UK
Hospital workers to strike in row over pay

By Dan Wareing, BBC News, Merseyside
2 days ago

BBC
The hospital said it had made "comprehensive arrangements" for the industrial action

Healthcare workers at a Merseyside hospital will begin a week-long strike from tomorrow amid a dispute over pay.

Recovery theatre practitioners at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral are walking out from Monday until Sunday following what they said was a "continued failure to recognise their workplace responsibilities and pay them accordingly".

The Unite union said workers had been left "up to £8,000 out of pocket due to being wrongly graded".

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust denied they had failed to "acknowledge the responsibilities" of staff and said Unite had "chosen" not to participate in banding reviews.

'A disgrace'

"In our effort to resolve this dispute, we have offered additional flexible options for staff to provide evidence of work at a higher grade.", the trust added.

"It is therefore disappointing that strike action is being pursued."

The trust said it had made "comprehensive arrangements" for the industrial action to minimise disruption for patients.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the trust must "do the right thing".

“It is a disgrace that an NHS employer is refusing to acknowledge the hard work our members are doing and the vital care they provide to patients," she said.

"The trust must immediately do the right thing and pay our members the proper rate for the job.”

Unite said staff were "determined" to complete the strike until "the trust begins to negotiate".

Derek Jones, Unite regional officer added: “The Wirral trust is behaving appallingly".

Airline Caterer Gate Gourmet Inches Closer to Possible Strike

Mary Schlangenstein, Bloomberg News  July 1,2024

Catering service Gate Gourmet Photographer: Patrik Stollarz/Getty Images Europe , Photographer: Patrik Stollarz/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) -- Gate Gourmet and unions representing some of its workers were released from mandatory labor talks, moving the airline catering company one step closer to a strike that would cause problems for US carriers this summer. 

The National Mediation Board said Monday that a 30-day “cooling off” period had begun for the company and labor groups Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Without an agreement or intervention from the White House, a walkout could occur as early as July 30, the board said in a statement. The employees are barred from walking off the job until then under the terms of the Railway Labor Act, which governs union relations in the air travel industry.

“While Gate Gourmet presented an industry-leading offer to the union at our latest negotiations, we were unfortunately unable to come to an agreement,” the company said in an emailed statement. Gate Gourmet said it will continue to work toward a deal that “recognizes our valued employees” and avoids disruption. 

Unite Here didn’t immediately comment on the NMB action.

The pro-labor Biden administration has been hoping that pressure from the NMB would lead to agreements and avoid any disruptions during the busy summer travel season. Mediators are also overseeing negotiations between American Airlines Group Inc. and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

--With assistance from Ted Mann.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Judge calls Jeffrey Epstein ‘most infamous pedophile in American history' as he releases transcripts

The judge's release of the approximately 150 pages came as a surprise as he had scheduled a hearing for next week on when and how to release them

By Terry Spencer • Published 31 mins ago

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
 US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffery Epstein on July 8, 2019 in New York City.

A Florida judge released Monday afternoon the transcripts of a 2006 grand jury investigation that looked into sex trafficking and rape allegations made against the late millionaire and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The judge's release of the approximately 150 pages came as a surprise as he had scheduled a hearing for next week on when and how to release them. Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed a bill in February allowing the release on Monday or any time thereafter that Circuit Judge Luis Delgado ordered.

“The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people,” Delgado wrote in his order. “The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape — all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal.”

After the grand jury investigation, Epstein cut a deal with South Florida federal prosecutors in 2008 that allowed him to escape more severe federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. He was sentenced to 1.5 years in the Palm Beach County jail system, followed by a year of house arrest. He was required to register as a sex offender.

That deal has been widely criticized as too lenient. Epstein in 2018 was charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in New York — where he also had a mansion that was a scene of abuse — after the Miami Herald published a series of articles that renewed public attention on the case, including interviews with some victims who had been pursuing civil lawsuits against him. Epstein was 66 when he killed himself in a New York City jail cell in August 2019, federal officials say.

A federal judge ordered the identities of more than 150 people mentioned in court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein be made public. Here’s what you need to know.

Delgado in his order called Epstein “the most infamous pedophile in American history."

“For almost 20 years, the story of how Jeffrey Epstein victimized some of Palm Beach County’s most vulnerable has been the subject of much anger and has at times diminished the public’s perception of the criminal justice system,” Delgado wrote.

“Epstein is indeed notorious and infamous and is widely reported to have flaunted his wealth while cavorting with politicians, billionaires, and even British Royalty," he continued. "It is understandable that given those reports the public has a great curiosity about what was widely reported by news (agencies) as 'special treatment’ regarding his prosecution.”

