Next Monday, April 15 is one the least favorite days for most Americans: It’s Tax Day, meaning that our tax returns are due to the IRS.
April 15 is also the day that failed former president Donald Trump’s latest criminal trial is set to begin in Manhattan for his alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
And that, according to former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, is the ultimate irony when you consider that Trump has been avoiding payment of his taxes for decades.
Speaking with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday, Katyal remarked, “As someone who actually pays his taxes, I’m glad to see April 15th actually having some consequence for Donald Trump.”
Katyal added that Trump’s move to have Judge Juan Merchan recuse himself will fail.
“His legal strategy is first lie, then deny, then delay. And we’re on the delay phase of this. It’s his last-ditch effort.”
In other words, Katyal continued, Trump is about have a very dubious historical first.
“I strongly suspect Donald Trump will be convicted at the end of that trial. That will be the first former president to be convicted criminally.”
Trump’s efforts to short-circuit the pending cases against him will also go nowhere, Katyal predicted.
“Legally, none of this is going anywhere. That’s the beauty of the American criminal justice system: It’s 12 jurors, it’s rules of evidence and the like, and these kinds of nonsense arguments will go nowhere,” he said. “That’s why I suspect he’ll be convicted.”
That includes the classified document case Trump faces, even though the judge in the case was appointed by the disgraced ex-president and has repeatedly ruled in his favor during pre-trial hearings.
“If it does go to trial, he’s gonna be convicted almost certainly there as well.”
A criminal conviction would almost certainly sink Trump’s bid for another term as president.
Just last month, Politico reported on a poll they conducted with Ipsos.
“More than a third of independents said a guilty verdict would make them less likely to support Trump’s candidacy. In a close race, that might matter.”
