The Malignant Loser, who's so innocent he's desperately trying to keep the public from seeing how innocent he is, has struck out on his appeal to delay and move his first trial on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide hush money for porn star sex, set for Monday, April 15 (see Tweets, below). But now he has another doomed- to- failure Hail Mary teed up:
With just a week to go, Donald Trump is once again attempting to delay the start of his highly anticipated hush-money trial in New York City. His odds of success are extremely long.
The New York Times reports that Trump intends to file a lawsuit against Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over the case, whom Trump has repeatedly assailed on social media. The filing has not yet been made public, but CNBC reports that Trump’s legal team submitted two motions to an appeals court. In one, they’re asking for a delay in the trial as they seek to have the trial moved outside of Manhattan. In the other, Trump’s attorneys are asking for a stay on a gag order Merchan recently imposed on Trump. Jury selection in the trial is set to begin on Monday, April 15.
Later that day, an appeals-court judge denied Trump’s request for a trial delay, per the Associated Press. The gag order is expected to come before the appeals court on Tuesday. [*] Proceedings were already delayed from its original March 25th date to allow for both sides to review newly submitted documents. [snip]
This is just the latest attempt by Trump to delay the pending trial. Previously, the former president has called for Merchan’s recusal and asked for the trial to be pushed back until the Supreme Court has weighed in on his argument that he has presidential immunity from prosecution. Merchan denied his request to wait for SCOTUS’s ruling and has yet to weigh in on Trump’s recent call for his recusal. The judge previously declined to step down from the case back in August...
He's basically been reduced to throwing the legal version of ketchup against the walls to delay/ derail the trial, and we know why.
DA Alvin Bragg has lined up some potent witnesses for the prosecution, including Malignant Loser former insiders:
To try to prove their criminal hush money case against former President Donald Trump, prosecutors in New York are expected to rely on several witnesses who are or were part of Trump's inner circle, including his longtime assistant, Rhona Graff, his former director of Oval Office operations, Madeleine Westerhout, and longtime trusted aide, Hope Hicks, sources familiar with the case told ABC News.
The sources said prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office are also expected to call Deborah Tarasoff, who worked in the Trump Organization's accounting department, and Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization's former controller, as well as Trump's former attorney and so-called "fixer," Michael Cohen. McConney is also expected to testify in Trump’s defense, sources said...
(Good luck to McConney trying to tap dance to avoid self- incrimination.)
Why is prosecution of this case increasingly important? (Rhetorical question)
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed the first criminal case ever against a former president. Despite criticism that the case was small potatoes, the case is more substantial and more likely to lead to conviction and jail time than coverage has suggested. The 34-count business falsification case may be the only case against former president Donald Trump to reach a verdict before the November election. [snip]
Ordinary New York grand jurors indicted him, and run-of-the-mill trial jurors will determine guilt. As Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a veteran of the Manhattan DA’s office, reminds us, “This jury isn’t going to be forced down his throat. He will have chosen the people in this jury.” With 10 peremptory challenges (to eliminate a juror for virtually any reason) Trump will face his jury’s verdict.
Trump shouldn’t count on engendering sympathy for a conviction. Polling from Research Collaborative on the four Trump trials found, “Three-quarters of voters believe that if found guilty, Trump should serve time in prison, including 97% of Democrats, 80% of independents, and 49% of Republicans.” Another poll from Politico showed, “By a more than 2-1 margin, respondents said that a conviction would make them less likely to support Trump (32 percent) as opposed to more likely (13 percent).” In other words, voters may view a conviction and even incarceration as Trump getting his just deserts. No wonder Trump seems increasingly desperate to avoid trial. (our emphasis)
It appears from all accounts that the Malignant Loser has reached the end of the runway in his increasingly desperate attempts to avoid the humiliation and accountability of a trial, not to mention the peril to his "I- need- to- run- to- stay- out- of- jail" candidacy. Let's get on with it, and let the chips fall where they may.
*UPDATE: Another Malignant Loser appeal shot down --
A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected the latest bid by former President Donald Trump to delay his hush money criminal trial, a week before jury selection was set to start.
Trump’s lawyers had wanted the trial postponed indefinitely while he fights a gag order that bars him from commenting about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush money case.
Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling is yet another loss for Trump, who has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed.
Barring further action, the decision means the first of Trump’s four criminal trials will start as scheduled on April 15.
Loser.
(Photo: object in the rear view mirror is closer than you think / screenshot, WSJ opinion)
