The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money case rejected the former president’s request that he step down from it.
(Bloomberg) — The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money case rejected the former president’s request that he step down from it.
Trump “has failed to demonstrate that there exists concrete or even realistic reasons for recusal to be appropriate, much less required on these grounds,” New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said in a decision dated Friday and made public Monday, calling his arguments “speculative and hypothetical.”
Read More: Trump Seeks to Oust Judge From New York Criminal Case
In seeking the recusal, Trump had cited Merchan’s daughter’s work for a Democratic consulting firm with Vice President Kamala Harris as a client, as well as Merchan’s donation of $15 to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Trump is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 race, in which Biden is the presumptive Democratic candidate.
In his ruling, the judge called the donation “de minimis.”
“This court has examined its conscience and is certain in its ability to be fair and impartial,” Merchan wrote.
Trump’s lawyers Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche and Trump’s campaign didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment on the decision.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to $130,000 his former lawyer Michael Cohen paid porn film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she claims she had with the former president a decade earlier. Trump has denied the encounter. Merchan has scheduled the trial to begin March 25.
The indictment, filed in March, marked the first time a current or former US president had been criminally indicted and has since been followed by two others. Trump denies wrongdoing in all the cases and says they are part of a political effort to derail his candidacy.
The case is New York v. Trump, 1543-23, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan).
(Adds requests for comment in sixth paragraph.)
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