New York Judge Sets Date for Trump’s First Criminal Trial

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Donald Trump’s hush-money trial will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection starting on March 25, a New York judge ruled Thursday, turning aside demands for a delay from the former president’s defense lawyers.

The decision sets the stage for a case centered on years-old accusations that Trump sought to bury stories about extramarital affairs that arose during his 2016 presidential campaign. It will be the first of the four criminal prosecutions against Trump to proceed to trial.

Other cases charge him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and illegally keeping classified documents at his Florida estate.

In leaving the trial date intact, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan took advantage of a delay in the separate prosecution in Washington related to efforts to overturn the election. That case, originally set for trial on March 4, has been effectively on hold pending the outcome of an appeal from Trump on the legally untested question of whether a former president enjoys immunity from prosecution.

Noting that he resisted defense lawyer urgings from months ago to postpone the trial, Merchan said: “I’m glad I took that position because here we are — the D.C. case did not go forward.”

The hush money trial is expected to last up to six weeks, the judge said.

Assuming the New York case remains on schedule, it will open just weeks after the Super Tuesday elections, colliding on the political calendar with a time period in which Trump will be looking to mathematically sew up the Republican race and emerge as the presumptive nominee in this year’s presidential contest. His attorneys cited that schedule in vigorously objecting to the March trial date.

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