A former judge on Monday slammed Donald Trump's legal team for a "stunningly stupid" move in trying to delay the former president's election subversion trial until April 2026. LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, a former California Superior Court judge, told CNN that it was "absolutely absurd" that Trump's legal team invoked the landmark 1932 SCOTUS decision Powell v. Alabama, in which the court reversed the rape convictions of nine Black men, saying they did not receive a fair trial. The court stated that a defendant charged with a serious crime "must not be stripped of his right to have sufficient time to advise with counsel and prepare his defense."
"What the Trump team did was say that, well, what happened in that trial is what could happen here in this trial, which was absolutely absurd," said Cordell, noting that the men in the rape trial were not even informed that they could select their own lawyers. Conversely, the ex-president has a swath of "experienced lawyers—a whole team—[and] investigators." The reference to Powell v. Alabama was "stunningly stupid," Cordell said, not only because of the massive discrepancies between the two cases but also because of how it may have affected U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump's case and selected the trial date. "A female judge, a Black judge, and to talk about that case and compare it to Trump's case was absurd," Cordell said, adding that she feels Chutkan was "absolutely offended."
Retired Judge LaDoris Cordell on what she says was a “stunningly stupid” moment in today’s hearing, when Trump's attorney cited Powell v. Alabama, the 1932 Supreme Court decision reversing convictions of the Scottsboro Boys, young Black men falsely accused of raping a white woman pic.twitter.com/ZIZBghdjj1
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 29, 2023
