During a Thursday discussion on CNN, the news network’s legal analyst Elie Honig, an ex-federal prosecutor, predicted that the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump scheduled for next week in New York City will be moving forward.
“Maybe they’ve seen the writing on the wall that this thing is going on Monday,” Honig said on the air, referring to Trump’s legal team. “Now, the only things they can theoretically do is, first of all, try to ask New York’s highest court, the court of appeals, to take a look at some of these appeals which were already rejected, and maybe in the farthest off scenario, to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to get involved. Any such effort, though, is doomed, both in terms of substance. He’s got nothing here in terms of his arguments and in terms of procedure and in terms of timing. We are under 100 hours away from the start of jury selection and I think this thing is going.”
The trial will cover criminal allegations of Trump falsifying business records in connection to hush money from before the 2016 presidential election, and presiding Judge Juan Merchan has already okay’ed some trial testimony from the recipient of that money, Stormy Daniels, a woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump. Michael Cohen, an ex-“fixer” for Trump who provided the money, is also expected to testify.
Some of the Trump team’s failed attempts this week at holding off the trial were linked to an attempt to move the location in which it takes place and a challenge to a gag order imposed — and then expanded — by Merchan. Merchan set the trial to get moving next week after a brief delay to original scheduling for March following a comparatively late release of evidentiary materials from a federal prosecutor’s office. Merchan rejected claims from the Trump team of misconduct by prosecutors directly on this (state) case in their handling of the pre-trial, evidence-sharing process. Trump’s team complained about, among other developments, a new documentary featuring Daniels.
