President Trump's attorneys have petitioned a judge for a “significant” postponement of his impending criminal hush money trial, contending that he would be unable to receive a fair trial owing to “prejudicial pretrial publicity.” His lawyers assert that it is the media, not Trump himself, responsible for tainting the jury pool.
In their filing, the defense lawyers further alleged that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office employed “strategic leaks” during their prosecution of Trump on charges related to falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment allegedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The filing also accused the DA's office of deliberately scheduling the sentencing of former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg, who recently pleaded guilty to perjury, in proximity to the trial date as a tactic to generate additional news coverage.
In court documents revealed on Wednesday, prosecutors contended that the trial date of April 15 should proceed as scheduled. They highlighted that this marked Trump's eighth attempt to postpone the schedule, which appeared to be part of his broader legal strategy to defer all four of his criminal trials until after the November election.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo stated in his filing that the national attention surrounding the case is unlikely to diminish, particularly given that Trump “deliberately generates press attention himself.”
