Trump can pay smaller bond in civil fraud case as judge sets April date for hush money trial

Former President Donald Trump and attorney Susan Necheles sit in court before the hearing begins on Monday.

Judge Juan Merchan appeared skeptical Monday of Donald Trump’s allegations against the Manhattan district attorney over the production of new documents, questioning the accusations that the district attorney’s office acted unethically.

Merchan is holding a hearing Monday to address Trump’s motion for sanctions against the district attorney’s office, including to dismiss the charges, toss out testimony from Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels and dismiss the trial for at least 90 days.

But during the hearing, the judge peppered Trump attorney Todd Blanche with questions about the allegations, expressing exasperation that Trump’s attorneys couldn’t cite any case law that the district attorney was responsible for what the US Attorney turned over.

Merchan said that Trump’s attorneys were leveling allegations that were “incredibly serious, unbelievably serious” — and it was “disconcerting” the defense couldn’t provide a citation to back it up. The judge also pressed Blanche on why Trump’s lawyers didn’t ask for the documents more quickly, following the first production of documents were turned over last spring.

Trump’s attorneys subpoenaed the documents from the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York in January, leading to the production of tens of thousands of documents in March that prompted Merchan to postpone the trial, supposed to start today, until at least mid-April.

Attorney Todd Blanche is seen in August 2023.

As Trump attorney Todd Blanche blames the New York District Attorney’s office for not pressuring federal prosecutors to turn over additional documents related to Michael Cohen, Judge Juan Merchan is getting impatient.

Merchan asked why Trump’s attorneys didn’t ask for additional documents from the Southern District of New York after receiving the first production last May.

Blanche, the judge noted, once was a prosecutor in the federal office.

Blanche argues that the DA should have done so — but Merchan disagreed.

“For one, it’s not our job to get it. The statute…,” Blanche said.

The judge cut him off, saying, “It’s not the people’s job either.”

Judge Juan Merchan poses for a picture in his chambers in New York on March 14.

Judge Juan Merchan is now going after the defense’s allegations, raising his voice for the first time in the hearing, saying the fact they don’t have a court citation that the NY District Attorney’s office was obligated for the US Attorney to turn over documents is “really disconcerting.”

The judge has otherwise been calm and level throughout the hearing.

Merchan then asked the defense whether it’s their position that the US attorney “knowingly retained information” that should have been turned over to the prosecution when it was requested.

“No, it’s that the people never asked,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche responded.

As Blanche and Merchan debate case law, Trump is looking closely to his side at his attorney with his arms folded in front of him.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche suggested the Michael Cohen FBI interviews that the US Attorney’s Office turned over are related to the investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Judge Juan Merchan said not to bring it up. “That’s not relevant, what does that have to do with this case?” Merchan said, adding that he will not allow anything about the Russia investigation in as evidence in this case. “It has nothing to do with this case.”

Blanche countered that the FBI discussed what Cohen was doing with Trump before Trump took office, which he argues could be relevant. Cohen paid the hush money to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

Blanche said the interviews with Cohen from the Mueller investigation address relevant topics like the allegations in this case and the Access Hollywood tape.

Michael Cohen, center, is seen in New York in October.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche told the court there are “thousands” of relevant documents to this case that belatedly were turned over to the former president’s lawyers, including Michael Cohen’s bank records and his interviews with the FBI.

Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, is a key witness for the district attorney’s office. He was the conduit for paying the hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels that is at the heart of the case. Trump’s team says the information is either exculpatory or can be used to impeach Cohen as a witness.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, meanwhile, said the number of relevant documents produced in the latest federal disclosure is “quite small.”

“We have a pretty refined understanding” of the disclosure, Colangelo said — about 300 pages.

Former President Donald Trump, left, and New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

Donald Trump’s legal team and the New York Attorney General’s office are working hard ahead of the former president’s Monday’s deadline to secure a bond for the multimillion-dollar civil fraud judgment against him.

Trump personally owes over $454 million stemming from the ruling made by Judge Arthur Engoron back in February. The figure balloons up to $463.9 million when including the money owed from his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., the Trump Organization and the interest that was accrued as of the date of the ruling.

Experts who spoke to CNN say Attorney General Letitia James and her staff should be poised to start the complicated legal maze of seizing Trump’s assets if the former president does not secure the bonds needed to cover Engoron’s ruling as he appeals. Assets, such as buildings, houses, cars, helicopters and his plane, are in play. The main focus could be on his bank accounts, which experts say will be easier to take hold of, and properties, which would be more difficult.

