Trump’s Stormy Daniels hush money trial to start on April 15, judge rules
The documents came from the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which previously investigated the payment but did not charge Trump. Cohen testified that Trump directed him to make the payment and went to prison after pleading guilty to violating campaign finance laws.
At a court hearing on Monday in a New York state court in Manhattan, Merchan appeared sceptical of Trump lawyer Todd Blanche’s argument that Bragg’s office engaged in misconduct, and questioned Blanche about why he did not request documents from the US Attorney’s office sooner.
Trump will plead not guilty, seek to dismiss hush money case, lawyer says
Blanche said at the hearing that the US Attorney’s office said on Sunday that it would be handing over additional documents related to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
In the hush money case, prosecutors say the Daniels payoff was part of a broader “catch-and-kill” scheme Cohen and Trump hatched to boost his candidacy by buying the silence of people with damaging information. Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump denies an encounter.
Trump’s lawyers say the payment was meant to spare himself and his family embarrassment, not to benefit his 2016 campaign.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges of violating campaign finance laws through the payment.
Trump’s defence lawyers in January subpoenaed the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which charged Cohen, for Cohen’s bank records and phone and email accounts in January. Merchan in December denied their request to get some of those materials from Cohen himself.
The federal prosecutors handed over the material during the first two weeks of March.
In pushing Merchan for a delay, Trump’s lawyers said they need more time to review the documents and accused Bragg’s office, which brought the charges, of trying to bury material they could use to undermine Cohen’s credibility.
Bragg’s office said it asked the federal prosecutors for information from their case against Cohen and turned the materials over to the defence last June. They said no further delay was needed because most of the new documents are irrelevant or duplicates of material Trump already had.