Donald Trump set to appear at hearing in hush money case

By Kayla EpsteinBBC News, New York

Donald Trump is expected to attend a key hearing in his criminal hush money case on Thursday.

Justice Juan Merchan is likely to set the timetable for the trial, currently set to begin on 25 March in Manhattan.

Mr Trump faces 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in an alleged effort to conceal payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.

He pleaded not guilty at a historic arraignment last April.

"President Trump will be attending court in New York on Thursday," attorney Steve Sadow said.

While this is a procedural hearing, it presents an opportunity for Mr Trump's lawyers to make a last-minute attempt to get the case dismissed or delayed before it heads to trial.

New York State Judge Merchan will probably hear their arguments on Thursday. He has not yet made any indication that he intends to dismiss or delay the trial.

Mr Trump's recent courtroom appearances in two New York civil cases featured dramatic confrontations with judges and the former president levelling accusations of political persecution from the witness stand.

However, Mr Trump has only appeared once in person in the hush money case, for his arraignment. During that hearing, he uttered only a few words, most notably, "not guilty".

He has instead attacked the judge and prosecutor outside the courtroom, in speeches and on social media. After his arraignment, Mr Trump called Justice Merchan a "Trump-hating judge" during a prime-time address.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the first criminal indictment against a former president when he unveiled 34 felony charges against Mr Trump last March.

Stormy Daniels says she and Mr Trump had sex at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. She also says that a decade later, his personal attorney Michael Cohen paid her $130,000 (£103,500) to stay silent about the alleged encounter during Mr Trump's presidential run.

Prosecutors allege Mr Trump had Mr Cohen make the payments, and then fraudulently recorded the transactions on his business's books as legal expenses, when in fact he was paying Mr Cohen back for the hush-money payments.

Ordinarily, falsifying business records is a misdemeanour.

Mr Bragg has justified bringing felony charges by saying Mr Trump intended to defraud in order to conceal a second crime. He has not fully revealed his theory of the second crime, but indicated last year that his office was considering a handful of options.

Mr Bragg has said Mr Trump falsified business records to "conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election".

For months, it was unclear if this trial would proceed as scheduled as Mr Trump accrued three additional criminal indictments and faced several civil trials.

The four criminal cases against Mr Trump have inched towards trial on parallel tracks - and while Mr Trump is actively campaigning for the presidency.

Perhaps the most consequential case, a federal prosecution of his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, was originally scheduled for early March and could have pushed back the hush-money case.

But that case has been put on hold as Mr Trump's lawyers try to argue that as a former president, he is immune from prosecution. A federal appeals court ruled against them, and it remains to be seen whether the US Supreme Court will take the case.

Still, the former president's legal calendar remains packed, and several of his biggest cases are converging this week.

Mr Trump's lawyers will also be court on Thursday in Atlanta seeking to have the prosecutor leading his Georgia election interference case removed over allegations of misconduct.

On Friday, a separate New York judge could issue a ruling in a civil fraud trial brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and have serious consequences for his New York real estate business.

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