OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump was dealt a blow by a judge he appointed in his classified documents case taking place in Florida.
Judge Aileen Cannon denied the former president’s attorney’s request to have the case, which is scheduled to begin in May 2024, moved until after the 2024 presidential election.
The motion was “denied without prejudice,” but it will be given consideration again at a scheduling conference set for March 1, 2024.
“[T]he quantity of discovery in this case remains exceedingly voluminous, even more so than initially thought. To be sure, the Special Counsel has taken various steps to produce discovery on a regular basis. But even with these efforts, discovery has increased sizably from initial estimates…” the judge said.
But she did note that his trial schedule and his campaign schedule would make a May 2024 trial tough.
“Although the Special Counsel is correct that the trajectory of these matters potentially remains in flux, the schedules as they currently stand overlap substantially with the deadlines in this case, presenting additional challenges to ensuring Defendant Trump has adequate time to prepare for trial and to assist in his defense,” she said.
This week, an attorney and legal spokeswoman for Trump provided a big update on the four indictments against the 45th president.
During an interview on Fox News, Trump attorney Alina Habba spoke about the indictments against Trump and how they believe the trial dates—two of them scheduled to begin in March 2024, in the middle of the GOP primary—are aimed at hurting Trump’s campaign.
“We’re prepared. From here, we actually get to litigate the case, which, as an attorney, I look forward to. I know our legal team does as well, to get to take our own turn at looking at all of the information and our own turn to put our side out, which is something that everybody needs to remember hasn’t happened as of yet. Four indictments are simply that, an indictment, which is just one-sided B.S., for a lack of a better word, on their political scheme to interfere with the leading candidate for president,” Habba said.
Hegseth followed up and asked: “So, Alina, this is all ridiculous. It’s all a circus. It’s all meant to interfere with the timeline of the election process. That’s a given. So these questions sort of come with that sense of how it’s — but if you are planning for Georgia, the D.C. timeline was just set for March 4th, as you know, the day before Super Tuesday, much sooner than your team had anticipated. What do you anticipate for a timeline down in Atlanta? How quickly will they try to push this, in your sense, and how will you push back?”
Habba then really sounded off, saying, “Let’s be clear. The Jack Smiths and the Fani Willises and the D.A. Braggs and the Letitia Jameses, if they could have it their way, would have all trials the same week. It’s unrealistic, it’s ridiculous, and it’s obvious. So what I think is happening is the judges will have to fight it amongst themselves. You cannot have one defendant in multiple cases.”
“But if you do look at the timeline as you mentioned, every single event, every single event from the indictment to the rushed grand jury, years after the events took place when they didn’t need to rush it, they could have had it two years ago, every single thing says very clearly, Joe Biden doesn’t know what he is doing in office, so let’s distract America so that all we talk about is President Trump and these hoaxes. That’s really all they are. So we are going to obviously argue that it’s impossible for one person to be in four different places. We’re going to argue that this is election interference,” Habba added.
“And then we will take a look at each individual person and say, ‘You ran for office based on the fact that you said you would get Trump, and so did you and so did you, and now we need our Constitution and due process to step in and do its part.’ If we don’t have fair judges, unfortunately, we won’t get this. So, we have a great team, I love our legal team right now. I feel strong, and the president feels strong. We will take each one head-on,” she continued.
