On the charges of Donald Trump in a campaign to win the 2020 presidential election and the State of the Art, from the Washington Post to the New York Times
Trump will not appear in person at the courthouse, steps away from the Capitol crime scene. Instead, he’s scheduled to give a midday campaign speech at the Economic Club of New York. He has authorized his lawyers to plead not guilty to “each and every count” in a new superseding indictment from special counsel Jack Smith.
This year, voters will decide the race for the presidency — and, by extension, whether Trump will ever face justice on charges that he led overlapping conspiracies to try to cling to power.
A D.C. grand jury indictment accused Trump of taking actions that resulted in a siege at the US Capitol. Trump is predicted to order Justice Department leaders to drop the landmark case if he wins the White House.
The decision comes after Trump’s attorneys tried to use the Supreme Court’s recent precedent on presidential immunity to clear his conviction.
Last week, prosecutors retooled the allegations against Trump, scrapping language that mentioned his bid to use the Justice Department to advance phony claims of election fraud. They also removed references to the Justice Department telling Trump about the 2020 election, in order to make the case that he should be a political candidate.
The Superseding Indictment of the 2021-2019 Appointment of Mike Pence to the Presidency of the U.S. Senate
“It is not easy to decide how the decision of the court will apply to each item of evidence from the trial,” said Randall.
The judge has directed Trump and the special counsel team to identify areas where they agree about how to proceed. There is virtually no common ground, that’s underscored by the court filing on Friday before Labor Day weekend.
Prosecutors said they want to start with the core issue of presidential immunity. The immunity described by the Supreme Court majority does not apply to the new indictment or to additional unplead categories of evidence the Government intends to introduce at trial.
If Chutkan agrees, “there could be a lot of allegations coming out in the next couple of months about what’s the proof at trial,” said Eliason, the GWU law professor.
“The superseding indictment is an effort to respond to the direct instructions of the Supreme Court as to how to effectuate a new indictment in an ongoing case,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. I’m quite confident that the special counsel followed all the policies of the Justice Department and the election sensitivities policies.
The future trial will likely include the role of Mike Pence, who was Vice President. Rioters screamed “Guilt Mike Pence” as Trump was accused of wanting to delay the electoral count.
The indictment made clear that the man was acting in his role as the Senate president on January 6, 2021, and that he still had a personal interest in becoming a candidate.
The Supreme Court decision came after Trump was convicted in New York — but before he was sentenced. The timing threw into disarray what was already an unprecedented felony conviction against a former president and current Republican presidential nominee.
Merchan also postponed consideration on whether to overturn the criminal conviction in light of a recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity and other evidence. The hearing will be on Nov. 12.
His team argued that evidence, such as statements made while he was president, should be thrown out because the Supreme Court ruled presidents have immunity for their acts in office.
The decision was made to adjourn the sentence to avoid any appearance that it had been adversely affected by the election of a president. “The Court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution.”
The sentencing in a case against the former President was delayed in order to ensure that the court is politically neutral.
The first criminal charges against a sitting or former president were levied against Trump by a grand jury in March of last year.
The Manhattan DA’s Election Interference Witch Hunt v.s. New York Law, Tax Returns and Other Unseen Claims
The jurors were able to choose whether those unlawful means were violating the Federal Election Campaign Act, falsifying tax returns or falsifying other business records.
“There should be no sentencing in the Manhattan DA’s Election Interference Witch Hunt,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said after the decision to delay. The case and all the others should be thrown out by the United States Supreme Court.
New York jurors in May said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels to influence the 2016 presidential contest.
The jurors heard from 22 witnesses in the Manhattan criminal court. Jurors also weighed other evidence — mostly documents like phone records, invoices and checks to Michael Cohen, Trump’s once-loyal “fixer,” who paid Daniels to keep her story of an alleged affair with the former president quiet.
What prosecutors needed to show was that Trump violated a New York law that makes it a crime for at least two or more people to try to prevent someone from winning an election.