Trump team may attempt to move case

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team is considering asking to move his criminal case from Manhattan to the more conservative New York borough of Staten Island out of concern that he won’t be able to get a fair trial, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The lawyers haven’t made a final decision and are waiting to see the charges in the indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions aren’t public.

The indictment will be unsealed Tuesday when Trump is expected to appear in court to be arraigned and enter a plea of not guilty to charges stemming from a hush money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. Trump denies wrongdoing and says the case is part of a politically motivated “witch hunt.”

Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor, said any attempt to move the venue is likely to fail because defendants aren’t entitled to seek out juries based on specific characteristics they find more favorable, including political views.

“The only reason he would try to move venue to Staten Island is that he thinks — based on voter registration — that that’s a friendlier potential jury pool for him,” Rodgers said. “That’s not going to fly.”

While President Joe Biden overwhelmingly won Manhattan in the 2020 election, Trump took Staten Island with a 57 percent share of the vote. He entered the 2024 presidential race in November.

Trump, who has issued statements attacking Bragg and the judge overseeing the case, is at risk of alienating potential jurors through his own behavior, said New York criminal defense attorney Michael Bachner, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

“I’ve represented a bunch of celebrities, and the hardest part of representing them is convincing them to just stop talking,” he said.