{"id":2020116,"date":"2023-09-02T08:23:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T12:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prosecutions-case-in-dc-is-weak-but-trump-may-still-have-a-hard-time-in-election-interference-case-legal-experts-say\/"},"modified":"2023-09-02T08:26:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T12:26:50","slug":"prosecutions-case-in-dc-is-weak-but-trump-may-still-have-a-hard-time-in-election-interference-case-legal-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prosecutions-case-in-dc-is-weak-but-trump-may-still-have-a-hard-time-in-election-interference-case-legal-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal experts say that while the prosecution&#8217;s case in DC is weak, Trump may still face challenges in the election interference case."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">44<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fprosecutions-case-in-dc-is-weak-but-trump-may-still-have-a-hard-time-in-election-interference-case-legal-experts-say%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2020116&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<p>President Donald Trump\u2063 has good defenses available to him but that doesn\u2019t mean he\u200d will be treated fairly by the federal judge in Washington conducting his election interference trial, legal experts told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed to the\u200b U.S. District Court for\u2063 the District of Columbia \u2063in 2014 by\u200c President\u2064 Barack Obama, has scheduled the trial on election obstruction\u200c charges to begin on March 4, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say Judge Chutkan has been unfair to those charged in the security breach and rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that delayed congressional certification of\u2063 the 2020 presidential election by a few hours. She has\u200b often imposed prison sentences on such defendants that are harsher than what \u200dU.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors have sought.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode\">\n<div class=\"border-comp-divider mb-4 mr-4 w-full max-w-[500px] border px-5 py-4 text-[16px] leading-[20px] text-[#262626] md:float-left\">\n<div class=\"mb-3 font-sans text-[16px] font-semibold uppercase leading-[19px] text-[#2F2F2F]\">Related Stories<\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\">\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/legal-experts-say-georgia-charges-against-trump-violate-democratic-norms-5464849\">Legal Experts Say Georgia Charges Against Trump Violate Democratic Norms<\/a>\n          <\/div>\n<div class=\"text-comp-caption text-[14px] leading-[18px]\">8\/15\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\">\n          <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/legal-experts-say-georgia-charges-against-trump-violate-democratic-norms-5464849\"><\/a>\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\">\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/trump-lawyers-urge-court-to-reject-proposed-gag-order-in-2020-election-case-5449386\">Trump Lawyers\u200c Urge Court to Reject Proposed Gag Order in 2020 Election Case<\/a>\n          <\/div>\n<div class=\"text-comp-caption text-[14px] leading-[18px]\">8\/7\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\">\n          <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/trump-lawyers-urge-court-to-reject-proposed-gag-order-in-2020-election-case-5449386\"><\/a>\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>President Trump himself has said Judge Chutkan should\u200b be recused from the case and that the trial should be moved out of the nation\u2019s\u2064 capital because the jury pool will be filled with Democrats.<\/p>\n<h2>Trial Date<\/h2>\n<p>President\u2062 Trump\u2019s attorneys had asked\u200d for a trial date in April 2026, which is long after the November 2024 election, but the \u200cjudge said the defense did not need \u2062that long to put its case together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr.\u2062 Trump will have to make the trial date work, regardless \u200bof his schedule,\u201d Judge Chutkan said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-placeholder\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The trial date is a\u2064 political problem for President Trump, who \u200cis campaigning for the presidency for the third time, because it falls the day before the Republican\u2064 Party\u2019s \u201cSuper Tuesday\u201d primary contests in 15 states, including the convention delegate-rich \u200bstates of Texas, California, and North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump and his supporters say that the\u200d scheduling of the trial by the\u200d Democrat-appointed judge constitutes interference in the 2024 election. His legal team may yet succeed in delaying the trial date if \u200cit files\u200d appeals in the U.S. \u200cCourt of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit \u2063or in the\u200b Supreme Court, but \u200dthe outcome of any\u2064 such\u2063 appeals is\u2062 uncertain.<\/p>\n<p>There is not a constitutional crisis because President Trump is \u2064\u201cnot currently president,\u201d so the \u200ctrials are not going to interfere with official duties, but \u200d\u201cto the extent that these\u2064 indictments are \u2062interfering with the ability to conduct a presidential election, then yes, it is a constitutional crisis,\u201d Attorney Curt Levey,\u200c president of\u2063 the Committee for Justice, a conservative legal advocacy nonprofit, told The \u200cEpoch Times.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Outcome-Determinative Fraud&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>The indictment (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/storage\/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>) approved\u200b by the grand jury on Aug.\u2063 1 \u200cstates that after losing\u200b the 2020 presidential election, President Trump \u201cspread lies that there had \u2062been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he \u2063had \u200bactually won. \u200bThese claims were false, and the\u2064 Defendant knew that\u200d they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway\u2014to make his knowingly false claims\u2062 appear legitimate, create an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-grand-jury-indicts-trump-over-alleged-efforts-to-overturn-election\/\" title=\"Trump indicted by Federal Grand Jury for alleged election interference.\">intense national atmosphere<\/a> of mistrust and anger, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/three-key-takeaways-from-john-durhams-first-public-testimony-on-trump-russia-report\/\" title=\"Key takeaways from John Durham's first public testimony on Trump-Russia report:\">erode public faith<\/a> in the administration of \u2064the election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>President Trump \u2064\u201chad a right,\u200d like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that \u200cthere had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won. He was also entitled to\u200b formally challenge the\u2063 results of the election through lawful and appropriate means, \u200csuch as\u200d by seeking recounts or audits\u2064 of the popular vote in states or\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prosecutions-case-in-dc-is-weak-but-trump-may-still-have-a-hard-time-in-election-interference-case-legal-experts-say\/\" title=\"Legal experts say that while the prosecution's case in DC is weak, Trump may still face challenges in the election interference case.