Donald Trump may have wanted a fourth indictment to lock down the GOP nomination, but now that he has one, he may have wisher’s remorse. After all, if Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis gets her wish, the trial into whether he and 18 other defendants committed election interference could start at the most inopportune time possible for the big guy’s third campaign.
As per The Daily Beast, Willis — who has already had to endure the reckless nonsense of the case’s primary target — is reportedly seeking a relatively early date for her trial. The district attorney is said to be eyeing March 4 of next year. Perhaps that date doesn’t sound so special. But to Trump it sure is: March 5 is the day before Super Tuesday, aka the day when the greatest number of states all hold their primary elections.
Will Trump find himself dealing with the start of a momentous trial when he should be doing some Hail Mary boostering for his campaign? Probably not. Ty Cobb, a former White House lawyer who happens to share a name with a feisty historical baseballer, told CNN this week that there’s “no chance” a trial with this many moving parts gets underway for a good long while.
“Everybody will have motions galore,” Cobb explained. “This case will take a long time for people to prepare. There will be motions for severance, motions to dismiss, and if it takes her two years, I mean heaven forbid that Trump wins the presidency, then there will be a fight to the Supreme Court over whether she can proceed against the sitting president during his term.”
In fact, whether a sitting president can be prosecuted is “an issue that’s never been resolved.”
Another possibility is that Trump will make like Mark Meadows and try to get the trial moved to federal court. By doing so, The Daily Beast explains, he “could buy more time, get a more favorable jury pool, and even land a judge whom he appointed.” What’s more federal convictions, unlike local ones, can be pardoned by U.S. presidents.
That doesn’t mean Trump can’t still face the music before the 2024 election. Indeed, the big guy has a jam-packed legal schedule, with four criminal trials possibly crammed into five busy months.
In the meantime, he has to prepare for his fourth arraignment in only a handful of months.
(Via The Daily Beast)