The Associated Press is currently reviewing the transcripts.

Plans underway for Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday

Former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter wave to a beauty queen during the Peanut Festival on Saturday Sept. 26, 2015, in Plains. The former president has been in hospice care since February 2023. Rosalynn Carter passed away in November. (Ben Gray/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS)

By TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE | Tribune News Service
PUBLISHED: July 1, 2024
Matt Kempner | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS)

The unthinkable is being thought among those close to Jimmy Carter.

The former president, who entered hospice care 16 months ago, may make it to his 100th birthday on Oct. 1. Some are making plans to mark the occasion.

Among them is Jill Stuckey, a family friend and superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in the former president’s hometown. She said she visits with him nearly every day.

“I think he is going to make it to 100,” Stuckey said. “I don’t know that he is saying that, ‘I’m going to live to 100.’ But I do know there is will to live in all of us, and I think he has that same will.”

When Carter entered hospice care in February of last year, doctors told the family he might have only days to live.

About 500 days have passed since then.

Carter has outlived Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years, who entered hospice nine months after he did and died in November. The former president hasn’t made a public appearance since her funeral. Instead, he remains inside the couple’s modest home in Plains in south Georgia. Still, he cast a mail-in ballot for the primary election in May.

He has already lived longer than any U.S. president in history.

Recognitions for Carter’s centennial include a 100-mile community bicycle ride in his home county and a free film festival in Atlanta organized by the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.

“We have always planned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, and it just makes it even more special that he is still with us,” said Tony Clark, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based library.

Staff are still working out some of the plans. But locked in is an indoor and outdoor film festival at the presidential library on Sept. 28, the Saturday before Carter’s birthday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., featuring some of his favorite movies while in office.

According to the library’s records, hundreds of movies were shown at the White House during his presidency, including All the President’s Men, Rocky, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Blue Lagoon, Caddyshack, Kramer vs. Kramer and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He watched parts or all of at least some of the films.

While Carter was Georgia’s governor he helped create an economic development push to film more movies in the state. He has another important connection to the big screen. Carter’s first date with Rosalynn Carter was at the movies. The next morning he told his mother he had found the person he would marry.

Admission to the library will be free on the day of the film festival. And on Oct. 1, Carter’s actual birthday, the library will follow its tradition of having the admission price match the president’s age: $1.00. (Last year on his 99th birthday, it was 99 cents.) As always, kids 16 or younger get in free.

The library and museum also intends to have a new exhibit about Carter’s 100 years, including documents, photos and art that haven’t been on display at the facility before, Clark said.

The adjacent Carter Center, the nonprofit that the former first couple founded to improve health, encourage freedom and spread peace globally, has yet to disclose how Carter’s birthday will be celebrated. The center’s chief executive, Paige Alexander, offered little more than a one-word hint: “music.”

“Music was an important part of his life. It will have something to do with that,” she said.

Habitat for Humanity, the Georgia-based homebuilding nonprofit that the Carters championed for more than three decades, already does a special building push each year coinciding with the former president’s birthday. This year the weeklong Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project will be in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Alexander said this past week that there hasn’t been a change in Carter’s condition. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Politically Georgia” in May that he was “enjoying peanut butter ice cream.”

Jason Carter said on the AJC’s Monica Pearson Show in May that he recently told his grandfather that he’s never sure how to respond when asked how the former president is doing.

“He kind of laughed a little bit, and he looked at me, and he said: ‘I don’t know myself,’” Jason Carter told Pearson. “But I think he’s OK. You know, he’s hanging in there, and he knows he’s not in charge. So he’s just waiting for what’s next.”

Groups in Carter’s hometown of Plains are still sketching out plans for how to pay tribute around the time of his birthday.

Sumter Cycling, a nonprofit of southwest Georgia cyclers in Carter’s native Sumter County, typically holds a nearly 50-mile bicycle ride to coincide with the Plains Peanut Festival, which this year falls on the Saturday before Carter’s birthday. Now organizers are hashing out plans to more than double the Plains, Trains and Bike Chains ride to 100 miles in recognition of the former president’s big day.

The nearby Jimmy Carter National Historical Park is planning a riff on the Carters’ frugality. Staffers are putting together a list of 100 ways to save time, energy and money.

“That’s near and dear to the Carters’ hearts,” said Stuckey, the park’s superintendent.

©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LINE 5

Environmentalists appeal Michigan regulators’ approval of pipeline tunnel project

in this photo shot from a television screen provided by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy in June 2020, shows damage to anchor support EP-17-1 on the east leg of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline within the Straits of Mackinac in Mich. Environmentalists are challenging Michigan regulators’ decision to approve encasing part of an aging Enbridge Energy oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, arguing that they failed to properly consider alternatives that would minimize climate impacts. 

(Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy via AP, File)


by: By TODD RICHMOND
Posted: Jul 1, 2024 

MICHIGAN (AP) — Environmentalists are challenging Michigan regulators’ decision to approve encasing part of an aging Enbridge Energy oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, arguing that they failed to properly consider alternatives that would minimize climate impacts.

The Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Michigan Climate Action Network filed a brief with a state appellate court Thursday. They argue in the filing that since the state Public Service Commission determined construction would produce greenhouse gases the panel should have forced Enbridge to prove there were no alternatives to the project.

The groups also contend the commission failed to adopt any methodology to measure how the gases could impact climate change and didn’t consider what could happen if the pipeline was shut down.

An email The Associated Press sent to the commissioners’ general inbox on Friday wasn’t immediately returned.

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy said in an email that the commission carefully examined all aspects of the tunnel project. He questioned why the groups would want to overturn that decision. Even if they prevail, the line will continue to operate in the straits, Duffy said.

Enbridge wants to build a protective tunnel around a 4-mile (6-kilometer) portion of its Line 5 pipeline that runs along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.


Enbridge has been operating the pipeline since 1953. It moves up to 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. Concerns about a potentially catastrophic spill in the straits has been building since 2017, when Enbridge officials revealed engineers had known about gaps in the pipeline’s protective coating in the straits since 2014. Those fears only grew after a boat anchor damaged the line in 2018.

Enbridge officials maintain the line is structurally sound, but they still reached an agreement with Republican then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration in 2018 that calls for the company to build the protective tunnel at a cost of $500 million.

Current Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, opposes the continued operation of the line under the straits even if it is encased in a tunnel, siding with conservation groups, Indigenous tribes and tourism businesses that feel the line is vulnerable.

Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows the line to run beneath the straits. That case is still pending. Whitmer ordered Enbridge in 2020 to shut down the pipeline, but the company ignored the shutdown deadline.


The state Public Service Commission approved the tunnel project in December. Enbridge needs only a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin, a federal judge in Madison last year gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove about 12 miles (19 kilometers) of pipeline crossing its reservation, saying the pipeline is prone to spills and that land agreements allowing it to operate on reservation land expired in 2013.

The company has proposed a 41-mile (66-kilometer) reroute of the pipeline to end its dispute with the tribe. It has appealed the shutdown order to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; the case is still pending.

THEY ARE A COMMODITY

Ownership group of NBA champion Boston Celtics putting team up for sale

Boston Basketball Partners LLC intends to sell majority interest in 2024, early 2025

Kyle Hightower · The Associated Press · Posted: Jul 01, 2024 

Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck is seen holding up the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy in June in Boston. The Celtics defeated the Mavericks in five games to capture the franchise's 18th championship. (Charles Krupa/The Associated Press)

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The ownership group that controls the NBA champion Boston Celtics says it intends to sell all its shares of the team.

In a statement released Monday, Boston Basketball Partners LLC said it intends to sell the majority of its shares in 2024 or early 2025. The balance of its shares would then close in 2028.

Wyc Grousbeck, whose family leads the ownership group, is expected to remain the team's NBA governor until the sale is complete.

"The controlling family of the ownership group, after considerable thought and internal discussion, has decided to sell the team for estate and family planning considerations," the statement said.

The Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals last month to capture the franchise's 18th championship.

Boston Basketball Partners — led by venture capitalist Grousbeck, his father and investor H. Irving Grousbeck, along with venture capitalist Steve Pagliuca — purchased the Celtics for $360 million from the Gaston family in 2002. The Gastons had owned the team since 1983.

One of the NBA's original and storied brands, the Celtics were valued at $4.7 billion US last year by Forbes, placing them behind only the Golden State Warriors ($7.7 billion), New York Knicks ($6.6 billion) and Los Angeles Lakers ($6.4 billion).

The current ownership group was in charge when the Celtics won the NBA title in 2008.

In an email to Celtics staff that was obtained by The Associated Press, Wyc Grousbeck wrote they are "committed to finding a worthy incoming ownership group who will guide the Celtics to more decades of success."

He added: "There will be a thoughtful and thorough process to find a buyer that recognizes the importance of Celtic Pride on the court and in the community."

Last year, the Phoenix Suns were purchased by mortgage firm owner Mat Ishbia for $4 billion. That was followed by the sale of the Milwaukee Bucks to Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam for $3.5 billion. Last November, Mark Cuban agreed to the sale of the majority of his Dallas Mavericks' ownership shares to Miriam Adelson and son-in-law Patrick Dumont, who operates the Las Vegas Sands casino company, for $3.5 billion.

