A New York judge on Thursday said Donald Trump’s hush money case will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection starting on March 25, marking the first criminal trial against a former president to move forward.
At a hearing in New York attended by the former president, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said that he made the decision after speaking with the judge in Trump’s now-delayed federal election interference case in the nation's capital, which was set to begin on March 4.
"At this point I can inform you that we're moving ahead with jury selection on March 25," Merchan said, noting he expects the trial to last six weeks.
"It's going to be very difficult to get a jury for this New York criminal trial. When it comes to selecting a jury, you have to find at least 12 jurors that are going to be fair and impartial and listen to the testimony evidence only as it's presented inside of the courtroom," said Bernarda Villalona, a former New York City prosecutor.
The case centers accuses Trump of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment then-attorney and fixer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep an alleged sexual encounter quiet.
Trump faces 34 felony charges in the case. He has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing; he has also previously denied having sex with Daniels. Trump's attorneys have contended that he was repaying legal fees to Cohen.
"This is not a crime," Trump said as he entered the courtroom on Thursday.
The decision comes on the same day that lawyers for Trump attempt to make the case that Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis should be removed from an election interference case accusing the former president of attempting to overturn the state's election results in 2020.
The March trial date is set in the thick of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, which Trump is seeking to clinch for the third consecutive election. Trump's attorneys on Thursday blasted the date as election interference.
"It is completely election interference to say ‘you are going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan," said Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche.
“How can you run for election to be sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long?" Trump told reporters outside the courtroom. "I'm supposed to be in South Carolina right now ... this isn't where I should be.”
Trump reiterated the same message outside the courtroom, saying that he's "stuck here" in New York instead of campaigning in "South Carolina and other states."
"It's an election interference case," he baselessly charged. "Nobody's ever seen anything like it in this country, it's a disgrace. It's a disgraceful situation, actually, and we'll just have to figure it out. I'll be here during the day and campaigning by night."
He went on to baselessly accuse collution with the White House and Justice Department in the case and ranted against New York attorney general Letitia James, even though she's not involved in this criminal case. James is involved in a separate civil trial business fraud trial against the former president and his company, the Trump Organization.
"It's all a rigged -- it's a rigged city, it's a rigged state, which is a shame," Trump added of his birthplace.
Trump faces 91 felony counts total across four different criminal prosecutions. Aside from the New York and Georgia criminal trials, Trump faces a federal case in Washington about alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and a federal case in Florida over alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.