Churning in the Donald Trump multiverse
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan is set to consider a trial date for Donald Trump’s trial on federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in the Jan. 6 indictment. CNN reports, “Smith wants the trial to begin January 2 – two weeks before Trump’s first big test in the 2024 primary race in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. The ex-president’s team has asked for much more time, and is proposing a date of April 2026. Trump is not expected to be at the hearing.”
Watch Brandi Buchman’s live feed from the Prettyman courthouse in Washington, D.C. beginning at 10 a.m.
In Atlanta, meanwhile, in a hearing this morning, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will present arguments in the case against Mark Meadows who seeks to move his case to federal court.
Politico explains why Meadows (and others) might want their cases heard in federal court:
If moved to federal court, the charges — all of which are under Georgia law — would remain the same, and Willis’ team could continue to handle the prosecution. But federal procedural rules, not state court rules, would apply. And some defendants might anticipate other, more substantive advantages in a federal forum.
A jury for a trial in federal court would likely be drawn from 10 counties that comprise Atlanta and its sprawling suburbs, while a state-court trial would likely include jurors only from Fulton County, which delivered a 73% to 26% victory for Joe Biden over Trump in 2020. The broader set of counties is home to a somewhat higher proportion of Trump supporters, though the political makeup is not dramatically different.
All those co-defendants complicate Trump’s Georgia trial and the timing, especially since several want a speedy trial set to minimize the cost of their defense. Most do not have Trump’s deep pockets and fundraising machine. Their electoral machinations on Trump’s behalf will cost them and their families.
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s request to move his case to federal court will be the subject of an evidentiary hearing Monday. It’s possible that Meadows might need to testify for his request to succeed, and we learned Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis has subpoenaed two central witnesses to participate: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and his chief investigator, Frances Watson. (Politico’s Kyle Cheney said this makes Monday’s hearing something of a “mini trial.”)
Also Thursday, a judge set an Oct. 23 trial date for one defendant, Kenneth Chesebro. Chesebro has requested a speedy trial, which he is entitled to under Georgia law. Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell has also requested a speedy trial, though her trial date hasn’t been set. While their prosecutions might be separated from the defendants who prefer to delay their proceedings (including Trump), an early trial for one or more defendants could get at central facets of the alleged conspiracy.
Powell is what we might call, colloquially, a loon. Murray Waas observes that going to trial with her or with Trump is a devil’s bargain for Chesboro, if not for John Eastman as well.
Running for a pardon
For all his declarations of innocence, Trump is not looking, as an innocent man might, for trails to exonerate him before voters decide if he should again be president in November 2024. He’s running for a self-pardon, at least on the federal charges (New York Times):
As a further complication, Mr. Trump has made no secret in private conversations with his aides of his desire to solve his jumble of legal problems by winning the election. If either of the two federal trials he is confronting is delayed until after the race and Mr. Trump prevails, he could seek to pardon himself after taking office or have his attorney general simply dismiss the matters altogether.
Finding slots to schedule all the Trump trials into the calendar are a challenge. Even more so since Trump hopes to campaign for president concurrently (if he does not get his delays).
Should state officials or others challenge Trump’s eligibility to appear on state ballots under the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause, Trump and his attorneys will face even more time in court fighting for ballot access. That’s ironic, since Republicans from sea to shining sea spend so much time and effort trying to prevent everyday voters access to voting theirs.