Former US president Donald Trump's latest attempt to delay his hush money criminal trial was rejected by an appeals court judge in one single sentence.
The criminal trial is due to start on April 15 but Trump's lawyers had argued at an emergency hearing that the trial should be postponed while they seek a change of venue to move it out of Manhattan. Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued that the presumptive Republican nominee faces “real potential prejudice” as a defendant in the heavily Democratic borough.
Citing defence surveys and a review of media coverage, Bove argued that jury selection, scheduled to start next Monday, “cannot proceed in a fair manner”. Steven Wu, appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, noted that trial Judge Juan Merchan had already rejected Trump’s requests to move or delay the trial as untimely.
“The question in this case is not whether a random poll of New Yorkers from whatever neighbourhood are able to be impartial, it’s about whether a trial court is able to select a jury of 12 impartial jurors,” Mr Wu said. After hearing arguments from Trump's lawyers and representatives from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Judge Lizbeth Gonzalez announced her decision on Monday.
READ MORE: Donald Trump sues hush money judge 'in bid to delay trial' and move case out of New York
"Defendant's application for a stay of trial, pursuant to CPL § [section] 230.30, pending the determination of defendant's motion for change of venue, is denied," the judge wrote following the hearing on Monday. Gonzalez did not offer reasoning behind her decision.
The former US president has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed and barring further action, the decision means the first of Trump's four criminal trials will start as scheduled on April 15. Trump is accused of falsifying his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who allegedly helped him bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign.
Cohen’s activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to allegedly 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.
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Harry Litman, senior legal affairs columnist for The Los Angeles Times, said on X of Trump's latest attempt to delay the trial: "Appellate division judge denies Trump attempt to delay trial in one sentence unsigned order. Doesn't even refer it to a panel. He is flailing and embarrassing himself within the legal system."
In a separate matter, Trump’s lawyers are also challenging a gag order imposed on him in the case, which Judge Merchan recently expanded to prohibit Trump from making comments about the judge’s family. The appeals court signalled it would take up that matter at a later date.
Last week, Trump renewed his request for the judge to step aside from the case, citing Judge Merchan’s daughter’s work as the head of a firm whose clients have included his rival President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.
The former president alleges the judge is biased against him and has a conflict of interest because of his daughter’s work. The judge rejected a similar request last August. Trump has also made numerous other attempts to get the trial postponed, echoing a strategy he’s deployed in his other criminal cases. “We want delays,” Trump proclaimed to TV cameras outside a February pretrial hearing in his hush-money case.
Judge Merchan last week rejected his request to delay the trial until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity claims he raised in another of his criminal cases. The New York judge has yet to rule on another defence delay request, which claims that Trump won’t get a fair trial because of “prejudicial media coverage.” Trump has suggested on social media that the trial should be moved to Staten Island, the only New York City borough he won in 2016 and 2020.
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2024-04-10 10:00:00Z
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