Trump 65: Dividing His Time Between Court And The Golf Course

[GreyhoundFan]

I wish he couldn’t find the stairs to get on the stage. He could just ramble about backstage and the rest of us wouldn’t have to hear or see him. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump trials this week include Fla. hearing, possible Willis decision"

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We’re drowning in paperwork at the Trump Trials newsletter, after special counsel Jack Smith fired off more than a dozen court filings last week knocking Donald Trump’s efforts to dismiss the charges against him for allegedly mishandling classified papers.

Trump argues that as a former president he has immunity, and that the case is politically motivated, while Smith … well, Smith has some choice language for those claims: “woefully short of the requirements … no evidence whatsoever … frivolous … so lacking in merit … no support in constitutional text, separation of powers principles, history, or logic.”

That’s lawyer-speak for loco.

Have questions on the upcoming trials? Email us at perry.stein@washpost.com and devlin.barrett@washpost.com and check for answers in future newsletters.

Let’s get to it, because this week looks busy.

What’s ahead

Smith’s team is due to face off with Trump’s lawyers on Thursday in Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s Florida courtroom over two of Trump’s dismissal motions. We expect, at a minimum, several days of such hearings before the trial, giving us more opportunity to see how Cannon, a relatively new and inexperienced judge, is handling this high-profile matter.

For now, the big question remains: When will this trial be held? Cannon could rule at any time.

In Georgia, we’re expecting a decision from Judge Scott McAfee on whether District Attorney Fani T. Willis should be disqualified from her Trump case because of a romantic relationship with the lawyer she hired to oversee it. By McAfee’s own self-imposed deadline, that decision should come this week.

In New York, we’re waiting to see if Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial due to begin later this month for 2016 hush money payments, will impose a gag order. Trump is already the subject of a federal gag that limits what he can say about most, but not all, of the people involved in the D.C. trial for allegedly conspiring to obstruct the results of the 2020 election.

We’re also waiting to see if Trump can put together a bond for more than $450 million to cover a civil fraud judgment against him and his namesake company. The former president faces a March 25 deadline to figure out the financing for the mammoth penalty. Last week, Trump secured a $91 million bond to cover a different court judgment against him.

Now, a recap of last week’s action.

New York: State hush money case

The details: 34 charges connected to a 2016 hush money payment.

Planned trial date: March 25

Last week: Merchan granted the prosecutor’s request to keep the names and addresses of jurors shielded from the public, citing the possibility of harassment or intimidation. But it is not a truly anonymous jury, because Trump and his lawyers will know those details. Which brings us to the …

Nerd word of the week

Anonymous jury: A relatively recent invention which grew out of trials of organized crime figures in the 1970s and 1980s. In rare cases where judges are convinced there is a serious risk of jurors being threatened or bribed, they can order the members of the panel to be anonymous — their identities unknown even to the trial lawyers and defendants. What Merchan ordered is less strict: keeping those identities shielded from the public, but not the trial participants. But a federal judge overseeing civil trials against Trump in New York used anonymous jurors.

D.C.: Federal case on 2020 election

The details: Four counts related to conspiring to obstruct the 2020 election results.

Planned trial date: Unclear.

Last week: The pretrial proceedings are on pause while the Supreme Court considers Trump’s claim to be immune from prosecution for acts that he says fall “within the outer perimeter” of his official duties as president.

The Supreme Court set a date of April 25 to hear arguments. Given the general pace of high court cases, there could be a decision in June. If Trump loses the immunity claim, as many legal experts think he will, a trial could begin in mid- to late summer.

Georgia: State case on 2020 election

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: The case has been on a two-month detour since defense lawyers accused the district attorney of misusing her authority by having a relationship with a subordinate she hired to work on the case. Willis says that is inaccurate and that their relationship in no way compromised the case or her office. McAfee spent last week chewing privately on the issue.

Florida: Federal classified documents case

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: The former president has filed a lot of motions seeking to toss out this case, and on Thursday, Smith fired back. He said Trump is claiming immunity “solely for the purpose of delay,” as Cannon considers whether to start the trial in July, as prosecutors want, or later. Trump’s lawyers have pushed for the trial to begin after the November election, or August at the earliest.

Keep in mind, a late summer trial date in Florida could complicate any scheduling of the D.C. federal trial over Trump’s alleged 2020 election obstruction.

Smith argued that most of Trump’s legal claims are so devoid of supporting facts, legal precedent or common sense that the court should not waste time holding hearings on them.

