted the rule of law, a principle under which “all persons, institutions and entities are accountable” to laws.“Today’s verdict reaffirms that no one is above the law,” Hochul said in a statement after a jury found Trump guilty on Thursday of 34 counts of felony falsification of business records.Hochul also said in a National Public Radio interview “Justice was served” – suggesting potential opposition to a pardon – continuing:“In the state of New York, if you commit a crime, and there’s evidence to demonstrate that you have met the standards of being arrested and brought to a trial and a jury of your peers considers all the evidence, then their verdict must hold.“And that’s exactly how the rule of law has always prevailed in our country. And this is no different. So I just want to make sure everyone knows our rule is no one is above the law.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump’s campaign claimed on Friday that he had raised $53m following the verdict – breaking GOP records, according to the New York Times. The newspaper notes that Trump’s predominant fundraising entity took in $58m over the second half of 2023, demonstrating the immensity of this windfall.Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who testified that he carried out the hush-money payment in 2016 while Trump successfully ran for the White House, expressed concern about Thursday’s conviction leading to prison time for the former president.Cohen’s remarks seemingly alluded to how Trump, in a separate criminal case pending against him, is charged with improperly retaining classified materials after his presidency and keeping them in areas that weren’t secure.“My concern is in a prison situation … He’s willing to give away the secrets, as I always say, for beggar tuna or a book of stamps, and he will do it because he doesn’t care,” Cohen said on MSNBC’s The Weekend. More

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      Trump’s verdict speech fact-checked: what he said and whether it’s true

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      Donald Trump delivered a rambling, incoherent speech laden with falsehoods and conspiracy theories from the atrium of Trump Tower, a day after the former president was convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush-money criminal trial.Here is a fact check of some of the things he said on Friday – and why they weren’t true.Trump claims the Joe Biden White House was behind his prosecutionDonald Trump claimed that the judge presiding over his hush-money case, Juan Merchan, and the court was in “total conjunction with the White House and the DoJ [Department of Justice]”. There is no evidence whatsoever supporting this claim.“This is all done by Biden and his people,” the former president said during a speech on Friday at Trump Tower.The accusation that Biden was behind the prosecution does not line up with the case’s facts.The elected district attorney of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, brought the case against Trump. Bragg is a state official who does not report to the federal government.Biden does not have any authority over Bragg or his office – and there is no evidence that the Biden administration had anything to do with the case.Trump rails against ‘nasty gag order’ he claims no one else has facedTrump claimed he is under a “nasty gag order, which nobody has ever been under”. He also said he has had to pay thousands of dollars in penalties – and that he was threatened with jail.Under Judge Merchan’s order designed to protect trial participants from Trump’s abuse, the former president is barred from making – or directing others to make – public statements about witnesses concerning their roles in the investigation and at trial. It also covers prosecutors, other staffers of Bragg, and members of the court staff. However, Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants about Merchan and Bragg.Trump has been fined $10,000 for 10 violations of the gag order for posts on his Truth Social platform and campaign website. Merchan has warned Trump that he would “impose an incarceratory punishment” for “continued willful violations” of the order.Trump claims he wasn’t allowed to testifyTrump claimed that he wanted to testify “but the theory is that you don’t testify because … they’ll get you on something you said slightly wrong, and then they sue you for perjury”.Trump has previously railed about being silenced and falsely claimed he was not allowed to testify at the trial. But ultimately he made the personal choice to not take the stand in his own defense.Merchan earlier this month addressed the ex-president’s claims, saying: “I want to stress, Mr Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.” Merchan added that the gag order preventing Trump from verbally attacking witnesses did not affect his right to take the stand.Trump claims prosecutors were not allowed to look into alleged federal campaign violationsTrump claimed that prosecutors who charged him were not allowed to look into alleged federal campaign finance violations.In fact, Manhattan prosecutors did not charge him with federal violations but instead listed the allegations as one of three “unlawful acts” that jurors were asked to consider.Prosecutors said the other crime for which Trump was charged was a violation of a state election law barring conspiracies to promote or prevent an election by unlawful means.Trump claims he faces 187-year prison sentenceDonald Trump claimed the crime for which he was convicted meant that “I’m supposed to go to jail for 187 years”.The former president was found guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree in furtherance of another crime, a class E felony in New York. That is the least serious category and is punishable by up to four years in prison.But as a first-time, non-violent offender, it is unlikely that Trump will face a long sentence. Experts say he is unlikely to receive prison time at all.Trump claims polling shows him ahead after convictionTrump claimed that a Daily Mail poll taken after his guilty verdict showed that he was “up by six points”.The poll he was referring to was an online survey of 400 likely voters that measured his favorability ratings – and not voting intention.Of those who said the 34 guilty counts had changed their view of Trump, 22% said they had a more favorable rating compared with 16% who said they viewed him more negatively.In contrast, a YouGov poll showed that 27% of voters said the conviction made them less likely to vote for Trump, compared with 26% who said they were more likely to vote for him and 39% who said the verdict “makes no difference” in how they’ll vote.Trump claims defense wasn’t allowed to use its election expertTrump claimed that the judge did not allow his defense team “to use our election expert under any circumstances”.Merchan did not bar the defense’s campaign finance expert, Bradley A Smith, from testifying in the trial. Smith was permitted to testify.Instead, Trump’s lawyers decided not to call on Smith after Merchan declined to broaden the scope of questioning the defense could pursue. More