Hush money for porn star
Trump criminal trial could be postponed
March 15, 2024, 12:55 a.m
Donald Trump has already been in court several times – but the first criminal trial against a former US president is still to come. Actually immediately, because from March 25th the court should be dealing with hush money payments. But now even the public prosecutor’s office is considering a postponement.
The trial against former US President Donald Trump over hush money payments to a porn star, scheduled to begin on March 25, may be delayed. The public prosecutor’s office said it could imagine a postponement of no more than 30 days. The background is a request from Trump’s lawyers, who asked for more time to examine new evidence.
Trump’s lawyers asked for a delay of at least 90 days because of alleged irregularities in the prosecution’s sharing of evidence. Most recently, they had also argued that before a trial could begin, the US Supreme Court should wait for a decision on whether Trump is immune from prosecution for allegations that have to do with his presidency. A Supreme Court hearing on this is scheduled for the end of April. Judge Juan Manuel Merchan has not yet issued a ruling on either of Trump’s lawyers’ motions.
Trump is trying to delay several trials against him that are scheduled to begin before the presidential election in November. If it starts on March 25, it would be the first criminal trial against a former president in US history. Three further criminal trials are in preparation and civil trials are also ongoing.
The hush money case involves allegations that Trump falsified documents to cover up payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen. Cohen is said to have used this money to pay porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 during the 2016 presidential election campaign so that she would not go public with her alleged affair with Trump. Trump has denied 34 counts of falsifying business documents and also denies having a sexual affair with Daniels.