A US judge thwarts Trump’s attempt to remove him from ‘buying silence’ case

A US judge thwarts Trump’s attempt to remove him from ‘buying silence’ case
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December 2, 1446 AH
August 16, 2024 AD
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A New York judge has refused for a third time to recuse himself from Donald Trump’s conviction for paying off a porn actress whose daughter works for a political consultancy, rejecting the former US president’s argument that there was a conflict of interest with the actress.
In a ruling issued on Wednesday, Judge Juan Merchand repeated what he did last April and August, rejecting a request by Trump’s lawyers to recuse themselves from the first case that includes criminal charges against the former U.S. president. Merchand plans to issue his ruling against Trump on September 18, Reuters reported.

Merchan wrote in his August 13 ruling: "The defendant has not raised anything new for the court to consider. Counsel has merely repeated arguments that have already been rejected by this court and higher courts." That is "Full of fallacies and unfounded claims".

A jury convicted Trump on May 30 of 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment from his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in an effort to avoid a sex scandal before the 2016 US election.

Two months later, his lawyers filed a third request for Merschamp’s resignation, arguing that his daughter’s work for a political consulting firm whose clients included Democratic campaigns, including current Vice President Kamla Harris’s failed bid for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, posed a conflict of interest.

Falsifying business records is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison, but fines or probation are more common for others convicted of such crimes.

Trump’s lawyers separately asked the judge to overturn his conviction because of a July U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave former presidents broad immunity from prosecution for official actions taken while in office. Merchan said he would make a decision on Trump’s arguments by Sept. 16.

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