A New York judge on Thursday denied Donald Trump's request to dismiss criminal charges arising from the payment of dark money to buy the silence of a porn film actress so as not to harm her political career.
The 34 charges were filed by the Manhattan attorney general last April, and constitute the first of the four charges against the former president and Republican favorite candidate for the November 5 presidential elections.
The confirmation of the case by Judge Juan Merchan paves the way for the first criminal trial in history against a former president of the United States.
The start date is scheduled for March 25.
Trump, 77, who leads Democrat Joe Biden in several voting intention polls, had asked Judge Merchan to dismiss the 34 charges accusing him of falsifying business records to cover up the payment of $130,000 to the actress known as Stormy. Daniels before the 2016 elections, and that in his company's official accounts it was recorded as legal expenses.
The legal and media soap opera surrounding the indictment of Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg was just an appetizer of the judicial rosary that awaited him throughout the year: three more indictments, in Florida, Washington and Georgia, and for supposedly more serious cases, such as electoral interference in 2020 or the retention of classified documents, but which at the moment do not seem to have made a dent in the primary process.
On the contrary, he has used his frequent court appearances to raise funds for his presidential campaign, raising millions of dollars last year alone.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.
He has pushed for the case to be dismissed, arguing that state laws do not apply to federal elections.
Judge Merchan's will be Trump's first criminal trial, after a Washington judge postponed in early February without a date the trial scheduled for early March for trying to steal the elections.
Washington's process for trying to alter the 2020 election result is paralyzed while higher courts rule on his immunity.
Before the hearing, Trump repeated his claims that the case is politically motivated.
“They wouldn't have brought this if it weren't for the fact that I'm running for president and I'm doing well” in the polls and in their results in the Republican primaries, the candidate said in a hallway while entering the courtroom.
In both this case and the other three, Trump has declared his innocence and claimed to be the victim of political persecution by his Democratic rivals to torpedo his election campaign.
A handful of protesters demonstrated at the doors of the court with banners that read “no to dictators in the United States.”
Furthermore, also in New York, another judge must announce this Friday how much Trump and his companies must pay for inflating the value of their properties to obtain advantageous credits, a civil case that does not imply a prison sentence, but in which the attorney general of the New York state Letitia James seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties.
Trump was already found guilty of fraud last September, so now only the amount of the fine is expected to be known.
In another civil case, the magnate and politician was recently sentenced to pay $83 million to columnist E. Jean Carroll, whom he sexually abused in the 1990s and was also convicted of defamation a year ago.
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