Trump’s lawyers asked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan on April 15 — the first day of jury selection in his hush-money criminal trial — if the court would recess that day so the former president could attend the milestone event.
Merchan didn’t immediately rule on the request, noting that it depended “on if we are on time and where we are in the trial.”
On Tuesday morning, minutes before Trump was found in contempt after nine gag order violations and fined $9,000, Merchan approved the request.
“We picked the jury pretty quickly,” the judge said.
Trump’s five-woman, seven-man jury was selected in one week, half the time originally estimated.
“So Mr. Trump can certainly attend that date,” Merchan said.
Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Trump said weeks ago — when he told reporters he believed Merchan would keep him from the graduation — that Barron worked “very, very hard” and had been “looking forward, for years, to that graduation with his mother and father there.”
After the Tuesday morning rulings, testimony continued in Trump’s first criminal trial.
He is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records; prosecutors allege that he lied on documents to disguise payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
Prosecutors say Trump’s ex-personal attorney and former fixer, Michael Cohen, facilitated $130,000 in payments to Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election to buy her silence over a 2006 affair before voters went to the polls.
