Jeenah Moon-Pool/Getty Images
- Donald Trump has complained that he's stuck in court for his criminal trial instead of campaigning.
- His lawyers reportedly made a decision not to agree to stipulations.
- He could speed things up and get out of there by stipulating basic facts.
As the 2024 election is underway, Donald Trump is set to spend the bulk of the next six weeks in downtown Manhattan, far from any swing states.
Trump has griped that his ongoing criminal hush-money trial — for 34 counts of falsifying business documents — is impairing his campaign to recapture the presidency. He has scheduled events across the country on Wednesdays, the one day each week the trial is not scheduled to take place.
"This is a trial that should have never been brought," the former president told reporters in the courtroom hallway Tuesday morning ahead of the second day of jury selection, adding, "I should be right now in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in many other states, in North Carolina, Georgia, campaigning."
Trump also has complained to reporters that the judge didn't immediately rule on his request to take a day off of testimony for his son Barron's high school graduation ceremony in May.
But there's one simple way Trump could speed things up: agree to stipulations.
In any trial, the parties have an opportunity to stipulate to a certain set of facts. That obviates the need for the lawyers to present witnesses and introduce evidence that establish things that aren't really in dispute.
"Trials can be boring in great part, and the interesting part can constitute about 10% of what's happening. And it is not uncommon where the parties will stipulate to the admissibility of uncontested evidence or even certain facts that are not an issue, so as to prevent the need to call unnecessary witnesses," explained former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Bederow.
Trump's current trial, for example, is over his hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, who says she had an affair with Trump about a decade before he became president.
The payments were facilitated by Trump's ex-personal attorney and former fixer Michael Cohen, who worked with Trump to keep Daniels quiet about the alleged relationship ahead of the 2016 presidential election, according to prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office.
According to The Washington Post, Trump's legal team has decided not to stipulate to anything and to fight over everything.
In the Daniels saga, there are several issues that Trump may want to dispute.
Maybe his lawyers will deny the affair ever happened. Maybe he'll say that Cohen was acting of his own accord when he facilitated the payments to Daniels, an adult film actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
But there are also a lot of facts that aren't really in dispute. Like the fact that Cohen worked as Trump's personal lawyer in 2016. Or that Daniels and Trump knew each other.
(Daniels and Trump were photographed together in 2006, and Daniels attended a Trump vodka event the following year.)
If Trump were to stipulate to those facts — and others — then lawyers in the case could save a lot of time by not needing to establish those foundational details in court.
Judges are normally happy when both parties in a dispute stipulate details. It means they need to adjudicate fewer disputes, and everything can move faster.
Though stipulation can certainly speed up court proceedings, it's within Trump's legal right to "put the people to the proof," Bederow, a criminal defense attorney, told Business Insider.
"It does add to the boredom factor and, from Trump's perspective, adds to the length and is consistent with his approach, which is: fight every point imaginable under the sun no matter how large, small, relevant or irrelevant," he said.
This can be "frustrating" for the court in a practical sense, Bederow said, but Trump "has a right to do it."
"He's entitled to use every mechanism under the rules of evidence to require them to prove their case," said Bederow.
But the idea that Trump has been complaining about his trial preventing him from hitting the campaign trial, while his own lawyers' reported strategy is to slow things down by stipulating to nothing is a "perfect illustration," Bederow said, "in my view of the conflict between criminal defendant Trump and Republican nominee Trump."
"The longer the case goes, and the more boring it is, and the less exotic testimony there is, the less connection of him to the central issues — the defense may feel that's helpful," Bederow said.
Still, the former prosecutor added, this tactic can only go so far.
"To the extent that the goal of the exercise was to delay until after the election, that ship has sailed," said Bederow.
"Even if he delays with these stipulations, you're talking at worst a few days," Bederow said. "That's not going to solve his problem,"
Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on their lunch break Tuesday.
Spokespersons for the District Attorney's office also did not immediately respond.