April 3 (UPI) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asked Judge Juan Merchan to deny Donald Trump’s latest attempt to dismiss the hush-money trial against him in a filing Wednesday.
Trump requested for the eighth time that the trial be adjourned, citing the publicity and media coverage that could prejudice a jury. Bragg said Trump should not be rewarded with an adjournment over the attention he is drawing to the case.
“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,” Bragg wrote in the filing.
Bragg noted that it is Trump’s eighth request for adjournment and that the court rejected another request for adjournment over pretrial publicity in February. He argues the latest request is a transparent delay tactic that the former president cannot believe will work.
Trump’s request cites a poll commissioned by his team and conducted privately to suggest the case’s public attention has prejudiced the jury pool. Braggs said this is the only new information “flagged” in the latest request.
Trump also repeated a complaint about comments Bragg made while campaigning for the district attorney’s office in 2019. The comments have already been considered by the court.
Bragg also commented on Trump’s continued incendiary rhetoric about the case and those involved, even with a gag order in place. Trump has attacked the district attorney, the judge and the judge’s daughter in speeches and social media posts over the past week. He has also held to the claim that the case, like the others against him, amount to election interference.
The gag order was issued against Trump in part over concern that potential witnesses may be threatened and concern over the safety of others involved in the case.
“Defendant 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,” Bragg wrote.
Trump faces 34 counts on charges related to hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He is accused of falsifying records in an attempt to hide the scheme while running for president in 2016. He has pleaded not guilty.
Meanwhile, Trump is slated to be named the Republican nominee for president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
