Your Indictment news for June 20, 2023
Hi there,
A quick update today... We've got a trial date (that, fingers crossed, is going to slip some or we're going to run into another 'Dan has a family trip' situation), and that rises to the 'time to send an update out' levels.
But before we get to it, hi! I'm Dan Sinker (hello!) and I write these updates myself because I make poor decisions. I don't charge for this, but tips are very welcome via PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp. Your support means a lot.
OK, let's get up-to-date on the last week:
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Previously: On Thursday, June 8th, Donald Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts stemming from his refusal to return classified documents to the National Archives. This made him the first president to ever be charged with a federal crime, and is now his second indictment of the year, having been indicted on March 30th in New York State for falsifying business records around a hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. On Tuesday June 13th, he was arraigned in the courtroom of Judge Aileen Cannon where he pled not guilty on all counts. No trial date was set, until today...
Today, Tuesday, June 20, 2023
One week to the day after the arraignment of Donald Trump on federal charges for mishandling classified documents, Judge Aileen Cannon has set a tentative date for the trial to begin and… it's in less than two months! Judge Cannon set August 14th for the trial's start, with pretrial motions due by July 24th. However, in her written order, she did note that "modifications" can be made "as this matter proceeds." Pretty much every expert expects those modifications to happen and, personally, they better because August 14 is two days before I send my kid off to college. Hahahaha. Cries. (Source: CNN)
Pushing back the trial date will likely be necessary due to the complexities of a trial involving classified documents which will need to follow the strict rules of the Classified Information Procedures Act. According to the Washington Post, the law "created a series of pretrial steps that must be taken to decide exactly what classified information will be used in court, and how." First off, at least one of Trump's lawyers needs to get security clearance, which can take weeks at best and easily stretch to months (not to mention, he still hasn't finalized his legal team). Then, all documents shared with the defense in the discovery phase need to be handled in a SCIF, a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility—no copies made, no digital versions on a laptop. Even discussions about the documents need to happen in a SCIF. And then, once all documents have been shared, the defense lawyers have to create a secure document outlining what classified information they'd like to disclose to jurors. Prosecutors can object to those plans. In fact, every step along the way is an open door for litigation. And, somehow all of this will happen in the next two months, with a presiding judge who has never overseen a classified documents case either. It doesn't seem likely. (Source: Washington Post)
What's coming next: Well, I for one will be watching for the first motions to push back the trial. Because I really need it to be pushed back. Also, Trump's shambolic defense team will probably become a little less raggedy. Oh, also there's the very distinct possibility that we're about six weeks away from an indictment in Georgia. Hot indictment summer rolls on apace.
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I'm sure there's going to be some updates to the trial date soon, and you'll hear from me when it happens. Or when things happen on the other indictment. Or the (potential) other one. Cries. Thank you all for your support of this project. It means a lot.
Speaking of support, if you want to check out something I'm working on that's entirely different, I'd love to direct you to Question Mark, Ohio, the sprawling, ambitious storytelling project myself and novelist Joe Meno have embarked on. It's a story about how a town navigates its way through change, and it's surreal and funny and spooky and takes place in real time across the internet. We just beheaded a cat. I love it so much. Wait, not the cat beheading though, that part was tragic. There's a newsletter and you can sign up on the town website.
OK, back to the indictment: if this update was helpful to you, it's probably helpful to someone else, so send people to indictment.fyi/signup and they can start getting this newsletter too Thanks for spreading the word.
Finally, a tip via PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp is a great way of showing your support for this newsletter, but only if you can. Thank you so much.
I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad to be back,
Dan