Trump campaign trail runs through courts
Ex-president’s calendar full as Iowa vote nears
WASHINGTON − In the final week before the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump’s campaign is hopping back and forth between traditional campaign trail venues and nontraditional ones – namely, various courtrooms.
Trump also is using these last days of the Iowa campaign to attack a mixed bag of political targets, including Republican primary challenger Nikki Haley, special counsel and prosecutor Jack Smith, New York Judge Arthur Engoron, and sexual assault accuser E. Jean Carroll.
While Trump argues that indictments and lawsuits are politically motivated, opponents say they provide voters many reasons why they should reject the former president, both in Iowa and across the nation.
“He can never be president again,” said an ad produced this week by the Republican Accountability political action committee.
Former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, who left the Republican Party over Trump, said he expected him to play “the victim” and lie about “great forces trying to interfere with the election.”
“This will be a preview of his entire campaign this whole year,” he said.
Here are some highlights of Trump’s crowded schedule this week:
Trump made his first public appearance of the week Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., for a hearing before an appeals court about his long-shot claim of presidential immunity from prosecution for conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
Trump has had harsh words for prosecutors, who brought the federal conspiracy charges that involve the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
“Of course I was entitled, as President of the United States and Commander
in Chief, to Immunity,” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.
Smith and his team have ridiculed Trump’s argument for immunity. If allowed, they said, it would permit future presidents to commit bribery, treason, and murder without consequences.
After the immunity hearing, Trump returns to Iowa – just in time to skip a highly publicized CNN debate on Wednesday featuring Republican rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
Trump, who skipped all four presidential debates last year, will instead hold a Fox News town hall in Iowa. Thursday brings closing arguments in a civil bank fraud case that could cost Trump large parts of his business empire. It is not yet known whether Trump will attend the hearing in person.
Trump has steadily attacked Engoron, who in September held him liable for fraud by inflating the value of his assets to obtain favorable bank loans. Engoron also has fined Trump for violations of a court-issued gag order.
The judge is expected to rule soon on damages.
New York Attorney General Letitia James − another target of Trump’s political attacks − has asked the judge to order the former president to pay $370 million in damages.
Trump has “commit to caucus” rallies planned throughout the weekend back in Iowa.
The GOP front-runner is expected to be in Iowa on caucus night Monday – which is also the eve of another highprofile civil trial against him.
On Tuesday, the day after Iowa’s presidential primary, a damages trial is scheduled to start for Carroll, who last year won a $5 million judgment against Trump for defamation over an incident of sexual abuse during the 1990s. The judge in this second Carroll case ruled that Trump has already been found liable for defamation, so this trial is designed to determine more damages.