For decades as a New York real estate developer, landlord, and public figure, Donald Trump’s legal strategy was three-pronged: delay, then delay, and delay again.
That approach met its rival Monday morning in the form of Judge Juan M. Merchán, who is overseeing Trump’s trial on charges related to hush money payments to a porn star.
He sidestepped Trump’s defense lawyers, who said they needed more time to prepare and accused prosecutors of deliberately keeping them in the dark, and ordered the trial to begin April 15.
‘That you don’t have a case right now is really baffling because the allegation the defense makes in all their documents is incredibly serious. Incredibly serious,” Merchan said in his Manhattan courtroom.
‘You’re accusing the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and the people involved in this case of prosecutorial misconduct and trying to make me an accomplice.’ And you don’t have a single quote to support that position.
Former President Donald Trump sat stone-faced in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday morning. She was told he will go to trial on April 25 and face 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His legal team had requested more time to prepare a defense.
Trump is accused of hiding $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels for her silence, as part of an effort to prevent voters from learning about their alleged affair during his 2016 presidential campaign.
For any political figure, the exchange would have been an extraordinary way to start a week in which they should have been campaigning for the White House.
For Trump, it was just one of two cases that unfolded in New York.
A state appeals court down the street gave him a victory of sorts. He gave him a financial break in a $454 million civil fraud case, allowing him to avoid losing assets if he can post bail less than $175 million within 10 days.
And he still had time to compare himself to Jesus on social networks. All before lunch.
The net result is that you gained one delay but lost another.
The hush money case will move forward in three weeks. It may prove to be the only one of the four criminal cases to begin before the election.
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor, said in X: ‘“A huge victory for justice, a huge loss for Trump’s strategy of delay, delay, delay.”
Trump’s lawyers had asked for a delay of at least 90 days for what they said were “violations” by prosecutors in handing over documents.
The former president is accused of hiding $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels for her silence, as part of an effort to prevent voters from learning about their alleged affair during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Judge Juan M. Merchán dismissed Trump’s lawyers who argued for a delay in the trial
Trump spoke to reporters at his 40th Wall Street building after leaving the courthouse.
Trump has made no secret of the strategy. “We want delays,” he said when he arrived for a hearing last month.
His two federal prosecutions (the documents case in Florida and a 2020 election case in Washington, D.C.) have disappeared into the future, possibly after the November election.
Fani Willis, prosecutor in the Georgia voter fraud case, intends to set a start date during the summer. She has yet to set a timetable and has been rocked by revelations of a romantic relationship with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade, who was forced to resign from the team.
Trump’s team is planning another appeal in that case, this time again seeking to disqualify Willis from the case.
For the past few days, his biggest headache has been a civil fraud case and the posting of a huge bond to avoid the $454 million sentence before the New York attorney general began seizing his businesses and property.
On Monday his appeal was successful. An appeals court gave him 10 days to post bail of less than $175 million.
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard Law professor, said in X that Trump’s delaying strategy had failed
Trump left his Trump Tower apartment Monday morning, one of the properties potentially at risk from the New York attorney general’s action.
Trump then said he would quickly get that money, even before news emerged that his stake in the company behind his Truth Social platform had ballooned to more than $6 billion after a merger was approved last week. .
“So a lot happened today,” he said in an unusually low-key comment to reporters gathered at his property at 40 Wall Street, one of the addresses at risk if he couldn’t raise the funds.
But he quickly fired back at prosecutors who were pursuing him in court, accusing them of election interference.
They are dying to start this. The judge can’t go any faster. “He’s really looking forward to getting started,” he said.
But he added that the effort was counterproductive.
“It may also make me more popular because people know it’s a scam,” he said. “It’s a Biden trial.”
The value of Trump’s stake in the company behind his Truth Social platform soared to more than $6 billion on Monday after a merger was approved last week.
Trump shared a message from a follower who compared him to Jesus
You may not be wrong. Even without waging conventional campaigning, Trump mopped up with what strategists call “earned media,” dominating the day’s headlines without paying a dime for airtime.
And of all the trials, the New York fraud case (which could conclude by the end of May) is the least damaging to his electoral hopes, according to pollster James Johnson of JL Partners.
“Voters see New York as the most politically motivated,” he said.
“And voters, especially independents, generally feel that this is a distraction and a persecution of Trump, and that Trump should be able to contest the election fairly, and that the prosecutor should focus on other issues, including what they see as an increase of violent crimes”. ‘
The result, he said, was great exposure for Trump with a slight positive boost for the former president among voters.