It's a date: Trump's first felony trial will be April 15
- Trump was in court in Manhattan when he learned his hush-money trial date: April 15.
- The date was set during a contentious pre-trial hearing.
A Manhattan judge has set an April 15 date for jury selection in Donald Trump's hush money case, the GOP presidential frontrunner's first of four criminal trials.
At a contentious pre-trial court hearing, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan shot down the Trump legal team's efforts to delay the trial further.
"See you all on the 15th," Merchan said.
Trump raged against Merchan's decision not to delay the trial further, telling journalists in the courtroom hallway after the hearing that it amounted to "election interference" as he runs in the 2024 presidential race.
At a press conference later in the afternoon at his building in Manhattan's financial district, Trump said he would file another appeal in an attempt to push back the trial date.
The trial, originally set to start in March, was scheduled to begin Monday but was delayed after federal prosecutors — who aren't bringing this case — turned over documents to Trump's team.
Trump's lawyers and state prosecutors blamed the other for why the documents were revealed at the last minute.
At Monday's hearing, Merchan ruled that the Manhattan district attorney's office wasn't responsible for federal prosecutors' delay and that the delay wouldn't cause any prejudice to Trump's defense team.
Now the trial date is finally set.
Trump and his legal team must appear in court each day of the approximately six-week trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
At the trial, a jury will be asked to find if Trump falsified 34 invoices and Trump Organization general ledger entries in order to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
The payment was recorded in Trump's business records as routine legal fees paid to his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges the payment — made just 11 days before Trump was elected president in 2016 — was, in fact, illegal campaign expenditures meant to keep voters from hearing Daniels' account of a 2006 tryst.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations in connection to the Stormy Daniels payment.
The trial will be the first of Trump's criminal cases to go to court.
Jury selection for the trial falls just before the start of Passover, which begins April 22 and ends April 30.
New York City schools are also on break that week.
The judge said Monday jurors' holiday concerns would be honored.
After the hearing, Trump addressed reporters.
"This is a case that could have been brought 3 ½ years ago and now they're fighting over days because they want to try to do it during the election," Trump said. "This is election interference. That's all that is."
Trump is also awaiting trial on election interference charges in Georgia.
Update March 25, 2024: This story has been updated with additional information from the court hearing and Donald Trump's reaction to the court date.