'Runt' of Trump's criminal cases now takes center stage as others face delay: legal expert

The case over Trump's alleged hush-money payment to a porn star is likely to go first in the four criminal cases against him. Legal experts acknowledge they though it may be the "runt" of the legal litter — it shouldn't be relegated to "yesterday's mashed potatoes."

“This was the first indictment of Trump but quickly became seen as the runt of the litter, compared to bigger, more consequential cases,” veteran criminal New York defense Ronald Kuby told The Washington Post.

New York City's D.A. Alvin Bragg brought the 34-count criminal indictmentaccusing Trump of falsifying business records around the alleged hush money payment to porn start Stormy Daniels at the bookend of his 2016 presidential campaign.

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The trial is expected to begin on March 25.

Initially, Trump’s D.C. federal trial on obstruction charges related to his alleged inciting of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was set to curtain-raise on March 4.

But on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan scuttled the date while the former president's absolute immunity appeal is being weighed by the D.C. Circuit Appeals court and likely the Supreme Court after that.

Regarding the case over Trump's alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in Florida federal court — Judge Aileen Cannon has marked a late May trial start. But that may not hold.

And the Georgia state RICO case accusing the 45th president and 18 others of subverting the election results to go in his favor — hasn't yet set any date to kickoff the trial.

The hush money case is "the most problematic from a legal, rather than evidentiary standpoint," Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor, told the Post.

He noted it "runs the risk of potentially handing the Trump defense team an early win on legal sufficiency grounds that plays into the defense claims that all of these prosecutions are politically motivated and may spill over to damage the credibility of the other criminal cases in the minds of the public."

Attorney Joshua Naftalis also chimed in, saying, that, as a former federal prosecutor, he considers the hush money case the "least serious of the crimes he’s been charged with."

That said, he believes that Bragg wouldn't bring the case for window dressing.

“The criticism here is that the case may seem like yesterday’s mashed potatoes, but it’s not,” said Naftalis. “It takes a while to make the case.”