Judge rules full speed ahead on Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial
Donald Trump will face trial next month in New York City for faking documents to cover up his sexual affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, becoming the first American president to face a jury on criminal charges.
On Thursday, Justice Juan Merchan refused to dismiss the case and set the trial to start March 25, as previously planned.
Trump’s lead defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, immediately called the decision to keep the start of trial on schedule “a great injustice,” citing the absolute deluge of legal trouble that the former president now faces across the country.
“We have been put… in an impossible position,” Blanche said, citing the “millions of pages of discovery to go through” in three other criminal cases.
But the judge wouldn’t hear it.
“The problem is, you’re not telling me anything you didn’t previously include” in court papers leading up to today’s hearing, Merchan said. “I have made clear this was a date certain.”
“You don’t have a trial date in Georgia. You don’t have a trial date in Florida. Stop interrupting me please!” the judge said. [Continue reading…]