CNN —
Donald Trump had a bad day in court on Tuesday – or, more accurately, courts.
The former president absorbed a stunning defeat at the Supreme Court over his long-running campaign to hide his tax returns, which are now set to land before a Democratic-run House committee. Republican-appointed appeals court judges, meanwhile, appeared cool to his latest bid to slow the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. A New York judge set an October 2023 trial date for the state’s $250 million case alleging fraud against Trump, three of his children and his organization, which will fall just before Republican presidential primary season. And as the hangover lingers from his false claims of fraud in 2020, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham testified to a Georgia grand jury probing the ex-president’s alleged election stealing bid.
Given Trump’s massive legal exposure, and habit of using the courts’ deliberative pace to postpone accountability, it’s not unusual for him to have a tough time on the same day in simultaneously running cases.
But Tuesday’s developments marked the first time that the legal chaos and jeopardy that surround him has come fully into focus since he declared his third bid for the Republican presidential nomination last week. It’s the first test of whether the swirling courtroom peril facing him on multiple fronts will detract from his capacity to mount a credible campaign and whether it will put off GOP primary voters who may consider an alternative candidate.
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