Trump loses late bid to delay New York hush money trial

A

judge
on
Wednesday
rejected
a
last-ditch
effort
by
former
president

Donald
Trump
to
delay
his
hush
money

trial
scheduled
to
begin
in

New
York
on
April
15.

Trump
had
asked

Judge
Juan
Merchan
to
postpone
the
trial
until
after
the
U.S.

Supreme
Court
rules
on
where
he
has
presidential
immunity
in
another
criminal
case
in
Washington,
D.C.
federal
court,
which
is
related
to
his
efforts
to
reverse
President

Joe
Biden‘s
victory
in
the
2020
election.

Merchan,
in
shooting
down
that
request,
said
Trump
had “myriad
opportunities”
to
make
an
argument
that
he
was
immune
in
the
hush
money
case
before
March
7,
when
his
attorneys
first
raised
that
claim.

“Defendant’s
motion
is
DENIED
as
untimely,”
Merchan
wrote
in
his
decision
issued
in
Manhattan
Supreme
Court,
which
is
a
trial-level
court.

The
judge
also
wrote
that
he
declined
to
consider
whether
the
doctrine
of
presidential
immunity
precludes
the
introduction
of
evidence
by
prosecutors
of
purportedly
official
presidential
acts
at
the
trial.

Those
acts
include
statements
Trump
made
on
social
media
and
in
interviews
about
witnesses
in
the
case—
his
former
lawyer
and
fixer
Michael
Cohen,
and
the
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels
—
when
he
was
president
from
2017
to
early
2021.

The
Manhattan
District
Attorney’s
Office,
which
is
prosecuting
Trump,
plans
to
use
those
statements
at
trial
as
evidence
of
an “alleged
pressure
campaign”
on
Cohen
and
Daniel,
Merchan
noted
Wednesday.

Trump
is
charged
in
the
case
with
falsifying
business
records
related
to
a
hush
money
payment
to
Daniels
shortly
before
the
2016
presidential
election.
He
has
pleaded
not
guilty
to
multiple
felony
counts.

Trump’s
then-lawyer
Cohen
paid
Daniels
$130,000
in
exchange
for
her
silence
about
an
alleged
one-time
sexual
tryst
with
Trump
a
decade
earlier,
to
avoid
her
damaging
his
chances
of
winning
the
White
House.

Trump
denies
having
sex
with
Daniels.

in
his
ruling,
Merchan
wrote
that
Trump’s
lawyers “fail
to
explain
why
Defendant
waited
long
past”
a
statutory
deadline
of
45
days
before
trial
to
make
a
pre-trial
motion
seeking
a
delay.

The
trial
had
been
scheduled
to
begin
on
March
25,
but
Merchan
postponed
it.