Donald Trump Faces Crunch Time as Two Legal Deadlines Near

Donald Trump's ongoing legal issues could soon widen as two decision deadlines in separate cases arrive over the next few days.

The first deadline on July 13 involves the Department of Justice (DOJ), who must decide if they want to allow a defamation lawsuit filed against the former president by E. Jean Carroll when he was in office to go ahead or rule he has immunity.

The second deadline date in Georgia is less defined, and focuses on indications that Trump could be soon charged in connection to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office has been investigating whether the former president and his inner circle committed a crime in their attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

The frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary has already been charged on a state level of falsifying business records in New York, and on federal charges under Special Counsel Jack Smith's classified documents probe.

The defamation suit Trump faces from Carroll is separate from the civil trial in which a New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s, then defaming her character while denying the assault took place and ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.

The current defamation suit, which Carroll filed in 2019, focuses on comments Trump made as president while denying the accusations, including telling The Hill that the attack could not have occurred as "she's not my type."

One day after the civil trial ruling, Trump appeared at a CNN town hall where he once again attacked and insulted Carroll as a "whack job," denied he ever met her and suggested the abuse claim was a "made-up story." Carroll then sought to amend her 2019 lawsuit to include the comments Trump made on CNN, as well as seek an additional $10 million in punitive damages.

The 2019 lawsuit has been stalled for years as the courts have to consider whether Trump is immune for liability as his comments were made while he was president—which has been backed by both the DOJ under the leadership of former Attorney General Bill Barr in the Trump administration and current Attorney General Merrick Garland under the Biden administration.

However, recent court filings from the DOJ suggest they are reassessing this position, due to "collective developments," including Trump's CNN town hall comments.

District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who allowed Carroll to move forward with her 2019 lawsuit against Trump last month, gave the DOJ a deadline of July 13 to decide if they want to step away from the case, or rule that Trump does have immunity.

The Department of Justice has been contacted for comment.

Elsewhere, there are hints that Trump could be charged by prosecutors in Georgia.

Trump denies any wrongdoing in relation to the probe, which originally focused on Trump's January 2021 phone call with Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger in which the former president asked him to "find" 11,870 votes, which would have helped him beat President Joe Biden in the last election.

The probe later expanded into other areas, including allegations Trump and his allies plotted to send a group of fake electors to falsely claim that Trump had won Georgia in 2020.

In April, prosecutor Willis wrote in a letter to county Sheriff Pat Labat saying she expects to announce the decisions on whether to bring forward charges sometime between July 11 and September 1, a timeline which begins on Tuesday.

In her letter, Willis said she wanted to give local, state and federal agencies sufficient time "to ensure that our law enforcement community is ready to protect the public" if the former president needs to appear in court to face the charges, as well as prepare to deal with potential violence.

However, if any indictments in the Georgia investigation are coming, it appears more likely they will occur in the coming weeks.

It was previously reported that Willis has instructed most of her staff to begin working remotely from July 31 to August 18. Willis also requested that judges not schedule trials or in-person hearings during these weeks in what is considered a strong indication that charges could be announced around then.

"I cannot envision District Attorney Fani Willis asking the court to stand down from doing all other business if she was not going to be indicting people and running them through court during those first two weeks in August," legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said during a May episode of his Justice Matters YouTube show.

"So that is a big development. It's a cryptic development, yes. But it's a big development that signals indictments are coming."