Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after attending the wake of New York City Police Department (NYPD) Officer Jonathan Diller, who died in Massapequa Park, Queens, New York, on March 25. Shot while conducting a routine traffic stop in the Rockaways. York, USA, March 28, 2024.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
A judge on Wednesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s last-ditch effort to delay his hush-money trial, scheduled to begin on April 15 in New York.
Trump asked Judge Juan Merchant The case comes after the trial was postponed until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on his presidential immunity in a separate criminal case in federal court in Washington, D.C., related to his attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Merchant dismissed the request, saying Trump had “countless opportunities” to make his argument for immunity in the hush-money case before March 7, when his lawyers first made the request. .
“Defendant’s motion is denied as untimely,” Merchant wrote in the decision.
The judge also wrote that he declined to consider whether the doctrine of presidential immunity prevents prosecutors from presenting evidence at trial of alleged official acts of the president.
The actions include statements Trump made on social media and during interviews with potential witnesses in the case from 2017 to early 2021 while he was president.
Trump is accused in the Manhattan Supreme Court case of falsifying business records related to a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges.
Trump’s then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for keeping quiet about an alleged one-time tryst with Trump a decade ago to prevent her from damaging his bid for the White House Opportunity.
Trump denies having sex with Daniels.
Merchant wrote in the ruling that Trump’s lawyers “failed to explain why the defendant filed a pretrial motion seeking to delay the trial until after the statutory deadline of 45 days before trial.”
The trial was originally scheduled to begin on March 25, but the inquest was postponed.
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