The schedule seemed stacked against Donald Trump: four criminal trials in four cities, all in the same year he is running for president.

But rather than doom Trump, the chaotic calendar might just save him.

Trump, who as president helped reshape the federal judiciary, already has persuaded the Supreme Court to delay his trial in Washington. His lawyers have buried judges in Florida and Georgia in enough legal motions and procedural complaints that his cases there have no set trial dates, either.

The case in New York, where Trump is accused of covering up a sex scandal during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, was the only one not mired in potential postponements.

Until now.

On Friday, Justice Juan M. Merchan, who is overseeing the case, delayed the trial at least three weeks, until mid-April.

It was hardly the first case to be delayed during Trump’s recent run of legal problems — and that is no accident. As the former president attempts to push each of his trials until after the election, he is relying on his most battle-tested strategy: Seek every delay available within the law.

The postponement of the New York trial stems from the recent disclosure of more than 100,000 pages of investigative records that may have some bearing on the case. Citing the records, Trump’s lawyers sought a 90-day delay of the trial.

The delay in New York also came on the same day that Trump’s other state case — in Georgia, where he has been accused of tampering with the results of that state’s 2020 election results — had its own tumultuous development: One of the proceeding’s top prosecutors, who had a romantic relationship with the district attorney who filed the indictment, decided to step down.