Manhattan DIstrict Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is contesting former President Donald Trump’s request that his hush money trial be delayed due to “prejudicial pretrial publicity.”
In a court filing made public Wednesday, prosecutors argue that Mr. Trump only has himself to blame for the media coverage.
“Defendant’s own incessant rhetoric is generating significant publicity, and it would be perverse to reward defendant with an adjournment based on media attention he is actively seeking,” the filing said.
Mr. Trump “simply cannot have it both ways: complaining about the prejudicial effect of pretrial publicity, while seeking to pollute the jury pool himself by making baseless and inflammatory accusations about this trial, specific witnesses, individual prosecutors, and the Court itself,” prosecutors said.
The former president’s hush money trial is set to begin April 15, and having been postponed once from its original March date. The filing noted that this was Mr. Trump’s eighth request to have the start of the trial moved.
Mr. Trump last week renewed his request for the trial to be delayed again because of pretrial publicity.
“The prejudicial pretrial publicity driven by the People and their witnesses has placed President Trump’s constitutional right to a fair trial at stake,” Todd Blanche, Mr. Trump’s attorney, wrote in a motion. “No fair and impartial jury can be selected in this county at any time in the near future, including in April of this year. Therefore, the Court should adjourn the trial date until the prejudicial media coverage subside.”
The filing from the DA’s office said Mr. Trump’s motion was “littered” with “untrue allegations.” Prosecutors argue that Mr. Trump has not proved that the pretrial media coverage is “sufficiently prejudicial” or that the coverage of the case will change anytime soon.
They have also not proven that the jury pool is tainted, prosecutors say.
Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan issued a gag order last week barring Mr. Trump from making public statements about possible witnesses in the case and staff. He expanded the gag order to stop the former president from making comments about his daughter, Loren Merchan, a Democratic political consultant, and about Mr. Bragg’s family.
Mr. Trump has bashed the judge, his daughter, the case and the gag order on his Truth Social account. He has called on Judge Merchan to recuse himself in posts on the social media platform.
“This pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose,” Judge Merchan wrote. “It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings that not only they, but their family members as well, are ‘fair game,’ for Defendant’s vitriol.”