Trump wants to postpone civil cases on January 6

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump asked a judge Tuesday evening to suspend a series of civil lawsuits seeking to hold him responsible for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, until after his federal criminal trial related to the same events was over.

The lawyers’ request to pause the civil cases was the latest example of Trump’s attempt to pit his multiple legal cases against each other in an effort to delay them. In recent weeks, the former president and his lawyers have managed to polish each of the four criminal cases he faces, sometimes by convincing judges that the timing of the various proceedings conflicted.

In their request for a pause in the civil cases, Mr. Trump’s lawyers told Judge Amit P. Mehta, who is overseeing the proceedings, that it would be unfair to the former president to oppose the should defend lawsuits. They said doing so could reveal his strategy to defend himself against related criminal charges filed against him by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith.

“Given the substantial overlap in factual and legal allegations between these cases and the D.C. criminal case,” the attorneys wrote, there is “a substantial risk that proceedings in this case will expose the defense’s pretrial theory to the prosecution. ”

The lawyers added: “This would impair President Trump’s ability to effectively defend himself in both these civil cases and the special counsel’s criminal case.”

In the months after Jan. 6, a half-dozen lawsuits were filed against Mr. Trump by members of Congress and police officers serving at the Capitol that day, accusing him of inciting the mob that stormed the building. The lawsuits, all being heard in Federal District Court in Washington, have sought unspecified financial damages from Mr. Trump.

The former president initially tried to defend himself against the lawsuits by arguing that he was immune from the charges because they arose from official actions he took while president. In December, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the cases could proceed, but ordered Judge Mehta to decide whether Trump’s fiery speech on Jan. 6, in which he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol, should be considered an official act of his presidency or part of his re-election campaign.

That fact-finding — which has not yet begun — prompted Mr. Trump’s lawyers to ask for the pause. The lawyers have said that if the former president or his allies are forced to provide information about the nature of his speech or any other comment he made about Jan. 6, it could be used against him by prosecutors in the criminal case.

If Judge Mehta agrees to pause the civil cases, it is unclear when they could resume. The criminal case itself has been at a standstill for months as a series of courts have considered a similar immunity defense from Mr. Trump. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on his immunity claim on April 25.

If the judges reach a decision quickly — and assuming they reject the immunity claim, as many legal experts expect — Trump’s criminal trial could begin on January 6 in September. But if they take the time to rule, the trial could be postponed until after the November elections.