Trump has asked a state appeals court to allow him to post a smaller bond – or none at all – claiming he would face irreparable harm if he were forced to sell properties at a fire sale that can’t be undone if he ultimately wins his appeal. The court has not yet ruled.

Read more about how the process could play out.

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom in New York on Monday.

Judge Juan Merchan asked his first question to Donald Trump’s lawyers, asking why no one mentioned the discovery issue related to all the documents they sought from the US Attorney’s Office for so long.

Trump’s team brought up the discovery issue on February 15, but their subpoena was filed with federal prosecutors January 18.

“How come you didn’t bring it up?” Merchan asked.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche says he doesn’t know what “intervention we could have sought” on February 15, because they didn’t know what they were going to get from the federal prosecutors

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom in New York on Monday.

Judge Juan Merchan is in the courtroom and the hearing has begun.

Former President Donald Trump is sitting at the defense table in between his attorneys Susan Necheles and Emil Bove, with his hands folded and had two stacks of papers in front of him as he waited for the hearing to start.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is seated in the second row behind the prosecution table.

The judge began by saying that Trump is seeking to dismiss the trial or preclude testimony from Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels and delay the trial at least 90 days, accusing the district attorney of “engaging in widespread conduct.”

Merchan is reading highlights from the Trump filing, including accusations that the DA’s office is trying to interfere in the 2024 election and engage in a strategy to “hide the truth.”

Former President Donald Trump departs Trump Tower in New York for a Manhattan criminal court on Monday morning.

Former President Donald Trump is at a New York criminal court for a pre-trial hearing in his hush money criminal case.

The hearing is to discuss discovery issues that led to the delay of Trump’s New York criminal trial until at least April. Trump’s lawyers have asked to further delay or dismiss the case. As he entered the hearing, Trump called the case a “hoax.”

Cameras are allowed in the hallway of the courthouse, and Trump has frequently taken the opportunity to speak to media around his appearances. He’s expected to deliver remarks after the court hearing.

Another looming legal threat: The hearing also comes on the same day he is staring down a deadline to secure a bond while he appeals Judge Arthur Engoron’s $464 million civil fraud decision against him, his adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization. Trump has until Monday to post bond.

If he can’t somehow find the money by Monday, the New York attorney general may begin the process of seizing some of Trump’s assets to finance his obligation to the state. Trump has appealed the ruling.

Former President Donald Trump attends a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on February 15.

Former President Donald Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, stemming from reimbursements made to Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for hush money payments he made before the 2016 election to an adult film star alleging an affair with Trump. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair with Stormy Daniels.

Trump was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including an illegal payment of $130,000 that was ordered by the defendant to suppress the negative information that would hurt his campaign, prosecutors alleged.

Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” according to the charging documents.

Judge Juan Merchan is photographed in his chambers in New York on March 14.

Donald Trump will face a seasoned judge at the hearing today who is no stranger to the former president’s orbit. Judge Juan Merchan has sentenced Trump’s close confidant Allen Weisselberg to prison, presided over the Trump Organization tax fraud trial and overseen former adviser Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.

Merchan has been described by observers as a “tough” judge, yet one who is fair, no matter who is before him. Merchan launched his legal career in 1994 when he started off as an assistant district attorney in the trial division in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Several years later, he moved on to the state attorney general’s office, where he worked on cases in Long Island.

In 2006, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then a Republican, appointed Merchan to Family Court in the Bronx, and Democratic Gov. David Paterson appointed him to the New York State Court of Claims in 2009, the same year he began serving as an acting New York Supreme Court Judge.

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Merchan emigrated to the United States at the age of 6 and grew up in the New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, according to a New York Times profile of the judge. He was the first in his family to go to college.

Merchan initially studied business at Baruch College in New York before he dropped out of school to go work only to return several years later to finish school so that he could get his law degree, the Times reported. He eventually received his law degree from Hofstra University.

Former President Donald Trump leaves a Manhattan criminal court in February.

Donald Trump’s tumultuous life has been rocked by bankruptcies, personal scandals, impeachments and election wins and losses, but nothing quite compares to the personal and financial crisis facing the once-and-possibly future president this week.

