A date for Donald Trump’s first criminal trial could be set Thursday at a pre-trial hearing in the former president’s New York criminal hush money case.
Trump is expected to attend the hearing in downtown Manhattan, where New York state Judge Juan Merchan will hear several motions and could rule on whether the trial will begin on March 25, as originally scheduled, on charges that Trump falsified business records with the intent to conceal illegal conduct connected to his 2016 presidential campaign.
If the judge keeps the date of the trial, it would begin to solidify the former president’s legal calendar that is filling up at the same time that his 2024 campaign is closing in on the Republican nomination for president.
The date of the New York trial has been in limbo in part because Trump’s federal trial in Washington, DC, on election subversion charges had initially been scheduled for March, too, but that is now on hold while Trump is attempting have the charges dismissed on claims of presidential immunity. He has asked the Supreme Court to step in, which could further delay the federal trial.
That would likely make the New York hush money case the first of Trump’s election-year trials.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was the first to charge Trump last year, accusing him in a 34-count indictment of falsifying business records as part of a cover up to conceal hush money payments before the 2016 election to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had an affair with Trump. Trump denies the affair and has pleaded not guilty.
Here’s what to know heading into Thursday’s hearing:
Among other pretrial issues Merchan is expected to rule on Thursday are Trump’s long-shot motion to dismiss the entire case and arguments that will…
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