Donald J Trump: Rip Van Winkle edition

Did they ask him what he would be running for again if he becomes president?

I think by now it’s pretty clear to everyone (and especially to his supporters?) that if he becomes president again, there won’t be any more presidential elections as we know them. He’ll remain in office until death and/or a family member or crony succeeds him. He’s no longer even trying to hide the fact

I still say not only do trials start, but that there is very likely a conviction before November 5th. Of course, he’ll still have all the appeal processes, so incarceration before then is not at all likely

I share in the concerns about how arduous and slow the justice system seems to be moving here, but it’s worth remembering that it’s SUPPOSED to be difficult. Our justice system is broken not because wealthy people can exhaust every means available to delay, delay, delay, but because poor people can’t

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They haven’t even gotten to step 1 after being arraigned yet and it has been months since arraignment. You still have (may be slightly different by state, this is the bare minimum)

-Preliminary hearing (Doesn’t happen if you used a grand jury, not sure how many of these did that)
-Pretrial Conference
-Pretrial motion hearings

All before you get to trial. Those all give opportunities for being continued which in a normal criminal proceeding is exceptionally common. When i was doing criminal defense a long time ago it was common to get each of these extended several times by 1-2 months at a time.

You could also have appeals that stall some of these things like you are seeing in the Jack Smith case. The judge likely only does jury trials during set aside jury trial periods that only tend to happen a few times a year. So each delay may be months not weeks.

Then even if you magically do somehow make it through all that you need to hit the parlay of a judge willing to have a trial in the middle of a general election campaign AND a jury that doesn’t have a single MAGA enthusiast.

Odds of conviction before Nov 5 have to be at least 100-1.

ETA-I just looked it up and arraignments in these cases were in June and August. 4-6 months later and basically nothing has happened. 100-1 might be too low.

Ok, let’s try again. What do I need to do to get you to make a bet on this?

Again, the guy appointed judges that can and will delay all the criminal trials past the election. The Obama appointee obviously wants a pre-election trial but appeals courts are already making sure it doesn’t happen. This was 100% foreseeable and the bulk of the blame falls on Merrick Garland who was somehow faster to prosecute Hunter Biden for lying on a gun application than a former president for doing a failed coup.

Biden / Garland are going to make Neville Chamberlain look like a strong leader a generation from now.

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Well, one of those is much easier to prosecute than the other.

Of course, you’re right, though. Garland slow-walking this thing is inexcusable. Mitch blocking Garland paid off bigly. Not only did we get Gorsuch, but we would almost certainly never have gotten AG Garland because of it. And there is a good chance anyone else would have done better with this.

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To focus on the most immediate obstacle to a trial, Elie Honig says Trump gets 90 days to appeal a DC Court of Appeals ruling on his presidential immunity claim. So it could be April before the SC even has to consider reviewing the appeal and months after that to decide it. It’s possible that the Appeals Court lifts the stay so trial can proceed in the interim but :man_shrugging:

It does. Thanks buddy! See you again in 12 months.

Since you have legal experience, I would definitely value your take over mine. It’s just that your take goes against some of what I’ve been reading…

Mainly that once a trial starts it doesn’t take that long to complete (1-2 months?). It’s also my understanding that most appeals are only granted after a verdict is rendered and not in the middle of trial. Is this incorrect?

I looked up Madoff and Fried and it seems about a year went by from arrest to conviction. Epstein was more like 2 years? Trump was first arrested in April of this year.

You all may be right. Everything about this is unprecedented. But my point is that so far, it doesn’t seem to be going abnormally slow. If a trial can start by September, I don’t see why a verdict can’t be reached before November 5

The trial itself should be relatively quick. There are just a lot of ways to delay trial and those are all basic strategies for any defense attorney. Witnesses die, they change their stories, they decide they don’t want to testify for one reason or another. Your client stays out of jail (assuming on bond) for as long as you can delay. Sometimes the prosecutor gets worn down and is tired of dealing with a case and you get a sweetheart plea deal out of it. Their cases keep piling up and yours don’t. So they have an incentive to clear these cases one way or another at some point. Delay is a freeroll tactic with absolutely no downside.

There also are some actual novel legal issues in these cases that probably make sense to decide before the ultimate trial. You are seeing that now in the jack smith case. Criminal defendants often times get a lot of deference when asking for continuances if they have some shred of a reason for it.

I know there was a lot of chatter about the government having a speedy trial right back in August. In my opinion with the glacial pace of these cases at the moment that is going to be a tough argument to make.

There is some chance this trial happens and DJT is convicted by November. It isn’t 0%. But in my opinion if Trump’s legal counsel/Trump himself doesn’t want a trial prior to the election it probably won’t happen. And of course they don’t.

Keep in mind also there is basically a cottage industry writing up WE GOT HIM pieces for the EDem stooge class who wants so badly to believe in a system that either doesn’t exist or is broken beyond repair. They refuse to see reality as it would shatter their entire worldview. The people writing up this garbage know this and prey on it. We have seen this literally since Mueller which is now almost 7 years ago.

Like has been posted here a lot Merrick Garland is a loser who is in on it. He didn’t want to prosecute Trump and this is a way to do it while still saving face.

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I don’t think is true (except for the loser part). Garland seems intent on avoiding even a shadow of the perception of bias or partisanship. I think he is more indifferent to prosecuting Trump rather than being actively against the idea. He’s not going to stand in the way of a case, but he also has no sense of urgency. He is absolutely incapable of thinking that a trial needs to happen before the election because that would be a political reason.

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I think Garland was somehow hoping Trump would fade away and prosecuting him would not be necessary. Garland was afraid that charging Trump would tip the first domino towards decades of similar prosecutions whether they are warranted or not. But the January 6th Committee evidence was overwhelming, Trump was still the hot shot of the party, and somebody finally convinced Garland that Republicans would pursue unwarranted prosecutions anyway, so you might as well cast the first stone. It is kind of late. That said, a Biden victory would take away the time crunch and allow us to enjoy Trump on trial again and again.

America First more like revenge first

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I think Garland has legitimate concern that prosecution won’t result in a slam dunk conviction and views acquittal as a worse outcome than not prosecuting at all.

If he truly was afraid or didn’t want to prosecute Trump then he never would’ve tapped Jack Smith who clearly is pulling no punches and doing everything possible to bring about a speedy trial

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biden: this election is a battle between good and evil

trump: i am actively promoting a revenge dictatorship. i am the evil one.

american christians: TRRRRRRRRRRUMP

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https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1739818019914735657?t=MM6nglUbnGGTCPpghD6EQg&s=19

Homeland Security? Treasury? Commerce?

Press Secretary imo.

(I know it’s not a cabinet position, but I could 100% see him in that role.)

I hope we never find out but I don’t think he would take that job.