Manhattan prosecutors won't be penalized for a last-minute document dump that caused former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial to start later than scheduled, a judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Juan M. Merchan rejected the defense’s request that prosecutors be sanctioned for a deluge of nearly 200,000 pages of evidence just weeks before the trial‘s scheduled start. The documents were from a previous federal investigation into the matter.
Merchan agreed to delay the start of the trial from March 25 to April 15 to allow the former president’s lawyers to review the material. But at a hearing in March, he rejected their claim that the case had been tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, and denied their bid to delay the case longer, throw it out entirely or bar key prosecution witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels from testifying.
In a written ruling issued Thursday, Merchan reiterated that Trump didn't suffer any prejudice from the document dump because he and his lawyers were “given a reasonable amount of time to prepare and respond to the material.”
Merchan said he reached the conclusion after reviewing written submissions by both sides, including timelines they provided to him chronicling the disclosure of evidence, as well arguments and clarifications that were made at the March 25 hearing on the issue.
The Manhattan district attorney's office declined comment on the ruling. A message seeking comment was left with Trump’s lawyers.
After testimony from 22 witnesses over the last month, including Cohen and Daniels, the first criminal trial of a former president is slated to move to closing arguments next Tuesday, with jury deliberations expected to follow as early as Wednesday.
Trump’s lawyers had accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office of intentionally failing to pursue evidence from the 2018 federal investigation, which sent Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to prison.
They contended prosecutors working under Bragg, a Democrat, did so to gain an unfair advantage in the case and harm Trump’s election chances. Cohen, now a vocal Trump critic, was a key prosecution witness against his ex-boss.