by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch | The Hill
Former President Trump described a Manhattan trial Tuesday as “falling apart” amid new developments that made it increasingly likely that the only courtroom he’ll see as a criminal defendant before Election Day is in New York City.
A federal judge in Florida handling the government’s classified documents and obstruction case against Trump said Tuesday that legal issues and eight undecided rulings will postpone a trial indefinitely. Judge Aileen Cannon was appointed by the former president and has been accused by critics and some legal analysts of slow-walking pending appeals ahead of a trial. The next dates Cannon sets for lawyers are in July.
It’s doubtful that either of two Justice Department special counsel cases against the former president, including interference with the 2020 election before he left office, will go to trial in South Florida and Washington, D.C., before Trump faces voters on Nov. 5.
Separately by late June or early July, the Supreme Court will rule on the former president’s claim that he has absolute immunity against prosecution for decisions he made while president.
If elected and sworn in, Trump could dismiss federal indictments against him, but he would not have similar sway in the pending New York hush-money case, or in Georgia, where he faces criminal racketeering charges for allegedly attempting with allies to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election.
This is a very revealing day in court,” Trump told the news media as he left the courthouse in New York Tuesday.
He scowled and exchanged notes with his lawyers in the courtroom but did not publicly comment afterward about the explicit testimony of Stormy Daniels, a prosecution witness called to bolster a criminal case alleging forged business documents to mask a hush payment Trump paid through his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to silence the porn star.
“Their case is totally falling apart,” the former president continued. “In the meantime, I’m stuck. I’m here,” he complained, referring to his campaign schedule.
- The Hill’s Niall Stanage: Five takeaways from a dramatic day at the Trump trial. One key question for jurors: witness credibility. “I hate him,” Daniels said during her testimony.
- The Hill: Five questions looming over Trump’s hush money trial.
Tuesday began with Justice Juan Merchan’s denial of a mistrial sought by Trump’s lawyers tied to Daniels’s salacious, embarrassing testimony (The Hill). The former president has denied the affair and all charges.
While Trump campaigned for the White House in 2016, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to prevent disclosure of what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with the former president in July 2006 at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe. That payment is the foundation for the Manhattan district attorney’s 34 counts, including allegedly falsifying business records to disguise hush payments. A sexual affair is not illegal, nor are hush payments. Without conceding a dalliance, Trump’s lawyers are laying the groundwork that their client broke no law and was motivated to protect his marriage, although even his allies have testified that Trump’s presidential race was on his mind at the time Daniels was paid.
The defense argued that Daniels changed her story and that the jury also heard inappropriate details about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. “I do think some things were better unsaid,” the judge said. “I don’t believe we are at the point where a mistrial is warranted.”
The New York trial resumes Thursday with continued cross-examination of Daniels.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis (D), whose office is prosecuting Trump and some of his allies in a racketeering case alleging 2020 election interference, said Tuesday she will not cooperate with a state Senate investigative committee led by Republicans because she asserts she broke no law (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
