On Tuesday in New York City, Donald Trump will be arraigned. As the litigious former president builds a defense, his case could drag on past the 2024 U.S. presidential election in which he is running.
A New York grand jury indicted Trump last week for paying Stormy Daniels hush money in 2016.
Trump’s court presence should reveal the sealed indictment.
New York City criminal defense attorney Lance Fletcher, a former Manhattan District Attorney, said a normal felony takes a year to go to trial.
“This back and forth during the pretrial could easily take two years,” Fletcher told VOA. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this took more than two years.”
Trump’s arraignment, or first court appearance, will be presided over by Juan Merchan, who will read the counts against him. Trump will plead not guilty.
Jury selection and trial follow months of pre-trial procedures.
Trump’s lawyer has said the former president will not accept a plea bargain, even though more than 90% of felony cases in New York, as in the rest of the nation, do.
New York’s speedy trial laws require crime trials to start six months after arraignment. The deadline is usually missed because both sides request more time to prepare.
Trump’s newly expanded legal team has sworn to fight the charges before they’re presented to a jury.
Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina has said he’ll try to get the charges dropped based on the case’s new legal theory in recent days. Experts doubt the court will comply.
Trump can fight and prolong the case even if the court does not dismiss the charges. Pre-trial motions ask the court to settle issues before the trial.
Motions to dismiss charges for lack of evidence, suppress evidence acquired illegally, and change the trial site due to excessive publicity are common pre-trial motions in criminal cases.
Experts expect Trump’s defense team to bring all of those issues and more.
According to Fordham University School of Law clinical associate professor Cheryl Bader, Trump’s defense lawyers will likely dispute his indictment on New York’s statute of limitations.
Crimes can be prosecuted within a term of limitations. Misdemeanors in New York have a two-year statue of limitations and most felonies five.
Trump’s defense lawyers may claim that he can’t be charged for the alleged hush money payment because it was made nearly seven years ago.
Fletcher said New York prosecutors have “gone this far with it, I’d be shocked if any of this gets dismissed on a statute of limitations violation,” but the law allows exceptions.
Discovery, the crucial information-sharing process, will likely spark another pre-trial fight.
Fletcher called the Trump team’s request “an ocean of material,” including all investigation notes and business and money records.
The former lawyer estimated “thousands or tens of thousands” of pages. “With every page that’s turned over they’ll be able to argue back and forth about whether that’s the complete record of that document.”
George Washington University law scholar Jonathan Turley predicted a “early fight” over a Trump gag order.
Judges have increasingly ordered defendants not to remark on high-profile cases.
Turley, a Republican-invited witness at Trump’s first impeachment session, said a gag order on a presidential candidate could violate his First Amendment rights.
“This is someone running for president, and one of his issues is the politicization of the criminal justice system,” Turley said in an interview.
The court approves pre-trial motions.
“His attorneys can ask the court for adjournments but those are generally at the judge’s discretion and with all the eyes of the nation watching, and primaries right around the corner, this judge may want to keep this case moving without delay,” Bader said when asked how Trump could delay the case.
“There are several legal issues in the case — many of which are novel questions of law, so the judge will need to give Trump’s lawyers a chance to argue their motions,” Bader said.
Trump can celebrate acquittal. If convicted, he has numerous appeal options.
Fletcher said he could initially challenge his conviction in trial court under New York’s criminal procedure law, saying that the jury erred.
If that fails, he could move to the state appellate courts and the Supreme Court.
Turley said a pre-trial appeal was possible.
“If the judge denies the motion to dismiss, Trump’s counsel is likely to ask for a right to go to the Court of Appeals [New York’s highest appellate court], even potentially the Supreme Court before any trial,” Turley said.
CWEB and VOA News have provided some information for this story.
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