Trump hush money trial will start April 15, judge rules

Jury
selection
in
the
criminal
hush
money
trial
of

Donald
Trump
will
begin
on
April
15,
a
New
York
judge
ruled
in
a
court
hearing
Monday.

Judge
Juan
Merchan
delivered
the
ruling
after
strongly
rejecting
arguments
from
Trump’s
lawyers
who
tried
to
delay
the

trial.
Trump
is

charged
in
that
case
with
falsifying
business
records
in
a
scheme
to
silence
women
who
say
they
had
affairs
with
him.

“That
you
don’t
have
a
case
right
now
is
really
disconcerting,”
Merchan
told
the
former
president’s
lawyers,
referring
to
their
claim
that
the
prosecutors
in
the
case
suppressed
evidence.

“You
are
literally
accusing
the
Manhattan
[District
Attorney’s]
office
and
the
people
assigned
to
this
case
of
prosecutorial
misconduct,”
Merchan
said. “You
are
saying
the
people
assigned
to
this
case
are
taking
part
in
prosecutorial
misconduct,
and
you
don’t
have
a
single
cite
to
support
that
allegation.”

Trump
was
in
the
courtroom
listening
along
as
Merchan
delivered
the
stern
assessment
to
his
legal
team.

Trump
called
the
case “a
witch
hunt”
and “a
hoax”
as
he
walked
into
the
courtroom
in
Manhattan
Supreme
Court.

At
a
press
conference
after
the
hearing
ended,
Trump
said
he
would
be
willing
to
testify
in
his
defense.
But
he
added
that
he
believed
the
case
may
not
make
it
to
trial
at
all.

“I
don’t
know
that
you’re
going
to
have
the
trial,”
he
said. “I
don’t
know
how
you
can
have
a
trial
like
this
in
the
middle
of
an
election,
a
presidential
election.”

The
hearing
came
at
the
same
time
that
a
New
York
appeals
court
sharply
reduced
the
amount
of
money
that
Trump
must
pledge
to
pause
a

$454
million
penalty
from
coming
due
in
a
separate
civil
case.

Trump
was
due
to
face
a
financial
reckoning
from
New
York
Attorney
General
Letitia
James,
who,
as
soon
as
Monday,
was
poised
to
start
to
collecting
that
massive
judgment.
The
presumptive
Republican
presidential
nominee
had
been
unable
to
put
up
cash
covering
the
entire
judgment
in
order
to
obtain
that
bond.

But
during
a
midday
break
in
Monday’s
hearing,
a
panel
of
appellate
judges
cut
Trump’s
bond
to

$175
million,
significantly
lowering
the
amount
of
money
he
will
have
to
post.
The
panel
gave
Trump
10
days
to
post
the
bond.

As
he
reentered
Merchan’s
courtroom,
Trump
told
reporters, “I
greatly
respect
the
decision
of
the
appellate
division.”
He
then
railed
against
the
judge
who
delivered
the
$454
million
verdict,
calling
him “a
disgrace
to
this
country.”

The
hush
money
case
was
previously
set
for
trial
on
Monday
but
was
postponed
until
at
least
mid-April
after
Manhattan
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg
on
March
14
said
he
did
not
oppose
a
30-day
delay
in
order
to
give
Trump
time
to
review
a
tranche
of
recently
submitted
documents.

Trump’s
attorneys
previously
asked
Merchan
to
either
dismiss
Bragg’s
indictment
entirely
or
delay
the
trial
for
at
least
90
days,
arguing
that
the
D.A.’s
office
improperly
gave
them
tens
of
thousands
of
pages
of
case
documents
with
little
time
to
prepare.

But
Bragg
pushed
back,
telling
Merchan
that
the
late
arrival
of
those
materials “is
a
result
solely
of
defendant’s
delay
despite
the
People’s
diligence.”

The
judge
in
Monday’s
hearing
appeared
highly
skeptical
of
Trump’s
lawyers.

“You
began
by
saying
somehow
the
D.A.
obstructed,”
Merchan
said. “That
is
just
not
what
happened.”

Trump,
who
is
grappling
with
four
active
criminal
cases
and
multiple
costly
civil
cases
while
he
runs
to
unseat
Democratic
President

Joe
Biden,
had
raged
against
both
the
fraud
case
and
the
hush
money
case
prior
to
Monday’s
hearing.

The
penalty
in
the
civil
case “should
be
ZERO,
I
DID
NOTHING
WRONG!”
Trump

wrote
on
his
social
media
site
Truth
Social.

“The
D.A.
Case,
that
I
am
going
to
today,
should
be
dismissed.
No
crime.
Our
Country
is
CORRUPT!”
he
added
in
the
same
post.

Bragg’s
indictment
accuses
Trump
of
34
felony
counts
of
falsifying
business
records
to
hide
damaging
information
from
voters
before
the
2016
presidential
election.

The
case
centers
on
a
$130,000
payment
made
to
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels
less
than
two
weeks
before
that
election,
which
Trump
would
go
on
to
win
against
Democratic
nominee
Hillary
Clinton.

That
payment,
made
by
Trump’s
then-attorney
Michael
Cohen,
was
intended
to
buy
Daniels’
silence
about
an
extramarital
affair
she
says
she
had
with
Trump
years
earlier,
Bragg’s
indictment
said.

Cohen
has
since
pleaded
guilty
to
making
an
illegal
campaign
contribution,
which
he
said
he
made
at

Trump’s
direction.
Cohen
has
become
a
vocal
enemy
of
Trump’s,
and
he
is
set
to

testify
in
the
hush
money
trial.

Trump
has
denied
having
sex
with
Daniels.
He
has
pleaded
not
guilty
to
the
charges.