Trump’s January: Session Dates and Election Nights

In the political world, Donald J. Trump is on the verge of something that eluded him in 2016: a clear victory in the Iowa caucuses this month. His advisers hope this will be the first in a series of early state victories that will push him to collect enough delegates to be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee by the end of March.

In the legal world, however, the former president is simultaneously confronted with two trials this month that have a deeply personal impact. One of those is the conclusion of the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case against him and his company and an expected judge’s decision on what fines he must pay. The other is the damages suit for defaming E. Jean Carroll, a New York writer who said he raped her in a New York department store in the 1990s. A jury ruled last year that he had sexually assaulted her.

It is a juxtaposition that Mr. Trump has managed to his advantage so far during his campaign, casting himself as the victim of political and legal persecution by a Democratic establishment bent on silencing him and his supporters to lay. In either process, he could face significant financial penalties and a significant change in the way he – or in the worst case scenario – continues to control his business.

Whether Mr. Trump helped himself in court with his methods has been difficult to know so far, given the way the judges handled him and his arguments. But despite this political-legal clash, he sees himself as his own best defender and communicator, and in 2024 what the court of Republican public opinion will tolerate will be different than what a court will allow.

Mr. Trump is among the most disciplined, undisciplined political figures in modern American history: for all his self-inflicted wounds in his public comments and erratic social media posts, he is fairly rigid in delivering a repetitive message of discontent and victimhood to his followers. He aims to turn unwanted circumstances that he’s enraged about into some kind of high-stakes drama that he can direct as he and his campaign navigate a tangle of legal proceedings in the coming months.

Mr. Trump, who attended much of the civil fraud trial, said Tuesday that he planned to attend the final stages of that trial and the Carroll trial.

That will have him flying back and forth from New York to Iowa and New Hampshire to combine days of planned campaign events. He is also making plans to attend oral arguments next week at the federal appeals court in Washington on his claims that he should have presidential immunity in his federal election fraud trial, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

It’s a court appearance that promises to be a unique media spectacle in the nation’s capital, coming just days after the anniversary of January 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol during his confirmation election loss in 2020.

While Mr. Trump faces 91 criminal charges in four different jurisdictions, the case in which he and his company committed fraud for decades now takes place more directly and strikes at the core of his business brand. That case, overseen by Judge Arthur Engoron, and the one brought by Ms. Carroll, infuriated him for months, according to people who have spoken to him.

Mr. Trump, who contacted The New York Times after learning that an article was being written about the legal actions that unfolded in January alongside the early rounds of voting, described the cases as “unfair” in a telephone interview.

He criticized the judges in both trials, describing Judge Lewis Kaplan, the federal judge overseeing the Carroll case, as “more radical” than Judge Engoron, who granted partial summary judgment against Mr. Trump before the trial began. leaving only a small portion. There are still half a dozen claims to be resolved, along with sanctions. Mr. Trump again highlighted comments the attorney general made while campaigning for her post in 2018.

He also said a case was scheduled just before “every election.” His federal trial on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States is set to begin on March 4, the day before Super Tuesday, although it is widely expected to be postponed.

The former president said he planned to attend the remaining day of closing arguments in the case before Judge Engoron, and said he wanted to testify in the Carroll case — something he did not do during the first trial and that he clearly made in the case. short interview that he regretted. He said he was talked out of it last time.

“I’m going to testify,” Trump said, something his advisers do not fully support.

The Iowa caucuses are on January 15. His team will leave Iowa directly for New Hampshire on January 16, the same day the Carroll case begins, and it remains to be seen if that changes.

Last year, a jury in a civil trial in a separate case brought by Ms. Carroll found that he sexually assaulted and defamed her in a Truth Social post in late 2022. Mr Trump continues to rail against the case, which a federal appeals court refused to delay a decision last week. He has maintained that Judge Engoron was biased and has attacked him and his law clerk.

The Trump team views the civil and criminal cases against him as part of a vast conspiracy led by President Biden to thwart his camp, without providing evidence to back up their claims. They are suspicious of the timing of the Carroll trial, which is taking place the day after the Iowa caucuses in a federal courthouse in Manhattan and seven days before the New Hampshire primary. They repeatedly note that Ms. Carroll’s earlier lawsuit was helped financially by Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

“This is unequivocally a concerted effort to attack President Trump during the height of his political campaign,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys on both cases.

A spokeswoman for Ms. Carroll said that “regardless of whether Donald Trump appears at trial in two weeks, E. Jean Carroll looks forward to presenting her case to a jury whose sole job will be to determine how much additional damages she will pay . entitled to receive.”

David Kochel, a Republican strategist who has opposed Mr. Trump, said combining his court appearances with his campaign so far in the Republican primaries has been successful for him, and it is not surprising that he would try to get the most out of politics. of a problematic month.

“It keeps him the center of attention,” Mr. Kochel said. “It builds on his argument that he’s a victim, that he’s constantly being targeted, that this is election interference and all that, so it makes sense to me to go back and forth because the legal stuff is now part of his campaign strategy . and fundraising. It worked for him throughout the process.”

It will also keep him in the news — and possibly deprive his Republican primary rivals of oxygen — at a time when the election is underway, Mr. Kochel said, adding: “He is the executive producer of it all.”

But the short-term victories around the civil lawsuits don’t necessarily translate into longer-term gains in a general election, said Dan Pfeiffer, a Democratic strategist and former top adviser to former President Barack Obama.

“Trump has always been a ‘deal with the challenges in front of him now and then deal with the consequences later,’” Mr. Pfeiffer said. “This comes at a cost to him because – and all the polls show this – most Americans have paid almost no attention to any of Trump’s issues and they are going to pay more attention.”

He added: “Spotlighting his biggest vulnerabilities at the general election, just as the electorate is waking up to the general election, is a high-risk strategy.”