Former President Trump was back a New York courtroom Monday as his lawyers battled with the state over new documents turned over in Trump’s hush money case.
Simultaneously, during a brief break in that hearing, a New York appeals court temporarily stopped the clock on the looming enforcement of a multimillion-dollar judgment against Trump and his company over deceitful business practices in a dueling day of major court matters for the former president.
Monday was supposed to be the day the hush money trial began, but a surprise development delayed the trial. Judge Juan Merchan instead held a hearing to sort out the blame game over the new documents and mull Trump’s contention that an additional delay is warranted, which sometimes grew contentious.
RELATED: Trump’s hush money case set for critical hearing over document dump
Follow below for live updates on Trump’s court matters Monday.
Trump seethes after New York trial set
Trump fumed over his legal troubles after a New York judge scheduled an April 15 start date for his hush money trial despite Trump’s efforts to postpone the case.
Trump, speaking down the street from the Manhattan courthouse after the judge’s ruling, railed against the 2016 hush money case and his legal problems more broadly as a matter of “election interference” that should not be allowed during a campaign season.
“I don’t know how you can have a trial that’s going on right in the middle of an election. Not fair. Not fair. It’s not fair at all,” he said, calling the cases against him “ridiculous” and “a shame.”
Read more about Trump’s reaction after another day in court.
— Brett Samuels
Hearing concludes
The hearing in Trump’s hush money case has concluded Monday, right after the judge rejected any further delays being requested by Trump’s team.
He set a trial date to begin April 15.
The hearing adjourned in New York around 12:16 p.m.
— Lauren Sforza
Trump speaks after hearing concludes
Trump railed against the hush money case after the trial was set to begin with jury selection on April 15.
“This is a pure case of voter intimidation and election interference. And it shouldn’t be allowed to happen,” Trump told reporters gathered outside the courtroom.
Trump claimed the case was brought against him during the 2024 election “so that I won’t be able to campaign. And we’ll be appealing this.”
— Brett Samuels
Judge sets Trump’s hush money trial for April 15, rejecting further delay
A New York judge scheduled former President Trump’s hush money trial to begin April 15, enabling his first criminal trial to still take place this spring after a last-minute delay.
Trump, who has looked to postpone all four of his criminal cases, requested the judge punt the trial for at least two additional months over new documents that were recently turned over.
— Zach Schonfeld and Lauren Sforza
Hearing resumes
Trump, his legal team and the attorneys for the prosecutors have now returned to the courtroom.
The hearing resumed at about 12:08 p.m.
— Lauren Sforza
READ: Appeals court ruling in fraud case
An appeals court said Monday that Trump could now owe a fraction of the $454 million judgment he faces in the New York fraud case, a separate matter from the hush money hearing taking place Monday.
Appeals court pauses $464M judgment in Trump’s New York fraud case
Right as the hush money hearing broke, a New York appeals court on Monday temporarily stopped the clock on the looming enforcement of a multimillion-dollar judgment against former President Trump and his company over deceitful business practices.
In a terse order, a state appeals court panel said it would pause the enforcement of the $464 million judgment against Trump, the Trump Organization and top executives, plus interest, if within 10 days they post a $175 million bond.
— Ella Lee
Hearing takes a break
The hearing broke for about 45 minutes beginning at 11:15 a.m.
— Lauren Sforza
Judge skeptical prosecutors were obligated to gather the docs
Merchan is continuing to go back and forth with Trump attorney Todd Blanche, sounding skeptical he will rule in Trump’s favor that prosecutors violated their discovery obligations.
Blanche has argued that the district attorney’s office was required to previously have obtained the documents newly turned over by the U.S. attorney’s office in recent weeks.
“It’s not our job to get it,” Blanche said of the new documents.
“It’s not the people’s job either,” Merchan responded.
— Zach Schonfeld
Judge gets heated with Trump lawyer
Judge Juan Merchan got heated with Trump attorney Todd Blanche after the judge asked him to cite a singular past case holding the district attorney’s office is obligated to have had the documents from the U.S. attorney’s office previously.
“If you don’t have a case right now is really disconcerting because the allegations the defense makes in all of your papers, about the people’s misconduct, is an incredibly serious, unbelievably serious,” Merchan said, raising his voice.
“You’re literally accusing the Manhattan DA’s office and the people assigned to this case of prosecutorial misconduct and trying to make me complicit in it. And you don’t have a single cite to support that position?”
— Zach Schonfeld
Prosecutors ID 300 news docs, while Trump team argues thousands
Matthew Colangelo, one of several prosecutors in the case, said that prosecutors have estimated there are about 300 documents that are new and relevant to the case.
“Our assessment is that the number of relevant, usable new documents is quite small. Our analysis is ongoing, but I think we have a pretty refined understanding and our current sense is it is in the neighborhood of 300 or fewer records,” Colangelo said.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney, pushed back, instead arguing that there are “thousands and thousands” of documents and that the number continues to grow.
—Lauren Sforza
Merchan says Trump lawyers made arguments beyond scope of hearing
Judge Juan Merchan lambasted Trump’s attorneys for making arguments beyond the scope of Monday’s hearing.
“Defendant’s affirmation, timeline and exhibits went far afield from the clearly stated purpose of this hearing,” Merchan said.
The judge had said he would only discuss the documents from the U.S. attorney’s office and not Trump’s other allegations of discovery violations.
After reviewing the new documents, Merchan also said he doesn’t feel there are major factual issues to resolve.
“After doing so, this court is of the opinion there are really not significant questions of fact to be resolved. The facts are what they are, and the exhibits support that,” he said.
— Zach Schonfeld
Trump: ‘This is a witch hunt’
Trump offered brief remarks as he arrived at the courthouse, calling the proceedings a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.”
