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‘Texting About Trump?’: Experts Think Speaker Johnson May Be Talking to SCOTUS Justices
Amid Republican lawmakers’ tsunami of protests and attacks on the American justice system in their rush to defend Donald Trump over his criminal conviction, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has raised some eyebrows.
In remarks defending the ex-president, his party’s 2024 presumptive nominee, the Speaker appeared to suggest he has been talking with conservative justices on the Supreme Court about the Trump criminal trial, as NCRM reported. He further implied the court’s right wing jurists wanted to overturn the conviction.
Johnson, often dubbed “MAGA Mike” by his left wing critics and his right-wing supporters for his close ties to Trump, in a Friday interview with Fox News cloaked his remarks. But critics were left with the impression, or at least wondering if, there may be unethical backchannels at some of the highest levels of the federal government.
READ MORE: ‘Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs’: Trump’s ‘Not Coherent’ Post-Conviction Rant Panned
“Well there’s a lot of developments yet to come but I do think, I do believe the Supreme Court should step in,” Speaker Johnson told Fox News (video below.) “Obviously, this is totally unprecedented. And it’s dangerous to our system. I mean, we’ve all discussed this before. And you all talk about it all the time. This is diminishing the American people’s faith in our system of justice itself. And to maintain a republic, you have to have that, people have to believe that justice is fair that there’s equal justice under law. They don’t see that right now. And I think that the justices on the court, I know many of them personally, I think they’re deeply concerned about that as we are so I think they’ll set this straight but it’s going to take a while.”
Mike Johnson on the Trump verdict: I do believe the Supreme Court should step in…I think that the Justices on the Court – I know many of them personally – I think they are deeply concerned about that, as we are. So I think they’ll set this straight… pic.twitter.com/gp3qWR0BJX
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) May 31, 2024
As some have pointed out, Johnson’s apparent ignorance of the separation of powers and need for judicial independence came less than 24 hours after the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, invoked that very requirement in his refusal to meet with top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee over the Alito ethics scandal.
“This suggests that Speaker Johnson has had conversations with Supreme Court justices on this very topic. Quite interesting, especially given Chief Justice Roberts’ refusal to meet with Senate Dems because of ‘separation of powers,'” wrote journalist Jay Bookman.
The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol, also the director of Defending Democracy Together and a former Republican, asked, “What Justices have discussed the Trump case privately with Trump ally Mike Johnson?”
READ MORE: ‘No Moral Compass’: Legal Experts Call for Intervention After Alito Refuses to Recuse
“Fascinating to hear the GOP Speaker of the House admit to having private conversations with multiple justices who expressed concern to him about Trump’s conviction. I’m sure those justices will recuse from any eventual appeal to avoid sitting on a case they’ve pre-judged,” noted Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, who writes about the law and the courts. He then offered, “we can reserve the possibility that he feels he read their minds but I think the clear suggestion is that they expressed their concern to him in some way!”
Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffrey added, “Why are *any* justices talking to Johnson about this case? That’s outrageous if true.”
U.S. Naval War College national security affairs professor David Burbach: “Supreme Court Justices have been telling a politician how they’d likely rule on a case that isn’t even in front of them yet, but expressing hopes they do get it? Assuming Johnson isn’t making it up — big assumption — that’s a gross ethical violation.”
The advocacy group Take Back the Court did not hold back.
“Chief Justice Roberts says he won’t meet with senators about obvious ethics violations because of ‘separation of powers,’ but his justices are talking politics in the House Speaker’s DMs,” the group said on social media.
“Today,” they added in an official statement, “House Speaker Mike Johnson alluded to conversations he had with Supreme Court justices about Donald Trump’s felony convictions, saying there are justices who are ‘deeply concerned about’ the rulings — and that he believes the court will ‘set this straight.’ This comes as the court considers a case related to Trump’s immunity from prosecution from official acts done while in office.”
“Seems like we really should know more about the personal relationship between the flag-waving Christian nationalist Speaker of the House and the flag-waving Christian nationalist justices on the U.S. Supreme Court,” suggested Alex Aronson, former Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee who now serves as Executive Director of the non-profit organization Court Accountability.”
He then asked: “Are they texting about Trump?”
Watch the video above or at this link.
READ MORE: Supreme Court ‘Puppetmaster’ Slammed Over Report He’s Flying Alito’s ‘Theocratic’ Flag Again
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
