“How can you run for election if you’re sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long,” former President Donald Trump said outside the Manhattan courthouse.
Former President Donald Trump appeared in court Thursday where a trial date was set in the case involving hush money payments allegedly made to Stormy Daniels.
At a hearing in New York, Trump’s trial was scheduled to begin in March. The former president’s lawyers asked for a postponement.
“We want delays, obviously, I’m running for election. How can you run for election if you’re sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long? I’m supposed to be in South Carolina right now,” Trump said.
The judge at the Manhattan criminal court hearing rejected the argument. Jury selection will begin on March 25 and the trial is set to start two days later, during the Republican primary season. Trump will be required to be present in court every day. The trial could last up to five weeks.
“I’ll be here during the day and campaigning during the night. Biden should be doing the same thing but he’ll be sleeping,” Trump said. “But I’m honored to sit here day after day after day.”
In Trump’s Georgia election interference case, he and his 14 co-defendants want the district attorney, Fani Willis, disqualified. They alleged that the district attorney hired her lover, Nathan Wade, as special prosecutor and that he used the $650,000 he was paid to take Willis on vacations, which would be a conflict of interest.
Wade and Willis claim their relationship began after he was hired, but the district attorney’s former friend testified that the relationship began in 2021, one year before Wade was hired as special prosecutor.
