Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Judge Sets Trial Date in March for Trump’s Federal Election Case

"Judge schedules Friday hearing on protective order in election subversion case against Trump"

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[ Related: There's an Easy Solution to The Justice System's Donald Trump Problem
Toss him in a cell.
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Georgia steps up investigation into threats against Trump grand jurors
"Donald Trump's real conspiracy: It's much larger than even Fani Willis imagines
Trump's Georgia indictment is impressive in scale. His conspiracy to end democracy is a lot bigger than that"
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[...]As Trump prepares for his fourth arraignment in court on criminal charges, authorities remain concerned over the rise in political violence across the country. This week, a Texas woman was arrested and charged with threatening to kill Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge overseeing the criminal election interference case against Trump in Washington DC related to the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
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Out of the gate: the wisdom of Judge Tanya Sue Chutkan
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Judge warns Trump not to threaten witnesses in 2020 election subversion case
[...]“Even arguably ambiguous statements by the parties or their counsel- if they can be reasonably interpreted to intimidate witnesses or to prejudice potential jurors - can threaten the process," U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said on Friday.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172576528

Judge Chutkan to Trump's lawyers. 'Tell your client he's one more musing about the south of France away from a surrendered passport and an ankle monitor.
'He Hates America': Trump Slammed For Admitting He'd 'Prefer' To Live Overseas
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Judge Tanya S. Chutkan rejected efforts by the former president’s legal team to postpone the trial until 2026.


Former President Donald J. Trump in Atlanta last week.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

By Alan Feuer and Glenn Thrush
Aug. 28, 2023Updated 5:13 p.m. ET

A federal judge on Monday set a trial date of March 4 in the prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, rebuffing Mr. Trump’s proposal to push it off until 2026.

The decision by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to start the trial in March amounted to an early victory for prosecutors, who had asked for Jan. 2. But it potentially brought the proceeding into conflict with the three other trials that Mr. Trump is facing, underscoring the extraordinary complexities of his legal situation and the intersection of the prosecutions with his campaign to return to the White House.

The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., has proposed taking Mr. Trump to trial on charges of tampering with the election in that state on March 4 as well. Another case, in Manhattan, in which Mr. Trump has been accused of more than 30 felonies connected to hush-money payments to a porn actress in the run-up the 2016 election, has been scheduled to go to trial on March 25.

And if the trial in Washington lasts more than 11 weeks, it could bump up against Mr. Trump’s other federal trial, on charges of illegally retaining classified documents after he left office and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. That trial is scheduled to begin in Florida in late May.

The March 4 date set by Judge Chutkan for the federal election case at a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington is the day before Super Tuesday, when 15 states are scheduled to hold Republican primaries or caucuses.

Judge Chutkan said that while she understood Mr. Trump had both other trial dates scheduled next year and, at the same time, was running for the country’s highest office, she was not going to let the intersection of his legal troubles and his political campaign get in the way of setting a date.

“Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule,” Judge Chutkan said, adding that “there is a societal interest to a speedy trial.”

Mr. Trump has now been indicted by grand juries four times in four places — Washington, New York, Atlanta and Florida — and prosecutors have been jockeying for position. All of them are trying to find time for their trials not only in relation to one another, but also against the backdrop of Mr. Trump’s crowded calendar as the candidate leading the field for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

While Judge Chutkan noted that she had spoken to the judge in the Manhattan case, it remained unclear how the judges, prosecutors and defense teams would address the problem of scheduling four criminal trials next year as Mr. Trump is campaigning. Mr. Trump said in a social media post that he would appeal Judge Chutkan’s scheduling decision, though it was not clear what grounds he would be able to cite.

The former president has made no secret in conversations with his aides that he would like to solve his uniquely complicated legal woes by winning the election. If either of his two federal trials is delayed until after the race and Mr. Trump prevails, he could seek to pardon himself after taking office or have his attorney general dismiss the matters altogether.

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Takeaways From Trump’s Indictment in the 2020 Election Inquiry
Card [5] of 5 [.. links inside ..]

Four charges for the former president. Former President Donald Trump was charged with four counts in connection with his widespread efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The indictment was filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Federal District Court in Washington. Here are some key takeaways:

The indictment portrayed an attack on American democracy. Smith framed his case against Trump as one that cuts to a key function of democracy: the peaceful transfer of power. By underscoring this theme, Smith cast his effort as an effort not just to hold Trump accountable but also to defend the very core of democracy.

Trump was placed at the center of the conspiracy charges. Smith put Trump at the heart of three conspiracies that culminated on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to obstruct Congress’s role in ratifying the Electoral College outcome. The special counsel argued that Trump knew that his claims about a stolen election were false, a point that, if proved, could be important to convincing a jury to convict him.

Trump didn’t do it alone. The indictment lists six co-conspirators without naming or indicting them. Based on the descriptions provided, they match the profiles of Trump lawyers and advisers who were willing to argue increasingly outlandish conspiracy and legal theories to keep him in power. It’s unclear whether these co-conspirators will be indicted.

Trump’s political power remains strong. Trump may be on trial in 2024 in three or four separate criminal cases, but so far the indictments appear not to have affected his standing with Republican voters. By a large margin, he remains his party’s front-runner in the presidential primaries.
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In remarks from the bench, Judge Chutkan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, dismissed arguments made by Mr. Trump’s lawyers that they needed until April 2026 to prepare for the trial given the voluminous amount of discovery they will have to sort through. That extended period, the judge said, was “far beyond what is necessary” to prepare even for a trial of this magnitude.

As part of the hearing on Monday, John F. Lauro, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, previewed some of his defense case, identifying several motions that he and his colleague, Todd Blanche, planned to file on Mr. Trump’s behalf.

