{"id":1457498,"date":"2024-02-15T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1457498"},"modified":"2024-02-15T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T20:00:00","slug":"judge-denies-trump-motion-to-dismiss-stormy-daniels-hush-money-case-sets-march-trial-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/judge-denies-trump-motion-to-dismiss-stormy-daniels-hush-money-case-sets-march-trial-date\/1457498\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Denies Trump Motion To Dismiss Stormy Daniels &#8216;Hush Money&#8217; Case, Sets March Trial Date"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Judge Denies Trump Motion To Dismiss Stormy Daniels &#8216;Hush Money&#8217; Case, Sets March Trial Date<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>The judge in former President Donald Trump&#8217;s New York hush-money trial says the case will go forward as scheduled, with jury selection beginning on March 25.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/stormy%20trump_2.jpg?itok=GuKMY_TE\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The decision by Judge Juan Manuel Merchan was made after consulting with the judge in Trump&#8217;s now-delayed federal election interference case in Washington DC.<\/p>\n<p>Trump was in attendance on Thursday for the hearing to determine whether Trump is guilty of <strong>34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to conceal stories about alleged extramarital affairs<\/strong> which former porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal sprung on the billionaire during the 2016 election.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday marked Trump&#8217;s first return to the court in the New York criminal case since he became the first ex-president indicted in US history. He has since been indicted in Florida, Georgia, and Washington D.C. &#8211; <strong>which has only propelled him to new heights in the polls<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Sparks flew in the coutroom, as Trump&#8217;s attorneys blasted the decision to keep the March date &#8211; arguing that Trump will have to stand trial in New York while simultaneously attempting to seal the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is completely election interference to say \u2018you are going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan,&#8221; said defense attorney Todd Blanche.<\/p>\n<p>Merchan at one point told Blanche at one point &#8220;Stop interrupting me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>During the heated exchange about the schedule for the trial moving forward, Judge Merchan told Trump lawyer Todd Blanche: &#8220;Stop interrupting me.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cyVmLd1OID\">https:\/\/t.co\/cyVmLd1OID<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kylegriffin1\/status\/1758145588112003356?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 15, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, Merchan has taken steps to prepare for the trial &#8211; which would be the first for Trump of his several cases, <em>AP<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Over the past year, Trump has lashed out at Merchan as a \u201cTrump-hating judge,\u201d <\/strong><span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-criminal-case-judge-merchan-d0e54b546043e0497b5c04e78b505d6a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">asked him to step down from the case<\/a><\/span> and sought to move the case <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-new-york-indictment-stormy-daniels-cohen-e673f673d205a70275d05510793672f2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">from state court to federal court<\/a><\/span>, all to no avail. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-hush-money-juan-manuel-merchan-recusal-manhattan-e6ea9180af83bf47443b752fec2c518c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Merchan has acknowledged<\/a><\/span> making several small donations to Democrats, including $15 to Trump\u2019s rival Joe Biden, but said he\u2019s certain of his \u201cability to be fair and impartial.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Thursday\u2019s proceeding is part of a busy, overlapping stretch of legal activity for the Republican presidential front-runner,<\/strong> who has increasingly made his court involvement part of his political campaign.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The recent postponement of a March 4 trial date in Trump\u2019s Washington, D.C. election interference case<strong> removed a major hurdle to starting the New York case on time<\/strong>. &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-hush-money-new-york-criminal-case-fbdff18df40920b75873b3a40317f5ee?taid=65ce243ea16ddd00014b7bc8&amp;utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_source=Twitter\">AP<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Trump has denied any of the alleged sexual encounters.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Trump&#8217;s lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000, and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in a practiced coined &#8220;catch-and-kill.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s company then paid Cohen $420,000 and marked the payments as legal expenses vs. reimbursements, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Thu, 02\/15\/2024 &#8211; 10:00<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/judge-denies-trump-motion-dismiss-stormy-daniels-hush-money-case-sets-march-trial-date\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judge Denies Trump Motion To Dismiss Stormy Daniels &#8216;Hush Money&#8217; Case, Sets March Trial Date The judge in former President Donald Trump&#8217;s New York hush-money&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1457498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1457498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1457498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1457498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1457498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1457498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1457498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}