NY prosecutors tell judge they’re willing to delay Trump hush money trial until late April

The trial is currently scheduled to start on March 25.

The potential delay throws the date for what’s supposed to be the former president’s first criminal trial into question, a surprise twist that represents a major boost for Trump – whose defense teams have employed a strategy of consistently trying to delay all of his trials past the election.

Trump is facing criminal charges in four distinct cases, but until Thursday, the New York case was the only one with a clear trial date. The federal election subversion case is on hold until the Supreme Court hears Trump’s immunity claims next month, while Trump’s lawyers are pushing to delay his classified documents mishandling trial in Florida until August or even beyond the election.

And in Georgia, a judge is set to rule within days on whether to disqualify the Fulton County district attorney who is prosecuting the former president over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election there, which could throw that entire case into doubt.

Trump was charged by the District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office last year with 34 counts of falsifying business records. The charges stem from reimbursements made to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen for hush money payments he made before the 2016 election to an adult film star alleging an affair with Trump. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

The proposed delay in the New York trial is in order to give Trump’s lawyers time to review new materials turned over by federal prosecutors this week, the DA’s office said.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York sent about 31,000 pages of discovery material Wednesday and will have more to share, the new filing states.

“Nonetheless, and although the People are prepared to proceed to trial on March 25, we do not oppose an adjournment in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials,” the filing says.

The documents were produced in response to a mid-January subpoena from Trump’s legal team, according to the district attorney’s letter. The US attorney’s office has turned over 73,000 pages of records since March 4 in response to the subpoena, according to the filing.

Trump’s attorneys have asked to delay the trial by 90 days – or dismiss the case entirely – over recent records productions in the last 10 days from federal prosecutors, according to the district attorney’s letter.

Bragg’s office says it didn’t violate discovery protocol to warrant a dismissal of the case, but say they’re open to a postponement of the trial given the new records produced by federal prosecutors.

The US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Separately, Trump has asked Judge Juan Merchan to delay the trial until the US Supreme Court weighs in on his presidential immunity claim. The court is not scheduled to hear that case until April 25, and a ruling may not come until the end of the court’s term in late June or early July.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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