Justice Lizbeth González of the state Appellate Division issued the ruling after attorneys for the former president argued the trial needed to be halted because “an impartial jury cannot be selected right now based on prejudicial pretrial publicity.” González rejected the request in a one-line ruling late Monday afternoon with no explanation.
Trump’s attorneys had filed the eleventh-hour motion in an attempt to delay a trial that centers on charges that Trump falsified business records related to hush money payments. The long-shot legal maneuver came exactly one week before the first criminal trial of a former president is scheduled to start.
González’s ruling affects only Trump’s request for a delay, not his underlying change-of-venue motion. Trump’s attorneys are also fighting the partial gag order that Judge Juan Merchan handed down against him last month, which the appeals court is expected to hear Tuesday.
Trump attorney Emil Bove argued at the hearing on the venue challenge Monday afternoon that the gag order is unconstitutional and that jury selection can’t proceed in a fair manner because of all the publicity surrounding the case.
Steven Wu of the district attorney’s office countered that the publicity isn’t confined to Manhattan, arguing it’s worldwide, in part because of Trump’s frequent commentary about the case. He suggested Trump was “trying to have it both ways” by complaining about the publicity while stoking it.
Trump’s attorneys filed the challenge as a lawsuit invoking a provision of New York law known as Article 78. An Article 78 challenge allows litigants, whether in ongoing litigation or otherwise, to seek relief from allegedly unlawful state or local government action.
Trump tried a similar move before the same appeals court last year, when he challenged a partial gag order issued by Judge Arthur Engoron in the civil fraud case brought against him and his company by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The appeals court refused Trump’s request to stay the case while he appealed the order, and it eventually ruled against him. In the ruling, it chided his attorneys for having brought the challenge as an Article 78 petition, calling it an “extraordinary remedy” that wasn’t warranted in that situation.
In a statement Monday night, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said, “President Trump and his legal team will continue fighting against this Biden Trial and all of the other Witch Hunts.”
While Trump hasn’t formally asked Merchan for a change of venue, his lawyers contended in a court filing last month seeking to delay the trial because of pretrial publicity that New York County — Manhattan — is “overwhelmingly biased against President Trump.” The filing noted in part that the county voted “overwhelmingly” for other candidates in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
The DA’s office responded in a filing that “given the sheer size of New York County, it is absurd for defendant to assert that it will be impossible or even impractical to find a dozen fair and impartial jurors, plus alternates, among more than a million people.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com