Donald Trump’s defense team failed to persuade Judge Juan Merchan to add more time to the clock before the start of the trial in Trump’s New York hush money case, the former president shaking his head in apparent frustration during Monday’s hearing as the judge set a date next month for the start of jury selection.
There was little to ease Trump’s mood inside the courtroom where the defense pleaded for time to parse the 170,000 pages of documents in the case handed over to them more than a week earlier.
The case relates to a $130,000 payment from former Trump fixer Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Trump, to allegedly buy her silence during the 2016 presidential campaign. The DA alleges Trump falsified business records to obscure the money used to repay Cohen for those payments.
Seated behind prosecutors in the courtroom was the top prosecutor who brought the case against Trump, District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The morning may have been a bit of a roller coaster for the former president. In a separate court Monday, Trump earned a major reprieve for the bond he was supposed to deliver as part of the civil case he lost.
Here’s what happened on Monday in Trump’s legal cases:
An April 15 trial date
Merchan set April 15 for jury selection to begin, three weeks away, setting in motion the start of a trial that Trump’s attorneys had hoped to delay further.
Trump was livid
In the courtroom, Trump didn’t hide how he feels about the case.
Before entering the courtroom, he called it “a witch hunt” and “a hoax.” He furrowed his brow. He watched the judge press his defense counsel as the attorney argued for more time to review discovery documents. And he grew increasingly frustrated as the defense failed to persuade the judge that more time was needed to review documents in the case.
Wearing a navy suit and red tie, Trump sat between his attorneys, his eyes bloodshot. But Trump didn’t have to be here to watch Merchan…
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