While Donald Trump worked to make the most politically out of the start of a civil fraud trial against him and his namesake company in New York, the former president is using a well-honed tactic in the two federal cases he faces: delay, delay, delay.
On Wednesday, Trump asked again to delay his classified documents trial in Florida, citing issues over accessing evidence in the case. In the election subversion case in Washington, DC, Trump has tried to push back filing and other deadlines and also filed a motion to dismiss the entire case, arguing his actions were protected under presidential immunity.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s office has argued that even when Trump isn’t outright asking to push back a trial date, the delays he is seeking – related to how classified material is handled in both cases as well as to certain filing deadlines – would have that same effect.
Trump is trying to “intentionally derail” proceedings, and requests for delays on pre-trial issues amount to “unwarranted extensions,” prosecutors said in court filings.
While Trump has frequently sought to drag out civil cases against him over the years, delaying criminal proceedings could have different benefits. If he wins a second presidential term, he could seek to pardon himself if he’s convicted. And if he doesn’t win the White House again, he could argue in any appeal that he was railroaded and pushed to trial too quickly by his political enemies.
“It’s been obvious that part of the goal of former President Trump and his lawyers is to push all of this past the election and throw a Hail Mary pass and hope that A) He wins and then B) He can make whatever happens here go away,” said Ken Gormley, a constitutional scholar, professor of law and president of Duquesne University.
It would be unprecedented for a president to pardon himself.
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