Just a few months before from the US presidential election Donald Trump It will be done the first former president in the country’s history to be brought to trialon charges related to money he allegedly paid an adult film actress in order to ensure her silence.

New York District Court Judge Juan Merchan rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers to dismiss the case and instead set a trial for March 25. This is just one of four criminal cases facing the Republican tycoon as he bids for his party’s nomination for the Nov. 5 election.

Trump, 77, was asking Merchan to dismiss the 34-count indictment alleging he falsified business documents in an attempt to hide the $130,000 he paid Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. just 10 minutes to reject the request and set the trial for March 25.

Before today’s proceedings, Trump repeated his claims that the case is politically motivated. “They wouldn’t have pushed this, under any circumstances, if I wasn’t running for president and I wasn’t doing well,” he said, speaking in the hallway outside the courtroom.

The trial will begin before the three other criminal cases. By then, Trump may have mathematically secured the GOP nomination, having already won the first four caucuses and polls giving him a wide lead over the only other candidate, Nikki Haley.

Trump has been using his regular court visits to raise money for his campaign, but that strategy appears to be paying off so well now that he has raked in millions since his first court appearances last year. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him by Democratic Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg.

A small number of protesters were outside the courthouse today, holding placards with anti-Trump slogans while chanting “No Dictators in America.”

In a separate case, also today, Trump’s lawyers are expected to ask a judge in Georgia to exempt the prosecutor who prosecuted him and several of his allies for crimes related to trying to overturn his election loss in that state in 2020. Prosecutor Fanny Willis has admitted to having an affair with a lawyer on her team.

Trump also faces federal charges in Washington, D.C., for trying to overturn the election result, and in Florida, for his handling of classified documents. He pleads not guilty to all charges.

The case to be heard in Manhattan concerns the money, $130,000, that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid to porn star Stormy Daniels – known as Stephanie Clifford – not to speak publicly about an affair she had with the real estate mogul ten years earlier. Trump denies that this ever happened.

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges.

Prosecutors say that in 2017 Trump’s family real estate company recorded the repayment of that amount to Cohen as legal fees. This violated state law that prohibits falsifying business documents to conceal another crime.