Bragg claims Trump is attempting to indefinitely postpone New York trial

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg rejected Donald Trump’s request that a judge delay the former president’s hush money trial in New York on the grounds that it had attracted too much publicity, according to a court filing made public Wednesday.

Prosecutors from Bragg’s office accused Trump of strategizing to indefinitely delay the trial, which is scheduled to begin with jury selection on April 15.

“Defendant appears to acknowledge that there is no end in sight to public coverage of this criminal proceeding, laying bare his strategy of obtaining an open-ended delay of the trial,” they wrote.

Trump’s defense attorneys had asked in a court filing last month for Judge Juan Merchan to delay the trial because of “exceptionally prejudicial pretrial publicity, which is substantial, ongoing, and likely to increase.”

The request was Trump’s eighth attempt to convince Merchan to delay the trial, prosecutors said.

The defense attorneys did not specify how long of a delay they were seeking, only stating that the trial should be adjourned until “prejudicial press coverage abates.”

They argued Trump’s right to a fair trial was in jeopardy because the court would not be able to establish an impartial bench of jurors. They cited a survey of 400 New Yorkers that showed most respondents had been exposed to “huge amounts of biased and unfair media coverage relating to this case.”

Prosecutors argued that they had “doubts about the reliability of the survey” and that “publicity is unlikely to recede.” They said that the process of jury selection inherently would result in an impartial jury.

“Defendant’s request for an adjournment is based on the fundamentally flawed premise that any amount of pretrial publicity irreparably taints the jury pool,” the prosecutors wrote. “That argument flouts bedrock law that expressly holds otherwise. Pretrial publicity, even when pervasive and adverse, ‘does not inevitably lead to an unfair trial.’”

Lastly, the prosecutors blamed Trump for some of the public attention on the case.

“Defendant’s own incessant rhetoric is generating significant publicity, and it would be perverse to reward defendant with an adjournment based on media attention he is actively seeking,” the prosecutors wrote.

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Bragg’s filing was made public on the same day that Merchan denied Trump’s bid to delay his trial on presidential immunity grounds. The judge said he denied that request because it had not been filed in a timely manner.

Trump’s trial will focus on allegations brought by Bragg that the former president falsified financial records after the 2016 election to conceal hush money payments he made to a porn star. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.