A general view shows Judge Juan Manuel Merchan’s courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump will become the first former U.S. president to face criminal trial when jury selection begins.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
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Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
A general view shows Judge Juan Manuel Merchan’s courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump will become the first former U.S. president to face criminal trial when jury selection begins.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
A judge in New York has delayed former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial there until mid-April to allow Trump’s review of new records that could be related to the case.
Jury selection had been scheduled to begin March 25. The New York case is still set to be the first of the four criminal cases against Trump to go to trial. The others have been in limbo due to multiple motions and other delays from Trump’s lawyers.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s legal team said in a court filing on Thursday that it would not oppose a 30-day delay to give Trump’s team time to review 31,000 records recently provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
What the case is about
Trump faces a 34-count felony indictment alleging that he falsified New York business records in order to conceal damaging information ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
At the center of the trial are 11 “hush money” payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels who, at the time Trump was first running for president, threatened to go public with accusations she’d had an affair with him not long after he married Melania Trump.
What’s at stake
The fact of the payments and the false records isn’t in dispute. What Bragg is trying to prove is that Trump made them in order to further other crimes, such as violating campaign finance law and mischaracterizing the payments for tax purposes.
The trial, once it begins, is expected to last about six weeks. Trump has vowed to continue campaigning during that time.
This would be the first criminal trial against a former or sitting president.
Where the other cases stand
As for the other Trump cases, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on April 25 about whether the former president is immune from prosecution for events related to Jan. 6. The court’s decision there could determine the fate of multiple cases against him.
In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been allowed to remain on the case after an attempt to remove her — but the challenge set that trial back as well.
In Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon refused to dismiss charges that Trump unlawfully withheld classified documents after leaving office. She has not set a date for trial. Prosecutors want it to begin in July, and Trump wants to delay it until next year, after the presidential election.
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