Former US President Donald Trump speaks from the hallway outside a courtroom where he is attending a hearing in his criminal case on charges related to money paid to a porn star in New York, United States United, March 25, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked a judge for a “significant” delay in his fast-approaching criminal trial, arguing that the Republican presidential candidate cannot get a fair jury because of “damaging publicity before the trial”.
The trial for falsifying business records should be adjourned until media coverage “diminishes,” Trump’s lawyers wrote last week in a filing in New York Supreme Court.
But following that request, Trump himself publicly questioned the integrity of the trial through a torrent of social media posts attacking the presiding judge — and the judge’s adult daughter.
The messages came after Judge Juan Merchan imposed a gag order barring Trump from speaking about likely witnesses and other figures involved in the case.
The gag order does not explicitly prohibit Trump from attacking the judge himself. Prosecutors on Thursday asked Merchan to “clarify or confirm” that the order protects family members from court.
Trump, in a series of recent Truth Social posts, called for Merchan’s recusal from the case, accusing him of political bias. A number of these posts reference Merchan’s daughter’s work for a Democratic political firm, and at least one of them includes her full name and photo.
But in their filing seeking a delay in the trial, Trump’s lawyers argued that it was the press, not the former president, who tainted the makeup of the jury.
Citing a survey of 400 New York residents, the lawyers wrote: “It is clear that potential jurors in Manhattan have been exposed to enormous biased and unfair media coverage regarding this case.”
“Many potential jurors already falsely believe that President Trump is guilty,” their filing states.
They also pointed to the findings of a “media study” that many articles included “damaging discussions of other proceedings involving President Trump and inaccurate and irrelevant discussions of allegations of sexual misconduct, including False “Rape” Allegations.
Trump, in a separate federal civil trial last year, was convicted of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and then defaming her decades later.
The defense attorneys’ filing also claims that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office “used strategic leaks” in its prosecution of Trump for falsifying business records to conceal a secret payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The filing also accuses the DA’s office of scheduling the sentencing date of former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg — who pleaded guilty last month to perjury — deliberately close to the trial in order to attract more attention. media coverage.
Weisselberg is scheduled to be sentenced April 10, five days before jury selection begins for the secret trial.
The filing also argues that continued criticism of Trump by two key trial witnesses — Daniels and Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen — underscores that he “cannot get a fair trial in New York County for the moment”.
“Therefore, the Court should adjourn the trial date until the damaging media coverage subsides,” the attorneys wrote.
The filing is dated March 18, but it was made public last week, after a court hearing on another attempt by Trump to dismiss the indictment or postpone the trial to a later date.
At that hearing, Merchan ordered jury selection to begin April 15, after rejecting claims by Trump’s lawyers that the DA’s office violated evidence-sharing rules. But the judge allowed those attorneys to file their motion to adjourn the trial due to negative media coverage.
“The media that has been generated is not the result of President Trump,” defense attorney Todd Blanche said during that hearing.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo responded that the risk of the trial being delayed because of media coverage is “extremely unlikely.”
The publicity in this case — the first of four criminal cases against Trump to go to trial — will not diminish, Colangelo told the judge.
The prosecutor also noted that this intense media coverage “was provoked and exacerbated” by Trump.
Merchan gave the prosecutor’s office a week to file its full response.
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