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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.