Donald Trump’s calendar is filling up—and not with campaign events.
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The former president is battling conflicting trial dates in a number of courts, and judges are now hopping on the phone to coordinate their schedules. In fact, two judges may have already double-booked him. (In March, Trump has three weeks to wrap up a D.C. federal trial that’s potentially six weeks long—before he’s due in New York for a state trial.)
But those private exchanges have caused some drama, particularly as Trump's lawyers keep trying to push back his upcoming New York criminal trial for paying hush money to a porn star.
Over the fall, Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the Stormy Daniels case, appeared willing to consider meeting sometime in September to discuss potentially shifting deadlines, according to information received by The Daily Beast. But he ultimately rejected the idea and ordered both sides to stick to the previous plan: to meet in court just a month before the porn star cover-up trial begins in March.
But he made it a formal order after Trump’s lawyers tried to peer into his private conversation with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, according to court documents we obtained.
“No further disclosure is required,” Merchan said in a Nov. 9 order that has not been reported until now.
He also made clear that the former president’s legal troubles are so numerous, it’d be better to keep a semblance of order than add to the chaos.
“Indeed, adjourning this trial prematurely can only serve to further muddy your client's already crowded trial calendar and possibly result in even further delay,” Merchan wrote.
The New York state judge made his decision after prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office claimed in court filings that the quadruple-indicted real estate tycoon is simply delaying trial dates after overbooking his top defense lawyer across the Eastern Seaboard.
DA Alvin Bragg Jr.'s team is particularly pointing the finger at New York attorney Todd Blanche, who has quickly risen through the ranks to become Trump's preferred lawyer in his Manhattan hush money case, the federal trial in D.C. over election fraud, and the hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in South Florida.
Blanche’s rapid ascent has irked and pushed aside some defense fellow attorneys, according to two sources familiar with internal strife in the Trump camp. A third source said Blanche has managed to earn Trump’s trust by firmly pushing back on some of the politicians’ stranger ideas, standing out in a sea of “yes-men.” But now Blanche is so inundated with cases that he’s trying to slow them down—and Manhattan prosecutors are crying foul.