Travis Gettys is a senior editor for Raw Story based in northern Kentucky. He previously worked as a web editor for WLWT-TV and a contributing writer for the Kentucky Enquirer, and he also wrote for the award-winning Sadly, No! blog. He has covered national, state and local politics, breaking news, criminal investigations and trials, sports and a variety of community issues, with a special emphasis on racial justice, right-wing extremism and gun safety.
Donald Trump's legal team has been attempting to stall various legal proceedings against him, but an expert said the former president would be wise to allow one of them to proceed.
The ex-president has been indicted four times on 91 counts and found liable for both fraud and sexual abuse, although his lawyers are working to push trial dates in those criminal cases past the 2024 election. But MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos told "Morning Joe" that Trump would be smart to go ahead and face trial in Manhattan.
"It might be a best-case scenario for Donald Trump for the weakest to go to trial in 2024 before the election, and that, for me, of the four, is unquestionably the New York criminal case," Cevallos said.
"... We haven't been talking much about the criminal case in which alleged to have falsified business records. That is not a strong case."
That case, the first that Trump was indicted in, involves hush money payments that were paid to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels, allegedly to keep quiet about an affair she had with Trump.
"Don't take my word for it, a former member of the team who has been here on our air wrote an entire book describing how this case was called the zombie case. It was resurrected, died and reanimated, so a case like that, that even the prosecutors on the team are not sure about, that doesn't seem to me to be beyond a reasonable doubt standard," he said.
"So I think you're right, if Donald Trump can get one case to go forward in 2024, it would be best for him to go to trial in New York in the criminal case and beat it, which I think he has a good chance of doing if it ever gets to trial."