Dec. 16, 2023 - Epoch Times
07:55
| 
| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| In a legal victory for President Trump, the judge who's currently overseeing the case over in Washington, D.C., she has decided to pause all the court proceedings pending a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. | |
| Specifically, Judge Tanya Chutkin, who was appointed to the bench by Barack Obama, she has decided two days ago to pause the case until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a determination as to whether or not Trump is covered under the Presidential Immunity Doctrine. | |
| Here's specifically what she wrote in her court order, which was published on Wednesday of this week. | |
| Quote, She then went ahead and she clarified that while this order does put a pause on all the pretrial deadlines, it will not vacate them altogether. | |
| If jurisdiction is returned to this court, it will, consistent with its duty to ensure both a speedy trial and fairness for all parties, consider at that time whether to retain or continue the dates of any still-future deadlines and proceedings, including the trial scheduled for March 4, 2024. | |
| Furthermore, she also wrote that this pause on the legal proceedings does not lift the gag order that's been put in place. | |
| Although, she did write that if the U.S. Supreme Court says something different about that particular gag order, she will abide accordingly. | |
| Quote, Now, even though this is only a pause, for Trump and his legal team, this is actually a massive victory, | |
| evidenced by the fact that shortly after this ruling was issued, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, he issued the following statement, quote, This is a big win for President Trump and our rule of law, as it derails deranged Jack Smith's rush to judgment strategy of interfering in the 2024 presidential election in support of Joe Biden's campaign. | |
| Now, the reason that they consider this a victory for President Trump is actually threefold. | |
| First of all, right now, President Trump is in the middle of a primary election cycle, with voting set to start in less than a month. | |
| And so, by having the judge put a pause on the court proceedings in at least one of the cases, well, President Trump can transfer his focus and his attention to the campaign. | |
| Secondly, President Trump's legal team have been trying to push back the trial date in this particular case for a while now, arguing that because of the huge amount of discovery material that they need to go through, they just... | |
| Quite literally, need more time. | |
| For your reference, Trump's legal team, they are planning to review somewhere around 13 million pages of documents. | |
| Quote, The defense attorneys argue that this infringes on President Trump's due process rights. | |
| And then the third reason that this can be considered a victory for President Trump is the fact that his legal team has all the incentive in the world to push this trial as far back as possible, with the ultimate hope for them being to push the trial start date beyond the actual presidential election. | |
| That's because if President Trump were to win the 2024 election, then he would not be able to go to trial as a sitting president. | |
| And therefore, if Trump's legal team is able to successfully push the trial date until after the election, and then Trump gets elected, then effectively, the trial will be postponed for another four years, at least. | |
| Now, for their part, as we discussed in a previous episode, Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors are adamant that this trial start on March 4th, one day before the Super Tuesday elections. | |
| Their official argument is that this schedule is necessary to preserve the people's right to a speedy trial. | |
| Which is exactly why Jack Smith and his team essentially skipped the typical appeals process And they went directly to the U.S. Supreme Court to have them decide the presidential immunity question. | |
| We, again, covered all that in a previous episode. | |
| However, since then, well, Judge Tanya Chutkin has decided to place a pause on the case itself, which, as we laid out, even though it's only a pause, this decision favors President Trump, because this is all really just a battle over time. | |
| If you'd like to go through these court documents for yourself, I'll throw the links to them. | |
| They'll be down in the description box below. | |
| And now, let's head on over to the state of Michigan, where President Trump has just been dealt another legal victory in the Court of Appeals. | |
| Specifically, Michigan was among the many states where lawsuits were attempting to block President Trump from appearing on the ballot. | |
| The rationale for all these different lawsuits was that since Trump quote-unquote engaged in an insurrection, he should therefore be prohibited from holding office under the 14th Amendment. | |
| However, all these different cases are falling one after the other, with the most recent example taking place in Michigan where, just yesterday, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that President Trump is in fact eligible to appear on the Michigan primary ballot. | |
| Here's what a panel of three judges wrote in their official order. | |
| Quote, Now, it is worth noting here that this Court of Appeals made a special point to decline to rule on the issue of insurrection, and instead, they dismissed the lawsuit on technical grounds. | |
| But the result is the same. | |
| As per this decision, President Trump can appear on the Michigan primary ballot, which is a result that President Trump's team, well, they embraced, calling it a legal victory and highlighting the fact that none of these different ballot access lawsuits have succeeded anywhere in the country. | |
| Here's what a spokesperson for the Trump campaign said following this ruling. | |
| Quote, Now, of course, the people pushing this case forward will likely appeal this decision all the way up to the Michigan State Supreme Court. | |
| And once they do, we'll give you an update on that. | |
| Otherwise, just for your reference, with this case in Michigan officially dismissed, there are still 14 other different states across the country which have these ballot access lawsuits playing themselves out in court. | |
| Thus far, none have succeeded, but you never know, which is why my team and I are keeping an eye on all of them and will bring you any developments as they come about. | |
| Which, just as an aside... | |
| This is really a funny way to cover an election, because normally, an election would be covered by reporters going to rallies, going to debates, listing out policy differences between the candidates, and so on, things like that. | |
| But this year, it appears that covering the 2024 election will just involve keeping track of all these different lawsuits that President Trump has lobbied against. | |
| What a time to be alive. | |
| If you'd like to read this decision from the Michigan Court of Appeals, I'll throw a link to the PDF version down in the description box below, which I should mention is that description box right below those like and subscribe buttons, both of which I hope you take a quick moment to smash. | |
| Smashing that like button will ensure that this video reaches ever more people via the YouTube algorithm, while smashing that subscribe button will ensure that every time we publish a new episode, well, it hits your newsfeed every time we publish it. | |
| And now, with that out of the way, I'll mention in closing that if you enjoy this content and you're just thinking to yourself, man, I just wish Roman published more episodes every single week. | |
| Well, you're in luck because I do. | |
| Over on Epic TV, our awesome no-sensorship via platform, over there, I publish anywhere between one to three exclusive episodes of Facts Matter every single week. | |
| And so if you'd like to watch those exclusive episodes, including a huge backlog from the last three years, you can find it all over on the website. | |
| And now's a great time to check it out because the Epic Times has recently introduced... | |
| A phenomenal holiday sale. | |
| You can try a six-month subscription for just a single dollar. | |
| One single dollar for six full months. | |
| Now, obviously, we don't make any money on this type of a subscription. | |
| The whole point is just to get you in the door, to get you to try the content, fall in love with the content, and be a subscriber for a long time to come. | |
| That's the plan. | |
| You can, of course, cancel any time if you're not satisfied. | |
| But the hope, and my... | |
| And what I foresee happening is that you fall in love with the content. | |
| You make it a part of your life. | |
| You love my show on there. | |
| You love all the other shows. | |
| You love the infographics. | |
| You love basically everything that we publish. | |
| And you're a subscriber for the next 10 years. | |
| That's the hope. | |
| And so again, that link is right there at the top of the description box. | |
| You can click on that link. | |
| It'll take you to the sale page. | |
| We can try the Epic Times, six months for just a single dollar, and fall in love with it One day at a time. | |
| So again, the link is right there at the top of the description box below. | |
| Hope you check it out. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. | |
| Stay informed. |
Export Selection