Legal expert warns delay by Judge Cannon could badly backfire on Trump

The delays in Donald Trump’s Florida classified documents case will come to a head Thursday, the date U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon has set as a deadline for the former president and the case’s other defendants to file responses in a discovery dispute with the Justice Department, predicts former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance.

Writing in her “Civil Discourse” Substack, Vance explained that special counsel Jack Smith’s hopes of bringing the case charging Trump with willfully retaining national security documents post-presidency to trial are dwindling as the pre-trial period drags. Whether he will then appeal to the 11th Circuit Court, she said, hinges in part on what unfolds this week. 

“Judge Aileen Cannon continues to string out the timeline, permitting this issue to unnecessarily consume weeks of briefing time,” Vance writes, arguing that Cannon must soon decide on issues involving unclassified and classified evidence, while Smith must soon also determine whether to appeal her rulings if they remain “unfavorable.” The case going to trial before the presidential election “would take a moon shot,” Vance added. “Trump is likely to go into the Republican convention and the election without being held accountable for dangerous mishandling of classified materials—something that should be unthinkable and would have been for Republicans in the pre-Trump era,” Vance writes. 

But Trump’s efforts to delay the criminal proceedings may backfire, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner argued, pointing to an expected March 1 hearing to address remaining deadlines in the case. 

“We know that Donald Trump and his team of lawyers will try to convince Judge Cannon to try to kick the May 20th trial date,” Kirschner told MSNBC Monday, according to Raw Story. “And you may not expect to hear this from me, but I almost hope that she does kick the May 20th trial date. Why? Because if the Supreme Court denies the stay in the absolute immunity issue and returns the case to [Judge] Tanya Chutkan in D.C. in the election interference case — would love to see her take that case and drop it on the docket for May 20th.”