Donald Trump’s legal team is using stalling tactics to delay the trial, an expert says. (document)
New York:
Prosecutors preparing for Donald Trump’s trial in New York over an alleged hush-money cover-up said Thursday they would accept a delay of up to 30 days after both sides received a trove of case documents, court documents showed.
Trump’s side had previously sought to delay the criminal trial that was due to begin on March 25, the first for a former US president. Trump, once again the Republican nominee in this year’s election, has been accused of covering up hush-money payments related to his successful 2016 bid for the White House.
The former president made a separate court appearance in Florida on Thursday as his team sought to dismiss charges of mishandling classified documents. He faces 34 counts of accounting fraud, including transactions related to payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The judge in the records case rejected Trump’s attempt to dismiss the case as “unconstitutionally vague” and did not rule on his team’s second challenge against prosecutors.
election rematch
In hush-money case, prosecutors say Trump illegally covered up money transfers to longtime aide Michael Cohen to repay him for burying stories about Trump’s alleged extramarital sex with Daniels and a Playboy model of payment. He denies the accusations.
A New York grand jury indicted Trump in March 2023 over payments to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
“(Prosecutors) do not object to a brief adjournment of up to 30 days to allow the defendants sufficient time to review the U.S. Attorney’s Office (documents),” the Manhattan district attorney said in a court filing.
“Yesterday afternoon … in response to defendants’ subpoenas, USAO provided approximately 31,000 pages of additional records to the People and the Defense and stated that additional records will be provided next week.”
Trump’s legal team said on its Truth Social platform that “this case has no legal or factual basis and should be dismissed.”
Trump has previously described the process as a “disgrace.”
“This is a rigged country. This is a rigged city. It’s a disgrace,” he previously said.
race against time
One expert says Trump’s legal team is using stalling tactics to delay the trial.
“Trump and his lawyers are doing everything they can to prevent any cases from being heard before the November election,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.
Trump faces four criminal cases as he campaigns to retake the White House, and his legal team has so far failed to delay an actual trial until after the Nov. 5 vote.
Trump has used his legal troubles to inflame his supporters and denounce Democratic rival Joe Biden, claiming the charges are “just a way to hurt me in the election.”
Biden and Trump each won enough delegates on Tuesday to clinch their party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential race, all but ensuring a rematch and kicking off one of the longest campaigns in U.S. history.
The results of Tuesday’s four statewide elections, the latest in a months-long march to identify Democratic and Republican standard-bearers, are essentially a foregone conclusion as current President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have defeated all major challenger.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
