CNN
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Donald Trump had a bad day in court on Tuesday — or more precisely, in court.
The former president has absorbed a stunning defeat in the Supreme Court over a lengthy campaign to cover up his tax returns. Meanwhile, a Republican-appointed appeals court judge seemed cool with his recent bid to delay the classified documents case in Mar-a-Lago. A trial date has been set for October 2023 for the state’s $250 million lawsuit alleging fraud against the child and his organization. And with a lingering hangover from his false allegations of fraud in 2020, Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham testified for a Georgia grand jury to investigate the former president’s alleged election theft. .
Given Trump’s high legal exposure and habit of using the pace of courtroom deliberations to delay accountability, it’s unlikely that he’ll be struggling with ongoing lawsuits on the same day. It’s not uncommon.
But Tuesday’s developments showed that the legal turmoil and dangers surrounding him were in full focus for the first time since declaring his third run for the Republican presidential nomination last week. Whether the swirling dangers he faces in court will undermine his ability to run a credible campaign, and alienate key Republican voters who might consider another candidate. It’s the first test of what.
Several developments on Tuesday, including the documentary lawsuit and the fact that Trump’s tax returns will soon fall into the hands of Democrats weeks before Republicans take control of the House, are two consistent Trump legal strategies fraying. The first is his claim that as a former president, he deserves to be treated differently under the law than other American citizens. Second, his delay, delay, delay approach may have reached the limits of its usefulness. Still, the former president has long shunned a scandal that might have battered other politicians. And he’s sure to leverage the case’s new twist to strengthen the persecution narrative that’s central to his new campaign for the White House.
But Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is also considering the 2024 Republican presidential primary, told CNN Tuesday that new evidence of the turmoil surrounding Trump could be a turnoff for Republican voters. I said yes.
“When you see this kind of turmoil surrounding a presidential candidate, it makes the public dizzy,” Hutchinson told CNN’s Briana Keylor. It simply reflects all the challenges that come with running for
Trump’s refusal to follow suit by making his tax returns public during the 2016 presidential election was one of the first signs of his determination to break the norm. The Supreme Court’s decision not to block filing tax forms with the House Ways and Means Committee was a significant personal and political defeat.
The Democratic leadership on the committee says they want the returns to determine whether there is a case for changing tax laws on incumbent presidents. The potential for hidden conflicts of interest or obligations owed to the President, or the possibility of such returns being unpaid or unpaid, could be problematic given the CEO’s power to set tax policy. A lower court had previously found that the commission had a legitimate legislative purpose to ascertain earnings. But with only a few weeks left before Republicans take over the House, it’s unclear how long Democrats will need to consider the bottom line or potentially change the law.
Nor is it certain that the public will see the benefits that Trump has long hidden. Texas Democrat Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who is on the committee, told CNN’s Erin Barnett on Tuesday that the documents are subject to privacy protections. But he also said the panel had the option of making the document public, and that “the time pressure here creates additional reasons to consider it.”
Commenting on the case, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard Neal, a Democrat for Massachusetts, said the Supreme Court upheld a key norm. And today is no exception.This goes beyond politics and the Commission will have the oversight we have been asking for for the last three and a half years.”
But Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the committee, warned that by sidelining the courts, they had set a precedent that meant they could not protect citizens from the political majority.
“By giving virtually unrestricted powers to the majority political parties in both houses of Congress to target and publish the tax returns of their political opponents: politicians, private citizens, even Supreme Court judges, they We are opening up a dangerous new political battlefield and no citizen is safe,” Brady said in a statement.
One interesting question is whether Trump’s loss in the tax return battle will affect how future Republican presidential candidates treat their financial records. Modern traditions of sex couldn’t be re-established. They could potentially overtake Trump.
Another major disappointment for Trump is the issue of the Mar-a-Lago documents, which now appear to put key protections the former president had from a Florida lower court judge in jeopardy. . DOJ is investigating the former president for possible obstruction of justice, criminal handling of government records, and possible violations of the Espionage Act, which prohibits unauthorized storage of defense information.
A panel of three judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump had the right to give a third party, known as a special master, to sift through about 22,000 pages of material taken from a Florida resort. expressed skepticism about the reasons given by Mr. The key question here is whether Mr. Trump, as a former president, is entitled to judicial intervention that, if widely adopted, would delay countless routine lawsuits involving other Americans.
In one comment widely watched by legal analysts, Judge William Pryor, the head of the Court of Appeals, cast doubt on Trump’s claims.
“We need to be concerned that the criminal subject of a federal criminal investigation is brought to a district court, creating a precedent that allows the district court to accept petitions of this kind and to exercise impartial jurisdiction. The court will step in and interfere with the executive branch’s ongoing investigation,” Pryor told Trump’s attorney James Trusty.
“Apart from the fact that this has to do with the former president, everything else about this is… indistinguishable,” Pryor told the Trustee during the discussion.
Another judge, Britt Grant, accused the trustee of calling the FBI search for Trump’s property a “raid,” as the former president has repeatedly done. “Do you think raid is the proper term for warrant enforcement?” Grant asked. Trustee apologizes for using “loaded terms”.
Former Pentagon special counsel Ryan Goodman told CNN’s Barnett that the court may decide to dismiss Judge Eileen Cannon, who appointed the special master.
“They would basically say you shouldn’t have exercised jurisdiction in the first place, Judge Cannon, you didn’t have it,” Goodman said.
Such a move could significantly speed up document litigation after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee it last week.
It may also provide a clearer perspective for the public who must assess yet another unprecedented political scenario involving Trump. But Tuesday gave signs that each may be nearing a resolution.
