How Trump Plans to Fight His Federal Election-Interference Case

livemint.com:

WASHINGTON—With less than six months to prepare for his federal election-interference trial, Donald Trump’s lawyers are turning to a familiar strategy for the former president: long-shot legal motions that publicly criticize the case and raise novel questions that could serve to delay it. In a heated hearing last week, Trump lawyer John Lauro said he couldn’t build a full-throated defense for his client in the months remaining before the March 2024 start date and pressed the judge for more time. Short of that, Trump’s team has promised—but not yet filed—a flurry of requests that legal experts say probably won’t derail the criminal trial in Washington but could delay it by raising complicated legal issues that might take time to sort out.

“I’m afraid, Your Honor, we’re going to be back many, many times arguing some of these complex motions," Lauro told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. “I can’t wait," she said.

Lauro said they would abide by Chutkan’s trial schedule “as we must," but he vowed to challenge each of the four counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment, which accuses the former president of conspiring to cling to power after his 2020 election loss through actions that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“There’s going to be an enormity of unique legal issues," Lauro said, indicating the defense team would be offering a panoply of arguments, including that the case violates Trump’s First Amendment rights and that prosecutors inappropriately wielded conspiracy charges against a political opponent. It is commonplace for defendants in hard-fought trials to attack criminal charges through a flurry of motions. Even if many are unlikely to be successful before trial, they serve in part