NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A New York appeals court judge has rejected former President Donald Trump鈥檚 request to delay his April 15 hush money criminal trial while he fights to move the case out of Manhattan.
The decision came Monday, a week before jury selection was set to start.
Trump's lawyers had argued at an emergency hearing that the trial should be postponed while they seek a change of venue to move it out of heavily Democratic Manhattan.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP鈥檚 earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Donald Trump asked a New York appeals court on Monday to move out of Manhattan and reverse his gag order in an eleventh-hour bid for a delay just a week before the scheduled start.
At an emergency hearing, the former president鈥檚 lawyers asked a judge in the state's mid-level appeals court to postpone the April 15 trial while they fight for a change of venue. The court signaled it would take up the gag order issue separately at a later date.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued that the presumptive Republican nominee faces 鈥渞eal potential prejudice鈥� as a defendant in heavily Democratic Manhattan. Citing defense surveys and a review of media coverage, Bove argued that jury selection, scheduled to start next Monday, 鈥渃annot proceed in a fair manner.鈥�
Trump has suggested on social media that the trial should be moved to Staten Island, the only New York City borough he won in 2016 and 2020.
Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney's office, said trial Judge Juan M. Merchan had already rejected Trump's requests to move or delay the trial as untimely.
鈥淭he question in this case is not whether a random poll of New Yorkers from whatever neighborhood are able to be impartial, it鈥檚 about whether a trial court is able to select a jury of 12 impartial jurors,鈥� Wu said. He blamed Trump for stoking pretrial publicity with "countless media appearances talking about the facts of this case, the witnesses, and so on.鈥�
Justice Lizbeth Gonz谩lez noted that Monday's hearing didn't involve an appeal, per se, but the defense's desire for an emergency stay 鈥� a court order that would prevent the trial from starting on time. She said she would review related court filings and issue a decision 鈥渁t some point.鈥�
Paperwork relating to Trump's appeals were placed under seal and not publicly available.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that along with challenging the location of his trial, Trump is also fighting a gag order, which Merchan recently expanded to prohibit Trump from making comments about the judge鈥檚 family. The person was unauthorized to speak publicly and did so on the condition of anonymity.
Trump had pledged to appeal after ruled last month that the trial would begin April 15. His lawyers had pleaded to delay the trial at least until summer to give them more time to review late-arriving evidence from a prior federal investigation into the matter.
Merchan, who had already moved the trial from because of the evidence issue, said no further delays were warranted.
Trump's lawyers filed their appeals Monday on two separate court dockets. One was styled as a lawsuit against Merchan, a legal mechanism allowing them to challenge his rulings.
In New York, judges can be sued over some judicial decisions under a state law known as Article 78. Trump has used the tactic before, including against the judge in his civil fraud case in an unsuccessful last-minute bid to delay that case last fall.
Trump鈥檚 hush money trial is and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.
Trump is accused of falsifying his company鈥檚 records to hide the nature of payments to , who helped him bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen鈥檚 activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Trump last year to of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.
Trump's move Monday is the latest escalation in his battles with Merchan.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee assailed on social media after he imposed a gag order last month barring Trump from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected the case. After Trump's complaints, Merchan expanded the gag order to include members of his own family.
Last week, Trump renewed his request for the judge to step aside from the case, citing Merchan's daughter's work as the head of a firm whose clients have included his rival President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.
The former president alleges the judge is biased against him and has a conflict of interest because of his daughter鈥檚 work. The judge rejected a similar request last August.
Trump has also made numerous other attempts to get the trial postponed, echoing a strategy he's deployed in his other criminal cases. 鈥淲e want delays,鈥� Trump proclaimed to TV cameras outside a February pretrial hearing in his hush money case.
Merchan last week rejected his request to he raised in another of his criminal cases.
Trump also against the judge in his New York civil fraud case, accusing the jurist of repeatedly abusing his authority. Among other issues, Trump鈥檚 lawyers in that case complained that Judge Arthur Engoron had refused their request to delay the trial. Their suit was filed about three weeks before the trial was slated to begin.
A state appeals court , and the trial started as scheduled Oct. 2.
During the civil trial, Trump sued Engoron again, this time over he鈥檇 issued after Trump smeared the judge鈥檚 principal law clerk in a social media post. The gag order barred parties in the case 鈥� and, later, 鈥� from commenting publicly on court staffers, though not on the judge himself.
A sole , but a four-judge appellate panel ultimately two weeks later. The panel said Trump鈥檚 lawyers should have followed a normal appeals process instead of suing the judge. Trump鈥檚 attorneys said they had been trying to move quickly.
Engoron, who decided that case without a jury, by overstating his wealth in documents used to get loans and coverage. Trump denied any wrongdoing and the finding and over $454 million in penalties and interest.
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Associated Press reporter Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
Michael R. Sisak And Jake Offenhartz, The Associated Press
