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Candidate in the Dock in the Final Stretch

 Member Newsletter
April 17, 2024 11:30 a.m.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 16: Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during the second day of his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 16, 2024 in New York City. Jury selection conti... NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 16: Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during the second day of his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 16, 2024 in New York City. Jury selection continues in the criminal trial of the former president, who faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. This is the first-ever criminal trial against a former president of the United States.(Photo by Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images) MORE LESS

Now that we’re getting a view of the dynamics of Donald Trump on trial — not indicted, not awaiting trial, not the first of this or that, but actually on trial — with the requirement to be there and, well, be on trial, it’s worth revisiting where we may be this fall. As we know, SCOTUS decided to do Donald Trump a massive solid by first refusing to take up Trump’s immunity appeal without it first being heard by the DC circuit court. Then they really piled on the favors by agreeing to take up the case in full after the circuit court emphatically shot it down. SCOTUS oral arguments are next Thursday and realistically we may not get a decision until June or July. That puts the beginning of the trial in late summer at the earliest and quite possibly into September.

Set aside for the moment that the appeal itself is baseless and out of sync with American law, and that few think there’s any chance of Trump actually getting any relief even from this Supreme Court. It’s been treated as a scandal that the Court has taken upon itself to delay the trial anyway from four to six months. It very much is a scandal and not one that can be explained by any sort of apolitical weddedness to procedure or practice. But sometimes getting what you want may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

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