Cannon scheduled a hearing for this Thursday, and a key question is whether she will try to get more done before the New York trial begins in two weeks. And will she try to hold any hearings during the break days in the New York trial, especially given that Trump has the same lead attorney in both cases?

Question Time

Q. Why is Trump allowed to use campaign or political fundraising to pay his legal bills? Isn’t that illegal?

A. No, it’s not illegal, as long as the expenses are “related to campaign or officeholder activity,” which means the legal costs are somehow connected to their roles as candidates or elected officials. For many politicians, that is an exception that swallows the rule, and Trump is far from the first to spend millions of donor dollars trying to stay out of prison. In Trump’s case, tens of millions of dollars raised from small donors have gone to pay his legal expenses. And millions more are likely to follow.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Donald Trump, the luckiest politician who ever lived"

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A federal judge has declared him liable for rape. He faces paying a half-billion dollars in legal judgments for fraud and defamation. Twice impeached, then defeated for reelection, he has been charged with 91 felonies. He has been arrested and his mug shot published; he will spend much of the year in and out of courtrooms. On the campaign trail, his rambling speeches are gaffe-ridden and prone to malapropisms and meltdowns.

In a normal universe, this would not be the description of a fortunate man.

But we do not live that universe, and we must consider the very real — and infuriating — possibility that Donald J. Trump is the single luckiest politician who ever lived.

For almost a decade (though it feels even longer), we’ve watched him trip through minefields, totter on the edge of sinkholes and step on trapdoors, each time thinking: This is it. Now he’s going down. It has become a mantra of dashed hopes: The walls are (once again) closing in on Donald Trump. He’s on the brink, desperate. This time, surely this time. And yet, somehow, he escapes.

The latest example of Trump Luck was Colorado’s decision, amid all his other legal problems, to ban him from its primary ballot using a novel legal theory. The Supreme Court smacked down Colorado on Monday, handing Trump a 9-0 victory that only makes him look stronger.

Consider the good fortune that has blown his way in just the recent past:

· With a major criminal trial looming for trying to overturn the 2020 election results, the Supreme Court on Feb. 28 threw him a lifeline on his immunity claim, likely pushing his moment of reckoning past Election Day.

· The felony election-interference case against him in Georgia has been thrown into disarray by alleged prosecutorial hanky-panky.

· Trump was caught with a Florida stash of classified government documents, including war plans, but last spring he somehow managed to draw the extraordinarily friendly Aileen M. Cannon as the judge in the case.

· On the campaign trail, Trump is prone to bouts of incoherence that seem to suggest he is losing it. But, lucky man that he is, the Justice Department chose a special counsel whom Trump had appointed to be the U.S. attorney for Maryland to investigate President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents; declining to charge him last month, the prosecutor made the Biden’s memory lapses the story.

By now, this must feel like a familiar pattern.

In 2016, with Trump less than two weeks from seemingly certain election defeat, FBI Director James B. Comey decided to kneecap Hillary Clinton.

When an audio recording surfaced during the 2016 campaign revealing Trump bragging about being able to grab women by the genitals, his opponents just knew he was done. They hadn’t reckoned with Trump Luck: His evangelical supporters, it turned out, were willing to shelve their morals to win an election.

That year, Trump lost the popular vote by millions but won the presidency in the electoral college. Even he looked like the guy at the slot machine who can’t believe it when the bells clang and the coins start flying.

Indeed, Trump has been exceedingly fortunate in his opponents. In 2016, the Republican primaries ended with Trump facing only one serious challenger: Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who had the distinction of possibly being the most loathed person in American politics. In the general election, Trump faced probably the only Democrat who could not beat him. This year, the GOP’s great non-Trump hope, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, imploded under the weight of his own jerkitude. And now an overwhelming majority of voters think his 2024 opponent, Biden — less than four years older than Trump — is too elderly to be given another term.

For years, pundits wondered when the GOP would break with Trump. After Charlottesville? After his 2020 defeat? After Jan. 6? After he called for the termination of the Constitution? But, as we know, Trump has been deeply fortunate in the quality of the GOP establishment, whose feeble resistance to his various outrages was, to use H.L. Mencken’s memorable phrase, “not unlike that of a sheep trying to bark.”

In a stroke of extraordinary luck, Trump was saved from conviction in his second impeachment trial when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blinked at the crucial moment, despite his certainty of Trump’s guilt. Now it is McConnell who is heading to exile, while Trump is surging toward the White House.

