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How Trial Delays Could Pay Off for Trump

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How Trial Delays Could Pay Off for Trump

Former President Donald J. Trump faces four criminal trials this year, but delays are already underway. The odds are that no more than one or two will finish before voters choose the next president.

Trump’s trials are unlikely to happen as scheduled

The trials, which may require a couple of months or more, are unlikely to happen concurrently because defendants typically have to attend criminal trials in person.

And delays are a critical piece of the Trump legal and campaign strategy, which is to protect his march toward the Republican nomination and avoid a jury before November.

The first case in line — the federal Jan. 6 case in Washington that accuses Mr. Trump of seeking to overturn the 2020 election — is already facing delays from its scheduled start date in early March. The former president is claiming immunity from the charges and his appeal is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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If the court moves quickly or elects not to hear the case immediately, the federal Jan. 6 trial could still proceed in the late spring, in one scenario.

This would most likely delay the trial in the Manhattan criminal case in New York, which charges Mr. Trump with making payments to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 presidential campaign. That trial is scheduled for late March, but the judge could defer to the federal Jan. 6 trial, which is widely viewed as more consequential to the current election.

Here’s how the scheduling could come together.

Two trials could begin before Election Day

A conviction and sentencing in either case before the nomination or election would not make Mr. Trump ineligible to run, but could sway voters or the Republican nominating committee.

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But delays into November could give Mr. Trump, if elected, the opportunity to dismiss a federal case like Jan. 6, or seek protection from the state cases, like the Manhattan criminal case, under a long-held rule that a sitting president cannot be criminally prosecuted.

How swiftly the Supreme Court responds to Mr. Trump’s immunity appeal will play a critical role in when these trials start.

In a second scenario in which the Supreme Court moves more slowly to weigh the charges against Mr. Trump in the federal Jan. 6 case, that trial might not begin until the summer or fall, pushing any conviction or sentencing close to or beyond Election Day.

Experts say that the Manhattan criminal trial would then most likely run around the time it was originally planned in late March.

How Trump’s delays could push the Jan. 6 case to summer or beyond

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Mr. Trump’s two other criminal trials may be delayed until late 2024 or even 2025.

A federal case that charges Mr. Trump with mishandling classified documents is tentatively scheduled for May 20, but the judge, a Trump appointee, could change that date at a March hearing.

A fourth case alleging Mr. Trump’s involvement in 2020 election interference in Georgia is not formally scheduled, though the prosecutor has said she wants to start sometime in August. But Mr. Trump is also claiming presidential immunity in this case, and he is seeking to have the district attorney who brought the charges, Fani T. Willis, thrown off the case.

But if Mr. Trump becomes president, these trials may be forced off the calendar. As president again, Mr. Trump could seek to order his Justice Department to shut down the federal classified documents case and claim sitting president protection from criminal prosecution in the Georgia election interference case.

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Jared Kushner’s overseas luxury resort project faces anti-corruption investigation amid violent protests

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Jared Kushner’s overseas luxury resort project faces anti-corruption investigation amid violent protests

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Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating changes to the protected status of a coastal wetland where a luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, has drawn environmental opposition and protests, according to Politico.

SPAK, Albania’s special anti-corruption prosecution office, has opened a probe into changes made to the status of the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape in Zvërnec, Politico reported. The coastal wetland area is home to flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals, and sea turtle nesting sites, Politico reported.

IVANKA TRUMP BREAKS DOWN IN EMOTIONAL INTERVIEW TALKING ABOUT HER MOTHER IVANA’S DEATH, OTHER CHALLENGES

Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff participate in a charter announcement for President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace initiative in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2026. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

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In 2024, Kushner publicly discussed plans for his firm, Affinity Partners, to develop luxury tourism projects in Albania, including in the Zvërnec area. Earlier this year, he visited the area with his wife, Ivanka Trump.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama recently confirmed to Politico that talks were ongoing between the government and Kushner over the deal, which is expected to include roughly 10,000 hotel rooms and villas.

EUROPEAN CAPITAL ROCKED BY VIOLENT PROTESTS AS GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION PROBE FUELS UNREST

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks during a press conference following the EU-Albania Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels, Belgium, on May 26, 2026. (Daniel Gnap/NurPhoto)

“I want to make Albania a country that is a destination to be envied in the region, and this project is part of this effort,” Rama said Monday.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Affinity Partners and SPAK for comment.

Protests by Albanian citizens and nonprofit groups began in May when large, barbed-wire-topped fences were erected at the proposed site, preventing locals and tourists from accessing the beach. On Sunday, protesters assembled outside government offices to demand an end to the project as well as Rama’s resignation.

Jared Kushner speaks during the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19, 2026. Kushner is facing pushback in Albania over a luxury development project. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Following Sunday’s protests, footage emerged showing private security guards appearing to assault and drag a protester along a cliff. Some guards allegedly threatened other demonstrators who were attempting to remove fences and halt construction.

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The licenses of two private security companies were revoked following the incident. Meanwhile, around 15 protesters have been charged, and the local police chief has been stripped of his duties.

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NBC News will put ‘Kornacki Cam’ on the L.A. mayoral, California gubernatorial races

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NBC News will put ‘Kornacki Cam’ on the L.A. mayoral, California gubernatorial races

After the polls close in California on Tuesday, NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki will just be getting started.

