In Remarkable Twist, Trump’s First Criminal Trial Could Be Delayed
Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s New York hush-money case signaled that they would be open to a 30-day adjournment, hinting at a possible postponement just 11 days before his first criminal trial was set to begin.
On Thursday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office cited an enormous caseload for its reasoning, including more than 100,000 pages’ worth of documents issued by the U.S. Attorney’s office, 31,000 of which were released the day before, with another truckload expected sometime next week.
“Based on our initial review of yesterday’s production, those records appear to contain materials related to the subject matter of this case, including materials that the People requested from the USAO more than a year ago and that the USAO previously declined to provide,” wrote Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a three-page notice.
“Nonetheless, and although the People are prepared to proceed to trial on March 25, we do not oppose an adjournment in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials,” he concluded.
Trump’s team, meanwhile, had originally asked for a 90-day delay upon the reception of the initial 73,000 pages on March 4. Ultimately the decision will be up to Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, who has ignored the former president’s previous delay tactics, citing the lack of concrete trial dates for any of Trump’s other criminal cases.
It is currently unclear when Merchan might rule.
Trump is accused of using his former fixer Michael Cohen to sweep an affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels under the rug ahead of the 2016 presidential election. He’s facing 34 felony charges in this case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all counts.
Cohen, who is anticipated to be a star witness in this trial, has no doubts that the former president will be found guilty in this case.
“I can tell you from everything I know about it, he’s going to be found guilty,” Cohen, the former Trump lawyer, said during The New Republic’s Stop Trump Summit in October.