Judge Aileen Cannon has set August 14 as the date for Trump's classified documents trial That is August 14, 2023, not August 14, 2024. She has set an earlier date for motions in the case. The trial date is not three months before the election, it is one year and three months before the election! It is five months before the Iowa caucuses. I suspect Trump will not be able to appear on August 14. He will probably be in Fulton County, Georgia being charged in that case. But unless something happens that is not now foreseeable, he will be tried and convicted in Florida before the primaries even begin. This is an astonishing turn of events and completely changes all of our speculations about how the next year and a half will go down.
I shall lay in a large supply of popcorn.
7 comments:
I'd wait before buying the popcorn. It's common in prosecutions for trial dates to slip, sometimes quite substantially.
Jon (law professor)
Consider this could just be a feint by Cannon, appearing conscientious, but then issuing multiple rulings that slows down the prosecution substantially until it reaches mid-primary season, then gets suspended by DOJ on account of running up against the election. Biden wins, charges dropped; Trump wins, charges disappear.
I don't think that, if Biden wins, charges will be dropped.
Perhaps the rats-bailing nature of the Baier interview and the Hume coverage are straws in the wind? At some point compensation becomes too obvious.
On another happy note, John Eastman is currently dealing with a Bar hearing in L.A.
I wouldn't read much into the August 2023 trial setting. The federal Speedy Trial Act sets a default rule requiring that federal trials commence within 70 days of initial appearance. The Act also provides a list of reasons why trial may be continued. With some exceptions, courts are generally pretty open to granting continuances if, e.g., the defense needs more time to prepare for trial or develop pretrial motions or whatever (the full list of reasons for continuing a trial --- i.e., time-periods that are "exempt" from the Speedy Trial Act's 70-day clock --- can be found in subsection (h) of the Speedy Trial Act).
In sum, the August 2023 setting doesn't tell you anything about the judge's motives; all it reflects is that her court's scheduling personnel know how to schedule trials within the statutory time frame.
You can read the text of the Speedy Trial Act here: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3161.
Anonymous and David Palmeter:
The single worst event in the fight against these fascist/white supremacists would be the dropping of charges or pardoning Trump (including Trump family members). The charges that have already been filed and those that seem to coming soon from Georgia and the 1/6 side of the special counsel are too significant in scope and number to be dropped.
If no accountability for someone who attempted a coup d'etat, then no constraint on future presidents, generals, et.al. As a normative precedent it would back up the "unitary executive" crock of nonsense that the republicans have pushed for the past 30 or so years. it would eliminate what few constraints the courts and congress have on the president and establish an authoritarian leadership structure.
On a more pragmatic note, failing to convict and jail the leadership of the insurrection would send a message something like; "No problem, keep trying until you get it right."
Remember, Hitler was convicted of treason, got 5 years and released after 5 months. The German courts gave clear preference when it came to sentencing insurrectionists: Karl Liebknecht and Luxembourg were assassinated.
Christopher Mulvaney
Agreed.
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