'Never walk into that trial': Ex-GOP congressman predicts how Trump will dodge Jan. 6 jury

A former Republican congressman predicted on New Year’s Day that Donald Trump will never face trial in Jack Smith’s election subversion case — but that the GOP will be scrambling to find a replacement for him as he drops out of the presidential race.

In a long list of predictions for the new year, ex-rep. John LeBoutillier (R-NY) took particular aim at the trial set to start on March 4 in Washington, D.C.

But he predicts that the trial will never start, because Trump will do everything he can to avoid it.

“Trump is doing all he can to delay this trial because it is highly likely he will be convicted on four felony counts. He is — or should be — deathly afraid of this case, for good reasons,” LeBoutillier wrote in the Messenger Monday.

He went on, “Trump will exhaust every appeal and delay, as is his right. But eventually those appeals will reach an end. And then will come perhaps the key moment of the 2024 election — and of Trump’s life: a trial.

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“My prediction: Trump will never walk into that trial. He either will become sick and unable to stand trial, or he will make a plea deal to avoid prison.”

LeBoutillier predicts that, after failing to get immunity from the Supreme Court, Trump will discover that special prosecutor Smith has amassed much more evidence against him than he expected. He will also be frantically worried that the jury pool is not from his base.

But the idea of him having to be present throughout the trial, as a criminal defendant must be, is the reason LeBoutillier thinks Trump will do everything he can to avoid it.

“Can you envision Donald Trump walking into the D.C. Federal Courthouse, sitting at the defense table for six to seven hours a day with his mouth shut — for eight or more weeks — and then being convicted by the jury and sentenced by this judge?” he asked.

He continued, “A plea deal would fit with Trump’s longtime modus operandi. In civil litigation he is all bluster, and then, at the last minute, he settles.

“He will do that in this case, too: Negotiate a deal in which he pleads guilty and withdraws from the campaign in return for a guarantee that he will not be sent to prison.

“Facing three other criminal trials, he may very well agree to a Universal Plea Agreement that keeps him out of prison on all cases in exchange for a guilty plea and an admission of responsibility.”