While Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was the first prosecutor to indict Donald Trump, the "hush money" fraud case he brought against the former president has been somewhat eclipsed by the subsequent federal indictments brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in Florida (classified documents) and Washington, D.C. (election interference), and in the Fulton County, Georgia election interference case brought by Fani Willis. 

But with the D.C. case now on hold while the appellate courts sort out the issue of presidential immunity, Bragg's prosecution appears to be the first one that will actually proceed to trial. After a hearing on Thursday morning, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan denied Trump's motion(s) to dismiss the case and ordered jury selection to proceed in the case beginning March 25. 

Donald Trump’s hush-money trial will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection starting on March 25, a judge ruled Thursday, turning aside requests for a delay from the former president’s defense lawyers.

In leaving the trial date intact, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan took advantage of a delay in a separate prosecution in Washington charging Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case has been effectively on hold pending the outcome of an appeal from Trump.

The case arises out of payments made by Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen to porn actress Stormy Daniels purportedly to remain quiet regarding an alleged affair with Trump. Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to the payments. 

Trump's legal team took issue with Judge Merchan's decision to order the trial to proceed, describing it as election interference.

Trump’s attorneys blasted the decision to keep the March date, complaining that Trump will have to stand trial in New York at the same time as he is attempting to sew up the Republican nomination.

“It is completely election interference to say ‘you are going to sit in this courtroom in Manhattan,” said defense lawyer Todd Blanche.

Trump's lawyers argued that the case against him should be dismissed on several grounds, but Judge Merchan denied the requests for dismissal.

The former president urged the judge to dismiss the indictment without a trial, arguing he was being selectively prosecuted, the grand jury process had technical defects and that prosecutors waited too long to bring the case.

Legal experts viewed those arguments as a long-shot effort, but many observers still expected the hush money trial to be delayed to allow Trump to first go to trial in D.C. on federal charges of conspiring to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

As noted, a key issue as to the New York case proceeding as originally scheduled has been the timing of the D.C. federal case, which was initially set for trial March 4.

That trial was originally scheduled to begin in early March, a timeline that was all but certain to conflict with the scheduled hush money trial date, if it proceeded as scheduled.

Months ago, Trump’s D.C. judge indicated she was coordinating with Merchan directly about the potential conflict, and Merchan on Thursday said those conversations had been continuing. Bragg separately signaled in public that, if needed, he wouldn’t oppose Trump’s federal cases going first.

Now with the D.C. case on hold, the path is cleared for Bragg's case to proceed. Whether it ultimately will on March 25 remains to be seen. 

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