Topline
Jury selection in former President Donald Trump’s hush money case will begin on April 15, a judge in New York ordered on Monday, as the ex-president’s criminal charges are expected to come to a head in the coming months—but multiple cases face possibly lengthy delays.
Former President Donald Trump attends a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court on February 15 ... [+]
Timeline
Jury selection in the former president’s hush money trial is slated to start, Judge Juan Merchant ruled on March 25—prosecutors allege Trump falsified business records in conjunction with “hush-money” payments made to women during his 2016 campaign, with the ex-president facing 34 felony counts.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over whether the federal charges against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election can be dismissed—the last arguments they’ll hear this term—with justices considering whether former presidents are “immune” from prosecution stemming from what they allege are official acts they took while in the White House.
DOJ prosecutors have asked that Trump’s federal trial for allegedly mishandling White House documents take place in July—after a planned May trial date got delayed—while Trump wants U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to push the trial back until after the November election, or otherwise schedule it in August. Cannon, a Trump appointee, has not yet ruled on when the new trial date will be, and is also determining whether witnesses’ names should be unsealed in the case and Trump’s motions to dismiss the charges against him, as he was indicted for willfully retaining national security information and allegedly obstructing prosecutors’ investigation into the documents.
Trump’s trial date for his federal election case is up in the air, as the case is on pause and cannot resume until the Supreme Court rules (assuming justices rule against the former president). The court will issue its ruling sometime before the court’s term ends in late June, and legal experts at Just Security have speculated the trial could optimistically begin sometime between late July and October depending on when the ruling comes out—which could push a verdict until after the 2024 election. Trump faces four felony charges in the case, which is based on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney Fani Willis has requested this as the trial start date in her criminal case against Trump and his allies for trying to overturn the 2020 election, as Trump faces 13 felony charges as part of a broader alleged racketeering conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. It’s unclear whether the trial could actually take place then, as no final trial dates have yet been set. Willis also evaded a bid from Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify her over an alleged conflict of interest, though Trump is expected to appeal that decision.
Surprising Fact
Trump has until April 5 to pay a partial $175 million bond in his New York civil fraud case, after a judge ruled that Trump will not be required to immediately post the full $454 million bond. The ruling provides Trump a delay as he appeals the judgement against him, though the former president—who said he will be using cash as collateral for the bond—may still need to pay the full $454 million for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets—a steep penalty for the former presidents, whose cash stood at roughly $413 million earlier this month, according to Forbes.
What To Watch For
The cases against Trump carry the possibility of significant penalties against the former president, including prison time. Trump could be sentenced to up to 717.5 years in prison if he were convicted of every criminal count against him and given the maximum punishment, though that’s unlikely to happen. He could also be fined up to $11.2 million in the criminal cases against him. The ex-president also faces more legal challenges in which a trial date hasn’t been set yet, with civil lawsuits moving forward from Capitol police officers and Democratic lawmakers that seek to hold Trump liable for Jan. 6.
Tangent
The start of 2024 was already filled with a number of pivotal court dates for Trump, as closing arguments took place in the civil fraud trial against him and his company, he went to trial against writer E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case against him and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case seeking to disqualify Trump from Colorado’s ballot under the 14th Amendment. While the Supreme Court sided with Trump, keeping him on state ballots and killing lawsuits across the country challenging his candidacy, the two civil trials resulted in high penalties against him, as a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million and he was ordered to pay $454.2 million plus interest in the fraud trial.
Big Number
More than $540 million. That’s how much Trump has to pay as a result of the civil judgments against him in the Carroll and civil fraud trials. With Forbes estimating Trump’s cash and liquid assets at only $413 million, Trump has now had to contend with scrambling for cash alongside preparing for his criminal trials, as he has to pay cash into a court-controlled account or put up appeals bonds guaranteeing his ability to pay even as he appeals the judgments.
What We Don’t Know
How the pending cases will affect the 2024 election, particularly as it appears unlikely all the trials will take place before Election Day. Trump has tried to delay the trials against him until after the 2024 election, particularly given that in the federal cases against him, getting reelected would mean he could appoint prosecutors willing to drop the charges against him. Any convictions—particularly in the election-related cases—could also make swing voters less likely to vote for him, recent polling suggests. If Trump does get convicted before the election, it still wouldn’t necessarily thwart his chances of becoming president, however, as there’s nothing in the Constitution that bars convicted felons from being in the White House.
Chief Critic
Trump has strongly denied the charges and civil allegations against him, pleading not guilty to the criminal charges and declaring cases to be a “witch hunt” designed to harm his presidential candidacy. He has told reporters the Manhattan case was “election interference” designed to hurt him in November and argued his actions regarding the payments were “not a crime.” The ex-president has also continued to push false claims of election fraud despite facing repercussions for trying to overturn the 2020 election, claiming on Truth Social in January he “did nothing wrong” and was “bringing to light the fact that the Election was, without question, Rigged and Stolen.”
Key Background
Trump faces 91 total criminal charges in the four criminal cases against him, which were all brought in 2023 as yearslong investigations into the ex-president wrapped up and ended with indictments. He is the first sitting or former president to be charged with a felony. Trump’s pending legal cases come after the ex-president already began to face legal consequences in 2023, including being found liable for defaming and sexually abusing—but not raping—Carroll, who said Trump assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. New York Judge Arthur Engoron also ruled ahead of the civil fraud trial that Trump and his co-defendants—including his sons—were liable for fraud because they misstating the value of their assets on financial documents, which the state alleges was done to obtain more favorable business deals and reflect a higher net worth for Trump. The trial then moved forward on other allegations, such as whether the fraud was committed knowingly, resulting in Engoron once again ruling against Trump and his co-defendants in February.
Further Reading
