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The Supreme Court, which former President Donald J. Trump helped shape, on Wednesday night gave him a legal lifeline, effectively blocking his efforts to delay his federal trial on charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election. I made a choice to help.
Trump’s claim that presidents have near-total immunity from prosecution for any official conduct while in office (a legal theory rejected by two lower courts and few experts believe has a constitutional basis) ), the justices accepted that argument. The former president is scheduled to be tried at least several months before on election interference charges.
It is not inconceivable that Mr. Trump could be on the jury in the case in federal district court in Washington by Election Day. According to the current legal calendar, even if the justices issue a ruling by the end of the Supreme Court’s term in June and decide that Trump is not immune from prosecution, the trial could still be held by the end of September or October. may be started.
But each delay increases the chance that voters will not have a chance to hear evidence that Trump tried to overturn the previous election before deciding whether to support him in this election. .
If Trump succeeds in delaying the trial until after Election Day and wins, he could use his presidential power to seek a complete dismissal of the election interference charges. Additionally, Justice Department policy prohibits prosecuting a sitting president, and any federal trial he faces after taking office is likely to be delayed until after he leaves office.
On the surface, the Supreme Court’s decision Wednesday night was a purely logical decision. The justices decided to keep trial preparations on hold while they consider the lower court’s rejection of the immunity defense. They set a public hearing on the matter for the end of April.
But in practical terms, the court’s decision delayed the process of resolving the immunity argument and justified what appeared to be a desperate move by Mr. Trump’s legal team to find ways to keep it postponed until the trial date. Campaign has ended.
A spokesman for Special Counsel Jack Smith, who handles election cases in Washington, declined to comment on the court’s decision. The court’s ruling was seen as a major victory within the Trump campaign, but it was not decisive.
A year ago, when Trump faced his first criminal charges in Manhattan and was indicted three more times in Florida, Washington, and Georgia over the next five months, it seemed as if Trump would be in 2024. He will spend most of his life in front of a jury. But now, if things break his path, he can only be tried once before the November election.
In the case, a state judge in Manhattan set a March 25 start date for the trial of a former president accused of arranging hush money payments to porn stars to avoid scandal on the eve of the 2016 election. Set.
And on Friday, a federal judge in Florida will hold a hearing to reset the clock for Trump’s other federal trial, in which he is accused of mishandling dozens of classified documents after leaving office. We are planning to hold a meeting. The trial was scheduled to begin in May, but now may or may not take place before Election Day.
The Georgia case is also mired in pre-trial clashes, raising questions about when, or even if, the case will go to trial.
The election interference case in Washington was supposed to be the first of four criminal cases against Trump before a jury. Several months ago, Tanya S. Chutkan, the judge overseeing the case, set a March 4 trial date.
But Trump later filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that he is completely immune from the charges because they arose from his actions as president. The request was unprecedented and contrary to basic legal and constitutional principles, but it had a powerful appeal to Mr. Trump’s lawyers. Once the claim was filed, Judge Chutkan was required to suspend the underlying action until the issue of his immunity was resolved.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Washington considered the issue and in a unanimous ruling rejected the immunity defense, finding that Trump is subject to federal criminal law like any other American.
He then asked the Supreme Court to put the trial proceedings on hold while the justices decide whether to consider the issue, but it is likely that the justices will agree with him on the merits of his case. They were probably hoping that the judges might take up the issue, rather than that the judges would take up the issue. Ask questions and take your time to make decisions.
And that’s exactly what the court heard Wednesday.
The question of when a trial will ultimately take place is complicated by Judge Chutkan’s insistence that Trump not lose any time preparing his case while the moratorium remains in effect. . In her court papers, she suggested in her spirit of fairness that the former president should be given an extra day to prepare for all those lost in the stay.
Judge Chutkan froze the election case on December 13th. That means if she sticks with her decision, she will owe Trump an additional 82 days to prepare. This corresponds to the period from December 13th to the originally scheduled trial date in March. 4. If the Supreme Court rules on the immunity decision in June and trial preparations resume immediately, the trial date could be pushed back to September by an additional 82 days.
At that point, the general election campaign will be in full swing, and there is no guarantee that the trial will be completed by Election Day.
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