Florida trial date decision, Colorado ballot ruling expected for Trump soon – The Washington Post
We had some key hearings in the criminal and civil cases against the former president last week. And now we wait. The coming decisions will shape Donald Trump’s legal, political and financial future.
Have questions on the upcoming criminal trials? Email us at perry.stein@washpost.com and devlin.barrett@washpost.com and check for answers in future newsletters.
Let the waiting games begin…
Now, a recap of last week’s action in the four criminal cases.
The details: Four counts related to conspiring to obstruct the 2020 election results.
Planned trial date: TBD
Last week: The big news was the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the unprecedented question of whether former presidents are immune from criminal prosecutions for acts they took while in office.
The details: Trump faces 13 state charges for allegedly trying to undo the election results in that state. Four of his 18 co-defendants have pleaded guilty.
Planned trial date: None yet
Last week: Closing arguments in what has played out like a mini-trial took place on Friday to determine if Willis should be booted from the case. Willis says there was no conflict of interest and her personal relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade started after she hired him to work the case. Defense attorneys tried to present evidence showing that the relationship started before she hired him.
The details: Trump faces 40 federal charges over accusations that he kept top-secret government documents at Mar-a-Lago — his home and private club — and thwarted government demands to return them.
Planned trial date: May 20 (but not really)
Last week: It’s clear that the May trial date will be pushed back. Cannon heard arguments about the trial timing and other evidentiary issues at a public hearing on Friday, which both Trump and special counsel Jack Smith attended. Cannon was careful to sidestep the election calendar in her questioning — even as Trump’s lawyers brought it up frequently.
The 60-day rule: Cannon asked prosecutors Friday about Justice Department policy surrounding legal action close to voting. The Justice Department has a written policy that prosecutors and agents may never select the timing of an investigative action, such as filing charges, “for the purpose” of affecting an election or to help or hurt a candidate or party.
A related but unwritten practice known as the 60-day rule says that prosecutors should avoid taking such investigative steps within two months of an election. The rule was most famously broken in 2016 by then-FBI director James B. Comey, when he notified Congress days before the election that he’d reopened an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
While Trump has tried to argue the rule bars putting candidates on trial before Election Day, that is not true; judges set trial dates, not prosecutors.
The details: 34 charges connected to a 2016 hush money payment.
Planned trial date: March 25. It would be the country’s first criminal trial of a former president.
Last week: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is leading the prosecution team, asked the judge for a partial gag order on Trump to prohibit him and anyone he directs from speaking publicly about witnesses, jurors, court staffers and Bragg’s legal team — but not Bragg himself.
Separately, in Trump’s civil real estate fraud case: A New York appeals court judge refused to reduce the bond amount Trump must pay to secure the half-billion-dollar judgment against him for fraudulently inflating Trump organization property values and assets. A multi-judge panel will now consider the matter.
Q. Why does whether or not prosecutor Fani Willis had a personal relationship with a prosecutor she hired have any bearing on the allegations of election interference laid out against Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia?
A. That’s the crux of the question McAfee has to answer. Willis argues it has no bearing on the case. Defense lawyers say it has tainted the prosecution, alleging Willis and Wade have financially benefited from the taxpayer-funded prosecution. They claim Willis was already in a relationship with Wade when she hired him — and then he paid for her vacations with money he earned as a prosecutor on the case. Willis and Wade deny those claims.
If Willis and her staff are disqualified, the case would be further delayed and sent to a state prosecutors advisory panel to find another prosecutor to take it on. McAfee could also decide to dismiss the case altogether.
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