State prosecutors in New York said Thursday there were fewer than 300 170,000 documents It was recently handed over to former President Donald Trump’s attorneys, who have potential relevance to his criminal defense and their case frauded business records The trial should continue on April 15.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office filed a lawsuit saying the vast majority of the mountain of evidence handed over by federal prosecutors stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s lawyer. Michael Cohenand has nothing to do with the allegations against Trump.
“That’s enough. These tactics of the defendant and defense attorney must be stopped,” said the DA’s appeal, referring to Trump’s attempts to further delay or derail the trial.
Cohen is expected to be a key witness in the trial, which has been delayed until at least mid-April after 11 hours of testimony from the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. Trump’s lawyers accused the DA’s office of not conducting a proper investigation by obtaining the records earlier and asked Judge Juan Merchand to dismiss the charges as punishment.
In a filing Thursday, the DA’s office called their arguments a “red herring.”
“Defendant has responded to USAO’s disclosures by asking this Court to dismiss the charges, exclude witnesses, or postpone the trial for at least ninety days, and by leveling wild and untrue allegations of misconduct and dereliction of duty.” “The defendant’s allegations are completely without merit and the circumstances here do not come close to warranting the extreme sanctions he seeks.”
Bragg’s office, while still reviewing the materials, said it now “has good reason to believe that this product contains only limited material related to the subject matter of this case and not previously disclosed to the defendant: fewer than approximately 270 documents.” It said most of the 270 documents are “available evidence confirms”.
The filing states that “the principal relevant items are previously unavailable witness statements and approximately 172 pages of memos documenting Cohen’s meetings with the Special Counsel investigating Russian interference.”
The evidence is on Cohen’s 2018 admitting guilt The women who claimed to have ties to Trump have been indicted on a number of criminal charges, including making secret payments and lying to Congress about the president’s business ties to Russia.
The hush money payments are at the heart of the DA’s case, which alleges Trump falsified business records over Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormi Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Federal prosecutors alleged that Cohen paid the women “in coordination and direction” with Trump, who has not been charged in the federal case. The former president pleaded not guilty in the DA’s case.
As before, the DA’s office blamed Trump for the late disclosures, saying his lawyers raised no concerns about the missing items when they turned over the information they obtained from the US attorney’s office last June. Trump’s team did not request additional documents from federal prosecutors until last January, prompting the additional documents to be turned over.
The DA’s office said it agreed to postpone the trial, which was scheduled to begin on March 25, to give Trump’s team time to review the evidence. Merchan put the case on hold until April 15, when the DA claims the process should move forward.
Trump’s lawyers asked for a 90-day extension.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Monday, when the judge may set a new hearing.