Explained: What are the next steps in the Trump case?

Now the wait begins for the lengthy slog of the judicial system to play out, with the subsequent scheduled actions in courtroom months away. Away from the courthouse, nevertheless, Trump rapidly went again to attacking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Judge Juan Merchan, together with their households – elevating questions on whether or not his rhetoric may land him in scorching water legally.

Here’s what’s subsequent in Trump’s New York felony case:

Could Trump obtain a gag order?

It took Trump solely hours after leaving the Manhattan courtroom to return on the assault and rail towards each Bragg, the district legal professional who charged him, and Merchan, the decide listening to his case.

“I have a Trump-hating judge with the Trump-hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris,” Trump mentioned throughout a speech at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night.

During yesterday’s arraignment, prosecutors supplied the decide with a packet of Trump’s social media posts, elevating considerations about veiled threats he made, together with posting a narrative that confirmed a photograph of Trump with a baseball bat subsequent to Bragg.

Prosecutors didn’t try to put a gag order on Trump, and the decide mentioned he was not near contemplating issuing one in any occasion – noting that Trump had First Amendment rights each as a defendant but additionally as a candidate for president.

“Certainly, the Court would not impose a gag order at this time even if it were requested,” Merchan mentioned, in accordance with a transcript. “Such restraints are the most serious and least intolerable on First Amendment rights. That does apply doubly to Mr. Trump, because he is a candidate for the presidency of the United States.”

At the identical time, Merchan warned each side for witnesses and the defendant to not make feedback that might incite violence or civil unrest or “jeopardise the safety or well-being of any individuals,” however didn’t say what would drive any motion.

Elie Honig, a former prosecutor and CNN senior authorized analyst, mentioned Trump’s feedback Tuesday night indicated he was brazenly defying the decide along with his rhetoric.

“He’s almost daring the judge,” Honig mentioned. “Ultimately though, as much as the threats and other rhetoric in my view are far over the line, I think that the judge is unlikely to impose a gag order, given the normal First Amendment concerns multiplied by Donald Trump’s ongoing candidacy.”

Could decide’s household connections to Biden impression case?

While Trump’s assaults on Bragg mimic these he has made towards the opposite prosecutors investigating him, his broadsides towards Merchan are in a unique class because the decide presiding over his case.

Trump and his allies have criticised not simply Merchan but additionally his daughter for her work for the campaigns of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The decide’s daughter, Loren Merchan, has served as president of Authentic Campaigns, a agency that does digital work for Democratic candidates.

The Authentic Campaigns web site lists the Biden-Harris 2020 marketing campaign and Harris’s personal unsuccessful presidential main marketing campaign, which started and resulted in 2019, amongst its purchasers. Federal marketing campaign finance data present funds to the agency in 2020 from the Biden marketing campaign and 2019 from the Harris main marketing campaign.

A screenshot purporting to be from Loren Merchan’s LinkedIn web page, which was captured by right-wing media shops earlier than her LinkedIn web page was made unavailable, lists her as having labored for Harris’ main marketing campaign in 2019 as Director of Digital Persuasion.

While Trump has complained concerning the decide, his attorneys haven’t accomplished so publicly. Joe Tacopina, one in all Trump’s protection legal professionals, mentioned on NBC’s “Today” Wednesday that Trump’s feedback about Merchan’s daughter didn’t represent a menace towards the decide.

Adult movie actress Stormy Daniels arrives for the opening of the grownup leisure honest Venus in Berlin, Oct. 11, 2018. An appeals courtroom dominated Tuesday, April 4, 2023, that Daniels should pay almost $122,000 of Donald Trump’s authorized charges that had been racked up in reference to the porn actor’s failed defamation lawsuit. The ruling in Los Angeles got here as Trump additionally confronted a felony case associated to alleged hush cash he paid to Daniels and one other girl who claimed he had affairs with them

“That’s a relevant fact here,” Tacopina mentioned. “It is not an attack on the judge or certainly his family. No one is suggesting that anything should happen to the judge or his family, and President Trump’s comments did not in any way, shape or form.”

The political connections of Merchan’s daughter do nothing to disqualify him as a decide within the case, mentioned CNN authorized analyst Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former chief assistant district legal professional within the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace.

“What does Biden have to do with any of this? And it’s his daughter. You can’t control your family members,” Agnifilo mentioned. “I don’t think it even comes close to a conflict.”

Loren Merchan and Authentic Campaigns didn’t reply to requests for remark despatched to the agency.

What’s the subsequent step within the case towards Trump?

During yesterday’s arraignment, prosecutors mentioned they had been negotiating the logistics of a “protective order” with Trump’s defence staff, which might restrict how Trump and his attorneys can use the paperwork they are going to be given from the grand jury proceedings in the course of the discovery course of.

Prosecutors particularly mentioned they wish to prohibit Trump from posting any discovery supplies to social media or sharing them with third events, similar to journalists. They additionally mentioned they plan to permit Trump evaluation sure delicate supplies solely along with his legal professionals.

Trump’s attorneys must comply with the specifics of the settlement, however the exchanges Tuesday confirmed the priority within the district legal professional’s workplace about what Trump may say or submit concerning the proof they hand over.

“The entirety of the prosecution’s case file will soon have to be turned over to the defence,” Agnifilo mentioned. “Prosecutors don’t want it made public because they’re focused on the proceedings and know Trump will try this in the court of public opinion way before any trial in a court. That’s where the integrity of the proceedings can get really dicey – and that’s what they’re trying to accomplish with a protective order.”

When may a trial really begin?

If the case goes to trial, it is not going to be till subsequent 12 months – when Trump might be within the thick of the 2024 Republican presidential main.

Merchan set the subsequent listening to date within the case for December 4, almost eight months away. Before that date, he set an August 8 deadline for Trump’s legal professionals to file motions within the case, similar to an try to get the fees dismissed or lowered to misdemeanors.

Prosecutors may have till September 19 to reply, after which Merchan expects to rule on the motions on the December listening to.

Prosecutors requested Merchan to plan on a trial starting in January 2024, however Trump’s attorneys prompt that the spring is perhaps extra reasonable, given they’d not but obtained any paperwork within the case.

Merchan appeared to aspect with Trump’s legal professionals.

“I understand what you are saying,” Merchan mentioned. “I think that is reasonable. You have not received discovery. It is difficult to anticipate if you will be ready for trial in January of 2024. The message I would like to deliver is we would like to move ahead as expeditiously as possible, without undue delay.”