Will Donald Trump ever be held accountable for the many crimes he’s allegedly committed? People have been asking themselves this question for years, particularly because the guy is literally trying to become the leader of the free world again. And, unfortunately, the answer is he might not!
On Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which was supposed to face off with Trump in criminal court on March 25, said it was open to a one-month delay in the proceedings after receiving “approximately 31,000” pages of additional records from federal prosecutors who’d investigated Trump’s 2016 hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Last week, the ex-president’s lawyers had asked for the trial to be delayed until the Supreme Court rules on his claims of immunity in a separate criminal manner (the federal one involving his attempt to overturn the 2020 election). Separately, Trump’s attorneys asked judge Juan Merchan to delay or throw out the Manhattan DA’s case, claiming that his right to review evidence had been violated.
In suggesting the trial should be delayed by up to 30 days, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg blamed Trump’s legal team, saying that his prosecutors had asked the feds to turn over the evidence they had over a year ago—a request that was denied—and that Trump’s defense team waited until mid-January of this year to file a subpoena for the records.
And while a charitably minded person who knows nothing about Trump’s decades-long tactic of avoiding legal repercussions might think, Hey, maybe they were just busy and didn‘t have any time until January to subpoena the material, those who’ve paid attention know that in the years leading up to being slapped with 88 felony counts,* Trump developed a go-to legal strategy: delay, delay, delay some more. And now, who knows what‘s going to happen to his criminal cases. In New York, the hush money trial will likely be delayed at least a month. In Georgia, Trump’s legal team is trying to remove Fulton County DA Fani Willis, which does not bode well for a trial happening soon. A Trump-appointed judge’s earlier rulings have led people to believe that the federal documents case may not begin this May as planned.** As for the federal election-subversion cases, the Supreme Court gave the ex-president a priceless gift last month when it not only agreed to hear his immunity claims but decided not to hear arguments until the end of April. This would mean that in the best-case scenario—as in, the one in which the Court does not rule that he is immune from prosecution—the trial will begin in late summer or early fall and likely not conclude before the 2024 election.
*It was 91, but thanks to a judge in Georgia, it’s down to 88, and he’s pleaded not guilty to all of them.
**Though the judge in that case, Aileen Cannon, rejected his attempt to have it dismissed based on the argument that one of the statutes in the indictment is too vague. So maybe there’s hope there!
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