Judge rejects Donald Trump’s latest demand to step aside from hush money criminal case

Donald Trump has lost his latest bid to oust the judge in his criminal hush money case — as his possible sentencing date looms next month.

In a ruling posted Wednesday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan ripped the former president for recycling “stale and unsubstantiated” claims that he should step aside because of his daughter’s past consulting work for prominent Democrats.

Merchan had already twice swatted away Trump’s claims that he should recuse himself, and has repeatedly pledged to base his rulings “on the evidence and the law, without fear or favor, casting aside undue influence.”

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But Trump’s lawyers had asked the court to revisit the question for a third time, claiming in a letter last month that the alleged conflict was “even more concrete” because of Vice President Kamala Harris’ new perch as the Democratic nominee opposing Trump in November’s presidential election.

Merchan’s daughter is a minority partner at Authentic Campaigns, a political consulting firm that has represented Trump foes like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead prosecutor in the Republican’s first impeachment trial. The company also did digital marketing work for Harris as she sought the 2020 presidential nomination, but is not repping her in her 2024 run, Federal Election Commission records say.

The independent political activities of a judge’s relative are not “a reasonable basis” to question a judge’s “impartiality,” a state court ethics panel found last year. And despite Authentic client Schiff sending a fundraising email based on Trump’s April 2023 indictment, there’s no evidence that the outcome of the case — as in whether Trump was convicted or acquitted — “could have any effect on the judge’s relative, the relative’s business or any of their interests,” the state’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics wrote.

Blasting Trump’s attorneys for providing “nothing new for this court to consider,” Merchan wrote Wednesday that recusing himself would be “not necessary, much less required.”

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“This court now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear — innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create,” the judge said in his three-page ruling.

A jury of 12 Manhattanites convicted Trump, 78, in May of covering up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels made before the 2016 election as part of an illegal scheme to interfere with the race through “unlawful means” by hiding sex scandals from voters.

Trump faces up to four years in prison on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, but legal experts have told The Post that he’s more likely to get probation or community service.

The sentencing, originally scheduled for July, has been pushed back to Sept. 18, and could be delayed further depending on how Merchan rules on Trump’s separate bid to throw out the conviction based on the US Supreme Court’s June ruling immunizing presidents for “official acts” taken in office. 

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Trump’s lawyers claim the trial was “tainted” by evidence jurors heard from Trump’s time in the White House, including the then-president telling a top aide that he was relieved that Daniels’ account of having sex with him while he was married only came out after the 2016 election.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has responded that the high court’s decision has “no bearing” on the case, in part because Trump covering up the Daniels payoff by lying on his company records from the Oval Office was not an “official” presidential act.

Merchan has said that he will rule on the immunity issue by Sept. 16, and will use Sept. 18 either for “the imposition of sentence or other proceedings as appropriate.”

Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, declined to comment on Wednesday.

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Trump posted a tirade Wednesday morning on Truth Social in which he misspelled the name of the judge, calling him “Judge Merchant,” and incorrectly asserted that Wednesday’s ruling was about his narrow “gag order” in the case, which bars him from speaking about the judge’s family but allows him to bash Merchan and Bragg.

New York appeals courts have rejected Trump’s bid to free himself from the order, which was loosened in June and now allows him to unleash on trial witnesses like Daniels and his former “fixer” Michael Cohen. 

“Judge Merchant just ruled that I, the Republican candidate for President, and leading in the Polls, am still under a Gag Order CONCERNING VERY IMPORTANT THINGS WHICH MUST BE BROUGHT TO LIGHT,” Trump wrote in the social media posts.

“Must get U.S. Supreme Court involved,” Trump added. “New York is trying to steal the Election!”

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The hush money case is one of four criminal prosecutions brought against Trump last year.

One federal case, accusing Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, was dismissed last month. The Justice Department is appealing.

The others — federal and Georgia state cases concerning Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss — are not positioned to go to trial before the November election.

With Post wires.