Tag Archives: speedy trial

crime news, legal news

Date set, let justice rule

Mark down the date of March 4, 2024, which is what I intend to do.

That is the date set by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan for the start of a trial to determine whether Donald J. Trump is guilty of trying to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election.

Judge Chutkan has declared her intention to proceed with a “speedy trial” for the former president of the United States. Interestingly, for a man who says he did “nothing wrong,” Trump has been trying to delay this proceeding until sometime in 2026.

That prompts me to wonder: If Donald Trump is as innocent of the serious felonies for which he has been indicted as he insists he is, why delay the trial?

OK, we’re a long way from the start of the trial. There will be lots of “discovery” to be made. Lots of motions to consider. Chutkan, though, appears set to proceed with a trial that will begin one day prior to the Super Tuesday Republican Party presidential primary election in which several states will decide whom to nominate for POTUS.

Even more remarkable has been the statements from Fulton County (Ga.) District Attorney Fani Willis, who says she is ready to go to trial as early as October … in 2023, just a couple of months from today.

A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump for violating state law in seeking to overturn those election results. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, one of the 19 defendants indicted by the panel, is seeking to move the state trial to federal court, claiming he was acting as an agent of the federal government when he was doing the then-president’s bidding. Good luck with that, chief.

To be honest, all this maneuvering in all four courts has me a bit befuddled. I just hope all the judges who are hearing these cases — in New York, Atlanta, in Florida and in DC — can keep everything straight.

However this all plays out, it is looking for all the world to me that Donald John Trump is a world of some serious hurt.

crime news

Let’s have that speedy trial

Donald Trump has been characterized as the master of delay, of foot-dragging and one who would employ any tactic necessary to prolong the search for the truth where it involves his alleged criminality.

But wait! He also says the indictments handed down against him — one in New York and the other in Miami — are baseless. They are political witch hunts, he contends.

Here’s an idea. How about we proceed with all deliberate speed and knock these trials out in a “speedy” manner prescribed in the Constitution?

Special counsel Jack Smith, who delivered the south Florida indictment in the case involving those classified documents, said he would work toward a speedy trial.

If the former POTUS is innocent, he shouldn’t object to getting these matters adjudicated in a timely fashion. After all, he has a presidential campaign awaiting him, correct?

The first Republican primaries are just a few months away. Trump says he wants to return to the White House and has promised his supporters that he will be “your retribution.” That, in itself, is a frightening thought. He doesn’t need to say another word about whether he is fit for public office. He clearly is not!

If he is not guilty of the allegations leveled in the hush money case involving the adult film star or in the classified documents case, then let us proceed to a quick disposition of this matter.

You know and I know the same thing. It is that the evidence for a conviction has piled up all around Trump, particularly in the documents matter.  Oh, we still have the 1/6 insurrection probe that will conclude in due course and which likely will produce even more indictments.

Hey, an innocent man would have no reason to delay an outcome … correct?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail

legal news

This isn’t a ‘Law and Order’ world

If only we lived in the world portrayed by “Law and Order,” the TV drama that features police work and high-powered lawyering.

We don’t.

Unlike the characters on the TV drama, we’re in for a long and arduous slog awaiting a trial to determine whether the 45th president of the United States is guilty of the multiple crimes for which he has been indicted.

On “Law and Order,” the cops discover that a capital crime has occurred; they arrest a suspect; the district attorney’s office takes over and in a matter of days (or so it seems) the case goes to trial and a jury delivers a verdict.

Donald J. Trump, I am sad to report, is going to be given ample time to disparage the prosecutors, the grand jury, the Justice Department and anyone else who in any form or fashion criticizes him for the hideous conduct for which the grand jury indicted him.

The evidence appears to be overwhelming. A conviction to my eyes seems damn near inevitable. But when does a trial even occur?

Special counsel Jack Smith, who headed the probe into Trump’s squirreling away of classified documents in his posh Florida estate, has promised a “speedy trial.” I am reminded, though, to pull back on the definition of “speedy.” I am inclined to equate the term with the biblical description of Earth’s creation. The Bible tells us God took six “days” to finish the task, but I believe that the biblical definition of “day” doesn’t involve a 24-hour clock.

This case is going to try our patience. I am preparing my own emotional reservoir for a long haul.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com