The judge presiding over the hush money case involving President Trump will conduct a hearing on Monday to determine responsibility for a surprise delay that postponed the trial.
Originally scheduled to commence on the same day as the hearing, Trump's trial was put on hold when federal prosecutors started providing over 100,000 pages of records earlier this month. The trial is now postponed until at least mid-April.
On Monday, the parties are scheduled to confront each other in a New York courtroom to debate whether the records necessitate further postponement of the proceedings—or even sanctions—as Judge Juan Merchan endeavors to determine why they were not provided earlier.
According to court filings, this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York furnished 119,000 pages of records. The office has refrained from making any comments regarding this matter.
Currently, the involved parties are trading blame for the delayed disclosure of the documents. Trump’s legal team has even accused Bragg of failing to fulfill their discovery obligations, urging the judge to dismiss the entire indictment or impose alternative sanctions as a consequence.
Both sides have accused the other of making up facts.
The state of New York has “made numerous untimely and inexplicably delayed disclosures, and actively obstructed efforts by President Trump to obtain discoverable materials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cohen, and Cohen’s publishers, among others. This misconduct weighs in favor of a severe remedy,” Trump’s lawyers stated in a court filing.
Meanwhile, Bragg's office has asserted that they previously attempted to obtain the documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office without success, placing the responsibility on Trump. They informed the judge that they had fulfilled their obligations in this regard.
Court records reveal that the newly obtained documents pertain to the federal criminal case involving Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, who facilitated the hush money payment central to the case.
Trump’s legal team emphasized Cohen’s previous guilty plea in the case, using it as grounds to oppose his testimony and paint him as an untrustworthy individual who might mislead the jury.
Prosecutors stated last week that their assessment was still ongoing, but they had so far identified around 270 pertinent documents that had not been previously disclosed to Trump.
Trump is expected to be in the court room today during arguments.
