Legal setbacks pile up for former President Trump this week

Former President Donald Trump lost three major legal challenges in the past week, including his efforts to dismiss a racketeering case on First Amendment grounds.

Here is a look at the rulings in three separate cases this week in Georgia, Florida, and New York.

New York judge denies Trump’s attempt to delay hush money trial

New York Judge Juan Merchan denied the former president’s attempt to delay his criminal hush money trial on Wednesday, after Trump claimed he was protected under presidential immunity.

Merchan said that Trump had plenty of opportunity before March to claim presidential immunity in the case. Trump asked Merchan to delay the trial until after the Supreme Court rules on his immunity claim, but the trial is slated to begin April 15, and the Supreme Court won’t hear arguments in the immunity case until April 25.

The case, which is the only criminal trial that could have a verdict prior to the 2024 elections this November, centers on claims that Trump allegedly paid hush money to former porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

He has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, and has pleaded “not guilty,” to all counts.

Georgia judge rejects Trump’s attempt to dismiss RICO case through a First Amendment challenge

Georgia judge Scott McAfee on Thursday denied Trump’s claim that his public statements and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election were protected under his right to free speech.

McAfee said that Trump was not protected by the First Amendment because the indictments claim the statements were made in “furtherance of criminal activity.”

“In other words, the law does not insulate speech allegedly made during fraudulent or criminal conduct from prosecution under the guise of petitioning the government,” McAfee wrote in the ruling. “The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech.”

No court date has been set in the racketeering case so far, but prosecutors have pushed for the trial to begin in August. Fourteen other people have also been charged in the wide-reaching RICO case.

The ruling comes after McAfee dismissed three charges against the former president, and six charges in the case total last month. But Trump still faces six charges in the Georgia case.

Florida judge declines Trump’s latest bid to dismiss classified docs case

Florida judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Trump was not protected under the Presidential Records Act on Thursday, marking the second time she rejected Trump’s attempt to dismiss the case.

Trump’s team claimed that he had the authority as president to designate certain presidential documents, such as the classified documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago resort, as personal even after he left office.

Presidents are usually required to hand over presidential records to the National Archives at the end of their term, but they can keep personal documents that are unrelated to their duties as commander in chief.

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Cannon has indicated that she would take the PRA into account in the case, directing Trump’s legal team and the prosecution to prepare jury instructions with the PRA in mind. But she claimed that the current argument Trump filed earlier this week is not grounds for dismissal of the case.

The Florida trial was originally expected to begin in May, but there will likely be a delay in the proceedings. The prosecution, led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, has proposed a July 8 start date instead.