In article <d0f0303b-c1cd-4497-9577-79a4ce6b60c6n@googlegroups.com>, davidbrown20782@gmail.com says...

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7empd/trumps-master-plan-to-defeat-his-criminal-cases-isnt-working

Greg Walters

Former President Donald Trump rolled into 2024 with a master plan to defeat his four criminal cases: Utilize his political firepower to delay his trials past the election, then use the presidency to dismantle them.

But lately, it?s not working out the way he hoped.

After a dizzying series of recent legal decisions, it?s now looking possible that Trump may be forced to go through two criminal trials before November?giving prosecutors two shots to convict him on felony charges before votes are counted.

On Thursday, the judge in Trump?s New York City criminal case officially set Trump?s first six-week trial to begin on March 25, in a crucial defeat for Trump?s efforts at delay. The failure could hobble both Trump?s presidential campaign and his hopes

to later use the presidency to thwart prosecutors. Many voters say they have misgivings about putting a felon in the White House, according to a bevy of recent polls. And if Trump is convicted in this New York State
prosecution, he won?t be able to pardon himself even if he wins, because presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.

Justice Juan Merchan breezily dismissed objections from Trump?s lawyers that spending six weeks in court would unduly keep him off the campaign trail. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche called the late-March trial date ?unfathomable,? because ?we?re in the

middle of primary season.?

Trump?s team has repeatedly argued that his campaign for the presidency, and the fact that he used to be the president, should give him the right to duck his criminal trials, either temporarily or permanently.

Trump has used the calendar to his advantage over and over again as a litigant. But Thursday?s hearing was only the latest to show the limits of that strategy in his recent attempts to battle criminal prosecutors. He also faced a crucial defeat in

Washington D.C. that could yield a second trial in 2024 before election day?one with higher stakes than in New York, and longer potential criminal sentences.

Last week the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals rejected Trump?s claims that he should enjoy complete criminal immunity as a former president in a landmark decision. That ruling kicks the ball over to the Supreme Court for the next move. But even so,

with the start of the trial in Manhattan now fixed, Trump?s legal calendar appears to leave enough time for a trial in his D.C. case to begin sometime this summer, according to a group of lawyers who wrote a recent detailed
analysis published in Just Security.

Trump?s D.C. case for allegedly attempting to subvert the 2020 election had been scheduled to begin in early March, and is currently on hold pending his immunity appeal. But the analysis concluded that, barring any big surprises, the that trial could

kick off in June or July, and wrap up in September or October, right before the vote.

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