2024-03-16 11:55:48
The trial scheduled for March 25 will have to wait a bit. This Friday, a New York judge postponed until mid-April the historic criminal trial of Donald Trump in a case of hidden payments to an adult film actress, offering a new respite to the presidential candidate. The former Republican president, who hopes to be re-elected in November against the outgoing Democrat Joe Biden, has been seeking for months to delay as many as four criminal trials in which he is being prosecuted. Never seen.
In the case of payments to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels with whom Donald Trump allegedly had an extramarital affair in 2006, “the trial is adjourned for 30 days from the date” of March 14, the judge ruled of the Supreme Court (trial court, editor’s note) of the State of New York for Manhattan, Juan Merchan. Which means this criminal trial might not start until around April 15.
“We will continue to fight to put an end to this bogus affair,” reacted a spokesperson for the 77-year-old former head of state in a statement, while the New York Supreme Court will hold a preliminary hearing on March 25 to decide on a new date, according to Judge Merchan.
The reasons for the postponement
This offers a new respite to the Republican Party candidate in the November 5 presidential election. The Manhattan prosecutor’s office said Thursday that it was “ready for a trial on March 25”, as planned, but without “opposing a postponement of up to 30 days to allow the defense to examine” new documents submitted to the procedure. Some 31,000 pages of court documents have been produced in recent days.
Donald Trump’s lawyers demanded “an immediate adjournment” and estimated that “30 days would be insufficient given the volume of documents produced.” The defense wanted 90 days and asked to wait for the Supreme Court in Washington to decide on the question of his presidential criminal immunity.
A possible four-year prison sentence
The businessman and political tribune has always described this Stormy Daniels affair as “phony” and denied any relationship with this woman, Stephanie Clifford, her real name. He pleaded not guilty to charges of having disguised the accounts of his real estate empire, the Trump Organization, to conceal the payment of $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford, just before the November 2016 presidential election which he won.
This payment was intended to keep him silent about a sexual relationship they allegedly had in 2006 when Donald Trump was already married to Melania. In this case, he is charged with 34 accounting frauds punishable by a maximum sentence of four years in prison in the most serious cases.
Appeal after appeal
Donald Trump has increased the appeals and challenges in the four criminal cases against him, with the hope of not being tried or convicted before the November election. He has already succeeded in delaying the federal trial in Washington which was to begin on March 4 for illicit attempts to reverse the result of the November 2020 election won by Joe Biden.
The procedure is suspended while the question of presidential immunity is decided by the Supreme Court, which will debate it on April 25 but will not rule before June or July.
The trial in Florida on the presidential archives, scheduled for May 20, should be postponed for several months, the judge wanting a fairly spaced schedule due to the risk of overlap with other cases. Finally, the judge in a trial in the state of Georgia for attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election in this key state on Friday rejected the prosecutor’s request for withdrawal but demanded a reorganization of her team.
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