Trump’s latest legal gambit could cause ‘cascade’ of trial delays, New York warns

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s trial calendar is a delicate balancing act, one that could be upended by the possible delay of the first in a long string of Trump trials scheduled to begin early next month, the New York attorney general’s office argued in a court filing.

The attorney general’s office wrote that any delay in its upcoming civil fraud trial against Trump, which is set to begin Oct. 2, “is likely to create a cascade of delays in not only this case but also other litigations involving petitioner Donald J. Trump.”

Attorney General Tish James is suing Trump, his company, his adult sons and some of his business associates for allegedly inflating his net worth in an effort to fraudulently obtain favorable terms from banks and insurance companies.

The office’s filing came in response to a lawsuit that Trump filed earlier this month against the judge overseeing the upcoming fraud trial and the attorney general’s office. Trump’s lawsuit accuses the judge, Arthur Engoron, of failing to comply with an earlier appeals court decision that Trump argues limits the scope of the case against him.

Trump’s maneuver prompted a New York appellate judge last Thursday to order an interim stay of the fraud trial without “any determination of the merits” of Trump’s accusations against Engoron. The appellate judge, David Friedman, ordered the appellate court to review Trump’s lawsuit on an expedited basis. That court will likely rule next week on whether Trump’s fraud trial may proceed as scheduled in early October.

In its filing late Wednesday, the attorney general’s office pointed to four other Trump trials currently scheduled to take place between October and May, including a federal defamation trial set for Jan. 15 in a case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, a federal criminal trial set for March 4 in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case on Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election, a New York state criminal trial set for March 25 in a case brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and another a federal criminal trial set for May 20 in Smith’s case concerning the alleged mishandling of classified documents.

In fact, Trump has even more upcoming trials than the attorney general’s office cited in its filing. Trump also faces a trial beginning Jan. 29 in a federal class action lawsuit accusing him and his company of promoting a pyramid scheme. And he will likely have another criminal trial scheduled for next year in the Georgia case over his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.

The attorney general’s office cautioned the appeals court that Trump may use any delay in its case to argue for additional delays. “If the start of trial here is delayed at all, there is a significant risk that petitioners will request further delays of trial based on the deadlines in these other cases,” the office wrote.

Trump had previously sought to delay the business fraud trial, asking Engoron to push it by up to three weeks. Engoron, however, denied the request, issuing a curt response. “Decline to sign,” he wrote. “Defendants’ arguments are completely without merit.”