Former President Donald Trump suffered a setback in a bid to obtain information about Stormy Daniels and his former lawyer Michael Cohen ahead of Cohen's expected testimony against him this week.
The judge overseeing Trump's historic "hush money" trial in New York City on Friday blocked his legal team from subpoenaing records from lawyer Mark Pomerantz, who formerly served as a special prosecutor to investigate Trump and gathered information on Daniels and Cohen .
In his ruling, Justice Juan Merchan said the March 18 defense subpoena was "far too broad" in its scope and amounted to an "improper fishing expedition" under state law.
Merchan also said the amount of evidence that Pomerantz already gave Trump's lawyers meant it was highly unlikely their subpoena would "uncover any information that is relevant and material to the proceedings."
Pomerantz abruptly resigned as special prosecutor in February 2022, citing opposition to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's decision to suspend his probe.
Pomerantz said he feared the move would "doom any future prospects" of prosecuting Trump, who last year became the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges.
The March 18 subpoena issued against Pomerantz sought "all documents" tied to a February 2021 memo that addressed whether Daniels had committed extortion or larceny and whether Trump was a "victim of blackmail" by the porn star.
It also demanded records from a 13-month period related to Cohen's interactions with Trump and any "bias or animosity" Cohen expressed toward his former boss.
Last week, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told the jury she had an affair with Trump in 2006. Cohen is expected to testify starting Monday that Trump directed him to buy Daniels' silence for $130,000 shortly before his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for this year's presidential election, denies that he had sex with Daniels and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying records to allegedly disguise the payment to her as business expenses.
