Trump has run out of trial delays because 'Judge Merchan has had it': former prosecutor

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" On Thursday, former Department of Justice prosecutor Andrew Weissmann put Donald Trump on notice that jury selection in his Manhattan hush money trial will likely remain as scheduled despite all of the former president's attempts to delay the proceedings.

Speaking with the co-host, Weissmann was asked if jury selection would commence on April 15th as scheduled by Judge Juan Merchan after Trump and his lawyers demanded his recusal and also complained about pre-trial publicity tainting the jury pool.

"All signs are that Judge Merchan has had it," the former prosecutor explained. "All of the scheduled motions were supposed to be in weeks if not months ago. All of the efforts you're seeing at the last minute by the former president to delay this trial have been rejected."

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why keeping Trump from the White House is all that matters

"As you said, there is now this pending motion about delaying the case because of pretrial publicity — that is going nowhere fast," he added. "You know, everyone on both sides agrees that pretrial publicity is going to continue and not abate at any time, so that's not a reason to put the trial off, it's a reason to make sure you're careful with jury selection to make sure you can find 12 jurors who are going to be fair and impartial and put aside whatever feelings they have about the case and decide just based on the facts."

"But we are now 11 days away, and you know, knock on wood, I think there are no more delays that are going to happen. We're going to see jury selection begin a week from Monday," he predicted.

Watch below or at the link.

MSNBC 04 04 2024 06 49 28 youtu.be