Manhattan DA urges judge to deny Trump motion to further delay trial
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is calling on a New York court to deny former President Trump's request for a delay in his trial on Thursday.
Bragg's filing comes after new documents relating to Trump's alleged hush money payments case were uncovered. Judge Juan Merchan agreed to impose a 30-day postponement to allow the documents to be reviewed, setting the date of the trial to April 15.
Trump's legal team argued that delay is not enough. They say the newly discovered documents constitute a violation of discovery policies and argue that a 90-day postponement is warranted.
Bragg's Thursday filing seeks to refute that request, saying that it is merely a ploy by Trump's legal team to delay the case for as long as possible.
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"Defendant's accusations of a discovery violation are a distraction from the only issue actually presented here, which is how this Court should respond to the late arrival of potentially relevant evidence from sources outside of the People's direction or control," Bragg wrote.
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"On that question, the appropriate remedy is the brief adjournment that this Court has already granted, which is more than enough time for the parties to review what the People now have good reason to believe is the limited number of relevant records in the USAO's recent productions. This Court should accordingly deny defendant's request for more extreme sanctions," the filing continued.
The Department of Justice had notified Trump's legal team and Bragg's office that it planned to produce 15,000 records as potential evidence late last week. The DOJ investigated the hush-money payment matter while Trump was president.
The U.S. Attorneys Office said much of the material is unrelated to the state case against Trump. Federal prosecutors have already provided at least 104,000 pages of records — 74,000 of which initially went just to Bragg's office and not to Trump's lawyers.
Bragg's office has since turned over those 74,000 pages to the defense.
The records from federal prosecutors pertain to a federal investigation that touched on the hush money matter and led to prison time for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Trump's lawyers were seeking a 90-day delay or a dismissal of the charges against him, arguing that there were violations in the discovery process, whereby both sides exchange materials. Defense lawyers claimed that a 30-day adjournment was "insufficient" and asked Merchan to schedule a hearing on discovery.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from alleged hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress, during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report.