A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Trump: I See Your 2024 Trial Date And Raise You 2026
Like with all Trump gambits, it’s go big or go home. No guts no glory.
He scoffs at the puny trial delay strategies of past criminal defendants, the same way he ridiculed vodka, steaks, bottled water and universities.
You seek trial delays of weeks or months? Fool.
He seeks trial delays of years. Genius.
No one saw 2026 coming. No one. That’s just how he rolls.
Trump Trial Delay is its own brand of goodness but like his other projects: it’s all hype, it only benefits him, and only a fool would buy into it.
Legal Reax
How’d legal observers react to Trump’s proposed trial date of April 2026?
The Absurdity Of It All
Aside from all the legal commentary on how preposterously late an April 2026 trial date is, I can offer you some piquant examples from Trump’s filing that show how petulant and not-serious it is. Don’t get me wrong, he’s dead serious about delaying all of the criminal proceedings for as long as possible, but his logic is comically strained:
- I should get as much time to investigate the case as the government had! Trump counts the time from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack until his August 2023 indictment (31 months) and asks for a trial date 32 months from the indictment (emphasis mine): “This more reasonable schedule—equal to the government’s time spent investigating—will allow this case to proceed in an orderly fashion, with both parties having a fair opportunity to review all material information, advance appropriate motions, and apprise the Court of relevant legal issues. (Narrator: This is a hilarious premise on its own, but the fact that it ignores all the Trump-caused delays in the investigation, such as his frivolous and unsuccessful assertions of privilege, is extra special.)
- I should get as much trial time as the government! In another blunt, ham-handed calculation, Trump declares it’s impossible at this early stage to estimate how long it will take to put on his defense at trial, so he just grabs ahold of the government’s estimate for its own case-in-chief and makes it his own: “President Trump will adopt the same calculation as the government—4 to 6 weeks for the defense case.” (Narrator: Trump will mount a vigorous pre-trial defense, but it’s unlikely he will mount much of a defense at trial; he might not even call any witnesses.)
- I need all of 2025 to get ready! Trump’s proposed trial schedule devotes all of 2025 to … three (3!) discovery status conferences/motions hearings. (Narrator: Come on, man.)
You get the vibe.
Chyron Of The Day
Oleaginous
Having now encountered U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, Trump has run back to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida to complain about all the nasty things Special Counsel Jack Smith is doing to him in DC.
In a weird little filing in the Mar-a-Lago case, Trump’s obsequiousness toward Cannon results in the use of “Your Honor” nine (9!) times in a four-page document.
Trump’s complaint is that the special counsel is proposing dates for the Jan. 6 case that conflict with dates already set in the Mar-a-Lago case – and he wants Cannon to haul prosecutors into court and force them to explain themselves.
LOL
Trump has already cancelled his self-ballyhooed ‘big’ reveal of why the Georgia 2020 election really was rigged after all:
Sheriff Investigating Threats Against Georgia Grand Jurors
The Fulton County sheriff is investigating online threats against the grand jurors who indicted former President Trump and 18 others in the sprawling RICO case for alleged 2020 election interference.
BREAKING …
CNN: Kenneth Chesebro, alleged architect of fake electors’ plot, followed Alex Jones around Capitol grounds on January 6th
Trump Prosecution Miscellany
- Joyce Vance: Who Is Mike Roman?
- Journal-Constitution: Meet the 34-year-old judge who will oversee Trump prosecution in Georgia
- The Messenger: What We Know About All of the Fake Trump Elector Investigations
- CNN: Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark urges judge to reject March 2024 trial date in Georgia case
- NBC News: Former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark seeks to pause disciplinary case due to Georgia indictment
DOJ Seeks STIFF Sentences For Proud Boys
- Ryan Reilly: “Federal prosecutors are seeking sentences of 27 to 33 years in federal prison in the cases of four Proud Boys found guilty of seditious conspiracy for their actions during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as 20 years for a fifth Proud Boy found guilty on other charges.”
- Kyle Cheney: “The proposed jail sentences would nearly double the lengthiest Jan. 6 sentence handed down to date — 18 years for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes — a decision prosecutors say reflects the pivotal role that Proud Boys leaders played in stoking and exacerbating the violence at the Capitol that day.”
- Alan Feuer: “In seeking to severely punish the two Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the group, and Joseph Biggs, one of Mr. Tarrio’s top lieutenants, prosecutors asked the judge in the case to increase their sentences with what is known as a terrorism enhancement.”
- Marcy Wheeler: “[T]he document as a whole is a testament to how the asymmetrical treatment of terrorism in the United States makes it much harder to hold men like Enrique Tarrio and Joe Biggs accountable for attacking the Capitol that it would be if they were Islamic terrorists, rather than right wing Trump supporters.”
I Have Questions
A quickly deleted tweet from Project Veritas:
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