Trump hush money trial scheduled for April 15

Former President Donald Trump on Monday left New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom after receiving a start date for his first election-year trial. Earlier this month, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office had said in a filing it would not contest an up to 30-day delay in the start of the trial after the emergence of new documents relevant to the case. The trial had been scheduled to take place on Monday. Judge Merchan, the day after the prosecution’s court filing, indicated in a letter to the two parties that the trial would start 30 days later.

What’s this case about? Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 charges of falsifying business records to cover up “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, so she wouldn’t speak about an alleged extramarital affair between herself and Trump. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office alleged Trump and his associates made the payments to suppress negative information about him during his first presidential bid roughly eight years ago.

Dig deeper: Read Grace Snell’s report in WORLD Magazine about how Trump manages to spin his legal woes into campaign funds.