Posted on 04/06/2024 8:15:40 AM PDT by thegagline
Former President Donald Trump lost three major legal challenges in the past week, including his efforts to dismiss a racketeering case on First Amendment grounds.
Here is a look at the rulings in three separate cases this week in Georgia, Florida, and New York.
New York judge denies Trump’s attempt to delay hush money trial
New York Judge Juan Merchan denied the former president’s attempt to delay his criminal hush money trial on Wednesday, after Trump claimed he was protected under presidential immunity.
Merchan said that Trump had plenty of opportunity before March to claim presidential immunity in the case. Trump asked Merchan to delay the trial until after the Supreme Court rules on his immunity claim, but the trial is slated to begin April 15, and the Supreme Court won’t hear arguments in the immunity case until April 25.
The case, which is the only criminal trial that could have a verdict prior to the 2024 elections this November, centers on claims that Trump allegedly paid hush money to former porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
He has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, and has pleaded “not guilty,” to all counts.
Georgia judge rejects Trump’s attempt to dismiss RICO case through a First Amendment challenge
Georgia judge Scott McAfee on Thursday denied Trump’s claim that his public statements and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election were protected under his right to free speech.
McAfee said that Trump was not protected by the First Amendment because the indictments claim the statements were made in “furtherance of criminal activity.”
“In other words, the law does not insulate speech allegedly made during fraudulent or criminal conduct from prosecution under the guise of petitioning the government,” McAfee wrote in the ruling. “The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech.”
Florida judge declines Trump’s latest bid to dismiss classified docs case
Florida judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Trump was not protected under the Presidential Records Act on Thursday, marking the second time she rejected Trump’s attempt to dismiss the case.
Trump’s team claimed that he had the authority as president to designate certain presidential documents, such as the classified documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago resort, as personal even after he left office.
Presidents are usually required to hand over presidential records to the National Archives at the end of their term, but they can keep personal documents that are unrelated to their duties as commander in chief.
Cannon has indicated that she would take the PRA into account in the case, directing Trump’s legal team and the prosecution to prepare jury instructions with the PRA in mind. But she claimed that the current argument Trump filed earlier this week is not grounds for dismissal of the case.
The Florida trial was originally expected to begin in May, but there will likely be a delay in the proceedings. The prosecution, led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, has proposed a July 8 start date instead.
TRUMP ALSO TOLD PEOPLE TO WATCH A TV SHOW “IN FURTHERANCE OF THE CONSPIRACY”... HOW EVIL!!!!!
The nonsense about him falsifying business records involves notations that he made payments to his attorney - which is exactly what the payments were.
After that, they claim the payments to Stormy Daniels were actually campaign expenditures, which they were not.
All of the cases would have been dismissed out of hand if brought against any other former president.
Yeah, no Free Speech because when he told people to peacefully protest, it was in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy.
When can peaceful protest ever be illegal?
“Merchan said that Trump had plenty of opportunity before March”
He would have dismissed just as quickly.
He’s clearly not just a biased judge but a paid corrupt judge. Nothing but a Third World Tinpot crook making sure his family mafia is doing the bidding of El Jefe, for which he will be richly rewarded. Loren will be driving Bentley’s for the rest of her life if he pulls this off.
Importing this trash from South America is having exactly the effect we all feared.
Clinton was a traitor and a national security nightmare.
China repeatedly and flagrantly violated every nuclear non-proliferation treaty they ever signed. Instead of sanctions, Clinton pushed for MFN status because chinese front men (some of whom were given security clearances) were funneling millions in illegal campaign cash into his campaign.
He implemented GLX, transferred sensitive technology sales away from the DOD and DOS, and proceeded to sell the store.
Those sales made their way to terrorism sponsors around the globe.
He refused to quickly indenitfy and replace a source for our weapons grade tritium, jeopardizing the long-term stability of our nuclear stockpile.
His administration fired the whistle blowers who uncovered chinese espionage at Los Alamos.
I haven’t even touched on the $454M we were sending to Russia to bulk up THEIR military, the Grand Staircase Escalante scam, the shuttering of coal plants, the Waco debacle, the Buddhist Temple scandal, Project Meggidio, and a whole lot more. Every national security nightmare we are battling now is directly tied back to his administration.
He was a slimy POS @#$%&&( who betrayed America at every turn. May he burn.
There are two distinct sides in my opinion.
1) Leftists who will not under any circumstances allow Donald Trump to win and be sworn in as President again. Lawfare, election fraud and Dealey Plaza II all acceptable strategies to them. Underestimating them or projecting one’s own sense of decency, limits and mercy onto them is naive.
2) People who will not condone or accept the destruction by law or taking of his life of Donald Trump.
My tagline....
There’s a battle outside and it’s raging. It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls.BD
Nobody trusts the courts. The reality is president Trump is going to have to resent the evidence he says he has and will be found not guilty.
The courts disarmed Trump of his first amendment rights but the battle is far from being over.
It’s what the democrats fear most and it’s showing.
All good points many of which I’d forgotten. Thanks.
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