Napolitano predicts Jan. 6 Trump verdict before election in interview with Newsmax

November 27, 2023 TruthUSA

A verdict in the Jan. 6 case against former President Donald Trump likely will occur before next year’s presidential election, former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Monday.

Trump, the current clear front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential election, was charged with plotting to overturn the 2020 election results.

During an appearance on “Wake Up America,” host Rob Finnerty, noting that Democrats want Trump to be found guilty before the election, asked Napolitano if he envisions a verdict in any of the four criminal trials involving Trump before Nov. 5, 2024.

“Yes, the D.C. case is scheduled for March, just four months from now, and that [D.C. appeals] court just doesn’t interfere with the trial judge’s management of her case,” Napolitano said. “So that’s the Jan. 6 case in federal court, Judge Tanya Chutkan.”

Asked whether Trump could go to jail Napolitano said: “He could, but I don’t think he will.”

Napolitano’s appearance on Newsmax came on a day that’s expected to include gag order decisions in the D.C. case and in the civil fraud case in New York. Napolitano said he expects Trump to receive a split decision.

“Two events that could have a profound effect on Donald Trump’s ability to speak his mind on the prosecutions, slash persecutions, against him,” Napolitano said. “In New York, this is the civil fraud case in Manhattan, the trial judge imposed a gag order prohibiting the former president from criticizing the trial judge’s staff and from discussing the testimony of the witnesses in the case publicly. When Trump’s lawyers appealed this, an appellate division judge immediately stopped, stayed, the effect of the gag order.”

“Today [Monday] is the full appeal. That is the oral argument on the appeal before four appellate division judges. I expect that gag order not to be affirmed because the purpose of gag orders is to protect jurors and witnesses, and the witnesses have finished just about finished testifying in the Trump case. The only witnesses remaining are his own, and there are no jurors.”

Napolitano said he expects a different decision in the case in D.C.

“There, I expect the gag order to be upheld simply because there is a tradition in federal court for appellate judges not to interfere with trial judges in the management of the trial,” he said. “They may narrow the gag order a little bit in D.C., but I think they’re going to uphold it.”

Napolitano was asked if the gag orders have inhibited Trump’s ability to campaign.

“Well, knowing him, I know he wants to be unbridled, or he wants to be able to say whatever is on his mind, but I think he’s done a very good job, a very disciplined job of toeing the line … of coming right up to the line of what these gag orders will allow,” Napolitano said.

“My own view is that gag orders are unconstitutional. I never imposed one when I was on the bench, but that is not the view of most judges. Most judges believe that they can suppress the speech of a litigant.”

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