A subpoena issued by Donald Trump to Comcast-owned NBCUniversal for material related to a recent documentary about porn star Stormy Daniels was blocked by Justice Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing Trump’s upcoming criminal trial. Trump had claimed that Daniels and NBC conspired to release the film close to his trial to damage him, a claim Merchan deemed unsupported.
Trump is accused of covering up a $130,000 payment made by his former lawyer Michael Cohen to Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she alleges she had with Trump in 2006. Trump, who is a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies any such encounter with Daniels.
The documentary, titled “Stormy,” was released on NBC’s streaming service Peacock on March 18. The trial was initially scheduled to start on March 25, but was delayed by three weeks by Merchan after Trump alleged that prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office were trying to withhold evidence related to Cohen from him.
In his order, Merchan wrote that Trump subpoenaed NBC on March 11 for documents related to the trial’s premiere date and any compensation to Daniels. NBC asked Merchan to block the subpoena on March 20, stating that Daniels had no right to approve the documentary’s content or release timing.
Trump also faces three other criminal indictments, but they do not yet have firm trial dates. This means the hush money case in New York state court in Manhattan could be the only one to go to trial before his expected rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election. The other cases stem from Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 loss to Biden and his handling of sensitive government documents after leaving the White House in 2021. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases as well
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