Current:Home > MyWill Donald Trump go on trial next month in New York criminal case? Judge expected to rule Thursday -BeyondProfit Compass
Will Donald Trump go on trial next month in New York criminal case? Judge expected to rule Thursday
Fastexy Exchange View
Date:2025-04-07 07:20:43
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is expected to be back in a New York court Thursday for a hearing that could decide whether the former president’s first criminal trial begins in just 39 days.
The hearing to determine whether Trump’s March 25 hush-money trial date holds will be held in the same Manhattan courtroom where the he pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to bury stories about extramarital affairs that arose during his 2016 presidential campaign.
It would be Trump’s first return visit to court in the New York criminal case since that historic indictment made him the first ex-president charged with a crime. Since then, he has also been indicted in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan has taken steps in recent weeks to prepare for a trial. If it goes off as planned, it would be the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial.
Over the past year, Trump has lashed out at Merchan as a “Trump-hating judge,” asked him to step down from the case and sought to move the case from state court to federal court, all to no avail. Merchan has acknowledged making several small donations to Democrats, including $15 to Trump’s rival Joe Biden, but said he’s certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial.”
Thursday’s proceeding is part of a busy, overlapping stretch of legal activity for the Republican presidential front-runner, who has increasingly made his court involvement part of his political campaign.
The recent postponement of a March 4 trial date in Trump’s Washington, D.C. election interference case removed a major hurdle to starting the New York case on time.
Just as the New York hearing is getting underway, a judge in Atlanta is set to hear arguments Thursday over whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from Trump’s Georgia election interference case because of a “personal relationship” with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired for the case.
Trump is also awaiting a decision, possibly as early as Friday, in a New York civil fraud case that threatens to upend his real estate empire. If the judge rules against Trump, who is accused of inflating his wealth to defraud banks, insurers and others, he could be on the hook for millions of dollars in penalties among other sanctions.
Along with clarifying the trial schedule, Merchan is also expected to rule on key pretrial issues, including a request by Trump’s lawyers to throw out the case, which they have decried in court papers as a “discombobulated package of politically motivated charges marred by legal defects.”
Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, accuse Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, of bringing the case to interfere with Trump’s chances of retaking the White House. Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., declined to pursue a case on the same allegations.
The charges are punishable by up to four years in prison, though there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in prison time.
The case centers on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about Trump having a child out of wedlock. Trump says he didn’t have any of the alleged sexual encounters.
Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in a practice known as “catch-and-kill.”
Trump’s company then paid Cohen $420,000 and logged the payments as legal expenses, not reimbursements, prosecutors said. Bragg charged Trump last year with falsifying internal records kept by his company, the Trump Organization, to hide the true nature of payments.
Trump’s legal team has argued that no crime was committed.
___
Follow Sisak at x.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips
veryGood! (21)
Related
- Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
- Sinéad O'Connor's cause of death revealed: Reports
- 11-year-old accused of swatting, calling in 20-plus bomb threats to Florida schools
- Singer Autumn Nelon Streetman Speaks Out After Death of Family Members in Plane Crash
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- US swimmer Luke Hobson takes bronze in 200-meter freestyle 'dogfight'
- Trump and Harris enter 99-day sprint to decide an election that has suddenly transformed
- Paris Olympics organizers apologize after critics say 'The Last Supper' was mocked
- 2 killed, 3 injured in shooting at makeshift club in Houston
- Dog days are fun days on trips away from the shelter with volunteers
Ranking
- Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
- Starter homes are worth $1 million in 237 U.S. cities. See where they're located.
- Minnesota prepares for influx of patients from Iowa as abortion ban takes effect
- Former NRA chief says appointing a financial monitor would be ‘putting a knife’ into the gun group
- John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
- A group of 2,000 migrants advance through southern Mexico in hopes of reaching the US
- Bachelor Nation’s Victoria Fuller Dating NFL Star Will Levis After Greg Grippo Breakup
- Paralympian Anastasia Pagonis’ Beauty & Self-Care Must-Haves, Plus a Travel-Size Essential She Swears By
Recommendation
Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
Bachelor Nation’s Victoria Fuller Dating NFL Star Will Levis After Greg Grippo Breakup
Storms bring flash flooding to Dollywood amusement park in Tennessee
As Wildfire Season Approaches, Phytoplankton Take On Fires’ Trickiest Emissions
San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo
Sinéad O'Connor's cause of death revealed: Reports
Magnitude 4.5 earthquake hits Utah; no damage or injuries immediately reported
Canada appeals Olympic women's soccer spying penalty, decision expected Wednesday