US billionaire and former president, Donald Trump made a new move on Monday, March 11 to delay his trial over alleged hush-money payments to a porn star, asking the judge to pause the case until the US Supreme Court rules on his separate presidential-immunity bid.
Lawyers for Trump argued that the case should be put on hold because the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office may present evidence of Trump’s statements made while president.
Jurors could be barred from hearing such evidence depending on how the US Supreme Court rules on the immunity issue, Trump’s lawyers claimed.
The immunity case involves whether Trump, now the leading Republican party presidential candidate, should be granted blanket protection from prosecution in his federal 2020 election interference case because it involved “official acts” he took while president.
The Manhattan case involving porn star Stormy Daniels and Trump’s alleged affair with her is slated for jury selection on March 25.
The DA’s office has said it may present evidence of the then-president’s 2018 “pressure campaign” from the Oval Office to threaten his ex-fixer Michael Cohen into not cooperating with a federal probe into $130,000 in hush-money payments made to Daniels.
The high court has agreed to hear arguments on Trump’s immunity case on April 25. Regardless of the outcome, the April hearing date potentially pushes his related election-interference trial to next year, handing a potential major win to Team Trump.
If Trump recaptures the presidency, he could order his Justice Department to drop the case, which is currently pending in DC federal court.
Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of felony falsifying business records in the hush-money case.