Terrible news for Trump now that the closing arguments in the criminal trial have been postponed

Judge Merchan called the parties to court early Monday and said that because of issues that arose over the weekend, closing arguments in Trump’s criminal trial won’t take place until after Memorial Day.

Read: Samuel Alito Is The Insurrectionist Threat To Democracy On The Supreme Court

Lawfare’s Anna Bower reported from the courtroom:
Firstly, Justice Merchan thanks the parties for their early arrival. There were problems this weekend, he says.

As a result of some of these issues, it has become clear that we CANNOT proceed with demand letters tomorrow.

We will complete the evidence, pre-indictment conference, etc. this week, Judge Merchan continued.

And then next week, after the long weekend, we will move on to the closing arguments.

Now we move on to issues regarding objections to evidence that might arise during Michael Cohen’s continued cross-examination.

The prosecutor objects to the introduction of an email that Robert Costello’s law partner sent to Michael Cohen in 2018.

The new schedule means the jury may not get the case until sometime in June, without any further problems or delays.

June is important because Trump has a debate date with President Biden on June 27. If Trump is convicted, which seems more likely than not, he won’t have as much time to let the possible guilty verdict blow over and fight his way out. the news cycle.

The longer this case drags on, the greater the risk becomes for Trump to go straight from the courtroom to the debate stage. It’s possible that Trump could have a sentencing hearing and then have to debate President Biden, or that Trump could move from the debate to his sentencing hearing.

The longer this process takes, the more likely it will impact the presidential campaign timeline.

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