March 25 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump will stand trial over alleged hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels beginning April 15, a New York judge ruled Monday.
Trump, who is running for re-election, was in the Manhattan courtroom while his defense pushed for a further delay to the trial that was originally scheduled to begin on Monday.
Judge Juan Merchan ordered that the trial will begin in three weeks, but Trump can file a motion to again seek a delay.
Merchan also dismissed Trump’s motion to toss out all charges against him.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to allegedly hide hush-money payments he made to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, to cover up an affair.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche argued that the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not turn over discovery materials in a timely manner and has engaged in prosecutorial misconduct. Merchan was unmoved by the arguments from Blanche.
“You are literally accusing the Manhattan DA’s office and the people assigned to this case of prosecutorial misconduct and of trying to make me complicit in it and you don’t have a single cite to support that position?” Merchan asked Blanche.
The judge questioned why Trump’s attorneys had not raised the issue sooner and noted that Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, should know that he could have sought the documents in question himself.
“You were there 13 years, so you know that the defense has the same ability as the prosecution to obtain these documents,” he said. “You could have very easily done exactly what you did in January, but for whatever reason, you waited until two months before trial.”
Blanche responded that it is “not our job” to acquire documents from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Prosecutors, representing the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said it made a “good faith” effort to share relevant documents with Trump’s team. Merchan agreed, saying that from his perspective, the prosecution has gone “above and beyond.”
