Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Federal Judge Sends CLEAR MESSAGE on Trump Trial Date

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Judge Chutkan in the DC Election interference case against Trump is ready to CANCEL HER JULY VACATION to try the Trump criminal case if the appeals court and Supreme Court rules against Trump by end of April on whether Trump has presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. Michael Popok of Legal AF explains why “indefinite postponement” in the Court’s recent order doesn’t mean what people think it means. Head to https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/collections/sale?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=legalaf right now to get 15% off your entire order! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. I gotta clear up some misreporting out there about Donald Trump's date with special counsel, Jack Smith, that was scheduled for the DC election interference case with Judge Chutkin to take place on March 4th. And now I see reporting out there, including friends of mine, text to be saying

that the postponement by Judge Chutkin, while she awaits as we all do, the DC Court of Appeals three judge panel ruling on whether Donald Trump has presidential immunity for criminal acts while in office, spoiler alert, he doesn't, that it's an indefinite, it's an indefinite postponement. And I've had people on the other side of the aisle, you know, say there, I told you so, he'll never be tried.

No, let me clear it up right now. We got some new reporting about commentary, comments made by Judge Chutkin that I'm going to interpret for you right now. Let me first give you the headline up front, and then I'll back into the analysis in this hot take. It is likely that Donald Trump will go to trial in the DC election interference case sometime in Iowa thing July or August or September, well in time for

there to be a jury verdict in federal court on the four counts or so against Donald Trump for election interference before the November election, which is what we're trying to do. Trials that start that don't end in time for the election, for the voters to know about it, in time for the election, for the voters to know about it, aren't what we're focused on here, trying to get trial results before November 5th is what we're focused on. So hold this concept now while I give you the rest. Let's say the trial is gonna be in June, July, or August,

and I'll tell you how I get there. And I'll give you a new comment by Judge Jutkin in which she told people in another trial setting for another of the Jan 6 cases that she had planned to be out of the country in July because that's when federal judges usually take holiday. Some of them go abroad. Some of them take on teaching assignments or do our speakers at certain seminars in the summer for lawyers and law students, international comparative law type things. She told the lawyers assembled in the non-judge, the non-Donald Trump case that she plans to be out of the country in July as they were doing their calendaring, unless I'm in trial in another case. Okay.

Let's unpack that. When Judge Chutkin set the trial date originally, right? Which is already about nine months ago for the DC election interference case. She rejected all of the efforts by Donald Trump to postpone the trial for another year, year and a half and put it out beyond the November election. And she said on record that seven months of preparation time was enough for Donald Trump to get ready for this trial. That that would be appropriate and consistent with due process. And

she set the trial date. And no appeal is going to change that because when a case goes to trial, it's within the full absolute discretion of a trial court judge. So remember that, seven months. It's gonna be relatively simple lawyer math here. Seven months. He was five months into the seven month prep or so, when, or just short of it, when Trump filed a notice of appeal,

arguing that he had absolute presidential immunity to have his indictment dismissed. And that stopped the case dead in its tracks, right? We are almost at the two month mark since the case was stopped. So from the perspective of the judge, I think whenever she, if she's to get the case back, she's gonna add that two months onto the back end and reset the trial date.

Meaning if we get, and I know everybody's speculating and I've seen other legal commentators on television, ones that we admire say, oh, I'm getting very upset now that the DC three judge panel hasn't yet ruled. We thought they were going to rule within days and it's been a month. What's taking them so long? Well, you know, they're going to, they're going to rule likely for the first time in our entire American history that a former or a president at the time doesn't have absolute immunity from criminal

prosecution. And they probably want to get that really right and get it written really well, knowing that it's already going up to the United States Supreme Court. Putting aside the timing for a minute, yes, we think it's a little bit long now, but in the grand scheme of things, one month waiting for an appeal is not that long.

