Judge Aileen Cannon of the United States District Court, who is presiding over the case involving former President Donald Trump’s classified documents, criticized special counsel Jack Smith and his team for failing to provide “timely” access to evidence materials to Trump’s legal team.
Smith had asked for a safe place to keep the files in Washington, D.C., which was nearly 1,000 miles away from the court in southern Florida where the case was filed.
“The parties are advised that production of classified discovery to defense counsel is deemed timely upon placement in an accredited facility in the Southern District of Florida, not in another federal district,” Cannon wrote in her order.
“It is the responsibility of the Office of the Special Counsel to make and carry out arrangements to deposit such discovery to defense counsel in this District, in consultation with the Litigation Security Group for security purposes,” she added. “The Office of the Special Counsel shall update and/or clarify any prior responses to the Standard Discovery Order in accordance with this Order.”
Cannon issued an order earlier this year outlining how the documents Trump is accused of mishandling can be viewed.
Trump’s legal team hasn’t had much success in court recently, but they won a minor ruling last week that could lead to a major one.
Cannon said she was “temporarily delaying a previously set schedule of deadlines stretching from October through May for the Justice Department to make classified documents available to Trump’s lawyers and for the defense team to have time to review them,” Yahoo News reported.
In addition, Trump’s legal team asked Cannon to push back the start date of the trial from May 2024 until after the November election, but she has yet to rule on that request, the outlets noted. That said, some observers noted that her decision to move back the deadlines made it less likely that the trial would begin on May 20, as she previously ruled.
The reason that matters is because should Trump succeed “in pushing back the trial and also manages to win reelection in 2024, critics fear that he will simply attempt to pardon himself if found guilty of the felony charges Smith has brought against him,” Yahoo News noted.
Close to three-quarters of voters believe that we are living in a police state and a new movie by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, aptly titled “Police State,” tackles that precise issue.
A recent poll by Rasmussen Reports survey showed that 72 percent of respondents said that they are worried that “America is becoming a police state.”
The description Rasmussen used to describe a “police state” was “a tyrannical government that engages in mass surveillance, censorship, ideological indoctrination, and targeting of political opponents.”
The poll showed that 76 percent of Republicans believed that the nation is becoming a police state but, stunningly, 67 percent of Democrats felt the same.
D’Souza spoke to The Washington Examiner about his new movie, screening in select theaters on October 23 & 25, and what he believes is happening in America.
“I came to America as an immigrant in the late 1970s because America offers these basic inviolable liberties: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, the right to assemble, the right to petition the government, equal justice under the law. These rights are supposed to be above politics. Even a majority cannot override these rights,” the filmmaker said.
“It’s been very shocking to me to see the way in which all these rights are now in jeopardy. And so that’s the theme of “Police State,” and clearly, the results of the Rasmussen survey show that this is a theme that worries not just me, but also the American people,” he said.
On the movie’s website the staff, which includes D’Souza and conservative host Dan Bongino, spoke about what they see happening in America.
“’Police State’ is a movie that I never wanted to make, because I never wanted America to get to a point where a movie like this needed to be made. I feel like the animal that alerts the herd to approaching danger, so we can take precautionary steps before it’s too late,” D’Souza said.
“The police state isn’t coming, it’s already here. The signs are everywhere. And once you recognize them, your senses will be heightened to the danger we’re all in,” Bongino said.
But the “police state” does not always emerge victorious.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
