One week before Donald J. Trump is set to face a criminal trial in Manhattan, an appeals court judge on Monday rejected his effort to pause the case and move it to a different location.
For weeks, Mr. Trump has sought to delay the trial, the first prosecution of a former U.S. president, and possibly the only one of Mr. Trump’s four criminal cases to make it to trial this year.
Mr. Trump’s attempt to move the case out of Manhattan was not the only delay strategy he deployed on Monday.
In a separate proceeding, he indicated that he planned to file an unusual type of lawsuit against the judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan.
Two people with knowledge of the matter said that Mr. Trump’s lawyers on Monday had planned to file the action calling on the appeals court to overturn a gag order that Justice Merchan recently imposed on the former president.
The order prevents Mr. Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and the judge’s own family.
Court records showed on Monday that Mr. Trump had begun the process of filing the action against Justice Merchan, though the papers were not immediately made public.
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A week prior to Donald J. Trump’s attempt to put the case on hold and relocate it to a different location was denied by an appeals court judge on Monday, meaning that he will now stand trial for crimes in Manhattan.
Following arguments from attorneys for Mr. Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has charged the former president of fabricating documents to conceal a sex scandal, the judge, Lizbeth Gonzalez, rendered her decision on Monday afternoon.
The trial, the first prosecution of a former U.S. official, has been pushed for weeks by Mr. Trump. s. chief executive, and conceivably the sole one of Mr. Trump’s four criminal cases to proceed to trial this year.
Dear Mr. Trump used a number of different delay tactics on Monday in addition to his attempt to relocate the case outside of Manhattan. He announced in a different proceeding that he intended to bring an uncommon kind of action against the case’s judge, Juan M. Merchan.
According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Mr. Trump’s attorneys intended to file the action on Monday, requesting that the appeals court reverse the gag order that the former president was recently subjected to by Justice Merchan. Mr. Trump is prohibited by the order from disparaging witnesses, prosecutors, or the judge’s own relatives.
Although the documents were not immediately made public, court records from Monday indicated that Mr. Trump had started the process of filing the action against Justice Merchan.
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