监督前总统唐纳德·特朗普的法官封口费刑事案件周一，纽约裁定审判将于4月15日开始，驳回了特朗普再次推迟审判的请求。
该案原定于周一开始挑选陪审团成员延期30天本月早些时候，在辩护律师对联邦检察官延迟提供超过10万页的潜在证据提出质疑后，法官做出了上述裁决。
法官胡安·马尔康周一裁定，曼哈顿地区检察官对美国纽约南区检察官办公室文件的延迟提交没有过错。
“曼哈顿地方检察官的办公室做出了勤勉和真诚的努力”来检索适当的材料，法官Merchan说，并补充说特朗普不会因延迟披露而遭受任何偏见。
听证会后，美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)问特朗普是否会在审判中作证表示他会.
“我作证没有问题，”他说。“我没做错什么。”
在听证会上，法官似乎对该案是否需要因潜在证据的争议而被推迟或驳回持怀疑态度，并称辩方对检方不当行为的指控“非常令人不安”。
“你实际上是在指控曼哈顿检察官办公室和负责此案的人员的起诉不当行为，并让我成为其中的同谋，而你没有一个证据来支持这一立场，”Merchan告诉Blanche。
“本法庭认为，实际上没有重大的事实问题需要解决，”默沙东早些时候谈到辩方推迟或驳回案件的论点时说。
辩方指控曼哈顿地区检察官办公室“存在广泛的不当行为”和“严重违反发现程序”，并辩称他们有理由驳回起诉，暂停审判，并禁止前特朗普律师迈克尔·科恩和丹尼尔斯作证。
“这是一场政治迫害。这是一个骗局。谢谢你，”特朗普今天早上进入法庭前对媒体说。
检察官马修·科朗吉洛(Matthew Colangelo)积极反驳了地方检察官办公室积极压制辩护律师潜在证据的指控。
“不，我们没有积极压制...发现或弹劾材料，”科朗吉洛说，他重申了大部分有问题的文件与针对特朗普的案件无关的说法。
布兰奇认为审查每份文件需要时间，应该推迟。“每份文件都很重要，”他说。“每一个人。“
Merchan将周一的听证会定为解决最近一项与潜在证据有关的辩护动议，并为此案设定了最终审判日期。
“在对被告的动议做出裁决之前，法院必须解决一些重要的事实问题，”Merchan在本月早些时候的一份裁决中写道。
辩护律师要求延长审判时间，限制关键证词，或者根据新材料驳回案件。他们表示，这些新材料损害了明星证人、前特朗普律师迈克尔·科恩的可信度，并包含“削弱人们对案件理论的开脱信息”
上周，曼哈顿地区检察官办公室的检察官被推后根据辩方的要求，认为最近披露的潜在证据是“转移视线”和“战略拖延”的一部分。根据检察官的文件，虽然30天的休庭为辩护律师提供了“合理的时间让被告审查信息”，但没有必要进一步拖延。
检察官在上周提交的一份文件中写道:“一年多来，被告采取了一切可能的措施来逃避此案的责任。”“够了。被告和辩护律师的这些策略应该停止。”'
特朗普去年4月拒不认罪一份34项罪名的起诉书指控他伪造商业记录封口费付款科恩在2016年总统大选前几天向成人电影女演员斯托米·丹尼尔斯求婚。
关于听证会，有三件事需要了解。
辩护律师是如何找到新材料的?
去年特朗普被起诉两个月后，检察官移交了300万页文件，开始了检察官与辩方分享调查期间获得的证据的发现过程。
前联邦检察官乔什·纳夫塔利斯告诉美国广播公司新闻:“在曼哈顿检察官办公室，他们做的是所谓的公开文件发现，这意味着他们的做法基本上是交出他们在调查过程中获得的每一张纸。”
虽然地方检察官办公室表示，2023年6月，他们移交了从纽约南区美国检察官办公室收到的所有材料-该办公室在2018年获得了一项科恩认罪关于与斯托米·丹尼尔斯付款有关的竞选财务指控-特朗普的律师于2024年1月18日向联邦检察官发出传票，要求提供更多材料。
辩护律师在传票中要求提供科恩的纳税申报文件、银行记录、iPhone和电子邮件账户中的文件、记录科恩所做陈述的记录以及与其他执法部门的通信。
根据一份辩护文件，到2月23日，SDNY的联邦检察官同意披露一些要求提供的记录，包括10778页的银行记录以及两部iPhones和三个电子邮件账户的文件。根据本月早些时候提交的一份文件，联邦检察官总共向特朗普的辩护团队移交了11.9万页记录。
前联邦检察官贾罗德·谢弗在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时说:“对于辩方来说，这是一个非常快速的信息，所以这可以解释为什么地方检察官办公室同意将时间延长至少30天。”
SDNY的作品包括什么?
