Jack Smith\u2002<\/u><\/a>and his team, who wanted the trial to begin in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut her chosen spot on the calendar is a lot closer to Smith\u2019s request than to the Trump team\u2019s implausible suggestion that the trial should be postponed until 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a remarkable choice, even if Chutkan professes indifference to the political ramifications of her decision. Around 14 states are expected to cast ballots in the GOP primary on Super Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GOP figures allied with Trump are indignant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was shocked that they would be this blatant,\u201d said one Republican operative supportive of Trump. \u201cOn what basis does the trial absolutely need to start the day before Super Tuesday? Are we really supposed to believe that this is just coincidence \u2014 that she didn\u2019t take anything about the politics into account?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump himself sounded a similar theme, blaming a \u201cbiased Trump Hating judge\u201d for setting a date that is \u201cjust what our corrupt government wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the former president could be on dangerous ground with posts like those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At an earlier hearing, Chutkan suggested that incendiary public pronouncements from Trump that could taint the jury pool would push her toward expediting his trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Separately, an unnamed spokesperson for the Trump campaign issued a statement contending that the date chosen by Chutkan meant that \u201cthe Biden regime is no longer hiding its nakedly political motivations.\u201d The statement also claimed that the date \u201cdeprives President Trump of his Constitutional right to a fair trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no guarantee that any of this will hurt Trump, at least so far as his battle for the Republican nomination is concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former president has now been indicted four times on a total of 91 charges. But, far from holing his campaign below the waterline, those charges instead appear to have prompted Republican voters to rally around Trump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The indictments, and the court appearances around them, have also coincided with fundraising spikes. On Friday, the day after Trump surrendered to authorities in Georgia, his campaign raised $4.18 million, according to figures first reported by Politico. The Trump campaign is selling merchandise adorned with his mug shot from the Georgia case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for the overall shape of the race, Trump is far and away the front-runner. On Monday afternoon, he was leading his closest GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 34 points in the weighted national polling average maintained by FiveThirtyEight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, the political dynamics could get complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a start, there are logistical concerns \u2014 namely that Trump\u2019s activities on the campaign trial will be circumscribed by the need to be present for trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the trial presided over by Chutkan, two of Trump\u2019s other cases have had nominal starting dates set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His trial in New York on charges of falsifying business records, relating to a hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels, is set to begin March 25. His Florida trial about the sensitive documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago is penciled in for May 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is an argument, of course, that this helps him with primary voters but it also limits his ability to campaign,\u201d the Trump-supportive operative said. \u201cThat\u2019s not something you want either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More skeptical voices within Republican circles believe that even the party\u2019s grassroots supporters will tire of the chaos Trump brings if they see him go on trial right in the middle of primary season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think there is a tipping point where they say, \u2018We\u2019ve just had enough of this,\u2019\u201d said Brad Blakeman, a longtime Republican operative who served in former President George W. Bush\u2019s White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blakeman also contended that plenty of Republican voters are aware of the damage being done to Trump\u2019s capacity to win a general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The criminal cases in aggregate, \u201churt him, in my opinion,\u201d Blakeman said. \u201cYou are not going to get independents or women, or fiscally responsible Democrats or middle-of-the-road Republicans. I talk to people all the time and they are over Trump \u2026 It\u2019s just too much drama.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It bears emphasizing that the general public does not share the GOP base\u2019s contention that the charges against Trump are unfair or that a preelection trial amounts to political interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Politico Magazine\/Ipsos poll released late last week found that a majority of Americans believe that each of the four cases Trump faces should go to trial before the 2024 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An AP\/Norc poll released earlier this month found that 53 percent of Americans believe Trump should indeed have been indicted in the federal case over which Chutkan is presiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is, of course, still possible that any of the Trump trial dates could slide back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Monday\u2019s decision by Chutkan, at a minimum, intensifies the drama over a scenario that is without parallel in American history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The judge in former President Trump\u2019s Jan. 6-related federal case landed a bombshell Monday when she set a date for his trial. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan\u2002announced jury selection in the trial would begin March 4 \u2014 the day before Super Tuesday, the biggest day on the GOP primary calendar. In making her decision, Chutkan declared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1700,5762,1906,1230],"class_list":["post-17276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-judge","tag-memo","tag-trial","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17278,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions\/17278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}