Judge rejects Trump’s last-minute bid to delay ‘hush-money’ trial as he seeks change of venue from NYC

Donald Trump on Monday lost an 11th-hour bid to delay his criminal “hush money” trial as he seeks to get the case moved out of Democratic-heavy Manhattan.

A New York appeals court judge rejected the last-ditch effort from the former president’s attorneys following an emergency hearing called Monday, exactly a week before the April 15 trial is set to start.

Trump’s lawyers also asked the court to pause a gag order barring him from publicly ripping witnesses and the judge’s family, but New York’s Appellate Division, First Department did not immediately rule on that appeal.

A source told The Post earlier Monday it was unlikely that Trump’s attempt to delay the trial as he argues for a change of venue would be successful.

Trump’s team tried a similar last-minute delay tactic in his civil fraud trial, but was rebuffed.

Their attempts to scuttle a gag order in that case were successful in the short term, but eventually rebuffed as well.

A ruling on whether the gag order in the “hush money” case will be temporarily paused is expected Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office — which is prosecuting the case — accused Trump in a Friday filing of attempting to delay the trial by making another bid for Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to recuse himself.

Prosecutors say Trump’s request — which was already rejected last August — attempted an “end-run” on the gag order by continuing to claim Merchan has a conflict-of-interest because of his daughter’s work for Democrats at a political consulting firm.

“The motion is yet another last-ditch attempt to address [Trump’s] real objective, which is … to delay this proceeding indefinitely,” prosecutors wrote.