MANHATTAN (CN) — A New York appellate judge on Tuesday denied yet another last-ditch effort from Donald Trump to delay the start of his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers unsuccessfully pleaded for a state appeals court to push back the trial so they could argue for a venue change out of Manhattan after filing a pair of emergency requests, both of which remain sealed from the public.
They were back in court on Tuesday to argue the second of those two demands — a lawsuit against New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan over his gag order barring Trump from publicly attacking those involved in the case.
Arguing to Associate Justice Cynthia Kern of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division First Judicial Department, Trump’s attorney Emil Bove said the gag order is causing Trump “irreparable” harm for three reasons.
First, Bove said the gag order is robbing Trump of his ability to “engage with the ongoing verbal assaults” from likely witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. “They’re probably tweeting as I speak!” Bove exclaimed.
Second, the attorney said, Trump should be able to comment on his recusal motion against Judge Merchan, which is centered on the political marketing career of the judge’s daughter — a topic now off-limits to Trump under the expanded gag order.
“It’s a publicly filed motion and he can’t comment on the specifics of that,” Bove said.
Lastly, Bove argued that Trump should be able to comment on prosecutor Michael Colangelo's political past as a Justice Department official. This has become a standard argument for the former president, who continues to insist that the criminal case is politically motivated by his Democratic opponents. (Colangelo also investigated the Trump Foundation while working for the New York attorney general's office.)
But, as it stands, the gag order bars Trump from going after individual prosecutors, putting attacks against Colangelo on ice.
Steven Wu of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office argued that these claims from Trump were merely the latest in roughly a dozen efforts to delay the trial in the eleventh hour.
“They have delayed bringing this request for two full weeks after the order was [enacted] by the judge,” Wu said. “For that reason alone, the interim application should be denied.”
In describing the necessity of the gag order, Wu referenced several past targets of Trump’s fury, including the chief law clerk in his civil fraud trial and election workers in Fulton County.
He claimed that, without the order, it would be nearly impossible to find witnesses for the criminal case unintimidated by the potential for Trump’s attacks.
“There has already been difficulty in finding witnesses in our case,” Wu said. “It has been a challenge getting people to come in because they know what their names in the press may lead to.”
Judge Kern didn’t allow time for rebuttal. She denied the interim application about 30 minutes later in a one-page ruling, which is still sealed online. A printed copy was provided to the press.
Trump on Tuesday sought a ruling only on his interim request to delay the proceedings. A full panel will rule on the stay request later this month, possibly during the trial’s jury selection, which is slated to start next week. It won’t be until the end of the month that a panel will rule on the merits of the gag order itself.
The criminal trial has already been delayed from its original March 25 start date, thanks to an evidence-related complaint from Trump that pushed jury selection to April 15.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the charges against Trump last year, claiming the former president falsified business records to pay hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Bragg says Trump instructed Michael Cohen, his attorney at the time, to make the payments while he was running for the 2016 presidency in an effort to cover up a past extramarital relationship with Daniels. Trump pleaded not guilty to the 34 counts of falsifying business records and denied having such a relationship with Daniels.
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