Donald Trump is urgently seeking intervention from a New York appeals court to halt a forthcoming trial involving alleged hush money payments. He aims to challenge a lower court’s decision regarding presidential immunity and to request the judge’s recusal from the case.
The frantic move, made through court filings on Wednesday, is the latest in a series of legal maneuvers by Trump this week aimed at preventing the trial from commencing as scheduled. Earlier requests by Trump’s legal team to postpone the trial were promptly denied by the appeals court. These filings were based on challenging a gag order preventing Trump from commenting on various trial-related matters and on arguing against holding the trial in Manhattan because “too many democrats” live in the city.
In their latest petition, Trump’s lawyers assert that Judge Juan Merchan exceeded his authority by denying Trump’s motion to delay the trial until the Supreme Court rules on his claim of immunity in another criminal case linked to the 2020 election.
Additionally, Trump seeks to contest the judge’s impartiality in overseeing the trial, citing potential conflicts of interest related to the judge’s daughter’s work for a political consulting firm associated with Democrats. Merchan has not yet ruled on this request for recusal.
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Notably, the court filing does not indicate an immediate request for an emergency hearing before the appeals court to delay the trial.
As noted by CNN, a hearing over Wednesday’s filings has not yet been set.
