Former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan, slated to start later this month, got at least a short reprieve and won’t begin before mid-April, a New York judge ruled on Friday.
The postponement was allowed after Trump’s legal team requested more time to review more than 100,000 pages of new evidence from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office.
Judge Juan Merchan’s decision came shortly before Trump’s trial on 34 felony counts and centers on whether Trump illegally falsified records to cover up reimbursing his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Daniels has claimed she had a sexual encounter with Trump before his presidency — a claim he denies.
The delay marked yet another procedural victory for Trump, who has been able to avoid or upend trial dates in his other three criminal cases. However, the 2024 Republican frontrunner is still slated to face trial in the New York case before the November election.
Last-minute documents
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said federal prosecutors had provided about 73,000 pages of records since March 4 in response to a Trump subpoena in January. They appeared “largely irrelevant,” but 172 pages were witness statements that Trump’s team could review before trial, according to a Thursday court filing from state prosecutors.
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About 31,000 additional pages were provided Wednesday, and a final document dump was expected Friday, according to state prosecutors.
“We note that the timing of the current production of additional materials … is a function of defendant’s own delay,” Bragg’s prosecutors wrote. They argued that Trump didn’t raise any concerns about their earlier efforts to get documents from the U.S. attorney’s office, some of which were obtained as early as June 2023. Trump instead waited until January to subpoena additional records, according to the court filing.
Trump requested a 90-day delay to the trial, and prosecutors acceded to 30 days. The two sides also wrangled over whether prosecutors properly handed over documents.
On Friday, Merchan scheduled a hearing for March 25 to deal with that wrangling, the circumstances behind the late document drops, and a potential new trial date.
Delays across criminal cases
The delay comes after Trump was able to get a March 4 trial date in his federal election interference case wiped from the calendar during an appeal over his claims of presidential immunity. Trump’s Georgia election interference case has been focused on a side issue for weeks, namely whether the lead prosecutor should be disqualified.
The judge in Trump’s federal case over allegedly mishandling classified documents has indicated she will push back a tentative May 25 trial date. While District Judge Aileen Cannon hasn’t set a new date, she expressed skepticism that the case could begin by the prosecution’s desired July 8 start date.
If Trump wins the November presidential election, he may be able to avoid any criminal trials until after his presidency, and he could also try to force the Justice Department to drop the two federal cases.
