An appellate court in New York has denied former US President Donald Trump’s attempt to delay the commencement of his falsified documents case. This decision comes after three challenges made against Judge Juan Merchan, the presiding judge in the case. As a result, the trial continues to be slated for April 15.
The New York Times reported that Trump’s legal team initiated three appellate court challenges on the day. The first sought to lift or mitigate Merchan’s March 26 gag order against Trump, while the second sought to challenge Merchan’s ability to preside over the case under New York Law’s Article 78 proceedings, typically challenging actions or inactions by agencies of New York State and local governments.
The third appeal put forward by Trump claimed that, due to the high-profile nature of the charges and presumed bias against him among the Manhattan, New York jury pool, the trial would require a different location. With the expectation that all three challenges would invite further argument, Trump’s legal team requested a delay to the start of the trial.
In response, Judge Lizbeth Gonzalez of the appellate division dismissed all three presented challenges. A pending request from Trump to have Judge Merchan recuse himself from presiding over the trial remains unresolved. As of April 3, Trump’s legal counsel argued that Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, who has relationships with Democratic political clients, harbors bias against Trump. They further argued that the Judge himself shares this bias.
Counter-responses from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg labeled Trump’s motion as an attempt to stall the impending trial, allegedly contextualized by transparent hostility against the Court and its family. As yet, Merchan is still to make a ruling on the recusal motion, but a decision is predicted this week, preceding the start of the trial.
Former President Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of “falsifying business records in the first degree”. These charges arise from alleged “hush money” payments made by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels with the intention of keeping potentially damaging information from the public during the 2016 US Presidential election. If the proceedings commence on the scheduled date of April 15, this will be the first of four criminal trials against the former president to be initiated.
For more detailed information, you may read the full account of events at this link.