Global Courant
The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York appeared skeptical Monday that the case should be postponed or dismissed because of a dispute over possible evidence.
“This court finds that there are actually no significant questions of fact to be resolved,” Judge Juan Merchan said.
The defense accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office of “widespread misconduct” and “serious discovery violations” and argued that they justified a dismissal of the charges, a trial delay and the banning of Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels to testify.
“This is a witch hunt. This is cheating. Thank you,” Trump told the media this morning before entering the courtroom.
The case, which was initially scheduled to begin with jury selection on Monday, was postponed for 30 days by Judge Juan Merchan — effectively setting the new trial date for about April 15 — after attorneys raised issues with the late production of more than 100,000 pages. of potential evidence by federal prosecutors.
Merchan scheduled Monday’s hearing to resolve a recent defense motion regarding the potential evidence and set a final trial date for the case.
“(T)here are important questions of fact that this Court must resolve before it can rule on Defendant’s motion,” Merchan wrote in a ruling earlier this month.
Defense attorneys have demanded a longer delay in the trial and limits on key testimony or the dismissal of the case based on the new material, which they say damages the credibility of key witness and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and “contains exculpatory information who undermines the law’. People’s Theory of the Case.”
Last week, prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office reversed the defense’s request, arguing that the newly revealed potential evidence is “a diversion” and part of a “strategic delay.” While the 30-day delay gave defense attorneys a “reasonable amount of time for the suspect to review the information,” no further delay was necessary, according to prosecutors’ filings.
“For more than a year, the suspect has taken every possible step to avoid liability in this case,” prosecutors wrote in a filing last week. ‘Enough is enough. These tactics by defendant and defense counsel must stop.”
Trump pleaded not guilty last April to a 34-count indictment accusing him of falsifying company records in connection with a hush money payment Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election.
Here are three things you need to know about the hearing.
How did lawyers find the new materials?
Two months after Trump was indicted last year, prosecutors have turned over more than 3 million pages of documents, beginning the discovery process in which prosecutors share defense evidence obtained during their investigation.
“In the district attorney’s office in Manhattan, they do what they call open file discovery, which means their practice is to basically turn over every piece of paper that they get in the course of their investigation,” former federal prosecutor told me. Josh Naftalis to ABC News.
While the district attorney’s office said that in June 2023, they turned over all of the materials they received from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York — which in 2018 secured a guilty plea from Cohen on campaign finance charges related with the Stormy Daniels payment — Trump’s lawyers sent a subpoena to federal prosecutors on January 18, 2024, requesting additional materials.
In their subpoena, defense attorneys asked for Cohen’s tax returns, bank records, files from his iPhone and email accounts, documents commemorating statements made by Cohen, and communications with other law enforcement agencies.
Former President Donald Trump arrives for his confirmation hearing to set his trial date for allegedly covering up hush money payments related to extramarital affairs at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on March 25, 2024.
Justin Lane/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
On Feb. 23, SDNY federal prosecutors agreed to make public some of the requested records, including 10,778 pages of banking records and files from two iPhones and three email accounts, according to a defense filing. In total, federal prosecutors turned over more than 119,000 pages of documents to Trump’s defense team, according to a filing earlier this month.
“That’s a lot of information that the defense has to process very quickly, so that explains why the prosecution agreed to an extension of the deadline by at least 30 days,” former federal prosecutor Jarrod Schaeffer told ABC News.
What went into SDNY’s production?
The exact breakdown of the 119,000 pages of documents remains unclear, but the district attorney’s office claims that most of the files are not relevant to the case or have already been produced. In total, prosecutors said the material contained fewer than 270 new documents, including 172 pages of new witness statements.
“(T)he People now have good reason to believe that this production contains only limited materials relevant to the subject matter of this case and which have not previously been disclosed to the suspect: fewer than an estimated 270 documents, of which the most burdensome and burdensome. to corroborate existing evidence,” prosecutors said.
Defense lawyers have argued that the documents are highly relevant and contain material that could be used to discredit Cohen or absolve Trump of wrongdoing.
While attorneys have highlighted the sheer number of pages produced by federal prosecutors, Naftalis warned that the contents of the documents will ultimately determine Judge Merchan’s next move.
“My assessment is that Trump will only get 30 days because the number of documents in question is not that large in the grand scheme of things,” Naftalis said. “That doesn’t mean these are all new documents and there may be significant overlap.”
Why are Trump’s lawyers calling for dismissal?
Defense attorneys have accused the prosecution of misconduct in seeking a dismissal of the case, limiting key testimony and prolonging the trial.
“The People have engaged in widespread misconduct as part of a desperate effort to improve their standing at the potential trial based on the false and unsubstantiated allegations in the indictment,” attorney Todd Blanche wrote in a recent filing.
Lawyers from the Manhattan district attorney’s office pushed back on that motion, describing it as an inaccurate “package of meritless discovery arguments in the latest in a long line of attempts to avoid responsibility for the conduct charged in the indictment.”
“The defendant’s allegations are completely without merit, and the circumstances here do not come close to justifying the extreme sanctions he has sought,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo said in a filing last week.
If Judge Merchan does not dismiss the case, defense attorneys have asked for a longer delay and exclusion of the testimony of Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels and an expert witness.
Merchan will ultimately have to consider who, if anyone, is to blame for the late production of evidence.
“It really comes down to whether prosecutors are doing what they need to do — that is, have they been diligent and have they made a good faith effort to obtain material that they believe exists and should be turned over,” Schaeffer said. .
