Donald Trump’s lawyers tried for a third straight day Wednesday to get a New York appeals court to delay his hush money criminal trial, which is slated to begin next Monday. Trump’s legal team has asked the appeals court to halt the case indefinitely while it fights to have the trial judge removed, according to a person familiar with the matter. They are challenging several of Judge Juan M. Merchan’s recent rulings, including his refusal to postpone the trial until the Supreme Court rules on an immunity claim he raised in another of his criminal cases, the person said.
Quick Read
- Donald Trump’s legal team is making a third attempt to delay his hush money trial in New York, set to begin next Monday, by appealing to a state court.
- They seek to indefinitely pause the trial while challenging the presiding Judge Juan M. Merchan, focusing on his rulings and a refusal to delay the trial pending a Supreme Court decision on an immunity claim in another case.
- The latest appeal involves sealed documents, with details shared by an anonymous source, aiming to prevent the scheduled start of jury selection.
- This effort includes a lawsuit against Judge Merchan under a state law known as Article 78, which pertains to suing judges over certain judicial decisions.
- An emergency hearing on this matter was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, following previous unsuccessful attempts to delay the trial through appeals.
- Trump’s team has also requested Judge Merchan’s recusal, alleging bias due to his daughter’s professional connections to Democrats, including President Biden.
- Merchan previously denied a delay request related to Trump’s immunity claims in a separate case, with the Supreme Court set to address this issue on April 25.
- This trial marks the first of four criminal indictments against Trump to proceed to trial and would be historic as the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
- Trump faces charges of falsifying business records to conceal payments made to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for suppressing negative stories during the 2016 campaign, including a payment to Stormy Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations.
The Associated Press has the story:
Trump’s lawyers try for a 3rd day to get NY appeals court to delay hush-money trial
Newslooks- NEW YORK (AP) —
Donald Trump’s lawyers tried for a third straight day Wednesday to get a New York appeals court to delay his hush money criminal trial, which is slated to begin next Monday.
Trump’s legal team has asked the appeals court to halt the case indefinitely while it fights to have the trial judge removed, according to a person familiar with the matter. They are challenging several of Judge Juan M. Merchan’s recent rulings, including his refusal to postpone the trial until the Supreme Court rules on an immunity claim he raised in another of his criminal cases, the person said.
The former president’s lawyers filed paperwork Wednesday asking the state’s mid-level appeals court to intervene and to issue an order preventing jury selection from starting as scheduled. Paperwork related to Trump’s latest appeal was sealed and no documents were publicly available.
The person who confirmed the subject of the court filing was not authorized to speak about it publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
A docket listing shows that Wednesday’s action was framed as a fresh attempt to sue Merchan under a state law known as Article 78 that allows judges to be sued over some judicial decisions.
An appeals court judge was expected to hear arguments at an emergency hearing Wednesday afternoon.
One appeals court judge Monday rejected Trump’s bid to delay the trial while he seeks to move it out of Manhattan. A different judge on Tuesday denied a request, framed as part of a lawsuit against Merchan, that the trial be delayed while Trump fights a gag order imposed on him in recent weeks.
Trump has separately demanded that Merchan step aside from the case, accusing him of bias and a conflict of interest, citing his daughter’s work as the head of a firm whose clients have included President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.
Merchan rejected a similar request in August and has not ruled on Trump’s pending request. The judge has also yet to rule on another defense delay request, which claims that Trump won’t get a fair trial because of “prejudicial media coverage.”
Last Wednesday, Merchan rejected the presumptive Republican nominee’s request to delay the trial until the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity claims he raised in his Washington, D.C., election interference case. The Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments in that matter on April 25.
Trump’s hush-money trial is the first of his four criminal indictments slated to go to trial and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.
He is accused of falsifying his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen’s activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.
