Dina’s Docket: Weekly Trump Recap (2/16/24)
Friday, February 16, 2024
Another week, another round of updates in the many ongoing Trump trials. (The nonpartisan nonprofit JUST SECURITY has a fabulous master calendar of key dates in Trump’s trials.)
Donald Trump got a huge loss today in his New York civil fraud case. The judge ordered him to pay $350 million, which will nearly wipe out his cash reserves and also said he cannot do business for three years in New York — and that his sons can't do business for two years. Eric Trump, the former president’s son, is the one currently running the business, so the family business may not have a family member to run it. In his order, the judge said their complete lack of contrition bordered on pathological. In this judicial proceeding, such a statement being made against a man who is running for President is powerful.
Trump's first criminal trial will start March 25th in New York. It's expected to last about six weeks and it will pit Alvin Bragg against Trump. Bragg will need to prove that Trump falsified business records in order to commit a crime — essentially the fact that he made three hush money payments (to two porn stars and one to a doorman,) n order to conceal stories to help his election in 2016. If you remember, Michael Cohen already went to jail in relation to this because Trump made payments to him saying they were for legal services, but they were really to reimburse the hush money payments. Trump isn't disputing he made the payments; he's just saying he did it because it was personally embarrassing. Now, a jury of 12 people will decide.
Donald Trump is trying to get Fani Willis, the district attorney in Georgia, kicked off of his case. You and you could see why. Even though she was on the witness stand, she controlled that courtroom. The hearing was ostensibly about whether or not there was a conflict of interest in her hiring Nathan Wade, one of the special prosecutors. The defense is trying to say that she somehow was profiting from this since they were dating for some period of time. Whether or not they split dinners and split the trips was evidently the whole point of the hearing.
The judge could have decided that on the facts of the affidavit. Instead, we heard details about when the sexual relationship started. It was crazy that the judge let in so much, but this is Trump getting his special treatment — not against him, but in favor of him. Because if he were a typical defendant, he certainly wouldn't be allowed this much latitude.
And in the last of a very busy week for Trump, the Supreme Court now has briefs both from Trump and Jack Smith asking them to do different things. The question will be whether or not the Supreme Court takes the immunity case — and if they do, whether or not they will stay (which means pause) the underlying trial while they decide. We will wait to hear what the Supreme Court says.
Have questions about what’s going on in Trump’s trials? Email me at press@askdinadoll.com or drop a comment below. Make sure to follow me on social media where I post recap videos every Friday along with a ton of other legal news analysis: @askdinadoll
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