Donald Trump loses third bid to have judge step aside in hush money case as US Presidential elections loom

US Presidential candidate Donald Trump has lost a third bid to oust the judge for his New York hush money criminal case. The development comes mere weeks ahead of a key ruling and potential sentencing next month. A jury had earlier found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The former POTUS will be sentenced on September 18 if his separate post-trial arguments about presidential immunity are denied.

“Defendant has provided nothing new for this Court to consider. Counsel has merely repeated arguments that have already been denied by this and higher courts and were rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims,” Justice Juan Merchan wrote in the recent ruling.

Lawyers for the Republican leader have linked his daughter's work for a political consultancy to Kamala Harris. The organisation had counted Democratic election campaigns among its clients — including the current Vice President's unsuccessful bid to secure the 2020 nomination.

Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. His former personal lawyer and ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen had made a payment of $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to avert a sex scandal before the polls. 

Trump however denies wrongdoing and claims without evidence that the case — along with three other criminal prosecutions — is part of a Democratic “witch hunt” to keep him from regaining the White House. He has also separately sought to have the verdict tossed and the indictment dismissed after the US Supreme Court issued a ruling granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution.

Falsifying business records is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison, though sentences such as fines or probation have been more common for others convicted of that crime.