Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey is suing New York for prosecuting and sentencing former president Donald Trump amid the 2024 race, arguing his historic hush-money conviction constitutes “lawfare” against a political opponent.
Missouri’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday, asks the U.S. Supreme Court to decide on three matters: declare that New York unlawfully prevented the presumptive Republican nominee from campaigning during the trial, remove any remaining gag orders against Trump, and delay his sentencing until after the November 5 election.
“This lawfare is poisonous to American democracy,” Bailey asserts in the 99-page lawsuit. “The American people ought to be able to participate in a presidential election free from New York’s interference. Any gag order and sentence should be stayed until after the election.”
On Tuesday, Trump’s sentencing was postponed to September 18. The sentencing date was originally scheduled for July 11, four days before the start of the Republican National Convention where Trump will be nominated.
Bailey previously threatened to sue New York for alleged election interference and wrongful prosecution of the former president. Following through on his promise, the Republican attorney general maintained that New York prosecutors have done irreparable harm to voters in Missouri and other states.
“Instead of letting presidential candidates campaign on their own merits, radical progressives in New York are trying to rig the 2024 election by waging a direct attack on our democratic process,” Bailey said in a public statement. “I will not sit idly by while Soros-backed prosecutors hold Missouri voters hostage in this presidential election.”
The newly filed litigation accuses New York of three specific violations: interference with the presidential election in other states; violation of the Purcell principle, a federal doctrine that prohibits courts from changing election rules leading up to an election; and violation of the First Amendment rights of voters in other states.
Bailey cites Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to bring criminal charges against the former president last year in an alleged effort to damage Trump’s political reputation and boost President Joe Biden’s campaign. Bragg was also involved in civil litigation against Trump while working for the New York attorney general’s office, and even hired former Justice Department official Matthew Colangelo to lead the hush-money prosecution.
Colangelo has a “history of taking on Donald J. Trump and his family business,” the New York Times reported in December 2022 when Bragg tapped Colangelo to assist in the investigation.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges Judge Juan Merchan violated state judicial ethics rules by donating to the Biden campaign and Democrats in 2020. Despite that total amounting to a modest $35 in political contributions, Trump’s attorneys called for the judge to recuse himself. Merchan refused to do so and imposed a gag order on Trump for calling attention to his Democratic ties and his daughter, a political consultant whom Trump claimed stood to financially benefit from his criminal trial.
“Trump’s conviction is very likely to be overturned on appeal. But by then, the constraints New York has sought to impose on Trump to limit his ability to campaign will already have had their full effect,” Bailey writes after listing Bragg and Merchan’s lawfare tactics. “Missouri has a strong, judicially enforceable interest in its citizens and electors being able to hear Trump’s campaigning free from any gag order or other interference imposed by the State of New York.”
Missouri’s petition to the Supreme Court comes just over a month after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records. The case stems from a $130,000 hush-money payment that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 after Trump allegedly had a sexual affair with Daniels ten years earlier. Trump denies the encounter.