Manhattan DA blasts Trump for trying to delay hush money trial over publicity he’s ‘actively seeking’

Manhattan
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg
urged
a
judge
to
reject
an
eleventh-hour
bid
by

Donald
Trump
to delay his
upcoming
criminal hush
money trial
due
to
biased media coverage.

Bragg,
who
accuses
Trump
of
falsifying
business
records
in
a
scheme
to
conceal
a
payment
to
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels,
said
in
a court
filing shared
Wednesday that
the
former
president
himself
is
to
blame
for
the
rabid
press.

Trump’s “own
incessant
rhetoric
is
generating
significant
publicity,
and
it
would
be
perverse
to
reward
[him]
with
an
adjournment
based
on
media
attention
he
is
actively
seeking,”
Bragg
told
New
York
Supreme
Court
Judge
Juan
Merchan.

Trump “simply
cannot
have
it
both
ways:
complaining
about
the
prejudicial
effect
of
pretrial
publicity,
while
seeking
to
pollute
the
jury
pool
himself
by
making
baseless
and
inflammatory
accusations
about
this
trial,
specific
witnesses,
individual
prosecutors,
and
the
Court
itself,”
Bragg
wrote.

Trump,
the
presumptive
Republican
presidential
nominee,
is
also
wrong
to
claim
that
the
deluge
of
publicity
means
he
can’t
get
a
fair
jury,
the
D.A.
wrote.

An “indefinite
adjournment”
is
also
unwarranted,
Bragg
added,
because
the
media’s
focus
on
the
case
is
unlikely
to
recede.

Trump
last
month
asked
for
a “significant”
delay
of
the
trial
—
which
is
set
to
begin
jury
selection
on
April
15
—
until
the
publicity
surrounding
it “subsides.”

That
request
marked
Trump’s
eighth
attempt
to
push
back
the
start
of
the
trial,
Bragg
noted
in
his
filing
Wednesday.

The
D.A.
argued
that
Trump
has
failed
to
show
either
that
the
press
coverage
of
the
case
has
been
prejudicial
to
him,
or
that
the
jury
pool
has
been
tainted.

And
since
the
publicity
is
likely
to
increase,
the
solution “is
thus
to
hold
this
trial
sooner
rather
than
later,”
Bragg
wrote.

Trump’s
attorneys
argued
that
the
pool
of
potential
jurors
has
been
exposed
to “huge
amounts
of
biased
and
unfair
media
coverage,”
and
that
many
of
them “already
wrongfully
believe
that
President
Trump
is
guilty.”

After
that
delay
request
was
filed,
Merchan
imposed
a
gag
order
barring
Trump
from
public
remarks
about
likely
witnesses
and
jurors,
and
from
making
certain
statements
about
other
figures
involved
in
the
case
and
their
family
members.

Trump
responded
with
a
social
media
tirade
against
the
judge
and
the
case,
while
also
targeting
the
judge’s
adult
daughter
over
her
work
for
a
Democratic
political
firm.
At
least
one
of
Trump’s
posts
on
Truth
Social
included
the
daughter’s
full
name
and
picture.

Bragg
on
Monday
urged
Merchan
to
expand
the
gag
order,
calling
Trump’s
rhetoric “dangerous,
violent,
and
reprehensible.”

Merchan
did
so
Monday
night,
explicitly
prohibiting
Trump
from
attacking
family
members
of
the
court
and
the
district
attorney.

“The
average
observer
must
now,
after
hearing
Defendant’s
recent
attacks,
draw
the
conclusion
that
if
they
become
involved
in
these
proceedings,
even
tangentially,
they
should
worry
not
only
for
themselves, but
for
their
loved
ones
as
well,”
Merchan
wrote
in
that
order.

“Such
concerns
will
undoubtedly
interfere
with
the
fair
administration
of
justice
and
constitutes
a
direct
attack
on
the
Rule
of
Law
itself.”

Trump’s
lawyers
now
are
once
again
trying
to
get
the
judge
removed
from
the
case
by
pointing
to
his
daughter’s
work
for
Authentic
Campaigns,
which
lists
among
its
clients
Trump’s
Democratic
rival,
President
Joe
Biden.

Merchan
had
already
rejected
a
prior
attempt
for
his
recusal,
which
similarly
argued
that
the
daughter’s
political
career
created
an
appearance
of
bias.