US presidential hopeful Trump pushes legal challenges in hush money, poll subversion cases: Report

Former United States president and current presidential hopeful Donald Trump is pushing legal challenges in two cases before the Easter weekend. A report by BBC early Saturday (Mar 30) said that Trump's lawyers are appealing against a verdict from a Georgia judge allowingFulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to stay in the state's election subversion case.

The lawyers are also aiming to stopthe expansion of a gag order, limiting Trump's speech, in thehush money trial.

In the election subversion case, Trump and his co-defendants alleged that Willisfinancially benefitted from an improper romantic relationship with Nathan Wade - a prosecutor she hired to lead the case. Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, held two weeks of hearings which included a testimony from Willis who admitted being in a relationship with Wade but said she did not benefit from it financially.

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Judge McAfee sided with Willis. He pointed outrelationship had the "appearance of impropriety" and said that Willis or Wade should step down following which the latter did so.

In a motion filedbefore the Georgia Court of Appeals on Friday, Trump andco-defendants argued that Willis should be removed too. The lawyers of Trump and the co-defendantssaid that Wade stepping down did notsufficiently address the appearance of improprietythat cast a pall over the proceedings.

In the hush money trial,Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 payment to adult actor StormyDaniels.

The BBC report said that earlier this week, JusticeJuan Merchan, the judge in this case,granted a request from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to impose a gag order on the former president barring him from making statements about jurors and witnesses or intimidating court staff.

On Friday,Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sought to clarify - and possibly expand - the gag order barring Trump from attacking court staff and their families. The motion came afterTrump insulted Merchan's daughter in a social media post before the gag order was issued.

Bragg asked Merchan to warn Trump and direct him to immediately desist. If Trump does not,the prosecutor argued, he should face sanctions, the report added.

However, Trump's lawyerTodd Blanche denied that the former president violated the gag order and argued that the judge's daughter was not a part of it. Blanche added that there was nothing wrong with the social media posts.

The above developments come as Trump faces four legal cases including the election subversion case and hush money trial- which are likely to be heard before the presidential elections in November. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in all cases.

He is also seeking to avoid going to trial on any of the four criminal indictments before the elections.

(With inputs from agencies)