Will Trump NY hush money case go to trial? Hearing to look at dismissal or trial date.
Will former President Donald Trump's New York criminal hush money case soon go to trial, after he managed to get a March 25 trial date wiped from the calendar? A court hearing on Monday could answer that question.
Judge Juan Merchan will be listening to arguments from Trump's legal team as well as from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought 34 felony counts against the Republican presumptive presidential nominee. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, made the payment and, according to prosecutors, was later reimbursed by Trump.
The March 25 trial date was replaced by the hearing after New York federal prosecutors started sending Trump troves of new documents in March, totaling more than 100,000 pages. Federal and state prosecutors have both run investigations that involved Cohen, who spent time in prison after pleading guilty to federal tax and campaign finance crimes in 2018.
Trump's lawyers said the documents contain "voluminous exculpatory evidence relating to Cohen," who could be a central witness for the prosecution. They asked Merchan in a March 8 motion to dismiss the whole case, arguing that Bragg's state prosecutorial office should have obtained and turned over the documents itself but instead was trying to suppress them.
If Merchan keeps the case alive, Trump's team wants a substantial trial delay. They estimated in their March 8 filing that at least a 90-day delay would be needed to review the documents, but wanted to wait for all the documents to come in to make a precise request.
Merchan so far has only ruled that a trial won't start before mid-April. He scheduled the hearing to address Trump's motion, the circumstances behind the late document dumps, and scheduling a trial date "if one is necessary."
According to Bragg's office, all the documents were in by March 15. His prosecutors fought back against claims of misconduct, calling them "wild and untrue." They said in a March 21 court filing that starting the trial in mid April provides Trump with a reasonable amount of time to review the new documents since only a limited number are relevant to the case. Although their review was ongoing, they pointed specifically to about 270 documents that they identified as both relevant and not previously turned over, and said those documents largely support the prosecution's case.
Stormy Daniels, 'Access Hollywood' comments: What a trial could look like
Even as the documents dispute has run on, Merchan has issued significant rulings on what a trial could look like. He said on March 18 that both Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen will be allowed to testify. Trump's team tried to keep them out, arguing that Michael Cohen shouldn't be allowed to testify because he has admitted to lying under oath in a different context, and characterizing Stormy Daniels' accounts as "contrived" and "inflammatory."
Merchan said Daniels' testimony could help prosecutors complete their narrative of what led Trump to falsify business records, and that Trump didn't offer proof Cohen perjured himself in this case.
Merchan also said testimony about Trump’s infamous “Access Hollywood” tape comments, but not the tape itself, could come in. Trump said on that tape: “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful (women) – I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” Trump also referred in vulgar terms to grabbing women’s genitals.
Merchan blocked the tape itself out of a concern it could inflict undue prejudice against Trump in the eyes of the jury. But he will allow testimony about it because the government is arguing Trump and his campaign team were concerned after the tape's release about issues with women hurting his 2016 presidential candidacy.
"Thus, the tape helps establish Defendant's intent and motive for making the payment to Daniels and then" trying to conceal it, Merchan wrote.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Trump NY hush money case go to trial? We may find out Monday.
