Trump’s delay tactics have met their match with 'no-nonsense' judge in DC: legal experts
August 04, 2023
Fresh off his arraignment, President Donald Trump is almost certain to try to stall and delay his federal trial for election conspiracies as much as he possibly can. But unlike his other past and present legal fights, it's unlikely he'll have much luck with these tactics this time, argued a panel of legal experts on MSNBC Friday.
"Let's start with the arraignment and what happens next," anchor Alicia Menendez asked former Solicitor General Neal Katyal. "Did we get a glimpse yesterday into how Team Trump is expecting to handle the case?"
"Absolutely," said Katyal. "I think we [saw] ... the delay tactics that they want to use. One of Trump's attorneys said outside the courtroom that [special counsel] Jack Smith has had three and a half years to investigate this case, so they should get three and a half years. It doesn't quite work that way. I mean, there's several problems with that. I mean, one is three and a half years ago was like January of 2020, well before the election. So nobody was investigating Trump at that point in time. But, you know, more generally, there is no such symmetry rule and indeed the system would grind to a halt if there was."
Trump's stalling, Katyal said, "might work better in Florida in the stolen documents case, where you have classified information and things like that, but not here." As for Trump's desire to move the trial to West Virginia to get a better jury pool, Katyal added, "that is going nowhere. You don't get to get tried by a jury of people who like you more, you get tried in the place where the crime occurred."
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner agreed.
"Delay will not work because Judge Tanya Chutkan is presiding over this case." Kirschner, who once sparred with Chutkan when she worked as a public defender in D.C., added, "Back then she, you know, distinguished herself as a smart, strong, tactically savvy, no-nonsense criminal defense attorney who was also entirely honest, ethical and trustworthy."
"I have no doubt ... she will also give both the defendant and the people, the prosecution, a speedy trial," said Kirschner. "So I don't think Donald Trump or his attorneys' tricks and attempts to delay will work, and I think that was proved when the specter of Judge Chutkan hung over yesterday's arraignment hearing. I was watching it from the overflow courtroom and toward the end the magistrate judge said, you will both file briefs with your proposed trial date. The defense mightily fought against that, but they lost that fight. And then on the 28th of August, Judge Chutkan will set a trial date. I suspect we're going to see a trial date in the near term, whether it's January or February, but I think Donald Trump and his lawyers have met their match, because they have a fair, no-nonsense, determined jurist presiding over this case."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
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