Trump’s Court Delays Create Image of Abuse of Process
Tom Ramstack
The Legal Forum, offering legal representation, language translation, media services.
Persistent delays in former President Donald Trump’s criminal and civil trials are creating suspicions about abuse of process by his legal team.
Abuse of process refers to manipulation of legal procedures for improper purposes, often to gain an unfair advantage or to harass the opposing party. Common examples include frivolous motions and delays in pre-trial discovery.
Trump’s first of four criminal trials is scheduled to begin April 15 in New York on charges of paying hush money to a porn star to buy her silence.
The judge set the trial date only after last-minute motions from Trump’s attorneys for further delays.
He was scheduled to go to trial last month in U.S. District Court in Washington on election interference charges.
His appeal to the Supreme Court that claimed immunity from prosecution for a president put the trial on hold.
Trump continues to lead in popular opinion polls for his presidential reelection bid. If he wins, he could grant himself an immunity from prosecution if the delays extend any of his pending charges past the Nov. 5 election.
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He also faces charges in Florida for mishandling classified documents and in Georgia for trying to coerce local officials to overturn the state’s vote count that gave a narrow victory to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
In one of the delays, Trump’s attorneys tried to exclude a prosecutor he accused of political reprisal in his upcoming criminal trial in Atlanta.
Trump asked the judge overseeing the case to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the prosecution. His attorneys argued she demonstrated misconduct by having an affair with a fellow prosecutor whom she had hired.
The judge acknowledged a lapse in judgment by Willis but ruled that she could remain on the case.
Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee granted a request by Trump’s attorneys for permission to appeal his ruling to the Georgia Court of Appeals.
For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: tramstack@gmail.com or phone: 202-479-7240.