Don locked into March ‘hush’ trial
Donald Trump’s “hush money” criminal trial will start in March — smack in the middle of Republican primary season — a New York judge ruled Thursday, over objections from the former president’s attorneys who argued it would interfere with his bid to regain the White House.
Justice Juan Manuel Merchan said during a Manhattan Supreme Court hearing that jury selection in the estimated six-week-long fudging business records case — the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to head to trial and the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president — will begin March 25.
“Instead of being in South Carolina and other states campaigning, I’m here,” Trump, 77, fumed outside the courtroom after the roughly two-hour hearing wrapped.
“I’ll be here during the day and I’ll be campaigning during the night,” he added. “Biden should be doing the same thing but he’ll be sleeping.”
Trump was allowed to come and go in civil cases he’s faced, but he’ll be required to attend every day of the Manhattan criminal trial in person.
Merchan issued his ruling at the start of the hearing, which the 2024 GOP presidential front-runner was forced to attend — and despite Trump lawyer Todd Blanche pleading that starting the trial on the previously scheduled date would be a “great injustice.”
Trump himself groused on his way into the courtroom that the case amounted to “election interference.”
“It’s a sad day for New York,” he complained in a hallway on the lower Manhattan courthouse’s 15th floor.
Merchan said he made his ruling after speaking with DC federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s federal criminal case alleging that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election after losing to President Biden.
That case was originally set to go to trial on March 4, but has been delayed amid a series of appeals by Trump’s camp.
‘Have to sit here’
Trump is charged with 34 felonies in the Manhattan case stemming from his alleged covering up of $310,000 in “hush money” payments made before the 2016 election — including funds that stopped porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal from going public with stories of secret trysts.
Merchan’s ruling means that, barring any last-minute delays, Trump will be forced to abandon the campaign trail to instead sit in the drab Manhattan criminal courthouse and listen to testimony that could reveal salacious details about his sex life and business practices.
“I’m gonna have to sit here for months on a trial. I think it’s ridiculous,” Trump said.