OAN’s James Meyers
8:15 AM – Thursday, February 15, 2024
The judge conducting former President Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial on Thursday denied his plea to have the charges dropped against him and stated that the trial will go on as scheduled in March.
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The “defendant’s motions to dismiss have been denied,” Judge Juan Merchan told the Manhattan courtroom, which included Trump sitting at the defense table. “We will move ahead with jury selection on March 25th.”
The 45th president’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, claimed that going on with the trial as scheduled would be a “great injustice” given his other legal battles.
The judge disagreed with the reasoning saying, “You knew about this case,” he told Blanche. Trump’s lawyer said that the date would be “election interference” because of the presidential primaries that month.
The former president faces 34 felony charges in the case, which consists of allegations that he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.
This includes funds that stopped Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal from going public with stories that Trump had secret affairs with them.
Additionally, Trump faces four criminal cases and it’s the first time any former president has been indicted. The 45th president has pleaded not guilty in all four cases against him and has claimed that they are all part of a “political witch hunt” to deter his 2024 presidential election hopes.
Meanwhile, Merchan had already scheduled the trial date for March 25th but that date ran into problems after another judge scheduled the trial for Trump’s federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., for March 4th. The judge, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan claimed she spoke with Merchan to reschedule the trial date.
However, Merchan never rescheduled the case and now the election interference case is currently being put on hold as the Supreme Court is hearing Trump’s claim that presidential immunity protects him in that particular case.
Thursday’s appearance from Trump will be his first since his arraignment last April.
Trump has been allowed to come and go in the civil cases at his discretion, but he will be required to attend every day of the Manhattan criminal trial in person.
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