Trial date officially set for Trump's hush money case

Former President Donald Trump's criminal fraud case in New York has been confirmed for a March 25 trial date, CNN reported on Thursday.

The date was set at a pretrial hearing that the former president was attending in Manhattan.

March 25 had long been expected as the start date. However, Bragg was prepared to let it be pushed back if one of Trump's other three criminal trials was ready to move forward first.

With all three of them tied up with various procedural hurdles and legal challenges, this case is now set to be the first to move ahead.

Trump is accused of fraud by falsifying business records to obscure payment that was allegedly used to persuade adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair they had and prevent it from becoming known during the 2016 presidential election.

ALSO READ: Prison president: How Donald Trump could serve from behind bars

Manhattan prosecutors, led by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, have argued this is a felony because it was committed in service of a criminal campaign finance scheme to hide information about a scandal during an election, which may have been pivotal in the outcome of getting Trump elected in the first place.

Trump reportedly plans to argue that there was no campaign scheme in the payment to Daniels, and that he was simply trying to spare his wife Melania the emotional distress of knowing about his infidelity.