Manhattan prosecutors will not face sanctions for a last-minute document dump that delayed former President Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial, a judge ruled on Thursday. The defense had requested sanctions after nearly 200,000 pages of evidence were disclosed just weeks before the trial’s scheduled start. Judge Juan Merchan allowed the trial to be delayed from March 25 to April 15 to give Trump’s lawyers time to review the material. Despite this delay, Merchan determined that Trump did not suffer any prejudice from the document dump, as he and his lawyers had a reasonable amount of time to prepare and respond to the material.
After testimonies from 22 witnesses, including Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, the first criminal trial of a former president is set to move to closing arguments next Tuesday, with jury deliberations expected to follow shortly after. Trump’s lawyers had accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office of intentionally failing to pursue evidence from a 2018 federal investigation, which led to Michael Cohen’s imprisonment. They alleged that prosecutors did so to gain an unfair advantage in the case and harm Trump’s election chances. However, Judge Merchan stated at the hearing that the DA’s office had no obligation to collect evidence from the federal investigation, and the U.S. attorney’s office was not required to volunteer the documents.
The DA’s office denied any wrongdoing and blamed Trump’s lawyers for waiting until January 18 to subpoena the records from the U.S. attorney’s office, just nine weeks before the trial was originally supposed to start. Merchan advised the defense lawyers that they should have acted sooner if they believed they did not have all the records they wanted. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records by falsely logging payments to Cohen as legal fees when they were reimbursements for a $130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels. Prosecutors claim that Trump did this to protect his 2016 campaign by burying what he says were false stories of extramarital sex, while Trump’s lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.
Merchan reiterated in his written ruling that Trump did not suffer any prejudice from the document dump, as he and his lawyers were given a reasonable amount of time to prepare and respond to the material. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment on the ruling, and a message seeking comment was left with Trump’s lawyers. Despite the delay caused by the document dump, the trial is proceeding, with closing arguments scheduled for next Tuesday. Trump has denied having extramarital sex with Daniels and maintains that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses, not cover-up checks. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance violations related to the Daniels payoff, stating that Trump directed him to arrange it.
