Judge Rejects Trump’s Request To Push Back NYC Trial As Supreme Court Reviews Immunity Claims

The judge overseeing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s dubious “hush money” case against former President Donald Trump has rejected Trump’s bid to delay the April 15 trial as the Supreme Court weighs his presidential immunity claims.

Legal experts have repeatedly poked holes in the case against Trump brought forward by Bragg. The Manhattan D.A. used COVID-era policies to expand the statute of limitations on an administrative payment error, which is generally a misdemeanor. Bragg then upgraded the charge to a felony, citing a “conspiracy” to commit another crime. The other crime has never been specified by Bragg.

He then copy/pasted the same charge 33 times, one for each administrative error, and charged the former president with 37 felonies.

Trump had asked the court to push back the April trial date while the Supreme Court reviews his claims of presidential immunity.

On Wednesday, Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan rejected the former president’s request, referring to it as “untimely.”

“This Court finds that Defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024,” Merchan wrote. “Defendant could have done so in his omnibus motions on September 29, 2023, which were filed a mere six days before he briefed the same issue in his Federal Insurrection Matter and several months after he brought his motion for removal to federal court on May 4, 2023.”

It should be noted that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment has nothing to do with “insurrection.”

Merchan noted in his ruling that pre-trial motions are supposed to be filed within 45 days of arraignment. The former president was arraigned in Bragg’s case last April. Merchan also said that the fact that Trump had waited until “a mere 17 days prior to the scheduled trial date of March 25, 2024, to file the motion, raises real questions about the sincerity and actual purpose of the motion.”