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Left: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a Super Tuesday election night party Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci.) Right: Aileen M. Cannon speaks remotely during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight nomination hearing to be U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on July 29, 2020, in Washington. (U.S. Senate via AP.)
Poised to start hemorrhaging millions of dollars, Donald Trump nonetheless scored a few victories in courts around the country this week including in his classified documents case in Florida after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon aligned herself almost completely with his request to hold a hearing on a long series of motions to dismiss his indictment. That hearing will be held on March 14.
Trump, court records show, initially wanted the hearing on March 12. Special counsel Jack Smith requested April 7. From a paperless notice on the docket in Florida, the judge warned the parties they would need a “full day for argument” and she set the hearing for 10 a.m. Trump will have right up to the morning of the hearing to file paperwork: Cannon set the cut off for motions to be filed by 7 a.m.
Law&Crime takes a look at those developments and others in Trump’s cases in Florida, Georgia, Washington, D.C., and New York.
FLORIDA
CRIMINAL
Trump’s attempts to rid himself of his 40-count indictment in the Sunshine State came hot and heavy as he and federal prosecutors tangled over the merits of their respective arguments.
Trump argues his indictment should be thrown out on grounds of “unconstitutional vagueness.” He has said it should be dismissed too because the Presidential Records Act preserved his right to retain documents he deems “personal.” Trump claims he is immune from prosecution for removing sensitive documents as well because at the time he did, he was still president. He also claims he is being selectively prosecuted.
Special counsel Jack Smith hammered away at those assertions, writing in a flurry of filings late Thursday that Trump’s reliance on the Presidential Records Act to dismiss the charges, is, for one, “fundamentally wrong.“
Trump has “no legal basis to dismiss” the case, Smith argued. The former president’s claim that his “Q” security clearance allowed him to hold onto sensitive government records at Mar-a-Lago — namely, a document on the nuclear weaponry of the United States — is not one he can hide behind.
It was also revealed in an otherwise mundane discovery compliance filing from prosecutors that the special counsel’s office interviewed someone relevant to their investigation as recently as March 6.Â
GEORGIA
CRIMINAL
Six months have passed since Trump was indicted along with 18 co-defendants on charges of conspiracy to overturn his defeat in the state by advancing fake elector certificates. But Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis seems no closer to bringing Trump to trial in August as she once hoped.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is still weighing evidence on whether to remove her from the case after allegations surfaced by Trump’s co-defendants about an improper romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she assigned to the case.
Willis and Trump’s attorney in Atlanta Steve Sadow fired off accusations at each other as well this week, insisting the other were getting disqualification standards dead wrong. And adding to the pile: a deluge of post-hearing filings from Trump’s co-defendants poured in to support her ouster.
One such filing came from Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department attorney, avowed ally to Trump and co-defendant in the fake electors racketeering conspiracy. Clark, who once drafted a letter to Georgia election officials urging them to say publicly that the Justice Department was aware of election fraud despite legitimate findings to the contrary, has suggested Willis committed perjury.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 13 felony charges. Four of his co-defendants have pleaded guilty.
OF NOTE: A massive trove of texts and emails between Trump’s co-defendant Ken Chesebro and 2020 campaign lawyer Jim Troupis went public this week exposing the underbelly of the alleged fake elector plot. Found in the release? Chesebro’s selfie at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and messages showing he was still working to keep Trump in office days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Left: Court records made public as part of a settlement this week involving fake electors in Wisconsin surfaced this photo of Ken Chesebro at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Behind him in background wearing black jacket ad with face in profile is far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. / Right: Ken Chesebro is sworn in as he prepares to plead guilty to racketeering charges in Georgia. Oct. 20, 2023. (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
CONSTITUTIONAL
Leaving a day to spare before Super Tuesday and rejecting an attempt by Colorado voters to disqualify Trump after a lower court found he engaged in insurrection, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Monday that the former president could remain on the state’s presidential primary ballot.
Though the per curiam opinion was 9-0, the concurring judgment did not come without criticism from a handful of liberal justices. Though Justice Amy Coney Barrett sought to promote a message of unity in the “volatile season of a Presidential election,” Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared to recoil at that overly rosy outlook.
