Judge delays Trump's hush-money criminal trial until mid-April, citing last-minute evidence dump
Last edited Fri Mar 15, 2024, 08:23 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: AP
Updated 6:26 PM EDT, March 15, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s New York hush-money criminal trial was delayed Friday until at least mid-April as the judge seeks answers about a last-minute evidence dump that the former president’s lawyers said has hampered their ability to prepare their defense.
Manhattan Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to a 30-day delay starting Friday and scheduled a hearing for March 25 after Trump’s lawyers complained that they only recently started receiving more than 100,000 pages of documents from a previous federal investigation into the matter.
The trial had been scheduled to start on March 25. The delay means the trial would start no earlier than April 15. Prosecutors had said they wouldn’t object to a short delay. Trump’s lawyers have requested a three-month delay as well as asking for the case to be thrown out.
In a statement Friday, the Trump campaign continued to argue that the case “has no basis in law or fact, and should be dismissed.”
In a letter Friday, Merchan told Manhattan prosecutors and Trump’s defense team that he wanted to assess “who, if anyone, is at fault for the late production of the documents,” whether it hurt either side and whether any sanctions are warranted
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-hush-money-criminal-trial-delay-8e41f4be00f0420056433d2381189df8
Article updated.
Previous article -
NEW YORK (AP) -- Donald Trump's hush-money criminal trial was delayed Friday until at least mid-April as the judge seeks answers about a last-minute evidence dump that the former president's lawyers said has hampered their ability to prepare their defense.
Manhattan Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to a 30-day delay starting Friday and set a hearing for March 25 to decide whether prosecutors should face sanctions or the case should be dismissed after Trump's lawyers complained that they only recently started receiving more than 100,000 pages of documents from a previous federal investigation into the matter.
The New York trial had been scheduled to start on March 25. The delay means the trial would start no earlier than April 15. In a letter Friday, Merchan told Manhattan prosecutors and Trump's defense team that he wanted to assess "who, if anyone, is at fault for the late production of the documents," whether it hurt either side and whether any sanctions are warranted.
The judge demanded a timeline of events detailing when the documents were requested and when they were turned over. He said he also want all correspondence between the Manhattan district attorney's office, which is prosecuting Trump, and the U.S. attorney's office, which previously investigated the matter in 2018.
Original article/headline -
Updated 4:42 PM EDT, March 15, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge on Friday delayed former President Donald Trump's hush-money criminal trial until at least mid-April after his lawyers said they needed more time to sift through a profusion of evidence they only recently obtained from a previous federal investigation into the matter.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to a 30-day postponement and scheduled a hearing for March 25 to address questions about the evidence dump. The trial had been slated to start on March 25. It is among four criminal indictments against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
Trump's lawyers wanted a 90-day delay, which would've pushed the start of the trial into the early summer. Prosecutors said they were OK with a 30-day adjournment "in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials."
Trump's lawyers said they have received tens of thousands of pages of evidence in the last two weeks from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, which investigated the hush money arrangement while Trump was president.
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Whoever it is should be indicted for obstructing justice. 
