8:08 a.m. ET, March 25, 2024
Trump’s hush money trial was set to begin right this moment. Here’s what to know in regards to the listening to occurring as a substitute
Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters throughout a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s first felony trial was presupposed to begin Monday. Instead, his attorneys will get the possibility to argue for a prolonged postponement and even a dismissal of the fees.
Judge Juan Merchan is holding a pre-trial listening to in New York on Monday to debate the invention points that led to the delay of the trial on prices introduced by the Manhattan district legal professional associated to hush money funds till no less than the center of subsequent month.
What occurred? The trial was postponed and Monday’s listening to was ordered after greater than 100,000 new paperwork have been turned over by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, associated to the 2018 prosecution of Trump’s former lawyer Cohen, who’s a key witness within the case. Trump’s attorneys say the brand new info is probably exculpatory for the previous president and so they want no less than 90 days to correctly evaluation the brand new materials – a delay that matches with the previous president’s total efforts to delay all 4 felony trials he’s dealing with till after the November election. Merchan mentioned the trial postponement can be 30 days from the date of his letter, March 15, which means the earliest the trial might begin is April 15. The decide made clear that the listening to would solely give attention to the doc manufacturing from the Southern District of New York, and never different points such because the grievance from Trump’s attorneys {that a} new documentary about Daniels was supposed to be launched near the beginning of trial to prejudice the jury pool.
What are the paperwork? The paperwork in query relate to the 2018 federal investigation into Cohen that led to prices on marketing campaign finance violations and tax evasion. The bulk of the paperwork embrace data relied upon to acquire search warrants for Cohen’s gadgets and houses, together with financial institution data. The US legal professional’s workplace additionally turned over 30,000 pages associated to paperwork seized from 5 iPhones and e-mail accounts related to Cohen. In addition, prosecutors mentioned the US legal professional’s workplace turned over FBI interview notes from particular counsel Robert Mueller’s interviews with Cohen, which the workplace solely obtained in December because of Freedom of Information Act litigation. In all, greater than 200,000 pages of data this month have been handed over.
Why have been the paperwork turned over so late? Trump’s attorneys and prosecutors are pointing fingers at each other over the rationale the US legal professional’s workplace didn’t flip over tens of 1000’s of paperwork till this month. Trump’s workforce alleged that the district legal professional was attempting to cover exculpatory proof forward of the trial, and that the US legal professional’s workplace solely turned it over following a January subpoena from Trump’s attorneys. But the district legal professional says that Trump’s attorneys are guilty for the delay. Prosecutors argue that Trump’s attorneys raised no points with the doc manufacturing made in July 2023 till six months later with the January subpoena.
