Posts tagged with "Justice Juan Merchan"

Judge denies Trump’s latest bid to delay hush-money trial

April 10, 2024

On Tuesday, April 9, a New York appeals court judge denied Donald Trump’s effort to delay next week’s criminal trial while the former president appeals a gag order imposed on him, reports Politico.

Associate Justice Cynthia Kern of the appeals court rejected Trump’s bid to push back the start of the trial, set to begin April 15, on charges he falsified business records in an effort to conceal a hush money payment intended to silence a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election.

Trump had filed the request to delay the trial on Monday, making a last-ditch effort to adjourn the proceedings by arguing against a gag order imposed last month by the judge overseeing the criminal case, Justice Juan Merchan. The gag order bars Trump from attacking “reasonably foreseeable witnesses,” as well as lawyers working on the case, court staff or their families.

Last week, Merchan expanded the order to bar Trump from attacking the family members of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the judge himself, after Trump publicly assailed Merchan’s adult daughter.

Kern’s decision means that Trump’s request will now be heard by a full panel of five appeals court judges, but that almost certainly won’t happen before the planned start of the trial. Kern’s decision set out a schedule that stretches into May for the lawyers to submit court filings for the full panel.

Her decision also comes one day after another appeals court judge rejected a separate attempt by Trump to delay the trial on different grounds—asking for the trial to be postponed until after his request to move the case out of Manhattan is resolved.

Research contact: @politico