The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs ordered a delay Friday in proceedings that had been scheduled to get underway on March 25.
“Trial on this matter is adjourned for 30 days from the date of this letter on consent of the People,” Judge Juan Merchan said in a court filing that will push the trial to at least mid-April.
The exact date will be determined at a hearing on March 25 which will also address complaints by the defense team about the disclosure of evidence ahead of trial, the letter said.
Prosecutors preparing to try Trump, the first former US president to face criminal prosecution, said Thursday they would accept a delay of up to 30 days after both sides received a deluge of case documents.
Trump, seeking a comeback as the Republican candidate in this year’s election, is accused of covering up hush money payments related to his successful 2016 bid for the White House.
‘Hurting me’
“An immediate adjournment is appropriate,” Trump’s legal team wrote on Thursday in a letter to the judge.
But it argued “thirty days is not sufficient given the volume of recently produced materials and the nature of the ongoing disputes.”
Prosecutors say Trump illegally covered up remittances to his longtime aide Michael Cohen to reimburse him for payments made to bury stories revealing Trump’s alleged extramarital sexual relations with porn star Stormy Daniels and a Playboy model. He denies the charges.
A New York grand jury indicted Trump in March 2023 over the payments made to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Trump has previously described the proceedings as a “disgrace.”
“It’s a rigged state. It’s a rigged city. It’s a shame,” he had said.
Trump is facing four criminal cases as he campaigns to retake the White House, with his legal teams thus far failing to push the actual trials until after the November 5 vote.
Trump, who has seized on his legal woes to rev up his supporters and denounce Democratic opponent Joe Biden, has claimed the charges are “just a way of hurting me in the election.”
Biden and Trump each won enough delegates Tuesday to clinch their party nominations in the 2024 presidential race, all but assuring a rematch and setting up one of the longest election campaigns in US history.
The results in four statewide elections Tuesday, the latest in the months-long march to determine the Democratic and Republican party flag bearers, were essentially a foregone conclusion as incumbent Biden and former president Trump had already seen off all primary challengers.
