Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial will start March 25, beginning with jury selection in the first-ever criminal trial against a former president.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up payments to women.
He is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Each count carries a potential punishment of up to four years in prison.
However, there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in prison time.
“This is a terrible time for our country,” Trump said. “This is a real dark period.”
“They wouldn’t have brought this – no way – except for the fact that I’m running for president and doing well,” Trump said. “We want delays, obviously. I’m running for election. How can you run for election and be sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day?”
Trump faces multiple criminal trials. He also faces an federal election interference case, which is significant.
The classified documents case and the Georgia election interference case are also pending, with upcoming hearings to determine trial dates and potential disqualification of the prosecutor in the latter.
Legal experts are expressing concern over the delay in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel’s ruling on Donald Trump’s presidential immunity claim.
The appeal, which challenges a ruling rejecting Trump’s argument for immunity from election subversion charges, has yet to receive a decision.
Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal and former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann have criticized the delay, emphasizing the urgency of resolving the issue before the election.
“I am officially now at the freakout stage. I’ve resisted that for a long time,” former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said.
“I think we’re now at the point, to use a different legal phrase, that ‘justice delayed is justice denied,’” Katyal said. “I can’t imagine a more compelling need for speed than the idea that American citizens deserve to know before the election whether a candidate for office is a felon and an insurrectionist. And it’s even more galling to me because this is an easy case.”
“There is no responsible constitutional scholar who thinks Donald Trump is right, that there is absolute immunity,” he said.
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