Mr. Lauro said he could file a motion as soon as next week arguing that Mr. Trump was immune to the charges, given that the indictment against him covers a period when he served as the nation’s commander in chief.

Mr. Lauro also said he was considering attacking the charges with a so-called selective prosecution motion. That motion, he said, would argue that Mr. Trump’s election interference indictment — brought by a special counsel appointed by the Biden administration — had been filed at least in part as retaliation for the federal investigation of Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, which began in earnest during the Trump administration.

Moreover, Mr. Lauro told Judge Chutkan that he was planning to challenge each of the three conspiracy counts in the indictment brought against Mr. Trump early this month by the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith. Those counts accuse Mr. Trump of plotting to defraud the United States, to disrupt the certification of the election at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, and to deprive people of the right to have their vote counted.

“In our view, this is a political prosecution,” Mr. Lauro said.

Still, the issues surrounding the schedule of the trial took center stage at the 90-minute hearing, which Mr. Smith attended.

Prosecutors working for Mr. Smith have in said court papers that the government could take four to six weeks to present its case to the judge, with Mr. Trump’s lawyers estimating a roughly similar amount of time.

That timetable would push the trial well past the March 25 date that Justice Juan M. Merchan has set for the Manhattan trial and could edge close to or even beyond the May 20 date set for Mr. Trump’s federal trial in Florida.

Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, signaled recently that he would be open to seeing the trial date for the Manhattan case moved, provided Justice Merchan agreed.

Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the New York court system, said in a statement: “Justice Merchan and Judge Chutkan spoke last Thursday regarding their respective upcoming trials. At this time, there is nothing further to impart regarding the People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga.

In the federal election case, Mr. Trump’s lawyers began complaining two weeks ago about the amount of evidence they would have to wade through as part of the discovery process when they first made their request to postpone the trial until April 2026 .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/us/trump-jan-6-trial-date-proposal.html .. in court papers submitted to Judge Chutkan.

A Guide to the Various Trump Investigations [.. links inside ..]
Confused about the inquiries and legal cases involving former President Donald Trump? We’re here to help.

* Key Cases and Inquiries: The former president faces several investigations at both the state and the federal levels, into matters related to his business and political careers. Here is a close look at each.

* Case Tracker: Trump is at the center of four criminal investigations. Keep track of the developments in each here.

* What if Trump Is Convicted?: Will any of the proceedings hinder Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign? Can a convicted felon even run for office? Here is what we know, and what we don’t know.

Mr. Lauro echoed that position in court on Monday. He took a sometimes aggressive tone in declaring that his client deserved a fair trial “no different than any American.”

“For a federal prosecutor to suggest that we could go to trial in four months is not only absurd, it’s a violation of the oath of justice,” Mr. Lauro said, adding, “We cannot do this in the time frame the government has outlined.”

In their own court papers, prosecutors had pushed back .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/us/politics/trump-jan-6-trial-date.html .. against Mr. Lauro’s protests about burdensome discovery, noting that much of the material was publicly available or known to Mr. Trump, having come from his 2020 presidential campaign or from political action committees associated with it.

Molly Gaston, one of the prosecutors in the case, added a few new details to the portrait of the discovery evidence on Monday, noting that even though the total number of pages had reached about 12.8 million, the defense could go through it electronically with keyword searches.

Ms. Gaston also said the government had created a file of about 300 key documents that served to annotate the 45-page indictment prosecutors filed against Mr. Trump early this month.

“It is essentially a road map to our case,” she said.

One of Ms. Gaston’s colleagues, Thomas P. Windom .. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/us/politics/trump-investigation-thomas-windom.html , told Judge Chutkan that the discovery evidence would include “a limited amount” of classified information, including about five to 10 sensitive documents, totaling fewer than 100 pages, and a 125-page transcript of an interview with a witness during which classified issues were discussed.

Mr. Windom asserted, however, that prosecutors did not expect to introduce any of the classified material during the trial.

In seeking to persuade Judge Chuktan to move quickly to trial, Ms. Gaston reminded her that Mr. Trump had repeatedly attacked the “integrity of the court and the citizens of D.C.” on social media in ways that could affect the case’s jury pool.

At a hearing last month, Judge Chutkan warned Mr. Trump .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/us/politics/trump-judge-protective-order.html .. that she would not tolerate him using social media posts to intimidate witnesses or taint potential jurors. Within days of that admonition, Mr. Trump tested Judge Chutkan’s resolve .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/us/politics/trump-chutkan-2020-election-truth-social.html#:~:text=So%20far%2C%20Judge%20Chutkan%20has,witnesses%20or%20tainting%20potential%20jurors. .. by making more dubious posts.

During the hearing on Monday, Judge Chutkan sought to calm Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Mr. Lauro, cautioning him twice to turn down the “temperature” when he was speaking.

At one point, she appeared upset by the way that Mr. Lauro in his filings about the trial schedule had cited Powell v. Alabama, a landmark 1932 Supreme Court decision that reversed the convictions of the Scottsboro Boys, nine young Black men who were falsely accused of raping a white woman.

Judge Chutkan pointed out that the Mr. Trump would face trial in seven months after he was indicted, compared with only one week in the Alabama case.

[ Insert: At the Smithsonian | March 23, 2021
Who Were the Scottsboro Nine?
The young black men served a combined total of 130 years for a crime they never committed
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/who-were-scottsboro-nine-180977193/ ]

The two cases, she added, were “profoundly different” at their core.

Jonah E. Bromwich and Danny Hakim contributed reporting.

Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence. He joined The Times in 1999. More about Alan Feuer

Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice. He joined The Times in 2017 after working for Politico, Newsday,
Bloomberg News, The New York Daily News, The Birmingham Post-Herald and City Limits. More about Glenn Thrush

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/us/politics/trump-trial-date-jan-6.html