I've waited four months, six months, and a year, not on as momentous as historic issues, but I'm just giving you some perspective. Let's say we get it this week, right? During February, February 5th, we get a decision. Then they will return it to Judge Chutkin, because we all believe we'd be shocked if they found there was presidential immunity

to dismiss the case against Donald Trump. Donald Trump would then, let's say he received that decision this week, returning it back to Judge Chutkin, before she can set it for trial or reset it for trial, it will go up to the United States Supreme Court, who's already indicated when they rejected the direct appeal by Jack Smith's team,

because they try to bypass the DC Court of Appeals and take it directly to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court said, nah, do the normal way, come up through the intermediary appellate court. Did you know that fast growing trees is the biggest online nursery in the U.S. with more than 10,000 different kinds of plants and over 2 million happy customers in the U.S.? You can grow lemon, avocado, olive, or fig trees inside your home on top of the wide variety of house plants available. Fast growing trees makes it easy to order online and your plants are shipped directly to your door in one to two

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fastgrowingtrees.com, code legalaf. This offer is valid for a limited time. Tell them we sent you. I've been using fast growing trees for years. I'm so thrilled they're our sponsor. So, but we're still waiting. They then, Trump, if he loses on the losing end of the decision this week, let's say,

he then tries to take an emergency application to the Supreme Court through Chief Justice Roberts who sits over the All Things District of Columbia. He has to decide either on his own or with the rest of his teammates of the Supreme Court whether they're going to take that appeal. He's going to turn it over to the full court. They'll decide they may do an administrative hold for a short period of time, two or three weeks while the briefing goes on about the appeal. So there we've lost now the month of February.

They then set a briefing schedule, which would take place in the month of March. They then would set oral argument, let's say towards the end of the month of March, and then they would enter their decision sometime end of March or in sometime in April. Let's say by April 30th, we have the decision of the Supreme Court and it's against Donald Trump. Okay. And then returns to Judge Chutkin, middle to end of

April. She's going to add that two more months or so back on to Donald Trump's preparation calendar. And now we're in June or July. And that's why she made the comment in court that's been reported in an unrelated case that I may be trying another case in July, but absent that, I plan to be on my vacation. So we're kind of putting all of these data points together. So don't be that concerned. I know there was a lot of reporting, we even did it on Legal AF

about this one line order from the judge taking it off the docket, the trial. And that has a lot of impact. I think there was two audiences for that. One audience was obvious. It was the public so that they weren't sitting around thinking that March 4th was still a possible trial date in the DC election interference case.

The second audience was the DC court of appeals slash the Supreme court. Cause she's telling her bosses the DC court of appeals, if and when you ever get around to making that decision and it comes back to me until then the case is off the docket. Hurry up. You know, I look, that's what a trial judge has to do. Sometimes you have to manage up, right?

You have to, these are your bosses, but you gotta manage up and send a signal up there, right? Manage your bosses and tell them, you're holding me up. I'm ripping it off the docket. If you didn't want me to take it off the docket, then you should have moved faster in your ruling. That's sort of the communication I think's going on here. In a nice collegial way, in a respectful way,

trial judge up to the bosses at the DC Court of Appeals, maybe a court of appeals that she wants to serve on one day. I get it, but those are the, that's the audiences. But don't, don't, I don't want people to be disheartened because last week they heard, oh, it's an indefinite postponement. That's not, that's not what it means. Indefinite post-poment sounds like it'll never be reset. That's not what it is. It is a temporary removal from the docket subject to the appellate court move it its backside and issuing its decision, the Supreme Court stepping in,

deciding whether to stay. And then when all that does settles by let's say the end of April through these two processes appellate that I just described, then Judge Jutkin will have a new hearing in which she will reset the trial and it looks like she'd love to do it in June or July if she gets it back in time, which would give Donald Trump the full seven months or so of prep time that she wants him to have. So that is a long winded explanation as to new information from Judge Judkin that she's fully prepared to clear her docket and cancel her vacation and

try the case in July. If she gets it back in time, meaning in the next, you know, by the end of April, I think by the end of April, beginning of May, we're still looking at a July trial of Donald Trump. And in federal court, that should move quickly. We should have a jury verdict within eight weeks, which would be well in advance of the November election. So people know thumbs up or thumbs down,

whether they're voting for a criminal or not, or he's been exonerated. I mean, whatever it is, it is. We just want to get them to the jury process. It's not a foregone conclusion, although we think there's a lot of evidence against them. And the people need to know. Recent polling shows that even 54% of Republicans want to know whether he is a convicted criminal or not. And if he is, they're not going to vote for him. It's important

to their voting decision is what I'm trying to say. And it's important to what we do here on the Midas Touch Network, two million strong moving towards three million. And what we do on Legal AF every Wednesday and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern Time at the intersection of law, justice, and politics. If you like what I'm doing here, leave me a thumbs up and a comment, and I'll come right back at you with another hot take. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Hey, Midas Mighty. Love this report.

Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram, at MidasTouch. next legal AF. This is Michael Popak reporting.