This may be the fastest that Donald Trump has had one of his delay efforts slapped down.
Jury selection in Trump’s felony case for falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments intended to hide his affair with Stormy Daniels is scheduled to begin in less than a week. Now, the former president is desperate to hold it off.
As other challenges — including attacks on the judge and his family and demands for recusal — failed, Trump’s attorneys filed a lawsuit to appeal.
They wanted to force Judge Juan Merchan off the case, and/or have the case delayed. The filing requested a change of venue, citing pre-trial publicity that could make it harder to select an impartial jury.
However, the most obvious problem with that claim is that the publicity isn’t localized, and won’t be lessened by changing venue.
The prosecution called Trump out on this, and Judge Lizbeth Gonzalez seemed to agree. Judge Gonzalez first ruled that the former president could not, as requested, have a delay to hold the case off until the venue change was decided, then, before the close of the day, ruled against the venue change as well. CNN reported:
“Associate Justice Lizbeth González quickly denied the motion to stop the trial after hearing arguments Monday, and there is no further argument on the motion to change the venue….Trump’s attorneys also said they are filing a petition objecting to the gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan barring Trump from publicly discussing witnesses in the upcoming trial, as well as staff and family of the court and district attorney’s office.”
Trump’s team offered as evidence a media study they did, in which they claim to have found that a majority of citizens in New York County already believe Trump is guilty and have a negative opinion of him.
The prosecution, however, pointed out that a majority also said they could be impartial and fair if chosen for the jury, adding that neighboring counties had even less favorable results, according to Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg has also previously pointed out — when Trump claimed the trial should be delayed over his complaints of pre-trial publicity — that Trump himself is the one driving the publicity, regularly posting on social media about the case, and bringing it up at rallies. Bragg called Trump’s argument an admission that the real goal is to delay the case indefinitely.
Trump himself did not immediately issue a public response to the ruling, although he did make two short all-caps social media posts, one reading “ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!” and the other alleging, “BIDEN TRIALS!!!”
He has six days left to find a more successful method for delay. Let’s just say that at this point we wouldn’t be surprised if he comes down with a sudden illness on the day that the trial is scheduled to begin.
