Judge Juan Merchan announced this Monday that
the criminal trial against former President Donald Trump
(2017-2021) will begin on April 15 in New York for
34 crimes related to irregular payments to
a porn actress in 2016, a trial that was scheduled to begin. this Monday.
Trump went to the hearing in person, dressed in a blue suit and a red tie, from where he again repeated to the press that his various trials in New York
are a witch hunt
by the Democrats.
"This is election interference and
should not be allowed to happen
," noted Trump, who will be the first former president in the country's history to face a criminal trial.
The Republican presidential candidate pointed out that this case could have been presented three and a half years ago but "
they decided to wait now
, right during the elections,
so that I cannot campaign
."
The former president's defense team wanted the judge to further delay his trial.
Trump attended the hearing in person, dressed in a blue suit and a red tie.
Photo: EFE
On March 15, Merchan, who was born in Colombia and arrived in the United States at the age of 6, postponed for 30 days a trial that was scheduled for this Monday with jury selection.
Both the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office, which is prosecuting the case, and Trump's defense,
had been in favor of the postponement
given
the large amount of documents provided
by federal authorities this month.
Trump's lawyers previously argued that the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office had violated the rules governing the analysis and selection of evidence and therefore asked that the entire indictment be dismissed or, alternatively, that several testimonies be excluded and the trial be postponed to least 90 days.
In parallel, this same Monday a New York appeals court authorized the former president to pay a lower bail than that originally established in a case of civil fraud.
The former president
must now pay bail of 175 million dollars
within ten days (instead of 464 million), while the appeal for the sentence that requires him to pay 454 million dollars is resolved.
This is an important lifeline for the former president, who, along with some of his children and his company, was fined after Judge Arthur Engoron noted that Trump and the other defendants fraudulently inflated the value of their assets.
With information from agencies