Trump's Trials - It could be a consequential week in all four criminal cases against Trump

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, NPR's Juana Summers speaks with senior political correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Former President Donald Trump is facing a big week in all four of the criminal cases against him. Two of the biggest developments are set to come out of New York and Georgia. In the New York hush money case, a judge will determine this week if the case will begin as scheduled on March 25th. Meanwhile, in Georgia, a hearing is set this week to determine whether Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the state's election interference case over allegations she misused public funds. At the same time, the Supreme Court is considering whether to weigh in on a lower court's decision that Trump is not immune from prosecution in the Jan. 6 case. And in the classified documents case, the judge is considering Trump's lawyers' motion to postpone deadlines that could push the case back from its scheduled May 20th start date.Topics include:- Immunity appeal- Florida classified documents case- Trial schedule for New York hush money case- Georgia evidence hearing Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Trials from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. We will come! This is a persecution. He actually just stormed out of the courtroom. Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Our regular episodes come out every Saturday, but there's some news in one of former President Trump's cases today. So we're going to share a story that just aired on NPR. Then we'll be back with more in our usual episode on Saturday.

Thanks for listening. our sponsor, Solgar. As people age, cellular function declines, which may impact changes in energy and strength. Solgar Cellular Nutrition is a holistic collection of cellular nutrients formulated to help fight cellular decline and promote cell health. Learn more at cellularnutrition.solgar.com. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. You're listening to Trump's Trials. I'm Scott Detrow. And now, here's Juana Summers. This week, we could get a better sense of timing for the trials looming for former President Donald Trump in Georgia, New York, Florida, as well as here in Washington, D.C. Key decisions are up in the air for four cases

against him. We're joined now by NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro, who's here to get us up to speed on what we need to know about these cases. Hi, Domenico. Hey, Wanda. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Okay. I want to start in Georgia, where former President Trump's team wants to disqualify the prosecutor in the election interference case against him in that state. A judge set a hearing for Thursday. What impact could that have on the case as well as the timeline there? Yeah, I mean, this could have a big effect on when or if the trial happens at all. But if the prosecutor, Fannie Willis, is disqualified,

it could throw a wrench into this whole case. I mean, a new prosecutor would have to be appointed if one is appointed at all. Defense attorneys said Willis was in a romantic relationship with one of the prosecutors working for her, Nathan Wade. Willis acknowledged the relationship and the defense lawyers claimed it's a conflict of interest, that she had financially benefited from this. Basically, they argue that because Wade was being paid by the DA's office and sometimes paid for them to go on vacation too, then that's the financial benefit. He says that's ridiculous and sometimes she paid too.

Look, the point of all of this though is that it's become really muddy in a case that had been seen as one of the strongest against Trump because remember, he's on tape saying that he wanted to quote, find votes to overturn the results of the election there. Right, and in the state of New York,

there is another state criminal case, and we might get a timetable there too. If you could just remind us what that case involves and what is at stake there. This is the case involving hush money to an adult film actress, Stormy Daniels, and a former Playboy playmate, Karen McDougal, wanting them to stay silent about alleged affairs Trump had with them. What the state is charging him with, essentially, is falsifying business records to cover up those payments. We haven't heard much about this case

for months, but the judge could set a trial date this week. It's currently scheduled for March 25th, so we'll see if that holds or if it gets delayed. And Trump's lawyer says Trump is planning to show up at the courthouse in New York on Thursday, and we know every time he does that, he doesn't go quietly, either in court or outside, and makes it political. And these two state cases are important because even if Trump wins the presidency again, he's not going to be able to dismiss these cases in the way that he could try to dismiss the federal ones by putting pressure on the head of the Justice Department, for example. cases now. The former president is facing criminal charges related to the January 6th insurrection and then separately for taking and then not returning classified documents. Remind us if you can what's been happening there. Yeah, well, in Florida, the judge in that case held a hearing on Monday about what kind of access the defense would have to classified material. And that's part of what makes this case complicated is that it's about classified documents

and there are some very sensitive issues involved with that. This week, the hearing was about how much of that material Trump's team can have access to in preparation for trial. Another question is whether the government's witness list can be made public. The prosecution says that they're nervous about witnesses being threatened, for example.

This case has just gotten held up by all kinds of motions and push back from both sides. That means the current court date of May 20th for when a trial is supposed to start could very well be pushed back too, which is part of the Trump legal strategy, which I call the three Ds, dismiss, delay, distract. Okay. And as far as the January 6th case goes, the Supreme Court has a big decision looming about whether that one even goes forward at all, if I understand correctly. Right. And, you know, Trump's team has had a lot of success with trying to delay things, as we said. But this case, the January 6th insurrection case, he took a pretty big blow last week because a three-judge panel unanimously said that he does

not have immunity from prosecution for actions taken while he was president. Trump then appealed that to the Supreme Court yesterday. His defense team went straight to politics on this in their filing, saying, quote, a months-long criminal trial of President Trump at the height of election season will radically disrupt President Trump's ability to campaign against President Biden. If the Supreme Court rules against him, if it doesn't take up the case or agrees with the lower court, then that means we could actually see a trial before people go to the polls in November. NPR's Domenico Montanaro, thank you.

You're welcome. Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep an eye out for more episodes like this whenever big news happens. And we'll be back later this week with our regular show on Saturday. I'm Scott Detrow. integrated travel expense, and invoice management solutions. With SAP Concur Solutions, you'll be ready to take on whatever the market throws at you next. Learn more at Concur.com. You know the names of the primary players. Jimmy Carter.

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