The hearing to determine the validity of Trump's March 25 hush-money trial date is set to unravel in the same Manhattan courtroom where he previously pleaded not guilty in April to 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to allegations of concealing stories about extramarital affairs during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he arrives for his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on October 25, 2023 in New York City. Donald Trump's onetime lawyer turned bitter foe Michael Cohen took the witness stand on October 24, 2023 in the business fraud case against the former US president, accusing his ex-boss of "arbitrarily" inflating his net worth.
Trump arrived to the courhouse shortly before 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Trump's latest court appearance in the New York criminal case marked his initial return since the indictment, establishing him as the first ex-president charged with a crime. Subsequently, he faced indictments in Florida, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.
Recent weeks have seen him combining campaign events with court appearances, including a closed hearing on Monday related to the Florida case accusing him of possessing classified records.
The Associated Press reported Judge Juan Manuel Merchan has taken steps in recent weeks to prepare for a trial.
Over the past year, Trump has lashed out at Merchan as a "Trump-hating judge," asked him to step down from the case and sought to move the case from state court to federal court, with no success
Merchan has acknowledged making several small donations to Democrats, including $15 to Trump's rival Joe Biden, but said he's certain of his "ability to be fair and impartial."
The recent postponement of a March 4 trial date in Trump's Washington, D.C. election interference case removed a major hurdle to starting the New York case on time.
As the New York hearing is getting underway, a judge in Atlanta is set to hear arguments Thursday over whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from Trump's Georgia election interference case because of a "personal relationship" with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired for the case, the AP explained.
In addition to other legal challenges, Trump is awaiting a crucial decision, with the possibility of an announcement as early as Friday. If the judge rules against Trump, who is alleged to have inflated his wealth to defraud banks, insurers, and other parties, he could be exposed to substantial financial penalties and other sanctions.
Merchan is also expected to rule on key pretrial issues, including a request by Trump's lawyers to throw out the case, which they have decried in court papers as a "discombobulated package of politically motivated charges marred by legal defects."
What's The Back Story Behind The Trial?
The case centers around two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about Trump and a child out of wedlock. Trump remains adament that these claims are false.
Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer at the time, paid Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in a practice known as "catch-and-kill."
Trump's company then paid Cohen $420,000 and recorded the payments as legal expenses, not reimbursements, according to prosecutors. Bragg charged Trump last year with falsifying internal records kept by his company, to conceal the true reason behind the payments.
Trump's legal team contends that no crime was committed.
