NEW: Judge Delays Trump ‘Hush Money’ Lawfare Trial to Mid-April

Judge Juan Merchan delayed Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial which was originally scheduled to begin March 25 to mid-April.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday filed for a delay of up to 30 days in the Trump-Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ trial in New York City.

The judge overseeing the case cited discovery concerns for his decision to allow for a delay.

The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s New York hush money case has delayed the start of the trial from its original March 25 start date, due to discovery issues raised by the defense.

“Trial on this matter is adjourned for 30 days from the date of this letter,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote Friday, which would push the new trial date to mid-April.

Lawyers for Trump were seeking to delay the start of the trial in order to allow them to review tens of thousands of pages of potential evidence recently disclosed by the Justice Department.

Merchan, in his ruling Friday, said “there are significant questions of fact” he must resolve before he decides whether the Manhattan district attorney flouted its obligations to disclose potential evidence, as alleged by the defense.

Alvin Bragg indicted Trump last April on 34 felony counts related to ‘hush payments’ he made to Stormy Daniels.

Trump was accused of paying porn star Stormy Daniels, AKA, Stephanie Clifford, ‘hush payments’ through his then-attorney Michael Cohen in a scheme to silence her and stop the story about their alleged affair from being published in the National Enquirer.

The payments made to Stormy Daniels did NOT come from Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The payments were made through internal business records – there was no tax deduction taken and there was no obligation to file it with the FEC, according to Trump attorney Joe Tacopina.

Trump was hit with a criminal charge for every payment he made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen in connection with the ‘hush payments’ to the two women.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg went through the Trump Organization’s ledger and charged him down the line per payment to Cohen.

Every single payment to Michael Cohen was made in 2017 while Trump was president.

Bragg’s office copy and pasted the same charge 34 times and just switched out the check or voucher number.

Alvin Bragg didn’t explain what exactly he wanted to convict Trump of in the charging documents.

Bragg told reporters he doesn’t have to tell anyone what the underlying felony is.

He’s just allowed to charge Trump with 34 felonies without explaining what the underlying offense was.

“The Left ignores court precedent and twist the law because they think Trump cheated to win in 2016 and got away with it. Lanny Davis was Cohen’s fake defense attorney claiming because Cohen plead guilty to something that was not a crime, it made Trump an “unindicted co conspirator”—-as a smear. Stormy Daniels sold her silence to Cohen, whose payment was an independent expenditure, not an in-kind campaign contribution, The prosecutor claimed that Cohen committed a crime, but not Stormy Daniels, which is absurd, because the prosecutor also claimed that Daniel’s “silence “ was the “thing of value” received by the Trump campaign. The prosecutor also lied about the law when he claimed that Cohen tried to influence the election—-which was his RIGHT as a citizen. What is the purpose of a newspaper endorsement or campaign? Why do people volunteer for campaigns and put signs in their yards and bumper sticker on their cars and trucks? Cohen said under oath that Trump knew nothing about his payment to Daniels before the election. …which means Trump did not receive any in kind campaign contribution from Cohen that he knowingly took and did not refuse to take. “Silence” is NOT a campaign contribution….plus it was Stormy Daniels who sold her silence, probably because she wanted Trump to win.
This case was settled in the John Edward’s case, when the courts decided and set a legal PRECEDENT, that when Edward’s friends paid hush money to Reilly Hunter, then it was NOT a campaign contribution as prosecutors had alleged.
Trump is innocent, but Bragg thinks Trump got away with a federal crime, so he concocted a way to get him anyway—which is a criminal act in itself.
Rudy Guilliani screwed up this case for Trump, because it was Guilliani who decided to make a public show of Trump paying back Cohen for what Cohen paid Daniels. ,,then booking it as a legal expense, whixh hardly is falsifying a business record. Lots of people think this case is about Trump taking illegal tax deductions , like in the Letitia James case. Cohen was Trump’s lawyer who worked for him. There is a lawyer -client privilege aspect to this case too that is in Trump’s favor, as Cohen was getting paid a $10 million salary by Trump and he saw his role as “fixer” even before Trump ran for president and ran a self financed race for president. Trump gave a campaign contribution to himself? Gulliani made the mistake of having Trump give something back to Cohen that he never took in the first place. At the time, I screamed all over the internet about what a dire mistake Guilliani was making. Gulliani COULD have screamed that Trump did not take anything from Cohen that he could use or give back, but the “silence” voluntarily came from Stormy Daniels and there is no proof that she wanted to talk, anyway. Guilliani should have oondemned her as a blackmailer, but we know so little about the case, for all we know—-Cohen paid Daniels to talk….or Avenatti did. Avenatti has made statements from prison that there was more than meets the eye, here. How does Lanny Davis get to be Cohen’s defense attorney being a friend of the Clintons with a vested interest in Cohen being guilty, and with no experience as a defense attorney? He wanted Cohen to be guilty, so he could then claim Trump was guilty, too, Guilliani made things worse by giving Cohen money—as if Trump had illegally taken a campaign contribution that helped him win the election, but now was giving it back after the election—-which is what Bragg outside the jurisdiction and out of his depth, but is being enabled to focus on by partisan and corrupt New York/east coast Democrat machine. Bragg thinks he can claim a payment to a lawyer booked as a payment to a lawyer is falsifying a business record and is a felony because it interfered with an election? Bragg is the real criminal. The FEC already decided this case, as did the DOJ and courts, Fake news does not care. Guilliani is lucky, this payment was not considered a BRIBE. Everything about the Cohen case was sleazy, ie how he was targeted, isolated , gagged, his office raided, coerced to snitch on Trump—-all in complete secrecy—-and same with Michael Flynn, We never get to hear about arrests and evidence, only after DOJ gets to torture them into a plea deal. “———same friend, responding to this issue too

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.