Appeals Judge Shuts Down Another Trump Attempt to Delay Hush-Money Trial
The former president has been desperately searching for a reason to have the trial postponed from its April 15 start date.
Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
An appeals court judge rejected another attempt by Donald Trump to have his hush-money trial in New York City pushed back on Monday, ruling he and his attorneys are not entitled to postpone proceedings while they try to have the trial moved from Manhattan.
The ruling, made by Judge Lizbeth Gonzalez, comes a week before Trump’s trial is set to begin jury selection, and just hours after reports emerged that he plans to file a lawsuit against Judge Juan Merchan to contest his gag order in the case—seemingly another last-second delay tactic.
Trump has had no luck in having his New York trial postponed, but his lawyers have had success in having his other criminal trials—in Miami, Washington, and Atlanta—pushed back for different reasons.
On Monday, the Associated Press reported that Trump’s lawyers argued in an appeals court that he’d face inherent bias as a Republican politician standing trial in the overwhelmingly blue Manhattan. In rants to Truth Social, he’s said he’d prefer to go to court in Staten Island—the only New York City borough that he won in 2020.
Trump has also taken repeated aim at Merchan, alleging he’s biased because his daughter works in political consulting with Democrats—the central theme of nasty attacks Trump launched against Merchan’s family that the judge said forced him to expand a gag order against the former president.
Barring a last-second change, Trump’s trial will commence Monday in Manhattan. He faces allegations of falsifying his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to his former fixer, Michael Cohen, who prosecutors said paid off the adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair she had Trump.
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Trump has denied the affair and payments, despite Cohen asserting the allegations are true.
With delays mounting elsewhere, it’s possible Trump’s New York trial will be the only one to kick off ahead of the 2024 election, in which he’s the runaway GOP frontrunner.
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