Donald Trump seeks delay in New York hush money trial
Trump’s lawyers have sought to delay his various trials until after the November presidential election.
New York:
Donald Trump on Monday asked the New York judge hearing his hush money case to delay the trial until the US Supreme Court rules on his claim of presidential immunity.
Trump, 77, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is scheduled to go to trial in Manhattan on March 25 on charges of falsifying business records.
In a motion filed Monday, Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Juan Manuel Merchan to postpone the state’s lawsuit until the nation’s highest court rules on the former Republican president’s immunity claim.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the immunity case on April 25 and is not expected to issue a decision until late June or early July.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly sought to delay his various trials until after the November presidential election, which could potentially throw out all federal cases against him if he wins.
The former president is charged with 34 counts of accounting fraud related to pre-election payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
While the payments date back to before the 2016 election, Trump’s lawyers said prosecutors intend to introduce evidence from his time in the White House.
He argued that this raises the question of presidential immunity, because “Trump was President of the United States at the time of those actions in 2018.”
“Therefore, President Trump respectfully submits that it is appropriate to postpone the trial to await further guidance from the Supreme Court,” he said.
The hush money case dates back to the final days of the 2016 election when Trump was riding high on his shock victory as a political outsider against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
In March 2023, a New York grand jury indicted Trump over payments made to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Prosecutors say the money was paid to silence Daniels’ claims of an affair with Trump in 2006 — a year after he married former model Melania Trump.
At the end of the campaign, Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen arranged for a payment of $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for a pledge of confidentiality.
Trump is also accused of plotting to overturn the 2020 election in Washington, won by Democrat Joe Biden. That lawsuit is on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision in the immunity case.
And he faces fraud charges in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the election in the southern state.
The former president faces federal charges for refusing to turn over top secret documents after leaving the White House in Florida.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)