Revealing the depth of disparity on the bench, what some might call a “technical glitch” in the opinion after its publication may have suggested that the three justices initially intended to write a dissent.
The high court also formally announced this week that it would hear oral arguments on April 25 — the very last day of the term — on the question of whether Trump has total immunity from criminal prosecution in Washington, D.C., because he is a former president.
The timing of their response and the response itself threatens to wreak havoc on the prosecution in Washington, D.C., led by special counsel Jack Smith.Â
OF NOTE: Trump is expected to formally clinch the GOP’s nomination by March 12.
CRIMINAL
Trump’s four-count criminal indictment for allegations that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election and defrauded the American public remains stagnant as the Supreme Court prepares to answer the immunity question.
Smith could bring the trial to bear in the fall before Election Day, all things being possible.
While Trump has publicly stated prosecuting him in a campaign year is against Justice Department policy, in fact, there is no written policy but rather a guideline that 60 days prior to an election, it is best to refrain from launching any probes or indictments. That does not apply to pending criminal indictments, however.
If the Supreme Court rules by May on immunity, analysts over at Just Security think that could mean Trump may face trial as soon as Aug. 2.
OF NOTE: One of the obstruction charges Trump — and hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters — face comes up for debate before the Supreme Court on April 16 in Fischer v. United States. Retired conservative judge Michael Luttig and a host of former lawmakers and officials filed an amicus brief urging the justices to rule in a way that would not lead them through the looking glass.
NEW YORK
CRIMINAL
After midnight on Friday, there will be just 16 days left until Trump is expected to face criminal trial, making him the first former president in U.S. history to do so.
Jury selection in the hush money and election interference case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg gets underway March 25.
Trump faces 34 felony charges and has pleaded not guilty to all accusations that he falsified records and made hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in order to cover up a tryst the two had years earlier. Prosecutors contend Trump engaged in the cover-up in 2016 to benefit his run for the White House.
Manhattan Judge Juan Manuel Merchan ruled this week that juror names and other identifying details like their addresses, phone numbers or place of work will be kept under seal. The only parties who will have access will be prosecutors, Trump and his attorneys, Merchan ordered.
Due to his track record publicly attacking jurors and grand jurors in the past, Merchan said the court found sufficient cause to believe there “is a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”
Objections and limiting instructions from all sides are due by March 15. If Bragg’s team and Trump’s can’t come to an agreement by then, Merchan ordered each side submit their proposals no later than March 18.
It seems there will be no gag order in place for now as prosecutors had requested against Trump’s wishes. Instead, the judge reminded Trump Friday that he agreed at his arraignment in April he would not make statements attacking individuals, disclosing names, addresses, cellphone numbers, identities, dates of birth, or anything along those lines, found in evidence.
OF NOTE: Prosecutors openly called out Trump’s defense team for ignoring a finding on former fixer Michael Cohen’s credibility while raising perjury concerns ahead of trial,
CIVIL
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected all of Trump’s attempts this week to stay enforcement of the $83.3 million he was ordered to pay the writer he sexually abused and defamed, E. Jean Carroll.
He filed a motion to approve a $91.63 million bond while he appeals the order. The bond was backed by the publicly-traded Chubb Corporation. Trump filed a memorandum in support of a motion for a new trial Tuesday but only officially filed his appeal on Friday.
Trump filed multiple motions for a stay of payment but offered nothing to secure it, drawing little favor from the judge. His grievances of “irreparable injury” without the stay were not the court’s problem, Kaplan explained. Trump’s problems tracking down the cash to pay Carroll were “the result of his own dilatory actions.”
Kaplan gave Carroll until Monday to file any opposition to Trump’s bond proposal and if there is a disagreement, a hearing will be held on March 11.
Meanwhile, Trump is still on the hook for $454 million plus interest following the conclusion of his civil fraud trial before New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
OF NOTE: In 2018, Trump nominated Evan Greenberg, Chubb’s CEO, to serve as a member of his administration’s advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations. And speaking of money, Trump was ordered to shell out $384,000 to a private intelligence company owned by former British spy Christopher Steele.
