Washington: Days before the former US President Donald Trump is set to face a criminal trial in Manhattan, an appeals court judge denied his request to put the case on hold and transfer it to a new place, the New York Times reported.
After hearing arguments from Trump’s attorneys and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has charged the former president with fabricating documents to conceal a sex scandal, the judge, Lizbeth Gonzalez, issued the decision on Monday afternoon (local time).
According to the New York Times, for weeks, Trump has sought to delay the trial, the first prosecution of a former US president, and possibly the only one of Trump’s four criminal cases to make it to trial this year.
Trump used a variety of delay tactics on Monday in addition to his attempt to relocate the case out of Manhattan.
According to the New York Times, in a separate proceeding, he indicated that he planned to file an unusual type of lawsuit against the judge overseeing the case, Juan M Merchan.
Two people with knowledge of the matter said that Trump’s lawyers on Monday had planned to file the action calling on the appeals court to overturn a gag order that Justice Merchan recently imposed on the former president.
The order prevents Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and the judge’s own family, the Times said.
Although the documents were not immediately made public, court records from Monday indicated that Trump had begun the process of filing the action against Justice Merchan, the New York Times reported.
The former president hopes to extend all four of his criminal prosecutions until Election Day. He is once again the presumptive Republican contender for president.
In the Manhattan case, Alvin L. Bragg, the district attorney charged Trump with 34 felonies stemming from a hush-money deal with a porn star.
Prosecutors claim that Trump permitted his company to fabricate its own financial records in order to hide the payment. The most recent attempts to halt the Manhattan lawsuit coincide with Trump’s independent request that Justice Merchan step down from the case.
Moreover, Trump and his lawyers argue that the judge has a conflict of interest, citing his daughter’s position at a Democratic consulting firm that worked for President Biden’s campaign in 2020.
Because of Trump’s persistent attacks on Justice Merchan’s daughter on social media and his posting of articles featuring her image, the judge extended the gag order to prevent him from disparaging her or any other member of his family.
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