Former President Donald Trump‘s criminal hush money trial in Manhattan has been set for March 25, a judge ordered on Thursday.
Judge Juan Merchan set the date for jury selection in the case at the beginning of a hearing on Thursday. The case in Manhattan will mark Trump’s first criminal trial after it was his first criminal indictment of four in 2023.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments he made to two women prior to the 2016 election. The case is widely seen as the weakest of the four criminal indictments levied against him.
After the judge confirmed the start date for next month, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche argued that the move was a “grave injustice,” according to the Washington Post, and said the timelines for all of Trump’s criminal trials have been moving too quickly.
“We have been faced with extremely compressed and expedited schedules in each and every one of those trials,” Blanche said.
Trump attended the hearing on Thursday in New York City, railing in a post before his appearance at the courthouse that the case is “election interference.”
“Heading to yet another Courthouse in Manhattan on a case that would have never been brought if I wasn’t running for Pres,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The Biden DOJ has its top person here in charge. Case should have never been brought, there is no crime. They want it before Election — Could have been brought 3 years ago. They waited until Election Period. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”
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Prior to walking into the courtroom, Trump told reporters it is “a real dark period for our country” and said he should be in South Carolina campaigning rather than in a courthouse in Manhattan.
The former president’s 2020 election subversion trial in Washington, D.C., was scheduled to start on March 5 but has been delayed due to Trump’s appeal over claims he has presidential immunity in the case.