MANHATTAN (CN) — State prosecutors put Donald Trump on blast Thursday when they accused the former president of conspiring to delay his criminal trial in New York City with meritless discovery arguments.
A judge delayed the start date from late March until at least mid-April after Trump’s team complained about thousands of pages of new evidence coming in late to the trial on charges that Trump falsified business records to cover up hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump wants the case pushed back further, or dropped altogether. He claims prosecutors violated discovery rules with the late document dump.
In a batch of scathing court filings made public on Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged the court not to delay the case any more.
“On March 8, 2024 defendant filed a motion alleging a 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,” Bragg claimed. “Since then, he has publicly filed several additional documents appending letters complaining of other purported discovery violations.”
According to the filings, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York turned over some 200,000 pages of discovery this month. The evidence contains records from ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s own criminal investigation.
“Defendant has reacted to the USAO's disclosures by demanding that this court dismiss the charges, preclude witnesses, or adjourn the trial for at least ninety days; and by leveling wild and untrue allegations of misconduct and malfeasance,” Bragg said.
Bragg holds that it is Trump’s fault that the evidence was turned over so late, claiming that the other side waited until the last minute to subpoena the records. He called Trump’s effort to play victim a “red herring” designed to “shift the focus away from his own criminal conduct.”
“Enough is enough,” Bragg said. “These tactics by defendant and defense counsel should be stopped.”
Bragg said his office is currently reviewing the new filings at issue and has good reason to believe that less than 270 of those documents are both relevant to the case and weren't previously disclosed to Trump.
The state prosecutor also chided Trump for asking for a dismissal, rebuking the former president’s claims that the charges are meritless.
“A grand jury of regular New Yorkers indicted Donald Trump on thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal criminal efforts to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” Bragg added. “This court held that the evidence supported those charges.”
Following arguments at a hearing on Monday, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan will rule on the discovery questions and potentially set a new trial date.
Last week, Merchan smacked down a request from Trump to keep Cohen and Daniels off the witness stand. Trump’s lawyers raised credibility concerns with both potential witnesses, claiming that Cohen was a proven liar who committed perjury in the past and painting Daniels as a vindictive instigator dead set on destroying Trump’s reputation during an election year.
Merchan denied both requests, finding no grounds to keep Cohen from taking the stand and deeming Daniels’ testimony to contain “necessary background for the jury.”
Bragg claims that Trump, during his 2016 presidential campaign, instructed Cohen to pay Daniels during the to cover up a supposed extramarital relationship he had with the actress.
Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has repeatedly denied any relationship with Daniels, and claimed that the charges from Bragg’s office are politically motivated.
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