Donald Trump’s hush-money trial will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection starting on March 25, a New York judge ruled Thursday, turning aside demands for a delay from the former president’s defense lawyers.

The decision sets the stage for a case centered on years-old accusations that Trump sought to bury stories about extramarital affairs that arose during his 2016 presidential campaign. It will be the first of the four criminal prosecutions against Trump to proceed to trial.

Other cases charge him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate.

In leaving the trial date intact, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan took advantage of a delay in the separate prosecution in Washington related to efforts to undo the election. That case, originally set for trial on March 4, has been effectively on hold pending the outcome of an appeal from Trump on the legally untested question of whether a former president enjoys immunity from prosecution.

Noting that he resisted defense lawyer urgings from months ago to postpone the trial, Merchan said: “I’m glad I took that position because here we are — the D.C. case did not go forward.”

The hush money trial is expected to last up to six weeks, the judge said.

Assuming the New York case remains on schedule, it will open just weeks after the Super Tuesday elections, colliding on the political calendar with a time period in which Trump will be looking to mathematically sew up the Republican race and emerge as the presumptive nominee in this year’s presidential contest. His attorneys cited that schedule in vigorously objecting to the March trial date.

“It is completely election interference to say ‘you are going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan,’ when there is no reason, said defense lawyer Todd Blanche. “What about his rights.”
Speaking to reporters in a courthouse hallway, Trump made a similar case, asserting to reporters that the case was being brought to hurt him politically and would interfere with his campaigning.

“How can you run for election if you’re sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long? I’m supposed to be in South Carolina now,” said Trump, already the GOP front-runner to face President Joe Biden in November.

In fact, Trump has repeatedly attended court proceedings where his presence was not required.

Merchan held firm, telling Blanche that he had already considered — and rejected — his position, at one point snapping at the lawyer to “Stop interrupting me, please!”

Thursday marked Trump’s first return visit to court in the New York case since that historic indictment made him the first ex-president charged with a crime. Since then, he has also been indicted in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

For the full article, visit The Associated Press.