Trump can cry foul and appeal a gag order decision in his criminal case for alleged attempts to cling to the presidency after the 2020 election that led to the attack on the Capitol, but the countdown to raise the curtain on his criminal election subversion case will continue ticking, a legal expert said on Friday.
On the day that the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld Judge Tanya Chutkan's gag order against the 45th president, former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig said he is convinced there won't be any budging and the March 4, 2024, trial start date will stand.
"This is the buried headline of the ruling today," he said during an appearance on CNN's "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer. "That is going to become monumentally important because Donald Trump is in the process of appealing the immunity motion."
Honig added: "He is certainly going to try to get the trial date, currently set for March 2024, pushed back to after the election."
"He is going to try anyway possible to do that."
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But as Hoenig pointed out, the appeals court cast down any potential effort to slow walk the trial.
“Delaying the trial date until after the election, as Mr. Trump proposes, would be counterproductive, create perverse incentives, and unreasonably burden the judicial process," according to the ruling. "In addition, postponing trial would incentivize criminal defendants to engage in harmful speech as a means of delaying their prosecution."
But Honig said that Chutkan is appearing to show that she won't move.
"This is a signal and then some from the court of appeals that they're not going to be inclined to do that," said Honig. "If it is going to be delayed it probably will have to come from the U.S. Supreme court, is a tough shot to make."
The appeals court focused on the limits of how Trump can assail people he chooses to target, and bars him from attacking their involvement in the investigation and their potential testimony at trial.
"We agree with the district court that some aspects of Mr. Trump’s public statements pose a significant and imminent threat to the fair and orderly adjudication of the ongoing criminal proceeding," the order reads.
The appeals court stayed Chutkan's, putting the more narrowed gag order into action.
