DeSantis pushes to delay Disney trial until after 2024 election

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s attorneys are attempting to delay a trial in the governor’s long-standing political and legal fight with Disney. 

The GOP presidential candidate’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case this week, and they want a judge to delay the trial until August 2025 if it is not dismissed. If granted, that would move the Disney political football well beyond the 2024 presidential election.

Disney sued DeSantis earlier this year alleging that he used his office and influence as governor to take action against the company due to its political positions. Disney lawyers called DeSantis’s actions a “targeted campaign of governmental retaliation.”

The company publicly criticized DeSantis and the Florida Republican Party for passing anti-LGBTQ bills and bills that increased government influence on schools and classrooms.

DeSantis’s motion to dismiss claims that he is “immune” from responsibility in the suit because he was acting in his role as governor.

“Although Disney has grabbed headlines by suing the Governor, Disney—like many litigants before it who have challenged Florida’s laws—has no basis for doing so,” his lawyers said in the motion to dismiss.

Following Disney’s public criticism, DeSantis overthrew a local government board set up to facilitate the company’s property and replaced it with his own representatives. The company is also suing over the board’s actions stripping its previously held privileges and implementing additional regulation.

Fellow Republicans have criticized DeSantis for his feud with the entertainment giant, including fellow presidential candidates former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Multiple GOP senators also shared concerns.

Disney lawyers have asked that a trial start in July 2024, around the same time that the GOP will pick its presidential nominee at its party convention in Wisconsin.