Former US President Donald Trump speaks on the 18th green during day three of the LIV Golf Invitational – Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on April 7, 2024 in Doral, Florida.
Megan Briggs | Getty Images
Donald Trump’s lawyers filed a final appeal Monday to change the location of his upcoming hush-money trial and suspend a hush-money order that bars him from discussing likely witnesses or the judge’s family.
The request to a New York appeals court came a week before jury selection began in the Manhattan Supreme Court trial where Trump is accused of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The appeal was filed using a legal mechanism that allows a person to directly challenge a court’s actions, a source with direct knowledge told NBC News. This allows Trump to challenge the case before the trial has begun.
A New York court system website shows the appeal was filed Monday and points to two pending motions for a stay and change of venue, although the lawsuit itself was not immediately visible. NBC’s source confirmed that the lawsuit was aimed at delaying the trial and maintaining the gag order.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the appeal. Susan Necheles, another Trump lawyer, declined to comment.
The appeal was first reported shortly after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asked presiding Judge Juan Merchan to reject Trump’s recent request to remove the judge.
Bragg called that offer a malicious attempt to delay the trial and circumvent a gag order that prohibits Trump from speaking about the judge’s daughter.
Trump’s “renewed” arguments for Merchan’s rejection are nothing new compared to an earlier attempt to find a new justice, Bragg wrote in a court filing.
Rather, Bragg argued that the current motion to dismiss is a “last-ditch effort” to delay the trial, which appears to be “obviously reverse-engineered” to justify Trump’s spate of new attacks on Merchan’s adult daughter.
It was “an attempt to end the gag order” and “taint the court with attacks against the judge and his family” “as part of a baseless attempt to impugn the integrity of these proceedings,” Bragg wrote.
Trump’s lawyers argued in court filings Friday that Authentic Campaigns, the Democratic consulting firm where Merchan’s daughter works, could benefit from the hush money case by using it to raise money and spread an anti-Trump message.
“Personal political views may not be a basis for rejection. But profiting from promoting a political agenda that is hostile to President Trump and includes fundraising related to this case must be,” they wrote.
Bragg, in Monday’s filing, called it “pure speculation to assume that decisions of this court would have an impact on Authentic’s contracts or revenues.” Even if the company raised money outside of the trial, that would still not be sufficient basis for the judge’s rejection, Bragg added.
The filing came days after Merchan expanded a gag order against Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, to prohibit him from making statements about the judge’s family members that could prejudice the case. Merchan also amended the order to prohibit Trump from discussing Bragg’s family members.
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The stricter silencing order came after Trump sent out a barrage of social media posts targeting Merchan’s daughter Loren Merchan over her political work, claiming it was evidence of the judge’s bias.
Trump also accused Loren Merchan of controlling an X account that featured a photo showing Trump behind bars in prison cells. The New York court administration denied that the judge’s daughter had control of this account at the time the image was published.
Judge Merchan wrote in the order that people watching Trump’s attacks might conclude that their loved ones could come under fire if they became involved in the case. The situation represents “a direct attack on the rule of law itself,” he wrote.
The judge rejected Trump’s first motion to dismiss last summer, which also focused on the political activities of Loren Merchan.
Bragg argued Monday that Trump’s current recusal motion makes “identical” arguments, adding that the few points it contains that were not previously made are “completely without merit.”
The hush money case is expected to be the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial. The former president’s lawyers have repeatedly tried to stop or delay all of these proceedings as he campaigns to unseat incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden.
—CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
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2024-04-08 19:13:16
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