NEW YORK, United States: Former US President Donald Trump will become the first former US president to face a criminal trial after a judge on Monday denied Trump’s request to delay his trial for at least 90 days on charges of paying a porn star.
New York Judge Juan Merchan rejected demands from Trump’s attorneys to delay his trial and ordered jury selection to begin on April 15.
The possible Republican nominee for the November presidential election denounced the upcoming trial and other cases brought against him as “election interference” by incumbent US president Joe Biden. The Democrat is Trump’s likely opponent in the November White House vote.
“I don’t know how you can have a trial that’s going on right in the middle of an election,” Trump posed a question. “It’s not fair. If I were doing poorly this wouldn’t be happening.”
Separately, the former US president welcomed a New York appeals court decision in his civil fraud case to slash a potentially crippling $454 million bond payment to $175 million and give him 10 extra days to pay.
The 77-year-old had been facing a Monday deadline to pay the huge original bond pending an appeal against the decision of a New York state judge, that he is liable for fraudulently conspiring to inflate his net worth.
Trump risked seeing New York authorities seizing part of his real estate empire if he failed to come up with the bond but the appeals court panel’s decision hands him a legal and financial lifeline.
The hush money trial was due to begin on Monday but was delayed after prosecutors presented thousands of pages of potential evidence.
President Trump is accused of falsifying business records for the payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election to prevent her from revealing her relationship with the former president.
Judge Marchan, visibly angry, backed down from Trump’s lawyers’ suggestions to delay the start of the trial. This tactic has been used in various other Trump cases.
Asked by reporters if he would testify about the hush money scandal, President Trump replied, “I would have no problem testifying.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.
The former US president regularly rails against a judicial system he alleges is “fixed” against him.
He also faces federal and state charges for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election results and has been indicted in Florida for refusing to return classified documents after leaving the White House.