Since December, the khaki-clad vote-counting guru has been going live and uninterrupted on streaming platforms to provide results and analysis of every special election and even some state Senate contests.

The stream — called the Kornacki Cam — provides unadulterated number crunching without any pundits weighing in. Rather than getting updates that last a few minutes, Kornacki provides continuous real-time results until the last available total is counted.

“This all happens in full view,” Kornacki said Monday in a phone interview. “The audience gets to see the whole thing. They get to see the buildup, the anticipation, the payoff.”

In the 10 Kornacki Cam sessions streamed by NBC News so far, 19 million viewers have sampled them across all platforms. The coverage — consisting of Kornacki, his Big Board, his producer and a Stedicam operator — is available on YouTube, NBCNews.com, the NBC News app and the division’s social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

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The Kornacki Cam will focus on the primaries for Los Angeles mayor, California and several congressional districts, shortly after the state’s polls close at 8 p.m. Pacific. NBC News has its own decision desk, which the network said has called the results of 70% of the 2026 elections ahead of the Associated Press.

In a Monday chat with The Times, here are the trends Kornacki says he’ll be looking for on the night.

Polling in mayoral races is typically pretty unreliable. What do you make of the contest based on what you’ve seen?

You don’t always have super-competitive mayoral elections and they’re not all created equal. It’s not quite like a presidential election so you just don’t have a wealth of data to draw on for expectations either.

I’ve seen the polling you’ve seen. It suggests that of the three candidates (Mayor Karen Bass, reality TV star Spencer Pratt and City Council member Nithya Raman), Bass is in the best position to get into the runoff. It also suggests that Spencer Pratt has had the most positive movement in the last month or so of the campaign. But we go in knowing there will be volatility and I’m open to any and all possibilities.

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Spencer Pratt is an unusual candidate who has been able to take up a lot of oxygen in the race. Is there a hidden vote for him that people might not be eager to admit to pollsters?

You can look at the city and know where to look for whether Pratt is having a big night. The San Fernando Valley is gonna be more than a third of the vote, probably close to 40%. If he gets in the general election, he wants to be winning there by a big margin. 
If it’s not happening there for Pratt, I don’t think it’s happening anywhere else. Karen Bass is going to rely on central and South L.A., with probably a third of the vote coming out of those two places. Those should be her bulwarks. The Westside, I think could be more of a toss-up. There’s a fair chunk of the vote there.

We don’t do a ton of mayoral races around the country. So we’re still trying to figure out exactly how detailed we’re going to be able to zoom in, at the neighborhood level and the precinct level.

Turnouts usually are low for Los Angeles mayoral races. Will this year be different?

This mayoral race has received a lot more national attention than 2022. 
So my thought is that the turnout would be higher, just based on that. But this is something that is resonating nationally because Pratt has that celebrity factor. The number was 646,000 (total votes) for 2022. So that’s something we’ll be following — are we trending over or under that?

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And what will be the best indicators for the gubernatorial race?

The place that I kind of got circled here is Orange County. In the last two sort of major statewide elections, it was the first to report out (its) vote. 
At 8:06 p.m local time in California, in 2024, Orange County reported out half of its vote, right? So you’re getting, you know, you’re getting hundreds of thousands of votes, potentially, from this enormous county within, potentially within 10 minutes of polls closing. 
There were a couple others — the Central Valley, and we got a good chunk of Merced and Fresno quickly.

So how long are we going to have to wait for a result on Tuesday night?

One of the other things that just surrounds everything in California, whether it’s the mayor’s race, or governor’s race, or anything else, is nothing is definitive in the first hour or so after the polls close. We’re probably realistically looking at a days or even weeks-long process of getting all the vote counted.

I know it drives many people nuts. Without editorializing on that, it’s just a fact that they can get out of about two-thirds of their vote on election night, and if the races aren’t clear and definitive, then you’re generally in for a pretty long haul.

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We do know in California that they’re not going (to count) nonstop until they get a result. They’re going to then start doing updates as they process and count the remaining vote by mail, which is usually a considerable pile in a lot of these places. The vote by mail in California can continue coming in for seven days after the election.

So do you think your coverage reflects a shift in what the consumer wants? We already know how fragmented the audience is. Are there now enough political junkies who want the pure uncut stuff?

I’ve been doing this about 20 years, and when I would tell people that I reported on politics for a living, they either moved away from me or changed the subject. And now, you know, I found the last, you know, 10 years or something, has just totally changed. People come up to me, even if they don’t know I work in politics, and they want to talk politics. Everybody seems into it whatever side they’re on.

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Video: Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public

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Video: Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public

new video loaded: Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public

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Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public

Utah district judge, Tony Graf, rejected the defense’s bid to close the hearings in the Charlie Kirk murder case. The defendant, Tyler J. Robinson, is accused of fatally shooting Mr. Kirk, the conservative activist.

A party seeking to close a preliminary hearing must show that adverse publicity traceable to the opening hearing poses a realistic likelihood of prejudice to a fair trial. Public access to the judicial — to judicial proceedings also serve in an important role in maintaining confidence in the fairness and transparency of the judicial process. This court finds these showings have not been made here.

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Utah district judge, Tony Graf, rejected the defense’s bid to close the hearings in the Charlie Kirk murder case. The defendant, Tyler J. Robinson, is accused of fatally shooting Mr. Kirk, the conservative activist.

By Meg Felling

June 1, 2026

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