Trump loses last-minute bid to halt hush money trial while he seeks new venue

A
New
York
appeals
court
judge
on
Monday
swiftly
rejected
a
last-ditch
bid
by

Donald
Trump
to
delay
his
upcoming
criminal
hush
money
trial
while
he
seeks
to
move
the
case
to
another
court.

Judge
Lizbeth
Gonzalez
denied
Trump’s
request
on
the
same
day
his
attorneys
filed
it,
and
less
than
two
hours
after
a
hearing
where
his
attorneys
argued
that
the
former
president
cannot
get
a
fair
jury
in
New
York,
NBC
News
reported.

Trump’s
lawyers
asked
the
state
appeals
court
to
change
the
trial
venue
and
pause
a
gag
order
that
bars
Trump
from
speaking
about
likely
witnesses
or
the
judge’s
family,
a
source
with
direct
knowledge
told
NBC.
Trump
has
frequently
targeted
both
groups
in
the
run-up
to
the
Manhattan
Supreme
Court
trial,
which
is
set
to
begin
jury
selection
next
week.

Trump
is
charged
with
falsifying
business
records
to
conceal
a
payment
to
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels
shortly
before
the
2016
presidential
election.
He
has
made
at
least
eight
other
attempts
to
postpone
the
trial,
according
to
Manhattan
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg.

Monday’s
appeal
was
filed
using
a
legal
mechanism
that
allows
a
person
to
directly
challenge
a
court’s
actions,
NBC
reported.
Doing
so
allows
Trump
to
contest
the
case
before
the
trial
has
even
begun.

At
a
hearing
Monday
afternoon,
defense
attorney
Emil
Bove
urged
appellate
Judge
Lizbeth
Gonzalez
to
delay
the
hush
money
trial,
according
to
NBC.

Bove
claimed
Trump
cannot
receive
a
fair
and
impartial
jury
in
New
York
because
of
the
overwhelming
publicity
surrounding
the
case.
The
lawyer
cited
survey
results
showing
that
a
majority
of
people
in
New
York
County
believe
Trump
is
guilty.
He
noted
that
those
potential
jurors
have
likely
heard
about
an
array
of
other
allegations
against
Trump,
who
faces
91
criminal
charges
in
four
separate
courts.

Steven
Wu,
arguing
for
the
D.A.,
countered
that
the
judge
should
deny
Trump’s
eleventh-hour
request.
The
news
about
Trump’s
legal
struggles
is
being
read
worldwide,
and
Manhattan
jurors
are
not
uniquely
incapable
of
acting
as
fair
and
impartial
jurors,
Wu
said,
according
to
NBC.

Wu
added
that
Trump,
who
regularly
rails
against
the
case
on
social
media
and
the
campaign
trail,
is
responsible
for
the
media
frenzy.
He
cannot
drum
up
a
media
circus
and
then
use
that
publicity
to
seek
a
change
of
trial
venue,
Wu
told
Gonzalez.

Trump’s
attorney
Todd
Blanche
did
not
immediately
respond
to
CNBC’s
request
for
comment
on
the
appeal.
Susan
Necheles,
another
lawyer
for
Trump,
declined
to
comment.

The
appeal
was
first
reported
shortly
after
Bragg
urged
presiding
Judge
Juan
Merchan
to
reject
Trump’s
latest
request
for
the
judge
to
recuse
himself.

Bragg
slammed
that
bid
as
a
bad-faith
effort
to
delay
the
trial
and
sidestep
a
gag
order
barring
Trump
from
speaking
about
the
judge’s
daughter.

Trump’s “rewarmed”
arguments
for
Merchan’s
recusal
offer
nothing
new
from
a
prior
attempt
to
get
a
new
judge,
Bragg
wrote
in
a
court
filing.

Rather,
Bragg
argued,
the
current
recusal
motion
is
a “last-ditch”
bid
to
postpone
the
trial
that
appears “transparently
reverse-engineered”
to
justify
Trump’s
spate
of
recent
attacks
on
Merchan’s
adult
daughter.

It’s “an
effort
to
end-run”
the
gag
order
and “pollute
the
court”
with
attacks
against
the
judge
and
his
family “as
part
of
a
meritless
effort
to
call
the
integrity
of
these
proceedings
into
question,”
Bragg
wrote.’

Trump’s
lawyers,
in
court
filings
Friday,
argued
that
Authentic
Campaigns,
the
Democratic
consulting
firm
where
Merchan’s
daughter
works,
stands
to
benefit
from
the
hush
money
case
by
using
it
to
raise
money
and
promote
an
anti-Trump
message.

“Personal
political
views
may
not
be
a
basis
for
recusal.
But
profiting
from
the
promotion
of
a
political
agenda
that
is
hostile
to
President
Trump,
and
has
included
fundraising
solicitations
based
on
this
case,
must
be,”
they
wrote.

Bragg,
in
Monday’s
filing,
called
it “pure
speculation
to
assume
that
rulings
by
this
Court
would
affect
Authentic’s
contracts
or
revenue.”
Even
if
the
company
were
fundraising
off
the
trial,
it
still
wouldn’t
be
a
sufficient
basis
for
the
judge’s
recusal,
Bragg
added.

The
filing
came
days
after
Merchan
expanded
a
gag
order
on
Trump,
the
presumptive
Republican
presidential
nominee,
to
prohibit
him
from
making
statements
about
the
judge’s
family
members
that
could
interfere
with
the
case.
Merchan
also
amended
the
order
to
bar
Trump
from
speaking
about
Bragg’s
family
members.

The
strengthened
gag
order
came
after
Trump
sent
a
spate
of
social
media
posts
targeting
Merchan’s
daughter,
Loren
Merchan,
over
her
political
work
and
claiming
it
proved
the
judge
was
biased.

Trump
also
accused
Loren
Merchan
of
controlling
an
X
account
that
displayed
a
photo
depicting
Trump
behind
jail
cell
bars.
New
York’s
court
administration
office
denied
that
the
judge’s
daughter
controlled
that
account
at
the
time
it
posted
that
picture.

Judge
Merchan
wrote
in
the
order
that
people
watching
Trump’s
attacks
may
conclude
that
their
loved
ones
may
come
under
fire
if
they
get
involved
in
the
case.
The
situation
constitutes “a
direct
attack
on
the
Rule
of
Law
itself,”
he
wrote.

The
judge
last
summer
had
rejected
Trump’s
first
recusal
request,
which
also
focused
on
Loren
Merchan’s
political
activities.

Bragg
on
Monday
argued
that
Trump’s
current
recusal
motion
makes “identical”
arguments,
adding
that
the
few
points
it
includes
that
were
not
previously
made
are “wholly
meritless.”

The
hush
money
case
is
set
to
be
the
first
of
Trump’s
four
criminal
cases
to
head
to
trial.
The
former
president’s
lawyers
have
repeatedly
tried
to
dismiss
or
delay
all
of
those
cases
while
he
runs
to
unseat
Democratic
incumbent
President

Joe
Biden.

—
CNBC’s


Dan
Mangan

contributed
to
this
report.