\">filing lawsuits challenging ballots<\/a> and procedures. Indeed, in many cases, the Defendant did pursue these methods \u2062of contesting the election results. \u200cHis efforts to change the outcome in any state through recounts,\u200c audits,\u2063 or\u2064 legal challenges were uniformly unsuccessful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But after Election Day, he \u201calso pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results. In\u200c so doing,\u2064 the\u200c Defendant perpetrated three criminal conspiracies:<\/p>\n<p>\u201ca. A conspiracy to defraud the United\u200d States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the\u2063 lawful federal\u2063 government function \u2064by which the results of the presidential election are collected, \u200dcounted, and certified by the federal government, in violation of 18 U.S.C. [section] 371;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cb. A conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and \u200dimpede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the\u200d presidential election are counted and certified (\u2018the certification proceeding\u2019), in violation of 18 U.S.C. [section] 1512(k); and<\/p>\n<p>\u201cc. A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one\u2019s vote counted, in violation of 18 U.S.C. [section] 241.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Section 241 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, is a law that dates back to the Reconstruction era. The provision was part of the Enforcement Act of 1870, one of the laws known as the Ku\u2063 Klux Klan Acts that were \u200benacted to \u200bprotect the rights \u2063of blacks that were newly recognized by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, from infringement by once-powerful organizations such as the Klan.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the indictment \u200bstates that President \u200dTrump \u201cattempted to,\u200d and did, corruptly\u200c obstruct and\u2063 impede an \u2063official proceeding, \u2062that is, the certification to the election vote,\u201d contrary to 18 \u2062U.S.C. \u2063section 1512(c)(2).<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Difficult \u200cCase&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Criminal defense attorney and former\u200b deputy district attorney\u2062 David Gelman of Gelman Law in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, said the \u200cprosecution is going to have a hard time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a very difficult case \u200bfor them to prove,\u201d Mr. Gelman told The \u2063Epoch Times in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust conspiracy alone\u2014I don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to possibly prove that the president \u2026\u2063 conspired or agreed \u2064to commit an act\u200d or\u200b an overt act \u2062in furtherance of a crime. \u2026 I don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to do\u2062 that,\u201d\u2064 he\u2064 said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI \u2062think \u2064the federal government has a pretty high burden to prove here, where I\u200c don\u2019t think \u200cthey\u2019re going\u200b to be successful in doing so,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>Trying President Trump as early as March 2024 is \u201cimpossible,\u201d he said. \u201cI would bet everything I got that that will not occur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution disclosed almost 11 million documents to the defense and \u201cthere is just no \u2062way \u200dthat his legal \u200dteam is going\u200c to be able to \u2026 look through all the discovery,\u201d prepare the\u200b president, and have\u2064 a trial in that\u2063 timeframe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would violate\u2064 his due process \u2063rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>There may be\u2062 three other Trump trials scheduled for around \u200cthe same time,\u2063 which are also being rushed, and this fact in itself will spark appeals, he said,\u2064 adding the other\u200c trials are also unlikely to be moving forward at that time.<\/p>\n<h2>Immunity<\/h2>\n<p>Mr. Levey said \u2063Judge Chutkan is \u201chostile to Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She is likely to reject any argument that President Trump\u2063 is immune from prosecution based on his activities being related to his job as president, Mr. Levey said.<\/p>\n<p>If \u2064any unfavorable rulings the judge may make are\u200b appealed, the U.S. Court of\u2063 Appeals for the District\u2063 of Columbia \u2063Circuit, which is \u201cpoliticized\u201d and \u201cleans left,\u201d \u2063will probably rule against President Trump,\u200b so \u201cit\u2019s ultimately going to be up to\u2064 the Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Levey\u200d said the Supreme Court has been \u2062\u201call over the place with presidential immunity, and that\u2019s because it\u2019s not in the Constitution,\u201d although it is implied that the president \u201chas to\u2063 have a \u2062reasonable amount of immunity in order to do his job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe\u2062 court has tried to strike a balance between justice\u200d and the \u200cfact \u2063that the president has to function,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u200d don\u2019t want to chill free speech, you don\u2019t want to chill the decision-making ability of a president, so you \u200bhave to steer very clear\u200b of anything that can be \u2064within the president\u2019s legitimate\u2063 functions. Otherwise,\u200c you\u2019re going to chill the decision-making \u200dability of this and future presidents,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Although the Supreme Court \u2062has ruled on issues related to presidents and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/police-firefighters-sue-ore-gov-brown-over-vaccine-mandate\/\" title=\"Police, firefighters sue Ore. Gov. Brown over vaccine mandate\">executive branch employees<\/a> being\u2062 sued\u2064 or criminally investigated, this is the first time that a former \u200dpresident has ever been indicted before.<\/p>\n<p>Complicating matters further is the fact that President Trump is running to get his old job back and may be president again in\u200d January 2025. If the prosecutions are \u200cstill in progress at\u200b the outset of a \u200bsecond Trump administration, it is unclear what will happen to them.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in Nixon v. Fitzgerald that\u2062 a president enjoys absolute immunity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legal experts have stated that President Donald Trump possesses strong defenses, yet they express concerns about receiving fair treatment from Judge Tanya Chutkan, who presides over his election interference trial in Washington. Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014, her impartiality is questioned by some. (54 words)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":2020117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2020116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2020117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2020116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2020116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2020116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}