Trump hush money case: New York judge rejects bid to delay trial over presidential immunity claim

Former United States president Donald Trump’s bid to delay his trial on charges based on hush money transferred to adult film actress Stormy Daniels was rejected by a New York judge.

Trump's lawyers had requested to adjourn the hearing in the New York hush money case until the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity.

The case is with Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan and its hearing is scheduled to start on April 15.

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Merchan said that the request of the former president was untimely and ruled that his lawyers had many opportunities to raise the issue of presidential immunity before but they chose to raise it in aMarch 7 court filing.

The judge on Wednesday (April 3) ruled that former president Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution in the hush money case since he did not invoke the defence in a timely manner.

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Judge Juan Merchan ruled that the former president was "well aware" he could try claiming presidential immunity after being indicted a year ago on charges of falsifying business records which were connected with hush money transferred to Daniels.

"Nonetheless, the defendant chose not to raise the defence of presidential immunity until well past the 45-day period provided by statute," Merchan said.

Merchan did not rule on the merits of the immunity claim made by Trump and decided to focus on the timing, which he claimed tested "this court's credulity."

"This Court finds that Defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024," wrote Merchan.

Judge relying on 'fundamentally flawed legal premise' in Trump's classified information case: Special counsel

In Donald Trump's criminal case, where he is charged with retaining classified information, special counsel Jack Smith in a court filing said that the judge was relying on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise” when asking lawyers to look into whether the former president can claim presidential immunity as per federal records law.

Smith added that if Judge Aileen Cannon gives the ruling that Trump can use the Presidential Records Act (PRA) in his defence, he will file another appeal in a higher court and will seek an order for the judge to correctly apply the law.

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This has increased the chances of the trial being pushed back beyond the November general election in which Trump is certain to be the Republican nominee for president.

Meanwhile, Trump's defence team argued, "If this case is presented to a jury—which it should not be—the jury would be forced to resolve factual issues relating to not only PRA categorisations but also documents' alleged classification status."

"Not a single one had heard Trump say that he was designating records as personal or that, at the time he caused the transfer of boxes to Mar-a-Lago, he believed that his removal of records amounted to designating them as personal under the PRA," stated the special counsel.

(With inputs from agencies)