Dina’s Docket: Weekly Trump Recap (3/22/24)

Friday, March 22, 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.)

NEW YORK

In Trump legal news this week, let's start with the money. Trump said today he does have the money to post the bond, despite his lawyers telling the appellate court he does not. Either way, he has until Monday, March 25 to either post a bond or have the appellate court stay the judgment during his appeal. Otherwise, Attorney General Letitia James can start seizing his assets.

But don't get it wrong, and don't listen to reports saying that somehow this stops him from doing an appeal: he can still appeal it. It’s just that his judgment will be able to get enforced.

In the meantime, in his criminal New York trial, significant decisions were made by the judge there about what kind of evidence will be shown to the jury when it starts in about a month:

• Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen can testify.

• Access Hollywood tapes cannot be shown into evidence, but can be read to the jury.

• The prosecution can reference election laws, which mean when they talk about the hush money payments, they can talk about how he did that in order to help win the presidency; this is a big win for the prosecution.

GEORGIA

The Georgia judge ruled that Trump and his co-defendants can have an immediate appeal of his decision that Fani Willis is allowed to stay on as the District Attorney, but he is not stopping the proceedings during that appeal.

FLORIDA

In Florida, Judge Cannon made the strange request for the two sides to talk about jury instructions, despite the fact that the trial is a long way from now.The jury instructions topic is whether or not a president unilaterally can decide whether or not a document is classified or personal, despite the fact that this seems to be not what the law says. Will this be enough for Jack Smith to try to recuse her?

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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