NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s criminal trial over secret payments to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, scheduled for March 25, will take place in April at the earliest after the judge in the case agreed to a postponement of thirty days to guarantee that the former American president will have time to prepare his defense.
Judge Juan Merchan of New York State Court in Manhattan did not set a new date.
In his written judgment, he specifies that a hearing will take place on March 25 after which he will make his decision, adding that the trial could be postponed for more than a month.
Judge Merchan’s decision constitutes a victory for Donald Trump, who seeks to slow down the numerous legal proceedings launched against him in the midst of the electoral campaign.
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The businessman, who is assured of obtaining the Republican Party nomination to face Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in the presidential election on November 5, is criminally charged in three other cases, for which no date no trial has yet been scheduled.
In the “Stormy Daniels” affair, pseudonym of a former porn star who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump in 2006, which the latter denies, Donald Trump is accused of having disguised the accounts of his company to conceal the payment, by his former lawyer Michael Cohen, of $130,000 to the actress in order to buy her silence before the 2016 presidential election. The ex-president has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts, mainly for violation of election campaign financing rules.
In a court document Thursday, the Manhattan prosecutor’s office said it was ready for a trial on March 25 but did not object to a thirty-day delay so that Donald Trump’s lawyers could examine new documents added to the file.
(Luc Cohen, Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the French version)
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