Donald Trump’s first criminal trial confirmed in New York next month

The trial of Donald Trump on charges of falsifying business records to hide secret payments to three individuals ahead of the 2016 US presidential election campaign will proceed as scheduled with jury selection beginning on March 25, a judge ruled on Thursday. Pronounced the verdict.

Trump, who was in a courtroom in New York on Thursday, pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to bury stories about extramarital affairs last April.

Two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as a Trump Tower concierge, were paid for what they claimed was a story about Trump having children out of wedlock.

Trump, who is the leading candidate to become the Republican nominee for president in 2024, says he did not have any alleged sexual relations with the two women.

Trump’s attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels US$130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in what became known as “catch-and-kill.” Is.

Prosecutors said Trump’s company paid Cohen $420,000 and recorded the payments as legal expenses, not reimbursements.

Watch L. Michael Cohen detail hush money payments (from 2018):

Cohen says Trump knew about it and quietly directed the payment

In an interview with ABC television, Michael Cohen said that despite denials, Donald Trump certainly knew about and directed payments made to two women during the 2016 US presidential campaign.

Trump’s legal team has argued that no crimes were committed in the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

But the case will move forward and history will be made, as it is the first time a former president has faced criminal proceedings.

Attempt to collide with primary schedule

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan’s decision Thursday, which rejected requests for a delay from the former president’s defense lawyers, took advantage of delays in a separate federal prosecution in Washington that seeks to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election against Trump. He was accused of plotting a coup. A hearing in that case was set for March 4, but it was put on hold pending the outcome of Trump’s appeal.

In the previous year, Trump had rebuked Merchan as a “Trump-hating judge”, asked him to step down from the case and sought to move the case from state court to federal court, but to no avail. Not done. Merchan has acknowledged making several small donations to Democrats, including $15 to Trump’s rival Joe Biden, but said he is confident about his “ability to be fair and impartial.”

The trial is expected to last six weeks, the judge said. The charges carry a prison sentence of up to four years, although there is no guarantee that a conviction will result in a prison sentence.

Assuming the New York case remains on schedule, it will open just weeks after the Super Tuesday primary elections on March 5, which will collide with a time period on the political calendar in which Trump is trying to mathematically consolidate the Republican race. do.

His lawyers cited that schedule in strongly objecting to the March hearing date.

WATCH l Trump’s 4 criminal charges, explained:

Trump’s impeachments explained: Why Georgia is accusing him of being a ‘mob boss’ About that

Former US President Donald Trump is facing criminal charges for the fourth time, after a Georgia grand jury handed down a sweeping indictment accusing him of running a ‘criminal enterprise’ and trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. Issued. Andrew Chang explains all about the allegations, and why the latest allegations are so significant.

“It’s pure election interference to say, ‘You’re going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan,’ when there’s no reason to,” defense attorney Todd Blanch said. “What about his rights?”

Speaking to reporters in the courthouse hallway, Trump made a similar case, telling reporters that the case was being brought to hurt him politically and that it would interfere with his campaign.

“How can you run for office if you sit in a courtroom in Manhattan all day? I should be in South Carolina right now,” Trump said.

The New York investigation comes ahead of Trump’s November 2022 announcement that he is running for president again. The roots of the case stretch back to Trump’s first term as president under Bragg’s predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr.

Trump has described the investigations of Bragg and Vance, both Democrats, as politically motivated, without providing evidence.

Other trial dates not confirmed

The former president faces 91 criminal charges in four criminal indictments, but it is unclear when other trials will take place.

Trump faces a four-count criminal indictment charging him with conspiring to defraud the United States by preventing Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory. The Supreme Court is expected to soon consider the immunity issue raised by Trump, which was rejected by the US Court of Appeals in DC. The top court may or may not consider the case, in which case a district court judge in DC will decide soon. Then set a test date.

Trump also faces a trial scheduled for May 20 in Florida on charges of illegally retaining government documents after leaving office in early 2021, but pre-trial rulings and the pace of the trial have raised questions whether that start date will be retained.

He is also a defendant in a 13-count indictment detailing alleged acts he committed in an effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. No date has yet been set for that trial, and a two-day hearing was underway Thursday looking into allegations of misconduct against the district attorney handling the case.

Trump is also awaiting a verdict, possibly as soon as Friday, in a New York civil fraud case that threatens to dismantle his real estate empire.

If the judge rules against Trump, who is accused of defrauding banks, insurance companies and others to inflate his wealth, he could be fined millions of dollars in addition to other sanctions.