Judge denies Trump's bid to adjourn hush money case due to pretrial publicity
Three days before the start of Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, the judge in the case on Friday denied the former president's request to adjourn the case because of overwhelming pretrial publicity.
"'The situation Defendant finds himself in now is not new to him and is at least in part, of his own doing," Judge Juan Merchan wrote in a four-page order.
"The remedy that Defendant seeks is an indefinite adjournment. This is not tenable," the judge wrote.
Merchan said any concerns about a potential juror's exposure to news about the case can be remedied by a robust jury selection process.
"Defendant appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality," Merchan wrote.
Trump's lawyers separately on Friday asked for a slight modification to the jury selection process so they can have broader leeway in asking about political bias. They also want to know how many potential jurors say they cannot be fair or impartial to Trump.
"These figures are extremely significant to assessing the constitutional and statutory adequacy of the jury selection process," defense attorneys wrote.
Trump's attorneys have been trying to move the case out of Manhattan to a county where they say fewer potential jurors would have an anti-Trump bent.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election.
Jury selection for the trial is scheduled to get underway Monday in New York City. The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
