Donald Trump’s defense in his criminal trial just fell apart

| 7:52 pm EST December 1, 2023
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Donald Trump and his legal team don’t really have what you’d call a defense strategy in his criminal trials over the 2020 election. Instead Trump just keeps yelling “presidential immunity” and hoping it’ll stick. But even that weak attempt at a defense just got wiped out.

Earlier today the appeals court ruled that Trump’s claim of “presidential immunity” does not protect him from those bringing civil suits against him in relation to January 6th. In other words the courts just ruled that Trump’s planned defense for his criminal trials doesn’t exist. This was a big enough deal that legal expert Norm Eisen is calling the ruling one of the most significant moments in the criminal prosecution of Donald Trump. He’s also using it as a basis for predicting that Trump probably won’t be able to do anything to stop or delay his federal criminal trial in March of 2024. Then things got even better.

This evening, Judge Tanya Chutkan formally rejected Trump’s request that his criminal case be dismissed due to presidential immunity. Based on the timing it seems pretty clear that Chutkan felt that the appeals court ruling was a solid basis for rejecting Trump’s filing.

The other day I wrote that Donald Trump’s legal fate is not going to come down to things like gag orders, or the other sideshows that the media keeps putting front and center. Instead it’s going to come down to trials and convictions. Sure enough, today’s ruling points to Trump being tried and convicted well ahead of the 2024 election. And there are no antics that Trump can use to stop that from happening.