Former President Donald Trump has requested a delay in his upcoming criminal trial related to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. The trial, set to commence on March 25 in a New York state court in Manhattan, marks the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
Trump faces 34 counts of falsification of business records stemming from allegations that he directed his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to pay Daniels $130,000 in hush money to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter before the 2016 election.
Prosecutors assert that Trump then inaccurately recorded the reimbursement to Cohen as legal expenses.
Trump denies the allegations, including any encounter with Daniels. He is seeking a delay in the trial until the U.S. Supreme Court concludes its review of his claim of presidential immunity in a separate case.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump’s argument that he is immune from federal prosecution for actions taken to overturn his 2020 election defeat, potentially delaying any trial by several months.
Trump’s lawyers argue that the outcome of the Supreme Court’s review is relevant to the hush money case, particularly regarding evidence of statements Trump made while in office.
Prosecutors intend to present evidence of what they describe as a “pressure campaign” by Trump in 2018 to prevent Cohen from cooperating with a federal investigation into the payments. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to violating campaign finance laws.
In their filing, Trump’s lawyers dismissed the notion of a pressure campaign as “fictitious” and claimed that Trump’s social media posts about Cohen were protected as official communications on matters of public concern.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, responsible for bringing the charges, declined to comment on Trump’s request for a trial delay. Last year, a similar argument by Trump to move the hush money case to federal court was denied by a U.S. District Judge.
