Trump trying to run out the clock on prosecutors

Facing a total of 88 felony charges in four separate federal and state cases, Donald Trump is employing a simple tactic that has always served him well in the past — running out the clock. The 77-year-old Republican presidential candidate has deployed an army of highly paid lawyers in New York, Washington, Georgia and Florida to push back his trial dates.

The goal is clear: delaying court action beyond the November election when, if he recaptures the presidency, he could potentially have the federal charges against him dropped — or even pardon himself. So far the strategy appears to be working.

“There is a chance that he could evade justice by delaying justice,” said Adam Schiff, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives who was on the committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election. “This is a tried and true tactic of Trump throughout his career,” Schiff told CNN. “The courts should not play into that stratagem.”

Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor and author of a book, “The Trump Indictments,” said the stalling tactics are understandable. “Most defendants do not want to go to trial,” Weissmann told AFP. “They are trying to put that off as much as possible.”

Trump had been scheduled to go on trial in Washington on March 4 on charges of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden, now his likely November opponent. That trial has been delayed until the Supreme Court rules on Trump’s claim that a former president enjoys immunity from prosecution. The nation’s highest court is to hear arguments in the immunity case on April 25 but may not issue a ruling until late June or even July. Weissmann said it is “inexcusable” that the Supreme Court has put the case on “such a slow track.”

In New York, Trump faces state charges of falsifying business records to pay pre-2016 election hush money to a porn star with whom he allegedly had a sexual encounter back in 2006. That case was scheduled to start on Monday but Trump asked for it to be delayed by up to 90 days after prosecutors revealed that potential evidence had not been turned over to the defense.—AFP