“Having reviewed the prosecution’s submission, President Trump states that he is in general agreement with the concepts proposed by the prosecution.”
That’s from the first paragraph of Donald Trump’s Response to Prosecution’s Motion For Jury Procedures, the language of which amply demonstrates the difference between the former President’s intransigent, belligerent objection to anything proposed by the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith — the man Trump continually calls “deranged” — and the realities of the legal system, wherein rules are followed and evidence and procedure are paramount.
JUST IN: Maybe Trump's most conciliatory filing ever in his 4 criminal cases, declaring him 'in general agreement' w/prosecutors for jury process in DC election trial. But he adamantly opposes anonymous jury, as in Carroll cases.https://t.co/oATr8jkU2c
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) October 20, 2023
A deep search through Trump’s Truth Social posts, where his defense in the court of public opinion is being waged with less decorum and fewer rules, will not turn up moments wherein the former President strikes any similar accord with the prosecution, let alone will the search find Trump “in general agreement with the concepts proposed by the prosecution.”
This is where lawyers following Trump’s four pending criminal cases tend to say he is in more trouble than he admits — because the law isn’t as easily manipulated as MAGA actors, and because the law — properly applied — is immune to a defendant’s political power.
With first Sidney Powell and now Kenneth Chesebro taking plea deals in Fani Willis‘s sprawling case against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia, Trump’s legal peril has been amplified not just in the Georgia District Attorney’s case but also in the federal cases, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance has suggested. The special counsel’s election subversion case in the U.S. District Court in DC, for which the jury procedures response above was submitted, is most closely linked to the Georgia case.
Chesebro, charged with seven criminal counts, agreed to plead guilty to just one felony in Georgia — conspiracy to file false documents. Among other conditions of his deal, including avoiding jail time, he is now required to testify truthfully at future court proceedings against the remaining co-defendants in the case including Trump.