这11.9万页文件的具体分类仍不清楚，但地方检察官办公室辩称，大部分文件与本案无关，或者已经被出示。检方表示，这些材料总共包含不到270份新文件，其中包括172页新的证人陈述。
“人们现在有充分的理由相信，这部作品只包含与本案主题相关的有限材料，这些材料此前没有向被告披露:估计不到270份文件，其中大部分是指控性的和现有证据的佐证，”检察官办公室表示。
辩护律师认为，这些文件高度相关，其中包括可能被用来抹黑科恩或赦免特朗普不法行为的材料。
尽管辩护律师强调了联邦检察官提供的文件页数，但纳夫塔利斯警告称，文件内容将最终决定Merchan法官的下一步行动。
纳夫塔利斯说:“我的猜测是，特朗普最多只能得到30天时间，因为有争议的文件数量在整体计划中并不算多。”“这并不意味着这些都是新文件，可能会有大量重叠。”
特朗普的律师为什么主张解雇他?
辩护律师指控地方检察官办公室在推动驳回案件、限制关键证词和延长审判时间方面存在不当行为。
辩护律师托德·布兰奇(Todd Blanche)在最近的一份文件中写道:“这些人进行了广泛的不当行为，作为绝望努力的一部分，以改善他们在起诉书中虚假和无证据指控的潜在审判中的地位。”
曼哈顿检察官办公室的律师反驳了这一动议，称其为一个不准确的“毫无价值的发现论点的大杂烩，是一系列逃避对起诉书中指控的行为负责的企图中的最新一次。”
更多信息:在封口费的审判中，川普不会使用“法律顾问的建议”进行辩护，但仍会辩称律师参与了辩护
助理地方检察官马修·科朗吉洛在上周的一份文件中表示:“被告的指控完全没有根据，目前的情况不足以证明他所寻求的极端制裁是合理的。”
如果法官默森不驳回此案，辩护律师要求延长休庭时间，并排除迈克尔·科恩、斯托米·丹尼尔斯和一名专家证人的证词。
Merchan最终将不得不考虑谁(如果有的话)应该为延迟提供证据负责。
谢弗说:“这实际上取决于检察官是否做了他们应该做的事情——也就是说，他们是否勤奋并真诚地努力获取他们认为存在并应该移交的材料。”
Trump hush money case updates: Judge rules trial will start April 15
The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump'scriminal hush money casein New York ruled Monday that the trial will begin on April 15, rejecting Trump's request for an additional delay.
The case, which was initially scheduled to begin jury selection on Monday, wasadjourned for 30 daysby the judge earlier this month, after defense attorneys raised issues with the late production of over 100,000 pages of potential evidence by federal prosecutors.
Judge Juan Merchan decided Monday that the Manhattan district attorney is not at fault for the late production of documents from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.
"The Manhattan District Attorney's office made diligent, good faith efforts" to retrieve appropriate material, Judge Merchan said, adding that Trump will not suffer any prejudice as a result of the late disclosure.
Asked by ABC News after the hearing if he will testify at his trial, Trumpindicated he would.
"I would have no problem testifying," he said. "I didn't do anything wrong."
During the hearing, the judge appeared skeptical that the case needed to be delayed or dismissed because of a dispute over potential evidence, and called the defense's claims of prosecutorial misconduct "very disconcerting."
"You are literally accusing the Manhattan DA's office and the people assigned to this case of prosecutorial misconduct and to make me complicit in it, and you don't have a single cite to support that position," Merchan told Blanche.
"This court is of the opinion that there really are not significant questions of fact to be resolved," Merchan said earlier about the defense's arguments to delay or dismiss the case.
The defense accused the Manhattan district attorney's office of "widespread misconduct" and "serious discovery violations" and argued they warranted a dismissal of the indictment, an adjournment of the trial and the prohibition on former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and Daniels from testifying.
"This is a witch hunt. This is a hoax. Thank you," Trump told the media before entering the courtroom this morning.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo aggressively pushed back on the allegation that the District Attorney's Office actively suppressed potential evidence from defense attorneys.
"No, we are not actively suppressing ... discovery or impeachment materials," Colangelo said, reiterating the claim that most of the documents in question are irrelevant to the case against Trump.
Blanche argued that reviewing each document takes time and merits a delay. "Every document is important," he said. "Every single one."
