NEW YORK - Donald Trump will in three weeks become the first former US president to face a criminal trial, a judge ruled Monday, hours after an appeals court threw the tycoon a lifeline in his bid to stave off an unrelated, half billion dollar civil fraud judgment.
New York Judge Juan Merchan rejected demands from Trump's attorneys to further delay his trial on charges of paying hush money to a porn star and ordered jury selection to begin on April 15.
The Republican presidential candidate denounced the upcoming trial and other cases brought against him as "election interference" by Democrat Joe Biden, his likely opponent in the November White House vote.
"I don't know how you can have a trial that's going on right in the middle of an election," he said. "It's not fair."
Trump is in prosecutors' crosshairs for a series of alleged crimes, ranging from falsifying business records in the hush money case to trying to overturn the 2020 election, when he became the first president in modern US history to refuse to concede and stoked a mob of supporters to march on Congress.
While Trump has successfully forced delays in his other trials, Monday's decision by Merchan sets the stage for the shocking spectacle of a former president -- and strong candidate for a second term -- potentially becoming a felon.
Asked by reporters if he would take the witness stand in the hush money case, Trump said he "would have no problem testifying."
Trump had been facing a Monday deadline to fork up the huge original bond pending an appeal against a New York state judge's decision that he is liable for fraudulently conspiring to inflate his net worth.