(NewsSpace.com) – Former President Donald Trump has several trials on the schedule for this year. He’s still appealing the defamation case involving former journalist E. Jean Carroll and what he calls an exorbitant fine in his business fraud case. Besides those, he also has the hush-money trial involving Stormy Daniels coming up and the classified documents case. However, his attorneys recently filed a motion to have the hush-money case indefinitely postponed.
The latest motion follows a rejection of several other motions to delay the trial, as well as the issuance of a gag order on Trump. On Tuesday, March 26, Judge Juan Merchan approved the request to prohibit the former president from attacking prosecutors, except District Attorney Alvin Bragg, jurors, witnesses, and court staff, publicly. He also rejected a motion to delay the trial due to discovery issues, pushing the start date back by only three weeks.
In the latest request, Trump’s attorneys are asking Merchan to delay the proceedings indefinitely because of “exceptionally prejudicial pretrial publicity, which is substantial, ongoing, and likely to increase,” citing the significant media coverage of his legal woes, which they say could lead to an unfair trial.
The lawyers cite a survey of 400 residents from New York County and four others, which shows that 88% had either heard or read about Trump’s alleged hush-money payments. The motion further points to “1,223 online news articles between January 15, 2024, and February 24, 2024,” which the attorneys say indicates Trump will not be able to get a fair trial because the prospective jury pool has been tainted by anti-Trump news.
According to the motion, the news and survey display an “overwhelming bias against” the former president. Merchan has yet to issue a ruling on this motion, but he has expressed frustration with the legal team, saying that they need to seek permission to file motions in the future because they are abusing the process and trying to delay the inevitable.
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