As of: March 12, 2024, 10:18 a.m
By: Stefan Krieger
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Donald Trump plans to return to the White House.
His biggest opponent is currently the judiciary.
Trump wants to delay upcoming legal proceedings.
New York – Politically, things are not going badly for Donald Trump at the moment.
The former US president has left his last opponent, Nikki Haley, behind in the Republican primaries for the 2024 US elections.
A nomination is therefore just a formality.
What still bothers him are what he sees as the annoying trials that are pending against him.
Here the 77-year-old is trying to play for time.
Trump has currently asked the New York judiciary to postpone his criminal trial over hush money payments to former porn actress Stormy Daniels for at least a month.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan should postpone the proceedings until the Supreme Court has examined the criminal immunity of the former US president.
This was stated in an application from Trump's lawyers published on Monday (March 11, local time).
This trial about Trump's immunity begins on April 25th before the Supreme Court in Washington - the trial over the hush money payments is scheduled to begin on March 25th.
Hush money to Stormy Daniels?
Donald Trump becomes the first US president to be impeached
Trump was the first ex-president in US history to be indicted at the end of March 2023 in connection with a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
The Manhattan district attorney's office is accusing the Republican of 34 counts of falsifying business documents, which could be punishable by four years in prison.
Trump pleads “not guilty.”
Likes to strike a winning pose: Donald Trump © CHIP SOMODEVILLA/AFP
In fact, the hush money of $130,000 (120,000 euros) paid by Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels before the election was not in itself illegal.
However, the repayment of the money to Cohen by Trump's real estate empire in numerous tranches is said to have been incorrectly recorded as legal fees.
Trump denies sexual relationships
Although the payments date from before the 2016 election and thus before Trump's presidency, according to his lawyers, prosecutors also want to present evidence from his time in the White House.
“President Trump therefore strongly requests an adjournment of the trial to await further decisions from the Supreme Court,” they argued.
According to her own account, the porn actress Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, had an affair with the married Trump in 2006 - shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron.
Trump denies having a sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels.
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Trump indicted in four criminal cases – As president he could avoid punishment
Trump is a defendant in a total of four criminal cases.
His lawyers had repeatedly tried in the past to postpone the various trials until after the election.
If Trump were to move back into the White House, he could order after his inauguration that the federal judiciary stop prosecuting him.
Trump is obviously speculating on this.
The trial for Trump's “conspiracy against the American state,” originally scheduled for March 4, has been suspended for the time being.
This is about his illegal efforts to overturn the result of the election won by Joe Biden in November 2020 - especially through the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The judicial officials have postponed the hearing until the immunity issue has been finally resolved.
(skr/afp)