Trump faces NYC court hearing in Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg case
Former President Trump is expected in a downtown New York City courtroom today for a hearing related to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money payments case.
The hearing is set to begin at 10 a.m. and last several hours.
Trump is also up against a Monday deadline to post a $454 million bond that was imposed in his civil fraud trial. New York Attorney General Letitcia James, who has accused him of inflating his net worth, granted him a 30-day grace period that expires today. If he is unable to satisfy the judgment, James has threatened to begin seizing Trump’s property and assets.
Trump’s criminal trial was originally scheduled to begin today with jury selection. However, earlier this month, Judge Juan Merchan delayed it until mid-April in order to give the former president and his lawyers more time to go through 15,000 records of potential evidence the Justice Department shared from a previous federal investigation.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said much of the newly produced material is unrelated to the state’s case against Trump. Federal prosecutors have already produced more than 100,000 pages of records for review. Fox News Digital has learned, though, that at least 74,000 pages of records initially were sent only to Bragg’s office and not to Trump’s legal team.
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Trump’s lawyers were seeking a 90-day delay or a dismissal of charges against him, arguing there were violations in “the discovery process,” whereby both sides exchange evidence. Defense lawyers said a 30-day delay was “insufficient.”
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, right, has been investigating former President Trump for alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images/Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump’s lawyers have said the materials from the federal investigation are critical for his defense in the state case being brought by Bragg.
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Bragg indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Bragg alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted not to charge Trump related to the payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
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The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
