Trump Manhattan Trial Delay: SDNY Has A LOT To Answer For

Things seemed all set for Trump to go on trial on criminal charges in Manhattan. Although it’s too often called a “hush money” case it’s about more, which is WHY that hush money was paid by Trump to adult star Stormy Daniels. It was an attempt to hide from voters embarrassing information (on top of the Hollywood Access tape) that could hurt his chances in the 2016 election. However, as of yesterday it’s almost certain the trial will be pushed back 30 days. At least. Why is a question that deserves a lot of attention so let’s take a look at what’s transpired.

I’ll start with what broke yesterday. This article from CBS News covers the basics. The article notes Trump’s lawyer subpoenaed over 70,000 pages of documents from the U.S. Attorney for the office of the Southern District of New York. SDNY, often referred to as “the Sovereign Southern District of New York” because of it’s size and influence. It’s known for it’s own culture separate from it’s parent, the DOJ in DC and independence. Only now has SDNY complied and handed over some 30k plus pages of evidence to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. He in turn has handed it over to the defense and will provide another tranche next week.

Bragg himself admits there is at least some stuff in there that relates to the case he intends to present. It’s probably duplicative of what he already has but his office still has to go through it. Same for the defense, and it’s hard to (this time) be critical of Bragg for informing the judge he’s fine with a 30 day postponement of the start of the trial to give everyone a fair chance to go through this “new” discovery. From the linked article:

“Yesterday, the USAO produced approximately 31,000 pages of additional records and represented that there will be another production of documents by next week,” wrote Bragg, who said the documents included material his office requested more than a year ago. “Based on our initial review of yesterday’s production, those records appear to contain materials related to the subject matter of this case.”

I’ll admit to being a bit confused at this point. We are told that on March 4 SDNY provided 74k pages of evidence, and Bragg’s notice to the judge is that 31K have been produced. Perhaps he’s only referring to the amount that has been turned over to the defense at this point. I’m sure we’ll get more details soon. For now, Team Trump of course is crying “unfair” and if not an outright dismissal of the charges then at least a minimum of 90 days to go through everything. However Bragg is sticking to his 30 days is enough time argument:

“Although the People are prepared to proceed to trial on March 25, we do not oppose an adjournment in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials,” Bragg wrote. “We therefore notify the Court that we do not oppose a brief adjournment not to exceed 30 days.”

There’s a couple of important things to look at here. First, the fact is that Team Trump was made aware of the SDNY evidence in May/June of 2023. Yet they sat around and said/did nothing. Until January. They’ve already got a pretty good idea what’s there, but to me it seems like they held off, hoping to sandbag the NY trial if it looked like it might actually happen. According to some punditry there was a lot of back and forth between the U.S. Attorney and Trump’s lawyers all those months before they subpoenaed the documents in question. It seems they want to make an issue out of that, I suppose claiming bad faith. However, it also suggests a general unwillingness by SDNY to lift a finger, something Team Trump had good reason to assume would continue even after they issued their subpoena.

Still, it’s pretty outrageous Trump’s lawyers waited until January to make their move. And then turn around and claim lack of time to prepare. If they thought they needed this material and after a few months were getting nowhere with the U.S. Attorney/SDNY they COULD have and SHOULD have issued a subpoena in the fall. Months before they actually did. It’s for that reason they are unlikely to get much more of a break from the judge than the one Bragg has graciously offered.

Still, as MSNBC analyst Lisa Rubin (and others) pointed out last night SDNY has a lot to answer for, as in why they took so long to finally turn over the material. After the subpoena was issued.  It’s a damned good question, and watching MSNBC this morning Rubin still has more questions about this. Hopefully this delay will get the kind of scrutiny it deserves. I’ve got my own theory and it’s an ugly one.

It’s worth remembering that for a long time Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was content to wait until after the federal trials for Trump were done to take his own crack at Trump. He was publicly open about it. While it’s been long apparent that judge Cannon will do all she can to avoid a Trump trial in Florida until after the election, the DC case on the Jan. 6 charges was another matter. Jury selection should be underway, if not completed and the case actually being presented as I write this. However, as you know all that got put on hold due to Trump’s appeal. The Georgia RICO case wasn’t going to be going to trial until at least August so Bragg suddenly was eager to go.

My belief is, and has long been that the LAST thing Merrick Garland wanted was to see Trump put on trial. Not even after the November election. Like all those cowards in the GOP he hoped the “Trump problem” would magically go away. That’s always been not just wishful thinking but stupid wishful thinking. Trump isn’t going away, even if he gets his ass handed to him at the ballot box in November!

However, Garland delayed as long as he could doing what he should have done back in 2021 which was to appoint a Special Prosecutor. I have zero doubt that Garland was distressed that Smith found a way to pare down both the Florida and DC cases to enable trials of both, well before the nominating conventions. As for the state cases, there seemed to be little Garland could do. Much as I believe he WANTED to do to slow them down or stop them.

Now, thanks to the obstinance and perhaps even f**kery of SDNY and the U.S. Attorney it seems Garland might have found a way to interfere after all. I can hear you saying “Wait a minute Denis… Didn’t you say earlier that SDNY is almost a mini-DOJ, an entity of it’s own? Yes I did, so let me introduce you to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He is Damian Williams who certainly would seem to have solid credentials. A Bechelor’s degree from Harvard. A Juris Doctor from Yale where he was an editor of the Law Review. He also had some impressive clerkships. One in particular jumped out at me in the linked Wikipedia profile: Williams began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Merrick Garland (yes, now U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland) of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from 2007 to 2008!

Call me crazy, and even say I’m in need of a tinfoil hat but I can’t  help but wonder if Williams and his first boss and mentor Garland had a chat or two. And talk turned to a kind of: It’s going to be at best a mess and maybe even explosive if Trump were to be convicted in criminal court. It would be nice to not have to deal with that… wink wink nod nod.  Attorneys have a way of having what seem to be innocuous conversations that are actually frank, direct and explicit about what one wants the other to do and the other agreeing. I for one find it easy to believe Garland prevailed upon Williams to do what he could to slow down, if not derail the Manhattan prosecution of Trump.

Fortunately this is state court and the judge doesn’t have to obey and entreaties from our cowardly, milquetoast AG Merrick Garland. My bet is that he will grant a thirty day extension (or something close) to the trial and then move it right along. He might even, for the record (because  you know Trump will appeal) take Team Trump to task for waiting so long to even subpoena the records they knew about for six months before getting around to actually forcing their production. He might even have a thing or two to say to the “vaunted” SDNY and Williams himself. However, I think this judge is a “Git er done” type and will move this along. And that will be that no matter how much Garland wrings his hands in despair.

However, this whole thing about SDNY waiting so long to turn over the evidence stinks to high heaven. The pundits are right. Although they were careful not to name Williams, saying SDNY and “the U.S. Attorney” in Manhattan have a LOT to answer for is something I hope in the days ahead they will dig in to and comment on. As Rubin said there are questions that need answering.