Trump rails against Democratic Party connections to judge in N.Y. hush money case

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the New York judge who set the April 15 date for his criminal hush money case suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

He said Judge Juan Merchan should recuse himself because of his family ties to Democratic political campaigns and the trial should be moved from Manhattan to Staten Island.

“Judge Juan Merchan, a very distinguished looking man, is nevertheless a true and certified Trump Hater who suffers from a very serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social. “In other words, he hates me!”

The former president criticized the judge’s daughter, saying she “is a senior executive at a Super Liberal Democrat firm that works for Adam “Shifty” Schiff, the Democrat National Committee, (Dem)Senate Majority PAC, and even Crooked Joe Biden.”

Mr. Trump said Judge Merchan should recuse himself in another Tuesday post, and said the trial should be moved to the more conservative location of Staten Island.

“JUDGE MERCHAN SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF, HE CANNOT GIVE ME A FAIR TRIAL. Likewise, for the sake of fairness, this “Political Opponent” trial should take place in Staten Island, with a new and unbiased judge,” he said.

Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said the hush money trial should “not be allowed” to go on while he runs for president.

“They could have filed more than three years ago - THEY WAITED! THIS IS ANOTHER WITCH HUNT FOR PURPOSES OF ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!” he said. 

The former president faces four criminal trials. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and has tried to postpone the trials.

In the hush money case, Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with payments his former attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. His lawyers have said the payments to Mr. Cohen were legal expenses and not part of a cover-up.

His lawyers tried to delay the hush money trial for 90 days after they unexpectedly received over 100,000 pages of documents from a previous federal investigation to review. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a court filing last week that Judge Merchan’s delay was “more than reasonable amount of time” for Mr. Trump’s team to review the documents, and that no further delay is needed.