Edition · December 13, 2023
Trump’s immunity shield keeps cracking
A New York appeals court swats away one immunity theory while the D.C. election case gets put on ice, and the 2024 campaign keeps paying the legal-interest bill.
December 13, 2023 gave Trump a tidy little reminder that “delay” is not the same thing as “victory.” In New York, an appeals court rejected his claim that presidential immunity could wipe out part of the E. Jean Carroll defamation case. In Washington, a judge paused deadlines in the federal election-subversion case while the immunity fight moves up the ladder. Taken together, the day showed a campaign still trying to turn procedure into salvation — and still collecting courtroom headaches instead.
Closing take
Trump spent the day buying time in one case and losing ground in another. That is not exactly the profile of a man cruising toward legal vindication. If 2023 had a theme for him, it was that nearly every road to November ran through a courthouse, and the courthouse kept asking for receipts.
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Immunity rejected
Confidence 5/5
★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5
Serious fuckup
A federal appeals panel shut down Donald Trump’s attempt to use presidential immunity to block liability in the E. Jean Carroll defamation fight. The ruling kept alive a major legal and financial threat tied to his 2019 attacks on Carroll and undercut the broader Trump strategy of arguing that nearly anything he said while in office should be untouchable. It was a bad day for a campaign already trying to turn courtroom delay into a political asset.
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Trial paused
Confidence 5/5
★★★☆☆Fuckup rating 3/5
Major mess
Judge Tanya Chutkan paused the federal election-subversion case on Dec. 13, 2023, while Donald Trump’s immunity appeal moved forward. The case had been scheduled for trial on March 4, 2024, and the order put that timetable on hold.
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