New York prosecutors who charged former President Donald Trump with making hush money payments to a former porn star during the 2016 campaign are seeking to delay the start of Trump’s trial by up to 30 days, according to their latest filing.
Lawyers for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg proposed the delay to ensure Trump’s counsel could have time to review a new slate of records relevant to the indictment.
“Specifically, yesterday the [U.S. Attorney’s Office] produced approximately 31,000 pages of additional records and represented that there will be another production of documents by next week,” prosecutors told Justice Juan Merchan on Thursday, adding that the total amount of pages to be produced will exceed 73,000.
The potential postponement of the trial, which is slated to begin with jury selection on March 25, would mark the latest delay on Trump’s legal schedule, which includes four criminal cases.
Defense attorneys also revealed two separate filings dated March 8 in an email to the Washington Examiner, including one that asks to delay the trial “at least 90 days” and one that requests not to set a new trial date until “USAO-SDNY has completed its productions to President Trump and the People so that all parties have a better sense of the volume of those materials.”
Amid delays in other criminal cases facing the former president, the Manhattan case will be the first to reach a trial, and it could be the only one to do so before Election Day despite efforts by federal prosecutors to see at least one of two cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith head to trial before November.
One of Smith’s cases alleges that Trump attempted to subvert the 2020 election and was supposed to go to trial this month. However, it is delayed while Trump appeals to the Supreme Court under the question of whether he has presidential immunity from his two federal indictments.
Merchan will ultimately have to approve the requested delay, and it is unclear when he will rule. It’s also unclear how Trump’s other cases will be affected if Merchan delays the trial.
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Trump’s lawyers responded to the new materials introduced by the U.S. attorney’s office, writing in a letter dated March 8 to Merchan that their client “requires additional time to review these untimely disclosures, potentially seek relief in motion practice depending on what is uncovered, and incorporate them into his defense strategy.”
Read the latest filing from Bragg’s office:
2024.03.14 People’s Notice by Kaelan Deese on Scribd
