The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump’s defense team asked again on April 3, 2024, for New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to step aside from the hush-money case. The filing came in the same criminal case in which Merchan had already issued prior rulings against Trump’s delay and immunity arguments, and it landed with the trial set to begin April 15, 2024. ([nycourts.gov](https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2024/2024_50468.htm))

In the new request, Trump’s lawyers returned to the same basic theme they had pressed before: they said Merchan’s daughter’s political consulting work creates an appearance problem that should disqualify the judge. Merchan rejected the motion that same day, writing that Trump had already had multiple chances to raise related arguments and that the filing was untimely. The court also said it would not revisit the broader immunity theory through that motion. ([nycourts.gov](https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2024/2024_50468.htm))

The April 3 ruling matters because it kept the case on the calendar as the trial clock kept running. The official case page for People v. Donald J. Trump shows the proceeding remained active in state court, and the judge’s order left the April 15 start date intact at that point. ([ww2.nycourts.gov](https://ww2.nycourts.gov/people-v-donald-j-trump-criminal-37026))

This was not the first time Trump’s side had tried to reframe the case through pretrial motions. By the time of the April 3 filing, the court record already reflected months of motion practice, including earlier fights over evidence and adjournment. What changed on April 3 was not the underlying conflict claim, but Trump’s decision to press it again on the eve of trial. ([nycourts.gov](https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2024/2024_50468.htm))