O Former President of the United States, Donald Trump, will even be tried before the North American presidential elections, with defense appeals having been rejected for the trial to take place only after the November vote.

“The defendant’s appeal requests were denied,” said judge Juan Manuel Merchan, quoted by the BBC. He took advantage of a delay in another court case – taking place in Washington, in which Trump is accused of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections and which was suspended due to a defense appeal – to justify not postponing this trial.

The case that will go to trial in March concerns the accusation of falsifying business records against Trump, allegedly to cover up a payment of 130 thousand dollars to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, before the 2016 elections, in order to guarantee the silence about his alleged extramarital affair.

The trial, which will begin on March 25, will be the first criminal trial of a former president of the United States.

“This is not a crime. This case could have been brought three years ago, there is no case,” Trump said before entering court. He also stated that the case intends to harm his campaign.

The former president’s lawyers have already criticized the decision to keep the trial’s start date in March, complaining that Trump will have to be tried in New York at the same time as he is campaigning in the primaries that will choose the Republican Party candidate. for the November presidential elections.

“It’s total interference in the elections,” denounced defense lawyer Todd Blanche, when Trump went to court in New York this morning to hear the judge’s decision.

Over the past year, the former president has attacked Merchan, calling him a “Trump-hating judge,” asking him to step down from the case and trying to have the case moved from New York state court to federal court, but to no avail.

The recent postponement of the trial date – scheduled for March 4 – in the case of Trump’s alleged electoral interference, eliminated the main obstacle for this process in New York to begin in the coming weeks.

Remember that Donald Trump faces other cases in court, namely one in Washington, for attempting to illegally annul the results of the 2020 elections, and another in Florida, in which he is accused of having illegally stored confidential material in his mansion in Mar- a-Lago. There is also the case in which the Fulton County Prosecutor’s Office (Georgia) accuses the former president of trying to subvert the 2020 election results in that state.

Trump, 77, is the favorite for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 elections.

[Notícia atualizada às 16h29]

Read Also: Trump? Special prosecutor urges Supreme Court to allow trial without delay

Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2502494/donald-trump-vai-ser-julgado-a-25-de-marco-em-nova-iorque

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