Judge Chutkan just laid down the law with Donald Trump

| 6:10 pm EDT August 8, 2023
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Yesterday Judge Chutkan announced that the DOJ and Donald Trump’s attorneys must agree to a date and time for a protective order hearing, taking place no later than this Friday. Trump’s lawyers responded by saying they’re too busy, and asked for the hearing to be delayed until next week.

Judge Chutkan’s response: nice try. After Chutkan made clear that the hearing will take place this week, Trump’s lawyers caved and agreed to a meeting at 10am this Friday. In other words, Trump’s delay tactics didn’t buy him a single day. As I’ve been saying for awhile, Trump’s tactics are simplistic and ineffective in this arena – not magic wands.

Donald Trump is now trying to save face by announcing that he won’t be attending the hearing. This has even prompted some misleading headlines about how he’s “blown off” the hearing. But at no point did the judge ask Trump to participate in this hearing; it’s solely between DOJ lawyers and Trump’s lawyers.

To be clear, Trump could never get away with “blowing off” any hearing ordered by the judge overseeing his criminal trial. That’s not a real thing. Trump is just trying to give off the appearance that he’s “blown off” this hearing, when he wasn’t even invited to begin with. Trump is absolutely powerless in this arena, as made clear by his inability to get this hearing delayed by even a single day.