Major hearing tomorrow in Trump hush-money case could bring further delays and even sanctions

Monday was supposed to be the start of the trial in New York for the case involving payments to Donald Trump’s former friend and attorney Michael Cohen for hush-money payments allegedly made to cover up an alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.

But instead of the start of the trial, Judge Juan Merchan will be holding a hearing to determine who is responsible for the delay by federal prosecutors in turning over more than 100,000 pages of records to the defense, which only began this month. The trial is now delayed until at least mid-April, but it could be much longer and there may be sanctions involved.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business documents related to the repayment, according to CNN, and has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

The parties are now blaming each other for the delay in turning over a total of more than 200,000 pages of documents, including from the FBI and the Southern District of New York. Trump’s lawyers are alleging that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg didn’t meet their discovery obligations and are demanding the judge toss the entire indictment or impose other sanctions as a result, according to The Hill.

The state of New York has “made numerous untimely and inexplicably delayed disclosures, and actively obstructed efforts by President Trump to obtain discoverable materials from the [U.S. Attorney’s Office], Cohen, and Cohen’s publishers, among others. This misconduct weighs in favor of a severe remedy,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in court papers.