According to court records, lawyers for former President Donald Trump sued the judge in charge of his criminal hush money case on Monday, just one week before the trial was set to start.
The public could not see the case, but online records showed that Trump lawyer Todd Blanche was suing New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. The web record says that the related paperwork is locked up for now.
Prior to filing his lawsuit against Merchan, Trump had tried to delay his April 15 trial over the 34-count charge that accuses him of hiding a secret money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels during the last few days of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Attorneys asked an appeals court to delay the trial and question Merchan's latest order that Trump not say anything bad about prosecutors, witnesses, or the families of prosecutors and the judge.
A lawsuit that is basically an appeal comes after Trump's second request last week for the judge to step down from the case. This time, he said that Merchan has a conflict of interest because his daughter works for Authentic Campaigns, a liberal firm that gets paid by strongly anti-Trump clients like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Because of Trump's case, an appellate court judge will probably make a preliminary decision on Monday. This will set up a full five-judge panel to look at Trump's request in the days to come. That means Merchan will have to decide if he wants to stay out of the case while an appeals court looks at the lawsuit and Merchan's gag order.
The New York Times reports that Trump's lawyers will also petition the appeals court on Monday to move the trial outside of Manhattan, saying that the former president can not get a fair trial in the heavily Democratic borough.
With four criminal cases and a total of 88 charges against him, Trump has used social media to vent about a number of people involved in those cases. Because of this, Merchan put a gag order on Trump. More recently, the gag order was expanded to include Merchan's family after Trump accused him of being biased because of the work of his daughter, Loren Merchan.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office wrote in response to Trump's most recent request to recuse Merchan that Trump's actions were similar to some of the times he has tried to delay his criminal trial and remove Merchan in the past.
Legal documents made public on Monday by the prosecutors said that Trump's request was "nothing more than his latest attempt to delay the forthcoming trial."
The attorneys wrote, "The motion is yet another last-ditch attempt to deal with defendant's real goal, which is — as the Court has already recognized — to delay this proceeding indefinitely."
Merchan turned down Trump's first request to recuse himself last year, citing his daughter's job and the $35 the judge gave to the Biden campaign and two left-leaning groups during the 2020 election cycle. The judge said he followed the advice of a state ethics body, which told him he did not have to step down.
Schiff was named in Trump's most recent recusal motion as having "at least six Authentic clients" who asked for donations through electronic communications that mentioned the hush money case. These communications happened "around the time of the indictment, the arraignment, and after the Court denied President Trump's recusal motion."
Also, Trump tried to sue Justice Arthur Engoron before the start of his civil business fraud hearing, which would last for weeks. A special process called an Article 78 suit can be used to attack New York state government offices and sometimes courts as well. This is what is being used as a tactic.
The public could not see the case, but online records showed that Trump lawyer Todd Blanche was suing New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. The web record says that the related paperwork is locked up for now.
Prior to filing his lawsuit against Merchan, Trump had tried to delay his April 15 trial over the 34-count charge that accuses him of hiding a secret money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels during the last few days of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Attorneys asked an appeals court to delay the trial and question Merchan's latest order that Trump not say anything bad about prosecutors, witnesses, or the families of prosecutors and the judge.
A lawsuit that is basically an appeal comes after Trump's second request last week for the judge to step down from the case. This time, he said that Merchan has a conflict of interest because his daughter works for Authentic Campaigns, a liberal firm that gets paid by strongly anti-Trump clients like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Because of Trump's case, an appellate court judge will probably make a preliminary decision on Monday. This will set up a full five-judge panel to look at Trump's request in the days to come. That means Merchan will have to decide if he wants to stay out of the case while an appeals court looks at the lawsuit and Merchan's gag order.
The New York Times reports that Trump's lawyers will also petition the appeals court on Monday to move the trial outside of Manhattan, saying that the former president can not get a fair trial in the heavily Democratic borough.
With four criminal cases and a total of 88 charges against him, Trump has used social media to vent about a number of people involved in those cases. Because of this, Merchan put a gag order on Trump. More recently, the gag order was expanded to include Merchan's family after Trump accused him of being biased because of the work of his daughter, Loren Merchan.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office wrote in response to Trump's most recent request to recuse Merchan that Trump's actions were similar to some of the times he has tried to delay his criminal trial and remove Merchan in the past.
Legal documents made public on Monday by the prosecutors said that Trump's request was "nothing more than his latest attempt to delay the forthcoming trial."
The attorneys wrote, "The motion is yet another last-ditch attempt to deal with defendant's real goal, which is — as the Court has already recognized — to delay this proceeding indefinitely."
Merchan turned down Trump's first request to recuse himself last year, citing his daughter's job and the $35 the judge gave to the Biden campaign and two left-leaning groups during the 2020 election cycle. The judge said he followed the advice of a state ethics body, which told him he did not have to step down.
Schiff was named in Trump's most recent recusal motion as having "at least six Authentic clients" who asked for donations through electronic communications that mentioned the hush money case. These communications happened "around the time of the indictment, the arraignment, and after the Court denied President Trump's recusal motion."
Also, Trump tried to sue Justice Arthur Engoron before the start of his civil business fraud hearing, which would last for weeks. A special process called an Article 78 suit can be used to attack New York state government offices and sometimes courts as well. This is what is being used as a tactic.
