- Justice Juan Merchan rejected Trump's 3rd request that he step down from the hush money case.
- That leaves one remaining defense hurdle to Trump's September 18 hush-money sentencing.
- Merchan has yet to decide if the case should be tossed due to Trump's new SCOTUS-bestowed immunity.
Three was not the charm for Donald Trump, whose hush-money judge on Wednesday declined — for the third time — the former president's demand that he recuse himself from the case.
In a three-page decision, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said he rejects Trump's "repetition of stale and unsubstantiated claims" and will not step down from the case.
"Defendant has provided nothing new for this court to consider," the judge wrote.
The decision leaves one remaining hurdle to Trump's September 18 sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Merchan has yet to decide if the hush-money case should be retried or tossed in its entirety due to the US Supreme Court's July 1 opinion that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts and that such acts cannot be used as evidence against them.
The judge has said he will decide Trump's immunity challenge in a written decision on September 16, just two days before the sentencing.
Manhattan prosecutors contend the SCOTUS decision has no bearing on the hush-money case because the charges depended entirely on personal conduct, not official acts.
A Manhattan jury found that during Trump's first year in office, he conspired with other Trump Organization executives to falsify a series of checks and invoices in order to hide a 2016 hush-money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. The money ensured Daniels' silence just 11 days before Trump was elected president.
Trump faces anywhere from zero to four years prison on the charges, though any incarceratory sentence would almost certainly be stayed pending appeal.
Wednesday's decision by Merchan displayed his apparent impatience over rejecting for the third time Trump's claims that he needed to step down because his daughter is a political consultant whose Chicago-based firm has handled the accounts of Kamala Harris and other top Democrats.
"As has been the standard throughout the pendency of this case, this court will continue to base its rulings on the evidence and the law, without fear or favor, casting aside undue influence," Merchan wrote.
"Counsel has merely repeated arguments that have already been denied by this and higher courts. Defense Counsel's reliance, and apparent citation to his own prior affirmation, rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims, is unavailing. As such, Defendant's motion is again denied."
