The decision means that the first of Trump’s four criminal prosecutions to proceed to trial is a case centred on years-old accusations that he sought to bury stories about extramarital affairs that arose during his 2016 presidential campaign.
A New York judge on Thursday ruled that former President Donald Trump's hush-money trial will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection starting on March 25.
The judge turned aside demands for a delay from the former president’s defense lawyers, AP reports.
The decision means that the first of Trump’s four criminal prosecutions to proceed to trial is a case centred on years-old accusations that he sought to bury stories about extramarital affairs that arose during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Other cases charge him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate.
In leaving the trial date intact, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan noted a delay in the separate prosecution in Washington related to efforts to undo the election. That case, originally set for trial on March 4, has been effectively frozen pending the outcome of Trump’s appeal on the legally untested question of whether a former president enjoys immunity from prosecution for actions taken in the White House.
Noting that he had resisted defense lawyer urgings from months ago to postpone the trial, Merchan said: “I’m glad I took that position because here we are — the D.C. case did not go forward.”
The hush money trial is expected to last six weeks, the judge said.
Trump is expected to be back in a New York court for a hearing that could decide whether the former president’s first criminal trial begins in just 39 days.
The hearing to determine whether Trump’s March 25 hush-money trial date holds will be held in the same Manhattan courtroom where he pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Assuming the New York case remains on schedule, it will open just weeks after the Super Tuesday elections, colliding on the political calendar with a period in which Trump will be looking to sew up the Republican race and emerge as the presumptive nominee in this year’s presidential contest.
His attorneys cited that schedule in vigorously objecting to the March trial date.
“We strenuously object to what is happening in this courtroom,” said defense lawyer Todd Blanche.
He added that “the fact that we are now going to spend, President Trump is now going to spend, the next two months working on this trial instead of out of on the campaign trial running for president is something that should not happen in this country.”
Trump made a similar case after leaving the courtroom, telling reporters that “instead of being in South Carolina and other states campaigning, I’m stuck here,” he said.
“We’ll just have to figure it out,” he added. “I’ll be here during the day and I’ll be campaigning during the night.”
In fact, Trump has repeatedly attended court proceedings where his presence was not required.
Trump is facing four criminal indictments and a civil lawsuit. You can track all of the cases here.
Thursday marked Trump’s first return visit to court in the New York case since that historic indictment made him the first ex-president charged with a crime. Since then, he has also been indicted in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.
The hearing was held amid a busy overlapping stretch of legal activity for the Republican presidential front-runner, who has increasingly made his court involvement part of his political campaign.
On Monday, for instance, he voluntarily attended a closed hearing in a Florida case charging him with hoarding classified records.