2024-03-16 01:05:55
The Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump has gained time in the New York trial over an alleged hush money payment to a porn actress. Judge Juan Merchan decided on Friday to postpone the start of the main trial, which was originally scheduled for March 25, by 30 days.
An exact start date still needs to be fixed, judge Juan Merchan decided on Friday. Instead, only a hearing will take place on March 25th at which the matter will be discussed in more detail. “There are significant factual issues for the court to resolve,” Judge Merchan said in his reasoning. There has never been a criminal trial once morest a former US president in history.
Both Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors had asked the New York court for a postponement, citing tens of thousands of pages of newly arrived documents that still needed to be examined. At a hearing in mid-February, Judge Merchan actually confirmed that the trial – as set last year – should begin on March 25 with jury selection. In his decision to postpone, he mainly addressed the public prosecutor’s argument and followed it. Merchan demanded that it be clarified how the documents might have been sent so late. The public prosecutor’s office initially did not comment following the decision.
For Trump, who will be re-elected US President in November and wants to delay the many trials once morest him as much as possible, the postponement is a success. “We will continue to fight to end this fraud,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for his campaign team, said following the decision, according to US media. All trials once morest Trump are part of a “witch hunt” that was commissioned by the current US President Joe Biden. A total of four criminal trials once morest Trump are currently being prepared, and the ex-president and his lawyers have already successfully blocked or delayed some of them. In addition, several civil lawsuits are ongoing and others have already been concluded.
The case primarily revolves around a hush money payment of $130,000 to the porn actress Stormy Daniels – the money flowed in 2016 shortly before Trump was elected president. She had claimed that she had had sex with him. Trump denies an affair, but does not deny that money was flowed. Non-disclosure agreements between two parties are not illegal. However, Trump is accused of illegally recording the payments, trying to conceal them illegally and thereby trying to cover up other violations of the law. The ex-president has pleaded not guilty.
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