Former President Donald Trump will skip his Manhattan court date on May 17 to attend his son’s high school graduation after Judge Juan Merchan ruled the trial was proceeding fast enough to allow it.
Trump had previously complained outside the courtroom that the judge would “not let me go to the graduation of my son.”
Merchan had delayed a decision on whether to excuse Trump’s absence on graduation day, much to the anger of Trump’s family members.
Barron Trump, 18, is the former president’s sole child from his marriage to former First Lady Melania Trump.
“I was looking forward to that graduation with his mother and father there,” the former president told reporters last month, according to The Hill.
The Trump family has slammed the judge for the delay in his ruling. Eric Trump, Barron’s half-brother, reportedly called the judge “truly heartless in not letting a father attend his son’s graduation.”
It wasn’t all good news for Trump on Tuesday. Merchan denied Trump’s request to attend the U.S. Supreme Court’s oral arguments on claims of presidential immunity.
Merchan attributed his delay to the initial uncertainty over the pace of the trial. Since then, the trial has shocked the media by moving rather quickly. Jury selection took only five days.
“We picked the jury pretty quickly,” Merchan reportedly said Tuesday. “So Mr. Trump can certainly attend that date.”
It remains unclear whether Merchan has canceled the trial that day or whether he’s simply allowing Trump to skip.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to falsifying business records. He stands accused of illegally paying hush money to a former mistress, but he’s denied any affair.
The former president is under four criminal indictments in four jurisdictions: Georgia’s Fulton County, a federal district in Florida, a federal district in D.C., and this one in Manhattan.
He denies any wrongdoing, and he’s called the trials politically motivated. In particular, he called the New York case a “scam trial.” Trump, a presidential candidate, has needed to schedule campaign events on weekends to accommodate the New York trial’s schedule.