Former President Donald Trump's petition to remove the judge overseeing his Manhattan criminal indictment case was rejected on Monday.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan declined to recuse himself from the case, saying that the former president "failed to demonstrate" reasons that recusal is appropriate.
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Trump was indicted by the Manhattan district attorney's office in April on 34 counts of falsifying business records, his first of three indictments. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which stem from hush money payments that were made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The former president filed a request for Merchan's recusal in June, arguing that Merchan cannot be impartial after donating to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and other left-leaning groups. Trump also claimed that Merchan's daughter, who runs a digital marketing agency working with Democratic candidates, could financially benefit from the case.
However, Merchan ruled that Trump did not provide sufficient or plausible evidence for him to recuse himself.
"The speculative and hypothetical scenarios offered by Defendant fall well short of the legal standard," Merchan said in his Monday ruling.
Trump's recusal request also cited the fact that Merchan oversaw a prior criminal case involving the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, its former chief financial officer. Merchan said Trump provided "inaccurate and misleading information" when claiming that Merchan had engaged in inappropriate conduct while negotiating Weisselberg's guilty plea.
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This is one of several recent blows to the former president after a federal judge rejected Trump's effort to move the Manhattan criminal case to federal court in July.
Trump is facing two other federal indictments and a possible fourth indictment out of Georgia, with charges expected to come against him this week after the Fulton County district attorney's office presents its case to a grand jury.