Katie Couric Instagram – 🚨A judge rejected Donald J. Trump’s bid to throw out the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal charges against him on Thursday and set a trial date for next month, clearing the way for the first prosecution of a former American president. Per @nytimes reporting, the judge, Juan M. Merchan, announced the decision to begin jury selection at a hearing in a Lower Manhattan courtroom as Mr. Trump looked on from the defense table. The former president’s lawyers objected to the judge’s plan for jury selection to begin on March 25, noting that the six-week trial would conflict with Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. One of the former president’s lawyers, Todd Blanche, called the schedule “unfathomable.” It will be the first of Mr. Trump’s criminal cases to go to trial. He faces 91 felony counts across four criminal indictments from prosecutors in Washington, Florida and Georgia, as well as Manhattan, all while he seeks to lock up the Republican presidential nomination.