Donald Trump Appears On Video In New York Criminal Case

As a judge set the date of Donald Trump’s criminal trial for March 25, 2024, the former president and current candidate for the presidency threw up his hands in fury. This will place him in a Manhattan courtroom during the heated primary season of the following year.

Mr. Trump scowled at the camera as New York Judge Juan Manuel Merchan instructed him to postpone any other commitments for the duration of the trial, which may last several weeks, at a preliminary hearing in the hush-money case.

In front of a backdrop of American flags at his Florida home, Mr. Trump, dressed in a blue suit, turned to a lawyer by his side for a brief conversation that could not be heard on the video feed. He then sat with his arms folded for the remainder of the session.

About 15 minutes passed during the hearing.

Last month, Mr. Trump entered a not-guilty plea to 34 felony counts of falsifying financial records at the Trump Organisation, his family firm.

In his campaign to retake the White House, Mr. Trump has made the New York case and the numerous other probes he faces a core theme, painting himself as the target of a deliberate attempt to damage his chances.

At his rallies and other speeches, he frequently brings up the cases, and he has regularly criticized judges and prosecutors by name.

Judge Merchan went over a directive prohibiting Mr. Trump from making some material provided by prosecutors public during the hearing on Tuesday.

Mr. Trump avoided the enormous security and logistical issues that came with his arraignment last month by forgoing a personal appearance at the courthouse. Instead, the Republican was connected through video conference, and monitors in the courtroom showed his face.

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According to Judge Merchan’s decision, he is permitted to discuss the criminal case in public, but he runs the risk of being found in contempt if he targets witnesses or other participants in the case using the information provided by the prosecution during the pretrial discovery process.

Regarding payments his company made to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, he is charged with 34 felonies for falsifying corporate records.

According to the prosecution, those payments were meant to pay back and recompense Mr. Cohen for organizing hush money payments during the 2016 campaign to cover up claims of extramarital affairs.

Mr. Trump asserts that the prosecution is politically motivated and that he has never had extramarital affairs.

The protection order from Judge Merchan prohibits Mr. Trump and his attorneys from sharing evidence with others or posting it on social media, and it mandates that certain sensitive information supplied by prosecutors be maintained solely by Mr. Trump’s attorneys and not by Mr. Trump himself.

Soon after Mr. Trump’s detention, the prosecution requested the injunction, noting what they claim is his habit of making “harassing, embarrassing, and threatening statements” about people he is involved with in court battles.

Judge Merchan has made it clear that the protection order should not be interpreted as a gag order and that Mr. Trump has a right to publicly defend himself because of his “special” status as a former president and current candidate.

Attorneys for Mr. Trump are requesting that his criminal case be transferred to a federal court. While that plays out, it will continue in state court.

The hearing takes place a day after the plaintiff in the defamation case, writer E Jean Carroll, filed a new lawsuit to hold Trump accountable for comments he made about her on CNN the day after the May 9 judgement. Carroll is requesting an additional 10 million dollars (£8 million) or more in damages.

In the defamation lawsuit, a jury determined that Mr. Trump had s*xually assaulted Ms. Carroll in the early spring of 1996 at a Manhattan department store and that he had lied to harm her character after she made her claims public in a 2019 book.

Nevertheless, Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday claiming he “never met” Carroll and that her accusations were a “Fake, Made Up Story” and a “TOTAL SCAM.”