Opinion: Trump Scores Big Win: He Won’t Be Tried Before the Election
Shan Wu is a former federal prosecutor who served as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno.
Scheduling hearings in criminal trials are normally all about the calendars. The court’s calendar, prosecutor’s calendars, defense counsel calendars and sometimes the calendar for witnesses or defendants all are the subject of a lot of rather mundane discussions of other trials, holidays and even vacation schedules.
Presidential election dates never enter into the discussion since election days are not federal holidays. But the scheduling hearing held before Judge Tonya Chutkan in former President Trump’s Jan 6 election interference case was an exception. The 2024 election—a mere 60 days away as Judge Chutkan held her hearing—loomed over the courtroom like a malevolent spirit.
The Trump legal team repeatedly tried to invoke that spirit as a reason for delay even as Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team and Judge Chutkan tried mightily to banish it from the courtroom. In the end, it could not be banished.
Trump’s standard operating procedure of delay has been obvious throughout this case and all of his legal cases. The motivation is obvious. Delay always aids the defendant. Memories grow stale, evidence can deteriorate and be lost, and prosecutors and investigators may even leave. But for Trump there is the added factor that if he can delay any trial until after the election, then he avoids the lack negative publicity and if he wins the election then he also wins the power to get rid of any federal charges against him.
The ticking clock has put Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Justice Department in a uniquely difficult position. Prosecutors rarely are pressured by the clock because while there are time limits on how old many case can be—when an investigation is active or........
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