Trump fails to delay hush-money trial with last-ditch legal challenge

In their latest bid to scuttle former President Donald Trump's impending hush-money trial, the Republican candidate's lawyers filed a two-page notice of petition on Wednesday that accused presiding Judge Juan Merchan of overstepping his authority. By Wednesday evening, that effort to delay the trial was rejected.

CNN reported that Trump's lawyers were challenging Merchan's order preventing the former president from arguing at trial that he enjoys absolute immunity. They also took issue with the judge's refusal to recuse himself on the basis that his daughter works as a Democratic political consultant. According to The New York Times, a judicial ethics panel concluded that the daughter's employment did not constitute a real conflict of interest.

Specifically, Trump's legal team was asking a New York appeals court to indefinitely delay jury selection in the case, set to begin April 15, while it challenges Merchan's rulings, according to the Associated Press.

Hours after it was filed, an appellate judge, Ellen Gesmer, had already rejected the Trump team's arguments, The New York Times reported.

Merchan had ruled last month that Trump did not invoke the presidential immunity argument in time to use it at trial, writing: "This Court finds that Defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024."

The Supreme Court will hear arguments later this month regarding Trump's claim that, as a former president, he cannot be prosecuted.

In the Manhattan case, Trump faces charges of falsifying business records in order to hide $130,000 in hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who has said that Trump cornered her in his hotel room before the two had sex. The trial, scheduled to start on Monday, threatens to upend Trump's presidential ambitions by revisiting the sordid tale and potentially rendering a guilty verdict that could send him to prison.

Trump's lawyers have made it clear that the former president does not wish to have his day in court any time soon, especially before the November election. They have fought to delay the hush-payment trial at every turn since the indictment was filed in March 2023. Earlier this week, they asked the court for a delay so that Trump could challenge a gag order issued to prevent him from commenting on witnesses, prosecutors, jurors, and the judge's family. They also filed another petition that sought to move the trial from Manhattan. Both requests were denied.