Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. It was another week of waiting for big rulings — from the D.C. Circuit on Donald Trump’s immunity claim and Judge Arthur Engoron in the New York civil fraud case. Neither came, but briefs arguing against Trump’s ballot eligibility poured in ahead of the historic oral argument coming Thursday in Washington.
But seriously: Where’s that immunity ruling? Regular readers will recall that I kicked off last week’s newsletter with this same question. And here we are still, closing in on a month since the argument without a decision from the three-judge D.C. Circuit panel. The clock keeps ticking in the federal election interference case; on Friday, Judge Tanya Chutkan officially vacated the March 4 trial date. So it’s all the more likely now that the first of Trump’s criminal trials to go forward will be later next month in the New York “hush money” case — which, I’ve noted, is also an election interference case of sorts.
In the fraud case, Engoron didn’t rule by the end of January, which he had previously floated as a possibility. Now it’s looking like early to mid-February for the judge’s decision on the fate of the Trump business empire (which will likely be finally determined on an appeal). My colleague Lisa Rubin explains how a mysterious loan could factor into the case, while reports of a possible perjury plea for former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg could figure in the drama as well.
In the E. Jean Carroll case, the former president seems to be in the market for appellate lawyers. Apparently, Alina Habba won’t be handling it after stumbling through the trial and then raising and quickly withdrawing a baseless conflict-of-interest claim this week. But whichever brave legal soul takes on this quest for perhaps the nation’s most difficult client, could they succeed in upending the eight-figure damages? I explored the possibility here.
In the Georgia case, Fulton County…
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