Trump is struggling to post a bond worth around half a billion dollars on Monday to stop the state of New York from targeting his assets following a huge fraud judgment. The situation he finds himself in threatens the empire that conjured the tycoon’s aura and assumptions of massive wealth that are critical to his self-identity and political brand.

But exemplifying the roller-coaster nature of his public career, Trump is also soon poised for a massive financial windfall. A deal to take his media company public promises to add about $3 billion to his net wealth – even if it won’t ease his cash crunch in the short term.

That’s not all. Trump may find out Monday when he will become the first ex-president to go on trial, as the judge hearing a Manhattan hush money case holds a critical hearing. The case, related to payment to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election, could lead to Trump being a convicted felon by November’s election.

Read the full analysis.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16.

Donald Trump’s first criminal trial was supposed to begin Monday. Instead, his lawyers will get the chance to argue for a lengthy postponement and even a dismissal of the charges.

Judge Juan Merchan is holding a pre-trial hearing in New York on Monday to discuss the discovery issues that led to the delay of the trial on charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney related to hush money payments until at least the middle of next month.

Here’s what to know ahead of today’s hearing:

Manhattan prosecutors say fewer than 270 documents recently turned over to Donald Trump by federal authorities are new and relevant to the criminal case involving hush money payments and no further delay to the trial is warranted.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office also told the judge that no sanctions were warranted and placed the blame on Trump’s lawyers for the late disclosure of records from the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

Trump asked Judge Juan Merchan to dismiss the indictment and delay the trial for 90 days, alleging prosecutors withheld information from them involving the federal prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and a key witness for the state.

In a series of filings Thursday, the district attorney’s office accused Trump’s lawyers of trying to allege a “grab-bag of meritless discovery arguments in the latest of a long series of attempts to evade responsibility for the conduct charged in the indictment.”

In this April 2018 photo, adult film actress Stormy Daniels exits the United States District Court Southern District of New York in New York.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels said she was afraid for her life after her secret hush money deal with Donald Trump exploded onto the public stage in 2018 while he was president.

Daniels said she agreed to accept the $130,000 hush money payment just days before the 2016 presidential election to keep her one-night stand with Trump in 2006 from becoming public to protect her husband and daughter, and so “that there would be a paper trail and money trail linking me to Donald Trump so that he could not have me killed.”

The documentary is an inside look at Daniels’ life navigating the roller coaster that followed the public revealing of the hush money payment that ultimately landed Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen in federal prison for breaking campaign finance laws. Trump was charged with falsifying business records for allegedly covering up the reimbursement of those payments to influence the election. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies the affair.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, on March 9.

Blame-shifting has played out in public court filings between attorneys for Donald Trump and the state after the Department of Justice turned over tens of thousands of documents this month.

The US attorney’s office in Manhattan amassed information about the hush money scheme when it built a case years ago against Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen. His 2018 guilty plea on charges related to the hush money transactions and other unrelated crimes sparked the state investigation into Trump’s role in the scheme.

Prosecutors said they properly requested and gave Trump any required information produced by the US attorney’s office last year, blaming the late record production on Trump’s lawyers who they say waited to subpoena the information until mid-January.

Attorneys for Trump, however, say they didn’t force federal prosecutors with a subpoena but have received the new information in response to a “straightforward request” to the US attorney’s office. The fact that the US attorney’s office produced the documents “without any enforceable compulsory process from the defense, is strong evidence that the People failed in their obligation to ‘make a diligent, good faith effort to ascertain the existence of material or information discoverable,’” a letter filed by Trump’s team said.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office maintains they properly turned over all case material to Trump’s lawyers and did not violate any procedural requirements to warrant a dismissal of the case. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has declined to comment on the matter.

Read more about what both sides are saying about the documents.

In all, federal prosecutors turned over more than 100,000 pages of documents in recent weeks in Donald Trump’s hush money case, with the last batch containing about 15,000 pages, according to Judge Juan Merchan’s order.

Trump’s lawyers say the new information is exculpatory for the former president and damaging to prosecutors’ key witness, Michael Cohen, so they need at least 90 days to properly review the new material.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has said the majority of the records are not relevant to the charges on trial, but still consented to a delay of up to 30 days “in an abundance of caution.”

District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office did acknowledge some of the new documents pertain to the state’s case against Trump, but added that it expects most of those documents to be unrelated to the state’s case.