- Trump’s lawyers have been busy questioning potential jurors and studying Michael Cohen’s “X” messages.
- They discovered that Manhattan residents thought Trump was guilty and that Cohen liked to say “Donald von Shitsinpants.”
- Based on these and other findings, they made a final attempt to delay the April 15 secret trial.
Donald Trump’s lawyers are once again trying to delay his secret trial, this time arguing that pretrial publicity and Manhattan residents’ obvious anti-Trump bias will make it impossible to seize a fair jury any time in April.
“President Trump’s constitutional right to a fair trial is at stake,” the defense said in a March 18 deferred motion that is now before New York Supreme Court Trial Judge Juan Merchan.
This last-minute attempt to push back Trump’s trial date to April 15 is the latest of half a dozen such requests since August.
This is the most complex hush-money delay effort Trump has ever deployed — an all-out, multi-pronged undertaking involving a Republican-oriented public research firm, suspicions of U.S. government irregularities. prosecution and 180 pages of supporting documents.
Clearly, the Trump team has been very busy, and at a granular level.
They hired pollsters who found that 61% of potential Manhattan jurors already believe Trump is guilty of somethingwhich is nearly twice the rate of surrounding counties.
Defense survey by Moore Information Group New York County Clerk’s Office/Business Insider
The defense also closely scrutinized social media and the “Mea Culpa” podcast of Michael Cohen, one of the prosecution’s main witnesses who became Trump’s sworn enemy.
Trump’s lawyers point the finger at the judge twice this month, on March 5 and 10, when Cohen referred to Trump on , “Donald Van fucking Shitsinpants.”
Excerpt from Donald Trump’s March motion to delay his secret trial. New York County Clerk’s Office/Business Insider
Over the past two months, according to Trump’s lawyers, Cohen has released podcasts titled “Ex-FBI Agent Tells Michael Cohen Why Trump is Screwed” and “Ex-DOJ Prosecutor Says Trump is Screwed and Reveals EVERYTHING Cohen.”
Michael Cohen, former lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks with reporters as he arrives at the courthouse in New York, U.S., March 15, 2023. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
“To anyone who will listen, especially if they pay, Cohen has and will continue to spew vitriol in the public sphere toward President Trump, including in the lead-up to a possible trial,” deplores the motion to postpone.
“And probably during,” the motion adds.
Stormy Daniels, from her documentary “Stormy”. Peacock
Stormy Daniels, the porn star whose “hush money” payment is at the heart of the prosecution, is also receiving criticism from the defense.
Like Cohen, Daniels, named Stephanie Clifford, didn’t let her next star appearance on the witness stand stop her from attacking Trump in public.
She’s also been promoting her explosive documentary, “Stormy,” which premiered on Peacock on March 18.
When not listening to “Mea Culpa,” the defense team listened to Daniels’ podcast, “Beyond the Norm.”
Trump “is indeed a monster,” they quote from a January podcast, in which she called his supporters “fucking crazy.”
“She is trying to make money from this affair, which may be related to the fact that she owes President Trump approximately $670,000,” the defense motion states. The bill refers to the total, with interest, she was ordered to pay after a 2018 lawsuit was dismissed.
A difficult battle
Meanwhile, prosecutors, who must respond by Monday, appear ready to throw cold water on the defense effort, officially titled “PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’S MOTION FOR FURTHER ADJOURNMENT BASED ON AN PRE-TRIAL PREJUDICIAL PUBLICITY.”
“First, the publicity is unlikely to diminish,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo said the last time everyone was in court, on March 25.
“Second, the pretrial publicity was provoked and exacerbated by the defendant,” Colangelo noted. “And third, there are other tools, including effective jury selection practices, that can address any concerns.”
Judge Juan Merchan AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The judge also disapproved of further delays.
“The accused, either directly or through his lawyer, has publicly stated on several occasions that the goal of the defense is to delay these proceedings if possible beyond the 2024 presidential election,” s Merchan complained in a decision handed down last week.
Doomed as it may be, Trump’s voluminous and forceful last resort proposal offers a sometimes surprising glimpse into what Trump’s lawyers have been doing these days, during the preparation for the frontrunner’s first criminal trial of the Republican Party.
Trump allegedly falsified 34 personal and business documents in an attempt to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors say the falsified documents hid a secret $130,000 payment that silenced porn star Stormy Daniels for eleven days before the elections.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and insists he is the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt.” If convicted, he faces between zero and four years in prison, although legal experts say prison time is unlikely.
Bad polls, bad press
Manhattan is not Trump country, defense delay motion notes.
The damaging media coverage has left Manhattanites “massively” biased against Trump, his lawyers complain, citing a poll by their outside public research firm, Moore Information Group.
Founded by Bob Moore, former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the company has conducted polling for numerous Republican candidates, including for Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign, according to its website.
Pollsters surveyed a sample of 400 Manhattan residents, the postponement motion states.
According to the defense, about 70 percent of those surveyed had a “very negative” opinion of Trump. About 60% said they had voted against him in the past and plan to vote against him this year.
But while about 60 percent of Manhattan residents already believed he was guilty of unspecified “criminal charges,” only 35 percent believed him in the financial silence case.
Prosecutors might well counter that 35 percent is a figure they and the judge can easily get around during jury selection.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Craig Ruttle/AP
The prosecutor’s so-called “leaks”
The least substantiated charges in the motion concern Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whom defense attorneys accuse of using “strategic leaks to harm President Trump.”
The motion cites more than a dozen “damaging” stories about the hush money affair and perjury prosecution of former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.
The articles, including this one from Business Insider, cite anonymous sources to reveal the progress of the Manhattan grand juries that investigated and ultimately indicted Trump.
Trump’s motion implies that these sources were, or involved, Bragg, unaware that the stories could have come from several other people, including court staff, witnesses and the witnesses’ lawyers.
“President Trump cannot obtain a fair trial in Manhattan County at this time,” the motion to postpone concludes, requesting an unspecified postponement “until the damaging media coverage subsides.”
A lawyer for Trump and a spokesperson for Bragg did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.
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