NEW YORK — The stage is set for history to be made as the trial for Donald Trump’s hush-money case is scheduled to begin on March 25. This trial marks the first criminal prosecution of a former president and comes at a time when Trump is leading the pack of 2024 Republican White House hopefuls.
The charges against Trump relate to the falsification of business records during the 2016 political campaign to conceal a previous affair with an adult-film star. The trial, expected to last about six weeks, will coincide with the spring’s presidential nominating season, adding a dramatic twist to the political landscape.
Trump’s defense attorney has pushed back against the trial’s timing, arguing that it unfairly interferes with Trump’s ambitions to return to the White House. Additionally, Trump faces another trial in late May in Florida on charges of illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.
The New York trial has been viewed as the least weighty among the four separate indictments of Trump. However, despite objections from Trump’s lawyers, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case is set to be the first to go before a jury.
Amidst the legal battles, Trump remains unyielding, contesting the charges and denouncing them as politically motivated efforts to sabotage his presidential aspirations.
As the courtroom proceedings unfold, preparations for jury selection have sparked debates over the identification of potential jurors’ political affiliations and past donations, emphasizing the high-stakes and deeply polarizing nature of the trial.
In the midst of legal skirmishes, Trump continues to dominate the field of Republican candidates for the presidency, setting the stage for an unprecedented intersection of legal and political drama in the coming months.