Crime & Justice

Trump hush money trial set for Apr. 15

New York, US, Mar 25 (EFE).- Former United States president Donald Trump’s trial over so-called “hush-money” payments to a porn actress in 2016, which was scheduled to begin on Monday, has been set for Apr. 15, a judge has ruled.

Trump, who attended the hearing in New York in person, will be the first former US president to face criminal charges.

He denies 34 charges of falsifying business records to conceal payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election – which Trump won – about a prior sexual encounter the actress claims they had. Trump denies having had a sexual relationship with Daniels.

In statements to the press, Trump – the Republican Party’s candidate to challenge Joe Biden in presidential elections later this year – repeated his claim that this and the three other criminal cases he is facing are a political witch hunt by the Democratic Party designed to keep him out of the White House.

“This is a pure case of voter intimidation and election interference, and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen,” said Trump.

The Republican presidential candidate said that the case could have been filed three and a half years ago but “they decided to wait now, right during the election, so I can’t campaign.”

The former president’s defense team wanted the judge, Juan Merchan, to further delay his trial. On Mar. 15, Merchan postponed the trial that was scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.

Both the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, and Trump’s defense, had called for the trial to be postponed given the large number of documents provided by federal authorities this month.

Trump’s lawyers previously argued that the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office had violated the rules governing the analysis and selection of evidence and therefore asked that the entire indictment be dismissed or that various testimonies be excluded and the trial be postponed for at least 90 days. EFE

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