Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg (left) (via Lev Radin/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images), Judge Juan Merchan (center) (AP Photo/Seth Wenig), Donald Trump speaks Tuesday April 2, 2024, at a rally in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)
Donald Trump’s hush-money trial judge in Manhattan declined to order up discovery sanctions against the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) after determining that defense allegations of “widespread misconduct” ahead of trial were unsupported by the relevant law and the representations made to the court.
Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan only needed three pages to dispense with defense complaints about the Manhattan DA’s “belated” production of myriad documents that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had from the investigation of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, a key state witness in the Trump trial.
Back in March, Trump lawyers argued that “significant and ongoing discovery violations” meant that the whole case should be dismissed or, short of that result, that star witnesses Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels should not be allowed to testify in the felony falsification of business records case.
Cohen and Daniels have, of course, since gone on to testify at trial, at times leading to some courtroom fireworks.
The Manhattan DA’s office, for its part, replied in March that if anyone was to blame it was the defense and their “inexplicable and strategic delay in identifying perceived deficiencies.” As the defense pushed for a three-month delay to the start of the trial, Bragg pushed back by agreeing to a 30-day trial delay, a delay that Merchan ultimately granted.
More Law&Crime coverage: Trump dealt double-whammy of losses as hush-money judge remains on case and trial stays in Manhattan
Still, Bragg slammed the sanctions bid as “meritless” and maintained that the “overwhelming majority” of the documents at issue were “entirely immaterial, duplicative or substantially duplicative of previously disclosed materials[.]”
But the discovery issue lingered on and spilled out at a hearing in Merchan’s courtroom on March 25. The decision publicized Thursday is the written version of the judge’s ruling from the bench that day.
“Following review of the submissions from both parties, the timelines provided in camera because of their sensitive nature and reference to or inclusion of protected materials, and the arguments and clarifications made at the hearing on March 25, 2024, this Court found, to begin, that there was no coordinated, joint investigation being conducted by the New York County District Attorney’s Office and USAO-SDNY,” Merchan wrote. “This Court further held that the People did not violate their discovery obligations pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law Section 245.20[.]”
Merchan also credited Bragg’s office for “diligent, good faith efforts” to “ascertain the existence” of “discoverable” documents and producing it to Trump’s defense.
Notably, the judge said Trump’s team had plenty of time to review the discovery (given the 30-day trial delay).
“Further, this Court found that the Defendant would not suffer any prejudice as a result of the document production at issue because the Defendant was given a reasonable amount of time to prepare and respond to the material,” Merchan ruled.
Read the judge’s three-page written order on the discovery dispute between the prosecution and defense here.
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