Donald Trump’s trial related to hush money paid to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection beginning March 25, a judge ruled Thursday, dismissing requests for a postponement from Trump’s defense attorneys. former president.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchán decided to leave the trial date intact, taking advantage of a delay in a separate trial in Washington in which Trump is accused of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which has effectively been on hold pending of the result of an appeal by the former president’s lawyers.
The first of four criminal proceedings against Trump already has a start date
The decision means that a case centered on years-old allegations that Trump tried to cover up stories about extramarital affairs that emerged during his 2016 presidential campaign will be the first of four criminal cases against Trump to proceed to trial. Other cases accuse him of trying to overturn the election and illegally hoarding classified documents on his Florida property.
Trump’s lawyers criticized the decision to keep the March date, complaining that Trump will have to stand trial in New York while trying to secure the Republican nomination.
“It’s completely election interference to say ‘you’re going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan,'” said defense attorney Todd Blanche.
Trump entered the courthouse shortly before 9 a.m.
It was Trump’s first visit to court in the New York case since that historic indictment made him the first former president to be charged with a crime. Since then, he has also been charged in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.
In recent weeks, Trump has combined campaign events with court appearances, attending a closed-door hearing Monday in a Florida case accusing him of hoarding classified records.
Over the past year, Trump has lashed out at Merchan as a “Trump-hating judge,” asked him to withdraw from the case, and tried to move the case from state court to federal court, all without success.
Merchan has acknowledged making several small donations to Democrats, including $15 to Trump’s rival Joe Biden, but said he is confident in his “ability to be fair and impartial.”
Trump’s complicated judicial agenda
Thursday’s proceedings are part of an intense and overlapping stretch of legal activity for the Republican presidential front-runner, who has increasingly made his involvement in the courts part of his political campaign.
The recent postponement of the March 4 trial date in Trump’s election interference case in Washington, D.C. removed a major obstacle to starting the case in New York on time.
Just as the hearing in New York began, a judge in Atlanta began hearing arguments Thursday on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from Trump’s election interference case in Georgia because of a “relationship.” staff” with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor he hired for the case.
Trump is also awaiting a decision, possibly as soon as Friday, in a civil fraud case in New York that threatens to topple his real estate empire. If the judge rules against Trump, accused of inflating his wealth to defraud banks, insurers and others, he could be forced to pay millions of dollars in fines, among other sanctions.
In addition to clarifying the trial schedule, Merchan is also expected to rule on key pretrial issues, including Trump’s lawyers’ request to dismiss the case, which they have denounced in court papers as a “messy package of politically motivated charges.” and marred by legal defects”.
Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, accuse Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, of bringing the case to interfere with Trump’s chances of retaking the White House. Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., declined to bring a case over the same allegations.
The charges are punishable by up to four years in prison, although there is no guarantee that a conviction will result in prison time.
The case centers on payments to two women, Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock. Trump says he did not have any of the alleged sexual encounters.
Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the editor of the National Enquirer tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in a practice known as “catch and kill” to conceal stories of Trump’s alleged sexual encounters. with the two women.
Trump’s company then paid Cohen $420,000 and recorded the payments as legal expenses, not reimbursements, prosecutors said. Bragg accused Trump last year of falsifying internal records maintained by his company, the Trump Organization, to conceal the true nature of the payments.
Trump’s legal team has argued that no crime was committed.
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2024-02-15 14:59:00
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