The first criminal trial against an ex-president in US history was actually scheduled to begin on March 25th. Now it has been postponed. And there was also a change in the procedure in Georgia.
Less than two weeks before the planned start of the criminal trial against former US President Donald Trump in connection with hush money payments to a porn actress, the start of the trial has been postponed.
The trial, which was actually scheduled to begin on March 25, will be postponed by 30 days; an exact start date still needs to be fixed, judge Juan Merchan decided. Instead, only a hearing will take place on March 25th, where the matter will be discussed in more detail.
“There are significant factual questions that the court must resolve,” said Judge Merchan’s explanatory letter. There has never been a criminal trial against a former US president in history.
Both sides had asked for a delay
Both Trump’s lawyers and the public prosecutor’s office had asked the court in New York for a postponement. At a hearing in mid-February, Judge Merchan actually confirmed that the trial – as set last year – should begin on March 25 with jury selection.
The public prosecutor’s office initially did not comment after the decision. For Trump, who will be re-elected US President in November and wants to delay the many trials against him as much as possible, the postponement is a success. “We will continue to fight to end this fraud,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for his campaign team, said after the decision, according to US media reports. All trials against Trump are part of a “witch hunt” that was commissioned by the current US President Joe Biden.
Georgia trial: prosecutor withdraws
Meanwhile, in Georgia, Trump’s prosecutor Nathan Wade has withdrawn from the attempted election fraud case. Wade was reacting to a decision by Judge Scott McAfee. This had dealt with an allegation from the defense that the lead prosecutor, District Attorney Fani Willis, had gotten into a conflict of interest through a previous liaison with Special Prosecutor Wade.
McAfee dismissed the accusation, but noted that an “appearance of impropriety” remained. Therefore, either Willis or Wade would have to recuse themselves from the case. Wade later offered his resignation in a letter to the district attorney. He wrote that he was doing so “in the interest of democracy, in dedication to the American public, and to move this case forward as quickly as possible.”
Willis accepted Wade’s resignation effective immediately. She praised his “professionalism and dignity.” Wade endured threats against himself and his family as well as unjustified attacks on his reputation as a lawyer in the media and in court. Willis indicted Trump and 18 others last summer over their attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia in favor of the then-incumbent. Several defendants have now pleaded guilty as part of trial agreements. Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.