Just as Republican voters in the crucial early states get ready to choose their presidential nominee next year, another spectacle may be taking place in the country's biggest city that could affect the outcome of the election: the trial of Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Judge Juan Merchan set a Dec. 4 date for the next hearing in the Manhattan district attorney's case against Trump. The former president pleaded not guilty to the indictment accusing him of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to shield the electorate from information about past alleged affairs.

Prosecutors pushed for the trial to start in January, while Trump's defense team requested that it begin “later in the spring” next year.

If the prosecution gets its way, the country would get a split screen of Trump fighting to prove his innocence in New York while campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire, which hold their nominating contests on Feb. 5 and Feb. 13.