8:08 a.m. ET, March 25, 2024
Trump’s hush money trial was set to begin today. Here’s what to know about the hearing happening instead
Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s first criminal trial was supposed to begin Monday. Instead, his lawyers will get the chance to argue for a lengthy postponement and even a dismissal of the charges.
Judge Juan Merchan is holding a pre-trial hearing in New York on Monday to discuss the discovery issues that led to the delay of the trial on charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney related to hush money payments until at least the middle of next month.
What happened? The trial was postponed and Monday’s hearing was ordered after more than 100,000 new documents were turned over by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, related to the 2018 prosecution of Trump’s former lawyer Cohen, who is a key witness in the case. Trump’s lawyers say the new information is potentially exculpatory for the former president and they need at least 90 days to properly review the new material – a delay that fits with the former president’s overall efforts to delay all four criminal trials he’s facing until after the November election. Merchan said the trial postponement would be 30 days from the date of his letter, March 15, meaning the earliest the trial could start is April 15. The judge made clear that the hearing would only focus on the document production from the Southern District of New York, and not other issues such as the complaint from Trump’s lawyers that a new documentary about Daniels was intended to be released close to the start of trial to prejudice the jury pool.
What are the documents? The documents in question relate to the 2018 federal investigation into Cohen that led to charges on campaign finance violations and tax evasion. The bulk of the documents include records relied upon to obtain search warrants for Cohen’s devices and homes, including bank records. The US attorney’s office also turned over 30,000 pages related to documents seized from five iPhones and email accounts associated with Cohen. In addition, prosecutors said the US attorney’s office turned over FBI interview notes from special counsel Robert Mueller’s interviews with Cohen, which the office only received in December as a result of Freedom of Information Act litigation. In all, more than 200,000 pages of records this month were handed over.
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