That Sound You Hear Is Donald Trump Screaming, Crying, and Throwing Up in a Mar-a-Lago Bathroom - Vanity Fair

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On the same day that word came down racketeering charges are likely to come out of the Fulton County probe, Judge Aileen Cannon set a date for the classified-documents trial for well before the 2024 election.

By Bess Levin

July 21, 2023

That Sound You Hear Is Donald Trump Screaming Crying and Throwing Up in a MaraLago Bathroom

Donald Trump received some no good, extremely bad legal news on Friday, when The Guardian reported that Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney criminally investigating his attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia has “developed evidence to charge a sprawling racketeering indictment next month,” according to people familiar with the matter. Obviously, being charged with racketeering would be exactly as bad as it sounds—and yet somehow, that wasn’t even the worst news the ex-president received today.

Instead, it was likely the decision by Aileen Cannon—a federal judge Trump himself appointed—to set a trial date of May 20, 2024, for Trump to face off with the federal government in the classified-documents case, that had staffers and aides hiding in hallways and coat closets to avoid Trump’s ire (and whatever ketchup bottles he could get his hands on). While the spring date is several months later than prosecutors had requested, it is very much well before the postelection one Team Trump had been angling for in the hopes of putting it off until the ex-president could have won a second term and made all of his legal problems—on the federal level, that is—go away.

Of course, just because Cannon issued a ruling that Trump will undoubtedly be very unhappy about today does not mean she won’t, as many fear, blow up the case in his favor when the trial finally kicks off. (As The Washington Post notes, “In her role, Cannon can have a significant impact on the case, including by ruling on what evidence can be included and deciding on any potential motions challenging the charges.”) On the other hand, the government’s indictment against Trump is said to be extremely strong: After the charges were unveiled last month, former attorney general Bill Barr opined: “I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly. If even half of it is true, he’s toast.” As one Fox News legal analyst noted, “All the government has to do is stick the landing on one count, and he could have a terminal sentence. We’re talking about crimes that have a 10- or 20-year period as a maximum.” (Trump, along with his alleged co-conspirator, has pleaded not guilty.)

Incidentally, the documents case isn’t even the first criminal trial that Trump will have to fit into his schedule next spring. His trial versus the Manhattan district attorney—who charged him in April with various crimes related to his hush money deals—is slated to begin March 25, three weeks after Super Tuesday. (Trump has also pleaded not guilty in that case.)

In related news, The Washington Post reports that Trump’s many legal issues—including the New York case, the DOJ’s documents case, and the possible Georgia case, and the DOJ’s election-interference case that he's expected to be charged in—are eating into a huge amount of campaign funds:

To illustrate how Trump’s criminal defense is swallowing his campaign, just over half of the money he raised last quarter went not to the campaign itself but to an affiliated PAC that is footing the legal bills. Of more than $35 million raised between March and June, the campaign received $17.7 million, according to the latest report to the Federal Election Commission. The rest went to the Save America PAC, which will report its latest finances on July 31 but has been spending millions on lawyers representing Trump and allies in the multiple ongoing cases, according to FEC disclosures.

“A lot of money is going to legal and people who don’t do much, and not a lot is left over to do marketing and advertising,” said one Trump adviser, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans. “A lot of the money we’re raising is just going to legal.”

And if you’re thinking perhaps Trump was chipping in at least a little bit of his own money for his legal fees, think again. According to the Post, the former guy “is not relying on his personal fortune to cover his legal bills.” (You expected Trump pay for this s--t out of pocket like some kind of commoner? C’mon now.)

Ken Cuccinelli, who is advising a Ron DeSantis–aligned super PAC told the Post: “Trump’s supporters are being taken advantage of by having to foot the bill for Trump’s legal troubles.” A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign told the outlet the campaign is paying Trump’s legal bills because the ex-president and his supporters believe—some might say falsely!—that he is only being prosecuted because Joe Biden is trying to stop him from becoming president. “They see another political indictment or target letter and they know this is just the weaponized Biden Justice Department going after President Trump,” he said. “It solidifies in their mind what the President has been saying for all these months. So much of the legal messaging is political messaging and so much of political messaging is legal messaging.” Biden said last month he “never once, not one single time, suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge.”

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