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC Sports

Appeals court allows part of Biden student loan repayment plan to go forward


FILE - President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt relief at Delaware State University, Oct. 21, 2022, in Dover, Del. A federal appeals court has allowed the U.S. Education Department to move ahead with a plan to lower monthly payments for millions of student loans borrowers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

BY ANNIE MA
 July 1, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has allowed the U.S. Education Department to move ahead with a plan to lower monthly payments for millions of student loan borrowers, putting on hold a ruling last week by a lower court.

The ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts back on track a central part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to address student debt — a rule that lowers from 10% of discretionary income to 5% the amount that some borrowers qualifying for a repayment plan need to pay.

The reduced payment threshold was set to take effect July 1, but federal judges in Kansas and Missouri last week blocked much of the administration’s student loan repayment plan in two separate rulings. The appeals court ruling on Sunday means the department can move ahead with the reduced payments already calculated.

The rulings have created a difficult environment for borrowers to navigate, said Persis Yu, deputy executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, which advocates for eliminating student debt. The stay granted by the 10th Circuit is temporary and subject to appeal, Yu said, leaving many borrowers in the dark about future financial obligations.

“Borrowers are having to make decisions right now about their financial lives, and they don’t know the very basic information that they need in order to make informed decisions,” Yu said.

The Biden administration created the SAVE plan last year to replace other existing income-based repayment plans offered by the federal government. It allowed many to qualify for lower payments, and forgiveness was granted to borrowers who had made payments for at least 10 years and originally borrowed $12,000 or less.

The appeals court ruling does not impact the injunction issued by a federal judge in Missouri, which prevents the Education Department from forgiving loan balances going forward.

The injunctions are the result of lawsuits from Republican-led states seeking to invalidate the Biden administration’s entire loan forgiveness program, which was first available to borrowers in the summer of 2023, and at least 150,000 have had their loans cancelled. The suing states argued that the administration’s plan was a workaround after the Supreme Court struck down the original plan for student loan forgiveness earlier that year.

Supreme Court 'Wreaks Havoc' With Ruling, Ketanji Brown Jackson Warns

Published Jul 01, 2024 

By Anna Commander
Deputy News Editor

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on debit card fees Monday sparked Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to push back, saying in her dissent that the decision "wreaks havoc" on businesses, the government and society.

In the 6-3 ruling written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the High Court notes that a North Dakota truck stop and convenience store, Corner Post, was challenging a previous regulation about debit card transaction fees. The store resisted the regulation, arguing "that it allows higher interchange fees than the statute permits," according to the ruling. An interchange fee, the court said, is required from debit card transactions and goes to the bank "that issued the card."

According to the Associated Press (AP), regulations can be challenged for up to six years. The debit card fee regulation that mapped out the amount businesses need to give banks was set in 2011, AP says. However, Corner Post "opened for business in 2018," the Supreme Court said. The court ultimately ruled in Corner Post's favor, saying the six-year limitations window did not start until Corner Post opened.

Newsweek has reached out to the Supreme Court via email for additional comment on Monday night.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is pictured speaking in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 2023. Jackson on Monday said that a new ruling could "wreak havoc" on small businesses.

In her dissent, Jackson argued: "The flawed reasoning and far-reaching results of the Court's ruling in this case are staggering."

She continued: "The majority refuses to accept the straightforward, common-sense, and singularly plausible reading of the limitations statute that Congress wrote. In doing so, the Court wreaks havoc on Government agencies, businesses, and society at large. I respectfully dissent."

Jackson also noted, "Thus, even before I analyze the statute of limitations arguments, one can see that this case is the poster child for the type of manipulation that the majority now invites—new groups being brought in (or created) just to do an end run around the statute of limitations. To repeat: The claims in Corner Post's lawsuit were not new or in any way distinct (even in wording) from the pre-existing and untimely claims of the trade organizations that had been around for decades."

On X, formerly Twitter, numerous users reacted to the ruling on Monday. Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler of New York said: "The decision in Corner Post is another power move by a corrupt majority on the Court to undermine Congress and give big corporations and individuals a way to avoid complying with rules that protect our air, water, land, food, medicines, and rights. Congress must act to reassert its authority under the Constitution to pass laws that protect all Americans and stop those who wish to break these laws for the sake of profit."

Supreme Court Impeachment Plan Released by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez


Nadler also linked to a news release about the ruling, also written by Democratic Representative Lou Correa.




