Former President Trump on Friday asked a hush money judge to recuse him from an upcoming trial in less than two weeks over his daughter’s company’s digital marketing efforts for prominent Democrats.
Last summer, Judge Juan Mercian denied an earlier motion to dismiss that also mentioned the daughter’s employment.
Mr. Trump’s second attempt came after Mr. Marchan restricted Mr. Trump’s public statements about issues such as the daughter of a judge. The justices are also increasingly perturbed by Trump’s last-minute tactics to avoid the April 15 start date for what would be the former president’s first criminal trial.
Trump’s lawyers claim that Marchand’s daughter Lauren has a “direct financial interest” in the former president’s case and that her firm, progressive digital agency Authentic, has clients 2 People pointed out that President Biden and Vice President Harris.
“A person’s political views may not be a basis for refusal, but they certainly benefit from advancing a political agenda hostile to President Trump, including solicitations to raise money based on this lawsuit.” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emile Bove wrote in a 37-page motion. “Therefore, President Trump respectfully requests that the court recuse itself.”
In his role overseeing the case, Marchan has exercised “enormous powers” to “imprison and incapacitate” Trump, who is a “major political opponent” to several of Authentic’s clients, and refused to do so. Lawyers argued that there was a conflict of interest requiring
In less than two weeks, a jury will be selected to decide whether President Trump falsified business records to criminally cover up a 2016 hush-money payment to a porn actress who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with him. is scheduled to begin. Trump denies having an affair and maintains his innocence.
Lawyers for the former president say their clients, like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who is running to represent California in the Senate, are apparently using digital marketing to raise money from President Trump’s legal problems. He pointed out that he used such wording.
They cited a fundraising appeal from Schiff’s campaign that read, “The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has indicted Donald Trump on criminal offenses, the first indictment of a former American president.”
The motion pointed to similar fundraising tactics by the Senate Majority PAC and the House Majority PAC.
Marchan last year rejected Trump’s original motion to dismiss, citing his daughter’s employment and a $35 donation the judge made to the Biden campaign and two liberal groups during the 2020 campaign.
The judge said he received guidance from the state Ethics Advisory Board that he did not need to resign.
On Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) office said there were “no changes in circumstances” sufficient to reconsider Marchand’s refusal.
The Hill has reached out to the District Attorney’s Office for comment.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers argue that even if a court decides that the law does not require a repudiation, a repudiation is still appropriate based on “the appearance of impropriety arising from the foregoing facts.”
Updated at 4:30 p.m.
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