The former president said the judge only allowed him a short period of time to review documents..
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday accused the judge overseeing the “hush-money” case of giving his lawyers a short period of time to review “hundreds of thousands” of documents a day before his New York trial is scheduled to start.
In a post on Truth Social, the former president alleged Judge Juan Merchan is “conflicted” in the case, only giving his team “a short period of time to read and study hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg illegally hid, disguised, and held back from us.”
“Of course, and as the Judge knows, we need far more time than that,” President Trump added. “They could have started this Fake Biden Trial many years ago, not right in the middle of my campaign for President, and time would not be a problem. This is a blatant and unprecedented attack on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent.”
According to court papers, prosecutors under Mr. Bragg said they provided more than 10 million pages of documents to President Trump’s lawyers between May and July of last year, including witness statements, grand jury transcripts, bank records, and other materials.
Earlier this year, President Trump’s lawyers asked for another 90 days to review the documents, but their request was denied by Judge Merchan, who scheduled the jury selection in the trial for Monday, April 15.
Last month, President Trump’s attorneys accused the district attorney’s office of attempting to block their attempts to obtain materials from the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney in the case.
In the past week, Judge Merchan denied several attempts by President Trump’s lawyers to delay the trial, most recently issuing an order Friday to deny the postponement over allegations regarding publicity about the case.
Among other things, President Trump’s lawyers had argued that the jury pool was deluged with what the defense saw as “exceptionally prejudicial” news coverage of the case. The defense maintained that was a reason to hold off the case indefinitely.
Judge Juan M. Merchan wrote that the former president “appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality.”
