Supreme Court Schedule Could Put Trump On Trial All Through Campaign’s Final Month

If the trial judge in the Jan. 6 case sticks to her vow not to bend her schedule to suit a defendant’s "day job," Trump could spend every October weekday in court.

WASHINGTON ― With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to take up Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution for his coup attempt, the former president ― and near certain Republican presidential nominee ― could be spending every weekday of the campaign’s final month sitting in a Washington, D.C., courtroom.

Instead of visiting key states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, where his efforts to regain the White House will likely be decided, Trump might instead be sitting before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, listening to his former aides testify about his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Instead of long speeches at rallies, Trump’s campaigning could primarily consist of his signature rants about “election interference” and a “witch hunt” as he stands outside the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Court House ― just blocks from the U.S. Capitol, which a mob of his followers attacked on Jan. 6, 2021, as part of his last-ditch attempt to retain power.

“You’re going to have the spectacle of his former officials, one after the other, day after day, testifying about what he did,” said George Conway, a conservative lawyer who worked on the civil lawsuit that led to former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment and, more recently, helped writer E. Jean Carroll sue Trump for sexually abusing and defaming her.

Whether such a scenario would help Trump or hurt him is unclear. Trump’s campaign aides did not respond to HuffPost queries, but much of his 2024 campaign has already been based on his supposed victimhood at the hands of the “deep state,” and it has let him glide toward winning the nomination over a field of rivals.