Trump berates judge for ‘rushed’ hush money trial, days before opening statements

Donald
Trump
on
Saturday
took
to
social
media
to
deliver
another
tirade
against
the
judge
and
the
circumstances
of
his
New
York
hush
money
trial,
which
wrapped
up

jury
selection
on
Friday
and
is
expected
to
begin

opening
arguments
on
Monday.

“THIS
SCAM ‘RUSHED’
TRIAL
TAKING
PLACE
IN
A
95%
DEMOCRAT
AREA
IS
A
PLANNED
AND
COORDINATED
WITCH
HUNT,”
the
2024
presumptive
Republican
presidential
nominee
wrote
in
one
of
several

Truth
Social
posts
on
Saturday
morning. “IT
IS
BEING
PRESIDED
OVER
BY
POSSIBLY
THE
MOST
CONFLICTED
JUDGE
IN
JUDICIAL
HISTORY,
WHO
MUST
BE
REMOVED
FROM
THIS
HOAX
IMMEDIATELY.”

The
rant
comes
a
day
after
Trump’s
attorneys
requested
to
delay
the
trial
to
find
a
new
location,
claiming
that
New
York
City
residents
were
too
biased
to
find
a
fair
jury.

A
Manhattan
appeals
court
quickly
rejected
Trump’s
request,
the
latest
of
roughly
a
dozen
attempts
to
delay
the
trial,
which
was
initially
scheduled
to
kick
off

March
25.

Despite
Trump’s
efforts
to
postpone,
Manhattan
Supreme
Court
Judge
Juan
Merchan,
who
presides
over
Trump’s
case,
said
that
opening
arguments
for
the
first-ever
criminal
trial
of
a
former
U.S.
president
would
start
Monday
morning.

Trump
is
facing
34
counts
of
falsifying
business
records
in
relation
to
an
alleged
cover-up
of
a
$130,000
hush
money
payment
to
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels.

Trump’s
social
media
rants
targeting
Merchan
and
others
involved
in
the
trial
have
become
a
regular
pattern
for
the
former
president,
despite
a
gag
order
imposed
in
March.

Trump
has
publicly
gone
after
the
judge’s
daughter,
who
has
worked
for
a
progressive
political
consulting
firm,
and
has
repeatedly
called
for
the
judge
to
recuse
himself.

Prosecutors
on
Monday
asked
Merchan
to
penalize
Trump
for
his
apparent

gag
order
violations,
specifically
citing
three
of
his
social
media
posts,
which
targeted
several
witnesses,
including
Stormy
Daniels
and
his
former
lawyer
Michael
Cohen.

The
prosecutors
requested
a
$1,000
sanction
for
each
of
the
three
posts
and
asked
the
judge
to
warn
Trump
that
future
violations
could
result
in
jail
time.

Merchan
said
he
would
schedule
a
hearing
on
the
prosecutors’
request
for
Wednesday.