Trump Campaign Demands Dismissal of New York District Attorney Bragg’s Case

According to former President Donald Trump’s campaign, the New York trial concerning alleged hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels should not be delayed but dismissed.

The campaign also noted that Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg acknowledged that his office had committed violations. Bragg did not oppose a 30-day delay to the trial, which was originally scheduled to commence with jury selection on March 25.

In April 2023, Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment accusing him of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment made by his former attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels before the 2016 election. Trump has denied any affair with Daniels or any wrongdoing in the case.

“President Trump and his counsel have consistently maintained that this case lacks legal or factual basis and should be dismissed,” stated Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, on the campaign’s website.

Following the release of over 100,000 pages of records by federal prosecutors earlier this month, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan ordered a 30-day postponement in the trial on Friday. This means that the trial, which could potentially be the first criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president, will be postponed until at least mid-April.

Merchan will also convene a pretrial hearing on March 25 to address a dispute over the evidence and a motion from Trump’s legal team seeking to dismiss the case or prevent testimony from key witnesses, as reported by The Washington Post.

Cheung expressed, “Today, after the Manhattan DA acknowledged violations by his office, the judge, in adjourning the trial, ordered a hearing to hold DA Bragg accountable for misconduct. We will continue to fight to put an end to this hoax and all other Crooked Joe Biden-directed Witch Hunts, once and for all.”

In a motion filed on Thursday, Bragg did not admit to any violations but indicated his support for a 30-day delay. Trump’s attorneys had requested a 90-day delay.

Regarding the documents released by federal prosecutors on March 4, Bragg stated that most of the 73,000 pages were irrelevant to the case, except for around 172 pages of witness statements that the defendant would have sufficient time to review before trial.

He mentioned that the U.S. attorney’s office released 31,000 additional pages on Wednesday, which seemed to contain materials related to the case, some of which had been requested by the prosecution over a year ago. More records were expected to be released, with the Post reporting that Bragg would soon receive an additional 15,000 pages of records from the U.S. attorney’s office.