The criminal hush money trial of Donald Trump, which was originally set to start on March 25, might be postponed for up to a month because of the last-minute release of 73,000 pages of evidence by federal investigators related to their 2018 prosecution of Michael Cohen.
Manhattan prosecutors said in a letter to the trial court, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, on Thursday that they would be ready to postpone jury selection for up to thirty days in order to give the defense time to examine the recently submitted federal evidence.
As a result of the Manhattan prosecutors' tardy disclosure of the evidence, the defense attorneys are calling for the "dismissal of the Indictment and severe sanctions," according to a document they made public on Thursday. In the absence of it, the defense is requesting a minimum 90-day postponement of the trial date.
Lawyers for Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg are squabbling in court, accusing each other of causing the delay, as they wait for Merchan to quell the unrest and choose a new date for the trial to begin.
According to Bragg's side, it has simply shown "diligence" in looking for information on Cohen's federal case. Prosecutors said that the defense had just been slowly obtaining the same material.
To increase their chances of winning at trial, Todd Blanche, the Trump lawyer, argued in his own motion that Bragg's attorneys "have engaged in widespread misconduct" by trying to "suppress" the government evidence.
In his motion, Blanche said that "The People should have collected all of these documents long ago."
"Instead, they collected some materials but left others with the federal authorities, in the hope that President Trump would never get them," the motion states.
Both parties seem to concur that the approximately 73,000 pages of documents that the US Attorney's Office sent over in batches this month—requested for months by the defense and the DA's office—were the cause of the delay.
In a letter to the trial court on Thursday, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo said that just around 31,000 papers of that enormous evidence dump had been given over as of Wednesday.
Next week, federal prosecutors should send over further papers, according to Colangelo.
Manhattan prosecutors said in a letter to the trial court, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, on Thursday that they would be ready to postpone jury selection for up to thirty days in order to give the defense time to examine the recently submitted federal evidence.
As a result of the Manhattan prosecutors' tardy disclosure of the evidence, the defense attorneys are calling for the "dismissal of the Indictment and severe sanctions," according to a document they made public on Thursday. In the absence of it, the defense is requesting a minimum 90-day postponement of the trial date.
Lawyers for Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg are squabbling in court, accusing each other of causing the delay, as they wait for Merchan to quell the unrest and choose a new date for the trial to begin.
According to Bragg's side, it has simply shown "diligence" in looking for information on Cohen's federal case. Prosecutors said that the defense had just been slowly obtaining the same material.
To increase their chances of winning at trial, Todd Blanche, the Trump lawyer, argued in his own motion that Bragg's attorneys "have engaged in widespread misconduct" by trying to "suppress" the government evidence.
In his motion, Blanche said that "The People should have collected all of these documents long ago."
"Instead, they collected some materials but left others with the federal authorities, in the hope that President Trump would never get them," the motion states.
Both parties seem to concur that the approximately 73,000 pages of documents that the US Attorney's Office sent over in batches this month—requested for months by the defense and the DA's office—were the cause of the delay.
In a letter to the trial court on Thursday, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo said that just around 31,000 papers of that enormous evidence dump had been given over as of Wednesday.
Next week, federal prosecutors should send over further papers, according to Colangelo.
