When Non-Lawyers Think They Can Go To Trial

And the answer is:

The important question is not whether any of his claims have merit; even Trump doesn't actually care about that. It's about whether this strategy of chaos and confusion will work for him one more time, as it has so many times in the past.

No.

First rule of composition: disregard any essay that ends with a question it does not answer.

O’Hehir addresses events in two of Trump’s cases this week: the filing in New York to remove the judge; and the filing to force Chutkan to recuse. The New York filing did result in a stay while the appeals court considers the plea. But please note that case is on the calendar for October 2nd, and that date has not changed. So unless the appeals court decides the trial judge must be removed (unlikely), all Trump has really done is waste a lot of other people’s money. Funny how easy that is to do, especially for Trump, who arguably has been doing it all his life.

So no delay unless the appeals court rules otherwise. Stand down from yellow alert.

And yes, the DOJ wrote a masterful response to Trump’s motion to recuse Chutkan, citing virtually every verdict and the transcript of those hearings in every J6 case, showing Chutkan is completely in line with approved judicial practices. 

Trump got steamrolled by that response. And, as emptywheel points out, opened the door for DOJ to put Trump at the center of J6, based on all the courtroom claims of all the convicts who said that Trump led the way in what they did at the Capitol that day.

Oops.

But what emptywheel and O’Hehir miss is the reason for the catalog: it’s aimed at the appellate court.

Trump isn’t filing this recusal so he can go to the D,C. Circuit when it’s denied (oh, he’ll probably try: but again, buying no delay, and he’s like to be told to come back later). Motions like this are done to “preserve error.” An appeal is on an alleged error by the trial court. But if you don’t raise the issue and give the trial court a chance to cure it, you can’t raise the issue on appeal. (And ordinarily those appeals come after the trial, not before it.)

That DOJ response wasn’t aimed at Chutkan; it was aimed at the D.C. Court of Appeals. It was Chutkan’s defense, because a trial judge has no voice on appeal. Yes, it draws in the central nature of Trump to J6 (he is its alpha and omega). But it also gives Trump DOJ’s appellate response to his lame motion. Chutkan doesn’t need that history lesson; but it squashes flat any idea of an appeal. This, DOJ says, is the record the appeals court will review. It’s also a preview of our appeals brief. Read it and weep.

Trump can throw all the shit at the wall he wants to. He can even stand in front of the fan and aim at the blades. And the news can report all manner of nonsense about it, clueless as they are about how courts actually operate.

Because news reports won’t affect trial procedures at all. Delay the trials? This shit won’t do it.