A date was scheduled for March 25 to kickoff Donald Trump's first criminal trial, for which arguments are being prepared on charges that the former president falsified business records to hide an alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. But, after Trump's team requested a delay to review a dump of new evidence that just came in, things are getting pushed down the calendar a bit.
On Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg suggested a 30-day delay to the trial — considerably less than the 90 days that Trump's team asked for — stating in a motion to the court that "the USAO produced approximately 31,000 pages of additional records and represented that there will be another production of documents by next week."
Realizing that the delay works in Trump's favor, The DA's office addressed this, writing, "We note that the timing of the current production of additional materials from the USAO is a function of defendant's own delay. Adding that they "waited until January 18, 2024 to subpoena additional materials from the USAO and then consented to repeated extensions of the deadline for the USAO's determination."
As Salon broke down in previous coverage of the case, in October 2016, mere weeks before the presidential election, Trump hid from voters his alleged one-night stand with adult film star Stormy Daniels, fearing the scandal would derail his campaign, especially after the whole “grab them by the p***y” ordeal that happened around the same time.
In a statement from Trump Campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung posted to Truth Social, he comments on the delay while persisting that the charges are bogus, writing, "President Trump and his counsel have been consistent and steadfast that this case has no basis in law or fact, and should be dismissed. Today, after conceding serious discovery violations by his office, the Manhattan DA agreed to an adjournment. We will continue to fight to end this Hoax, and all of the other Crooked Joe Biden - directed Witch Hunts, once and for all."
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