'Man, that's desperate': Experts blast Trump's latest 'frivolous tactic' to avoid trial
April 08, 2024
Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against Judge Juan Merchan Monday to challenge a gag order that blocks him from attacking family members of court staff in the soon-to-start hush money trial — including the judge's own daughter, The New York Times reported Monday.
Consequences of breaking the order include being held in criminal contempt of court, which could result in a large fine or short jail sentence.
Legal analyst and former prosecutor Joyce Vance called Trump's move "desperate."
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"This is a borderline frivolous tactic that reveals how frightened he is of going to trial," she posted on X.
Allison Gill, who co-hosts the "Jack" podcast, agreed. "It won’t work. But man, that’s desperate," she said.
So did former prosecutor Harry Litman, and he related it to the former president's classified documents case.
"Trump's latest desperate move of personally suing Merchan in the appellate division is reminiscent of his initial gambit in Palm Beach, where [J]udge Cannon permitted him to take the whole action off track. But won't happen here. Imagine if a criminal defendant could do this," said Litman.
"Before you ask, no, you can't recuse a judge because of dumb stuff you do to the judge," explained defense lawyer Andrew Fleischman.
Merchan initially put a gag order in place to stop Trump talking about witnesses, jurors and court staff in the case involving alleged hush money payments made to an adult movie star to hide an affair she had with Trump.
He extended it to cover family members after Trump made multiple posts attacking Merchan's daughter, who works at a political consultancy firm with several Democratic Party candidates. Trump has said her political connections mean the judge should be recused.
Filmmaker and activist Melissa Peltier asked, "Does it mean Americans can class-action sue Aileen Cannon? For being incompetent & biased?" Civil rights attorney Andrew Laufer retweeted the comment.
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"Note: Judge Merchan has not yet ruled on Trump's pending motion to recuse," said MSNBC host and legal correspondent Katie Phang.
MSNBC host Yasmin Vossoughian invited legal analyst Lisa Rubin to describe the new filing as they are not publicly available.
"The former president has filed what's called an Article 78 proceeding. That's a special form of appeal to challenge governmental action by a state or local actor" Rubin explained. "Here, the governmental actor would be Judge Juan Merchan himself. And the things they are challenging is the existence of the gag order and its breadth as well as the venue of the trial, meaning where it's taking place."
Trump claims that he can't get a fair trial in Manhattan but does think he can get one in Richmond County, which is Staten Island and is the most Republican-friendly borough of New York City.
Jury selection is set to begin on April 15, and while the lawsuit may be an attempt to delay his trial, Rubin doesn't think it will.
"It's because we've seen this movie or a variant of it before," she said. "In the civil fraud trial Trump also filed an Article 78 proceeding against the gag order issued by that judge, Judge Arthur Engoron. He did not succeed with that. He got the gag order stayed for two weeks, meaning paused for two weeks. But the trial was already ongoing.
"It continued and was never interrupted by that appeal. Ultimately, the First Department of the Appellate Division, that is, the appeals court over Judge Merchan and Judge Engoron, denied the appeal. So, I think on the basis of those experiences. I don't think it's likely to succeed here."
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