Trump ‘hush money’ trial set for April 15
NEW YORK (AFP) – Donald Trump will in three weeks become the first former US president to face a criminal trial, a judge ruled on Monday, hours after an appeals court threw the tycoon a lifeline in his bid to stave off an unrelated, half-billion-dollar civil fraud judgment.
New York Judge Juan Merchan rejected demands from Trump’s attorneys to further delay his trial on charges of paying hush money to a porn star and ordered jury selection to begin on April 15.
The Republican presidential candidate denounced the upcoming trial and other cases brought against him as “election interference” by Democrat Joe Biden, his likely opponent in the November White House vote.
“I don’t know how you can have a trial that’s going on right in the middle of an election,” he said. “It’s not fair.”
Trump is in prosecutors’ crosshairs for a series of alleged crimes, ranging from falsifying business records in the hush money case to trying to overturn the 2020 election.
While Trump has successfully forced delays in his other trials, Merchan’s decision sets the stage for the shocking spectacle of a former president potentially becoming a felon.
Asked if he would take the witness stand in the hush money case, Trump said he “would have no problem testifying.”
Trump, 77, got better news in a separate New York appeals court decision in his civil fraud case to slash a potentially crippling $454 million bond payment to just $175 million, with 10 extra days to pay.
Trump had been facing a Monday deadline to fork up the huge original bond pending an appeal against a New York state judge’s decision that he is liable for fraudulently conspiring to inflate his net worth.
Trump risked seeing New York authorities confiscate parts of his real estate empire if he failed to come up with the bond, but the appeals court decision gives him breathing room.
“I greatly respect the decision of the appellate division and I will post $175 million in cash and bonds or security or whatever is necessary very quickly, within the 10 days,” he said.
In the hush money trial, Trump faces charges of falsifying business records for the payments made by his lawyer Michael Cohen on the eve of the 2016 presidential election to make sure porn star Stormy Daniels did not publicize a sexual encounter.