A grim-looking Donald Trump was in a New York courtroom Monday where the judge in the former president’s hush money case is expected to set a new trial date.
“This is a witch hunt. This is a hoax,” Trump said on his way into the courtroom.
Judge Juan Merchan had postponed the trial, originally scheduled to begin Monday, until at least mid-April after federal prosecutors belatedly turned over mounds of evidence related to a key witness in the case, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the falsifying business records charges against the former president, said he supported a 30-day delay in the proceedings in response to Trump’s request for a postponement in order to review documents that federal prosecutors had begun turning over related to their prosecution of former longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Bragg’s office, however, warned Merchan against delaying the trial further, saying that it should proceed April 15 because fewer than 300 of more than 170,000 documents turned over by federal prosecutors are potentially relevant to Trump’s criminal defense.
The late document production came after Trump’s attorneys asked for more documents from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan. In the hearing, Merchan pressed Trump’s lawyers on why they had not alerted him to the issue earlier.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche told the judge that they hadn’t thought the judge could do anything about the issue, but apologized for not having raised the issue earlier.
Trump’s lawyers have pointed fingers at the district attorney’s office for failing to obtain the records sooner and asked Merchan to toss out the charges. The DA’s office decried the arguments by Trump’s counsel as a “red herring.”
Merchan tried to press Trump’s lawyer to provide a firm number of documents that need to be reviewed. Blanche pushed back on the DA’s position that only 300 documents were relevant and said they’re still looking through Cohen’s emails, bank records and interview notes. “We got the materials a week ago. We’re still going through them,” Blanche said, as his client appeared to listen intently.
Merchan scheduled the Monday hearing after Trump’s attorney’s filed a motion related to document production in the case, and said he would set a new trial date “if necessary” upon ruling on the motion.
Bragg has alleged that Trump had fraudulently altered business records related to hush money payments that he signed off on. Cohen claimed that Trump directed him to pay $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Daniels maintains that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, following his marriage to Melania Trump.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges in the hush money case and continues to deny having a sexual encounter with Daniels. But the former president has acknowledged making repayments to Cohen, who is expected to appear as a key witness in the trial.
Merchan last week denied Trump’s request to bar Cohen and Daniels from testifying in the case. In a court filing last month, Trump’s lawyers argued that Cohen and Daniels shouldn’t testify because they are “liars.”
in 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges, including making secret payments to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, making false claims before Congress about the then-president’s business dealings with Russia and failing to report millions of dollars in income.
Monday’s hearing in the hush money case comes the same day as a deadline for Trump to pay more than $450 million for bond in the New York civil fraud case against him. Trump has appealed that ruling and vowed to challenge it “all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.”
Tom Winter, Lisa Rubin and Cat Corrigan contributed.