I hate to say it but there’s more than a small chance Trump will get what he wants. As in not having to square off against Jack Smith until after the November election. He might well wind up getting burned for playing the delay card yet again. Like any other criminal defendant Trump wants all charges against him dismissed. That seldom happens for anyone. For defendants the next best thing is to delay things as long as possible. Delaying the start of a trial is, for any defendant the next best thing to acquittal. Having spent a lifetime largely avoiding legal consequences which have mostly been civil, (there was that one case with his dad when he was just starting out) dragging things out in court when he’s on the wrong end of a legal proceeding is one of Trump’s few skills.
However, he’s had to work ever harder to find another bit of “delay magic” to pull out of his hat. Tossing out the old classic top hat of magicians and replacing it with a “Magic MAGA Hat” hasn’t been working out so well. He’s still won plenty of delays in recent years but judges, and even Justices are not only on to his game, but getting fed up with it. Like I said Trump still gets his way too often, but not as often as he used to.
However, while many experts think the DC Appellate Court will rule quickly on his Presidential Immunity claim I’m not so sure. Nor am I sure SCOTUS will take up the matter quickly, much less rule quickly. Trump’s whole strategy seems to be push the date of his March DC trial back enough that it bumps up against the May National Security trial in FL, where his pet judge Aileen “Loose” Cannon will wait until the last possible moment before pushing back the date of that trial. Meaning Jack Smith can’t get Trump into federal court until the fall. THAT means, due to DOJ policy no trials until after the election. (When if Trump wins he can shut it all down)
IF Trump gets his wish then according to Raw Story he’s facing the potential consequence of being on trial in Georgia on state RICO charges. As early as February! According to Georgia State law professor Clark Cunningham delays in the federal cases “opens up a window” that could allow Fulton County DA to bring Trump to trial in less than a couple of months:
“There are ‘a number of reasons’ why it makes sense for the Georgia trial to go first, Cunningham pointed out, explaining that Willis has four cooperating witnesses,” Salon reported. “A ‘simplified trial’ including Trump and co-defendants like campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman could take place before February to resolve the case before the election.”
Trump has argued that going on trial in Georgia in August (as currently planned) is “election interference” and in a perverse way he’s provided a good reason to go to trial right away. “Git er done” to put it in terms his MAGAs will understand. Trump and his supporters would howl but the fact is DA Willis is under no legal obligation to wait around on the feds. State and federal prosecutors can and do work out who will go first sometimes. Smith has good reason to want to be at the head of the line, and the March DC trial is his shot. Look we all know there’s no chance in hell Cannon will be having a trial in FL in May. Smith knows it. (So does Trump of course) We ALL know it. She knows we all know it. But she will drag her feet as long as possible, on the assumption that the feds will go first.
Fani Willis has been ready to go since she obtained her indictments back in August. She was ready to go in October when the speedy trial provisions allowed it to happen if no one objected. Trump did of course but he’s dealing with a judge who like judge Chutkan in DC isn’t one to screw around. I’m of the belief that if Willis sees there will be no federal trials moving forward she won’t be inclined to wait around. She’ll push to, as Cunningham suggests putting Trump and a couple of others, the ‘big fish” on trial right away. Hey, Trump will yell and scream about being unable to campaign. But trials aren’t held on weekends. And there are days during the week where the court will be dealing with motions in that and other cases so Trump can hop on a plane those days too.
Besides, as he’s told us over and over again he’s so far ahead in all the polls him winning is “a lock.” I’m pretty sure when this gets argued in front of the judge in GA Willis folks will have “binders full of statements” of social media posts from Trump and his surrogates to that effect. For good measure and to get in a dig, they can have a separate binder of Trump’s (and again, his surrogates) making cracks about Joe Biden “campaigning from his basement” and point out that Biden WON. Including there in good ole Georgia.
It sounds wild I know. But don’t dismiss the possibility out of hand. I’d still like to see Smith go first, if not at the beginning of March than in the last week of it or the first week of April. And Cannon can whine all she wants down there in FL but like I said, she never had any intention of Trump going on trial in her little one courtroom/one judge operation anyway. So let’s say Trump gets what he’s wished for, a delay in his DC trial and in effect both federal trials until after the election.
Fani Willis is standing by, and ready to step in. And I’m betting will do so without blinking an eye. Oh to be a fly (a ketchup loving one) on the wall when Trump, feeling all warm and fuzzy over pushing his dates with Jack Smith past the elections learns he’s headed to Georgia in late winter instead!
How ironic a member of a group that was kidnapped, raped, sold, and forced into labor has to be the one to bring justice because the Law coddles rich white men. Oh, and someone please educate those who think the republican party isn’t a bunch of racists. They are vile racist nazis. FACT. I guess they believe slavery…remember slavery haley?…was a voluntary job training program, as the republican GOVERNOR of Florida has essentially said.