In an opinion piece by The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board, the court's decision was praised: "The little guy has scored another big victory at the Supreme Court against the administrative state."

US Supreme Court Remands Cases; Sidesteps First Amendment Question in Texas and Florida Social Media Laws Case

By Charlotte McBirney     July 1, 2024

On July 1st, the Supreme Court vacated the lower court rulings in the cases of Moody v. Paxton and NetChoice v. Paxton over challenges brought by NetChoice to the Florida and Texas laws governing social media content moderation. In a 9-0 decision, the Court determined the Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits did not properly evaluate the facial challenge brought by NetChoice, essentially sidestepping the question of whether either law violated the First Amendment.

The opinion, authored by Justice Kagan, stated that the lower courts did not consider the full set of applications of both laws and did not determine which applications are constitutional versus which ones are unconstitutional (and did not compare the two, as they should have). Justices Robert, Sotomayor, Kavanaugh and Barrett who joined the opinion in full, and Justice Jackson joined in part.

The opinion also stated that the Fifth Circuit had a “serious misunderstanding of the First Amendment” and was critical of the two laws, essentially outlining how they likely violate the First Amendment rights of the social media platforms. The opinion stated that the platforms’ “choices about which messages are appropriate give the feed a particular expressive quality and ‘constitute the exercise’ of protected ‘editorial control’’. In a concurrence, Justice Jackson suggested the Court should show restraint in deciding these questions.

Justice Alito authored a concurrence, joined by Justices Thomas and Gorsuch, that was skeptical that NetChoice stating had met its burden in proving that the laws are facially invalid. Justice Alito in his opinion made a distinction between “[n]ewspaper editors [that] are real human beings” compared to the “platforms, by contrast, [that] play no role in selecting the billions of texts and videos that users try to convey to each other.” He went on to state that “algorithms remove a small fraction of nonconforming posts post hoc and prioritize content based on factors that the platforms have not revealed and may not even know.”

Both states’ laws will remain blocked while the challenge is relitigated in the lower courts and as such the Alliance will continue to monitor these cases.

Charlotte McBirney

Charlotte McBirney is Senior Counsel and Director, Public Policy for the News/Media Alliance.

Trump moves to overturn New York hush money verdict just hours after SCOTUS ruling granted him unprecedented immunityTrump's lawyers have asked a New York judge to delay his sentencing

They are attempting to use the Supreme Court decision handed down Monday

By STEPHEN M. LEPORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS

 1 July 2024

Donald Trump´s lawyers immediately attempted to seize upon the Supreme Court ruling granting him immunity by asking a New York judge to delay sentencing in his hush money trial.

His attorney on Monday sent a letter asking to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing, scheduled for next week.

The letter to Judge Juan M. Merchan cited the U.S. Supreme Court´s ruling earlier Monday and asked the judge to delay Trump´s sentencing while he weighs the high court´s decision and how it could influence the New York case.

The lawyers argue that the Supreme Court´s decision confirmed a position the defense raised earlier in the case that prosecutors should have been precluded from introducing some evidence they said constituted official presidential acts, according to the letter.

In prior court filings, Trump contended he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.

Donald Trump´s lawyers immediately attempted to seize upon the Supreme Court ruling granting him immunity by asking a New York judge to delay sentencing in his hush money trial

His attorney on Monday sent a letter asking to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing, scheduled for next week

TRENDING

Biden tears into Court for 'emboldening' Trump with immunity decision

His lawyers did not raise that as a defense in the hush money case, but they argued that some evidence - including Trump´s social media posts about former lawyer Michael Cohen - comes from his time as president and should have been excluded from the trial because of immunity protections.

The Manhattan district attorney´s office declined comment Monday night.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.

This extended the delay in the Washington criminal case against Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

Trump was convicted in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records, arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment just before the 2016 presidential election. He is scheduled to be sentenced in the hush money case on July 11.

Merchan instituted a policy in the run-up to the trial requiring both sides to send him a one-page letter summarizing their arguments before making longer court filings.

He said he did that to better manage the docket, so he was not inundated with voluminous paperwork.

In denying Trump´s bid to move the trial from New York state court to federal court last year, a federal judge found that the allegations at the center of the case pertained to Trump´s personal life.

READ MORE: Supreme Court rules Donald Trump has immunity in critical case

Trump was convicted in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records, arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment just before the 2016 presidential election . He is scheduled to be sentenced in the hush money case on July 11

The judge claimed that they do not 'reflect in any way the color of the President´s official duties.'

'The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President - a cover-up of an embarrassing event,' U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein wrote in the ruling.

Trump moves to postpone sentencing in hush money case