Former President Donald Trump is deliberately trying to drag out his Washington, D.C. trial over election interference as much as possible — and it's all an effort to exploit a critical weak point in the American legal system, argued former Homeland Security official Paul Rosenzweig for The Atlantic.
Trump's latest stall tactic concerns his claim he has "presidential immunity" from being prosecuted for actions taken in office — a claim most experts have dismissed because Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election were in his capacity as a candidate and not a president.
Nonetheless, it could tie up the legal system for months, pushing the trial date past the election, when Trump could use the power of his office to kill the charges if he wins.
This is why special counsel Jack Smith has moved to expedite the process and ask the Supreme Court to settle the issue by the end of its current term. But even then, Rosenzweig wrote, it could put the original March trial date in jeopardy.
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This round of appeals and motions by Trump, he wrote, "Show the weakness of a judicial system that can be manipulated by the maliciously inclined. Due process is the crown jewel of the rule of law; it embodies the idea that every person is entitled to a day in court and to be heard following a set standard protocol to ensure fairness.
"We would not want it any other way."
However, that process necessarily requires delays — and Trump has figured out how to make those delays work to his advantage, he said."[B]y indulging Trump’s abuse of the process, the justice system allows Trump to make his prosecution a key factor in the election, in the expectation that his status as a victim will help him to victory," Rosenzweig warned.
What happens next, he concluded, depends on whether the nation's highest court recognizes how the judicial system is being abused, and moves to prevent it.
"This is a dangerous moment, when the best result is that the judicial system can only partially mitigate Trump’s manipulation of it, and it may not manage even that," wrote Rosenzweig. "One can only hope that the Supreme Court recognizes the gravity of the moment and treats the Special Counsel’s request with the care it deserves."
