Donald Trump’s request to have his future hush money trial held in a different location has been refused by an appeals court in New York.
On Monday, the former president’s lawyers asked the court to put off the trial so it could decide whether to move it somewhere else. They claimed that Trump would not be able to find a fair jury in New York.
However, following Monday’s arguments, Associate Justice Lizbeth González swiftly rejected the motion to halt the trial, and there is now no debate on the move to switch the trial’s location.
A week before Trump’s trial is scheduled to start, his attorneys had earlier in the day filed the motion in the state appellate court.
On February 15, in New York City, former President Donald Trump attends a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court.
Additionally, Trump’s legal team said that they will be submitting a petition to challenge Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order, which prevents Trump from publicly addressing witnesses in the impending trial as well as the district attorney’s office personnel and family. Monday was not spent debating it.
During the appeals court hearing on Monday, Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, reiterated a poll and media analysis that were included in the former president’s last plea to Merchan for a postponement due to pretrial publicity. That motion is still pending before the judge.
“This case stands alone in terms of pretrial publicity in this county,” Bove stated.
Reiterating his request that the trial be postponed until their request for a change of venue is processed, Trump’s counsel stated that jury selection in Manhattan’s New York County cannot take place fairly next week due to their investigation.
Chief of Appeals for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Steven Wu contended that it was too late for Trump’s attorneys to file this appeal so close to the commencement of the trial. If it seems that they won’t be able to seat a fair jury from New York County during the jury selection process, he stated that Trump should properly resubmit his request for a change of venue.
Wu stated that the real concern was whether jury selection could pick 12 unbiased jurors and alternates, not what Trump’s poll indicated.
Throughout this case, the defendant has maintained that publicity is inherently biased. Wu stated, “The facts do not support this. Wu claimed that the articles summarize the claims and provide “even-handed coverage” of the case for the most part. Such a case, he contended, garners international attention.
Wu contended that nothing in Trump’s papers implies that New Yorkers in the area are inherently incapable of being fair or that the county is unusually overexposed to media attention.
Wu stated, “The fact that jurors are aware of this case does not imply bias.” “The defendant enters this dispute with a dirty hand, as the majority of the attention is largely due to him.”
On Monday, the hush money trial jury questionnaire was also made public. A variety of questions will be posed to potential jurors, such as where in the city they dwell, how they obtain their news, if they have ever attended a pro-forma protest, and whether they have ever been associated with organizations such as the Proud Boys or the QAnon movement.
In addition to being questioned about their opinions of Trump, potential jurors will be asked if they or anybody in their social circle has ever attended a Trump rally, worked or volunteered for a Trump campaign or administration, or any other political organization connected to Trump. They will also be questioned about any past involvement in anti-Trump organizations or activities. However, they won’t be specifically questioned about their political affiliation, voting records, or political contributions.
Jurors will be questioned about their news consumption as well as whether they have ever read or listened to any books or podcasts by former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who also authored a book on this case, or Michael Cohen, the former attorney for Trump and a key witness in the case against him.
The hush money trial’s jury selection is scheduled to start on April 15.
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