Former President Donald Trump at a rally at the Delaware County Fairgrounds on April 23 in Delaware, Ohio.
Joe Maiorana/AP
- Lawyers have asked to delay a trial in which Trump is accused of siccing security on protesters.
- Jury selection would conflict with Trump’s deposition in the NY AG’s probe of the Trump Organization.
- Seven of Trump’s NY legal battles have dates, deadlines, or depositions between now and August.
So many court cases, so little time.
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are asking a Bronx, New York, judge to delay the July 18 start of a civil trial in which five protesters of Mexican heritage allege Trump unleashed fist-swinging security guards on their rally outside Trump Tower in 2015.
The first week of that trial would conflict with a deposition that Trump must give in New York in Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation of his business, the lawyers said in a filing Thursday night.
The double booking is to be expected. No fewer than seven of Trump’s New York legal battles have dates, deadlines, or depositions between now and early August.
With the lone exception of testifying for James, Trump does not have to personally be present while his lawyers hash out everything from the indictment of his company to why he retweeted an animation that used the song “Electric Avenue.”
But Trump’s small army of East Coast lawyers is busy, busy, busy.
Busiest of all may be Alina Habba and her law partner, Michael Madaio. They are Trump’s attorneys for the Trump Tower-protester trial and two separate, labor-intensive legal battles with the attornye general’s office.
One is over James’ demand for Trump’s personal business documents, a matter for which Trump conditionally remains in contempt of court.
The other is the AG’s demand for Trump’s testimony. Donald Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., all must submit to questioning under oath before the AG’s lawyers — whether in person or via video has not been determined — sometime between July 15 and July 22.
Habba did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her cases.
“Defendant is now mandated to appear for a deposition on the week of July 18,” Habba wrote in her Thursday night letter to New York Supreme Court Justice Doris M. Gonzalez, who will preside over the Bronx protester trial.
“As this office is also representing Defendant in that matter, I am required to defend my client’s deposition and will not be available from July 18-22,” Habba wrote the judge.
The AG won’t budge an inch on the deposition dates, Habba wrote. So it’s the trial date that’s gotta give.
“We have been advised that the OAG [Office of the Attorney General] will not consent to an adjournment of these [deposition] dates, as it contends that any delay could potentially conflict with the relevant statue of limitations.
“As a result,” Habba’s letter concludes, “we request a brief adjournment of the current trial date and seek this Court’s permission to schedule jury duty for July 25, 2022, or a date thereafter as the Court sees fit.”
The judge has yet to rule on moving the protester trial date.
Here’s how Trump’s crowded legal dance card is shaping up for the summer. All dates are subject to additional shuffling as the parties try to squeeze everything in.
Week of June 20
Monday, June 20, is a deadline for the AG’s office to tell a Manhattan judge if — after two years of legal battles — they are finally satisfied with Trump’s efforts to comply with their subpoena for his documents, and whether they think Trump’s costly contempt-of-court order should therefore be lifted once and for all.
A hearing for oral arguments on that matter would likely be set for later in the week.
A side-battle to the Bronx protester trial had been scheduled for an in-person hearing on Wednesday, June 22, but that date has since been cancelled.
The lawyers for Trump and for the protesters are accusing each other of unethical behavior relating to the pretrial release of deposition excerpts that revealed Trump has an inordinate fear that “dangerous” fruit would be flung at him during protests.
The judge will instead preside next month over each of the parties’ demand that the other be sanctioned in the fruit fracas.
Week of July 11
On Tuesday, July 12, lawyers for the Trump Organization and its former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, appear before a Manhattan criminal judge.
“We will discuss all pre-trial matters,” NY Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said in setting the date from the bench on Wednesday. “And we’ll set a firm trial date.”
Manhattan prosecutors allege — and defense lawyers deny — that Weisselberg and the Trump Organization set up a payroll scheme that let company executives disguise millions in pay as income-tax-free fringe benefits.
A late-August, early September trial has been discussed, though Weisselberg could yet plead guilty and face minimum jail time.
Tuesday is also scheduled for a remote hearing in Trump’s 2021 civil suit in Dutchess County, NY, against his niece, Mary Trump, and the New York Times.
Trump is seeking “no less than One Hundred Million Dollars” in damages over the Times’ Pulitzer-winning coverage of his tax records.
Friday, July 15, is the court-mandated starting bell for the three Trumps to begin depositions in the AG’s probe of the Trump Organization.
Week of July 18
The three Trumps’ depositions before the AG’s lawyers must conclude by week’s end.
And Friday, July 22, is a motion-filing deadline in a lawsuit by disco-reggae star Eddy Grant, who sued Trump for copyright infringement in federal court in Manhattan in 2021.
Grant is seeking $300,000 in damages over the use of his hit song, “Electric Avenue,” in a Biden-bashing animation that Trump tweeted during the 2020 presidential campaign. Trump has been court-ordered to give a deposition in that case by June 21.
Week of July 25
This is the tentative new start date of the protester trial in the Bronx.
Donald Trump is a star defendant, and his fixer-turned-critic Michael Cohen is the star witness against him, but neither will appear in person at trial.
Instead, jurors will hear trial depositions previously taped by the two now-arch-enemies.
Trump has sworn he had nothing to do with the security-on-protester violence outside Trump Tower, and that he hadn’t even known there was a protester issue until the following day.
Cohen has countered in his own deposition that his then-boss was indeed there — and in charge. Cohen said in his own deposition that he was with Trump, upstairs in the Trump Organization’s headquarters, as Trump told his top security officer of the protesters, “get rid of them.”
Week of August 1
Finally, Wednesday, Aug. 3, is the day for depositions to begin behind the scenes in writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump in federal court in Manhattan.
Habba and Madaio are currently the attorneys representing Trump on this case.
Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s; her lawyers have said that they will not seek a deposition from Trump — but they do want his DNA, which they hope to compare with a dress Carroll says she was wearing when the incident happened.
As for the rest of August, the Bronx protester trial could drag on into mid-month. And August 29 is the tentative trial start date for the Electric Avenue trial, providing a settlement is not reached.
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