Judge Juan Merchan dismissed protests from Donald Trump’s attorney at the judge’s ruling that the former president’s New York criminal trial will begin on March 25.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche said that beginning a trial would be a “great injustice,” arguing that Trump’s attorneys have been focused on Trump’s other potential trials and warning they could overlap.
Blanche complained that he had asked for a discussion on the trial date last fall because of the additional indictments. But Merchan shut down those complaints, saying there was no reason to discuss the trial date until the federal calendar had been clarified.
Merchan said he spoke to Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s federal election subversion trial, earlier this month. That trial is now on hold over an appeal on Trump’s presidential immunity claims.
“It would have been an absolute waste of time” to come together in November, Merchan said, because no one knew when the other trials would occur. But now the federal trial is now not happening in March, he said.
