Donald Trump keeps getting bad news ahead of his hush money trial in New York. The latest is that he can’t go on a “fishing expedition” in connection with the new Stormy Daniels documentary.
The film, “Stormy,” is streaming on NBCUniversal’s Peacock service. (NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp., owns MSNBC. NBC’s news division had no role in creating the documentary.) Trump subpoenaed NBCU, seeking a broad array of materials related to the film, which centers on the witness in the criminal case. The adult film star was allegedly paid ahead of the 2016 presidential election to keep quiet about an affair she previously had with Trump (which he has denied).
Trump’s counsel argued that the materials would establish collusion between NBCU and Daniels regarding the film’s release close in time to the trial, which is set for April 15.
But the problem with Trump’s claims (which NBCU denied) is that they’re “purely speculative and unsupported,” Judge Juan Merchan explained Friday. Granting NBCU’s motion to quash the subpoena, the judge called Trump’s effort “the very definition of a fishing expedition.”
The denial comes at the end of a week that also included Merchan expanding Trump’s gag order and rejecting his attempt to delay and weaken the case based on immunity. Simply put, the judge has not been entertaining motions designed to gum up the trial. This latest rejection is thus the latest indication that the trial is moving forward. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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