The beginning of March will see more than a dozen Republican primaries and caucuses, through which Donald Trump could effectively secure the presidential nomination. It may also see the opening of the first of four criminal cases against the former president. Should the criminal justice system be working more quickly in this environment — both because a criminal conviction or acquittal would be important to primary and general election voters, and because Trump could have pardon power next year? Or would speeding things up be a miscarriage of justice?
To address these and other questions, I speak to Professor Sam Kamin of the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law. We cover a lot of ground, and particularly dig into the question of whether the political or legal system has done a worse job of constraining Trump’s most anti-democratic tendencies.
The criminal justice calendar and the political calendar are out of sync