On Friday, a judge decided to delay former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial for about a month.
The trial would be delayed until at least mid-April, according to The Associated Press. Trump’s lawyers claimed that they needed additional time to go through the evidence that they had just obtained.
New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed with Trump’s legal team and postponed the trial by 30 days. According to the AP, Merchan scheduled a hearing for March 25 as well to go over any questions related to the newly obtained evidence. That March 25 date was supposed to be the start of the trial.
A new trial date has not yet been announced, according to CNN.
[ Prosecutors propose delaying Trump hush-money trial set to start later in March ]
On Friday, prosecutors in New York said that they expected to get around 15,000 new pages of possible evidence into the hush-money case, The Washington Post reported.
Trump’s lawyers wanted a 90-day delay, the AP reported. Prosecutors said they were OK with a 30-day delay.
A grand jury in New York indicted Trump last year on 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records. The charges were related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, former Playboy model Karen McDougal and a Trump Tower doorman as part of a scheme aimed at getting him into the White House, authorities said.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing, framing the investigation as politically motivated as he runs in the 2024 presidential election.