Donald Trump's 1st criminal trial confirmed for next month in New York
Jury selection set to begin March 25 in case involving business records, hush money allegations
Donald Trump's trial on charges he falsified business records to hide secret payments to three individuals ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection starting on March 25, a judge ruled Thursday.
Trump, who was in the courtroom in New York on Thursday, pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to bury stories about extramarital affairs.
Payments were made to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about Trump having a child out of wedlock.
Trump, who is the leading candidate to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024, says he didn't have any of the alleged sexual encounters with the two women.
Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 US and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in a practice known as "catch-and-kill."
Trump's company then paid Cohen $420,000 and logged the payments as legal expenses, not reimbursements, prosecutors said.
Trump's legal team has argued that no crime was committed in the case brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg.
But the case will proceed and make history, as it's the first time a former president has faced a criminal proceeding.
Trial to collide with primary schedule
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan's ruling on Thursday, which rejected requests for a delay from the former president's defence lawyers, took advantage of a delay in a separate federal prosecution in Washington charging Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case had a March 4 trial date pencilled in, but that was put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal from Trump.
Over the past year, Trump has lashed out at Merchan as a "Trump-hating judge," asked him to step down from the case and sought to move the case from state court to federal court, all to no avail. Merchan has acknowledged making several small donations to Democrats, including $15 to Trump's rival Joe Biden, but said he's certain of his "ability to be fair and impartial."
The trial is expected to last up to six weeks, the judge said. The charges are punishable by up to four years in prison, although there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in prison time.
Assuming the New York case remains on schedule, it will open just weeks after the Super Tuesday primary elections on March 5, colliding on the political calendar with a time period in which Trump will be looking to mathematically sew up the Republican race.
His attorneys cited that schedule in vigorously objecting to the March trial date.
"It is completely election interference to say 'you are going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan,' when there is no reason," said defence lawyer Todd Blanche. "What about his rights?"
Speaking to reporters in a courthouse hallway, Trump made a similar case, asserting to reporters that the case was being brought to hurt him politically and would interfere with his campaigning.
"How can you run for election if you're sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long? I'm supposed to be in South Carolina now," said Trump.
The New York investigation predates Trump's November 2022 announcement that he was running for president again. The case has its roots spanning back to Trump's first term as president, under Bragg predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr.
Trump, without providing evidence, has characterized the probes from Bragg and Vance, both Democrats, as being politically motivated.
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Other trial dates not set in stone
The former president faces 91 criminal charges over four criminal indictments, but it is unclear when the other trials will take place.
Trump faces a four-count criminal indictment alleging he conspired to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Biden's 2020 election victory. The Supreme Court is expected to weigh in soon on an immunity issue Trump has raised, which was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. The top court could consider the case or decline to, in which case the district court judge in D.C. would shortly thereafter set a trial date.
Trump also faces a scheduled May 20 trial in Florida on allegations he unlawfully retained government documents after leaving the presidency in early 2021, but the pace of pre-trial rulings and hearings has called into question whether that start date will be kept.
He is also the defendant in a 13-count indictment that details alleged acts he undertook to reverse his 2020 election defeat in Georgia. A date has yet to be set for that trial, and a two-day hearing was underway on Thursday, looking into misconduct allegations levelled at the district attorney overseeing the case.
Trump is also awaiting a decision, possibly as early as Friday, in a New York civil fraud case that threatens to upend his real estate empire.
If the judge rules against Trump, who is accused of inflating his wealth to defraud banks, insurers and others, he could be on the hook for millions of dollars in penalties, among other sanctions.
With files from CBC News