Updated 06/15/2023 at 8:00 am ET
Federal prosecutors are calling BS on former President Donald Trump’s not-so-subtle attempt at avoiding accountability. On Thursday, prosecutors filed a motion asking the judge to reject Trump’s motion to postpone his federal trial indefinitely.
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“There is no basis in law or fact for proceedings in such an independent and open-ended fashion,” wrote federal prosecutors, according to the New York Times, “and the defendants provide none.”
The motion comes in response to a move from Trump’s team to delay his trial in the federal documents case until after the election. In the request to move the trial, his legal team argued, among other things, that the candidate would be too busy with the election to properly mount a defense. But let’s be real for a minute, Trump’s overflowing workload likely has very little to do with why he wants a trial after the 2024 election.
As President, Trump would have a ton of power to derail the federal case against him. One strong possibility is that Trump could simply try to pardon himself. in 2018, Trump said that he “had the absolute right to Pardon” himself. And on Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the President’s advisers have said in private conversations that Trump is “looking to win the election as a solution to his legal problems.” It’s an open question whether the courts would allow a self-pardon. Frankly, we’ve never had a President indicated on federal criminal charges to test the theory. But just because it’s controversial doesn’t mean Trump wouldn’t attempt it.
A pardon isn’t his only option. The Department of Justice is a part of the executive branch, which means, ultimately, they answer to the President. There would be very little stopping Trump from going after federal prosecutors in this case or the Attorney General. There’s also the tricky problem of an old Justice Department policy, which more or less prohibits a sitting President from being prosecuted. It’s not clear what would happen if the people serving at the leisure of the President were simultaneously trying to prosecute him. But plenty of experts believe that it would be next to impossible for the prosecution to continue if the trial is scheduled for after Trump assumes office.
All of this to say, running out the clock and praying he wins the 2024 Presidential election isn’t a bad legal strategy for Trump. Now, we’ll have to wait and see whether Trump appointee, Judge Aileen Cannon, agrees to push it back.
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