So it has gone. Time and again, Trump has faced allegations that would sink any other politician but has been handed counter-narratives — often bogus and tendentious, but nonetheless useful — to deflect and distract in an endless round of whataboutism. (Hunter Biden’s laptop comes to mind.)

In his oddly charmed political life, Trump has benefited mightily from what political scientist Brian Klaas calls the “banality of crazy,” as the body politic has grown increasingly numb to Trump’s fire hose of malice.

Even Trump must marvel at his good fortune to come on the scene at a time when America’s memory has collapsed into a national amnesia where politicians and voters alike simply can’t remember the last abhorrent thing he said.

It must feel almost providential to Trump that his rise to power has also coincided with the downfall of much of the traditional fact-based media, as well as the emergence of just the sort of alternative-reality information silos that he needed to shape his narrative and platform his bluster, bombast and fakery.

So now, despite (waves hand) all this, Trump is about to clinch the GOP nomination for the third time, and most national polls show him leading President Biden as he seeks to a return to the White House.

Has anyone ever been this lucky?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

TFG is as unhappy about the Oscars broadcast. I like Jimmy’s response.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

Amen:

[GreyhoundFan]

Lol

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh, please…

[GreyhoundFan]

Pretty sad that he blew off his own grandkid. Of course, he only acknowledges people who can do something for him and a kid isn’t in that category. 

 

[SassyPants]

3 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Pretty sad that he blew off his own grandkid. Of course, he only acknowledges people who can do something for him and a kid isn’t in that category. 

 

And to think Trump is that kid’s grandpa who hasn’t been in prison, (yet).

[CultureVulture]

23 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The idiot is about 2 weeks away from wearing those pants up under his armpits and having a 4pm dinner time.  

[GreyhoundFan]

Why am I not surprised?

 

[Audrey2]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Oh, please…

In a way I can kind of argue that he is sort of honest Don. He's honest about all of his evil plans for America. Unfortunately people aren't listening, because he exaggerates so many other things. When he is talking about his dystopian vision for the future of the US I do take him at  his word.

[Ozlsn]

On 3/12/2024 at 12:29 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

... ok. You do that. Vote Trump for every position on the ballot. Choosing whether to fund libraries? Draw a box, write Trump next to it and cross it. City sanitation engineer? Write "TRUMP" and make a big tick. The election officials will love you.

16 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Oh, please…

Wow, he's managing to make himself sound even more like a shonky second hand car dealer, didn't think that was possible.

15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Pretty sad that he blew off his own grandkid. Of course, he only acknowledges people who can do something for him and a kid isn’t in that category. 

 

Sorry kid, your family suck. Better to find out early.

[CultureVulture]

13 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

In a way I can kind of argue that he is sort of honest Don. He's honest about all of his evil plans for America. Unfortunately people aren't listening, because he exaggerates so many other things. When he is talking about his dystopian vision for the future of the US I do take him at  his word.

Exactly.  As Maya Angelou famously said: “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”  Too many of us did regarding the idiot.  But sadly, too many did not.  Hopefully enough of them have learned their lesson by now.   

[libgirl2]

16 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Why am I not surprised?

 

I don't know how that family is okay with the exploitation of that young woman. I would not allow that. 

Maybe the next time MTG wants to wear a button with someone's face or trump wants a photo op, they could look in to that case of the poor 3 year old who is missing. His mother sent him away to learn how to be a man. Say his name! Crimes aren't limited to immigrants. 

[GreyhoundFan]

He’s always right. Sure, Jan

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Whoa. 

 

[CultureVulture]

Ya know, his youngest is going to turn 18 next week. 

I'm curious as to whether Barron Von Trumpsy is going to become a media objective, or if the kiddie is going to be deemed off limits to the press, at least for now.  The idiot's other adult kids are solid targets, so it will be interesting to see how the bebe' is handled. 

Edited March 14 by CultureVulture

[GreyhoundFan]

[libgirl2]

that picture of him with the flag right away made me remember this. 

 

 

 

[apple1]

15 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

that picture of him with the flag right away made me remember this. 

 

 

 

As for me, I can't figure out whether it makes me think it's supposed to be a take-off of raising the flag on Iwo Jima - or Trump as a Noah on the ark figure with naysayers who didn't get on soon enough.

[Xan]

Trump is now running a video on his Truth Social page with the background music of Sam and Dave's "Hold On, I'm Coming!"  I think Sam is still around.  I hope he sues Donny for use of his music.