NEW YORK – Delays in Donald Trump’s criminal cases are expanding the chance Americans will be deep into the presidential election season earlier than they know whether or not or now not he has been convicted of any wrongdoing.
The former president’s Washington, D.C., election interference case is on cling till the Supreme Court makes a decision his immunity claims. His Florida classified documents trial is additionally most likely to be put off. And his Georgia election subversion trial hasn’t been scheduled.
Now, his New York hush-money criminal trial — as soon as idea to be essentially the most punctual of the 4 — is in scheduling limbo, driven off no less than till mid-April. The factor: last-minute proof dumps from a 2018 federal investigation into the similar problems.
After Trump’s legal professionals complained, the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace stated it might be open to a 30-day lengthen to be certain that his protection workforce has plentiful time to evaluation the fabric. Trump’s legal professionals wanted a 90-day lengthen and have additionally requested that the case thrown out.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan scheduled a listening to for March 25 — the day jury variety was once intended to start — to type out the late-breaking problems. Here’s a take a look at what is in the back of the disruption.
WHAT IS THE HUSH-MONEY CASE ABOUT?
The case comes to an alleged scheme to save you potentially damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public right through Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump just about a 12 months in the past with falsifying internal records kept by his company to conceal the character of bills made to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000. She stated she had an extramarital sexual come across with Trump. He denies it.
Trump’s corporate then reimbursed Cohen at an quantity way over what he’d spent and logged the bills as prison bills, prosecutors stated. Over a number of months, Cohen stated he were given $420,000.
Trump pleaded not guilty final 12 months to 34 felony counts of falsifying industry data. His legal professionals argue the bills to Cohen had been respectable prison bills.
WHY DID TRUMP’S LAWYERS WANT A DELAY?
Trump’s legal professionals say they’re being inundated with late-arriving proof — greater than 100,000 pages of data from a separate federal probe into Cohen that concluded years in the past. Cohen pleaded in charge to marketing campaign violations and different unrelated crimes and served a couple of 12 months in jail.
Trump’s legal professionals say they want time to evaluation the fabric became over via the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Manhattan, which incorporates financial institution data, witness statements and different proof.
Trump’s legal professionals blame Manhattan prosecutors for now not urgent their federal opposite numbers to quit the proof quicker. The U.S. lawyer’s workplace in the end began generating paperwork on March 4 after Trump’s legal professionals subpoenaed them in January.
A last batch with about 15,000 pages was once anticipated to be became over Friday, bringing the whole to about 119,000 pages.
Trump’s legal professionals say one of the crucial data are “exculpatory and favorable to the defense.” Prosecutors contend many of the subject matter is “largely irrelevant.”
Exchanging evidence before a trial is routine.
WHY DIDN’T THEY GET THESE RECORDS SOONER?
Trump’s lawyers allege the Manhattan D.A.’s office was trying to hide evidence as part of a “desperate effort” to acquire a bonus at trial.
“The People should have collected all of these documents long ago,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles wrote in court papers. “Instead, they collected some materials but left others with the federal authorities, in the hope that President Trump would never get them.”
Bragg’s office argued that Trump’s lawyers caused the time crunch by waiting until Jan. 18 to subpoena the U.S. attorney’s office for all the records it wanted.
In a court filing made public Thursday, the D.A.’s office said it requested the full file last year, but the U.S. attorney’s office only turned over a subset of records. Trump’s lawyers received that material last June and had ample time to seek additional evidence from the federal probe, the D.A.’s office said.
On Friday, the D.A.’s office clarified that it had not requested the full case file from the U.S. attorney’s office because much of what was in it wasn’t relevant.
The U.S. lawyer’s workplace declined remark.
WHAT WAS THE FEDERAL INVESTIGATION ABOUT?
Federal prosecutors investigated Cohen over a variety of concerns, including tax issues related to a taxi business he operated, and questions about whether he was attempting to profit illegally from his connections to Trump.
The case eventually narrowed, however, and in 2018 Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations related to the payment to Daniels, making false statements on a bank loan application and evading taxes. A few months later, he pleaded guilty for lying to Congress.
In their case against Cohen, federal prosecutors said the hush-money payment was made to benefit Trump and occurred with his knowledge, but they stopped short of accusing Trump of directly committing a crime.
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which gives prison recommendation and steerage to federal businesses, has maintained that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Federal prosecutors didn’t revive their investigation as soon as Trump left the White House.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT IN THE NEW YORK CASE?
Merchan is holding a hearing March 25 to determine whether anyone deserves to be penalized for the delays in documents being turned over to Trump’s legal team. Trump’s lawyers have asked for the case to be thrown out.
Trump’s lawyers have also asked the judge to delay the trial until the Supreme Court rules on Trump’s presidential immunity claims. His lawyers say a ruling in Trump’s favor could negate some evidence in the hush-money case, such as social media posts he made while president in 2018.
The Manhattan D.A.’s office says Trump’s immunity claims have little bearing on his hush-money case and don’t warrant a delay.
WHAT ABOUT TRUMP’S OTHER CASES?
“We want delays,” Trump proclaimed as he headed into a Feb. 15 hearing in the hush-money case. So far, he’s getting his way.
Neither of Trump’s two federal prosecutions — in Florida and Washington, D.C. — are guaranteed for trial this year, in part because of his efforts to stall the proceedings. His Georgia election interference trial hasn’t been scheduled. That case was rocked Friday by a judge’s ruling prompting special prosecutor Nathan Wade to step aside.
Trump’s trial in Florida, where he’s charged with illegally retaining classified documents, had been set for May 20. But it’s been clear for months that date would not hold as the judge has weighed multiple challenges to the indictment and various evidentiary disputes.
U.S. District Judge Alieen Cannon has given no hint of when she intends to set a trial date.
“We very much believe that a trial that takes place before the election is a mistake and should not happen,” Blanche told Cannon. “The easy solution is to start this trial after the election.”
Trump’s Washington, D.C., case, involving allegations he plotted to overturn the 2020 election, had been seen as the most likely one to reach trial first — but that’s no longer the case.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had scheduled the trial for March 4, but that was upended by a Trump appeal contending that he was immune from prosecution for official acts taken in the White House.
The judge put the case on hold as the appeal made its way through the courts. That decision created significant uncertainty about whether there’ll be enough time for a trial before the election — assuming the high court permits the prosecution.
HOW DOES TRUMP BENEFIT FROM DELAYS?
The longer Trump’s trials are put off, the more he’ll argue that it’s impractical and unfair to stick him in a courtroom instead of leaving him to campaign. But there are practical benefits as well.
If Trump becomes president, he could direct the Justice Department to drop the federal cases or attempt to pardon himself. But he would not be able to pardon himself in the hush-money or Georgia cases because they involve state charges. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.
In the meantime, if there’s a rush to try Trump before Election Day — now eight months away — the judge in the hush-money case said he can rest assured that he won’t be forced to decide between attending overlapping trials.
“He’s not going to be in more than one criminal trial at the same time,” Merchan stated.
__
Tucker reported from Fort Pierce, Florida.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This subject matter won’t be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.