A New York judge denied a motion Wednesday to delay former US president Donald Trump’s falsified documents trial start date until after a US Supreme Court decision concerning presidential immunity is handed down.

The case, New York v. Trump, accuses the former president of falsifying business records to conceal payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence in regards to an alleged sexual relationship between the two. Prosecutors claim that the illicit payments were made to prevent details of the affair from leaking to the press ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump’s motion to delay was tied to an attempt to exclude evidence from trial that Trump pressured witnesses through the media against cooperating with the state, arguing that the efforts were “official acts” which were eligible for presidential immunity. Trump’s defense team further argued that the state “should be precluded from offering evidence of President Trump’s official acts [and that he is] entitled to immunity for acts within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility.”

The immunity issue is currently pending before the US Supreme Court in a separate case regarding election interference claims stemming from the 2020 presidential elections. The court is to hear oral arguments on the issue on April 25.

New York Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s motion for being “untimely” and chastised Trump’s defense team for waiting until just weeks before the scheduled trial date to raise the defense. Merchan wrote:

The fact that the Defendant waited until a mere 17 days prior to the scheduled date of March 25, 2024, to file the motion, raises real questions about the sincerity and actual purpose of the motion. After all, Defendant had already briefed the same issue in federal court and he was in possession of and aware that, the People intended to offer the relevant evidence at trial that entire time. The circumstances, viewed as a whole, test this Court’s credulity.

Trump previously pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree back in April 2023 and faces prosecution in a myriad of other legal cases ranging from election interference to fraud claims. In late March, Merchan issued a gag order barring Trump from discussing the case or attempting to sway voters and set an April 15 start date for the trial.