Last week Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled that former president Donald Trump’s alleged hush-money trial — the first of Trump’s four upcoming criminal trials — will begin April 15.
Today, Trump’s lawyers moved to adjourn the New York City case indefinitely due to “prejudicial pretrial publicity” which is “substantial” and “ongoing.” (Trump’s team is asking for an “indefinite” delay where a similar adjournment motion filed on March 18 requested only “further” delay.)
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained, “They’re asking for an indefinite postponement of the trial on the basis that the pretrial publicity surrounding Donald Trump and his alleged criminality is so suffuse throughout New York that it’s impossible for him to get a fair trial, they say, until that publicity abates.”
BREAKING: Trump moves to adjourn NY case indefinitely due to “pretrial publicity.” @lawofruby explains what this means pic.twitter.com/dAA4Hdk4Zi
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 1, 2024
Rubin points out that Trump, who posted to his social media platform Truth Social more than 70 times this weekend, “is a great generator of his own pretrial publicity.”
Trump’s lawyers contend that his other cases in New York — the E. Jean Carroll cases (a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and, later, defaming her) and Trump’s business fraud civil case (Trump posted a $175 million bond after the fraud judgement) — are “so prejudicial to him that he can’t possibility get a fair trial or shake here in New York.”
An enormous amount of the pretrial publicity also stems from Trump’s own attacks on Judge Juan Merchan, who issued a gag order aimed at limiting Trump’s ability to influence or intimidate witnesses, jurors and court workers. (Merchan has faced recusal demands from Trump’s side.)
That body’s May 4, 2023 opinion — which Merchan cited in denying Trump’s recusal demand — found “nothing in the inquiry to suggest that the outcome of the case could have any effect on the judge’s relative, the relative’s business, or any of their interests.” pic.twitter.com/LlQUlBv3uX
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) March 31, 2024
Trump has also been attacking Judge Merchan’s daughter, claiming that her political leanings represent a conflict of interest for the judge. In a letter sent last week to Merchan, Trump’s lawyers expressly asked the judge to clarify that the gag order does not restrict Trump’s ability to mention Merchan’s daughter.
[NOTE: Prosecutors in the hush money case allege that Trump falsely logged payments to his then personal lawyer Michael Cohen, including a payment of $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her keeping quiet about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump before the 2016 presidential election.]