“Powerful evidence”: Legal experts say Trump’s NY criminal trial could “completely upend” election
SalonA New York judge on Thursday set a trial date for next month in former President Donald Trump’s case centered on hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. “It is completely election interference to say you are going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan when there is no reason for it,” Blanche said, adding “it’s truly an impossible position for anyone to be in.” The Manhattan case will be the first of four criminal cases against Trump to go before a jury. Trump’s lawyers have alleged that Willis is engaged in an improper “romantic relationship” with one of the lead prosecutors handling the case and was “profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.” Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, said a financial conflict of interest, or the appearance of one, could be grounds to disqualify the prosecutors. The case by Bragg has emerged as a “bellwether” for all the criminal cases against Trump, V. James DeSimone, a California civil rights attorney, told Salon.