Judge Juan Merchan made a last-minute ruling Friday that denied Donald Trump’s attempt to stop his New York hush money trial, claiming pretrial publicity made it impossible for him to get a fair trial. The first of the former president’s criminal cases to go before a jury is now almost certain to start Monday. In just four pages, Merchan shot down the argument that the publicity meant it would be impossible to find impartial jurors in Manhattan. Experts have pointed out that Trump himself has spent the past year giving his trials publicity. In fact, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner no…