Former President Donald Trump suffered a minor legal setback on Monday as the presiding judge in the New York "hush money" case dismissed a motion to drop the criminal charges or at least further delay the impending trial, according to the Daily Wire.

Trump's request for additional delay in that trial, which was initially scheduled to begin on March 25 and had already been pushed back to April 15, was spurred by the recent dump of tens of thousands of documents by federal prosecutors from another case, an unknown number of which may be relevant to Trump's defense in this particular case.

The former president was criminally charged last year by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his alleged falsification of business records to cover up his alleged 2017 reimbursement of disgraced former personal attorney Michael Cohen's alleged "hush money" payments to silence women making allegations of extramarital affairs against Trump during the 2016 election.

Judge sticks with April 15 trial start date

Fox News reported that an hours-long hearing was held Monday during which New York Judge Juan Merchan considered a motion from former President Trump's attorneys to either drop the criminal case altogether or at least delay its start by an additional 90 days to allow more time to review the documents dumped by federal prosecutors.

Trump's attorneys, who'd been trying to gain access to those documents for months and even resorted to issuing subpoenas for them, raised allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against both DA Bragg's office and the federal Southern District of New York, while also arguing that the roughly three-week delay previously ordered by Merchan was "insufficient" for a thorough review of the documents.

The judge disagreed, however, and ultimately denied the motion as he maintained April 15 as the trial start date.

Yet, CNN reported that even as Merchan dismissed that request for further delay, he allowed Trump's attorneys the opportunity to file a different motion to dismiss charges or delay the trial due to "pre-trial publicity concerns."

"This election interference, that's all this is"

The Daily Wire reported that, following the conclusion of Monday's hearing, former President Trump briefly addressed reporters outside the courtroom and reiterated his oft-repeated refrain that this and the other criminal indictments and civil lawsuits he faces are a form of "election interference" by Democratic prosecutors and judges in support of his political rival, President Joe Biden.

"This is a case that could have been brought three and a half years ago, and now we're fighting over days because they want to try to do it during the election," Trump said. "This election interference, that's all this is. Election. Interference. And it's a disgrace and we'll obviously be appealing."

"But this is a pure case of voter intimidation and election interference, and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen," he continued as he alleged that DA Bragg was forced to file the criminal charges against his better judgment. "As you know, DA Bragg did not want to bring this case. He was forced into it by -- for outside reasons, and it’s a disgrace that it can happen."

"This was a case that could’ve been brought three and a half years ago," Trump repeated, "but they decide to wait now, just during the election, so that I won’t be able to campaign."

Judge rips Judge Merchan in social media posts

On Tuesday, former President Trump lashed out again against his opposition in the New York criminal case, including the judge, in a pair of Truth Social posts, the first of which stated, "Judge Juan Merchan, a very distinguished looking man, is nevertheless a true and certified Trump Hater who suffers from a very serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. In other words, he hates me!"

Trump noted the political activism of the judge's Democrat-aligned daughter and rebuked Merchan for how "viciously" he'd treated former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in a separate trial, and argued, "These COUNTRY DESTROYING SCOUNDRELS & THUGS HAVE NO CASE AGAINST ME. WITCH HUNT!"

In a second post about an hour later, Trump accused DA Bragg of working in "close coordination" with President Biden, lambasted the reliance on "convicted LIAR and FELON" Michael Cohen's dubious testimony, and insisted that "JUDGE MERCHAN SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF, HE CANNOT GIVE ME A FAIR TRIAL" as he called for a change of venue and a new judge in the case that is nothing more than "ANOTHER WITCH HUNT FOR PURPOSES OF ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!"