Donald Trump hit with midnight deadline
When Federal Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Donald Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran must testify to a DOJ grand jury about an incriminating phone call he had with Trump, it brought out the usual defeatist chants about how Trump would just “delay, delay, delay” and “run out the clock.” But as I’ve pointed out more than once, Trump does not have a magic wand for just delaying things to his liking. Moreover, the courts tend to resolve disputes over grand jury testimony rather swiftly.
Sure enough, Trump has appealed Judge Howell’s ruling. But to give you an idea of how quickly this process is likely to play out, the appeals court has given Trump a deadline of midnight tonight to make its filing, and it’s given Jack Smith a deadline of 6am tomorrow to make its filing, according to Politico.
This shows just how quickly the appeals court is looking to process this matter. We should certainly see a ruling within days – and there’s no reason to expect the ruling to go in Trump’s favor. And even if Trump takes it to the Supreme Court after that, we’d be surprised if more than a week goes by before it announces it’s not going to hear the case. Once that happens, Corcoran will immediately be put in front of the grand jury, giving Jack Smith the smoking gun witness testimony to indict Trump for obstruction of justice.
