With jury selection getting underway in the New York hush-money case on Monday after a one-month delay, the slate of criminal trials that former President Donald Trump faces as he runs for re-election has begun in earnest.
A grand jury voted last spring to indict Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to allegedly cover up payments, including to adult film star Stormy Daniels, in a bid to conceal damaging information as part of a “catch-and-kill” scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, assailed the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ahead of jury selection. “This is a political persecution, a persecution like never before. Nobody has ever seen anything like it,” he said.
Prosecutors argued Trump should be fined for allegedly violating his gag order after criticizing potential witnesses. Jury selection could take weeks as prospective jurors are vetted until 12 people and several alternates are picked. Opening statements and testimony may not even start until May.
Trump has broadly denied any wrongdoing in three other criminal cases that have not reached the trial stage. He has also been ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in civil litigation, including as part of a New York business fraud judgment that the former president is appealing.
Fani Willis: 2020 Election Interference Case In Fulton County
In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is leading a 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump and his allies. Trump and 18 co-defendants pleaded not guilty to a bevy of charges, but four of them have since taken plea deals.
The case got sidetracked as the defense raised concerns about Willis and her special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, having an improper relationship. A judge allowed Willis to stay on the case Wade resigned in March. Afterward, CNN reported Willis hoped to have the trial before the 2024 election.
Willis has requested an appeals court uphold the ruling after the defense sought a review. She said in a recent letter to House GOP investigators seeking documents that “nothing that you do will derail the efforts of my staff and I to bring the election interference prosecution to trial.”
Jack Smith: 2020 Election Interference Case And Classified Documents Case
The two remaining criminal matters hanging over Trump are being spearheaded by special counsel Jack Smith. One case accuses Trump of unlawfully plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The other pertains to Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office and his allegedly trying to obstruct an investigation into his retention of those records.
Smith has pressed the Supreme Court to fast-track consideration of Trump’s presidential immunity claim to clear the way for a trial in the election case in Washington, D.C., which has already blown past the presiding judge’s plan for a March 4 start date. The high court is expected to hear oral arguments on April 25.
The trial in Smith’s documents case has been set to begin on May 20 in Florida, though the judge in that matter has indicated she may postpone it. Prosecutors have proposed the trial be pushed back to July 8 while Trump’s legal team settled on August 12 as their preferred start date after pressing for it to start after the November election.
Trump is now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, after his major rivals dropped out and he secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination, even as much of his time and resources have gone into the court battles and paying legal bills. He has claimed that prosecutors and others are waging a “witch hunt” against him in an effort to boost his 2024 rival President Joe Biden.
