Trump's Trials - Trial for Donald Trump's hush money case will begin on April 15

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, host Scott Detrow speaks with NPR's Andrea Bernstein. An appeals court has cut the bond former President Donald Trump has to post from $454 million to $175 million in his civil fraud trial. The news came the same day as the deadline before the New York Attorney General could start seizing Trump properties to pay off the massive judgement. And in a separate New York court, a judge sharply rebuked Trump's lawyers in his hush money criminal case and set a trial date for April 15. Topics include:- How Trump bargained his way to a lower bond- Trump's response to the criminal case against him going forward- Next stepsFollow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Trials from NPR. I'm Scott Detro. We love Trump! This is a persecution. He actually just stormed out of the courtroom. We love him! Innocent to proven guilty in a court of law. Donald Trump had a decidedly mixed day in New York on Monday. First, yet another thing went his way as the former president and current presidential

candidate has seen happen over and over again lately in the multiple criminal and civil cases that he's navigating. A state appeals court cut the bond that Trump has to post from $454 million down to $175 million. That matters because Trump's legal team had said that Trump did not have the money for that higher total, which meant New York State could have begun to seize Trump's properties or other assets. We explained this all in detail in the last episode in the feed if you want to go back and check that out. But later on the same morning, there was a big shift for Trump.

A judge sharply rebuked Trump's lawyers during a separate hearing for the hush money centered criminal case, and more importantly, set a trial date. So put it on your calendars, Monday, April 15th. That is the day that Trump's first criminal trial will begin, that's of course barring any other surprise delays. After the break, I'll talk more about all of this and more with NPR's Andrea Bernstein. Stick around. enjoy with some are calling a life-changing celestial alignment. Prepare for the full-body experience with Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR. From your car radio to your smart speaker, NPR meets you where you are in a lot of different ways. Now we're in your pocket. Download the NPR app today. We're back and I'm joined now by NPR's Andrea Bernstein.

Hey Andrea. Hey Scott. So let's start with the bond today with the deadline after which the New York attorney general could have started seizing Trump properties to pay off the massive judgment in the civil fraud trial. Never got that far. What happened? So last month a judge ruled that Trump was liable for lying for years about his assets and ordered Trump to pay

Back nearly half a billion dollars to New York State for the fraud Trump appealed And normally a defendant would post a bond to guarantee that they have the money if they lose their appeal But Trump true to form bargained away He first tried to get the bond lowered by $100 million. And when the court said no, he said, well, I don't have the liquid assets to guarantee a bond of half a billion dollars. And this morning, while we were all in court for a hearing in the criminal case, Trump got the news he'd have to post $175 million, which was just over a third of the judgment amount.

The ruling went a lot further than just the money though, right? Can you explain the rest? Yeah. So Judge Arthur Ngoran had also ruled that Trump and his two adult sons couldn't run their company and couldn't apply for loans. And that too was on hold pending the appeal. A spokesperson for the New York attorney general says that Donald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud and pointed out the total four hundred and sixty four million dollar judgment against Trump and his co-defendants

fans but he has had a real run of court rulings breaking his way. Yeah let's talk about that it really seems like everything that could go in Trump's direction has across all of these cases in recent months. So let me say, $175 million is still a lot of money. And a number of lawyers here tell me that appeals courts in New York often cut civil verdicts. But Trump also does well because he is unashamed to push the legal system to upend every norm. And also he has the money to do it. He is not paying his legal bills. His donors are. You could see his lawyers breaking more rules and norms even today in the legal hearing in his criminal hush money case. Okay, so let's talk about that and it's important to say that here Trump did not get what he wanted. His

trial will go forward on April 15th, right? Yes, but what happened here is that federal prosecutors who separately investigated the hush money scheme years ago, just this month turned over more than a hundred thousand pages of documents and Trump's lawyers blamed the local DA and tried to get the case tossed because of what they said was widespread misconduct. Judge Juan Mershon, who is usually the embodiment of calm in the courtroom, wasn't having it. He sharply questioned Trump's lawyer Todd Blanched. At one point he said, you're literally accusing the Manhattan DA of engaging in

misconduct. And Blanch conceded. He didn't have any case law, but he kept plowing forward anyway. What's next? So outside the courtroom, Trump said it was unfair the criminal case was going forward. It should have happened three and a half years ago. Let me just remind listeners three and a half years ago, Trump was president and his lawyers in this investigation were arguing and they went all the way to the Supreme Court to say that Trump as president could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not be investigated by the Manhattan D.A.

Trump lost that at every level. The Manhattan DA still had to go back to the Supreme Court for a second time to get Trump's tax records and move forward. Trump now says he wants another delay based on prejudicial pretrial publicity. But Judge Mershon seems bent on going forward. April 15th. April 15th. That's NPR's Andrea Bernstein.

Thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep an eye out for more episodes like this whenever big news happens, and we'll be back later this week with our rake of a show on Saturday. I'm Scott Detro.

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