With now merely weeks until the expected start of trial, New York Judge Juan Merchan has denied a motion by ex-President Donald Trump in his New York City criminal case to undo controls recently imposed on the filing of motions in the case.
Specifically, Merchan demanded that forthcoming motions come with a pre-motion letter outlining the basics of the push. Trump’s legal team cried foul, alleging a violation of the ex-president’s right to a fair trial with the implication that the judge allegedly might start unduly restricting what was filed.
“The Court’s measure was indeed intended to assist with the management of its docket as well as to efficiently manage the case at bar. In this regard, the Court also wanted to ensure that both parties (and the Court) would have the time to prepare for trial while at the same time, providing the necessary time for the parties to fully flesh out potentially valid motions they intend to file. Further, the Court’s measure would allow this Court to judiciously expend a valuable resource – time – to properly consider, analyze and rule on those motions that were filed,” Merchan wrote in his Tuesday rejection.
The case saw an in-person hearing on Monday, with Merchan teeing up the trial to start in the middle of next month after all following a delay from its originally scheduled start of this week. The delay was spurred by a comparatively late release of evidentiary materials by a federal prosecutor’s office, which Trump’s team tried to use in arguments for either a more extensive delay or setting aside the case altogether. Merchan rejected the idea that local prosecutors mishandled their end of the discovery process, meaning the routine, pre-trial procedures in which potential evidence is shared. He criticized a lawyer for Trump for, as the judge characterized it, failing to present supporting evidence from legal precedent for key arguments of theirs.
