Former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial, otherwise known as the Stormy Daniels trial, may be delayed beyond its scheduled date.
The trial is now scheduled to begin on March 25 with jury selection. However, the prosecution has filed a motion for a delay of up to 30 days to allow them to review the newly obtained records.
It comes after they asked for a gag order to be imposed on Trump to prevent him from making inflammatory statements about the case.
Prosecutors Say New Records Contain Material Related To Case
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follow guardian, prosecutors are open to delaying Stormy Daniels’ upcoming trial to review newly obtained records.
Trump allegedly ordered his former lawyer and financier, Michael Cohen, to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money not to reveal his affair with her ahead of the 2016 election.
He is also accused of covering his tracks by returning the money to Cohen as part of his legal expenses, allegedly in violation of election laws.
As part of prosecutors’ motion to request the delay, they informed the court that they had recently received “approximately 31,000 pages of additional records” from the US Attorney’s Office and expected “the release of other documents by next week.”
They also claim that upon “initial review” of the batch they received, it contains “material relevant to the subject matter of this case, including material that the Public requested from USAO more than a year ago and that USAO previously refused to provide.”
If the motion is denied, the trial will continue as scheduled on March 25, 2024. However, if the motion is granted, the trial will continue for up to 30 days, as requested by prosecutors.
Donald Trump Previously Asked The Court To Postpone The Trial
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Before the motion filed by prosecutors, Trump had also asked for a delay for different reasons.
According to court records, the billionaire’s attorney general asked for the trial to be delayed until the US Supreme Court finishes reviewing his claims of presidential immunity in separate matters related to the Stormy Daniels trial.
Prosecutors filed last month that they plan to introduce evidence that Trump pressured Cohen not to cooperate with federal prosecutors investigating the hush money payments.
Trump’s lawyers moved to stop the motion, arguing that prosecutors’ claims that Trump pressured Cohen were “fictitious.”
They also said that any statements Trump made at the time to Cohen could not be used as evidence, as the billionaire was protected by presidential immunity.
“Without immunity from criminal prosecution based on official acts, the President’s political opponents will seek to influence and control his decisions through de facto blackmail,” Trump’s lawyers said in their counter-motion, per Caretaker.
Prosecutors Also Seek Gag Orders Against Donald Trump
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However, in February, prosecutors asked the court to grant them a gag order that would prevent Trump from making inflammatory statements about the case.
The file reads, “[The] the defendant has a long history of making public and inflammatory statements.” “That statement, as well as the inevitable reaction provoked by the defendant’s followers and associates, poses a grave threat to the orderly administration of these criminal proceedings.”
To drive home their point, prosecutors added a line from Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform, where he can be seen ranting about his court case in acerbic terms.
A decision on the gag order has yet to be reached. However, a ruling in favor of the prosecution will not come as a surprise as Trump was also placed under a gag order for his federal criminal trial in Washington.
Donald Trump Pleads Not Guilty to Charges
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Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and also denied having an affair with Daniels.
However, this has not stopped speculation from swirling about Trump’s possible defense approach in court.
Experts have claimed that Trump will not deny that he hid the payments. Instead, he will argue that the reason was to hide the affair from his wife, Melania Trump, and not as a preventive measure to avoid knowledge of the affair that his opponent used to discredit him.
“I see the defense more as: ‘I want to keep this away from my wife. It has nothing to do with the election; it has to do with my wife,’” said Andrew Weissmann, a legal expert and professor, per NewsWeek.
Stormy Daniels Recently Shared Her ‘Horrible’ Experience With The Former President
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Daniels is ready to share more of his time with the Republican presidential candidate. The adult movie star revealed in an upcoming documentary titled “Stormy” that her meeting with Trump was a “terrifying” experience but she “didn’t say no” to him.
In a 2018 interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” She gave her side of the alleged sexual encounter with the 77-year-old. Daniels said at the time that it was consensual, but in the new documentary, she gives a slightly different story.
According to L.A. TimesDaniels claims that after their first meeting in her hotel room, she briefly used the bathroom, and upon exiting, Trump cornered her and began “hunching over.”
“I don’t remember how I got on the bed, and then the next thing I know, he’s on his back and telling me how great I am. It was horrible. But I’m not saying no,” Daniels said.
Despite this alleged incident, she still maintains that Trump did not rape her because she never said no or rejected him.
“But I’m not saying no because I’m 9 years old again,” the 44-year-old media personality shared. He used this to recount the sexual abuse he suffered from a neighbor as a child, which he had previously revealed in his memoir “Full Disclosure”.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
