The Manhattan prosecutors agreed to delay ex-President Trump's hush money trial by 30 days after receiving thousands of new documents recently.
Choosing jurors is set to start in under two weeks, making it Trump's first criminal trial as a former U.S. president.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office wants to delay the trial, which could move it closer to this year's election.
Judge Juan Merchan has maintained the March 25 trial date. Trump objected to the trial date being maintained, and any delay must be approved by the judge. Trump accused prosecutors of misconduct, asserting that his charges should be dropped entirely and the trial should be adjourned for at least 90 days.
Prosecutors say they fulfilled their obligations, but would agree to a one-month delay as a precaution after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York handed over 73,000 pages of records recently.
Nearly half of the documents were handed over on Wednesday, and more are expected next week.
Court documents show that the records appear to be related to the case and include materials the prosecutors requested over a year ago and were previously denied.
Matthew Colangelo, a senior counsel on the prosecutorial team, said that the records from the U.S. Attorney’s office seem to relate to the case and were requested over a year ago.
The U.S. Attorney’s office did not explain why the records weren't given earlier. Colangelo mentioned that more records are anticipated to be provided next week.
Prosecutors said the timing of the U.S. Attorney’s production was due to Trump's delay, despite their diligence, as they were provided in response to a subpoena issued in January.
Trump requested at least a 90-day adjournment to review the new documents.
Prosecutors stated that they are ready for trial on March 25, but they do not oppose a brief 30-day delay to allow Trump to review the new documents.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to payments to Michael Cohen for hush money to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
In addition to the new documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Trump's motion accused prosecutors of not turning over relevant materials on time.
Trump's lawyers accused the prosecutors of widespread misconduct in an attempt to improve their position in the potential trial.
Trump’s legal team also expressed worry about the soon release of Daniels’s documentary, set to air on NBC’s Peacock streaming network on March 18. In a preview released earlier this month, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, strongly criticizes Trump and talks about feeling “terrified” of threats from his supporters.
“Clifford’s collaboration with NBCUniversal to profit from her false testimony by releasing [redacted] a week before the scheduled trial date shows an extreme effort to bias the venue, which the People were surely aware of but failed to reveal, and which calls for a dismissal and, if not granted, at the very least, a postponement of the trial date,” they wrote.
A delay in his hush money case could have consequences for the other three criminal cases he’s facing. The former president faces a total of 88 charges across the cases, after a Georgia judge earlier this week removed three charges for being too ambiguous.
Trump’s federal election interference case is on hold as the Supreme Court considers his presidential immunity appeal. In Georgia, his state election interference case has been disrupted by an investigation into the Fulton County district attorney’s relationship with a subordinate. And his federal classified documents case seems likely to be delayed.
But if Trump’s hush money case hasn’t concluded by the time those cases are ready for trial, they could all be put on hold — as the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the expected GOP nominee, approaches.
Updated at 4:44 p.m. ET
