Trump delay tactics freeze legal battles post-conviction

Delay, delay, delay.

The tactic, a favorite of former President Trump, played a central role in his efforts to calm the bad press until after the 2016 presidential election – the scheme that underpinned his historic conviction in Manhattan last month.

But in his other criminal cases, early efforts to delay proved fruitful. Trump’s federal cases in Washington, D.C. and Florida, as well as a state case in Georgia, are effectively frozen in time after the former president’s legal teams pushed to involve them in pretrial appeals and prosecutorial scandals. A slow judge in Florida, plus the normally slow Supreme Court, hardly helped progress.

These initial delays made any resolution in Trump’s remaining cases unlikely before Election Day, when the former president will again face President Biden for a second term in the White House.

If Trump wins, the three cases could be brought to a halt — or disappear altogether.

Georgia

The latest hurdle came in Georgia, where an appeals court last week indefinitely halted proceedings in the Trump election subversion case while it considers whether to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) and her district attorney’s office.

Earlier this year, defense lawyers exposed a romance between Willis and one of the case’s lead prosecutors, Nathan Wade, as they built their case against Trump and his 2020 allies. The explosive revelation resulted in several contentious hearings, where both prosecutors took a stand to defend their relationship and professional integrity.

Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the matter, ultimately ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did. But Trump and several co-defendants say the Georgia judge’s ruling was insufficient, raising the issue to the Georgia Court of Appeals.

The state appeals court has tentatively scheduled oral arguments for October — just a month before the presidential election.

Trump lawyer Steve Sadow formally requested an oral argument on the matter on Monday, writing that the failure to disqualify Willis from the case is a “structural error” that could require a new trial if the case were brought to a jury. . A trial date in the Georgia case has not yet been set.

“Nowhere are these interests more important or more evident than in a high-profile case involving a former president of the United States, who is also the presumptive Republican nominee in the ongoing presidential election, and whose indictment in Fulton County, in Georgia, captured the attention of our great nation,” Sadow wrote in the order.

Florida

Trump’s federal case in Florida, where he is accused of keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and refusing demands to return them, has long been in shambles.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely delayed the case last month, just weeks before it was set to go to trial, citing unresolved issues including how confidential information would be handled before a jury. A new trial date has not been set.

However, the accumulation of problems on Cannon’s plate only starts there.

The federal judge has scheduled four hearings this month to deal with a series of pretrial motions filed by Trump’s lawyers.

The June 21 and 24 hearings will revolve around Trump’s claim that special counsel Jack Smith was illegally appointed to oversee the case. But it won’t just be Trump’s lawyers and federal prosecutors who will be making arguments on the matter; Cannon ruled that external parties – amici curiae, or friends of the court – can also participate.

Also on June 24, Cannon will hear arguments from both sides about whether Trump should be banned from making continued incendiary comments about FBI agents who searched his home in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2022. Trump claimed the FBI was “complicit in a plot to murder him,” the observation stemming from a long-standing agency policy that its authorization to use deadly force when necessary is essentially a given.

The fourth hearing, on June 25, concerns evidence obtained from one of Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran. Trump’s lawyers say the audio notes obtained from Corcoran should be protected by attorney-client privilege, but prosecutors say the communications may have been part of the commission of a crime and are therefore not protected.

Some legal experts have alleged that Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, is moving slowly on the case, holding hearings on motions that most federal judges would rule on without. But others point to the weighty nature of the allegations against Trump and Cannon’s relative inexperience as a reason for the case’s glacial pace.

Washington DC

Once considered the most likely Trump case to be tried before Election Day, the former president’s federal election subversion case remains petrified as the Supreme Court considers the question of presidential immunity. The decision could be made any week before the high court’s term ends at the end of June.

During oral arguments in April, the Supreme Court appeared open to allowing some immunity to former presidents, suggesting the case could be returned to federal court for greater scrutiny of Trump’s claims by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.

Once Chutkan weighs Trump’s immunity argument again, with any new guidance from the Supreme Court, Trump’s lawyers could appeal his ruling — setting up another protracted legal battle that will culminate in the Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court rules against Trump, the race will be on for prosecutors to get the case to a jury before Election Day. Meanwhile, from Trump’s team, more attempts at postponement are expected.