Will Donald Trump go on trial next month in New York criminal case? Judge expected to rule Thursday

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is expected to be back in a New York court Thursday for a hearing that could decide whether the former president’s first criminal trial begins in just 39 days.

The hearing to determine whether Trump’s March 25 hush-money trial date holds will be held in the same Manhattan courtroom where the he pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to bury stories about extramarital affairs that arose during his 2016 presidential campaign.

It would be Trump’s first return visit to court in the New York criminal case since that historic indictment made him the first ex-president charged with a crime. Since then, he has also been indicted in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan has taken steps in recent weeks to prepare for a trial. If it goes off as planned, it would be the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial.

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Over the past year, Trump has lashed out at Merchan as a “Trump-hating judge,” asked him to step down