Manhattan prosecutors say they will not oppose delay of up to 30 days in trial set to start March 25.
The first-ever criminal trial of a former US president was set to begin on March 25.
On Thursday, New York prosecutors said they were open to delaying the start of the trial “in an abundance of caution” to give Trump’s lawyers time to review records from a previous federal investigation into the matter.
Trump – the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and likely opponent of President Joe Biden in the November election – has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult performer Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says they had a decade earlier.
In a heavily redacted filing dated March 8 and made public on Thursday, Trump’s lawyers said they needed more time to review thousands of pages of documents they recently received from the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which had previously investigated Cohen’s payment to Daniels.
A delay would mark another victory for Trump, who has sought to slow down proceedings in his various legal entanglements.
The hush money case in Manhattan is scheduled to be the first of four criminal cases against Trump to reach trial. None of the other cases has a firm trial date but any delay to the New York trial could complicate their scheduling.
Trump denies an encounter with Daniels. His lawyers have argued that Cohen paid off Daniels to spare Trump’s family embarrassment, not to boost his electoral chances as prosecutors have alleged.
They suggested at least a 90-day delay to the trial and also urged Justice Juan Merchan to consider dismissing the indictment altogether, arguing some of the federal prosecutors’ evidence undermined the district attorney’s arguments.
Merchan would have to approve any delay to the trial. It was not immediately clear when he would rule.
“The statements demonstrate that Cohen did not seek to be, and was not, acting for the benefit of President Trump’s campaign,” Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche wrote.
The statements he was referring to were redacted.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges of violating campaign finance law through the payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan did not charge Trump in that case.
Earlier this week, Trump asked Merchan to postpone the trial until the US Supreme Court finishes its review of his claim of presidential immunity in his federal criminal case over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
The Supreme Court is due to hear those arguments on April 25. A 30-day delay to the hush money trial would mean it would start that same week – a little over six months before Election Day.
Trump also faces a state criminal prosecution over his push to reverse the 2020 election results, and a federal prosecution in Florida over his handling of sensitive government documents after leaving the White House in 2021. He has pleaded not guilty in all cases.