Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has been dealt yet another defeat at the hands of Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the bench.
Cannon shot down the idea of Trump’s classified documents case starting on July 8, which was only a week before the Republican National Convention.
Talking Points…
- Attorneys submit dates for trial
- Cannon comments
- Analysis
This case was supposed to have gone to court on May 20, but Trump has been able to get the trial delayed due to a pending Supreme Court case regarding presidential immunity.
That court ruling will dictate if several of the cases against Trump are able to move forward, but this is one of the cases with teeth that could result in a guilty verdict against Trump, which would impact his election numbers.
The court will hear arguments on immunity in April, which means the verdict will likely not be announced until late spring or early summer. Even so, Smith wanted to pick a date that would hurt Trump as well as ensure he has a verdict before the election, but that date appears to have been shut down by Judge Cannon.
Smith requested July 8, and with the staggering amount of evidence that Smith plans on producing for this case, we can expect it to last more than a month. That would mean that Trump would miss the RNC unless he decided to fly between Florida and Wisconsin.
Trump’s team submitted a mid-August date, which would likely mean that the case would not be fully litigated, and by that, I mean sentencing and appeals until after the general election.
Cannon told Smith that his July 8 was “unrealistic,” but she did not give a date when she would formally rule on the matter. Furthermore, Trump’s attorneys argued that starting the trial at any time before the election would be unfair to Trump. They stated:
“As the leading candidate in the 2024 election, President Trump strongly asserts that a fair trial cannot be conducted this year in a manner consistent with the Constitution, which affords President Trump a Sixth Amendment right to be present and to participate in these proceedings as well as, inter alia, a First Amendment right that he shares with the American people to engage in campaign speech.”
I fully expected Cannot to shoot down Jack Smith’s suggested date, but she also has to be very careful here about going overboard ruling in Trump’s favor. Because Trump appointed Cannon to the bench, every legal expert on TV is analyzing her decisions, implying that she is trying to help Trump.
It is not helping Cannon’s case that several of her rulings have been overturned on appeal, so she knows she is on thin ice here.
My guess is that she may split the difference and start the trial in late July or early August, but that would still likely give Trump the desired outcome, which is to put the verdict and appeal beyond the general election.
As I have stated before, Trump’s polling numbers are reduced by anywhere from 30 to 50% if he is found guilty of a felony, and that number increases if he is sentenced to jail. So, he knows he needs to push these cases back as much as possible to avoid the case impacting the general election. If Trump can do that, he stands a very good chance of winning this election.
