GOP strategist: Trump’s 2024 campaign will be 'conducted in a courtroom'

23 December 2023

While boisterous rallies defined Former President Donald Trump's campaigns for the White House in 2016 and 2020, the primary setting for his 2024 run is likely to be in front of judges and juries instead of crowds of supporters.

Politico's Adam Wren wrote Friday that the packed federal docket of Trump-related court cases means that the judicial branch could play just as much of a role in determining the former president's political future as voters themselves. Dick Wadhams, who is the former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and longtime GOP strategist, told Wren that Trump's campaign "will be conducted in a courtroom, essentially."

"[T]hat’s worked out well for [Trump] for the past year. They probably are banking on that to continue," Wadhams said.

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One of the most consequential court decisions in US history was issued by the Colorado Supreme Court this week when it ruled in a 4-3 decision to disqualify the former president from the 2024 Republican primary ballot under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution's insurrection clause. The Centennial State's high court put an automatic stay on its decision until January 4th likely in anticipation of SCOTUS weighing in, meaning it wouldn't take effect until early next year. However, that's just one of many Trump-related cases SCOTUS is expected to hear prior to its current term expiring in June of 2024.

Also this week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) declined Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's request to decide the former president's absolute immunity argument in advance of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. That issue may come back before the Court by the end of January, should the three-member DC Circuit panel consisting of a George H.W. Bush appointee and two Joe Biden appointees not rule in Trump's favor. The 45th president of the United States could appeal a rejection from that panel to the full circuit, which could add more time.

And as Politico reported, SCOTUS is set to hear a case from a January 6 defendant pertaining to a federal obstruction law that may negate several counts in Smith's DC election interference indictment. His appeal of US District Judge Tanya Chutkan's gag order could also ultimately be decided by SCOTUS along with a separate immunity question related to the defamation lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll.

Should the proposed March 4 trial date for Trump's election interference trial be postponed due to the various appeals to be decided by the DC Circuit and SCOTUS, Trump's first criminal trial may in fact be on March 25 in Manhattan, where District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicted the former president on charges of allegedly paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election. Trump's May 20 trial in US District Court in Florida for alleged mishandling of classified documents has yet to be postponed, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has requested an August 2024 trial date for Trump's alleged election interference in Georgia.

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