The verdict on Trump’s hush money trial should be known soon. So what comes next?

The three other criminal cases are still very much alive. A court case can be dismissed by a judge for lack of evidence or other reasons. This has not happened.

The case which appeared to be most likely to go next, is the classified documents case. However, there are a long series of pre-trial motions including the legality of the FBI search which must be resolved first. It is obvious that Trump’s legal team wants to delay this cases as long as possible. Judge Cannon initially set a start date for the case, but then issued an order to “indefinitely delay” the case, pending resolution of the pre-trial motions.

The January 6 federal election obstruction case, also looked like a good successor to the Hush Money case, until the Supreme Court took up the Presidential Immunity and the Fischer cases. A decision in these cases is not expected until close to the end of the term of the Supreme Court in late June or early July. A Supreme Court opinion affirming that the ex-presidents have absolute immune from criminal prosecution will likely end the January 6 and exclude Trump as a defendant in the Georgia case.

The Supreme Court took up the Fischer case in September 2023, and has yet to render a verdict. Trump and many of the January 6 rioters are charged with a statute that they attempted to disrupt an official proceeding. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Fischer, this will allow many of the rioters in the January 6 violence to have their convictions overturned. It will also allow some of the charges against Trump to be dropped.

The laggard of the 3 cases is definitely the Georgia conspiracy trial. The case came to a halt after it was discovered that the District Attorney Fani Willis had an improper relation with the Nathan Wade, the lead attorney in this case. Judge McAfee decided to let Fani Willis continue to prosecute the case, but without Nathan Wade. His judgement is now being appealed. No trial date has been scheduled, and it is not likely to start before the elections.

In sum, Trump’s legal team has managed to successfully delay the start of the three criminal cases against him. Every motion to dismiss for lack of evidence or other reasons has failed. They are still very active cases.

So, what do all the court reporters and associated pundits do after the verdict is read, and explained about a hundred times on cable news? Go home? Hardly. Senator Bob Menendez and his wife are currently on trial for bribery. See link below:

Prosecutors build their case at bribery trial of Sen. Bob Menendez with emails and texts

Also, it is expected to the Supreme Court will rule late in June on both the Fischer case and Presidential Immunity. There’s nothing stopping them from ruling sooner.

Stay tuned,

Dave