As political theater, Trump’s court appearance was not a showstopper
If Donald J. Trump’s goal Tuesday was to turn a tough legal proceeding in Washington into an actual campaign appearance that would spark media interest, he fell short.
Six days before the Iowa caucuses, the former president used arguments before a federal appeals court over whether he is immune from prosecution to sharpen a strategy he has deployed repeatedly over the past year and plans to even more to use as the political season heats up and his legal troubles come to a head: standing in or near a courthouse and portraying himself as a victim.
But in this case, the federal courthouse was a relatively inhospitable environment. The security protocols and ban on cameras in federal courthouses did not easily lend themselves to the kind of displays Mr. Trump has made in the four indictments he faces, where he has commanded intense coverage and had the opportunity to advance the prosecutions to pronounce. as political persecution.
The headlines focused instead on the sharp questioning by the three judges. They did not publicly acknowledge Trump’s presence in the courtroom, but expressed deep skepticism about his legal team’s argument that even a president who ordered the assassination of a political rival could not be prosecuted unless he or she was first convicted in an impeachment proceeding.
Instead, Mr. Trump was left to fend for himself a brief appearance at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue — which had been the Trump International Hotel before he sold it after leaving office.
“I think as president you should have immunity, plain and simple,” Mr. Trump said, standing next to a handful of lawyers who accompanied him to the hearing. Mr Trump said he had done nothing wrong and that there would be “bedlam” in the country if the courts did not uphold the concept of presidential immunity.
The court appearance was one that Mr. Trump did not have to make, despite his claim in a fundraising email to his supporters that he was forced off the campaign trail. But it’s one he plans to continue using this month, figuring it will be effective in rallying his base during the primary season — and give him a personal illusion of control — even as looming threats this is the wrong kind of attention to draw to his legal position. problems for voters at the general election later in the year.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump is preparing to speak on his own behalf during closing arguments in the civil fraud case brought against him and his company by New York Attorney General Letitia James, he and others close to him said.
“I think I’m going to do the tallying myself,” Trump told The New York Times last week. “I will do the summation because I know better than anyone.”
Others said that wasn’t entirely precise: His lawyers are expected to speak, and he plans to, although whether he can depends on the judge in the case, which Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked. ABC news reported that he was making progress with his plan.
Next week he plans to attend the second trial following allegations by a New York writer who accused Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. In an earlier lawsuit, Mr. Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation of the writer, E. Jean Carroll. The new trial to determine damages will begin next Tuesday, the day after the Iowa caucuses.
And he’ll face a choice about another looming court hearing he may want to attend: the U.S. Supreme Court’s Feb. 8 arguments over the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision saying he could be barred from the primary ballot of the state on the grounds that he incited an uprising on January 6, 2021.
Aides had suggested to him that there was no point in attending Tuesday’s federal appeals court hearing. But Mr. Trump insisted.
He occasionally whispered to one of his lawyers. The special prosecutor who charged him in two separate cases, Jack Smith, sat nearby.
The hearing took place just steps from the Capitol and came days after the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, in which Trump’s supporters tried to stop congressional certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Outside, the contingent of local and federal police officers on the streets surrounding the courthouse appeared larger and more vigilant than during the president’s first court appearance on election interference charges last summer.