Former President Donald Trump wants to subpoena the records of any communications between porn star Stormy Daniels and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, hoping they will prove he had nothing to do with any payments that were made on his behalf just before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump's attorneys asked Judge Juan Merchan to enforce a subpoena for the communications, saying that even deleted communications could show that the parties were falsifying testimony against him.

“Communications between Stephanie Clifford [Daniels] and other women who have sought to monetize sexual assault claims against President Trump are probative of Clifford’s motive and intent to do the same through false trial testimony,” Trump Attorney Todd Blanche wrote.

It could also suggest that they “communicated in order to coordinate their false testimony.

Merchan hasn't decided

Comedian and virulent Trump-hater Kathy Griffin said recently that she communicates with Clifford and E. Jean Carroll, who sued Trump twice for defamation, on a daily basis.

It was not clear whether Merchan would take any moves to enforce the subpoenas. Trump moved at the same time to subpoena all notes and records from a recently-released Peacock documentary about the hush money case, but Merchan quashed it because it didn't meet the burden of proof for being relevant to the case.

Trump has also asked for a new judge in the case citing bias and to delay the trial until after the Supreme Court rules on his immunity claims. He was denied in both cases.

Trump has been adamant that the case is being weaponized to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.

Date set

Merchan has set a date of April 14 for the trial to begin even though more delays were sought.

It will be the first criminal trial to get underway against Trump, but legal experts think the case is pretty weak.

In all, Trump faces 88 charges over four indictments. Three charges against him in Georgia were dropped because they were not found to be strong enough to go to trial.

If Trump is elected in November, he could stop most of the cases against him be directing the Justice Department to drop cases or by pardoning himself, if necessary.

Lots of pardons

He may be making extensive use of his pardon if he follows through on a promise to get pardon all of those convicted of offenses on January 6, 2021 when thousands of people entered the Capitol on vote certification day.

Trump has said the courts' punishments of those who breached the Capitol that day were too harsh for what they did, which is mostly tresspassing.