A New York appeals court judge rejected former President Trump’s attempt to delay the trial in the hush money payments case on Tuesday.
Justice Cynthia Kern issued the ruling, rejecting claims from Trump’s legal team that the trial should be delayed until a full panel of judges could hear arguments relating to a gag order on the former president. The trial is still set to begin April 15.
“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued at the hearing on Tuesday.
Bove went on to argue that Trump should not face a gag order when two star witnesses for the prosecution–porn star Stormy Daniels and former lawyer Michael Cohen–routinely criticize him in public.
Trump’s gag order, imposed by trial judge Juan Merchan, prevents him from speaking about jurors, witnesses and others in the trial.
Merchan agreed to impose the gag after prosecutors with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg argued that Trump has a “long history of making public and inflammatory remarks” in court.
Trump and his attorneys filed a motion requesting Merchan be recused from the trial altogether, due to his daughter’s Democrat-affiliated political work and his alleged “hostility” against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
In response, Merchan then order last week to include prohibiting Trump from speaking about members of his own family.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments he made to Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Bragg alleges that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Fox News Brooke Singman contributed to this report
