It’s easy to forget that former President Donald Trump’s schedule between now and November was supposed to be completely packed with courthouse appearances as back-to-back trials played out for weeks at a time. Instead, the jury in the Manhattan criminal trial may be the only one he faces in 2024, leaving what was seen by some as the biggest long shot of four criminal cases against him as the only chance of a jury’s convicting Trump before Election Day.
As of Wednesday, the New York hush money trial remains the only one that has been officially scheduled. The federal charges he faces in Florida and Washington have run into lengthy delays and uncertainty. In Georgia, a state appeals court put proceedings on pause this month, most likely bumping back a proposed August start date.
The most debilitating hurdles for special counsel Jack Smith in the federal cases have come from the bench.
The most debilitating hurdles for special counsel Jack Smith in the federal cases have come from the bench. In both cases he has brought against Trump, Smith has found himself struggling with judges and justices who have been credulous about, if not outright sympathetic to, the defendant’s most outlandish claims. The classified documents case in Florida should have been open and shut for any other civilian facing similar charges. But U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has slow-walked a series of rulings that legal experts say a more experienced judge would have dealt with quickly as Trump and his co-defendants have lobbed a boatload of seemingly frivolous motions her way. What was at one point set to be a trial that would begin last week has now been delayed indefinitely as Cannon ambles her way through the backlog.
Meanwhile, the election interference case in Washington is on hold thanks to the Supreme Court. Trump has thrown out numerous wild claims as to why he shouldn’t be able to be held accountable for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results, including that he was acquitted during the Senate’s 2021 impeachment trial and that he has been unfairly targeted as a political figure. Distressingly, the argument that gained the most traction here is that his schemes were “official acts” that should be immune from prosecution.
The consequences of a ruling agreeing with that proposition would be stunning, as it would give carte blanche to any president to break the law so lo
