NY Judge Delays Trump Trial as Defense Seeks Sanctions, Dismissal

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally at the Forum River Center in Rome, Ga., on March 9, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan adjourned an upcoming trial for former President Donald Trump for 30 days, scheduling a March 25 hearing on the possible dismissal of the case, after which he “will set the new trial date, if necessary.”

The decision follows a discovery dump of 104,000 pages on President Trump’s attorneys less than three weeks before the trial was set to begin.

The judge demanded both parties to supply a “detailed timeline of events surrounding the requests and ultimate production” of those documents by March 21.

In recent notices and letters to the court, the prosecution and defense presented different narratives about the unusual discovery production, which had been produced in a batch of 73,000 pages on March 4 and 31,000 more pages days later.

The defense had sought adjournment of trial upon receiving the first batch, after which the prosecution offered a 30-day delay and took no blame for the late production. The documents had been provided by U.S. attorneys in the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said the federal attorneys had “declined” to provide them earlier.

The defense wrote two letters to the court disputing this “mischaracterization,” arguing that the that prosecutors not only withheld evidence to which the defense had a right, but also actively obstructed their attempts to request or subpoena that evidence from multiple sources.

The judge ordered that the March 25 hearing will be “limited to the specific issue of Defendant’s motion to dismiss on the grounds of the People’s alleged discovery violations related to the production of records by USAO-SDNY.”

The defense had also filed motions to compel discovery and other arguments about dismissal that will not be argued at the hearing.

The judge ordered the parties to supply correspondence between relevant parties so he can ascertain “who, if anyone, is at fault for the late production of the documents, what prejudice, if any, was suffered by either party and what sanction(s) if any, are appropriate.”

The motion for discovery sanctions was filed on March 8, with defense attorneys arguing that this violation of discovery rules warrants sanctions “including dismissal.”

Key Witness

The 104,000 pages the Trump team recently received is related to Michael Cohen, the key witness in the criminal case charging President Trump with falsifying business documents.

They include interviews with Mr. Cohen and what the defense believes is exculpatory evidence.

Mr. Cohen, formerly a personal attorney to President Trump, claimed he was paid to kill a news story during then-candidate Trump’s 2016 campaign and to pay off an adult actress alleging an affair. The defense argues the only payments made to Mr. Cohen were attorney fees, and President Trump has denied all wrongdoing.

Mr. Cohen was previously convicted of tax crimes and pleaded guilty in a plea bargain during which he later publicly and repeatedly claimed he had lied. U.S. attorneys in the Southern District of New York had also detailed Mr. Cohen was less than credible and repeatedly resisted giving full answers in an official report.

Attorneys for President Trump have argued that Mr. Cohen should be impeached as a witness, and that the defense should be allowed to show evidence regarding Mr. Cohen’s own admissions of lying under oath, which were made as recently as fall of 2023 in the civil fraud trial against President Trump. During that trial, Mr. Cohen also acknowledged that his primary source of income was related to criticizing President Trump.

The defense is also arguing that if prosecutors claim the only reason these allegations weren’t brought until years after the fact is because of a “pressure campaign” President Trump asserted over Mr. Cohen, they should be allowed evidence to seek to disprove that, including pointing to statements that showed Mr. Cohen has never shied away from speaking about President Trump.

Discovery Violations?

Defense attorneys claim that prosecutors have made an active effort to prevent the defense from obtaining such evidence.

In letters dated March 14 and March 15, they urged the judge to not take the prosecutors’ recent notice at face value, claiming prosecutors have sought to blame federal attorneys and even President Trump for the late arrival of the 104,000 pages.

They argued that they sought this information as early as last November, but prosecutors had quashed attempts to obtain the material from Mr. Cohen or his publishers.

The defense then sought the information from federal attorneys, and prosecutors “strenuously” opposed this, according to the defense, invoking federal principles “they have no valid interest in invoking.”

The federal attorneys had rejected the defense’s subpoena, and said the defense needed to file a request for discretionary disclosure instead. Eventually, they made the materials available to the prosecutors first, and only in March shared the materials with the defense.

Trump attorneys argued both the Manhattan prosecutors and federal attorneys “treated the subpoena as ineffectual” and that the timeline is evidence that prosecutors did not “diligently” seek to obtain the exculpatory evidence they were required to produce, as they have claimed.

They told the judge they expected the prosecution to challenge their timeline of events.

The judge’s order will require letters, subpoenas, emails, and other correspondence showing the dates of the various requests and exchanges of this evidence.

The Trump Campaign took as victory the judge’s order on a hearing “to hold DA Bragg accountable for misconduct.”

“We will continue to fight to end this hoax,” stated spokesperson Steven Chung.

“President Trump and his counsel have been consistent and steadfast that this case has no basis in law or fact, and should be dismissed.”