'Desperation': Trump's blitz of nonsense motions could lose his case before it starts

Former President Donald Trump has resorted to every idea in the book to try to slow down or throw out the Manhattan hush money trial — most recently, a claim of presidential immunity, despite the fact that virtually all the alleged conduct occurred before he was even president. Ultimately he was smacked down by Judge Juan Merchan for not making the motion in a timely fashion.

The former president needs to be careful at this point, wrote legal experts Norm Eisen and Taylor Redd for MSNBC on Thursday — his tactics, which reek of "desperation," could make an enemy of the judge, and end his defense before it even begins.

"Even if absolute presidential immunity existed — which, as we’ve previously explained, it doesn’t — Merchan rightly recognized that Trump’s motion was too little, too late," they wrote. "As an initial matter, Merchan noted, Trump filed his request to adjourn the trial months after 'the 45-day period [after arraignment and before commencement of trial] provided by statute.' New York courts have discretion to vary that stricture. But Trump offered little in the way of justification for his tardiness. As Merchan pointed out, Trump was long ago 'well aware that the defense of presidential immunity, even if unsuccessful, might be available to him.' There was absolutely no reason Trump could not have at least tried to bring it up more promptly."

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The problem for the former president, they continued, is that "Merchan has had to deal with and reject numerous other delaying maneuvers by Trump." And that is a grave risk: "It is not wise to lose the judge before the trial has even started, both because of the myriad decisions affecting the defense he will have to make during its pendency and because if Trump is convicted, Merchan will mete out the sentence."

All of this might have been a risk worth taking when Trump had the runway to try to stop the trial from happening at all — but, they concluded, it's inevitable at this point, and he's just hurting his own prospects.

"Trump’s one constant throughout all of his prosecutions is his attempt to delay proceedings," they wrote. "As the Manhattan trial inexorably approaches, he will surely become even more frantic. But that is a profound sign of weakness — indeed, it shows that Trump now recognizes that he is finally facing his reckoning."