Alvin Bragg Ready for Donald Trump Trial, But He Wouldn't Oppose Delay

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a court filing on Thursday that his office is not against delaying the trial in its criminal case against former President Donald Trump.

Trump's New York City trial is set to begin March 25, as the former president is accused of making hush-money payments to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, better known by stage name Stormy Daniels, during his 2016 presidential campaign. But Bragg said on Thursday that while his office is "prepared to proceed to trial" as scheduled, his office wouldn't oppose a delay of up to 30 days.

Trump, who is facing three other criminal indictments while also running for a second term in the White House, had asked to postpone the trial for 90 days.

The Context

Bragg's office in the spring was the first to bring criminal charges against Trump, handing the former president 34 felony charges regarding the falsification of business records, accusing him of attempting to conceal hush-money payments during his first presidential campaign. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies ever having an affair with Clifford.

The former president has sought to postpone his plethora of legal challenges until after the presidential election in November and has continually accused prosecutors of attempting to interfere with his reelection chances. Trump's defense requested a 90-day stay in his criminal case in Manhattan last week after tens of thousands of pages of records related to the hush-money payments were made available by federal prosecutors.

What We Know

In a three-page filing on Thursday, Bragg said that the U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) on March 4 produced roughly 73,000 pages of records related to its investigations, although Manhattan prosecutors believe only 172 pages or so of "witness statements" included in the records are relevant to Trump's case.

Another 31,000 pages of additional documents were made available by federal prosecutors on Wednesday, according to Bragg's filing. The records are related to federal prosecutors' 2018 investigations of the hush-money payments at the center of Trump's, which eventually brought charges against the ex-president's former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen. Trump subpoenaed the USAO for the records in January.

Bragg said in his filing that his office does "not oppose an adjournment in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials." He added, however, that there was no basis to dismiss the case against Trump.

Views

Trump's defense team accused Bragg in their filing last week of "widespread misconduct" by attempting to delay the production of records that would assist the former president, including by suppressing "voluminous exculpatory evidence relating to Michael Cohen."

"The People have been far more than passively complicit in the suppression of evidence in this case; they have actively sought to prevent President Trump from obtaining critical materials to which he is entitled," Trump's attorneys wrote, according to Politico's report on the matter.

Bragg's office, however, issued blame on Trump's team, claiming that the USAO's delay in producing documents related to the case "is a function of defendant's own delay."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's press team via email for comment Thursday.

What's Next?

Presiding New York Judge Juan Merchan said last month after scheduling the trial to begin on March 25 that he anticipates the hush money case to take about six weeks.

Merchan will have to rule on both Trump and Bragg's requests regarding delaying the trial start day, and could issue a ruling that is less than the 30 days asked of Manhattan prosecutors.

Update 03/14/2024, 6:18 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.