Trump slated to appear in court for hush money case hearing

Donald Trump’s hush money case will be subject to a key hearing on Monday, as a New York judge determines the timeline, or even legitimacy, of a trial for the former president. The court date replaces the original planned commencement of jury selection for the first of Trump’s four criminal cases. The trial was rescheduled for at least mid-April due to the last-minute introduction of thousands of pages of documentation from a prior federal investigation.

Trump’s legal counsel has argued that because of these late disclosures, the case should be delayed by three months or completely dismissed. However, prosecutors refute this, claiming that the newly submitted documents contain little substantial new material and do not justify a further delay. To resolve this issue, New York Judge Juan M Merchan has summoned both parties to court to deliberate on the optimal next steps.

Trump is faced with charges for falsifying business records, an action Manhattan prosecutors claim was part of an effort to safeguard his 2016 campaign by dismissing alleged false accounts of extramarital sex. Trump has pleaded not guilty to these charges, dismissing the prosecution as politically-motivated nonsense. The prosecutor overseeing the case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is a registered Democrat.

The case pivots on the allegation that Trump falsely recorded $130,000 in payments as legal fees within his company’s records in an effort to “disguise his and others’ criminal conduct”, according to Bragg’s deputies. These funds were paid to Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen, but prosecutors argue they weren’t for legal services. They suggest that Cohen was merely recouping money he’d paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf to ensure she didn’t publicize her allegations of a past sexual encounter with Trump. Trump’s lawyers contest that the payments to Cohen were indeed legitimate legal costs, not bribes.

Trump’s lawyers have also requested that the trial be delayed until after the Supreme Court ruling on claims of presidential immunity in his election interference case, the hearing for which is scheduled for April 25. Prosecutors contend that, regardless of the document dump, most of what came from it is either irrelevant, duplicate or supports existing evidence regarding Cohen’s well-known federal conviction.