DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH WAITING FOR THE GEORGIA TRIAL

Fulton County DA Fani Willis has given us an impressive indictment charging Donald Trump and eighteen other people with crimes related to the 2020 election, but -- you knew I'd find a reason not to be cheerful this morning -- the case almost certainly won't go to trial before the 2024 election, despite Willis's call for a trial within the next six months. Here's NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos explaining this to anchor Hallie Jackson:

It seems impossible that this case could go to trial sometime next year, in 2024. It actually seems impossible that it could go to trial in 2026. [I think he means 2025.] I'm not being glib here. When you look at the fact that the other current high-profile racketeering case that is pending in the same county has been in jury selection for eight months -- and if the name of the trial isn't at the tip of your tongue, then that's evidence that as high-profile as that trial is and they can't seat a jury, this trial is a hundred times as high-profile. And keep in mind also that there are many co-defendants. Each one of those co-defendants is charged with different crimes, and each one of those defendants is going to be filing motions to sever, motions to continue, motions to dismiss. All of these need to be decided. There's simply no way that this case could go to trial in the next two years, Hallie. I don't see it happening. And that again is part of life practicing in state courts. Things just take longer there. Usually inures to the benefit of the defense as well.

So while it's exciting that Trump can't self-pardon his way out of any convictions on these state charges, and it's also exciting that Trump faces mandatory minimum sentences on some of the charges, which means he won't be able to evade jail time if convicted, we still have to beat him at the ballot box.

If Trump wins the White House before this case goes to trial, the thoroughly corrupt Justice Department he'll put together (with the rubber-stamp endorsement of alleged institutionalists like Mitch McConnell) will jury-rig a lawless excuse for why Trump can't go to trial on these charges. So enjoy this moment, but remember that it's probably irrelevant to the future of democracy in America, at least in the near term. Trials that take place next year might influence the election outcome, but this case won't.