On Monday, the courts handed down two verdicts that added insult to injury for Donald Trump: a lifeline and the date of the first criminal trial of a former president in US history.
In the midst of Trump’s reelection campaign, two verdicts on Monday—almost an hour apart—hit the confluence of attacks on his reputation and his illustrious economic empire.
After a disagreement over the late provision of documents initially prompted the judge to delay the start date, Trump’s historic criminal trial in the New York hush money case will resume with jury selection on April 15, Judge Juan Merchan announced Monday.
New York’s civil fraud judgement against Trump, his adult sons, and his firm was $464 million. On Monday, a New York appeals court allowed him to post a lower bail of $175 million to fight the judgement. This result may have been more crucial for Trump. Trump assured reporters that he will personally guarantee the bond with his own personal funds.
From yet another momentous day for Trump, these are the key points:
April 15 is the start of Trump’s hush money trial.
The former president will stand before a jury in one of his criminal trials before the November election, barring any further unanticipated complications—which are always a possibility when Trump is involved.
Following the earlier this month turn over of tens of thousands of documents pertaining to the 2018 federal prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, a motion was filed by Trump to dismiss the charges and sanction the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The hearing was scheduled for Monday to review this motion.
Merchan rejected the claims made by Trump’s lawyers before lunchtime, finding no infractions and setting the trial date for April 15 to commence with jury selection.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg filed 34 charges against Trump, including falsifying company records and repaying Cohen for hush money he paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to prevent her from speaking publicly about an alleged affair with Trump. The ex-president has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty.
Despite the three-week postponement, the event will still take place in 2024 according to Trump’s timeline, and it remains uncertain if any of his other three trials will take place prior to the election.
Bond for Trump reduced by appeals court
Last Monday, Trump’s attorneys said that their client could not post the $464 million bond necessary to appeal the civil fraud verdict. New York Attorney General Letitia James threatened to begin the seizure of Trump’s property if he did not post bond by Monday.
The former president had previously stated that he could come up with $175 million in bond, but the appeals court decision extended the deadline by 10 days.
While appealing E. Jean Carroll’s defamation judgement, Trump secured a $91 million bond earlier this month.
It looks like James will not be attempting to confiscate the former president’s property to enforce the decision against him. This is a huge win for Trump.
At least until September, the former president, his sons, and their corporation will be exempt from the civil fraud judgement, once Trump posts the $175 million bond.
The decision mandated that the parties submit their briefs to an appeals court in New York by that date in order to set a date for oral argument.
For Trump, “posting” is “an honour.”
Even while Trump refrained from speaking inside the courtroom on Wednesday, he had numerous opportunities to express his thoughts on Monday’s events.
The ex-president addressed the reduced bond in front of cameras in the courthouse corridor before holding a news conference at 40 Wall Street, one of the properties that may have been targeted if he had not posted bond to challenge the civil fraud verdict.
Posting “whatever is necessary, whether it be cash, security or bonds” is something Trump proudly promised to do when asked about the honour.
In response to a reporter’s question, Trump stated that he would put up cash as collateral.
The former president also spoke out strongly against the intention to begin his criminal trial next month during his news conference.
It seems like you have a situation where they are eager to begin. No judge can move more quickly. He is eager to start it so badly,” Trump remarked.
Throughout all four of their client’s criminal trials, Trump’s attorneys have fought to postpone them until after the election. He still has a chance in the other three, even though the trial in New York is now scheduled to start in three weeks.
The district attorney made a “diligent, good-faith effort,” according to the hush money judge.
Merchan debunked Trump’s claims of wrongdoing by the district attorney’s office during Monday’s hearing by determining that prosecutors did in fact work together to obtain records from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
An weird thing about our situation is that we’re even here, Merchan remarked.
At one point, the judge raised his voice on the bench to emphasise how grave and worrisome Trump’s accusations were against the Manhattan prosecutors.
“So, you’re basically saying that the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the individuals tasked with handling this case engaged in prosecutorial misconduct and attempted to implicate me in it, and you’re offering no evidence to back up your claim?” Merchan exclaimed.
If Trump’s legal team wanted to charge Bragg’s office of prosecutorial misconduct, Merchan said it was “really disconcerting” since they lacked case law to back up their claim that the district attorney should have gotten papers from the US attorney’s office and the FBI.
Merchan scolded Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, who had thirteen years of experience in the US attorney’s office, for delaying the request for the requested documents following the federal agency’s document release last summer.
Federal prosecutors made a serious, good-faith attempt to get all the information that might be discovered, therefore the judge decided that the district attorney’s office wasn’t to blame for the delayed disclosure.
Attempts by Trump to postpone the criminal trial continue unabated.
Trump has sought to postpone the four pending criminal prosecutions until after the November election, if they are not thrown out completely.
As soon as Merchan announced plans to begin the hush money trial next month, Trump’s lawyers began looking for more ways to delay the trial’s start.
Blanche requested permission to make a move to postpone the trial in light of the publicity surrounding it. The legal team representing Trump has contended that the case’s timing—so near to the 2024 election—and a recent documentary detailing Daniels’s story and the consequences of the hush money payment may have influenced potential jurors.
Pretrial publicity “has been caused and exacerbated by the defendant,” according to the district attorney’s office.
By inquiring about developments since February, when he originally scheduled the trial for March 25 and dismissed comparable claims, Merchan made it obvious that he was sceptical about the claim. However, Merchan agreed to allow Blanche to file the move and inquired as to the timeline for its filing.
The trial date, though, remained unchanged, and Merchan didn’t appear to think anything of it.
Takeaways from Donald Trump’s wild day of legal developments…
