Trump’s Time-Tested Legal Strategy That Keeps Working – The New York Times
Trump Hush-Money Case
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A delay in the former president’s impending Manhattan trial date was just the latest example of his ability to bend his busy court calendar in his favor.
Ben Protess, Alan Feuer, William K. Rashbaum and
The schedule seemed stacked against Donald J. Trump: four criminal trials in four cities, all in the same year he is running for president.
But rather than doom Mr. Trump, the chaotic calendar might just save him.
Mr. Trump, who as president helped reshape the federal judiciary, has already persuaded the Supreme Court to delay his trial in Washington. His lawyers have buried judges in Florida and Georgia in enough legal motions and procedural complaints that his cases there have no set trial dates, either.
The case in Manhattan, where the district attorney accused Mr. Trump of covering up a sex scandal during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, was the only one not mired in potential postponements.
Until now.
On Friday, Justice Juan M. Merchan, who is overseeing the case, delayed the trial at least three weeks, until mid-April.
It was hardly the first case to be delayed during Mr. Trump’s recent run of legal problems — and that is no accident. As the former president tries to push each of his trials until after the election, he is relying on his most battle-tested strategy: Seek every delay available within the law.
Until the election, his goal appears to be to manufacture the prosecutorial equivalent of a four-car pileup at the busiest legal intersection in America. And despite Mr. Trump’s laments about a cabal of Deep State liberal prosecutors putting their heads together to conspire against him, the reality is that there is no single cop directing traffic.
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