Trump hush money judge scolds ex-president’s attorneys for delay tactics: ‘It’s odd we’re even here’

Attorneys for Donald Trump failed to convince a judge that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office mishandled potential evidence in the former president’s criminal case stemming from an alleged hush money scheme to bury embarrassing stories of his affairs.

The former president arrived inside a 15th floor criminal courtroom in Manhattan on Monday for yet another pretrial hearing in the case – what was supposed to be the first day of jury selection for the first-ever criminal trial against a president.

Instead, New York Justice Juan Merchan grew increasingly frustrated by his attorneys’ misconduct allegations against the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for the production of thousands of pages of documents surrounding Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former attorney and a key witness in the case.

“What I’m seeing is, to me, what has become a pattern,” the judge told Mr Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche before a morning break.

“I hear certain information, I see certain information … Your interpretation of that is really different from my interpretation,” he added. “It’s frankly been going on for months. You just heard one set of facts and interpreted that as the People not doing anything … It’s really… it’s odd that we’re even here.”

The judge rejected the accusations and set a trial date for 15 April.

Judge Merchan determined that the district attorney was not at fault for the late production of documents, and the office has “complied and continues to comply” with its discovery obligations and made “diligent, good faith efforts” for discovery production.

And “this court finds the defendant will not suffer any prejudice because the defendant has had reasonable time to prepare” for trial,” he added.

Earlier, the judge scolded Mr