The Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is pushing back against former President Trump’s request to postpone his upcoming hush money trial due to potential media bias.
In court documents that were made public on Wednesday, prosecutors have argued that the trial date of April 15 should proceed as scheduled. They pointed out that this is the eighth time that Trump has attempted to postpone the schedule, as part of his overall legal strategy to delay all four of his criminal trials until after the November election.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo stated that the case is unlikely to fade from the national spotlight, attributing the sustained attention to Trump’s deliberate efforts to generate media coverage.
According to the new filing by Colangelo, the defendant cannot have it both ways by complaining about the prejudicial effect of pretrial publicity while also seeking to pollute the jury pool with baseless and inflammatory accusations about the trial, witnesses, prosecutors, and the Court itself.
Last week, Trump once again insisted that the trial should be postponed indefinitely due to the overwhelming media coverage surrounding his hush money case. In less than two weeks, this case is set to become the first criminal trial involving a former president. Trump argues that the extensive media attention is biasing potential jurors and hindering the possibility of a fair trial.
According to a motion made public last week, Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued that it would be impossible to select a fair and impartial jury in the near future, including in April of this year. As a result, Blanche requested that the trial date be adjourned until the prejudicial media coverage subsides.
Blanche also included a media study and polling commissioned by Trump’s team, indicating that a majority of Manhattan residents, who make up Trump’s jury pool, already believe that the former president is guilty.
