Donald Trump's lawyers failed on Wednesday to persuade an appeals judge to postpone the former president's New York criminal trial scheduled for next week. Appeals Court Judge Ellen Gesmer rejected Trump's request shortly after it was presented in an emergency session.
It was the third attempt this week by Trump lawyers to delay his trial on charges of falsifying business documents to cover up an affair that allegedly took place a decade before the 2016 election. Trump, the first former president to face criminal charges, has been indicted in three other jurisdictions and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Prosecutors allege that Trump's repayments to Michael Cohen, who made the payment to Stormy Daniels, were illegally documented as legal fees, even though they were made to support Trump's campaign. Trump's lawyer Emil Bove argued in the trial before Gesmer that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan should have recused himself. Merchan rejected a motion for impeachment in August after seeking the opinion of an advisory committee that helped him make his decision.