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If all goes according to schedule, we are one short week before the start of the first Donald Trump criminal trial — the New York hush money trial. Of course, the former president would very much like that plan to fall apart. Toward that end, the Trump legal team is asking — again — for Judge Juan M. Merchan to recuse himself. But don’t get too excited about that strategy. Hogan Lovells partner, and former acting Solicitor General, Neal Katyal calls the ploy “nonsense.”
Appearing on Jen Psaki’s MSNBC show, Katyal said, “His legal strategy is first lie, then deny, then delay. And we’re on the delay phase of this. It’s his last-ditch effort.” And he went on to predict Trump will be convicted in the case — a first in American history. “I strongly suspect Donald Trump will be convicted at the end of that trial,” he said. “That will be the first former president to be convicted criminally.”
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“Legally, none of this is going anywhere. That’s the beauty of the American criminal justice system: It’s 12 jurors, it’s rules of evidence and the like, and these kinds of nonsense arguments will go nowhere,” he said. “That’s why I suspect he’ll be convicted.”
Katyal took a similar position on the documents case pending in Florida. Despite a friendly judge overseeing the case in Aileen Cannon, Katyal said, “If it does go to trial, he’s gonna be convicted almost certainly there as well.”
Watch the full appearance below.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].