The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush-money case was still on the court calendar on March 25, 2024, but not as the opening of trial. By then, Judge Juan Merchan had already granted a delay and pushed jury selection to April 15. The March 25 appearance was set for argument over the defense’s discovery-sanctions motion and related disputes over late-produced material.

The timeline matters. The case had originally been headed for a March 25 start, but Merchan’s March 15 order moved the trial back after the parties raised problems with recently disclosed records. The judge said jury selection would begin no earlier than April 15, and he left the separate sanctions issue for later consideration.

That left Trump with a courtroom obligation instead of a jury box. The former president was still preparing for a criminal case while also trying to run a presidential campaign, a setup that keeps lawyers, aides, and scheduling plans tied to the court’s dates. The practical effect is simple: when the trial shifts, the campaign has to shift with it.

The Manhattan case is also unusual on its own terms. It is the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. The charges center on allegations that Trump business records were falsified to conceal hush-money payments tied to the 2016 campaign. Those facts had already been established in the public record; what changed on March 25 was the calendar, not the underlying case.

So March 25 was not the day a jury was supposed to start hearing evidence in Manhattan. It was the day the court dealt with the fallout from the delay. The trial had already been moved to April 15, and the defense was still pressing its complaints about the late discovery that helped trigger the postponement.