Dem
51
GOP
49
Donald Trump got some good news on Friday. The hush-money case in New York has officially been delayed at least 30 days, so it won't begin until sometime in April at the earliest. The delay comes because the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York just turned over 70,000 pages of records, some of which could be relevant to the case. These records had been requested a year ago. Why did the SDNY take so long to produce them? They aren't telling.
Prosecutor Alvin Bragg said he didn't mind the delay because the defense needed some time to sift through the documents. He was afraid that if he hadn't agreed to the delay and Trump lost, Trump would appeal on the grounds that his team had no chance to review the documents. Given that a trial that began in late April would still be finished well before the election, Bragg did not give up much.
Of course, Trump's goal is simply to delay all the trials until after the election, so we can expect that in 30 days, Trump's lawyers will say they need more time to read 70,000 pages. Assuming the lawyers work 8 hours every day, even weekends, they would have to read 292 documents/hour to make it in 30 days, so a request for delay might seem reasonable. On the other hand, many of the documents have nothing to do with the case, so they can be disposed of quickly.
So with this trial now delayed, no trials are yet scheduled. The status of the cases is roughly as follows:
| Case | Location | Status |
| Hush money | New York | Potentially could start at the end of April |
| Jan. 6 coup | D.C. | Waiting for SCOTUS to rule on presidential immunity; could start in August |
| Mar-a-Lago documents | Florida | Judge Cannon is in no hurry at all and is just dragging her feet |
| RICO case | Georgia | Fani Willis has to pick a new lead prosecutor; trial before the election seems unlikely |
Will any cases go to trial before the election? The hush-money case and coup case have a shot at it and the RICO case maybe has a small chance, but Trump's lawyers will file motion after motion with the expectation of having them denied, just so they can appeal. It's not about winning. It's all about delay. (V)