Since special counsel Jack Smith and Donald Trump both proposed start trial dates for the ex-president's Mar-a-Lago classified documents case — Smith, July 8, and Trump, August 12, or after the November election — on Thursday, legal experts have predicted whether or not presiding Judge Aileen Cannon will decide on a pre-election date at all.
Former Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States and legal analyst Neal Katyal explained to MSNBC host Jen Psaki Sunday, March 3 why he believes — despite Cannon's past displays of favoritism towards Trump — the judge will set a pre-election date.
"Neal, you've seen Cannon's actions. You also know very well the power of judges," the Inside with Jen Psaki host said, asking Katyal, "How confident are you that the documents case will go to trial before November? I mean, there are other means of trying to delay, and judges have power to do that."
READ MORE: Jack Smith: Trump 'attempted to enlist his own attorney' in concealing classified documents
He replied, "First of all, just big picture, Jen, I think Donald Trump had his best legal week in years, and I it's because of what we're talking about, about Judge Cannon on the hearing on Friday, but also because the Supreme Court Jan 6 immunity case with a really slow timeline to hear it, and as you start of the show with, timing is everything."
Katyal continued, "So with respect to Judge Cannon, this is a case that is really straightforward, but unfortunately so far she has forged a long and winding path toward it being resolved, and there's a reason why Donald Trump attacks every single judge in the country whose hearing is cases but besides her, because so far she's been willing to bend the rule of law to help him out."
The Georgetown University law professor emphasized, "My hope is I'd love to see Judge Cannon do the right thing. After all, Donald Trump asked for an August trial date in this case well before the election last week. Let's give him what he wants. I was national security advisor at the Justice Department where I saw these kinds of cases. There's no reason for it take longer. And sometimes judges defy expectations. Remember when Judge Cannon made those kind of crazy rulings last year in the case, appointing a special master in the like, it went up the 11th circuit court of appeals and people said, 'Oh they're going to be hopelessly biased towards Trump.' They rebuked her unanimously. And my hope is that something similar will happen here, that Judge Cannon sets this for trial, the American public deserves to know what happened with all of these very highly classified, stolen documents."
Watch the video below or at this link.
READ MORE: Trump had 48,000 Mar-a-Lago guests near classified documents and only screened 6% of them
Here’s why this legal expert has hope for Trump docs trial date despite his 'best legal week yet' www.youtube.com