Donald Trump braces for his New York criminal hush money trial starting April 15, 2024. He is facing the possibility of prison time. With 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Trump faces a theoretical maximum sentence exceeding a decade.
Trump is close to running out of time in his last-ditch bid to stave off the historic stigma of being the first former president to go on a criminal trial. The presumptive Republican nominee suffered yet another courtroom defeat in an attempt to delay his hush money trial.
On Tuesday, April 9, 2024, an appeals court thwarted yet another attempt to postpone the trial’s opening so that Trump could challenge a partial gag order imposed by the presiding judge. Trump’s latest legal defeats move him and the nation to the threshold of a divisive spectacle.
This will further strain the justice and political systems, which could have an unpredictable impact on November’s election.
Donald Trump Attacks
As his legal options narrow, Trump attacks the judge in the New York case and those involved in his other looming trials. His wild claims that he’s the victim of political persecution are getting ever more extreme.
ALSO READ: NY Judge Issues Gag Order on Trump in Hush Money Trial Over His “Inflammatory” Remarks
In a fundraising email, the ex-president slammed his “sham trial” and warned “all hell will break loose” unless he got a new injection of financial support. Judge Juan Merchan, who will preside over the case, expanded a gag order on Trump after he named the judge’s daughter and attacked her on social media.
Now, the ex-president is complaining on his Truth Social network that Merchan is “taking away my First Amendment Rights.” An appeals court will still consider Trump’s request to lift the gag order. However, the ruling means the trial will advance while the process continues.
The Trial
Trump’s escalating efforts to delegitimize the New York trial before it starts came as the jury questionnaire in the case was obtained. This reflects the unusual political context of this trial. Potential jurors will be quizzed about where they get their news, whether they’ve been to a Trump rally, and whether they have been members of an extremist group like the Proud Boys.
They will also be asked about their feelings about the former president but not about what political party they belong to or who they’ve voted for. This is consistent with attempts before all trials to ensure jurors can judge fairly and impartially. The case is based on the evidence rather than their political views or prejudices.
What are the ideas about the case?
Prosecutors in the case are not trying to prove that a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress, in 2016 was illegal. Instead, they will tell the jury that the ex-president falsified business records to cover it up. They claim this is an attempt to mislead voters before the 2016 election.
ALSO READ: Donald Trump’s New York Estate Primed To Be Seized Amid Huge Fraud Judgment
However, some critics of the case see the idea that it’s about election interference as a stretch. And if there’s one of the four criminal trials that Trump would prefer to take place first, it’s this one.
Trump Delayed Trials
The delays in multiple cases surrounding Trump are often caused by him exercising his rights as a defendant to exhaust the full extent of his right to appeals. However, there is a clear trend of him using frivolous legal challenges to slow the road to trials. Until the New York trial begins, the chances that it will be further delayed are fading fast.
Still, Trump is one of the most prolific litigants in modern history, given the political incentives for him to dodge accountability. Again, more long-shot legal challenges can’t be ruled out. If he can’t delay the trial’s opening on April 15, 2024, he will spend four days a week confined to a courtroom.
Hence, he will leave the campaign trail open to his rival, President Joe Biden. But the ex-president sought to mitigate one of his critical vulnerabilities in the race. He declared that abortion, a potentially defining general election question, should be left to the states.
However, Biden was having none of it. He said his predecessor couldn’t be trusted not to sign a federal ban if one ever passed Congress. Also, the Chicago fundraiser said, “Trump is in trouble, and he knows it. He’s worried voters will hold him accountable.”
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