US presidential candidate Donald Trump has once again failed to remove the judge who found him guilty in the hush money trial at the end of May and who now has to decide on the sentence. Trump’s arguments are nothing more than “a repetition of outdated and unfounded claims,” wrote Judge Juan Merchan in a decision he published on Wednesday. Trump’s lawyers wanted to have Merchan declared biased because his daughter has ties to the Democratic Party of Trump’s rival Kamala Harris.
On May 30, a New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of using falsified business documents to conceal a hush money payment made to former porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. The 78-year-old is the first former US president in history to be convicted of a criminal offense.
Trump’s lawyers had previously tried to take action against Judge Merchan. An ethics committee had already found that the allegations were unfounded and that Merchan could continue to handle the case. “The defendant’s motion is again denied,” Merchan wrote.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that Merchan was biased because his daughter had previously been involved in fundraising campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Harris.
The judge had not yet announced Trump’s sentence in the hush money trial because the former US president had requested the annulment of the guilty verdict in another case. The Republican presidential candidate’s lawyers are referring to the decision of the US Supreme Court in early July, which had granted Trump partial immunity from criminal prosecution.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for September 16. Depending on this, Merchan could announce the sentence against Trump on September 18.