Appeals court upholds Donald Trump's gag order as he again presses judge to exit hush money case

NEW YORK (AP) — Two months after his felony conviction, Donald Trump still isn’t allowed to say everything he wants about his historic hush money criminal case. After a New York appeals court upheld his gag order Thursday, he won’t be for a while.

The state’s mid-level appellate court denied the Republican former president and current nominee's latest bid to lift the restrictions, swatting away a last-minute argument that he's unfairly muzzled while Vice President Kamala Harris, his likely Democratic opponent, pits herself as an ex-prosecutor taking on a “convicted felon.”

At the same time, Trump's lawyers are again asking trial Judge Juan M. Merchan to exit the case, saying his daughter's work for Harris' 2020 presidential campaign underscores questions about his ability to be impartial.

Merchan rejected two prior recusal requests, last year and at the start of the trial in April, saying the defense’s concerns were “hypothetical” and based on “innuendos” and “unsupported speculation.”