A New York appeals court judge on Tuesday denied a bid by former President Donald Trump to delay the start of his criminal hush money trial next week, one day after Trump sued the presiding judge over his recently-imposed gag order.
Attorneys for the former president on Tuesday argued at a hearing in a mid-level state appeals court that the April 15 trial should be delayed to offer a chance for Trump to challenge a gag order imposed by presiding trial Justice Juan Merchan. The order prevents Trump from verbally attacking witnesses, prosecutors, and the family of District Attorney Alvin Bragg, as well as Merchan’s family.
The request to delay was denied by Associate Justice Cynthia Kern, but a full panel of appeals judges will later consider Trump’s underlying challenge to the gag order, which he contends prevents him from raising an alleged conflict of interest by Merchan. It’s unlikely a panel of appellate judges will be able to act before the trial begins on April 15.
A lawyer with Bragg’s office argued during the hearing that Trump’s trial should not be delayed because Trump could have made an appeal earlier in the process.
“They know what their names in the press may lead to,” the lawyer said, according to Reuters. “This is a pattern of misconduct that causes predictable, terrifying consequences.”
The appeal at issue on Tuesday was spurred by a last-minute lawsuit Trump filed against Merchan on Monday. The strategy at hand involves what’s known as an Article 78 action, a special process that can be used to challenge New York state government agencies and, in some cases, can be used against judges.
On Monday, a separate judge denied a separate component of Trump’s lawsuit: his bid to delay the trial while he attempts to move the case out of Manhattan. Defense attorneys contend that Trump can’t receive a fair trial in the deeply Democratic borough.
Merchan is separately considering Trump’s motion from last week to recuse the judge from the case, citing his daughter Loren Merchan’s work for a progressive firm known as Authentic Campaigns, which has raked in millions of dollars from Democratic clients who have largely supported the four criminal cases against Trump.
Last year, Merchan denied Trump’s original recusal motion that cited his daughter’s employment as well as $35 in donations the judge made during the 2020 campaign cycle to the Biden campaign and two left-leaning groups. The judge said he accepted guidance from a state ethics advisory committee that said he need not step aside.
For Trump’s latest recusal motion, the filing pointed to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) as one of “at least six Authentic clients” who have solicited donations using electronic communications that have referenced the hush money case, including “communications around the time of the Indictment, the arraignment, and following the Court’s denial of President Trump’s recusal motion.”
The case built built by Bragg, an elected Democrat, stems from a hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The payment was made by Trump’s fixer and ex-attorney Michael Cohen to silence Daniels as she was seeking to come forward about an alleged affair with Trump years earlier, which the former president denies.
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Trump has constantly questioned the veracity of Cohen’s claims against him, as the former attorney is slated to be a star witness during the trial, which could last until early or mid-June. Cohen pleaded guilty to several criminal charges in 2018, and a federal judge suggested last month that Cohen recently committed perjury during testimony in a separate civil case against Trump.
The former president’s attacks on witnesses such as Cohen led Merchan to impose the gag order, and Trump’s attacks against Merchan’s daughter prompted Bragg’s office to call on him to amend the gag order to cover family members, which Merchan granted.