The Justice Department has notified the legal team for former President Donald Trump and the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that it plans to produce 15,000 records of potential evidence on Friday ahead of Trump’s hush-money criminal trial.
The U.S. Attorneys Office said much of the material is unrelated to the state case against Trump. The federal prosecutors have already provided at least 104,000 pages of records — 74,000 of which initially went just to Bragg’s office and not to Trump’s lawyers.
Bragg’s office has since turned over those 74,000 pages to the defense.
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Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg (Barry Williams for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
The records from federal prosecutors pertain to a federal investigation that touched on the hush-money matter and led to prison time for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Bragg has said he isn’t opposed to a delay of the start of the trial for up to 30 days to give Trump’s legal team time to review evidence that was recently turned over.
Trump’s lawyers were seeking a 90-day delay or a dismissal of the charges against him, arguing there were violations in the “discovery process,” whereby both sides exchange evidence. Defense lawyers claim a 30-day adjournment is “insufficient” and are asking Judge Juan Merchan to schedule a hearing on discovery for the week of March 25, instead of the start of the trial.
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating former President Donald Trump for alleged hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images/Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges stemming from alleged hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress, during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with campaign finance violations related to the hush-money payments, with evading taxes related to his investments in the taxi industry and with lying to Congress.
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Lawyers for Trump have argued that evidence from the federal investigation is crucial to his defense in the New York state case being prosecuted by Bragg.
Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
Source: www.foxnews.com