Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump visits a Chick-fil-A eatery on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jason Allen)
Attorneys for Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon pushed forward with yet another round of arguments to delay the former president’s fast-approaching New York City hush-money trial.
And, thrice in three days, they failed.
In a Manhattan basement hastily converted into a court of law for the First Judicial Department Appellate Division, the 45th president’s defense team insisted that three major outstanding issues necessitate further delay in the trial slated to begin before New York County Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan on April 15.
“The unconstitutional effects of Justice Merchan’s rulings are causing ongoing, irreparable constitutional harms to Petitioner and the voting public and, if not stopped, will prevent Petitioner from receiving a fair trial,” defense attorney Todd Blanche wrote in a summary statement on application for expedited service and/or interim relief.
A brief hearing gave way to a quick ruling.
“After hearing argument from counsel for all parties, the court denies movant’s application for a stay of the proceedings pending resolution of the Article 76 proceeding in the nature of prohibition,” Justice Ellen Gesmer wrote in the terse disposition of the last-ditch dilatory tactic.
The 45th president has repeatedly sought to push back the upcoming trial — and has filed various motions with, and allegations against, the trial court in an attempt to push back the start date.
Merchan has mostly rejected the defendant’s stalling time and time again. The judge did, however, agree to a late-stage pause in March after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg supported a delay over belated discovery materials — pushing the long-standing trial date back from March 25 to next week.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Trump attorney Emil Bove argued one of Merchan’s orders has resulted in “unacceptable and unconstitutional restrictions on our ability to present defense motions,” according to a report by Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker.
The ex-president’s attorneys, as well as the state, must seek leave from Merchan to file pretrial motions in the case due to an earlier court ruling intended to tamp down on the number of docket entries.
In that order, Merchan expressed disdain for defense efforts to increasingly delay the proceedings. In turn, he instructed both the defense and the state to file a one-page letter explaining why they needed to file any given motion before filing any additional motions.
The district attorney’s office shrugged off that restriction — essentially telling the appeals court the defense brought it on themselves.
“[D]efendant was ramping up a campaign of inundating the court with belated filings just on the eve of the trial,” assistant district attorney Steven Wu argued, according to Courthouse News.
The state also argued it was simply far too late to stall.
“Staying the trial at this point would be incredibly disruptive,” Wu said in comments reported by The Associated Press. “The court, the people, witnesses have made extraordinary efforts to make sure this trial can take place on Monday.”
The defense also argued for a stay due to Merchan overseeing the case “under an appearance of impropriety,” according to a report by New York Daily News reporter Molly Crane Newman.
This argument is a reference to an outstanding recusal motion premised on the judge’s daughter running a pro-Democratic Party consultant business that has worked for President Joe Biden.
Finally, Trump’s team implored a pause due to constitutional issues before the U.S. Supreme Court. The defense has previously tried, and failed, to indefinitely adjourn the upcoming trial until after the nation’s high court rules on the “scope of the presidential immunity doctrine.”
To hear the defense tell it, recent acknowledgments from Bragg that the state intends to use some of Trump’s social media posts — from when he was president — implicate presidential immunity arguments. Merchan rejected the defense’s arguments on this point last week.
On Monday, the appeals court rejected an attempt to stay the trial while the defense seeks to move the case out of Manhattan over tainted jury pool concerns. On Tuesday, the appeals court rejected an appeal to pause the proceedings while Trump appeals a gag order issued by the trial judge.
In New York, Trump faces a 34-count felony indictment over allegedly falsified business records related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Those charges against Trump marked the first time in U.S. history that a former president faced a criminal indictment. Now, Trump is battling back against four criminal indictments in three states and the District of Columbia.
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