For most people, sitting in court at their own criminal trial would represent a defining moment of their life.
But Donald Trump’s return to his hush money trial Thursday does not even represent the most critical courtroom drama of his day.
The ex-president’s attention is certain to stray from what he has repeatedly complained is a “freezing” court in New York to the neoclassical splendor of the US Supreme Court. Justices will be hearing oral arguments in his sweeping immunity case that could have profound implications for his legal fate and poses never-before-resolved questions about the powers of the presidency.
The double court date will represent yet another unfathomable twist in the saga of the presumptive Republican nominee who is again stretching America’s judicial and constitutional systems to their limits as he runs to reclaim the White House.
Trump has left no doubt he’d much rather be on the grander stage in Washington, watching Supreme Court justices — three of whom he appointed — debate his claim that, as an ex-president, he cannot be prosecuted for any actions that he took in office. Trump the showman would surely relish holding a photo-op on the court steps below an ornate marble facade that reads “Equal Justice Under Law.” It would be a far more colorful spectacle for a presidential campaign that has morphed with his legal defenses than the increasingly repetitive press gaggles he holds in the dingy corridor outside the Manhattan courtroom hearing his first criminal trial. But Trump has no choice but to listen to more testimony in New York from former tabloid publisher David Pecker, a key witness for prosecutors who allege the ex-president tried to mislead 2016 general election voters by covering up an affair that he denies.
Trump blames Judge Juan Merchan for dashing his hopes of being at the Supreme Court Thursday. The New York judge reminded Trump’s attorney that their client is a criminal defendant and must therefore attend his trial, prompting the ex-president to immediately weaponize his ruling for his political persecution narrative. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Trump accused Merchan of considering himself “above the Supreme Court” in preventing him from going to hear “some of the great legal scholars” argue his case.
Trump is playing to more than one jury
While Trump’s destiny in the New York case will be decided according to the evidence by 12 of his peers, he is playing to a much wider jury — the general electorate ahead of his clash with President Joe Biden in November. Millions of Trump voters have long been skeptical of efforts to call him to account for his personal, business and political behavior and are a receptive audience to his false claims he’s a political dissident being persecuted as part of a Biden plot. Trump is also using his on-camera appearances to boost his campaign finance operation. He has already raised $5.6 million online during the first week of his criminal trial, a source familiar with the figure told CNN on Wednesday.
Trump’s Supreme Court gambit is also part of his wider campaign strategy.
The case is potentially historic in its daring reach for power and serves as a metaphor for a former and possible future president who recognizes no limits on his authority or constitutional constraints. But Trump’s team also adopted the long-shot claim that he enjoys absolute presidential immunity as a way to delay his federal election interference trial. The hope is to push that trial past an election that could restore to Trump the presidential powers that may allow him to derail federal prosecutions against him.
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