Trump Trials: Motions and hearings this week, what happened last … – The Washington Post
Welcome back to The Trump Trials, our weekly effort to keep readers up to date on the many criminal — and civil — cases the 45th president is fighting in federal and state courts.
Let’s get started:
Federal prosecutors and Donald Trump’s attorneys were supposed to have until Monday to finish filing pretrial motions in the D.C. federal election obstruction case — a key deadline in the proceedings.
These motions often launch the consequential fights that will decide the parameters of an upcoming trial, a little like drawing boundaries on a playing field.
But Friday — just days before the deadline — the judge granted Trump’s request for an extension, giving both sides until Oct. 23.
Separately, Judge Aileen M. Cannon will hold a hearing in Florida Thursday in Trump’s classified-documents case to determine if the lawyers representing Trump’s two co-defendants have conflicts of interest.
The details: Trump faces four federal charges for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Planned trial date: March 4
What happened: In addition to filing their motion to dismiss, Trump’s lawyers renewed their efforts to delay the trial timeline. That’s been a common theme in these cases, which Trump — the GOP presidential front-runner — would like to postpone until after the November 2024 election.
The details: Trump faces 13 state counts, with prosecutors alleging that he tried to undo the election results in that state.
Planned trial date: None yet, though two of Trump’s 18 co-defendants are scheduled for trial Oct. 23.
What happened: No major developments in Trump’s case, but one of his co-defendants made news: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee rejected former Trump attorney Sidney Powell’s attempt to get the case against her dismissed.
For the British comedy fans, from our colleague Amy Gardner: McAfee appeared to make a Monty Python reference when he rejected co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro’s request to dismiss his indictment because one of the special prosecutors apparently did not properly document that he’d been sworn in to work on the case, as required under Georgia law.
“As if this parrot of a motion is somehow not yet dead,” McAfee wrote, alluding to the famous Monty Python dead parrot sketch.
The details: Trump faces 40 federal counts over accusations that he kept top-secret government documents at Mar-a-Lago — his home and private club — and then thwarted government demands that he return them.
Planned trial date: May 20
What happened: Trump’s team once again asked Judge Cannon to push the trial back until after the presidential election, citing the difficulties of accessing all of the classified evidence.
Some of the documents are considered so sensitive, the government is still searching for a safe place to store them in Florida.
In a filing, Trump’s attorneys said it was not feasible for them to meet an Oct. 10 deadline to file motions related to the classified evidence.
The details: Trump faces 34 state counts in connection with hush money paid to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.
Planned trial date: March 25
What happened: Trump’s team asked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to dismiss the case, arguing in a filing that the prosecution reflects an unjust effort that relies on novel legal theories and a problematic witness — Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
New York fraud case: Separately, the civil trial to determine whether Trump and his company misrepresented business deals by drastically inflating the value of his real estate properties began last week. Our colleagues Shayna Jacobs, Jonathan O’Connell and Mark Berman have been reporting on the lawsuit.
Your nerd word of the week is … Discovery.
In every trial, prosecutors must give defense attorneys the evidence they have collected so they can build a defense for their clients. This is known as the discovery process. It can consist of millions of pages and, in Trump’s document case, the equivalent of years of security footage.
All four of Trump’s criminal trials are in the discovery phase — a process that plays out behind closed doors.
Why does the Trump defense team need to review the classified documents at all? Isn’t it enough just to say they were clearly marked classified?
Two reasons.
First, to win a conviction, prosecutors must show that the documents contain information “relating to the national defense,” meaning the information is closely held by a relatively small number of people in government and not available to the general public. The defense may try to argue that the information is not particularly sensitive; to mount such a defense, it needs access to the documents.
Second, prosecutors must prove the defendant acted willfully, meaning with the specific intent to do something illegal. The type of information in the documents is relevant to deciding willfulness. Prosecutors may claim the documents were so sensitive, the defendant had to know he was acting unlawfully. And defense lawyers may try to convince the jury the information was so harmless it shows there was no willful lawbreaking.
From our friends in the Style section: What’s it like to be prosecuted by Jack Smith?
From our colleague Aaron Blake: A catalogue of Trump’s attacks on judges, prosecutors and witnesses
Thanks for reading this week’s edition. Have questions you want us to answer? Email us at perry.stein@washpost.com and devlin.barrett@washpost.com.