Judge Rejects Donald Trump's Latest Attempt To Delay Hush Money Trial

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected the latest bid by former President Donald Trump to delay his hush money criminal trial, a week before jury selection was set to start.

Trump’s lawyers had wanted the trial postponed indefinitely while he fights a gag order that bars him from commenting about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush money case.

Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling is yet another loss for Trump, who has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed.

Barring further action, the decision means the first of Trump’s four criminal trials will start as scheduled on April 15.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he falsified business records to hide the true nature of payments made in connection with a scheme to suppress damaging stories about him during his 2016 presidential campaign.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers asked a New York appeals court Tuesday to delay his hush-money criminal trial while they fight to lift the former president’s gag order, just days before the trial is scheduled to start. It’s his latest attempt to get the trial postponed.

Trump’s lawyers argue that banning him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the case is an unconstitutional prior restraint on his free speech rights while he’s campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.

“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing Tuesday in the state’s mid-level appeals court.

Bove argued that Trump shouldn’t be muzzled while critics, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and