Trump’s Moment Of Truth Begins April 15

Former President Donald Trump is less than two weeks away from his first criminal trial – the Manhattan hush money/election interference case, scheduled to start on April 15.

Trump may finally have met his match in Judge Juan Merchan, who presides in this case.

And, judging by Trump’s recent attacks on the judge and on the judge’s daughter, the former President is apparently running scared.

While the three other criminal cases pending against Trump have run into various roadblocks, Judge Merchan has kept the April 15 start date for the Manhattan trial on the books despite multiple efforts by Trump and his lawyers to delay this case.

The Special Counsel’s Jan. 6 Case

The January 6 criminal case is being delayed by the Supreme Court’s leisurely approach to acting on Trump’s appeal related to his claim of presidential immunity.

The Court issued an opinion, favorable to Trump, in the Colorado ballot case in March, just 24 days after oral argument.

If the Justices match that timing, they will decide the immunity appeal by May 20 or so. If, instead, they drag their feet and wait to issue their decision until the end of the term, in late June or early July, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to have the Jan. 6 trial before the election. This would deprive voters of knowing before the election whether Trump is found guilty of attempting a presidential coup and inciting the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol.

The Mar-a-Lago Docs Case

The Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, seen by many as an open-and-shut matter, has been seriously hampered by Judge Aileen Cannon, most of whose procedural rulings to date appear to demonstrate a pro-Trump bias.

The Georgia Election Interference Case

The Georgia case involving Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 presidential election has been seriously slowed by the Trump legal team’s efforts to disqualify D.A. Fani Willis who was in a relationship with an attorney she hired to help lead the case. (That attorney has since resigned.)

Trump’s Insidious Efforts To Discredit The Rule Of Law

Trump has worked since he won the presidency in 2016 to delegitimize the legal system, particularly when it threatens to negatively affect him. He has obsessively sown distrust and lack of confidence in the rule of law and the judiciary.

Trump has carried out strategic attacks on judges, prosecutors, their families, and staff, endangering them. He has done this to threaten and intimidate them, as well as potential jurors and witnesses in his criminal cases.

Trump’s attacks on Judge Merchan’s daughter have led to the expansion of a gag order on Trump that prevents him from attacking the Judge’s family, expanding on an earlier gag order regarding jurors, witnesses, and others connected with the Manhattan case.

Importantly, Trump’s attacks on judges, prosecutors, and the rule of law are part of his broader effort to build political support with his followers and distract voters from the serious criminal charges he is facing.

Trump’s disrespect and disdain for our legal system extends from the judges and lawyers to those law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol and our democracy on January 6.

Trump praises the criminals convicted of the Jan. 6 mob violence, calls them “hostages,” salutes them, and promises to pardon them, despite the fact that most of the Jan. 6 inmates in the D.C. jail were convicted of injuring police officers during the attack.

All told, at least 140 police officers were injured during the Jan. 6 attack incited by Trump.

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The Manhattan criminal case, focused on Trump-directed “hush money” payments to quiet Stormy Daniels from going public about their affair, was an effort to influence and impact the 2016 presidential election.

The Jan. 6 and Georgia cases, focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, expose a coup attempt that, had it succeeded, would have overthrown our democracy.

In sum, former President Trump has done everything he can to delay the criminal cases, distract voters, and threaten and endanger those involved in the cases, while praising the violent participants of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

His moment of truth begins on April 15.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.