On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump's lawyers filed another motion in New York's appellate court, marking their third time doing so in three days. The flurry of legal challenges comes as his Manhattan criminal trial over alleged hush money payments made to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign bid is slated to begin next week.

Trump's latest legal maneuver aims to challenge the order by Judge Juan Merchan that denies his legal team's ability to argue presidential immunity as a defense. Earlier this month, Trump's lawyers argued that the judge should wait until the Supreme Court decides on the immunity issue. Still, Merchan rejected Trump’s presidential immunity claims, saying Trump waited too long to raise the defense. 

Trump’s attorneys had also challenged Merchan’s decision not to recuse himself from the trial amid widespread allegations of potential bias concerning his daughter's work at a progressive political firm and comments made in the media that "appear to be extrajudicial. "

As previously reported by RedState:

The daughter of the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s New York hush-money trial has two significant Democratic clients who have raised over $93 million in campaign donations by fundraising off the criminal case. These clients, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and the Senate Majority PAC, are clients of Authentic Campaigns, a Chicago-based progressive political consulting firm where Loren Merchan, the daughter of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, is president. 

On Wednesday, in a concise two-page notice of petition, Trump's legal team argues that Merchan had overstepped his judicial authority in those decisions. Additionally, Trump's legal team is challenging a previous ruling regarding the public disclosure of dockets. They requested the appeals court to schedule a hearing for May 6. 

Initial reporting regarding the court filing made public on the docket seemed to indicate that Trump was not requesting an emergency hearing before the appeals court to postpone the trial, according to CNN's review of the petition, and the filing was subsequently sealed. However, updated reports indicate there was an emergency hearing held on Wednesday's filing. 

Trump’s lawyers earlier this week asked the appeals court to stop the trial over the recent gag order and pretrial publicity, arguing, "an impartial jury cannot be selected right now based on prejudicial pretrial publicity.” Both requests for emergency measures to postpone the trial were promptly denied.

Justice Lizbeth González of the state Appellate Division rejected the request to delay the trial setting over change of venue in a one-line ruling late Monday afternoon with no explanation. However, the judge’s ruling only impacts Trump’s request for a delay, not his underlying change of venue motion, which requests the trial be moved out of Manhattan to Staten Island, the sole New York City borough that the former president won in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

On Tuesday, Justice Cynthia Kern, denied the request to delay trial while the gag order issue is appealed.

Later this month, a full panel of the Appellate Division First Department will consider whether to relax a limited gag order as Trump has requested. An April 22 deadline has been set for the parties to submit written arguments about the change of venue. Written arguments about the gag order will be submitted no later than April 29. 

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the issue of presidential immunity on April 25. Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Monday. 

Read More:

Trump's Legal Team to Sue Judge, Seek Trial Delay in Manhattan 'Hush Money' Case

Appeals Court Judge Denies Trump's Request to Delay Manhattan 'Hush Money' Trial

Editor's Note: This article was updated post-publication for clarity.