Trump's crowded legal calendar makes for the ultimate split-screen campaign season
In a word, it is “unprecedented.”
As he begins campaigning for a second White House term, former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the nomination, will be forced to deal with no fewer than two criminal court cases and two civil ones, and possibly more to come. While Trump claims the unprecedented number of legal proceedings against him is proof of a never-ending “witch hunt” by Democrats, his critics counter that a former president’s pattern of law-breaking is what is so unusual.
Though Trump is unlikely to make court appearances in the civil cases, he was legally obliged to appear at his two criminal arraignments. In Miami on Tuesday, that made for an unprecedented day of television coverage in which Trump’s arrival and departure from the federal District Court was immediately followed by a campaign stop at Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana.
Trump also merged a speech denouncing special counsel Jack Smith with a campaign fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club.
With the calendar filling up with court dates, many of which will coincide with primary season, Trump's 2024 run promises to deliver a split-screen spectacle between campaign and legal dramas that, yes, can only be described as unprecedented.
Here’s a glance at the coming schedule:
Classified documents case
Trump was arraigned Tuesday on 37 felony counts stemming from his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, but the next court appearance in the case has yet to be scheduled. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered Trump’s lawyers to contact the Justice Department to speed up the process of obtaining security clearances so they could view the documents their client is accused of withholding from the government. There is no clear word on how quickly those clearances can be handled.
As the New York Times reported, Trump “is expected to continue with a fairly steady stream of political events in the coming months, although the needs of the court calendar in the Florida case will in some ways dictate his actions.”
Hush-money charges
New York Acting Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has set a start date of March 25, 2024, in Trump’s trial on 34 felony charges alleging that he falsified business records to hide a hush-money payment to porn start Stormy Daniels. Trump and his lawyers have until Aug. 29 this year to file motions to have the indictment dismissed. Merchan will decide on the merits of those motions at a Jan. 4, 2024, hearing.
As for the trial, Merchan directed the parties to clear their schedules ahead of and after March 25.
“All parties including Mr. Trump are directed to not engage or otherwise enter into any commitments personal or professional or otherwise,” Merchan said.
E. Jean Carroll defamation case
In May, writer E. Jean Carroll won a $5 million verdict against Trump in her sexual abuse and defamation civil trial. Trump promptly appeared on CNN and defamed her once again, Carroll claims in an amended second suit. On Thursday, U.S. district court judge Lewis Kaplan signed an order scheduling the new trial that will begin on Jan. 15 “unless this case has previously been entirely disposed of.” In this new case, Carroll is seeking another $10 million from Trump.
New York business fraud case
New York State Attorney General Letitia James’s $250 million civil lawsuit against Trump is set to get underway on Oct. 2 in Manhattan. In April, Trump sat for a deposition in the case, in which prosecutors accuse him, his three eldest children and other members of the Trump Organization of regularly overstating the value of real estate and other assets to banks in order to avoid paying taxes and to obtain favorable loan terms.
Likely Fulton County indictment
At the conclusion of a grand jury investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results in Georgia of the 2020 presidential election, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis alerted Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville and county court employeesnot to schedule trials or in-person court proceedings for the first half of the month of August. Court observers said that was a signal that Willis is preparing to indict Trump and perhaps some of his political allies.
Possible indictment in Jan. 6 investigation
Special counsel Smith, who filed the criminal indictment of Trump in the classified documents matter, continues to call witnesses before a Washington grand jury probing the former president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Bright spot
On the bright side for Trump, the district attorney’s office in Westchester County, N.Y., announced Thursday that it was closing its two-year investigation of Trump’s alleged overvaluation of his golf club in the county without filing any criminal charges. That news, at least, gave Trump something to celebrate.
“THIS WAS THE HONORABLE THING TO DO IN THAT I DID NOTHING WRONG, BUT WHERE AND WHEN DO I GET MY REPUTATION BACK?” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
