Image courtesy of Getty Images
Image description,
former president donald trump
February 7, 2024 16:17
Anthony Zurker, Matt Murphy, BBC News (Washington)
Former US President Donald Trump lost in court. But it also helps you win.
However, because this decision took so long, Trump’s federal trial over the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol has been postponed indefinitely.
Mr. Trump was unsuccessful in asserting new presidential powers that give him unlimited action while in office. But the trial scheduled for March 4 has been removed from the federal court calendar.
I don’t know when the trial will be held.
According to former federal prosecutor Neema Rahmani, this is in keeping with the former president’s strategy of throwing as much sand into the wheels of the judicial process as possible.
“Trump’s goal is to delay this trial until after the presidential election in November,” Rahmani said. “Because if you win the presidential election, the sitting president will not be indicted,” he explained.
If delaying the trial is the goal, Trump’s defense team has several steps to take.
The first is a request for a review of the ruling by all 11 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. However, this is unlikely to be successful. That would require the support of six of the eight justices who did not participate in the ruling, and such requests are rarely granted.
The appeals court, however, ruled that the Capitol attack trial can proceed while those requests are considered. Probably to avoid further delays.
Image courtesy of Getty Images
Image description,
The ruling allows Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith to continue pursuing Mr. Trump.
But Trump still has other options.
Trump can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, the Supreme Court would have to choose between reviewing the case or upholding the lower court’s decision. He will also decide whether to put the Capitol attack trial on hold.
This route is likely to be taken this time. The appeals court gave Trump until the 12th to appeal.
Here again, there are further opportunities to delay or reverse the course of the trial.
If the Supreme Court denies the request, the election interference case will return to its regular schedule. But if the Supreme Court takes up the case, no matter how soon, it is almost certain that the case will be held in the shadow of Election Day.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case in which former President Trump is accused of trying to overturn the presidential election, may shelve the case until after the presidential election in November.
David Super, a constitutional law lecturer at Georgetown University, said American judicial tradition makes it unlikely that the Supreme Court would follow the former president’s legal arguments.
Professor Super told the BBC: “In Trump’s view, the legal status of the US president is functionally very similar to that of a monarch.”
But if the trial is delayed, a Supreme Court defeat would be another victory for Trump. In addition, if Trump wins the presidential election in November, any concerns he has about the judiciary at the federal level may disappear with a single stroke of his hand.
After he is sworn into office, he may replace the head of the Justice Department to halt the trial or take the historic step of granting himself a presidential pardon.
If that happens, it would be a surprising start to Trump’s second term. But it’s also surprising that a former president would take the oath of office on the steps of the Capitol, where Trump’s supporters rioted four years ago to protest his defeat.
#CommentaryIs #loss #federal #appeals #court #defeat #TrumpPresidential #immunity #denied #BBC #News
2024-02-07 07:24:14
