Trump wants trial after 2024 election, GOP source on Biden gets indicted

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Media pleas to president: Don't run

OutKick's Charly Arnolt and Democratic strategist Kevin Walling discuss media efforts to push President Biden not to run in 2024.

Donald Trump is attempting to delay his classified documents trial until after the election.

Of course he is.

Trump has used delaying tactics since he was a New York real estate developer tangling with local authorities.

His lawyers said in a court filing Monday night that Trump’s presidential candidacy "will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process" and limit their client’s ability "to secure a fair and impartial adjudication."

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd at a campaign event on July 1, 2023, in Pickens, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

It’s not an off-the-wall argument – Trump would be getting hammered in the campaign by his rivals – but still falls flat. A delay of nearly a year and half, when special counsel Jack Smith wants to start in December? 

And there could be more indictments, one from the Georgia prosecutor investigating pressure to overturn the election and another from Smith, if he chooses to bring charges related to Jan. 6.

The former president is in my view concerned not so much about jury selection as an election-year conviction that could send him to prison. Yes, he could still run from prison, but that might be the final straw for wavering Republicans, not to mention general-election voters.

If Trump wins the election, he can simply hire a new attorney general who will call the classified documents indictment an abomination and drop the case.

If another Republican wins the election, he or she could pardon Trump.

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The date-setting decision will be made by Aileen Cannon, a Florida judge appointed by Trump, who drew fierce criticism for her favorable rulings in an earlier case that were overturned by an appeals court.

Trump’s calendar is getting, well, rather crowded. He faces a civil fraud trial in October as New York Attorney General Letitia James tries to slap major restrictions on his businesses. And there is a criminal trial, set for March of next year, in the Stormy Daniels case involving hush money payments to the porn star.

Meanwhile, there is another investigation, aimed at the Biden family, that just took an embarrassing turn for the GOP.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden joined by Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden attend their granddaughter Maisy Biden's graduation from the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field on May 15, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The whistleblower that Republican lawmakers have been touting as possessing evidence of Biden corruption was just indicted.

Gal Luft, co-director of the Maryland think tank Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, has been charged with serious criminal offenses, including lying to investigators. Jim Comer, the congressman leading the Biden probe, said in May that the source had gone "missing."

Maybe that’s because Luft was initially arrested in Cyprus back in February, skipped out on his bail and has been a fugitive from justice.

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Hunter Biden holding Beau Biden and Naomi Biden watch fireworks on the South Lawn of the White House on July 04, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

"Remember," Comer said, "these informants are kind of in the spy business, so they don’t make a habit of being seen a lot or being high profile or anything like that." 

Luft, a dual Israeli-American citizen, has argued that the Bidens got money from a Chinese energy giant with ties to the Beijing government. Hunter Biden may well have received such payments for his international buckraking trading on his last name, yet no evidence has surfaced that Joe Biden, then a former vice president, received a dime.

Here’s the overarching irony. The indictment, brought by the Manhattan U.S. attorney, says Luft broke foreign registration laws by secretly trying to promote Chinese policies, acting through an unnamed former top American official. Luft is also accused of violating the U.S. embargo against Iran by brokering deals for Iranian oil.

According to the indictment, a former top Hong Kong official offered Luft’s firm $350,000 a year to arrange international conferences. By 2016, Luft told the ex-Hong Kong official by email that his contact, the former U.S. official, was advising candidate Donald Trump. "We nailed it!" he wrote.

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Emails show that Luft was secretly writing pieces for worldwide publications advocating a "grand bargain" between the U.S. and China, but these appeared under the byline of the former American official, as if he were an independent expert.

The Republican lawmakers relying on Luft presumably had no knowledge of this. But this underscores the danger of going on TV and making corruption claims against the president without having solid evidence in hand – and relying on a source who went "missing." 

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As for the information that Luft claims he gave to the FBI about the Bidens, let’s just say the man has some obvious credibility problems.