He did not stop to talk to reporters beyond those comments.
— Brett Samuels
Hearing begins
The hearing began at about 10:05 a.m.
— Lauren Sforza
Trump arrives at Manhattan court
Trump has arrived at the Manhattan courtroom where the hearing is taking place, adding to the former president’s recent string of court appearances.
In recent months, Trump has increasingly sat in for various proceedings in his legal entanglements.
Monday’s hearing will be Trump’s 11th day in court this year.
— Zach Schonfeld
Attorneys enter courtroom
Attorneys for the prosecutors have now entered the courtroom, with Assistant District Attorneys Joshua Steinglass and Matthew Colangelo seated at the counsel table. Bragg later arrived himself.
Trump lawyers — Susan Necheles, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and Clifford Robert — have also arrived in the courtroom.
— Lauren Sforza
Updated 9:51 a.m.
Former President Donald Trump departs Trump Tower to attend a pre-trial hearing in Manhattan criminal court, Monday, March 25, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
How many documents were turned over?
Federal prosecutors (U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York) have turned over 119,000 pages of records this month to Trump and state prosecutors (Manhattan District Attorney’s Office), who are bringing the hush money case.
The District Attorney’s Office said many of the newly turned over documents are irrelevant to Trump’s case or were previously provided to him.
Court filings show the U.S. Attorney’s Office handed over the documents in three productions:
March 4: 73,000 pages
March 13: 31,000 pages
March 15: 15,000 pages
Court papers show the records relate to the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s criminal prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump’s ex-fixer who made the hush money payment.
Cohen in connection with the payment pleaded guilty to making an illegal campaign contribution, and he has since turned against Trump and is now expected to be a key witness in his former boss’s trial.
— Zach Schonfeld
Protestors demonstrate outside Manhattan criminal court while awaiting the arrival of former President Donald Trump, Monday, March 25, 2024, in New York. A judge will weigh on Monday when the former president will go on trial. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Who is the judge?
Juan Merchan, New York Supreme Court acting justice, is overseeing Trump’s hush money case.
A former prosecutor, Merchan has been on the bench for 17 years and has presided over felony criminal trials on the state Supreme Court — which is the trial level in New York — since 2009.
Merchan oversees Trump’s hush money trial proceedings, but it isn’t the judge’s first entanglement with the former president. Merchan previously oversaw the Trump Organization’s criminal trial.
Trump last year demanded Merchan recuse himself from the hush money case, but the judge declined to do so, in part based on guidance from New York’s ethics advisory committee for state judges.
— Zach Schonfeld
Bond deadline also looms in Trump fraud case
In addition to the hush money hearing, the clock is ticking toward Trump’s Monday deadline to post a surety bond covering the $454 million judgment against him in his civil fraud case, after a New York judge ruled earlier this year that Trump and his business conspired to alter his net worth for tax and insurance benefits.
If Trump doesn’t post bond or pay the amount himself, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) can begin to seize his assets, which include iconic New York properties such as 40 Wall Street and Trump Tower.
The state earlier this month took the first step toward seizing Trump’s Seven Springs golf resort and private estate by filing judgments in the county where it’s located, and judgments have already been filed in Manhattan, where the trial was held.
—Ella Lee
Who are the lawyers?
Todd Blanche, Trump attorney
Blanche, a white-collar lawyer, left his law firm early last year to represent Trump.
He was first brought on to the hush money case, but Blanche’s role has since expanded to represent the former president in two of his other three criminal indictments: the federal 2020 election interference case in Washington, D.C., and the classified documents case in Florida.
Susan Necheles, Trump attorney
Unlike Blanche, Necheles does not represent Trump in his other criminal cases.
Also a New York-based attorney, she’s no stranger to Judge Merchan or legal entanglements associated with Trump. Necheles previously represented the Trump Organization in its criminal tax trial before the judge.
Alvin Bragg (D), Manhattan district attorney
One year ago this week, Bragg became the first prosecutor in U.S. history to indict a former president.
Bragg usually sits in the gallery behind the prosecution table during hearings and has his team make the office’s arguments to the judge.
Matthew Colangelo, assistant district attorney
Before coming to the district attorney’s office, Colangelo previously served as a senior leader in the Justice Department.
He also investigated the Trump Foundation while working in New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) office.
Christopher Conroy, assistant district attorney
Conroy has worked in the district attorney’s office for years and has been involved in the hush money case long before Colangelo.
He was the deputy chief of the office’s homicide investigation unit before moving to the major economic crimes bureau.
— Zach Schonfeld
Critical hearing set
Trump’s trial had been widely expected to begin the same day as the hearing until federal prosecutors this month began turning over what would become more than 100,000 pages of records. The trial is now delayed until at least mid-April.
On Monday, the parties are set to battle in a New York courtroom over whether the records require another delay — or even sanctions — as Judge Juan Merchan attempts to ascertain why they weren’t turned over earlier.
“It’s like ‘I Love Lucy.’ ‘Lucy, you’ve got some ‘splaining to do!’” said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former Manhattan chief assistant district attorney.
Read more on what to expect Monday.
— Zach Schonfeld
Read the court filings
What is the hush money case?
The hush money case is the first of Trump’s four criminal indictments.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a low-level felony regularly prosecuted by Bragg’s office in white-collar cases.
Bragg accuses Trump of falsely recording reimbursements to his then-fixer, Michael Cohen, as a legal retainer to conceal Cohen’s $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Each of the 34 counts corresponds to an invoice, check or ledger entry.
Prosecutors have cast the payment as part of a broader “catch-and-kill” scheme to hide damaging information about Trump from voters during the 2016 presidential campaign.
— Zach Schonfeld