Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. President-elect Donald Trump presents choices for top government positions during his second term. Beyond the laughable (if it wasn’t real) choice of Matt Gaetz for attorney general, other Justice Department names are familiar to those of us who follow Trump’s criminal cases – it’s the lawyers who defended him. Meanwhile, Trump’s federal criminal cases took another step toward closure this week, as we head into next week with more anticipation in the New York state case.
Remember the trial in that one? One memorable moment was when Trump lawyer Todd Blanche began his cross-examination of the state’s key witness, Michael Cohen, by asking if he had recently gone on TikTok and called Blanche a “crying little bitch.” Despite lose this caseBlanche’s work on several Trump cases earned her a planned appointment as deputy attorney general of the DOJ. second row official. Blanche’s co-counsel, Emil Bove, is also linked to Trump’s DOJ, named principal deputy AG.
And for the position of supreme cop? Gaetz stands out in a sea of absurd Trump choices to date. The best that can be said of him is that he is inexperienced. Indeed, his main experience in criminal justice matters is under investigation in a sex trafficking investigation that ended last year without him being charged (he denied any criminality). Gaetz resigned his congressional seat this week, ahead of what was expected to be a House ethics committee. vote for release what would have been described as a “very damaging” report about him. It’s unclear if or when we’ll see it, but even some Republicans have expressed disapproval of Gaetz, although it remains to be seen whether their confirmation votes back that up — that is, unless that Trump does not attempt to abandon the normal process with a holiday nomination. that even the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal spoke out preemptively against.
Another important article from the DOJ is the solicitor general who represents the federal government at the Supreme Court. This role is currently occupied by Elizabeth Prelogar, who has been fighting valiantly for the Biden administration against the Republican majority of the Supreme Court. Trump’s pick is John Sauer, who upheld the immunity appeal in the case which led the Roberts Court to grant broad criminal protections for Trump as he campaigned for the White House again — successfully, as it turned out, thanks in part to the chief justice John Roberts and company.
In the latest fallout from a criminal case of this victory, Special Advisor Jack Smith and his team would have planned resign before Trump takes office. After asking U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to stay the federal election interference case last week, Smith asked. The federal appeals court decided this week to stay its pending appeal of the dismissal of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s documents case. In either case, Smith said he would brief the courts by Dec. 2 on the government’s plans for how it wants to proceed — or, perhaps, not proceed. Whatever Smith says, the end of federal affairs was inevitable once Trump won the presidency. The only question is when and how they will be buried.
Return to New Yorkwe were supposed to find out this week whether Judge Juan Merchan would overturn Trump’s guilty verdicts based on the immunity ruling. But before that happens, the parties – that is, the Manhattan prosecutors and future DOJ leaders Blanche and Bove – asked Merchan to waitwhile District Attorney Alvin Bragg decides how the state wants to move forward before Trump returns to the White House. Bragg has until Tuesday to notify the judge, so we should know in next week’s newsletter whether the president-elect has a chance of being convicted before taking office for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money scheme during the 2016 election.
Elsewhere in Trump’s legal worldRudy Giuliani’s lawyers want to go out to defend its quest to avoid the application of massive measures defamation judgment won by former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. And the Supreme Court rejected Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ attempt to move his charges of election interference in the state of Georgia to federal court. This matter… in which Trump is also accused — has the notable distinction of not being crushable due to his return to the White House, as well as the fact that his defense attorney in this case, Steve Sadow, will not become a senior DOJ official. Congratulating the political promotions of his fellow Trump lawyers, Sadow said he has “never been a prosecutor and never will be.”
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