Judge rejects Trump’s attempt to postpone hush money trial which will take place on Monday

After being charged and arrested four times last year, former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial is scheduled to begin this Monday.

The former president has fought to postpone his criminal trials until after Election Day, hoping to once again reach the White House. However, Judge Juan Merchan on Friday dismissed one of the last avenues left for Trump to avoid his imminent trial in the 'Stormy Daniels' case.

Although the Republican's legal team attempted to delay the process by citing "prejudicial" media coverage prior to the trial, Judge Merchan ruled that the trial will continue on Monday with jury selection.

The ‘Stormy Daniels’ case explained

The case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who claims that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, made a $130,000 payment to the adult film actress, whose official name is It’s Stephanie Clifford, on behalf of the former president.

According to Cohen's testimony, the payment was to cover up an affair Trump had with Daniels. With the payment it was hoped that the news would not come to light so as not to harm his 2016 presidential candidacy.

After being charged, on 4 April, the former leader of the White House was arrested after arriving at the Manhattan Criminal Courts, where he surrendered to the authorities. In this case, Trump faces 34 charges of ‘falsification of business records in the first degree’, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

The four arrests of Donald Trump

In addition to the 'Stormy Daniels' case, the former president was charged and arrested three other times last year and is awaiting trial. These are the other three cases:

The case of classified documents

In early June of last year, Trump was indicted in connection with classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence. He was arrested on June 13. The former president faces more than 30 charges against him, including 31 counts of deliberate withholding of national defense information.

Two cases for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results

Additionally,he was charged and arrested twice in connection with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

His first arrest was on 3 August, 2023. In this he faces four criminal charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

He was arrested for the second time on 24 August, 2023 in Georgia, where he faces 13 charges: