Donald Trump has less than a week to stop his New York election interference trial over the hush money he's accused of giving to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016. On Monday, jury selection begins in the case.
He's already filed a blitz of motions to stop or delay the trial, none of which has managed to halt the case from moving forward. In a new lawsuit filed Monday, Trump is suing Judge Juan Merchan over the gag order he issued and then expanded. Meanwhile, Trump is telling supporters on Truth Social that he may not follow the gag order and that it would be a "great honor" to be jailed like Nelson Mandela.
"It is part of a meritless effort to call the integrity of these proceedings into question," said MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace. "The D.A., adding that this is all part of Trump's strategy, one that he has used in all four of the criminal cases against him. That is to delegitimatize the process and do whatever it takes to prevent a trial from ever starting."
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In addition to going after the judge, Wallace said that the "'throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks' strategy includes an attempt to move the trial" to another part of New York. According to former Justice Department senior prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, that will never work — he gave the example of Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling trying the same thing but failing. Weissmann was one of the prosecutors on the Enron case that began in 2002.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin agreed with Wallace that Trump's actions are likely a "sign" he "fears these proceedings."
"I want to underscore how unusual what Trump did today is from a legal perspective," Rubin began. "We expected this week to be nutty. I told people here to buckle up. He's going to try any last-minute legal maneuvers, even ones that are atypical. That is what happened today."
Trump filed an Article 78 proceeding, Rubin explainedearlier following the filing. It allows him to go after a government actor over something "unlawful or unconstitutional."
Trump has already tried the same move in his civil fraud case after Judge Arthur Engoron set up a gag order. It failed.
"He got a two-week stay of the gag order in that case, but I want to make sure our viewers understand what he didn't get — there wasn't any pause in that trial," said Rubin. "Which was already ongoing."
She went on to explain that she anticipated Merchan would move "full steam ahead."
Trump also told the court on Monday that pretrial publicity was so overwhelming that they needed to adjourn and change the venue if he was to get a fair trial. The motion to change venue was denied.
Weissmann went on to blame the "enormous publicity" on the trial on "Donald Trump himself."
"You don't get to open your mouth about the case and then say I can't have a trial because I'm speaking so much about the case with a large megaphone," he said.
He anticipated the argument is "a sure dead loser." Further, "I would be very surprised if this put the trial off," he said.
See the full conversation with the experts in the video below or the link here.
'Buckle up': MSNBC legal analyst says Trump's pre-court week 'will be nutty' www.youtube.com
