What happened
New York Judge Juan Merchan on Wednesday dismissed former President Donald Trump’s latest effort to delay his four criminal trials, keeping Trump’s Manhattan hush-money case on track to start April 15. Trump’s Florida federal trial on retaining classified secrets is mired in delays, prompting special counsel Jack Smith to rebuke U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in a late Tuesday filing.
Who said what
Trump’s post-deadline claim of presidential immunity “raises real questions about the sincerity and actual purpose of the motion,” Merchan said. Cannon’s entertaining of Trump’s argument that the Presidential Records Act let him keep classified documents reflects a “fundamentally flawed” understanding of the case and has “no basis in law or fact,” Smith wrote. Cannon “must resolve these crucial threshold legal questions promptly,” so prosecutors can “seek prompt appellate review” if she jeopardizes the case with flawed rulings.
The commentary
Cannon has “taken a cut-and-dried case based on overwhelming evidence” and dithered, Harry Litman said at the Los Angeles Times. Clearly, “Jack Smith has had enough.” Legally, “if the judge wants to drag it out, she can kind of drag it out,” Alan Rozenshtein, a University of Minnesota law professor, said to CNN. “Of the many breaks Trump has gotten in his life,” journalist Bill Grueskin said on X, getting Cannon appointed to this perilous case “has to rank as the very luckiest.”
What next?
Between Cannon’s “meandering delays” and serious consideration of Trump’s baffling legal arguments, Caroline Anders said at Semafor, it’s increasingly likely the Florida case “will not go to trial before the November election.”