NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) -

Donald Trump on Monday sought to put on hold his criminal

case on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, a

last-ditch effort ahead of the former U.S. president's scheduled

April 15 trial.

Emil Bove, a lawyer for Trump, asked a judge with a

mid-level state appeals court known as the Appellate Division to

stay the case pending Trump's application to move the trial out

of Manhattan.

Bove said a survey by Trump's legal team of residents in

the heavily Democratic borough found that 61% of respondents

thought Trump was guilty, and 70% had a negative opinion of him.

"There is real potential prejudice here to moving

forward," Bove said. "Jury selection cannot proceed in a fair

manner starting next week in this county."

A lawyer from Bragg's office, Steven Wu, countered that

Trump waited too long to object to being tried in Manhattan,

where he once lived. The charges were brought last April.

"Defendant could have raised this argument earlier and

did not," Wu said.

A criminal trial would be the first of a former U.S.

president.

The New York Times ( NYT ) and CNN has said Trump would also

challenge a gag order by Justice Juan Merchan blocking Trump

from speaking publicly about potential witnesses, court staff,

individual prosecutors, and family members of the judge and

Bragg.

Merchan imposed the order after finding that some of Trump's

statements were threatening, and expanded it to cover the family

members after Trump disparaged the judge's daughter online.

Trump's campaign has said the order violates his right to

free speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

Trump is accused of covering up his former lawyer Michael

Cohen's $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange

for her silence before the 2016 presidential election about a

sexual encounter she said she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump has denied any such encounter with Daniels, whose real

name is Stephanie Clifford.

Trump, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic

President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, has pleaded not

guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.

It is one of four criminal cases he faces. The others stem

from efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, and

his handling of sensitive government documents after leaving the

presidency in 2021. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.