The so-called hush-money case that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) has brought against former President Donald Trump has been delayed.
The Associated Press reports that, on Friday, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, made the decision to put the case on hold.
This will push the case back by several weeks.
Read on to see why this is another significant win for Trump - and defeat for Bragg and the Democrats.
Reuters provides the relevant background on this case.
Per the outlet:
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the New York case to 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide his former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence about a sexual encounter she has said they had a decade earlier. Trump has denied having had any such encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
It was Trump's legal team that recently requested that the trial be delayed.
The request was made, according to the Associated Press, after Bragg dumped a huge amount of "evidence" - over 100,000 pages of documents - on Trump's defense team. Trump's legal team told the judge that they need more time to sift through the evidence to properly prepare their defense of Trump.
Merchan agreed. The trial was supposed to begin on March 25. But, now, it will not start until at least April 15.
Bragg is one of several Democratic prosecutors who is looking to get a criminal conviction of Trump before the 2024 presidential election. The purpose of such a conviction is obvious - it is to hurt Trump, the Republican Party's presidential nominee, in the general election.
The longer the case gets delayed the less likely it is that these Democratic prosecutors will get this coveted conviction of Trump.
As Reuters put it, "Justice Juan Merchan's decision to delay the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president marks another victory for Trump, who has sought to slow down proceedings in his various legal entanglements as he prepares to challenge President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election."
Trump responded to Merchan's ruling on social media, through spokesperson Steven Cheung.
Cheung said:
President Trump and his counsel have been consistent and steadfast that this case has no basis in law or fact, and should be dismissed. Today, after conceding serious discovery violations by his office, the Manhattan DA agreed to an adjournment. We will continue to fight to end this Hoax, and all of the other Crooked Joe Biden - directed Witch Hunts, once and for all.
