特朗普将起诉法官，为避免曼哈顿审判做最后努力
【中美创新时报2024年4月8日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）唐纳德·J·特朗普的律师表示，他们将提起诉讼，要求上诉法院推迟对前总统的首次起诉。此举不太可能成功。《纽约时报》记者Ben Protess、Jonah E. Bromwich 和 William K. Rashbaum对此作了下述报道。
唐纳德·J·特朗普 (Donald J. Trump) 距离曼哈顿因伪造记录掩盖性丑闻的刑事指控而受审还有一周，他已表示计划对负责此案的法官提起诉讼。
该诉讼并未立即公开，但周一的法庭记录显示，特朗普正在对法官胡安·M·默昌 (Juan M. Merchan) 提起诉讼，试图在第 11 小时内推迟此案。 特朗普提交诉讼的在线法庭记录显示，相关文件已被密封。
两名知情人士表示，特朗普的律师计划于周一提起诉讼，呼吁上诉法院推迟审判，并对默钱法官最近对前总统下达的禁言令提出质疑。该命令禁止特朗普攻击证人、检察官和法官本人的家人。
特朗普的非正统举动——本质上是以诉讼的形式提出上诉——不太可能成功，尤其是在如此接近审判的情况下。
上诉法院可能会迅速采取行动驳回该请求。一名上诉法院法官很可能会在周一做出初步裁决，成立一个由五名法官组成的完整小组，在未来几天内考虑特朗普的请求。
在周一向上诉法院提交的另一份文件中，预计特朗普将要求法院将审判移至曼哈顿以外的地方。这一请求反映出他在这个坚定的民主党行政区极不受欢迎。
特朗普的律师曾多次尝试推迟审判，但这是他们在上诉法院的第一次尝试。这位前总统再次成为共和党总统候选人，他的目标是在选举日之后处理所有四起刑事案件。如果他获胜，案件可能会陷入停顿。
曼哈顿案是对美国前总统的首次起诉，也可能是特朗普今年唯一进入审判阶段的刑事案件，而这一最新努力是在特朗普先生单独呼吁梅尔钱法官回避之际做出的。
特朗普和他的律师辩称，法官存在利益冲突，并援引了他女儿在一家民主党咨询公司的职位，该公司曾为拜登总统 2020 年的竞选活动工作。
特朗普多次在社交媒体上攻击默钱法官的女儿，并发布带有她照片的文章，导致法官扩大禁言令，以禁止特朗普攻击她。
法官可能会在未来几天对回避请求做出裁决。 他拒绝了特朗普去年提出的第一次回避请求，这次可能也会这样做。
在回应特朗普先生最近的请求时，对特朗普先生提出指控的曼哈顿地区检察官办公室的检察官写道，特朗普先生“主要重复了他在第一次回避动议中提出的相同论点十多次” 几个月前，本法院先前考虑并驳回了这一点。”
检察官补充说，回避请求是基于“一连串的暗示”。
地方检察官阿尔文·L·布拉格(Alvin L. Bragg)的发言人拒绝对周一的上诉发表评论。
针对法官的诉讼并不常见，但这并不是特朗普第一次尝试使用这种策略来推迟审判。 去年，他起诉了主持民事欺诈审判的纽约法官，但上诉法院最终驳回了这一请求。
特朗普将这两起诉讼作为所谓的第 78 条诉讼提起，这是一项特殊程序，可用于挑战纽约州政府机构，在某些情况下还可以挑战法官。
凯特·克里斯托贝克 (Kate Christobek) 贡献了报道。
题图：从上方看，一支车队抵达法院。唐纳德·J·特朗普 (Donald J. Trump) 的刑事审判定于 4 月 15 日开始。 图片版权：《纽约时报》杰斐逊·西格尔 (Jefferson Siegel)
附原英文报道：
Trump to Sue Judge in Last-Ditch Attempt to Avert Manhattan Trial
Donald J. Trump’s lawyers indicated they would file an action asking an appeals court to delay the first prosecution of a former president. The move is unlikely to succeed.
By Ben Protess, Jonah E. Bromwich and William K. Rashbaum April 8, 2024
Donald J. Trump, a week away from standing trial in Manhattan on criminal charges that he falsified records to cover up a sex scandal, has indicated he plans to file a lawsuit against the judge overseeing the case.
The lawsuit was not immediately made public, but court records showed on Monday that Mr. Trump was filing an action against the judge, Juan M. Merchan, in an 11th-hour bid to delay the case. An online court docket where Mr. Trump is filing the action showed that the related paperwork was sealed.
Two people with knowledge of the matter said that Mr. Trump’s lawyers on Monday planned to file the action calling on an appeals court to delay the trial and to challenge 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.
Mr. Trump’s unorthodox move — essentially an appeal in the form of a lawsuit — is unlikely to succeed, particularly so close to trial.
And the appeals court might act fast to reject it. A single appeals court judge will most likely issue a preliminary ruling on Monday, setting up a full five-judge panel to consider Mr. Trump’s request in the coming days.
In a separate filing with the appeals court on Monday, Mr. Trump was expected to ask the court to move the trial outside Manhattan. The request reflects his deep unpopularity in the solidly Democratic borough.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have tried several times to delay the trial, but this is their first attempt in an appeals court. The former president, who is again the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is aiming to push all four of his criminal cases past Election Day. If he wins, the cases are likely to grind to a halt.
This latest effort to stop the Manhattan case — the first prosecution of a former U.S. president, and possibly Mr. Trump’s only criminal case to make it to trial this year — comes as Mr. Trump is separately calling on Justice Merchan to recuse himself from the case.
Mr. Trump and his lawyers argue that the judge has a conflict of interest, citing his daughter’s position at a Democratic consulting firm that worked for President Biden’s campaign in 2020.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly assailed Justice Merchan’s daughter on social media and posted articles with her picture, leading the judge to expand the gag order to bar Mr. Trump from attacking her.
The judge could rule on the recusal request in the coming days. He rejected Mr. Trump’s first recusal request, filed last year, and is likely to do the same this time.
In a response to Mr. Trump’s most recent request, prosecutors for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the charges against Mr. Trump, wrote that Mr. Trump “predominantly repeats the same arguments that he made in his first recusal motion more than ten months ago and that this court previously considered and rejected.”
The prosecutors added that the recusal request was based on a “a daisy chain of innuendos.”
A spokeswoman for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, declined to comment on the Monday appeal.
Lawsuits against judges are unusual, but this is not Mr. Trump’s first attempt to use that tactic to try to delay a trial. Last year, he sued the New York judge presiding over his civil fraud trial — an effort the appeals court ultimately rejected.
Mr. Trump filed both lawsuits as so-called Article 78 actions, a special proceeding that can be used to challenge New York state government agencies, and in some cases, judges.
Kate Christobek contributed reporting.
