NEW YORK (AP) – Former president Donald Trump demands a new judge just days before his secret criminal trial begins, rehashing long-standing grievances with the current judge in a long-running, eleventh-hour attempt to disrupt and delay the case.
Trump’s lawyers — echoing his recent complaints on social media — urged Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan to withdraw from the case, alleging bias and a conflict of interest because his daughter is a Democratic political consultant. The judge rejected a similar request last August.
In court documents released Friday, Trump’s lawyers said it was inappropriate for Merchan “to preside over these proceedings when Ms. Merchan benefits, financially and reputationally, from the manner in which this matter interferes” with the campaign. of Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee for president. .
The trial is scheduled to begin April 15. This is the first of four Trump criminal cases set to go to trial and would be the first-ever criminal trial of a former president.
Merchan did not immediately rule. The decision is entirely up to him. If he were to withdraw, it would upend the trial schedule, giving Trump a long-awaited delay while a new judge gets up to speed.
Messages seeking comment were left with a court spokesperson and Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said it saw no reason for Merchan to step down.
The defense’s claims that Loren Merchan profits from his father’s decisions require “multiple, attenuated factual leaps here that undermine any direct connection” between his company and this case, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in a letter to the judge.
“This chain of insinuations falls far short of proof” that Judge Merchan has a direct, personal or financial interest in reaching a particular conclusion, Colangelo wrote.
Loren Merchan is president of Authentic Campaigns, which has collected at least $70 million in payments from Democratic candidates and causes since she helped found the company in 2018, records show.
Former clients of the firm include President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Senate Majority PAC, a big-spending political committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The Senate majority PAC paid $15.2 million to Authentic Campaigns, according to campaign finance disclosures.
In another development Friday, Merchan blocked Trump’s lawyers from forcing NBC to provide them with documents related to its recent documentary about porn actor Stormy Daniels, a key prosecution witness. He ruled that the defense subpoena was “the very definition of a fishing expedition” and did not meet the legal burden of requiring a news organization to provide access to its notes and documents .
On Wednesday, Merchan rejected the presumptive Republican nominee’s request to delay the trial until the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity claims he raised in another of his criminal cases. The judge has yet to rule on another defense request for a delay – this one alleging he won’t get a fair trial because of “damaging media coverage.”
The secrecy case centers on allegations that Trump falsified his company records to hide the nature of payments made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Among other things, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to suppress her allegations of an extramarital sexual relationship with Trump years earlier.
Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 counts of falsifying business records. He denied having a sexual relationship with Daniels. His lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal fees.
Trump foreshadowed his lawyers’ renewed efforts to get Merchan removed from the case with posts attacking the judge and his daughter last week on his Truth Social platform.
Trump suggested, without evidence, that Merchan’s decisions — including his decision to silence Trump — were influenced by his daughter’s advisory interests. He falsely claimed she posted a photo on social media showing him behind bars. Trump’s attacks on Loren Merchan led the judge to extend the ban on making public statements about his family.
“The judge must recuse himself immediately and right the wrong done by failing to do so last year,” Trump wrote on March 27. “If the biased and conflicted judge is allowed to stay on this bogus ‘case,’ it will be another sad example of our country becoming a banana republic, not the America we knew and loved.
Trump also pressed the judge in his Washington, D.C., election interference case to recuse himself, saying his past comments about him called into question his ability to be fair. But U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said there was no reason for her to step down.
Mercan’s daughter figured prominently in defense calls for his recusal last year. They also seized several small donations the judge made in total to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign. They totaled $35, including $15 for Biden.
Merchan rejected that request, writing last August that a state court ethics panel found that Loren Merchan’s work had no bearing on his impartiality. The judge said he was certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial” and said Trump’s lawyers had “failed to demonstrate that there are concrete, or even realistic, reasons for a challenge to be appropriate, much less required for these reasons.”
Trump’s lawyers say circumstances have now changed, with Trump engaged in a rematch against President Joe Biden, and Democrats — including clients of Loren Merchan’s firm — seeking to capitalize on Trump’s legal troubles with emails fundraising activities framed around developments in the silence affair.
“It would be completely unacceptable to most New Yorkers if the judge presiding over these proceedings had an adult child working at WinRed or MAGA Inc.,” Blanche and Necheles wrote, referring to a Republican fundraising platform and a pro-Trump fundraising committee.
In seeking Merchan’s recusal, Trump’s lawyers also challenged his decision to give an interview to The Associated Press last month, suggesting he might have violated rules of judicial conduct, and they questioned the appeal to a court spokesperson last week to deny Trump’s claims that she posted the image of Trump in prison.
In the interview, Merchan told the AP that he and his team were working diligently to prepare for the historic first trial of a former president, saying, “There is no agenda here. We want to respect the law. We want justice to be done.
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Associated Press journalists Brian Slodysko and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.
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