A date has been set for former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial — right in the thick of primary season.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said Thursday that the criminal trial will begin on March 25.
Trump is accused of paying former porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair between the two ahead of the 2016 election. The former president has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The trial will mark the first time an ex-president has faced criminal prosecution and comes at a pivotal time for Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
It will start a few weeks after Super Tuesday and coincide with multiple primary elections, according to an NBC News calendar. The trial is expected to last about six weeks.
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According to The Washington Post, defense attorney Todd Blanche voiced objections to the timeline during a Thursday hearing.
“President Trump is going to now spend the next two months working on this trial instead of out on the campaign trail,” the attorney told Merchan.
The judge flatly dismissed those concerns.
This criminal case, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is one of four that Trump is juggling while attempting to campaign for president, and it is perhaps the weakest of them all.
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Still, Blanche and Trump rightly pointed out that this will mean he’s tied up in a courtroom at a crucial time in the run-up to the presidential election.
“Instead of being in South Carolina and other states campaigning, I’m stuck here. It’s an election interference case. … It’s a disgraceful situation,” Trump said outside court after Thursday’s hearing.
“I’ll be here during the day and I’ll be campaigning during the night,” he promised.
“It’s a rigged state, it’s a rigged city. It’s a shame. What they ought to do is go out and take care of the violent crime and the migrant crime that’s destroying people and killing people,” Trump added of beleaguered New York.
JUST IN — President Trump makes a statement outside of the NYC courtroom regarding the Alvin Bragg “novel” legal theory “hush money” case:
“Instead of being in South Carolina and other states campaigning, I’m stuck here. It’s an election interference case…I’ll be here during… pic.twitter.com/CtB9MjL7HP
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 15, 2024
There’s no telling what the outcome of the trial will be or how it will impact the Republican primary.
It’s possible that watching this kangaroo court will cause Trump supporters to come out in full force in a show of solidarity. However, there’s also the chance that it will put off those who are understandably tired of the grind.
There are also legitimate concerns about what a conviction in any of Trump’s criminal trials would mean when it comes time for the general election, and that certainly will be on the minds of voters as they decide who to pull the lever for.
Of course, Trump has a strong case to make that he is a better choice than President Joe Biden by just about every metric, but he will have to convince voters that the trials and trouble he brings to the table are worth it.
In light of that reality, it’s reasonable to ask whether that was the purpose of these trials all along.
