Although presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 criminal counts in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records case, the three other criminal indictments he is facing appear unlikely to go to trial before November's election — including the federal Mar-a-Lago documents case being prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, has repeatedly delayed the case. And Cannon has rejected Smith's request for a limited gag order, which, Smith argued, was needed in light of Trump's false claims about the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
Trump claimed that the church was part of a plot by President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies to assassinate him. And Smith warned that Trump is endangering the safety of federal law enforcement by making baseless claims. Cannon disagreed, attacking Smith's team for, she said, failing to adequately discuss the matter with Trump's defense lawyers.
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Joyce White Vance, a former federal prosecutor who is often featured as a legal analyst on MSNBC, is vehemently critical of Cannon's arguments in a June 3 post on her legal blog Civil Discourse.
Vance argues, "No one will ever accuse her of dealing with matters in an expeditious fashion. But she plays a dangerous and disingenuous game here. Someone could get hurt in the intervening three weeks."
The former federal prosecutor doesn't believe that Smith's partial gag order request was unreasonable — or that there is any merit to Trump's assassination plot claims.
Vance explains, "Special counsel Jack Smith has asked Judge Aileen Cannon — again — to bar Trump from making statements that endanger law enforcement in the classified documents case. Trump has been claiming that the FBI was out to assassinate him when it executed the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. It simply isn't the case."
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Read Joyce White Vance's full Civil Discourse post at this link.
