NEW YORK –
Former U.S. President Donald Trump demanded a new judge just days before his criminal trial is set to begin over payments he made to conceal information, reviving long-standing grievances with the current judge in a last-minute, unlikely attempt to stymie and delay the case. .
Trump’s lawyers — reiterating recent complaints posted on social media — urged Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan to recuse himself from the case, arguing that he is biased and has a conflict of interest because his daughter is a Democratic political consultant. The magistrate rejected a similar request in August last year.
In court filings released Friday, Trump’s lawyers said it is inappropriate for Merchan “to preside over these proceedings while Ms. Merchan benefits, both financially and reputationally, from the manner in which this case is interfering” with the Trump’s campaign as the presumptive Republican presidential candidate.
The trial is scheduled to begin April 15. It is the first of four Trump criminal proceedings that will go to trial, and it would be the first criminal trial of a former US president.
Merchan did not issue a ruling at this time. The decision is completely up to him. If he were to drop the case, it would throw the trial schedule into disarray, giving Trump the delay he so desperately wants while a new judge gets up to speed on the case.
Messages seeking comment were left with a court spokesman and Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan. Manhattan prosecutors say they see no reason for Merchan to walk away from the trial.
The defense’s claims that Loren Merchan is benefiting from his father’s decisions require making “several watered-down factual assumptions here that undermine any direct connection” between his firm and this case, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in a letter to the judge.
“This series of allusions is far from constituting evidence” that Judge Merchan has a direct, personal or financial interest in reaching a particular conclusion, Colangelo wrote.
Loren Merchan is president of Authentic Campaigns, which has collected at least $70 million in payments from Democratic candidates and causes since she helped found the company in 2018, records show.
The firm’s past clients include President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Senate Majority political action committee, a committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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Associated Press writers Brian Slodysko and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.
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2024-04-06 01:18:15
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