Donald Trump’s lawyers are attempting to delay the start of his criminal trial in New York, set to begin on April 15. They have filed a motion to postpone the trial citing publicity surrounding it, a request that has already been rejected by Judge Juan Merchan. Trump’s team also renewed a request for Merchan to recuse himself due to his daughter’s political work for Democratic politicians, which was dismissed last year.
The former president has been pushing for a delay of the trial for months, as part of his strategy to postpone all trials until after the 2024 election. Merchan still needs to make decisions on several outstanding issues before the trial starts, including Trump’s motions to recuse and postpone. While the judge delayed the trial for three weeks last month due to late production of discovery documents, he seems unlikely to further delay the trial at this point.
Trump’s lawyers also filed a motion last month to delay the trial until the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity, with arguments scheduled for April 25 and a ruling expected in June. However, Merchan denied this motion, calling it untimely and questioning the sincerity of the delay. The judge previously ruled that Trump’s lawyers can object to evidence tied to presidential acts during the trial, but did not address the issue further in his recent ruling.
During a pre-trial hearing on March 25, Trump’s team requested an adjournment due to pre-trial publicity and negative news coverage surrounding Trump’s other trials. Prosecutors urged Merchan to reject this motion, arguing that pretrial publicity will continue regardless of the trial’s timing, and biased jurors can be weeded out through jury selection. Prosecutors believe that the answer to Trump’s complaint about pretrial publicity is to hold the trial sooner rather than later.
Most recently, Trump’s lawyers asked Merchan to recuse himself, citing his daughter’s work for a Democratic political group as grounds for his recusal. This motion is expected to be filed later this week. Despite Trump’s team’s efforts to delay the trial through various motions and requests for recusal, Merchan’s previous rulings indicate that further delays are unlikely. The trial is scheduled to begin on April 15, and it remains to be seen how these issues will be resolved before then.
