New York appeals judge rejects Trump's third legal challenge to delay hush money criminal trial
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are back in a New York appeals court Wednesday with their third legal challenge involving his impending criminal trial in three days.
A New York appeals court judge on Wednesday denied a third effort in three days by Donald Trump's attorneys to put the former president’s impending criminal trial on hold.
Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York denied Trump's third legal challenge to delay the trial after a pair of state appeals court judges rejected similar efforts by Trump on Monday and Tuesday to pause the hush money trial, which is set to begin Monday with jury selection.
The court docket for the Appellate Division showed Trump’s attorneys filed the challenge as a lawsuit invoking a provision of New York law known as Article 78. Article 78 challenges allow litigants, whether in ongoing litigation or otherwise, to seek relief from allegedly unlawful state or local government action. The documents were filed under seal.
Trump attorney Emil Bove presented a grab bag of arguments for a stay during an emergency hearing Wednesday, including reiterating his stance that the proceedings should be paused while Trump challenges what Bove called the “unacceptable and unconstitutional restrictions” Judge Juan Merchan handed down in a partial gag order last month that was expanded days later.
Bove also argued that Merchan’s ruling last week that rejected his bid to use presidential immunity as part of his defense, which found Trump waited too long to raise the issue, exceeded his authority.
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