Expert flags 'most telling' part of new Trump docs filing: 'Not how an innocent man talks'

Former President Donald Trump on March 28, 2024 in Massapequa, N.Y.

Donald Trump late on Friday filed a brief with the Florida federal court overseeing his criminal case over alleged hush money payments, but he may have given away more than he intended to, according to one legal analyst.

Trump and his co-defendants argued in the filing that a trial should be pushed further back than it already has. According to MSNBC, the filing came at the request of the judge.

"In response to a request from the judge, Trump’s lawyers argued in court filing on Friday that despite the fact that a 70-day window to set a trial date will begin on May 20, Judge Aileen Cannon should hit pause to allow the defendants' lawyers time to examine any further documents produced by prosecutors," according to the report.

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Political and legal commentator Allison Gill, better known as "Mueller, She Wrote," also flagged the filing on her social media account.

"Trump has just filed his speedy trial report - same as the DoJ's calculation that 70 days remain on the speedy trial clock. But it's got all kinds of weird extra info, and it doesn't include a footnote that they met and conferred with DoJ, and whether DoJ agrees with the filing," according to the analyst.

She continued, saying that, in addition to the "regular calculations," Trump also "uses the report to complain, yet again, about the amount of discovery."

"First, he brings up the CCTV video issue - that [Trump co-defendant] De Oliveira apparently can't figure out how to watch," Gill wrote. "The DoJ has already supplied a laptop and IT support for him to watch it, but apparently team Trump is still 'having issues.' Trump also says that he's asked for more discovery in motions that haven't been resolved yet."

She added that Trump is "also contending that the speedy trial clock can't start ticking until all his pre-trial motions are decided by Cannon. And as you probably know, there are multiple pre-trial motions outstanding, both on the public docket and Cannon's weird secret docket."

The "most telling" part, according to Gill, is the framing of the speedy trial clock.

"But what I find the most telling, is that instead of framing the time left on the clock as a maximum amount of time to wait for trial after the pre-trial motions are resolved and after they figure out how to watch video footage, Trump frames it as a minimum."

"'...seventy days must remain before trial begins.' He says that instead of 'the trial must begin within 70 days,'" she wrote. "That's not how an innocent man anxious to clear his name talks."

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