Court scraps Trump’s bid to delay April 15 hush money trial
NEW YORK — A New York appeals court judge on Monday rejected Donald Trump’s bid to delay his
April 15 hush money criminal trial while he fights to move the case out of Manhattan — foiling the former president’s latest attempt to put off the historic trial.
Justice Lizbeth González of the state’s mid-level appeals court made her ruling after an emergency hearing where Trump’s lawyers asked to postpone the trial indefinitely while they seek a change of venue. Trump was seeking an emergency stay, a court order that would prevent the trial from starting on time.
The hush money trial is the first of Trump’s his four criminal indictments slated to go to trial and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued that the presumptive Republican nominee faces “real potential prejudice” as a defendant in heavily Democratic Manhattan. Citing defense surveys and a review of media coverage, Bove argued that jury selection, scheduled to start next Monday, “cannot proceed in a fair manner.”
Trump has suggested on social media that the trial should be moved to Staten Island, the only New York City borough he won in 2016 and 2020.
Steven Wu, appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, noted that trial Judge Juan M. Merchan had already rejected Trump’s requests to move or delay the trial as untimely.
Meanwhile, special counsel Jack Smith’s team urged the Supreme Court on Monday night to reject Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution in a case charging him with scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The brief from prosecutors was submitted just over two weeks before the justices take up the legally untested question of whether an ex-president is shielded from criminal charges for official actions taken in the White House.
The outcome of the April 25 arguments is expected to help determine whether Trump faces trial this year in a four-count indictment that accuses him of conspiring to block the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.