NEW YORK — Donald Trump — with his “prolific history” of “baselessly” questioning the ethics of judges he doesn’t like — shouldn’t get to dictate who presides over the Stormy Daniels hush money case, Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, opposing the former president’s demand to force the judge on the hush money case to recuse himself, said entertaining the effort would signal that all defendants can shop for judges.
Bragg’s office referenced some of Trump’s most notorious attacks on authorities, including a judge who he said was “totally biased” against him because of his “Mexican heritage” during a 2016 class-action lawsuit against the since-defunct Trump University. He’s called Manhattan Supreme Court judge Arthur Engoron, who presided over New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case against the Trump Organization, a “Trump Hating Judge,” and the AG, who is Black, a “racist.”
“Defendant’s long history of targeting judges with unfounded allegations of bias makes clear that this motion is based on tactics, not ethics,’” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo wrote.
The prosecutor added in a footnote that there’s no reason to believe Trump would stop jamming up the case with legal acrobats until he’s “assigned a judge he likes.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies alleging he falsified business records to conceal the nature of payments to his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen during his first year in the White House. Trump designated the checks as legal fees, but Bragg says he was actually reimbursing Cohen for paying off Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election to silence the porn star about an extramarital tryst and secure the win, violating election laws.
The Republican frontrunner’s lawyers have accused Judge Juan Merchan — assigned to preside over the March trial — of being a Democratic operative. Trump derided the judge and his relatives on national television in April after pleading not guilty to the charges, resulting in death threats.
Trump’s lawyers say a $15 donation Merchan made to the Biden campaign and two more to organizations promoting voter turnout, totaling $20, are evidence of a conflict. State rules on judicial conduct prohibit New York judges from making political contributions. However, an ethics panel recently found that modest donations don’t reasonably question a judge’s bias.
Trump has further argued that Merchan’s daughter will profit from his downfall at her job at Authentic Campaigns, a political firm that primarily represents Democrats. Bragg’s campaign for DA briefly considered retaining the firm last fall but, in the end, decided not to, according to Tuesday’s filings.
Trump’s argument “is premised on nothing more than his guess that ‘negative rulings’ or a ‘conviction’ here may affect national politics in a way that might in turn affect (Merchan’s) daughter’s work in the same field,” Colangelo wrote, adding that judges routinely preside over cases affecting industries with which they have a connection.
Of the donations, Colangelo said “well-settled principle” makes clear a judge’s political leanings are not disqualifying.
The judge presiding over Trump’s Florida case for taking classified documents from the White House, Aileen Cannon, has donated to Republican candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Cannon has been pressured to recuse herself for previously issuing highly controversial rulings in Trump’s favor that caused the conservative appeals court that reversed them to question her understanding of the law. Trump hasn’t tried to remove her from the case, in which he admits to the conduct but denies it was a crime.
Along with who presides over his case, Trump is trying to control where it’s heard. He has insisted that Manhattan federal court Judge Alvin Hellerstein halt the case from proceeding in the state courts in Manhattan, which would force Bragg’s prosecutors to alter it for a federal court battle.
Also Tuesday, Bragg’s office asked Merchan to deny Trump’s efforts to block subpoenas demanding evidence in E. Jean Carroll’s sex abuse litigation and records from the Trump Organization.
Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger argued the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape where Trump boasts of being able to molest women, which he addressed in his deposition played at Carroll’s trial, features prominently in the DA’s case, as do his reactions to sex crimes allegations.
Trump is also trying to stop the DA from subpoenaing Trump Organization records, including active non-disclosure with high-level staffers employed when the alleged scheme occurred.
Trump’s lawyer did not return requests for comment.
