Trump files another appeal to delay hush money trial days before jury selection begins

Donald Trump’s lawyers have filed another appeal in their failed last-ditch efforts to stall an imminent criminal trial in New York, where the former president faces 34 charges connected to a hush money scheme to bury compromising stories of his alleged affairs.

State appeals court judges have already shot down two of his attempts this week. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on 15 April.

His latest appeal, reportedly viewed by CNN before the two-page filing was sealed on the public docket on Wednesday, challenges New York Justice Juan Merchan’s refusal to hear Mr Trump’s argument that “presidential immunity” shields his “official acts” from prosecution.

Mr Trump’s attorneys also are challenging the judge’s “refusal” to recuse himself from the trial.

Attorneys have asked for an appeals court to hold a hearing on 6 May. The filing does not request an emergency hearing for a delay, but the move from Mr Trump’s legal team marks yet another attempt to derail the case as it heads to his first-ever criminal trial.

The filing on Wednesday follows rejections from state appeals court judges who shot down two attempts to delay the trial while he argues to move the case out of Manhattan and as he challenges a gag order that bars him from publicly attacking court staff and their families.

Last month, Mr Trump’s attorneys pressed Judge Merchan to take the trial off the calendar until the US Supreme Court decides whether the former president can claim “immunity” from prosecution in a separate case surrounding his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The nation’s highest court is not scheduled to hear that case until 25 April, the final day for oral arguments in this year’s session, and one week after the New York trial is scheduled to begin.

A ruling from the Supreme Court is likely to follow several weeks later. A federal judge and appeals court have already shot down his attempts to evade criminal prosecution using an “immunity” defence.

Mr Trump’s attorneys claim that statements Mr Trump made on Twitter and to news networks about his former attorney Michael Cohen in 2018 “implicate the concept of official acts for purposes of presidential immunity,” but the filing does not address the alleged repayment scheme that is central to the case – which took place months before Mr Trump entered the White House.

The trial is expected to rely on testimony from Cohen, who arranged a scheme to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels for her silence in the days before the 2016 election, according to prosecutors.

Following Mr Trump’s election victory, then-President Trump reimbursed his lawyer, who is expected to say in the upcoming trial that Mr Trump authorised his business to falsely file the payments as legal expenses.

Mr Trump’s Twitter account was “an official communications channel during his Presidency, to communicate with the public regarding matters of public concern,” according to Mr Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Nechles.

Attorneys asked Judge Merchan to adjourn the trial and schedule a hearing to remove evidence that would be considered “official acts” covered by that alleged immunity. They do not appear to argue that he is immune from the charges themselves.

Earlier this month, Judge Merchan rejected the “untimely” attempt to delay the case on those “immunity” arguments, stating that the former president had “myriad opportunities” to make his case but instead “strategically” waited to do so.

The judge also has declined to recuse himself from the case, against pressure from Mr Trump’s attorneys, who have accused him of an “unacceptable appearance of impropriety” because of his daughter’s political consulting work. The judge wrote in response that “the Court has examined its conscience and is certain in its ability to be fair and impartial.”