Merchan set Monday's hearing to resolve a recent defense motion related to the potential evidence and set a final trial date for the case.
"[T]here are significant questions of fact which this Court must resolve before it may rule on Defendant's motion," Merchan wrote in a ruling earlier this month.
Defense attorneys have demanded a lengthier delay of the trial and limits on key testimony or the dismissal of the case based on the new materials, which they said damage the credibility of star witness and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and contain "exculpatory information that undercuts the People's theory of the case."
Last week, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's officepushed backon the defense's request, arguing that the recently disclosed potential evidence is "a red herring" and part of a "strategic delay." While the 30-day adjournment provided defense attorneys with a "reasonable amount of time for defendant to review the information," no further delay was necessary, according to the prosecutors' filing.
"Defendant has taken every possible step to evade accountability in this case for more than a year," prosecutors wrote in a filing last week. "Enough is enough. These tactics by defendant and defense counsel should be stopped."'
Trump last Aprilpleaded not guiltyto a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with ahush money paymentCohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election.
Here are three things to know about the hearing.
How did defense lawyers find the new materials?
Two months after Trump was indicted last year, prosecutors turned over 3 million pages of documents, beginning the discovery process in which prosecutors share with the defense evidence obtained during their investigation.
"In the Manhattan DA's office, they do what's called open file discovery, which means their practice is to basically turn over every piece of paper that they get in the course of their investigation," former federal prosecutor Josh Naftalis told ABC News.
While the DA's office said that, in June 2023, they turned over all the materials they received from U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York -- which in 2018 secured aguilty plea from Cohenon campaign finance charges related to the Stormy Daniels payment -- Trump's lawyers sent a subpoena to the federal prosecutors on Jan. 18, 2024, seeking additional materials.
In their subpoena, defense lawyers requested Cohen's tax filings, bank records, files from his iPhone and email accounts, records memorializing statements made by Cohen, and communications with other law enforcement offices.
By Feb. 23, federal prosecutors with the SDNY agreed to disclose some of the records requested, including 10,778 pages of bank records and files from two iPhones and three email accounts, according to a defense filing. In total, federal prosecutors turned over 119,000 pages of records to Trump's defense team, according to a filing earlier this month.
"That's a lot of information for the defense to go through very quickly, so that kind of explains why the DA's office agreed to at least a 30-day extension of the time," former federal prosecutor Jarrod Schaeffer told ABC News.
What was included in SDNY's production?
The exact breakdown of the 119,000 pages of documents remains unclear, but the DA's office argues that most of the files are irrelevant to the case or have already been produced. In total, prosecutors said the materials contained fewer than 270 new documents, including 172 pages of new witness statements.
"[T]he People now have good reason to believe that this production contains only limited materials relevant to the subject matter of this case and that have not previously been disclosed to defendant: fewer than an estimated 270 documents, most of which are inculpatory and corroborative of existing evidence," prosecutors with the DA's office said.
Defense lawyers have argued that the documents are highly relevant and include materials that could be used to discredit Cohen or absolve Trump of wrongdoing.
While defense lawyers have highlighted the sheer number of pages produced by federal prosecutors, Naftalis cautioned that the documents' contents will ultimately determine Judge Merchan's next move.
"My guess is that 30 days is all that Trump's going to get because the volume of documents at issue really isn't that large in the grand scheme of things," Naftalis said. "That doesn't mean that these are all new documents, and there could be substantial overlap."
Why are Trump's lawyers arguing for dismissal?
Defense lawyers have accused the DA's office of misconduct in their push for a dismissal of the case, the limiting of key testimony, and a lengthier delay of the trial.
"The People have engaged in widespread misconduct as part of a desperate effort to improve their position at the potential trial on the false and unsupported charges in the Indictment," defense attorney Todd Blanche wrote in a recent filing.
Attorneys with the Manhattan DA's office pushed back on that motion, describing it as a inaccurate "grab-bag of meritless discovery arguments in the latest of a long series of attempts to evade responsibility for the conduct charged in the indictment."
"Defendant's accusations are wholly unfounded, and the circumstances here do not come close to warranting the extreme sanctions he has sought," assistant district attorney Matthew Colangelo said in a filing last week.
If Judge Merchan does not dismiss the case, defense lawyers asked for a longer adjournment and preclusion of the testimony of Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, and an expert witness.
Merchan will ultimately have to consider who, if anyone, should be culpable for the late production of evidence.
"It's really going to come down to have the prosecutors done what they're supposed to do -- meaning, have they been diligent and made a good-faith effort to get material that they believe exists and should be turned over," Schaeffer said.
